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Author	Topic: THE RED SHOES is Wayne Shorter's favorite movie

Luscious Lazlo Standard Userer	From Footprints by Michelle Mercer: Though Wayne was a fan of all cinema, he preferred films with magical undertones, especially science-fiction and horror movies. One film in particlar, the 1948 Powell and Pressburger classic The Red Shoes, brought together several of Wayne's fascinations: art, the macabre, and magic. The art film includes a ballet based on Hans Christian Andersen's cautionary fairy tale of the same name, in which a cobbler gives a girl some red shoes that provide her with supernatural dancing powers. Like the girl in Andersen's fairy tale, the film's central character, Vicky, is given red shoes that make her dance beautifully, but when she grows tired, she can't stop dancing and ultimately dies. Throughout his life, Wayne would go on to see the film almost 90 times, an excessive number of viewings by any measure, even for a superb film like The Red Shoes. A young child will sometimes ask to hear the same story night after night until he resolves a sensitive developmental issue within the plot. Wayne repeatedly watched The Red Shoes in an attempt to reconcile its central conflict: living for oneself versus living for one's art. In one of Wayne's favorite scenes, a leading ballerina, Irina, stops a rehearsal to make an announcement. "I'm getting married!" she gushes. All the dancers in the company rush over to congratulate Irina. Everyone except the monomaniacal dance director, Lermontov, who stands glowering at her. When the rehearsal resumes, a dancer turns to Lermontov and remarks: "She's in wonderful form." Lermontov replies: "I'm not interested in Irina's form anymore. Nor of the form of any prima ballerina who is imbecile enough to get married. You cannot have it both ways. The dancer who relies on the doubtful comforts of human love may never be a great dancer. Never." "That is all very fine", the other man concedes. "But you can't alter human nature." "No?" Lermontov scoffs. "I think you can do better. You can ignore it." Lermontov's austere creed mandates that service to one's gift must come before all else. For a teenager with naive notions about art as a vocation, The Red Shoes was irresistible in its romantic fatalism. Years before Wayne would have to make such difficult decisions, he watched the film and wondered how much of his own life he would sacrifice for his art.
posted 01-09-2006 10:46 AM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	Wild. But why not? A lot of people love The Red Shoes. Scorsese for one lists it as one of his top 5 favorites. I put it on my top 10 as well. I met a guy who thought it was boring & I met a ballerina who thought it was bogus, but whether you find it dull or inaccurate isn't the point. The film just dazzles.
posted 01-16-2006 04:55 AM PT (US)

The_Mark_of_Score-O Non-Standard Userer	I'll take Powell & Pressburger's A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH any day.
posted 01-20-2006 05:01 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	I suppose the important thing is to "get" and love Powell & Pressburger to begin with. After that everyone has their favorites. Powell's own favorite was A Matter of Life & Death and that was the first Powell film I saw and it really blew me away. I've seen best 10 lists that eschew The Red Shoes for Blimp or Narcissus or IKWIG or Hoffmann or A Canterbury Tale or even Peeping Tom. My favorite is still The Red Shoes but I'm fond of and glad we have ALL of them.
posted 01-21-2006 05:17 AM PT (US)

The_Mark_of_Score-O Non-Standard Userer	After waiting and waiting for Sony (who own the US rights to A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH) to release it on DVD, I finally relented and bought a British Region 2 disc that I found on sale for $15.00 (I have an all-region player as my second DVD deck). The transfer's adequate, though there's a slight vertical squeeze, rendering everyone, and everything, in the image slightly shorter and fatter than they should be. Sony announced the film almost three years ago, but have sat on it ever since. If any of you out there love the film as much as I do, I hope you'll e-mail Sony and ask that they finally put it on the shelves of US DVD stores! [Message edited by The_Mark_of_Score-O on 01-22-2006] [Message edited by The_Mark_of_Score-O on 01-22-2006]
posted 01-22-2006 06:52 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	Stairway is supposed to be released in the US this year through Anchor Bay. I had a relase date but I don't remember it off the top of my head.
posted 01-23-2006 01:10 AM PT (US)

The_Mark_of_Score-O Non-Standard Userer	I hadn't heard about this, but the person who does Anchor Bay's bonus materials is one of my best friends. I'll have to give him a call.
posted 01-24-2006 09:17 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	When you do call him ask him if or when we're going to get a domestic version of the complete UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD by Wim Wenders.
posted 01-25-2006 09:43 AM PT (US)

The_Mark_of_Score-O Non-Standard Userer	I talked to my friend. He hasn't heard anything about AMOLAD's being acquired by Anchor Bay. Moreover, he said that, since Sony controls the domestic rights to the film, and Anchor Bay is genrally disinterested in classic film titles, anyway, you heard wrong, Lou. Where did you hear this, anyway? [Message edited by The_Mark_of_Score-O on 01-25-2006]
posted 01-25-2006 08:06 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	Of course when I return to DVD Beaver to find the link to the page that listed this, it's no where to be found. And they don't list it themselves so it's probably apocraphal. In any case, I trust your sources better than mine. A shame. I'm sure we'd both rather I was right.
posted 01-26-2006 12:10 AM PT (US)

The_Mark_of_Score-O Non-Standard Userer	Absolutely true, although, to put it all in perspective, a DVD of A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH isn't, well, a matter of life and death. [Message edited by The_Mark_of_Score-O on 01-26-2006]
posted 01-26-2006 02:48 AM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	It is to me!!
posted 01-26-2006 05:54 AM PT (US)

The_Mark_of_Score-O Non-Standard Userer	At the very least, it ought to teach you not to leave home without a properly packed parachute. [Message edited by The_Mark_of_Score-O on 01-27-2006]
posted 01-26-2006 05:22 PM PT (US)

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