The Tales of Hoffmann

Plot synopsis:
=== Prologue ===
A tavern in Nuremberg. The Muse appears and reveals to the audience that her purpose is to draw Hoffmann's attention to herself, and to make him abjure all other loves, so he can be devoted fully to her: poetry. She takes the appearance of Hoffmann's closest friend, Nicklausse. The prima donna Stella, currently performing Mozart's Don Giovanni, sends a letter to Hoffmann, requesting a meeting in her dressing room after the performance. The letter and the key to the room are intercepted by Councillor Lindorf ("Dans les rôles d'amoureux langoureux" – In the languid lovers' roles), who is the first of the opera's incarnations of evil, Hoffmann's nemesis. Lindorf intends to replace Hoffmann at the rendezvous. In the tavern students wait for Hoffmann. He finally arrives and entertains them with the legend of Zaches the dwarf ("Il était une fois à la cour d'Eisenach" – Once upon a time at the court of Eisenach). Lindorf coaxes Hoffmann into telling the audience about his life's three great loves.
=== Act 1 (Olympia) ===
This act is based on a portion of "Der Sandmann" (The Sandman).
Hoffmann's first love is Olympia, an automaton created by the scientist Spalanzani. Hoffmann falls in love with her, not knowing that Olympia is a mechanical doll ("Allons! Courage et confiance...Ah! vivre deux!" – Come on! Courage and confidence ... Ah! to live!). To warn Hoffmann, Nicklausse, who knows the truth about Olympia, sings a story of a mechanical doll who looked like a human, but Hoffmann ignores him ("Une poupée aux yeux d'émail" – A doll with enamel eyes). Coppélius, Olympia's co-creator and this act's incarnation of Nemesis, sells Hoffmann magic glasses that make Olympia appear as a real woman ("J'ai des yeux" – I have eyes).
Olympia sings one of the opera's most famous arias, "Les oiseaux dans la charmille" (The birds in the arbor, nicknamed "The Doll Song"), during which she periodically runs down and needs to be wound up before she can continue. Hoffmann is tricked into believing that his affections are returned, to the bemusement of Nicklausse, who subtly tries to warn his friend ("Voyez-la sous son éventail" – See her under her fan). While dancing with Olympia, Hoffmann falls on the ground and his glasses break. At the same time, Coppélius appears and tears Olympia apart to retaliate against Spalanzani, who tricked him out of his fees. With the crowd laughing at him, Hoffmann realizes that he was in love with an automaton.
=== Act 2 (Antonia) ===
This act is based on "Rath Krespel".
After a long search, Hoffmann finds the house where Crespel and his daughter Antonia are hiding. Hoffmann and Antonia loved each other, but were separated when Crespel decided to hide his daughter from Hoffmann. Antonia has inherited her mother's talent for singing, but her father forbids her to sing because of the mysterious illness from which she suffers. Antonia wishes that her lover would return to her ("Elle a fui, la tourterelle" – "She fled, the dove"). Her father also forbids her to see Hoffmann, who encourages Antonia in her musical career, and therefore endangers her without knowing it. Crespel tells Frantz, his servant, to stay with his daughter, and when Crespel leaves, Frantz sings "Jour et nuit je me mets en quatre" – "Day and night I quarter my mind."
When Crespel leaves his house, Hoffmann takes advantage of the occasion to sneak in, and the lovers are reunited (love duet: "C'est une chanson d'amour" – "It's a love song"). When Crespel returns, he receives a visit from Dr Miracle, the act's Nemesis, who forces Crespel to let him heal Antonia. Still in the house, Hoffmann listens to the conversation and learns that Antonia may die if she sings too much. He returns to her room and makes her promise to give up her artistic dreams. Antonia reluctantly accepts her lover's will. Once she is alone, Dr Miracle enters Antonia's room and tries to persuade her to sing and follow her mother's path to glory, stating that Hoffmann is sacrificing her to his brutishness and loves her only for her beauty. With mystic powers, he raises a vision of Antonia's dead mother and induces Antonia to sing, causing her death. Crespel arrives just in time to witness his daughter's last breath. Hoffmann enters the room and Crespel wants to kill him, thinking that he is responsible for his daughter's death. Nicklausse saves his friend from the old man's vengeance.
=== Act 3 (Giulietta) ===
This act is very loosely based on Die Abenteuer der Silvester-Nacht (A New Year's Eve Adventure).
