| 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) | |
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| Full cast and crew | Company credits | External reviews |
| IMDb Adventure section | IMDb UK section | Add this title to MyMovies |
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.