The third main character comes to the fore the following morning. Julian Craster is a young student of Lermontov's conductor who believes his master has plagiarized his own compositions for use in the last night's production. Lermontov agrees – quipping “It is much more disheartening to have to steal than to be stolen from” - and promptly hires Craster as his new orchestral coach. Through the eyes of these two inexperienced newcomers we are thrust into the world of ballet behind the stage. A montage of scenes shows use the messy underweave of the tapestry, a beautiful confusion of dancers, stage hands, set dressing, and musicians, all under the steely gaze of Lermontov, a solitary seated figure in the shadows of the stalls.
The company moves to Paris, but once there prima ballerina Boronskaja announces she has married. She is congratulated by her colleagues, but when she looks for Lermontov he has disappeared; she observes that he must have no heart. Cut to him alone, smoking in a darkened study, visibly distracted. He calls for Craster and dramatically announces to him that he plans to produce in Monte Carlo a ballet of the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale "The Red Shoes," in which a girl is offered some footwear by a demonic shoemaker which cause her to dance uncontrollably, leading to her eventual death. Boronskaja is dismissed, Page is promoted to top billing, and Craster is to compose the score.
Until this point, the film has been light in tone, but the introduction of the fairytale interrupts this and announces something very different. Witness the abrupt cut to Lermontov closing the score book to reveal its title, emblazoned in red, and how it sends Craster into a trance, unable to hear what the director is saying. And then see the Russian's impassioned explanation of the synopsis, clutching a sculpture of a ballet shoe, and then his quick dismissal of the girl's sad fate.
The loss of Boronskaja to wedlock has lit some form of fire inside of him, but motivated by what? Sexual jealousy? Speaking to Ljubov, his chief choreographer, he pours scorn on those who seek human love, suggesting one who succumbs to it can never be a great dancer. The choice, one which he has clearly made himself, is between love or complete commitment to one's art. Some readings of the film read Lermontov as being a repressed homosexual, but this makes for a much less interesting character, and in reality there is little on-screen to suggest this; it is his entire repression of all sexuality which is most in evidence, and some are fooled by the fact that both actor Anton Walbrook and the character's real-life model Sergei Diaghilev were openly gay.
Article comments
1 - Harley Davidson
This is an utterly fantastic movie. The review doesn't come out and say it. But it never did make any money! And the ballet was awesome. This is dismissed in the review as well. Perhaps the reviewer should dance The Red Shoes, himself. :)