The Red Shoes takes us backstage for a behind-the-scenes look at a ballet company. At a dinner party after a performance, Lady Neston approaches Boris Lermontov (Walbrook), the imperious owner of the ballet company, and asks him to see her niece, a young dancer named Victoria Page (Shearer). He’s also approached by Julian Craster (Goring), an aspiring composer. He plays him part of an opera he’s been working on and Lermontov hires him to coach the orchestra.

Powell and Pressburger do a masterful job of showing the hustle and bustle of a large ballet company getting ready for a performance on a daily basis. We see stagehands assembling sets, performers rehearsing and musicians practicing. We also see the clashing of personalities between egotistical dancers. Victoria and Julian are thrown into the mix as they try to impress the powers that be in the hopes of getting a shot at the big time. At first, no one gives them the time of day. Fortunately, they both make the cut and travel with the company to Paris. Lermontov decides to mount a production of The Red Shoes and enlists Julian to write the adaptation and Victoria as the principal dancer.

The dance sequences are masterfully staged as Powell and Pressburger utilize the vibrant Technicolor look to make the images leap off the screen thanks to Jack Cardiff’s stunning cinematography. Amidst all of the backstage drama, a love triangle develops and Powell and Pressburger do an excellent job weaving all of these storylines together seamlessly. The entire cast performs admirably with Moira Shearer as a particular stand-out playing a young, up-and-coming ballerina. The Red Shoes has been painstakingly restored over the course of two-and-a-half years where it was finally unveiled at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It’s safe to say the film has never looked or sounded better. One of the true classics of cinema has been preserved for future generations to study and enjoy.

Special Features:

For a landmark film such as The Red Shoes, the Criterion Collection has gone that extra mile in the extras department.

The first disc features a “Restoration Demonstration” as Martin Scorsese takes us briefly through the process of restoring The Red Shoes and just how challenging it was to do. He shows a clip from the damaged original and how it was restored digitally. The restorers did an amazing job on this film and the proof is in the final results.

There is an audio commentary by film historian Ian Christie and interviews with stars Marius Goring and Moira Shearer, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, composer Brian Easdale, and Scorsese. The veteran director talks about the use of colour and how it drew him to the film. Cardiff talks about how he got involved. Initially, he hated the ballet but soon grew to love it. Goring talks about the blend of fairy tale and reality in the film. Unlike Cardiff, Easdale was a long-time fan of the ballet and speaks of the origins of the music. Shearer says that she took some convincing because she was enjoying a successful run as a dancer and found the film’s script dreadful. This is an excellent track that covers all aspects of The Red Shoes.

“The Red Shoes Novel” features actor Jeremy Irons reading excerpts from the 1978 novelization of the film as you’re watching it. He has a great voice which really enhances the prose.

Also included is a theatrical trailer.

The second disc starts off with “Profile of The Red Shoes,” a 25-minute retrospective documentary. It starts off giving some background to the genesis of the film and takes us through its production with surviving crew members sharing their memories and relatives of those who died recounting stories as well. This is an excellent look at how The Red Shoes was made.

Legendary film editor Thelma Schoonmaker is interviewed at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. She had been married to Michael Powell from 1984 until his death in 1990. She talks about the film’s restoration and also comments on what the film means to her. She speaks quite eloquently and very knowledgeably.

Also included are six stills galleries covering the cast and crew, behind-the-scenes in London, Paris and Monte Carlo, deleted scenes, and production and costume designs.

“Scorsese’s Memorabilia” is a gallery of items from the filmmaker’s personal collection. It’s quite impressive with things like the red ballet shoes worn by Shearer in the film, and posters and lobby cards from various countries.

Finally, there is “The Red Shoes Sketches,” a collection of production designer Hein Heckroth’s original colour storyboards animated and set to Brian Easdale’s score. You can view them on their own or as a side-by-side comparison to The Red Shoes ballet as seen in the film with an optional audio track of Jeremy Irons reading excerpts of the original Hans Christian Andersen story.

Can’t Stop The Music is an ersatz autobiography of the band, charting their formation in New York’s Greenwich Village to a final, climactically fruity concert at San Francisco. A fresh faced, snake-hipped Steve Guttenberg plays Jack Morell (a thinly disguised Morali) who, after quitting his day job working in a record shop, decides to become a composer. A ten minute roller skating jaunt through New York set to a sickeningly optimistic disco tune later, he meets his landlady (Valerie Perrine) who happens to be an ex-supermodel with lots of contacts in the record business. After recruiting the Native American village person (Felipe Rose), the other members of the band join one by one and their place in disco folklore is assured.

