The Red Shoes

One of them wrote the story and the other turned it into a script, one of them took on the direction and the other the production: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the men behind the film-making partnership known as The Archers, played a defining role in the British film industry in the 1940s and 1950s. Sometimes they did everything together, e.g. for The Red Shoes, arguably their best-known and most acclaimed film — an eye-catching production due to the use of dazzling Technicolor colours and the beautifully choreographed and performed dance scenes. It's not without reason that the leading role is played by an actual ballerina: Moira Shearer.

The impresario Boris Lermontov invites Vicky Page (Shearer), a young ballerina, to join his troupe Ballet Lermontov. She gets to dance the lead role in a new ballet: The Red Shoes. Vicky falls in love with Julian, the ballet's composer. Resenting this romance, Lermontov forces Vicky to choose between love and her dance career.