This week’s pick is one of Martin Scorsese’s favorite films. The Red Shoes is loosely based on a Hans Christian Anderson story of the same name. It’s about a ballet dancer who must choose between her passion for dance and the man she loves.

I caught this on TCM a few years ago and immediately fell in love with it. It’s shot in beautiful technicolor and has some truly amazing cinematography. British director, Michael Powell was a master at telling stories visually. There are some great shots and sequences in this film.

The story particularly resonates with me. It asks the question of whether or not we can ever really be great at anything AND have a life outside of that. Here’s some dialogue from the film that sums up what it’s all about:

I choose to believe that you can follow your passion and have a strong family, but part of me wonders from time to time. It seems like so many successful people end up having horrible family lives. Is being great at something really worth missing out on or losing your family entirely? I don’t think so. I’m not willing to pay that price.

Thankfully there are at least a few examples of people who are great at what they do and have strong families. This past weekend I had the opportunity to hear John Lasseter and his wife speak about their family’s winery. They seem to have a really strong family and there’s no question that Lasseter is GREAT at what he does. That’s encouraging to me. That’s the kind of success I want.

The Red Shoes is a great film that will make you think about all of this. It stuck with me for several weeks after I saw it first.

Red Shoes, The (1948) – Thursday, April 22 at 8:00pm EST
A young ballerina is torn between her art and her romance with a young composer.
Cast: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann Dir: Michael Powell C-135 mins, TV-G

In other TCM news, Jeremiah and I will be attending the TCM Classic Film Fest later this week. We’ll be blogging all about it this week and next. Stay tuned. Let us know if you’ll be there.