The Red Shoes (PG)

★★★★✭ The 4K remaster of "Martin Scorsee's favourite film" is an absolute must-see on the big screen, especially for lovers of ballet and theatre. For younger generations previously unaware of their work, it also serves as the perfect introduction to the stunning Technicolor world of The Archers (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger), the greatest film makers this country has ever produced. ~ Manchester Theatres.

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In a blazing manifesto for The Archers production company, dance, music, design and ‘high style’ combine in ‘total cinema’ in this 1948 Powell and Pressburger classic.

Ballet dancer Vicky (Moira Shearer) achieves stardom under impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), but at what cost? 

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★★★★★ Based vaguely on the story of Sergei Diaghilev and Waslaw Nijinsky, this is arguably the best-loved dance film of all time (Martin Scorsese often cites it as his all-time favourite movie). ~ Radio Times.

★★★★★ "Truly the most beautiful Technicolor film ever made," says Martin Scorsese, with some justice. The story of a young ballet dancer who makes a fateful decision between love and art, it has a quicksilver grace and variation of mood unlike anything else you've seen. ~ The Independent.

★★★★★ There are some films everyone with an interest in cinema should own. Not just because they are considered classics, but because they are so immaculately executed on every level, so pure of intent and delivery, that they can reaffirm your faith in the entire medium. The Red Shoes is one such rare film: even to call it a movie seems undignified; it can clean and refresh your cinematic palette. ~ The Guardian.

★★★★★ Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1948 film The Red Shoes was, for nearly four decades, the most successful British movie ever released in America. ~ AllMovie.

★★★★★ Wrapped up with gorgeous sparkly colour, off-the-beaten-track classical music selections, and a sinister edge that perfectly catches the ambiguity of traditional as opposed to Disney fairy tales, this remains a luminous masterpiece. ~ Empire.

★★★★★ Powell and Pressburger's ode to the agony and the ecstasy of dancing is still joyous and moving even if you watch it through filthy, cracked sunglasses. ~ Time Out.