The Red Shoes

The Red Shoes is a 1948 British film about a ballet dancer, which was written, directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The film itself is about a Ballet based on the fairy tale from Hans Christian Andersen. The film is about a young ballerina who is given the leading role in this production. The fairy tale itself is about a young girl who buys a pair of red ballet shoes from a shoe maker, not knowing that the shoes are under their control. She ends up dancing until dying of exhaustion because she is unable to stop. During the film, the woman who is given this role, does become manipulated by the shoes and ends up jumping in front of an approaching train.

I watched this film when I was very young, but I still remember it very well. It has been quite influential for me when it comes to this brief because it has quite a contradictory theme. Ballet is normally seen as graceful, elegant form of dance which requires huge amounts of discipline, but in this instance it has been turned into something more unpleasant.