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SHE DANCED TO ROZSA'S (AND RAKHMANINOV'S) MUSIC...
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Re: SHE DANCED TO ROZSA'S (AND RAKHMANINOV'S) MUSIC...
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William D McCrum
The Daemon Svengali
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Feb 2 06 7:14 PM
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I'm probably in danger of being typecast as the 'myth' guy on this board, but this movie, like much of the early Powell/Pressburger relates to MERCURY/HERMES and the daemonic driving force between artists and the world or between this world and the next, or even the different layers of the human psyche ('Matter of Life and Death' links the latter two conflicts in one great multi-layered screeplay.) The thing after all is based on one of old Hans Christian's fairytales. Whether it's the cheeky immoral but good thief Abu, the French aristocrat psychopomp who is 'starved of techicolour up there' or the Svengali demon Mercurius of the 'Red Shoes' there's always a devilish Hermes to brighten up these films. Think of Niven's Pimpernel with many guises, always laughing, always dangerous, always with charm.
Powell and Pressburger seem to have understood the female psyche particularly well ... the lady is torn between her two 'animus' figures and is destroyed by the imbalance. I think Sylvia Plath would've benefited from this tale, had it sunk in. The moral is that whoever REALLY toys with the gods internally has to know when to stop ... to NOT leap off the temple roof or turn stones to bread. There's a hint in the article that Miss Shearer's choice to marry Ludovic Kennedy rather than go to the US was such a dilemma. Probably not. Kennedy has been a great journalist in his time, particularly with regard to re-opening miscarriages of justice. (Recently he's been sidetracked into very vocal campaigning for legalised euthanasia). But the dancer who's possessed needs to know how and when to switch off the demons or contain the energies. Nowadays in cinema particularly, I reckon it's rare enough to find artists who can even switch them ON!
The story isn't 'elitist' as stated though: in fact it's a warning against being possessed and used by the archetypal forces that rush through people irrespective of the personal consequences. The Svengali is the elitist and the whole point of the film is NOT to get caught in that. It's a morality tale, true enough.
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SHE DANCED TO ROZSA'S (AND RAKHMANINOV'S) MUSIC...
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