The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) - film review

In Nuremberg, the poet Hoffmann becomes enchanted by the beautiful prima donna, Stella.  Whilst awaiting her reply to a letter he sent her, he recounts three tales of his former lost loves.  He was a young man living in Paris when he met his first love, the dancer Olympia.  She turned out to be nothing more than a mechanical doll created by the inventor Coppelius.  Then he fell for a bejewelled Venetian courtesan, only to learn that she was the bait of the evil magician Dapertutto who delights in stealing men’s souls.  Lastly, on a remote Greek island, Hoffmann lost his heart to the delicate Antonia, a musician’s daughter who will die if she attempts to sing...

The most audacious and inspired film to come out of the extraordinary partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger is this mesmerising adaptation of Jacques Offenbach’s unfinished 1880 fantasy opera.  Although ill-received when it was first released in 1951, the film is now regarded as one of the Archers’ finest achievements, the most perfect marriage of opera, ballet and cinema.   

This exceptional work is quite different to most other film operas in that the soundtrack was recorded first, in its entirety, and the images were then shot and edited together to fit the soundtrack (the reverse to how a film is usually composed).  The result is breathtaking: a piece of cinematic art of unparalleled charm and beauty.  

Although stylistically The Tales of Hoffmann is markedly different from other Powell-Pressburger productions, it contains themes which we encounter in their other films.  Hoffmann’s hopeless search for the perfect love mirrors that of Clive Candy’s amorous adventures in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), whilst the tragic conflict between life and art that we see in Hoffmann’s third tale is echoed in The Red Shoes (1948).  Significantly, the star of that latter film also has a strong presence in The Tales of Hoffmann – the renowned dancer-actress Moira Shearer.

It may not be as widely appreciated as the Archers’ other great films, but there is no denying that The Tales of Hoffmann has an opulence and grandeur that is rarely achieved in cinema.  Every shot is staged with meticulous precision, the design is sumptuous without ever appearing kitsch, and the colour photography has a richness and allure that virtually no other film possesses.  This is a work of sublime genius, a unique composition of visual and musical poetry that is simply magical.

© James Travers 2008

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