Considered one of the greatest films to come from the superlative filmmaking partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, focuses on ambitious ballerina Victoria (Moira Shearer, making a remarkable film debut). She and aspiring composer Julian (Marius Goring) are hired by impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). The two fall in love while creating The Ballet of the Red Shoes for Lermontov’s company, incurring his wrath and their desertion. However, when Lermontov later approaches Victoria to reprise her role, she is forced to choose between love and her career. Famed for the 17-minute ballet sequence at its centre, this is an extraordinarily lush meditation on the relationship, and sometimes conflict, between life and art, helped in no small measure by Hein Heckroth’s sumptuous art design and Jack Cardiff’s dazzling Technicolor cinematography.

Check out the Powell & Pressburger season here.

Notes by Kevin Coyne