John Hodson

I think that's the scene that gave me the impression the songs were filmed then cut - it just looks like that doesn't it?

filmjournal.net/john

TimR

Yes, but I am not up to official "admirer" status. I am still learning the ropes, and no one that I know now would have the remotest clue.


I enjoy war films anyway, and I assume that even when P&P they are not at their best, they are well worth watching.

Well, I don't know anything about the ballet, but I do know a bit more about opera. I thought the actual "Red Shoes" ballet was brilliantly done, and the best part of the film. It was the story and tone that bewildered me. It was like looking at a house with many windows but no doors - I just didn't understand it. It's hard to explain. There was so much intensity, but without enough of a reason.

This was very helpful . Thanks. I am certain I will buy it - I have just finished reading Powell's description of it in Million Dollar Movie. I was fascinated by the opening up of the stage in The Red Shoes.

I have never seen color comparable to The Red Shoes. I watched the opening credits several times, just for the sheer enjoyment of the visual images and the use of color.

I find Moira Shearer fascinating - almost mesmerizing. I know Rounseville from the score of Candide.

I very much enjoyed reading about Powell's interactions with her and their relationship.

Perhaps the DVD might help with that? The Red Shoes DVD did everything but turn on the television for me.

Steve Crook

I certainly think so
I have been heard to say that the P&P film I like least (of the films they did together) is The Elusive Pimpernel. But that's not to say that I don't like it and think that it's very well done and very clever. It's just that they could have done so much more with it if they'd been allowed to do all that they wanted to do with it. And by almost anyone else it would still probably be considered to be amongst their best work. It's just that P&P did set the bar incredibly high so it's no wonder that they didn't manage to reach that standard with every single film that they made.

The intensity and dedication is one of the things they wanted to get across in it. Always remember when these films were made. They stand up so well to modern films that it's easy to forget. But The Red Shoes was made just after a devastating world war. Powell said "I think that the real reason why The Red Shoes was such a success, was that we had all been told for years to go and die for this and for that, and now that the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go and die for art."

And the collaborative nature of staging a ballet did give some hints to the collaborative nature of their own film making. Powell had long had the motto "All art is one" and he felt that if you were going to do something then you should do it to the very best of your ability.

And it's full of tricks and techniques where they took things to the limit of the possible (at the time). Not just the more obvious ones like "the girl" (she's not named in the ballet) leaping into the shoes but also things like Jack Cardiff varying the speed of the camera when the shoemaker leaps in at the end to make him appear to linger at the top of his leap just a little bit longer than gravity normally allows. Or when the girl dances with the newspaper. Or even when the girl imagines herself wearing the shoes at the beginning of the ballet. That's reaching back to some of the old silent film techniques that Powell grew up with.

There was a scene where Sergei Ratov (Albert Bassermann), the designer of the ballet, was seated at a cafe table with the other principle characters and he literally sketched out the ballet on the table top as they all made suggestions and contributions. That was meant to show the collaboration. But then Powell realised that the film itself showed that so they cut the scene.

Ah, that's British Technicolor
Some people say it was something in the water when they processed it. Others say it was because the British are more used to changing light conditions rather than the steady sunshine of California. Others say it's because they were further away from the controlling hand of Natalie Kalmus, the wife of the inventor of the Technicolor process. Natalie tried to define and control everything, the colours of the costumes, the make-up, the lighting. But luckily Powell supported his designer and cinematographer and told them to ignore her.

But there is often something about British Technicolor films that isn't seen in American Technicolor films.

Moira was very dedicated to her ballet. After the film was made she was often quite scathing of it, and some of her fellow performers, as you can hear in the Criterion commentary. But there are some politics at work there and it's worth knowing a bit of the background story.

Ballet people at the time could be quite snobbish about their art. Considering it to only be done properly if it was done exactly the same as the old Russians had done it. And ballet in Britain was still struggling a bit to gain a foothold and find its public.

As Powell said in his autobiographies they had to beg and plead for some time before they could get Moira at all interested. And when she did finally become a bit interested, Ninette de Valois ("Madam") told Moira to do it so that Powell would stop pestering them.

But another way to look at it is that Madam was just about to embark on the first American tour by the Royal Ballet and she knew the publicity from the film would help the tour. And so it happened. Although Margot Fonteyn was their leading ballerina, the Americans just wanted to see Moira.

