“the colour red, so often used in fairytales to signify sexual awakening, is present: by willingly donning the red shoes the girl is compliant with her own sexual downfall, and suffers a horrific punishment. The appeal of The Red Shoes’ fairytale therefore relies very much on the combination of beauty and horror: the girl is beautiful, especially when she is dancing in her red shoes. The act of severance, however, also holds a twisted appeal in that it leads to her redemption—but it is nevertheless suggested as a suitable punishment for being tempted to dance in the first place.” (Street, 1997, p. 162)
In the final scene of the film, when the unbearable mental anguish pushes Vicky toward committing suicide, the directors construct rich symbolisms. In the aftermath of the moment of tragedy, when Vicky lies dying on the railway track, she asks Julian to remove her red shoes, which he promptly does. Meanwhile in the theatre, the eagerly awaiting audience are informed of the lead ballerina’s absence – a messaged delivered in a tone of suppressed emotions by the deeply saddened Lermontov. But Lermontov assures the audience that the show will go on, and in the place of the deceased Vicky, a spotlight is thrown to acknowledge her spiritual presence on stage. This is an inspired directorial idea from Powell and Pressburger, for they based it on a similar real life incident involving Russian ballerina Pavlova. Pavlova’s ‘final performance’ was conducted in 1931, ‘after’ her demise, by tracing her movements on stage using a spotlight. The skilful conception and construction of mise-en-scene in this final sequence lends emotionally richness to the climax. The valorous maxim of ‘the show must go on’ captures the true spirit of art, where individuals are secondary to the larger cause. (Swynnoe, 2002, p.56)
When one looks at the history of ballet films in three decades between 1920 and 1950, commercial failure is the norm. Added to this, British producers have previously failed in their attempts to use this genre. This makes the success of The Red Shoes an anomaly of sorts. Numerous interviews given by the directors and the lead actors in the film have helped compile an impressive archival documentation for this film. By tapping into this resource, we can learn the thought processes of the creative team, especially with regards to mise-en-scene. We learn that Michael Powell thought of ballet as
“a contradictory representation and ambiguously gendered embodiment of morbidity and ecstasy, life and death, achievement and failure, fulfillment and despair. Moreover, the production context of The Red Shoes functions as a sort of metanarrative about the relationship of ballet to the film industry and of the machinations and processes by which ballet’s theatrical identity and the subjectivities of its practitioners were manipulated and objectified (not always successfully, and never without resistance) to fit the measure of a full-length commercial film.” (Mclean, 2008, p. 137)