Venice. The act opens with the barcarolle "Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour" – "Beautiful night, oh night of love". Hoffmann falls in love with the courtesan Giulietta and thinks she returns his affections ("Amis, l'amour tendre et rêveur" – "Friends, tender and dreamy love"). Giulietta is not in love with Hoffmann but only seducing him under the orders of Captain Dapertutto, who has promised to give her a diamond if she steals Hoffmann's reflection from a mirror ("Scintille, diamant" – "Sparkle, diamond"). The jealous Schlemil (cf. Peter Schlemihl for a literary antecedent), a previous victim of Giulietta and Dapertutto (he gave Giulietta his shadow), challenges the poet to a duel, but is killed. Nicklausse wants to take Hoffmann away from Venice and goes looking for horses. Meanwhile, Hoffmann meets Giulietta and cannot resist her ("O Dieu! de quelle ivresse" – "O God! of what intoxication"): he gives her his reflection, only to be abandoned by the courtesan, to Dapertutto's great pleasure. Hoffmann tells Dapertutto that his friend Nicklausse will come and save him. Dapertutto prepares a poison to get rid of Nicklausse, but Giulietta drinks it by mistake and drops dead in the poet's arms.
=== Epilogue ===
The tavern in Nuremberg. Hoffmann, drunk, swears he will never love again, and explains that Olympia, Antonia, and Giulietta are three facets of the same person, Stella. They represent, respectively, the young girl's, the musician's, and the courtesan's side of the prima donna. When Hoffmann says he doesn't want to love any more, Nicklausse reveals himself as the Muse and reclaims Hoffmann: "Be reborn a poet! I love you, Hoffmann! Be mine!" – "Renaîtra un poète! Je t'aime, Hoffmann! Sois à moi!" The magic of poetry reaches Hoffmann as he sings "O Dieu! de quelle ivresse – "O God! of what intoxication" once more, ending with "Muse whom I love, I am yours!" – "Muse que j'aime, je suis à toi!" At this moment, Stella, who is tired of waiting for Hoffmann to come to her rendezvous, enters the tavern and finds him drunk. The poet tells her to leave ("Farewell, I will not follow you, phantom, spectre of the past" – "Adieu, je ne vais pas vous suivre, fantôme, spectre du passé"), and Lindorf, who was waiting in the shadows, comes forth. Nicklausse explains to Stella that Hoffmann does not love her any more, but that Councillor Lindorf is waiting for her. Some students enter the room for more drinking, while Stella and Lindorf leave together.

Tags: psychedelic, romantic

Review:
Often mentioned as a favourite movie and constant inspiration for young Martin Scorsese.With the audacity that Powell & Pressburger were famous for we are presented with a wonderful performance of a truly "composed" film.
All the soundtrack was recorded by Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and then the filming was all done on the open stage (it didn't need a sound stage) at Shepperton.With choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton and performances by ballet luminaries such as Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tch&eacute;rina, Robert Helpmann, L&eacute;onide Massine and Sir Frederick Ashton himself.
TALES OF Hoffman  Powell & Pressburger This colorful film adaptation of an by Offenbach is a musical in the truest sense, meaning every bit of narrative and dialog is put forth by means of song.
You also have the concept of the same actor returning to play different parts in the various episodes of Hoffman's life, the most notable of which is Robert Helpmann who portrays the sinister element in all the episodes (and with his vampiric menacing look, does a terrific job of it, although his motive for evil in the Antonia episode goes unexplained).The fantastic elements of the plot, color-drenched distinctive look, intricate balletic choreography and excellent fit of all the actors in their roles make Tales of Hoffman a very interesting watching experience on the whole.One of my caveats with the film is that Hoffman's companion Nicklaus is never properly explained.
"The Tales of Hoffmann" (1951) - a beautifully photographed film version of Jacques Offenbach's opera, his final masterpiece is a magic (and there is no other word to describe it) blend of Adventure / Romance / Fantasy / with an endless stream of gorgeous melodies, seductive and tender love scenes, bizarre characters - comic, romantic or villainous, and tragic climaxes.
The film was a follow-up to "The Red Shoes" (1948) a fantasy/musical/romance/drama set in the world of ballet with the same directors, stars, and production designers.In "The Tales of Hoffmann", Robert Rounsevill stars as E.T.A.
Objects of Hoffmann's love and admiration include Olympia the wind-up doll (Moira Shearer who also plays Stella the dancer, the fourth and yet another Hoffmann's misadventure), Giulietta, the Venetian courtesan who sails away after trying to capture Hoffmann's soul (Ludmilla Tchérina -absolutely brilliant as the siren and the seductress who elegantly walks over the dead bodies, literally), and Antonia the beautiful opera-singer with the fatal voice and deadly illness.
