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The Red Shoes (1948 film)
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===Critical response=== [[File:Original flyer for the film "The Red Shoes." From The Red Shoes (1948) Collection at Ailina Dance Archives.jpg|thumb|left|Promotional flyer for the film]] Film scholar Mark Connelly notes that interpreting the contemporaneous critical response to ''The Red Shoes'' is a "complicated task, as there are no simple divisions between those who liked the film and those who did not."{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=68}} Connelly concludes that the reaction was notably "complex and mixed."{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=68}} Adrienne McLean similarly states that the film received "only mixed" reviews from both cinema and ballet critics.{{sfn|McLean|1988|p=32}} Upon its release in the United Kingdom, the film received some criticism from the national press, particularly aimed at Powell and Pressburger for the perception that the feature was "undisciplined and downright un-British."{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=3}} While the film had its detractors in Britain, it was lauded by some national critics, such as [[Dilys Powell]], who deemed it an "extreme pleasure" and "brilliantly experimental."{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=70}} Writing for ''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'', [[Marion Eames]] praised the performances of Shearer and Goring, as well as the score.{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=68}} ''The Daily Film Renter'' published a divisive review, noting that Powell and Pressburger "have fumbled over a fine idea, and their opulent work trembles between the heights and the depths."{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=68}} Despite this, it was voted the third-best film of the year in a readers' poll by the ''[[Daily Mail]]'', behind ''[[Spring in Park Lane]]'' and ''[[Oliver Twist (1948 film)|Oliver Twist]]''.{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=67}} Initial reception proved more favourable in the United States, where the film went on to garner mainstream attention after it screened in the US arthouse circuit.{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=3}} A main point of contention amongst both British and American critics was a perceived lack of realism concerning the ballet sequences.{{sfn|Connelly|2005|pages=68–71}} The focus of this criticism was the film's central 17-minute ballet performance of ''The Ballet of the Red Shoes'': Many dance critics felt the sequence's impressionistic touches—which include abstract [[hallucination]]s and visual manifestations of Vicky's mental state—detracted from the physical aspects of the ballet.{{sfn|Connelly|2005|pages=69–70}} British ballet critic [[Kathrine Sorley Walker]] also dismissed the sequence, commenting that it marked "a departure from the illusion of stage ballet to the limitless and lush spaces reflecting the ballerina's thought."{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=70}} Eames made similar criticism, condemning the subjective elements of the sequence as "corrupting the integrity of the ballet," as well as the choreography.{{sfn|Connelly|2005|p=69}} Philip K. Scheuer of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', however, praised the presentation of ballet in the film, deeming it "the most ambitious—and probably the most dazzlingly successful—use of traditional-type ballet in any motion picture to date."<ref>{{cite news|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|location=Los Angeles, California|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38871097/the_los_angeles_times/|title=Coproducer Explains 'Red Shoes' Success|last=Scheuer|first=Philip K.|date=19 December 1948|page=19|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
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