American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1949)

THIS giant, 300 amp., water-cooled arc spotlight was specially built to provide a spot of light for the brilliant Red Shoes Ballet sequence. The British Mole-Richardson Company and Taylor Hobson Cooke’s engineers contributed to its design and manufacture. 44THE RED SHOES is a happy mar | riage of two great arts; the ballet and the motion picture. Produced in London, England, by The Archers’ (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger ) , who in the past brought Stairway to Heaven’ ' and Black Narcissus” to the screen, it is a visually beautiful and dramatically stimulating film. A good bit of its pic¬ torial effect is due to the outstanding Technicolor photography of Jack Cardiff, A.S.C., winner of last year’s Academy award for his lensing of "Black Narcissus.” "The Red Shoes” is a backstage story of the world of the ballet, a modern ro¬ mance with fairy tale overtones. It began in the mind of ace scenarist Emeric Pressburger who decided several years ago that he would like to make a film based on the Hans Christian Anderson story of the same name. The high point of the picture is a ballet interpreting the story of the girl who is bewitched by her red dancing shoes, and a direct parallel is drawn be¬ tween her and the heroine of the modern story. Powell and Pressburger who, under the name of The Archers,” comprise Brit¬ ain's foremost team of creative cinema artists, decided that this ballet must be presented in an entirely new way. In its primary sense, ballet is the art of telling a story by dance and mime to a musical accompaniment. Its whole essence is fluid¬ ity, and in previous ballet films the cam 82 • American Cinematographer era had fallen somewhat short of transfering this mercurial quality to the screen. The Archers” decided that their ballet should be presented as a complete entity within the framework of the film. It should run for under fifteen minutes, as film audiences tend to become restless at any longer interruption of the plot. And the ballet should be filmed without any cutaway shots, so that the motion picture spectator could imagine himself actually sitting in Monte Carlo Opera House watching it on the stage. The ballet sequence was planned long before production started on the film, and it was decided to work this sequence out first in the abstract form of the color cartoon. First the whole ballet sequence was worked out by production designer Hein Heckroth in the form of 120 full size color sketches. These were then photo¬ graphed and assembled in sequence, with each separate camera angle in its proper place. Next, composer Brian Easdale tailored his original ballet score to exactly fit the cartoon ballet. When this juxtaposition of picture and music had been okayed by choreographer Robert Helpmann and the production staff, the music was recorded by Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. With sound and picture joined, "The Red Shoes” ballet was complete in cartoon form. The actual photography of the ballet presented a dif • March, 1949 The RED By HERB LICHTMAN A HICHLICHT is the sequence in which a pile of news¬ papers swirl and dance, ultimately assuming the form of a man dancing in unison with the ballet star. ficult challenge to director of photography Jack Cardiff, A.S.C., in that each shot had to match exactly with its cartoon counter¬ part, the dancers performing to a play¬ back of Beecham’s recording. As each shot in the ballet was com¬ pleted, it was exchanged for the corres¬ ponding cartoon scene, and the sketches slowly began to give way to live action sequences. The production staff constantly checked the composite reel to see how filming of the ballet was progressing. In the film, the ballet of "The Red Shoes” is represented as being performed on a conventional stage — but it is so very definitely a cinematic ballet that it could never actually be performed on a theatre