Red Shoes

Lermontov: When we first met ... you asked me a question to which I gave a stupid answer, you asked me whether I wanted to live and I said "Yes". Actually, Miss Page, I want more, much more. I want to create, to make something big out of something little – to make a great dancer out of you. But first, I must ask you the same question, what do you want from life? To live?

Vicky: To dance.


A young woman sees a pair of red shoes in a shop window which are then offered to her by the demonic shoemaker. She puts them on and begins to dance with her lover. They go to a carnival, where she cannot help but to forget about the boyfriend and she dances with every man she comes across. Her boyfriend is carried away and nothing is left of him but his image on a piece of plastic which she brutally tramples.
She attempts to return home to her mother, but the red shoes, controlled by the shoemaker, keep her dancing. She falls into the netherworld of the demimonde where she dances with a piece of newspaper which turns briefly into her one true love. She is haunted by grotesque creatures, including the shoemaker,who play with her as if a toy before abruptly disappearing, and leaving her exhausted and alone. No matter where she runs, the shoes refuse to stop dancing and she just can't stop.
Near death from exhaustion, clothed in rags, she finds herself in front of a church where a funeral is in progress. The priest offers to help her. She motions to him to remove the shoes, and as he does so her heart filles with rays of sunshine and she dies.





Sorrow will pass, believe me. Life is so unimportant. And from now onwards, you will dance like nobody ever before.