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Powell was respected for his overall knowledge of all aspects of filmmaking, having been trained at Ingram’s studio as an editor and cameraman.
#An oral history of the chorus line series
Alexander Korda paired him with Pressburger and together they co-produced and co-wrote the series of now-classic movies for their production company, The Archers. and Gaumont-British, throughout the 1930s. Powell returned to his native England and eventually was hired to direct “Quota Quickie” B movies, some for Warner Bros. RELATED POSTS: Altman's Grand Ole Soap Opry Powell happily left a bank clerk job in England to join Ingram’s production unit in Nice, France, where Ingram escaped Mayer but still produced for MGM. Ingram himself most likely would have used color in his classic epic romances The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (1921), Scaramouche (1923) and certainly The Garden of Allah (1927), if the color process had been available to him. In editing The Red Shoes, Reginald Mills useda series of fades and dissolves, which impart a musical editing structure,replete with leitmotifs.
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Ingram’s influence on The Red Shoes is evident in the exotic nature of the film and in its lush stylistic flourishes.” As Schoonmaker states, “Michael Powell was very lucky that his first job in film was under the direction of Rex Ingram, whose career in Hollywood was ruined because of his artistic battles with Louis B. He was unique in British cinema, and even world cinema, because of his early belief in what Technicolor could do for dramatic subject matter.Ĭolor was vital to Powell because he was a painter at heart, an artist who boldly explored the exotic, magical, epic nature––literally the moving canvas––of his material. Powell, who died in 1990 at the age of 85, was the sparkle in British cinema with not only The Red Shoes but also such color masterworks as The Thief of Baghdad (1940) (one of three credited directors), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Tales of Hoffman (1951). The restored version will be released next year. Robert Gitt, chief preservation officer at the UCLA Film and Television Archives, is overseeing the restoration in close collaboration with Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker, A.C.E., Scorsese’s principal editor (and three-time Oscar winner) and Powell’s widow. Through the Film Foundation, which Scorsese founded in 1990, he is spearheading the restoration of the original three-strip nitrate Technicolor negatives of The Red Shoes. He also thought that the color cinematography by Jack Cardiff in The Red Shoes was some of the most beautiful he had ever seen. The Red Shoes ballet, with its pulsating color and special effects, was the inspiration for Gene Kelly’s ballet in An American in Paris (1951).įilmmaker Martin Scorsese was profoundly affected by the film and championed the other films of Powell, with and without Pressburger.
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Though The Red Shoeslost the Academy Award for Best Picture (to Hamlet), it created an increased acceptance for British films in mainstream America.
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By casting legendary and popular ballet figures as the ballet world characters, instead of stars with “dance-ins,” Powell achieved a roman á clef ambience. The fantasy and Gothic elements of the Oscar-winning set decoration and art direction by Hein Heckroth and Arthur Lawson lent credibility to the melodramatic and tragic story.
#An oral history of the chorus line movie
It played for years in American art houses and created an audience for ballet, especially the New York City Ballet and Sadler’s Wells, in both Great Britain and America.Ĭo-directors, -producers and -screenwriters Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger created a timeless movie because they avoided compromises. Since its premiere 60 years ago in September 1948, the film has been a part of our lives and is the Gone with the Wind of dance films. However, The Red Shoes never needed A Chorus Line for its own immortality. Marvin Hamlisch, the composer of A Chorus Line, paid homage to the film in “At the Ballet” and “What I Did for Love.” Like Victoria Page, the tragic ballerina portrayed by ballerina Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes, they sacrificed their personal lives and happiness for their art. When A Chorus Line was conceived in the early 1970s from oral histories with dancers compiled by choreographer Michael Bennett, the Michael Powell film The Red Shoes (1948) was repeatedly mentioned as the inspiration for them to become dancers. Photo courtesy of ITV plc (Granada International)