The Red Shoes (1948 film)

The Red Shoes is a 1948 British dance drama film written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It follows Victoria Page, a young ballerina played by Moira Shearer in her feature film debut, who joins the ballet company of the impresario Boris Lermontov and is forced to choose between her art and her marriage to the composer Julian Craster. The story is loosely drawn from the 1845 fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, and at its centre sits a long ballet sequence that retells the tale in dance. Most of the cast were professional dancers, and the film was shot in mid-1946 in France and England. It won Academy Awards for its score and art direction, was a financial success in the United States, and is now ranked among the best British films ever made; a restoration begun in 2006 returned it to view.