Before we lose ourselves in its sanguine four-on-the-floor beats and relentless Eighties-ness, let’s get one thing straight: in a lot of respects, this movie stinks. The dialogue is terrible, the acting shonky and you could drive a bus through the holes in the plot.

However, I’m prepared to give this film a pass. If you can put your brain in neutral and disengage your critical faculties, it’s actually quite fun. There are a lot of memorable things that stick in the mind long after the film is finished. In every scene where Guttenberg is composing or arranging the band, he puts you in mind of Steve Martin in The Jerk, who has a crippling inability to clap in time to a beat. Leatherman (Glenn Hughes), with a ‘tache that would put Merv the Swerve to shame, gives a memorable rendition of ‘Danny Boy’ atop a grand piano, and there is a mindbending milk commercial that has to be seen to be believed. The music throughout the film is quite catchy, even though the lyrics were seemingly written by someone without English as a first language.

Special mention must be made of the rendition of the band’s biggest hit, YMCA. Filmed in an actual hostel, there’s stylised boxing, diving, gymnastics and cheeky male shower scenes galore, and more naked male flesh on display than is healthy for one person. It’s the gayest thing since Carry On Fisting (a film Sid James refused to talk about until his dying day), and it’s enough to turn Burt Reynolds ginger beer.

All in all, it’s a so-bad-it’s-watchable film. Not Star Wars Holiday Special bad, but Mystery Science Theatre 3000 bad, which makes it okay in my book.

I saw him live in Cardiff on the Dangerous Tour in 1992. I saw the opening night of the History Tour in Prague in 1997, and two of the Wembley dates the following summer. I also had tickets for the opening night of the This Is It concert last year. Not just tickets either, Thriller VIP hospitality tickets – costing over a grand for the pair.

I opted for the printed holographic ticket instead of a refund, I have the Michael Jackson Opus book and yes, I used to subscribe to ‘King’ magazine.

It’s safe to say I’m something of a fan.

Therefore the chance to review Michael Jackson’s This Is It on DVD is something not to be missed.

When I heard the news last summer that Michael was rushed to hospital I sat, like many people across the world, transfixed by the news channels while checking websites for updates. Twitter fell down with the clamour for news and Facebook was alive with rumours and hearsay – sadly most of it turned out to be true. The tragedy every fan had feared had finally happened, at the worst time possible.

Many believed that Michael wasn’t in good physical or mental shape and that the concerts wouldn’t have gone ahead regardless. The video footage that was compiled to form last year’s theatrical release of This Is It proved otherwise.

Michael was in fine shape and the concerts were ready to go. This would have been the pinnacle of his career in terms of liver performances, and thankfully it was recorded so that we do get the chance to enjoy it in some form, even if it is incomplete.

This Is It has an eerie quality all of its own. The empty stadium, the casual nature of the presentation, the fact that the production was never performed; it all makes for awkward viewing. Putting that aside however and you have a truly spectacular concert showing that Michael was still at the top of his game, both vocally and artistically.

Highlights of the show include the specially shot video footage for the introduction of Thriller and the tear inducing final performance of Billie Jean, which earns Michael one last ovation from the watching dance troop, many of whom would have grown up watching him dance.

The film starts off in a tearful manner, but doesn’t dwell on what happened. The film is about Michael as a performer and about the concert that he worked so hard to put on. It’s a celebration of life and talent, rather than a lament at the loss of it.

Watching this in the cinema I was caught between two contrasting emotions. I was delighted that I got the chance to watch it, to enjoy it and was singing along at certain points as though I was at the concert in person. I was also devastated that the concert itself would never be seen live, as it was intended.

Special Features

In the weeks following Michael’s death I tried to avoid the television as much as possible as I knew every TV channel would try to capitalise on the event by hashing together old footage from various videos and putting out ‘tribute’ programmes. I’d seen all of this footage before and didn’t want to see the same sequences over and over, in what was basically just an attempt to gain ratings from fair-weather fans.

The special features on The Is It however contain more than 2 hours of unseen footage, and as someone who has edited together behind the scenes footage from Michael’s Stranger in Moscow video for a screening at the 40th Birthday Bash in London in 1998, I know my ‘unseen’ footage from my ‘often seen’ footage.

