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HansChristianAndersen

The Red Shoes (Michael Powell + Emeric Pressburger, 1948)

Aug

3

red

The Red Shoes (1948)

A ballerina's lower body in focus. She wears a long tulle off-white dress, slightly sheer, with her white stockings showing through slightly. Part of her right lower arm is visible, the hand clutched, a turquoise bracelet on the wrist. What stands out most are her ruby red ballet shoes that appear to move away from her. The backdrop is a dull, washed out carpet. DP: Jack Cardiff.

Red: best use of red in food or fashion*

“She looked at the red shoes, for she thought there was no harm in looking. She put them on, for she thought there was no harm in that either. But then she went to the ball and began dancing. When she tried to turn to the right, the shoes turned to the left. When she wanted to dance up the ballroom, her shoes danced down. They danced down the stairs, into the street, and out through the gate of the town. Dance she did, and dance she must, straight into the dark woods.”

– Hans Christian Andersen, De røde Skoe (1845, tranl. Jean Hersholt, 1949), via

Another one of The Archers' #Technicolor extravaganzas. This time, not to wow the worn-down post-war black-and-white audience, but as an an active storytelling instrument.

 

Built around Hans Christian Andersen's haunting tale De røde Skoe (1845).

 

Снежная королева [Snezhnaya koroleva / The Snow Queen] (Gennadiy Kazanskiy, 1967)

May

25

National Missing Children's Day

Снежная королева (1967)

Kai (Vyacheslav Tsyupa) under the Snow Queen's spell. DPs: Vadim Grammatikov & Sergei Ivanov.

Someone missing is found on National Missing Children's Day (USA)

 

Oh boy, how to do this one without a spoiler…

 

Siblings Gerda and Kai are best friends until one day, the Snow Queen's mirror shatters into a million pieces. One shard pierces Kai's eye, the other his heart, and from that moment on, all he can see is evil and his heart is cold. Now taken in by the Queen, and cold to Gerda's affection, the girl tries all to get Kai, the old Kai, back.

Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (Richard Winer + Barry Mahon, 1972)

Dec

20

Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972)

A bunch of screaming children on top of a red firetruck stand right behind the driver, a stoic person in a pink bunny costume. DPs: William Tobin & Richard Winer.

“What is that? What is that I hear? Where's it coming from? I hear a siren, but I don't see any fire, I don't see any smoke. Whenever there's a siren, it means there's a fire, but I don't see any smoke. That siren. Where is it coming from? Where's that sound coming from?”

– Santa Claus

Malá morská víla [The Little Mermaid] (Karel Kachyňa, 1976)

Mar

3

National Dress In Blue Day

Malá morská víla (1976)

The little mermaid (Miroslava Safránková) in her wonderful sea-blue dress, puts a coral-red rose in her blue hair. DP: Jaroslav Kučera.

Miroslava Safránková plays Hans Christian Andersen's doomed little mermaid – Malá morská víla in Czech – who falls in love with a mortal and gives up her beautiful voice to be with him. Sadly, the mortal, a prince, doesn't recognize his mute saviour and doesn't return his love.

“The other day I got caught in some fishermen's net. Of course, I had to drown them. I couldn't allow them to touch me, could I?”

– the little mermaid

The wonderful soundtrack is by Zdeněk Liška who also composed music for Ikarie XB 1 (Jindřich Polák, 1963) and Spalovač mrtvol (Juraj Herz, 1969).