Drama · Romance
British
1948 · Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger · 133 min
A young dancer and a young composer join a famous ballet company run by an imperious impresario who believes art demands total devotion. Shot in saturated Technicolor, this backstage drama builds towards a long ballet sequence that blurs stage and imagination.
Why it matters in cinema history
A defining film of postwar British cinema and of the Powell and Pressburger partnership, it set the template for the dance film and for the cinema of artistic obsession.
Watch with intention
Watch it as a film about the cost of devotion to art, told through colour and music as much as through dialogue.
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