Moira Shearer's Opinion of the Film
I was wondering about Moira Shearer. I know she supposedly hated working on the film, but did she ever acknowledge that it made an impact on people?
Psylocke Fan 4EVA
It's a strange story. She only ever said that she hated the film many years afterwards. According to other people who worked on the film like Jack Cardiff she seemed happy enough and was very friendly & helpful to everyone.
Moira had set her heart of being a ballet dancer and saw any film-making as a sidetrack to her ballet work. She was the number 2 at the Sadler's Well Ballet which then became the Royal Ballet in 1931. She had been told that after making The Red Shoes she would be able to resume her career at the ballet as though nothing had happened. Nobody realised what a massive success the film would be.
Moira was expected to take the number 1 position when Margot Fonteyn retired. But Margot didn't retire, she went on and on.
Margot had married Roberto Arias, a Panamanian politician who was shot and paralysed when he got involved in an attempted revolution. So Margot had to keep working to earn enough to pay for Roberto's medical care.
Many people thought that Margot was about to retire. But then, in 1961, Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West, and he partnered Margot giving her career another lease of life.
When The Red Shoes was released it happened to be at the same time as the Royal Ballet's first tour of the US. Many people there had seen the film and wanted to see Moira dancing. So much so that Moira was even given higher billing than Margot in some places and this led to some ill feeling between Moira and the rest of the company. It was about then that Moira first said how much she had hated working on the film.
But despite hating it so much she went back to Powell & Pressburger to make The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) and then made Peeping Tom (1960) with just Powell. So how much did Moira really dislike working on The Red Shoes and other films?
Apart from a few complaints about the film she didn't really discuss it much. She had a few specific complaints apart from her general dislike of the film-making process and about Powell in particular.
Moira said she disliked how the film didn't portray a ballet company realistically. But it was a drama, not a documentary.
She said how she wasn't given a chance to dance any long sequences and really get into it. They would get her to dance a short sequence again and again until everyone got the filming just right. But isn't that what dancers do when they rehearse one short sequence again and again in front of the mirror in the rehearsal room?
Moira also said how terrible it was to have to dance on an unsprung stage. But other members of the Royal Ballet who were in the film who I've spoken to said that if she had toured as much as the rest of the company had, dancing in village halls throughout the country, then she would be more used to it.
Steve
That's interesting. I noticed she provides commentary on the Criterion DVD (obviously recorded before she passed away) but it is kind of sad to hear she didn't have a very fond memory of it. Her character is so visually striking, I think its the hair.
Psylocke Fan 4EVA