When I'm reading or writing or doing chores at home, I like to have something playing in the background, which often means that I'll watch a movie with the sound turned down. I'm also lazy, which means that I'll usually just play whatever is in the DVD player. As a result, I sometimes watch the same movie five or six times over the course of a week—although my mind is usually elsewhere, of course. Scarface was the movie of choice over the weekend, but at some point I got tired of it, and switched to a reliable standby, The Red Shoes.

Regular readers of this blog know that I've watched The Red Shoes more than a few times. In fact, it may currently hold the record for the movie I've watched the most (although I suspect that Blue Velvet may still be the champion). I'm still firmly convinced, as I was earlier this year, that it's the best movie ever made, and it's so rich in incident and detail that I always notice something new whenever I watch it. (You could easily spend the entire movie just watching what's happening in the background.) However, at some point this week, I realized something that left me flabbergasted. Are you ready for it? You sure?

The dancing in this movie is amazing.

This is arguably the dumbest thing I've ever blogged. Of course the dancing in The Red Shoes is amazing. But for some reason, I've always been drawn to other things—the story, the acting, the incredible visual imagination—and never really thought about the dancing itself. Now, watching it with the sound off, I finally understand. It's like watching Casablanca as a thriller, and then suddenly discovering the love story. Watching Moira Shearer pirouette and seeing it, really seeing it, makes the entire movie more meaningful. How could anyone not fall in love with this woman?