One of the greatest choreographers and dancers of the last century, Léonide Massine shines in three absolutely different roles demonstrating his talent as a dancer, strong emotions and tremendous humor.What makes "The Tales of Hoffmann" not just an ordinary screen adaptation but the stunning unforgettable event, the film which had inspired the future famous directors George Romero and Martin Scorsese to become the filmmakers is the perfect combination of fantasy, classical music, ballet, singing, stunning visual effects, imaginative and often bizarre and even disturbing images that would fit a horror movie (deconstructing Olympia the doll is horrifying), incredible but calculated feast of colors, their mixture, the unique color palette to match each story, camera work that is so innovative and dynamic that even now, 56 years after the film was made, looks fresh and modern.
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!
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!
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!
I liked the Red Shoes more, but Tales of Hoffmann is still an excellent Powell & Pressburger movie.
It's interesting to note that as Hoffmann tells his tales, the women in each episode become more "real."  It did seem to drag on a bit at times, but I think it might be one of those movies that looks better with a second or third viewing.
Powell and Pressburger made this overblown opera a few years after their ballet film, The Red Shoes.
Featuring good performances from Robert Rounsville, Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Pamela Brown and some fantastic images; plus that great music from Offenbach (not always easy to follow the stories but they are enjoyable) and lots of garish 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.
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.
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.
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.
Maybe I lack a special gift to fully appreciate Michael Powell and Emeric Pressbuger's "Tales of Hoffman", maybe it's all about being an opera buff or maybe there's no "maybe".Indeed, I read some comments from opera aficionados who loved it while others experts disdained a few artistic choices and the way they interfered with the operatic vision of Offenbach...
And I disliked "What's Opera, Doc?" for the same reason.That said, I really enjoyed the automaton part, which was the closest part to a story in the film and a legitimate plot, maybe it was the dazzling yellowish color, maybe the way puppets were turned into real dancers or vice versa or the whole creativeness involved in that segment, or maybe the simple presence of Moira Shearer...
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's misfired attempt to co-mingle the balletic magnificence of their success "The Red Shoes" with the Jacques Offenbach light opera about a German student who gains inspiration through romantic heartbreak.
One of our first dates was to see "The Red Shoes." (Yes we do go back a long time.) Loving both opera and ballet we could not wait to see "Tales of Hoffman" and were enthralled by every moment of it..Now over fifty years later, we have finally been able to purchase it on Amazon from The Criterion Company.
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!
Balletic, colorful, enchanting stories told by the poet Hoffman about his three great loves lost: Olympia, a dancing wind-up doll; Giullietta, concubine of a satanic magician; and Antonia, a composer's daughter doomed by the evil intentions of a wicked physician, Doctor Miracle.
With The Tales of Hoffmann, an adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's flamboyant opera, Powell and Pressburger achieved what no other film has succeeded in doing since: bringing the opera to life on screen and infusing it with all the colour and vibrancy of cinema.
Martin Scorsese, an lifelong admirer of P & P, recently oversaw a 4K remastering of the movie; the perfect medium to take in this lavish picture.Staying true to the structure of Offenbach's vision, The Tales of Hoffmann comes with a prologue, epilogue, and three central acts all centred around the past loves of man-of-the-world Hoffmann (Robert Rounseville).
In the span of three stories involving love found and lost - one with a 'Doll' that dances and sings and then is taken apart, another with a woman who is tasked to take the titular character's reflection away for nefarious purposes (and for the love of jewels that could, gasp, turn back into wax), and lastly with a woman who has a terminal illness (in an Opera, good heavens!) and a conversation with a dead mother may make things right, or worse for Hoffmann and his love - the filmmakers get a lot of awe-inspiring visuals.
The Archers certainly gave the world some great films, including "The Life and Death of Col. Blimp" and "The Red Shoes," but Offenbach's high-spirited, imaginative opera (the performance is somewhat cut) sinks under the weight of their ponderous, artsy-fartsy, over-the-top production.
This is a 4K restoration of directors-duo Powell and Pressburger's cinematic adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's eponymous opera about German Romantic author E.T.A. Hoffmann (Rounseville), attends a ballet performance by a prima ballerina Stella (Shearer), who intends to meet Hoffmann after the show, but the note is intercepted by his nemesis Councillor Lindorf (Helpmann), which leads Hoffmann to get intoxicated in a tavern and triggers his nostalgic recounts of three stories from his past lovers, Olympia (Shearer), Giulietta (Tchérina) and Antonia (Ayars), respectively these three operettas happen in Paris, Venice and an unknown Greek island.This is an excellent restoration to authentically register the movie's original theatrical opulence for opera die-hards to luxuriate in its live-emulating performances (although only tenor Rounseville and soprano Ayars can sing in their own voices, while other danseurs and danseuses have to all be dubbed in this case), it is an innovate endeavor to couple two different art media together at that time, when opera meets motion pictures, all the renditions can be rehearsed and redone to a fabricated perfection thanks to the snappy editing and the magic of montage, although sometimes Shearer is obviously not lip-syncing to the lyrics while ravishingly gyrating as the mechanical doll Olympia in the first story.
