Editing The Red Shoes (1948 film) (section)

==="Art versus life"===
A central theme to ''The Red Shoes'' is a performer's conflict between their art and personal life.{{sfn|McLean|1988|p=43}} Commenting on this theme, Powell himself stated that the film is "about dying for art, that art is worth dying for."{{sfn|McLean|1988|p=43}} Film scholar Adrienne McLean, however, notes that Victoria's final leap to her death does not adequately represent this idea.{{sfn|McLean|1988|p=43}} Rather, McLean states that Victoria "seems pushed by those she loves who would rather possess her than support her," and that the film ultimately illustrates the impact that "ruthless personalities" can have on "the weaker or more demure."{{sfn|McLean|1988|p=43}}

Scholar Peter Fraser, in ''[[Cinema Journal]]'', observes of this tension between art and life that the film implodes its own "narrative and lyrical worlds...&nbsp; from the moment of recognition, when Vicky looks down at her red shoes and knows that she is then her lyrical persona, her two worlds collapse."{{sfn|Fraser|1987|p=52}} He further states that the interpenetration of the lyrical upon the narrative "alters the meaning of the fiction" itself.{{sfn|Fraser|1987|p=52}} This blurring of the lyrical and the narrative is represented at the end of the film, when Vicky jumps onto the train tracks; she is wearing the red shoes which she wore while preparing in her dressing room, despite the fact that in the performance her character does not put them on until part way through the ballet. Powell and Pressburger themselves discussed this idiosyncrasy{{sfn|Powell|1986|pages=650–651}} and it has been subject to significant critical analysis since.<ref name=ebert>{{cite news |title=The Red Shoes (1948) |date=1 January 2005 |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20050101%2FREVIEWS08%2F501010301%2F1023 |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|location=Chicago|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221061416/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-red-shoes-1948|archive-date=21 December 2018}}</ref> Powell decided that it was artistically "right" for Vicky to be wearing the red shoes at that point because if she is not wearing them, it takes away the ambiguity over why she died.{{sfn|Powell|1986|pages=650–651}}