MovieChat Forums > The Red Shoes (1948) Discussion > Whip pan transition

Whip pan transition

posted 8 years ago by MichaelJacksonPollock
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As has been reported many times now, Martin Scorsese has cited The Red Shoes as one of his favourite films and major influences. Keeping that in mind while watching the film, I noticed that there are at least two whip pan transitions in The Red Shoes, both of them transitioning from the face of Moira Shearer standing on a theatre stage, to a train station platform with stacked crates labelled "Lermontov".

Now we all know those whip pan transitions are a personal favourite of Scorsese who can use up to half a dozen in s single sequence (especially in his canonical gangster films like Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed and The Wolf of Wall-Street).

Scorsese has replicated shots and camera movements from The Red Shoes in several of his films (the spiral staircase scene in Shutter Island, etc.), but has he ever been vocal about his quasi-obsession with whip pan transitions emanating from this Powell & Pressburger film?

Also, does anyone know what would be the first instance of a whip pan transition in a film?

[–] Steve Crook 8 years ago

Surely the best one is when Vicky (Moira Shearer) is dancing at the Mercury Theatre in London. The whip pans as she pirouettes focussing on the audience

Scorsese often refers to Powell & Pressburger films in his own films. He never just copies, but as Thelma Schoonmaker said in a lecture at Canterbury, the P&P films are in Scorsese's mind when he designing his own films

See the first entry in the "Famous fans of Powell and Pressburger" article at http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Famous.html

Steve

[–] MichaelJacksonPollock 8 years ago

Thanks for the link. Mighty interesting.

I missed the whip pan you mentioned on first viewing.

Now I dare anyone to produce a list of the directors that were NOT influenced by the Archers...

Nice Archers avatar by the way.