The Tales of Hoffmann

What a splendid film is this combination of opera and ballet for those partial to this type of fare. The performance of Robert Helpmann in four roles is exceptional and dancer Leonid Massine makes a chilling villain as Schlemil in the utterly fantastic "Tale of Giuletta". Ludmilla Tcherina as Giuletta is an alluring sex-goddess and enslaver of men. I am totally absorbed whenever I watch this episode. Having said all this, I must also say that the "Tale of Antonia" is a severe letdown after the two preceding episodes. It is not just the film version that is bad -- it was actually a letdown the first time I saw the opera live at the old Metropolitan Opera 45 years ago. Actually, there have been suggestions that the "Antonia" episode be moved from last to first episode sequentially in the opera, however I doubt if this would make a significant improvement. If I am correct, the "Antonia" episode was completed by another composer, Offenbach having died before completing Tales of Hoffmann. Ahhh...that hauntingly beautiful "Barcarolle"....nothing can compare to it!! And the film version is just icing on the cake.

Certainly THE TALES OF HOFFMANN is not a film for everyone. It's done as pure opera with singing throughout and performed as a ballet with lavish set designs and breathtaking use of Technicolor. It won Oscar nominations for Set Decoration and Color and is produced in the tasteful style of all Powell and Pressburger films.

But the drawback is that only the tale of Olympia, the mechanical doll, and the ill-fated love affair with the young Hoffmann (played in all three segments by tenor Robert Rounseville) is up to the top standards the film strives to achieve. The other tales of Hoffmann's follies are less interesting, not as easy to understand and not as entertaining or melodious as the Olympia segment.

The final tale of Antonia suffers from the high notes forced upon screeching soprano (Anne Ayars) and the demands of the score which is clearly more tedious than melodious at this point.

Robert Helpmann as the villain in all three tales is excellent and Robert Rounseville as Hoffmann is the only cast member who does his own singing in a strong tenor voice. You may remember him as Mr. Snow in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel" with Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones.

But there's no denying the magic of all the visual images on screen which includes the use of puppets and a good mixture of cinema and stage techniques. Opera lovers will find fault with some of the singers but it's hard to see any fault in the dancing which looked magnificent to me.

None of the stories are as involving as "The Red Shoes" and this is one of the weaknesses of the film. The first story is far better than the rest of the tales which makes for an uneven blend of storytelling.

A brilliant use of color and classical music makes it a "must see" for most film buffs.

I was privy to two views of Powell and Pressburger's THE TALES OF HOFFMAN before watching it: filmmaker Martin Scorsese's passion for the film, stemming from childhood, and critic Imogen Sara Smith's confession that she found the movie "airless." Most viewers seem to agree with Scorsese. There is no doubt that the visuals are imaginative and gorgeous: if you loved the ballet sequence of THE RED SHOES, then this gives you two hours' worth of that same expressionistic sublimity.

However, unlike THE RED SHOES, HOFMMAN is a much colder experience. For a film about the joys and sufferings of love and desire, the whole thing is quite remote, never reaching the emotional depth of other Powell and Pressburger films. The whole thing feels overlong and if you aren't an opera fan, you aren't likely to take to the music either.

The three sequences which make up the runtime are uneven: the Olympia story is whimsical and fun though a touch overlong; the Giuletta sequence is gothic and well-paced; the Antonia sequence is just about the worst. Olympia and Giuletta benefit from having charismatic performers at their center in Moira Shearer and Ludmilla Tcherina, but Ann Ayars lacks any real personality as the dying songstress, making the last section such a drag to sit through.

By the time the film came to its close, I was more than ready for it to be done with. No doubt, a lot went into the sets, costumes, special effects, and camera work. I must also give a shout-out to Robert Rounseville as Hoffman: he carries himself well throughout the long running time. But I'm sorry to be the naysayer: when a movie is over two hours long, I need more than gorgeous visuals to see me through it.

I'm not a fan of ballet but I've always loved Powell and Pressburger's THE RED SHOES (1948); so, naturally, I've been looking forward to this one ever since it was first announced - years ago - as a Criterion release! However, THE TALES OF HOFFMANN features the added element of opera; indeed, the entire film is sung!

On first viewing, my reaction to it was mixed: it's impossible not to be impressed by the visuals (particularly the stylization of Hein Heckroth's colorful and imaginative designs) but, since I'm no expert in classical music, I wasn't bowled over by Jacques Offenbach's score (apart from the celebrated "Barcarolle" piece) - especially since the lyrics, despite being an English translation, aren't easily followed! However, listening to it with the Audio Commentary, I could better appreciate the way it was made and the special effects that were adopted; especially interesting was the fact that it was filmed silent, thus allowing freer camera movement. The main cast, apart from Pamela Brown, is made up of ballet performers and opera singers - with the former, mostly recruits from THE RED SHOES, carrying the more compelling screen presence.