And Moira made a big thing of how she'd asked Madam if the film would affect her career in the ballet and Madam had insisted that it would just be a slight blip on her career and she could carry on at the Royal Ballet afterwards as if nothing had happened. But of course the fame and publicity due to the film led to some jealousies and ill feeling.

And then there was Margot Fonteyn. Margot was a better dancer than Moira and was rightly the leading ballerina in the Royal Ballet. If things had taken their natural course then Margot would have retired a few years after the film and Moira would have taken her place. But Margot married a Panamanian diplomat who got involved in a failed coup during which he was shot and was confined to a wheelchair. So Margot carried on dancing long beyond the natural lifetime of a ballerina just to pay for his medical bills and Moira never did get that top spot.

The Criterion DVD of The Red Shoes is brilliant and possibly a contender for the title of the best DVD ever made. How do they squeeze so much, at such high quality, onto a single DVD?

The Criterion DVD of The Tales of Hoffmann isn't quite that comprehensive. But it does have subtitles, and a commentary track, and lots of stills and design sketches. And it also has The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1955), a short ballet that Powell directed for German TV.

Steve

Mediatheque

The following Powell (and Pressburger) titles are now available to view at the BFI Mediatheque

Black Narcissus
The Boy Who Turned Yellow
A Canterbury Tale
I Know Where I'm Going!
The Love Test
A Matter of Life and Death
Oh... Rosalinda!!
Peeping Tom

Steve Crook

I've been contacted by the people from Cinema City, Norwich

batman

If you haven't been there before it's a lovely cinema .... not as good as it was before it's recent 'modernisation', which included an increase in the number of screens, but a nice place to watch a good film.

Before ...


After ...

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

Steve Crook

The Love Test is a lovely little film. Ostensibly one of the Quota Quickies but it rises way above the usual standard of these. Very good performances from all and especially Googie Withers and Bernard Miles in supporting roles.

Whatever happened to the idea of the BFI doing a DVD (or DVD set) of all the early films of Michael Powell that still survive? It was mooted a year or two ago but I haven't heard anything since. I'll have to have a word with a few people to remind them.

Steve

cineman1971

I acquired some time last year a few fairly rare Michael Powell titles via a friend of mine who used to know Powell very well and also interviewed him once on stage at the NFT:

Rynox (1932)
The Fire Raisers (1934)
Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972)
Perfect Understanding (1933) - screenplay only

Whilst the quality of each is not fantastic, they are certainly watchable and very interesting to see from both a collector and fan of their work. As far as I am aware there has been no indication that these will be released in the future, but along with everyone else here it would be good to see the BFI or Criterion put these out as either a collection of Short Films in their Eclipse series or with two on one disc even.

TimR

I was just reading about the making of that one. Powell is a bit tough on Margaret Leighton (a cross-eyed horse ) - but it gave me some understanding of how different the finished film was from his vision. I haven't seen it yet - but the still photo of Mont Saint-Michel and a column of marching soldiers is intriguing and compelling.


Well, I understand it with my mind - but not with the spirit (I don't know how else to put it).

But the return to creativity and beauty after the war is something I certainly do understand.

The intense commitment to excellence and the richness of the imagination are themes I appreciate. It's the suffering out of proportion to reality that I cannot understand. (Highly subjective - I know)

The effects are brilliant. Many of my favorite films are from the silent era, and much has been lost from that time. It is interesting that Powell captures that brilliance.



Definitely yes. The color is stunning in its richness and depth. There are three exceptions among American films - all favorites of mine: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe and Knights of the Round Table.

I recently saw The Ladykillers in its DVD form for the first time, and there is some of that richness there. On the other hand I also watched The Chalk Garden, filmed in England with a British cast, but (I believe) an American film in its production. The color is fine in the latter - but the richness is not there.


Yes, I heard her comments.

So that's why she didn't become the leading dancer.

It's interesting to read Powell's description of her. I think she was the one that got away for him.

Yes - outstanding.

I have always liked that Sorcerer story.

That DVD will be next, as soon as life allows a break; probably later this moth. Then - Colonel Blimp (which I have never seen), A Matter of Life and Death (which I haven't seen in years) and The Edge of the World (also never seen) - as well as Thunder Rock - one non-P&P film!