The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Directors:

Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger

Writers:

Dennis Arundell (English libretto)
Jules Barbier (from the French text by)
(more)

Release Date:

13 June 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Romance | Fantasy | Music

Tagline:

You Will Never See Anything Finer On The Screen!

Plot:

This a film version of the opera "The Tales of Hoffmann", however it is NOT just a film of a staged performance...

Plot Keywords:

Opera | Ballet | Quack Doctor | Filmed Opera | Fake Doctor

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Moira Shearer	...	Stella / Olympia
Ludmilla Tchérina	...	Giulietta
Anne Ayars	...	Antonia
Pamela Brown	...	Nicklaus
Léonide Massine	...	Spalanzani / Schlemil / Franz
Robert Helpmann	...	Lindorf / Coppelius / Dapertutto / Dr Miracle
Frederick Ashton	...	Kleinsach / Cochenille
Mogens Wieth	...	Crespel
Robert Rounseville	...	Hoffmann
Lionel Harris	...	Pitichinaccio
Philip Leaver	...	Andreas (Prologue and Epilogue)
Meinhart Maur	...	Luther
Edmond Audran	...	Partner to Stella in Dragonfly ballet
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Ford	...	Nathaniel (Prologue and Epilogue)
Richard Golding	...	Hermann (Prologue and Epilogue)
Alan Carter	...	Casher (Act 1) (uncredited)
Arthur Skinner	...	Man in background (uncredited)

Directed by
Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger

Writing credits
Dennis Arundell		(English libretto)
Jules Barbier		(from the French text by)
Michael Powell		(written by) and
Emeric Pressburger		(written by)
E.T.A. Hoffmann		(stories) uncredited
Michel Carré		French text (uncredited)

Produced by
George R. Busby	....	assistant producer (as George Busby)
Michael Powell	....	producer
Emeric Pressburger	....	producer

Cinematography by
Christopher Challis

Film Editing by
Reginald Mills

Production Design by
Hein Heckroth

Art Direction by
Arthur Lawson

Costume Design by
Ivy Baker
Hein Heckroth

Makeup Department
Connie Reeve	....	makeup artist (as Constance Reeve)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sydney Streeter	....	assistant director

Art Department
Ivor Beddoes	....	assistant designer
E. Lindegaard	....	scenic artist
Terence Morgan II	....	assistant designer
Bernard Sarron	....	set dresser

Sound Department
John Cox	....	sound
Ted Drake	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Freddie Francis	....	camera operator (as Fred Francis)
Bill Wall	....	chief electrician (as W. Wall)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Ivy Baker	....	wardrobe
Josephine Boss	....	costumes: For Miss Shearer and Miss Ayers executed by
June Kirby	....	puppet costumes (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Noreen Ackland	....	assembly editor

Music Department
Joan Alexander	....	Antonia's Mother: singing voice
Thomas Beecham	....	conductor (as Sir Thomas Beecham Bart.)
Dorothy Bond	....	Olympia: singing voice
Owen Brannigan	....	Hermann/ Schlemil / Crespel (singing voice )
Grahame Clifford	....	Spalanzani/Franz: singing voice
Bruce Dargavel	....	Coppelius/ Dapertutto/ Dr. Miracle: singing voice
Murray Dickie	....	Cochenille/ Nathaniel: singing voice
Margherita Grandi	....	Giuletta: singing voice
Frederick Lewis	....	assistant musical director
Fisher Morgan	....	Luther: singing voice
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	....	orchestra
Monica Sinclair	....	Nicklaus: singing voice
Rene Soames	....	Pitichinnacio: singing voice
Kenneth V. Jones	....	music coach (uncredited)

Other crew
Frederick Ashton	....	choreographer
Joan Bridge	....	technicolor colour consultant
Alan Carter	....	assistant choreographer
Pamela Davies	....	continuity
Joan Harris	....	assistant choreographer
Molly Terraine	....	dialogue coach
John Wright	....	marionettes (as John Wright's Marionettes)

Production Companies

• Archers, The
• Vega Film Productions (uncredited)

Distributors

• British Lion Film Corporation (1951) (UK) (theatrical)
• Lopert Pictures Corporation (1952) (USA) (theatrical)
• Cinédis (1951) (France) (theatrical)
• Filmsonor (1951) (France) (theatrical)
• Cable Hogue Co. (2001) (Japan) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (USA) (laserdisc)
• Home Vision Cinema (1993) (USA) (VHS)
• Kinokuniya (2003) (Japan) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• Pioneer Artists (USA) (VHS)
• VTI Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Royal Ballet, The  by permission of: Moira Shearer (as the Covent Garden Opera Trust)
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The  orchestra
• Western Electric Recording  sound recording
• John Wright's Marionettes  marionettes

Also Known As:

Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

Japan:124 min | UK:138 min (reduced to 128 mins before release) | USA:128 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | West Germany:12 (w)

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Archers, The

Trivia:

Michael Powell began the project after hearing Thomas Beecham playing the score on piano and singing all of the parts.

Quotes:

Chorus of Students: Some drink, drink, drink, drink, drink: do you hear us about? You lazy lout! We want some beer; we want some wine! Pour out the wine, and drink and drink till morning. Pour out the wine for drinking is divine. It is divine. We want some beer; we want some wine. We want some beer; we want some wine.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Dead Will Walk (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, A Fantastic Opera

Stage Beauty

This is not your usual movie experience. It matters, so prepare your day accordingly.

Its not as miraculous as "Red Shoes." But it is bigger. It is folded like Shoes, but less delicately. In the case of the previous project, the story was about a performer, who glided in and out of the movie and the movie within, the two overlapping magically.

Here we have the same dancer, the marvelous, redheaded Moira Shearer. And her dance merges with the movie, but the movie is a heavier construction:

It is a movie of an opera of a ballet performance wherein we embed three stories. The stories themselves fold into each other, each a story of Hoffman in love with a woman manipulated by an evil man-spirit. He's the same man in each case, of course. In each of the four cases (the three stories and the outside of the ballet), he prevents the lovers from uniting.

These guys Powell and Pressburger, don't know much about the immediacy of storytelling. They don't know long form pacing. They don't know deep emotional engagement. But they sure know how to stage some of the most marvelous effects and build to them. They know something about photographing dance and what balance means to a camera. And they are perhaps the masters at cinematic folding: the ways of visually ambiguating the play and the audience.

I may put this on my list of films you must see before you die. We'll see how I feel about it in a month, if I still am affected in my dreams.

One thing that enhances this: Hoffmann is in love with Moira's Ballet character, someone he says embodies all three of his previous, lost loves, the first of which is also Moira. She's redhead. The director's love is also a redhead, one Pamela Brown who plays Hoffmann's (male) attendant. He remained devoted to her for the 25 years until her death. His attentiveness to her, hers to Hoffmann, and Hoffmann's to Moira's character is a sort of circle. Its ironic then that Moira's participation in Powell's two ballet movies ruined her career.

I saw this together with "Nightdreams," a porn film from the early eighties. It was episodic like this, worked with women stereotypes like this in a context of extreme fantasy and demons, and helplessness. Same sort of notion: story, tension, attraction, obsession. A different class in terms of skill of course and cinematic breadth, and the story here is more genteel in term of genitals. But a disquieting similarity.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.