MovieChat Forums > The Red Shoes (1948) Discussion > why is the color so strange?

why is the color so strange?

posted 6 years ago by LetThemEatCake (2717)
4 replies | jump to latest

is it because it's three strip? I know about the topic but I still can't find the reason why it looks this way, whereas the one strip color doesn't.

[–] huwdj (4565) 3 years ago

I assume this was the look Michael Powell wanted. It's a story about a ballet about a fairy tale that becomes the fate of the dancer. Hightened colour for a hightened reality?

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8613) 3 years ago

It's an amazing looking movie. The colors are indeed heightened--richer than real life, one might say "more real than real"--but as you say it's undoubtedly the look they were going for.

I did what was essentially a double-feature of Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes and it's quite obvious that Powell and Pressburger were visual geniuses who were in total control of every element of their films.

[–] TheArgentinian (6847) 3 years ago

It's Technicolor. It's not supposed to look like the real world.

[–] ejbronte (60) a month ago

This makes me think of a line from another wonderful P&P movie, "Stairway to Heaven", where Marius Goring (Julian in "Red Shoes"), playing a completely different character, sighs at one point: "Ah, one is starved for Technicolor up there." ("Stairway to Heaven" was my intro to Marius Goring and to P&P, and I just adored Goring in it. When I saw "Red Shoes" for the first time, it took me a while to reconcile myself to the fact that Goring was Julian).