Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)

The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)

Moira Shearer & Robert Helpmann in The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger) (via) “I am often asked why The Red Shoes, of all our films, became such a success in every country of the world. More than a success, it became a legend. Even today, I am constantly meeting men and women who claimed that it changed their lives. This is natural enough for women who were girls at the time, and who were growing up in countries that had been wracked by war. But my friend Ron Kitaj, who was thinking of becoming an art student at the time, has told me the same thing. ‘It changed my direction,’ he said. ‘It gave art a new meaning to me.’ These are personal reactions, but I think that the real reason why The Red Shoes was such a success was that we had all been told for ten years to go out and die for freedom and democracy, for this and for that, and now that the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go out and die for art.” -excerpted from Michael Powell’s A Life in Movies

Moira Shearer & Robert Helpmann in The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger) (via)

“I am often asked why The Red Shoes, of all our films, became such a success in every country of the world. More than a success, it became a legend. Even today, I am constantly meeting men and women who claimed that it changed their lives. This is natural enough for women who were girls at the time, and who were growing up in countries that had been wracked by war. But my friend Ron Kitaj, who was thinking of becoming an art student at the time, has told me the same thing. ‘It changed my direction,’ he said. ‘It gave art a new meaning to me.’

These are personal reactions, but I think that the real reason why The Red Shoes was such a success was that we had all been told for ten years to go out and die for freedom and democracy, for this and for that, and now that the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go out and die for art.”

-excerpted from Michael Powell’s A Life in Movies

Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger) “My father took me to see this film in 1950, when I was eight years old. And I’ve never forgotten it. I wouldn’t know how to begin to explain what this film has meant to me over the years. It’s about the joy and exuberance of film-making itself. It’s one of the true miracles of film history. What keeps nourishing me over the years is the spell the film casts, how it weaves the mystery of the obsession of creativity, of the creative drive. It all comes down to that wonderful exchange early in the film when Anton Walbrook confronts Moira Shearer at a cocktail party. ‘Why do you want to dance?’ he asks, and she answers, ‘Why do you want to live?’ The look on his face is extraordinary.’ Over the years, I’ve thought a lot about that exchange. It expresses so much about the burning need for art – the mystery of the passion to create. It’s not that you want to do it, it’s that you have to do it. You have no choice. You have to live it and it comes with a price. But what a time paying it.” -Martin Scorsese (2009)

Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)

“My father took me to see this film in 1950, when I was eight years old. And I’ve never forgotten it. I wouldn’t know how to begin to explain what this film has meant to me over the years. It’s about the joy and exuberance of film-making itself. It’s one of the true miracles of film history.

What keeps nourishing me over the years is the spell the film casts, how it weaves the mystery of the obsession of creativity, of the creative drive. It all comes down to that wonderful exchange early in the film when Anton Walbrook confronts Moira Shearer at a cocktail party. ‘Why do you want to dance?’ he asks, and she answers, ‘Why do you want to live?’ The look on his face is extraordinary.’

Over the years, I’ve thought a lot about that exchange. It expresses so much about the burning need for art – the mystery of the passion to create. It’s not that you want to do it, it’s that you have to do it. You have no choice. You have to live it and it comes with a price. But what a time paying it.”

-Martin Scorsese (2009)

Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)

Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes (1948, dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)

“Isn’t it strange that something you’ve never really wanted to do turns out to be the very thing that’s given you a name and identity? The Red Shoes ruined my career in the ballet. [My peers] never trusted me again.” -Moira Shearer

“Isn’t it strange that something you’ve never really wanted to do turns out to be the very thing that’s given you a name and identity? The Red Shoes ruined my career in the ballet. [My peers] never trusted me again.”

-Moira Shearer