Color by Technicolor
BSL translation

Deaf Conversations About Cinema: The Red Shoes

Talk

Please note: This event took place in Dec 2023

Join us at the 18:00 screening of The Red Shoes on Mon 18 Dec which will feature Descriptive Subtitles and an introduction from Mark Fuller, film enthusiast and Powell and Pressburger expert. This will be followed at 20:15 by a post screening discussion in the Café & Bar with fellow audience members and Mark. The evening will be hosted by Deaf artist, performer and filmmaker David Ellington and will feature BSL interpretation throughout.

“It’s hard to think of many films that match The Red Shoes for ferocity and passion, since in every costume, set, and streak of grease paint there is desire...This film taught me to love melodrama, and to understand ‘camp’ in new and complex ways.” Rebecca Harrison

In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s visually ravishing masterpiece, a young ballerina is torn between the demands of love and art. Like the heroine of Hans Christian Andersen’s source fairytale, whose magic shoes compel her to dance, Victoria Page – played by real-life ballerina Moira Shearer – finds herself driven to breaking point by obsessive Russian impresario Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) when she’s cast in his ballet The Red Shoes.

With its captivating behind-the-scenes insight into the creative process, and characters for whom art is more important than life itself, the film has proved an inspiration to filmmakers and dancers alike. For writer-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, it represented a triumphant attempt to create a ‘composed film’ in which music – here by Brian Easdale – plays a more central role, demanding similar expressive intensity in every detail of design and performance.

Fittingly, it won Oscars® for both art direction and music.

Please join us after the screening in the Café/Bar for an informal discussion, which will include BSL interpretation.

You’ll receive 10% off drinks with your cinema ticket – so grab a glass and let us know your thoughts about The Red Shoes.


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