Michael Powell's and Emerich Pressburger's beautiful story based on Hans Christian Andersen's identical tale is a perfect example of an adaptation. Even more than that: they created a movie which is not only a film but a theatre, more precise a ballet. To be clear The Red Shoes is a film which adapts and incorporates a tale (by H.C.A. – adapts, because the film shows Andersen's tale through a ballet; incorporates, because it repeats its story within the film's own plot) about a ballet dancer who is fighting between her emotions, talent, love and ambition. I won't tell more, you absolutely shouldn't miss this beautiful Technicolor romance (if it helps in your decision, I confess: "I hate ballet, period.").
It's better to dig down for a detail again! I've chosen and uploaded a scene where the ballet is shown first time at the theatre (Let's make it obvious: the film isn't a ballet-film, it is a film which mainly provides an insight behind the scenes of the cruel and delightful world of a dance theatre (see Bob Fosse's 10/10 All That Jazz (1979))). What I find interesting here is the way how the film stops to be realistic, moreover how the visual freedom of a film wins over the strict point of view of the theatrical representation.
Consider the differences between playing a ballet for a "real" audience at the theatre, and for a film viewer: different gestures (obviously the film – with the help of the camera's wandering frames and focuses – needs to be less artistic, or – such a nice expression here – less theatrical), different possibilities in visualisation (jumping into the shoes, the dissolves, slow motions, and other kinds of cinematic practices), the problematics of the directions on the stage (the theatre has less freedom: normally some movements shown in a film would be hidden for the audience in the theatre (the wandering between the sets the theatre can't afford)), the gaze of the dancers (playing for the individual (embodied by the camera) VS. playing for the mass audience).
[if you can't see all the listed topics in the scene you will when you'll watch the entire film..]
In sum, these are the differences in possibilities, which actually force the theatre directors to be more and more creative, and which makes differences between films which are translating other forms of arts into their cinematic language.
9/10
Posts
