RED SHOES, THE: THE CRITERION COLLECTION - Blu-ray review

Michael Haneke's beautiful but sterile "The White Ribbon" took the top prize at Cannes in 2009, but it was the Croisette debut the restored print of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's beautiful and vibrant "The Red Shoes" that may prove to be the Festival's most enduring legacy. It was certainly one of the most important film events on the 2009 calendar.

The Cannes screening was the culmination of nearly three years of laborious restoration spearheaded by Robert Gitt of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The enormous production required the resources of multiple organizations including the Film Foundation and its founder and Powell and Pressburger-fan-in-chief Martin Scorsese. The painstaking labor of love suggests a dedication that almost mirrors the all-consuming obsession of the dancers in "The Red Shoes," though with a happier ending and less elaborate footwear.

Few films made such giddy use of Technicolor as "The Red Shoes" (it is practically a documentary about Red, Blue and Green) so it was essential to work from the original three-strip Technicolor camera negatives, the separate red, blue and green elements that were combined in that magical proprietary method so zealously guarded (and monitored on-set) by the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation. This meant that Gitt and his team didn't have one film to restore but three, and not only that, but three film strips that had shrunk and warped in different ways yet still had to be perfectly synchronized. The only viable option was to restore the elements digitally which also meant working in 4K resolution (another labor-intensive task needed to approximate film detail) to achieve the necessary quality. The film strips had also suffered the ravages of time, mold and chemical bleeding, each in different degrees. The result was, and is, nothing short of staggering. As Christopher Nolan's intricately designed "Inception" debuts in theaters this weekend to critical hosannas, I suggest that it is the elaborate, exhaustive restoration of "The Red Shoes" that is truly a "mind-bending" experience.

As for the iconic film itself, how much is left to say? Based loosely on the Hans Christian Anderson story, Powell and Pressburger's film is both joyous and despairing in its portrayal of artistic devotion. To create is to live, and to create is to destroy. Moira Shearer, whose fiery hair is so elementally red it would have been futile if not outright criminal to place her in front of a camera prior to Technicolor, plays an aspiring dancer who becomes a star in a new ballet "The Red Shoes." During the course of the film, she will attempt to balance love and art only to find that while each can consume the intersection of the two can be unbearable. Particularly when she also has to fend off the advances of a manipulative impresario, a brilliant performance by Anton Walbrook.

The film's centerpiece is one of the most celebrated sequences in British (and world) cinema, a lengthy ballet performance written originally for the film by Pressburger and choreographed by Robert Helpmann who also acts in the film. Most of Powell and Pressburger's films feature flights of fancy where the narrative stops for a detour into full-blown fantasy (the dream on the train in "I Know Where I'm Going," the alcoholic trip in "The Small Back Room") but never did the filmmaking partners find a more perfect method to flex their illusionist muscles than Shearer's deadly dance, an interplay of color and sinuous movement that the term "motion picture" was coined to describe. It is best experienced rather than written about.

The "Red Shoes" has not lost its power to astonish in the 60+ plus years since its initial release, and the UCLA restoration has rendered it even more potent, enabling audiences who have seen it dozens of times before to see it for the first time. Viewers at Cannes in 2009 were left shaken by this (now not so) familiar 1947 film, and the experience was duplicated as the print made its all too brief world tour.

The Blu-Ray, which obviously used the restoration as its source, may not capture the full majesty of the new print (1080p isn't 4K, obviously), but it comes pretty darned close. This is the best of all possible worlds for home audiences, a high-def transfer by the Criterion team created from a pristinely restored print by the UCLA Film and Television Archive team. Who says this isn't the golden age of movie-going?

VIDEO

The film is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Criterion originally released "The Red Shoes" on DVD in 1999 (Spine # 44) and it wasn't a bad product for its time with a digital transfer supervised by cinematographer Jack Cardiff. But the approximation of Technicolor was very difficult then (as it is now, even with this project) and the colors necessarily pale in comparison to the 1080p transfer from the restored print.

Even with the detailed restoration of the source print and the high-def transfer by Criterion, are we really seeing Technicolor? No, and I don't think that's possible. But we're getting something mighty close to it, and new film stocks can capture a lot of rich detail that 40s photochemical technology couldn't. These are some of the reddest reds I have ever seen on home video, and the image resolution is pristine. Shearer's magnificent dancer's body looks even more like a work of sculpture in high-def. There's virtually no evidence of source damage available, yet another reason to cheer the restoration which began with such badly damaged material.

AUDIO

I love Mono. The good kind, that is. And this LPCM 1.0 is the best kind. The music is rich and resonant and creates an immersive experience even with just one channel. There are two Audio options available, one to listen to the commentary track, and the other to listen to Jeremy Irons reading excerpts from Powell and Pressburger's 1978 novelization of "The Red Shoes" (neat, but not something I would listen too for long).

Optional English subtitles support the English audio.

EXTRAS

Most of the extras are imported from the 1999 SD release, including the old commentary track (recorded in 1994) by film historian Ian Christie and bolstered by interviews with actors Moira Shearer and Marius Goring, Jack Cardiff and others. As mentioned above, viewers also have the Audio option of listening to Jeremy Irons read excerpts from the novelization of the film.

Also imported from the 1999 release is "The ‘Red Shoes' Sketches," a 16-minute animated film made from production designer Hein Heckroth's color storyboards. This film was actually used during production as a blueprint for the ballet sequence. It can be watched on its own or side-by-side with the film. An alternate audio also allows listeners to hear Jeremy irons read from the Hans Christian Anderson story.

The Blu-Ray also duplicates the Stills Gallery as well as a presentation of Scorsese Memorabilia. Scorsese has a remarkable collection of Powell and Pressburger memorabilia and shares his favorites here.

New to the 2010 Blu-Ray release is a "Restoration Demonstration" hosted by Scorsese. Though this runs just 4 minutes, it's quite revelatory and explains concisely the central challenges of the lengthy restoration project. I loved this one. In a related feature, Thelma Schoonmaker Powell (Michael Powell's wife and Scorsese's long-time editor) is interviewed from the 2009 Cannes premiere (15 min.) about the restoration and creative life in general.

Another new feature is the "Profile of ‘The Red Shoes,'" a 2000 production from the Carlton Film Collection (25 min.) which provides interviews with Ian Christie, Jack Cardiff, camera operator Chris Challis and director Kevin Macdonald (grandson of Emeric Pressburger) as well as others. It's pretty standard fare for these kinds of interview collages.

The 24-page insert booklet features an essay by critic David Ehrenstein and a brief note about the restoration by Robert Gitt who led the project. Ian Christie's short essay from the 1999 SD release has not been included.

FILM VALUE

One of the major film accomplishments of 2009 has now become one of the major Blu-Ray releases of 2010. It's rare that Criterion gets to work from such a great print of a 60+ year-old film, and the net result is something any serious film lover is going to want to have. When compared to the 1999 SD release, it's one of the most obvious "Hell, yeah, I need to upgrade that" decisions you'll ever have.

Criterion has also released Powell and Pressburger's "Black Narcissus" on Blu-Ray this month. Both films are also available in new SD editions. I have not seen the new SD releases, but could not recommend them solely on the basis of the new extras. The Blu-Rays, however, are very easy to recommend despite the fact that, unlike with many recent Criterions, the Blu-Rays are offered at a higher retail price point than the SDs ($39.95 vs. $29.95).