The highlight of the special features has to be the unfinished rehearsals, where you see footage from rehearsals that wasn’t included in the film. The stand-out section here is the rehearsal footage for Dirty Diana, where a huge bed had been created for Michael to perform on with a pole dancer. The bed included poles at each corner, and a roof structure, where we see the talented pole dancer swinging around and performing while the bed itself is encapsulated in fire.

This would have been one of Michael’s raunchiest stage routines.

Another interesting aspect of the special features concerns the search for his dancers, where a talent show similar to ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ is held, featuring dancers from all over the world flying in to win one of the 11 places on the crew. This would have made a great series in its own right, and features some very talented dancers.

There hasn’t been a DVD (or video) release of Michael’s that has given this much insight into his creative process as he was such a private man. This release gives you that tinge of sadness that the concerts never happened, but the feelings of joy experienced when watching it far outweigh any negatives.

This, as Michael said himself, is it.

With his death came the inevitable increase in sales for his music and DVDs as he topped the download charts with Man in the Mirror and his music videos were bought en masse once again, as though it were the mid eighties. The mid eighties was Michael’s peak, when the Bad album spawned five US number ones and the movie Moonwalker was released.

Moonwalker was a Michael Jackson extravaganza. A movie that featured documentary clips of Michael and the Jackson Five, some of Michael’s music videos and a short story about Michael saving the world from drug obsessed crime baron Mr Big (played by Joe Pesci).

Moonwalker starts with a live performance of the download number one single Man in the Mirror before going into the documentary montage that takes you through the early days of Michael’s career, from his debut, through his Grammys and through the many highs that he enjoyed.

The movie also features the music video for the bonus track featured on the Bad album CD version, Leave Me Alone, which perfectly sums up Michael’s career and his relationship with the media.

The actual plot of Moonwalker finally kicks in as Michael stumbles onto the evil plans of Mr Big, causing him to be a marked man. Michael is chased by Big’s troopers, only to transform into a high performance car (way before Michael Bay got his hands on Transformers) and speed off towards the 1930’s Chicago club for the famous Smooth Criminal music video. This is perhaps Michael’s greatest video and without doubt the highlight of the movie, as Michael makes his way through the club to the tunes of Smooth Criminal, dispatching bad guys as he goes.

The finale of the film sees Michael take on the whole of Big’s army, before Transforming again into a giant robot, and then a spaceship.

This movie comes from the genius mind of Michael Jackson. It may not flow as a normal, narrative driven, movie would, but this doesn’t disguise the brilliance of Moonwalker. It’s escapist, it’s imaginative, it’s pure Michael Jackson.

The only downside to this DVD release is that it doesn’t feature any special features, but Michael Jackson’s numerous other DVDs more than make up for that.

The film’s colourful opening credits sequence, with stylish photographs, was created by legendary fashion photographer Richard Avedon, the basis for the character of Dick Avery (Astaire). Maggie Prescott (Thompson) is the publisher and editor of Quality magazine. She is dissatisfied with its current look and is eager to create a new direction. At first, she decides that pink is it – cue a rousing musical number praising its virtues, complete with pink shampoo, toothpaste and so on.

Prescott enlists Avery’s help to find a model that will be the face of this new look. While setting up a photo shoot in a drab Greenwich Village bookstore, Avery and Prescott discover someone who will embody this new look: Jo Stockton (Hepburn), the mousy, plain Jane clerk of the store. She openly disdains the fashion world with its “silly dresses on silly women” and its “synthetic beauty.” Stockton dreams of going to Paris but doesn’t have the money so she decides to take the job. Avery mentors her and eventually transforms the young lady into a model, taking her to Paris.

Director Stanley Donen shows off Paris in Funny Face as Astaire and Hepburn sing and dance their way through famous historical landmarks like the Eiffel Tower. It is an engaging and deeply romantic view of the city filled with all kinds of energy as personified by Hepburn’s vibrant performance. No scene better captures her effortless vitality than the one where she “expresses” herself through an amusing avant garde dance routine at a hip, subterranean Parisian nightclub, clad in her iconic black outfit – a style that proved to be very influential among women for years afterward.

Hepburn originally studied to be a dancer and shows off some very impressive moves, easily holding her own with Astaire – no easy feat. With Funny Face, Donen celebrates and satirizes the fashion world. It’s a funny, entertaining film bursting with life as embodied by Hepburn’s vibrant performance.

Special Features:

“Kay Thompson: Think Pink!” is a profile of this larger-than-life person. She was a singer and author of the famous Eloise novels. The featurette traces the humble origins of this fascinating person and examines how she broke into show business. Thompson became a respected musical arranger and befriended Judy Garland. They developed a personal and professional relationship that lasted for years.

