The Red Shoes

A domineering choreographer competes with a great composer for the love of a star ballerina in the Technicolor fantasia of The Red Shoes, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s extravagant 1948 ballet film. At the center of the struggle: The Red Shoes, a new ballet based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale about a diabolical shoemaker and a woman who just can’t stop dancing. It’s a lavish production, especially by postwar British standards, as the film jets between London and Monte Carlo, with real ballet figures playing many roles.