grandisdavid

I have a lot of admiration for Michael Powell and being a conductor, I wanted very much to see his Tales of Hoffmann. I've rarely been so disappointed! -If you are a film director student or a fan of old movies, I highly recommend you to watch his other movies such as "a Matter of Life and Death"/"Stairway to Heaven", "A Canterbury Tale", "Black Narcissus" or "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp". This one would only disappoint your sophisticated taste because it is utterly out of fashion and not even revolutionary for its time.

-If you are an opera buff like me, you'll hate it for several reasons: Offenbach's score has always been a problem in terms of musical accuracy and legitimacy. Some conductors have edited the manuscript (fully discovered only recently after decades of persevering research from many musicologists), some have added material composed by themselves or by others. This version is just ludicrous, it is completely manipulated and arranged for a cinema version. BUT that is not the worst: Sir Thomas Beecham's conducting is a heavy bore in many parts (dreadful overture for example). The singing is in English and not in french! Although, it was the fashion in those times to sing operas in the language of the country where it was performed and not in the original language: total heresy! At last, the voices are terrible: the tenor is way too light for Hoffmann and could never sing such a demanding role on stage, Giulietta is often flat, Antonia has the voice of a goat, and Olympia should rather sing the soundtrack of Snow White.

-If you don't know opera and want to discover this beautiful work, please avoid this! It won't make you appreciate it, it doesn't even remotely give justice to Offenbach's masterpiece. I can't recommend any version in particular as there are never flawless (wait for mine:)but the Brian Large's with Domingo will be more likely to make you love the music.

My poor fellow American friends! I would have loved to see a great movie about this captivating part of french history, unfortunately, the taste of the director, who I suspect, succeeded in the career thanks to her last name, is absolutely grotesque, ludicrous and so far from the historical truth. It is one thing to try to make art movies with random subjects of modern life, but it becomes extremely more hazardous with historical movies. In that case, the director must seek counsel from a major historian (and no need for a french one, I'm sure Harvard, Princeton or Yale are full of amazing teachers more than willing to help!). So, this could be fun if it was a parody, or a teenage movie, or even a cinema version of Saved By The Bell, but we are legitimately waiting for something more convincing or more accurate considering the topic. We are very far from the taste of, let's say, Kubrick in Barry Lyndon, and I see no genius in her direction, so what is the point to waste time watching this?

Last of all, the rock soundtrack on 18th century french history is less than a poor choice, it is idiotic. Please, if you still really want to see it, don't watch this movie in order to learn more about Louis XVIth and Marie-Antoinette, you have unfortunately no other choice than to read a good book about it as no movie has treated the subject really convincingly.

My title concerns rather the younger generation, too absorbed in watching "Sin City" and other dismaying commercial and violent flick to give a chance to anything in black&white.

Although, Brief Encounter has a stunning cinematography: the shots of the trains and the steam from the engines in the station, and the very inspired and very modern direction of Lean, considering the date (1946): particularly the close shot of Mrs Messiter when she never stops speaking, or the camera leaning slowly on the side as an effect of collapse to reinforce the drama when Laura feels overwhelmed by Alec's departure. Amazing.

The soundtrack is using the gorgeous second concerto of Rachmaninov. Some critics may say that the over use of music hides the imperfections of a script or a direction: it may be true most of the time but not here. The film is an excellent example of a 20th century Romantic love story (Romantic with capital R as the movement of the 19th century). Thus, it may appear a little outdated here, as most of people may unfortunately not make such a big deal about cheating relationships nowadays. However the guilt still exists and the movie strikes a very modern chord in this point of view.

The acting is excellent and I recommend the movie to anybody interested in the art of cinema. This is a much better love story than the later "Summertime" also by David Lean, with Katharine Hepburn (this one, extremely out of date).