Editing The Red Shoes (1948 film) (section)

===''The Ballet of the Red Shoes''===
{{Quote box|align=right|width=22em|bgcolor=#ffc0cb|quote=We have tried to make our [ballet] sequence subjective as well as objective. When the girl is dancing, she feels she is a bird, a flower, a cloud; when the spotlight hits her, she feels she is alone on a small island with waves breaking around; the figure of the conductor melts in turn into the form of the impresario, the magician, the lover, and at last into a figure made of newspapers.|source=–Art director [[Hein Heckroth]] on the film's stylized central ballet sequence, 1947{{sfn|McLean|1988|p=49}}}}
[[File:Original publicity still for the film "The Red Shoes." From The Red Shoes (1948) Collection at Ailina Dance Archives.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|left|Publicity still showing a moment of the ''Ballet of the Red Shoes'' sequence]]
''The Red Shoes'' is famous for featuring a 17-minute ballet sequence (of a ballet entitled ''The Ballet of the Red Shoes'') as its centrepiece.{{sfn|Street|2016|p=109}}{{sfn|McLean|2008|pages=147–149}} The sequence uses a variety of filmic techniques to provide an "impressionistic link" to the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale on which it (and the [[Story within a story|ballet within the film]]) is based, as well as the personal struggles faced by the protagonist, Victoria Page, who is dancing the lead role.{{sfn|Street|2016|pages=109–110}} McLean notes that the ballet not only duplicates Victoria's own story, but also foreshadows her love for Julian, the composer and conductor in the ballet's orchestra, as well as the contemptuous jealousy of Lermontov, its director.{{sfn|McLean|2008|p=149}}

Throughout the ballet, visual [[metaphor]]s and fantastical references to Victoria's own life come alive on the screen, including a portion in which she dances with a floating newspaper that alternates in form between mere paper and the human form of Helpmann's character; this is referential to a windblown newspaper that Victoria previously stepped on the night she discovered she had acquired the lead role in the ballet.{{sfn|McLean|2008|p=149}}

Unlike in conventional filmed theatrical ballet, the ballet sequence in ''The Red Shoes'' is not one continuous, static shot, but instead employs a variety of editing techniques, close-ups, and special effects.{{sfn|McLean|1988|pages=49–53}} As the ballet progresses, McLean notes that the action of the sequence "rockets from stage right to stage left, a series of swiftly performed vignettes alternating with garishly decorated set pieces. Then, as Robert Helpmann, playing the girl's lover, is borne away into the distance by a crowd, leaving the girl alone in her cursed red shoes, the action reverses...&nbsp; into and through the ballerina's subconscious mind."{{sfn|McLean|2008|p=148}} Because of its dynamic nature and excessive use of cinematic techniques, McLean contests that the ballet sequence is a "greater, or more characteristic, film experience than a dance one."{{sfn|McLean|1988|p=54}}