“This is Vistavision” takes a look at the emergence of widescreen cinema, which was a response to the popularity of television. Vistavision was Paramount’s version of widescreen cinema. This featurette explains how it works and its history with the studio.

“Fashion Photographers Exposed” examines the role of a fashion photographer and what makes a memorable shot. Several elements all contribute to the perfect photograph.

“The Fashion Designer and His Muse” examines the relationship between fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy and Hepburn which began with Sabrina (1954). She became his muse, felt “protected” and comfortable with his clothes.

“Parisian Dreams” takes a look at the role Paris as the setting for Funny Face. In many respects, the city is another character in the film that brings out the romanticism in others.

“Paramount in the ‘50s” features a look at some of the memorable films that the studio produced during this decade.

Also included is an original theatrical trailer.

Finally, there are “Galleries” for production photos, movie stills, and publicity shots.

Halloween Town is a magical place inhabited by vampires, witches, ghosts and skeletons hanging from talking trees where the Mayor (voiced by Shadix) gives the vampires an award for most blood drained in a single evening. Jack Skellington (voiced by Sarandon) is the Pumpkin King and is bored with the same old routine and “weary of the sound of screams.” Sally (voiced by O’Hara) is a Frankenstein-esque creation, a stitched together rag doll created by mad scientist Dr. Finkelstein (voiced by Hickey) who can scratch his own brain when he feels like it. She secretly pines for Jack.

Depressed and directionless, Jack wanders through the forest and finds a door leading to Christmas Town. He lands in a place covered in snow with Christmas lights hanging on every house. Jack is revitalized with this colourful new realm which is the complete opposite of the gloomy, dreary Halloween Town. Jack decides to introduce the spirit of Christmas to the denizens of Halloween Town. He also kidnaps Santa Claus and, with help from his friends, takes over his job on Christmas Eve. Sally believes that what Jack is doing is wrong and proceeds to restore order and rescue Santa from the evil ghost Oogie Boogie (voiced by Page).

All of these creatures are lovingly rendered with stop motion animation that evokes the old Rankin and Bass cartoons albeit with an Edward Gorey vibe. The animation in Nightmare Before Christmas is impressive with such care and attention to each and every character. They all have their own distinctive look and personality. There is a personal, handcrafted feel to everything that creates a tangible texture missing from completely computer animated films.

All of the songs in this musical are insanely catchy and part of the film’s enduring appeal. Danny Elfman is the mad genius behind the music which comes as no surprise being a veteran of numerous Tim Burton productions. Thanks to the film’s premise, Nightmare Before Christmas works for both Halloween or the Christmas season. It features a vibrant colour scheme and beautifully realized characters created by Burton, top notch direction by Henry Selick, and dialogue written by Caroline Thompson who wrote Edward Scissorhands (1990). This really deserves to be regarded as a modern classic and one of the best things to ever spring out of Burton’s brain.

Special Features:

So, if you already own the previous Special Edition is it worth double dipping for this new version and what is new? The good news is that with the exception of a DTS soundtrack and director Henry Selick’s solo commentary track, everything from the previous edition has been included in this one.

Disc one includes a new audio commentary by producer Tim Burton, director Henry Selick, and music designer Danny Elfman. They were recorded separately and then edited together. Burton talks about the classic animated holiday TV specials that made a huge impression on him. He was always intrigued by the visual combination of his two favourite holidays: Christmas and Halloween. Elfman claims that this is his favourite collaboration with Burton and talks about how he got involved. There is a significant amount of overlap from the numerous featurettes included on this set.

A new extra is “What’s This? Jack’s Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour,” which takes you through a haunted mansion ride based on the film. The attention to detail and decor is fantastic, done in Gothic fashion. You can also take the tour with a trivia subtitle track imparting all kinds of factoids. Also included is a featurette examining how they added the Nightmare Before Christmas style to the classic Haunted Mansion design.

Also new is “Tim Burton’s Original Poem,” narrated by none other than veteran genre actor Christopher Lee. This provided the original inspiration for the film. Lee’s great voice narrates over evocative concept art.

“The Making of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” takes us through various stages of the production, including the music, storyboards, art direction, and animation. It provides a detailed look at all of the work that went into creating the film and the challenges of stop motion animation.