The framing story - featuring an additional ballet composed by the film's conductor Sir Thomas Beecham - is a bit short, so that we mostly learn about the characters played by Robert Rounseville (as Hoffmann) and Robert Helpmann through their various guises in the former's three tales (which are themselves variable in quality):

i) the "Olympia" sequence, highlighting Moira Shearer and Leonide Massine, is overlong but quite charming; Helpmann's distinctive features are rather buried under some quaint make-up - though his violent destruction of Shearer (who plays a doll) makes for a quite unsettling moment!

ii) "Giulietta" is the best and most interesting sequence, but also the shortest: Ludmilla Tcherina is a very sensuous heroine, while Helpmann and Massine are wonderful (and wonderfully made up) as respectively an evil magician and a (literally) soulless officer under both their spell; this sequence features some incredible imagery - like Tcherina's reflection in water picking up the aria she is singing, her walking over sculptures of dead bodies, Rounseville and Massine's saber duel set to music (i.e. presented without any sound effects) and the scene in which Rounseville loses his reflection when tempted in front of a mirror by Tcherina

iii) the "Antonia" sequence is again too long (it was severely cut in the original U.S. theatrical release) and, because it's mostly straight opera, emerges as the most labored segment: Massine is pretty much wasted here, while Ann Ayars is nowhere near as captivating as Shearer or Tcherina; however, Helpmann's belated entrance as the satanic Dr. Miracle takes the sequence to another level, and especially memorable here is the scene where Ayars exits a room only to re-enter it from another door (which must have inspired a similar incident in Mario Bava's KILL, BABY, KILL! [1966]) and the one where Ayars and Helpmann's dancing figures are divided into four to fill up the entire screen - with the latter taking each of his guises in the different segments and, likewise, the former being replaced with the heroines of each tale (Moira Shearer appears twice here as she also plays Stella, Hoffmann's love interest in the framing story!)

The Archers' films are among my favorites - though I was somewhat underwhelmed by I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! (1945; I still haven't purchased the Criterion SE), THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE (1956; amazingly, both of my two attempts to view it in the past have only managed to put me to sleep!) and, now, THE TALES OF HOFFMANN. I've yet to watch 4 of their collaborations - CONTRABAND (1940; I've been tempted, time and again, to buy Kino's bare-bones DVD but the over-inflated price always got in the way!), THE ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL (1950), GONE TO EARTH (1950; this troubled production isn't likely to see the light of day on R1 DVD anytime soon, but is at least available via a budget-priced R2 edition), and their last 'musical' together OH, ROSALINDA! (1955). I would also like to watch Powell's solo films HONEYMOON (1959) and BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE (1964), which are yet two more musically-oriented ventures.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger filmed the opera "Tales of Hoffmann" in 1951, to stunning effect. Offenbach's opera is the story of three loves of the poet Hoffmann (Robert Rounsville) and epitomizes the struggle between art and love, as he is transformed as a poet by each failed romance.

The story begins in Nuremberg as Hoffmann watches the object of his affections, Stella (Moira Shearer) dance a ballet. During the intermission, he goes into a tavern and tells the customers about his three major affairs.

Opera singers, with two exceptions, dub the stars, who are mostly from the ballet world; several will be familiar from The Red Shoes: Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tcherina, Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine, and Frederick Ashton. Only Hoffmann, Robert Rounsville, and Antonia, Anne Ayars, do their own singing. The rest of the vocals are provided by Dorothy Bond, Margherita Grandi, Monica Sinclair, Joan Alexander, Grahame Clifford, Bruce Dargavel, Murray Dickie, Owen Brannigan, Fisher Morgan, and Rene Soames.

Both the singing and dancing are absolutely magnificent, the beautiful Shearer dancing much better than she did in The Red Shoes several years earlier, and Powell and Pressburger fill the opera with fantastic effects and colors. My favorite is Shearer's doll ballet sequence, with the glorious coloratura singing of the Doll Aria by Dorothy Bond, a discovery of Sir Thomas Beecham, who conducts the orchestra. Tragically she was killed in a car accident the next year; she deserved to be one of the most famous sopranos who ever lived.

There are a couple of problems with this incredible piece. It's done in English, which due to the tamber of the high soprano voice, can make it difficult to understand. So people who know the opera would probably enjoy it the most. Secondly, it's not paced very well - there are some very draggy sections; some of the chorus work could have been cut.

The overall effect for the eyes and ears is fabulous, but "The Tales of Hoffmann" leaves one depressed for how far we've fallen culturally in this world. Imagine mounting this film today. How many people would attend? Five?