Die roten Schuhe

Alles, was in Die schwarze Narzisse nicht funktioniert hat, funktioniert auch hier nicht, aber Die roten Schuhe weisen zum Glück einige wirklich hervorragende Ballettpassagen auf und bestechen durch die schauspielerische Leistung von Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück. Er, der es schaffte, Anny Ondra in Baby und in Die vertauschte Braut zu lieben und in Viktor und Viktoria zu glänzen, feierte weitere große Erfolge in Maskerade, in dem schillernden Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will, in Der Student von Prag, in Michel Strogoff und vielen anderen wunderbaren Filmen. Deshalb sind für mich irgendeine Kollision, das seltsame Make-up für einen Farbfilm und die fade Darstellung von Moira Shearer irrelevant. Ich lasse nur einfach Boris Lermontows Ballettensemble diese perfekte Traumwelt immer wieder spielen. (02.01.2015)

The romance novel walks miles in British Technicolor red shoes in a not-so short, fateful melodrama (with a forty minute prologue!) set in a ballet company about two gingers and one “Mephisto" compellingly played by Anton Walbrook. This trio battles that eternal western conflict of personal life and love versus career and ambitions. A movie which, on paper, I’m hopelessly compelled to loathe. But paper assumptions often aren’t valid. Thank god. And so just like how once every umpteen seasons Real Madrid defeats Barcelona, against all odds, the Red Shoes can, despite the black (red?) mark above, be as fantastic to watch as only the best pictures can. (06.02.2013)

Powell and Pressburger and their another film, and in this case actually ballet triumf. A beautiful example of how it is possible to connect different kinds of art. Engaging a professional ballet dancer was the only option, and the creators were lucky. Moira Shearer looks simply amazing in Technicolor. She and her red shoes are the sun of this film, around which everything revolves. The finale is then a demonstration of the power of the creative duo. (12.10.2014)

I couldn't pass up Martin Scorsese's beloved film (see his Criterion confession). Technicolour cinematography didn't look better anywhere else at the time, the ballet passage in the middle, shot with film techniques and tricks of the time, charmed me, I enjoyed the angles from which the camera sometimes shot the charismatic Anton Walbrook, making him look like a patient Mephistopheles at times. But I was disappointed by the ending, which I found too elementary. It needed more courage, more touch of reality. (28.07.2019)