Exploring Powell and Pressburger's​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ film-making genius

SussexWorld

Worthing-based film historian Pamela Hutchinson is in print with a brand-new study of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's dark classic The Red Shoes (1948).

Transcript

00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers.

00:05 Lovely to be speaking again to Pamela Hutchinson, Film Historian and writer from Worthing,

00:10 who's got a very significant new book coming out on a particular favourite film,

00:14 a particularly significant film, The Red Shoes.

00:17 Now, what makes it such a special film?

00:20 Please stop me before I go on and on about this, but I think The Red Shoes is a very special film.

00:26 It's the most beautiful and the most dangerous ballet film ever made, for certain.

00:31 It really changed how ballet was depicted on screen.

00:34 And I think it's the most beautiful of all those wonderful films made by Michael Powell and Emma Kressberger.

00:40 It came out in 1948 and it's a Technicolor film.

00:43 It contains a 17 minute ballet sequence, which no one had dared to do before.

00:47 And it all leads to the most horrible, terrifying and upsetting ending

00:54 of all the films I love.

00:56 And yet somehow it's a film that you want to watch again and again and savour every moment.

01:01 It sounds fantastic.

01:02 And it's interesting to hear those two words, dangerous and ballet, in the same sentence.

01:07 How does that work?

01:08 Why? How can a ballet film be dangerous?

01:11 Well, I mean, ballet itself is quite dark.

01:14 You know, the plots of many of these ballets involve death and tragedy and heartbreak and lost love

01:20 and dangerous enchantments, which is really at the heart of this.

01:23 And ballet itself is a very punishing art form.

01:26 And that's really at the heart of how the Red Shoes operates.

01:30 There's a line in the film where they say something like, you know,

01:33 the great impression of simplicity can only be achieved by this agony of mind, body and spirit.

01:40 And ballet is all about great pain and difficulty appearing graceful and elegant.

01:45 And so you always have this kind of dark undercurrent when you see a ballerina on point,

01:51 looking as if she's lighter than air.

01:53 And you know that that's incredibly painful and it's a result of lots of hard, hard work.

01:57 And so the Red Shoes really dabbles into this idea that art is beautiful and is what life is all about.

02:05 And yet it's deadly and it may kill you.

02:08 And leading without giving away anything too much, leading to a terrible choice.

02:13 A terrible choice.

02:14 This film, as it concludes, comes towards this terrible choice between love and art, really.

02:21 And yet to say that really sort of reduces the film.

02:25 I think anyone who's come away from watching it knows that there's more about it than this.

02:29 And partly that's because the film has spent two hours telling you that art is the most important thing and it's worth dying for.

02:37 So no mere choice, no mere ultimatum can really contain the whole sort of power of the film.

02:43 This is for the 75th anniversary of the film, isn't it?

02:46 Yeah, the film is 75 years old.

02:49 It came out in September in 1948.

02:52 And also this year marks 80 years of Powell and Pressburger's formal partnership.

02:57 They formed a production company called The Archers in 1943.

03:01 So there's a big BFI celebration of Powell and Pressburger, which is going nationwide.

03:06 So there's going to be opportunities to see all their films, including The Red Shoes, nationwide.

03:11 On the big screen.

03:12 On the big screen. If you have never seen any of their films, but if you've never seen The Red Shoes on the big screen, you've never lived.

03:18 It is spectacular, beyond spectacular.

03:21 Yeah. And just the emotion and the beautiful colours of this film will overwhelm you.

03:26 I highly urge people to treat themselves to a big screen, big screen showing.

03:32 Fantastic. We'll certainly do that. It's many years since I've seen it.

03:35 Look forward to seeing it again. And lovely to speak to you. And good luck with the book.

03:38 Thank you.

03:39 Thank you.

Exploring Powell and Pressburger's film-making genius

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Exploring Powell and Pressburger's film-making genius