The second disc starts off with “Frankenweenie,” a short film Burton directed in 1984. He offers a new introduction and mentions that work has begun on a feature-length stop motion animated film. Shot in gorgeous black and white, it’s about a young boy named Vincent (Barret Oliver) who decides to resurrect his dead dog Sparky a la Dr. Frankenstein. Shelley Duvall and Daniel Stern play his very Leave It To Beaver-esque parents. Also featured is the late-great Paul Bartel as Vincent’s science teacher.

“Vincent” is an animated short film that Burton made early in his career about a young boy who idolizes Vincent Price, who, incidentally, narrates the story. It has a wonderful, Expressionistic look reminiscent of early silent horror films.

Also included are three deleted storyboards and four animated sequences introduced by Selick. They feature sequences that didn’t make the final cut, some were never animated. Selick explains that they were cut for reasons of time and pacing.

“The World’s of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” explores the characters that inhabit Christmas Town, Halloween Town, and the Real World with all sorts of character designs, animation tests and concept art. It allows you to see the various incarnations of these beloved characters.

“Storyboards-to-Film Comparison” takes a look at a scene from the film and allows you to watch it simultaneously with the corresponding storyboards.

Finally, there are “Posters and Trailers,” a collection of poster art, a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer.

Riff Randell (Soles) is the ultimate Ramones fan. She’s introduced gleefully bypassing the school’s PA system so that she can blast “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” to the entire school population. The energetic song wakes up the students, shatters glass, and shakes tables and pictures right off the wall. The school erupts into complete anarchy and as the student body begins to spontaneous dance to the boisterous rock ‘n’ roll music.

Riff dreams of meeting the Ramones and giving them a song she wrote entitled, “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.” She even camps out for days to get tickets for their upcoming concert. But when Principal Togar (Woronov) takes her ticket away, Riff and her best friend, Kate Rambeau (Young) have to find another way to meet their heroes.

The movie does a great job of playfully championing the Ramones as rock gods and yet shows them being accessible to their fans. The band first appears in a car driving down the street on the way to their venue as they play “I Just Wanna Have Something To Do.” Once outside the club, they get out of the car and interact with the crowd of ticket buyers. The editing, coupled with the insanely catchy song gives the scene an infectious energy.

From B-movie veterans like Paul (Eating Raoul) Bartel and Mary (Death Race 2000) Woronov to newcomers (at the time), P.J. (Halloween) Soles and Dey (Strange Invaders) Young, the entire cast has a lot of fun spouting the film’s wonderfully inspired cornball dialogue (“If you don’t like it, you can put it where you the monkey puts the nuts.”). The Ramones are good sports and mumble their way through the film and truly coming alive during the music sequences. The movie rightfully cements their reputation as legends. Rock ‘n’ Roll High School embodies the essence of the punk rock music that made the Ramones famous. The film is bursting with youthful energy, a dose of good ol’ fashion anarchy and is loads of fun to watch. These are also the ingredients that made Rock ‘n’ Roll High School a cult film. It was a commercial and critical failure upon its initial release but repeated midnight screenings, coupled with steady appearances on TV, have helped the film endure over the years.

While Rock ‘n’ Roll High School will appeal predominantly to fans of the Ramones (duh!), it is also one of those fun, goofy movies to invite friends over and watch with copious amounts of junk food on hand. Despite a lackluster transfer, the audio commentary and audio outtakes are worth the price of purchase for this fantastic cinematic oddity.

Special Features:

Producer Michael Finnell, screenwriter Richard Whitley and director Alan Arkush deliver an engaging and rather chatty audio commentary. The three men laugh and joke about working on Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. They clearly have fond memories of their experiences on the movie. They talk about its long history: how it was originally called Girls Gym, then changed to Disco High by Roger Corman, who wanted to capitalize on the disco craze, and finally they settled on Rock ‘n’ Roll High School after Arkush convinced Corman that the Ramones were the perfect band for the movie. Fans of the film will find a lot of great anecdotal information on this track and the casual tone makes one feel like they are sitting with the filmmakers watching the movie over snacks and drinks.

Also included is a dynamic theatrical trailer that gives away the ending! Definitely watch this last if you haven’t seen the movie. Leonard Maltin interviews Roger Corman about the movie. To his credit, the veteran filmmaker admits that he was wrong about the Disco High idea and was glad that Arkush convinced him to go with Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.

There are also two 30 second radio spots over a slide show of stills from the movie.

A real treat for fans of the Ramones are several audio outtakes during the filming of the concert sequence. These are the original audio tracks of the band in action.