‘The Red Shoes’: The movie that runs through Martin Scorsese’s DNA
Hollywood has a lot to owe to Martin Scorsese, the film lover who rose to prominence in the early 1970s by making ambitious movies of his own. It was 1973’s Mean Streets and 1976’s Taxi Driver which truly cemented Scorsese as one of the era’s most impressive new filmmakers, with his explorations of crime, religion, isolation and urban decay making for compelling viewing.
Imbuing an arthouse sensibility into his films, Scorsese bridged a gap between mainstream Hollywood and exercising creativity, making films that were capable of achieving both critical and commercial success. Since the 1970s, Scorsese has continued to make some of the most popular movies of all time, from Raging Bull and Goodfellas to The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street.
The filmmaker has cited countless directors as inspirations over the years, but he has always circled back to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The duo first collaborated in 1939 with The Spy in Black, although 1943’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is arguably the first truly significant project made together.
Powell and Pressburger worked as a directorial team until the 1970s, creating 24 films. When Scorsese discovered their movies, he was immediately captivated, citing the pair as one of his most significant and consistent inspirations. Throughout his whole career, Scorsese has had Powell and Pressburger on his mind, even making the documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, scheduled for release in May 2024, in celebration of their achievements.
Scorsese has always been enamoured by the duo’s ability to do such groundbreaking work during such a pivotal era of cinema. By educating himself with their work as a budding filmmaker, he believed that he, too, could make movies that were successful without compromising his artistic integrity.
Out of all of Powell and Pressburger’s films, Scorsese loves The Red Shoes the most, which he first saw when he was five. The movie, which was released in 1948 – easily one of the greatest ballet stories ever told – depicts the conflicts facing one ambitious dancer, Victoria Page. Recalling his memories of watching the classic film, Scorsese once told Sight and Sound, “The first time I recall seeing the Archers’ logo in colour was when my father took me to see The Red Shoes at the Academy of Music on 14th St. I was mesmerised…”
He was “drawn to was the mystery of the red shoes, the hysteria of the picture, the extreme close-ups of Moira Shearer’s eyes as she feels herself being borne to her death by the shoes, or is it by herself? This was shocking for me.”
Scorsese’s long-term editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, who married Powell in 1984 after meeting him through the director, knows the importance of The Red Shoes to Scorsese. Talking to The Guardian, Schoonmaker explained, “In Michael’s films, there isn’t a hero and a villain. It’s more about the people in between, and that interests Scorsese too … Scorsese says The Red Shoes is in his DNA. He thinks about it almost every day.”
Watch the trailer for The Red Shoes below.
