Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s dance classic The Red Shoes (1948) feverishly explores the demands of art at the expense of personal life. “Why do you want to dance?” an imperious artistic director asks aspiring ballerina Moira Shearer, who can only answer with another question: “Why do you want to live?” This ravishing new 35mm Technicolor restoration will be introduced by Powell’s widow, the Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker. The delirious spectacle culminates in the 17-minute dance of the title, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s morbid tale of ballet slippers that drive the wearer to dance to her death. Dance, girl, dance! At 21, Shearer’s auspicious bow in the seventh art became ballet’s most memorable depiction in film. (The movie then moves to Northwest Film Forum, running Fri-Thurs.) MELISSA ANDERSON

Wed., Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 12-18, 7 p.m., 2010