This is the second Powell-Pressburger collaboration I've watched, as much as I adore BLACK NARCISSUS (1947), THE TALES OF HOFFMANN is subjected with a troubled transmutation from opera to the media of cinema, flashily dazzling but without a sounding frisson to win over audience who is not afraid to shrug off the high-art hypocrisy and spill one's true feelings about it..
The 1951 movie had both ballet and opera singing.We see the famous Moira Shearer from The Red Shoes (1948) in a movie made by the same people who gave us that classic, but we see Miss Shearer only for a brief time at the start of the multi-part film which is not about her (as the Red Shoes was....she and her Red Shoes ballet dancing was and is the reason that movie is the most famous and important ballet movie ever made.) Tales of Hoffman is about a man named E.T.A. Hoffman who died in 1822, and is played in this movie by Robert Rounsville, who achieved fame in 1956 in the Carousel (1956) movie playing Mr. Enoch Snow, the priggish herring fisherman from Maine who marries Carrie Piperidge, the best friend of the Carousel heroine, Julie Jordan (played by Shirley Jones).Robert Rounsville is an opera singer, the Tales Of Hoffman movie is about an opera by Jacques Offenbach about the German writer E.T.A. Hoffman.Offenbach did not write a ballet show, and this movie really isn't one, try though it does to show off Miss Moira Shearer, and other famous ballet stars, including Robert Helpmann and Leonoid Massine and Sir Frederick Ashton.Moira Shearer's beginning part of the movie is hypnotic, all the more to her credit because the dancing she does doesn't show off her lovely, dazzling copper red hair, as The Red Shoes (1948) movie did.But Moira's part of the movie ends early, and all too quickly.And then we see a lot of males....and males aren't important in ballet (sorry Mr. Baryshnikov and Mr. Nuryev and Mr. Nijinskey, and other male ballet dancers of fame....your work was to prop up the leading ladies, and those gals were always the main point of ballet, still are).Ballet is all about girls, the same way motherhood is.It just ain't an equal opportunity thing.Guys help out, but they are never the main show, and shouldn't be.In "Tales Of Hoffman" (1951) male dancers and singers are the main show.We do not get a movie like "The Red Shoes" (1948) which shows off Moira Shearer both as an actress and as a superb ballet dancer.Sooooooooooo......we get a "dance movie" in "Tales Of Hoffman" (1951) which we are told "stars" Moira Shearer, but in which she doesn't have a true lead, and is not truly the featured performer.Mr. Robert "Enoch Snow from Carousel 1956" is the main performer in "Tales Of Hoffman" (1951), played E.T.A. Hoffman, as he does.Too bad.E.T.A. Hoffman wrote stories which included the one on which the famous ballet titled "Copelia" (music by DeLiebes) is based, about a man named Dr. Copelius who invents a lovely Frankenstein monster type robot named "Copelia" (a ballet first presented in 1870, which became one of the most famous ballets of all time, still performed often, and justifiably).We see a fragment of "Copelia" in "Tales Of Hoffman" (1951), but not much, and not enough.The World War I era silent German movie was directed by Richard Oswald, and was based on the operetta "Les contes de Hoffmann" by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), which is a genial musical potpourri from various short stories and novels by the Prussian writer, composer, painter, lawyer and judge E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822).In Hoffmann's work, we meet, among many other figures, the Nutcracker and the Mouse-King, the Sandman, the fairy Rosabelverde, the doctor Prosper Alanus, the ghost Dapertutto and the gnome Klein Zaches, whose ability it is that whatever somebody speaks and does is ascribed to him.At every turn, the laws of physics are abolished, That's what the 1951 version of the "Tales Of Hoffman" turned out to be mostly.Fantasy adorned by lovely costumes and set decoration.But it's hard to watch, lovely as the dazzling color, costumes, and set decorations all are, and as terrific as the dance talent is.It's just not as great or near as great as the much better Red Shoes (1948) movie, Moira Shearer's other movie of fame.------------ ------------ Written by Tex Allen, SAG Movie Actor.Email Tex Allen at TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com Visit WWW.
I'd seen The Red Shoes, but this was the whole schmear -- opera, ballet, and movie effects all at once.It was not until much later that I understood the film to reflect the phases of a man's romantic perspective.