''The Tales of Hoffmann'' is a 1951 British Technicolor

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

film written, produced and directed by the team of

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a serie ...

and

Emeric Pressburger Emeric Pressburger (born Imre József Pressburger; 5 December 19025 February 1988) was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collaborat ...

working under the umbrella of their production company

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...

. It is an adaptation of

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera '' ...

's 1881 opera ''

The Tales of Hoffmann ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died ...

'', itself based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann. The film stars

Robert Rounseville Robert Rounseville (25 March 19146 August 1974) was an American actor and tenor, who appeared in opera, operetta, Broadway musicals, and motion pictures. Career Rounseville was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts. He made his Broadway debut in a sma ...

Moira Shearer Moira Shearer King, Lady Kennedy (17 January 1926 – 31 January 2006), was an internationally renowned Scottish ballet dancer and actress. She was famous for her performances in Powell and Pressburger's '' The Red Shoes'' (1948) and '' The Ta ...

Robert Helpmann Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE ( Helpman, 9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet ( ...

and Léonide Massine and features Pamela Brown,

Ludmilla Tchérina Ludmilla Tchérina (born Monique Tchemerzine; ; 10 October 1924 – 21 March 2004) was a French prima ballerina and actress. Biography Tchérina was born Monique Tchemerzine, into Circassian aristocracy as the daughter of Kabardian Prince Ave ...

and

Ann Ayars Ann Ayars (23 July 1918 – 27 February 1995) was an American soprano and actress. Early in her career she acted in several TV series and non musical films. Later, she sang with the New York City Opera (NYCO), and became known worldwide when she ...

. Only Rounseville and Ayars sang their own roles. The film's soundtrack consists of music conducted by Sir

Thomas Beecham Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Roya ...

and played by the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...

. In addition to Rounseville and Ayars, singers included Dorothy Bond,

Margherita Grandi Margherita Grandi (10 October 1892Some sources give her birthdate as 4 October 1894.29 January 1972) was an Australian-born Italian soprano. Life and career Margherita Grandi was born Margaret Gard in Harwood Island, Clarence River, near Ma ...

, Monica Sinclair and Bruce Dargavel. The film's production team included cinematographer

Christopher Challis Christopher George Joseph Challis BSC, FRPS (18 March 1919 – 31 May 2012) was a British cinematographer who worked on more than 70 feature films from the 1940s onwards. Career After working as camera operator on several films for Michael ...

and production and costume designer

Hein Heckroth Hein Heckroth (14 April 1901 in Gießen - 7 July 1970 in Amsterdam) was a German art director of stage and film productions. Heckroth began his career working with the German national ballet. Later, he moved to Great Britain and, after designing ...

, who was nominated for two 1952 Academy Awards for his work.

Plot

*In the prologue,

Hoffmann Hoffmann is a German language, German surname. People A *Albert Hoffmann (horticulturist), Albert Hoffmann (1846–1924), German horticulturist *Alexander Hoffmann (politician), Alexander Hoffmann (born 1975), German politician *Arthur Hoffmann ...

is in the audience at a performance by Stella, a

prima ballerina A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on yea ...

, of "The Ballet of the Enchanted Dragonfly". Stella sends Hoffmann a note asking him to meet her after the performance, but the note is intercepted by his rival, Councillor Lindorf. Not having received her note, Hoffmann goes to the tavern in the interval, where he tells the story of a clown, Kleinzach, and three stories of his past loves — Olympia, Giulietta and Antonia, and gets drunk. *In the first story, Olympia is an

automaton An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

created by scientist Spalanzani and magic spectacle maker Coppelius. Hoffmann falls for the doll, ignorant of her artifice and is mocked when he finally discovers she is 'automatic'. *In the second story, Hoffmann in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

falls for Giulietta, a

courtesan Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress (lover), mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the Royal cour ...

, but she seduces him to steal his reflection for the magician Dapertutto. *In the third story, Antonia is a

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

suffering from an incurable illness and must not sing, but the evil Dr. Miracle makes her sing and she dies, breaking the hearts of Hoffmann and her father, Crespel. *Finally, in the epilogue, Hoffmann explains that all three women are all aspects of his love, Stella, who then appears in the tavern and, seeing Hoffmann drunk and incapacitated, is led away by Councillor Lindorf.

Adaptation

Though the original French libretto is presented in an English translation, the film is relatively faithful to the traditional adaptations of Offenbach's last opera and incorporates his unfinished score with the thread of the plot. However, certain important changes were made in the process of adapting the story to film: *In the prologue of the film, all of Lindorf's music is excluded, making him a silent character. *Stella's profession is changed from an opera singer appearing in

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'' to a ballet dancer. *"The Tale of Antonia" is shortened, ending with the powerful trio for Antonia, the ghost of her mother, and Dr. Miracle rather than Antonia's death scene. *The role of Nicklaus is abridged, though Nicklaus (as played by Pamela Brown) still appears.

Cast

Production

In the later years of his partnership with Pressburger, Powell became interested in what he termed "a composed film", a marriage of image to operatic music. The finale of ''

Black Narcissus ''Black Narcissus'' is a 1947 British Psychological fiction, psychological drama film written, produced, and directed by Powell and Pressburger, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Sabu Dastagir, S ...

'' and the ballet sequence of '' The Red Shoes'' were earlier steps toward his goal. ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' is an achievement of this ideal, as the entire opera was prerecorded to create the soundtrack and the film was edited to the rhythms of the music. The production is completely without dialogue and, with the exception of Robert Rounseville and Ann Ayars, none of the actors did their own singing. Some of the singers had established careers in Britain at the time. Grahame Clifford, for example, had been a leading comedian with the

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. Th ...

for several years, and Monica Sinclair was fast becoming an audience favourite at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

; she would later become one of the company's most popular artists of the next two decades. The acting (especially by Helpmann) is highly stylised and similar to that of the silent-film era. Each tale is marked by a primary colour denoting its theme. "The Tale of Olympia", set in Paris, has yellow contours highlighting the farcical nature and tone of the first act. "The Tale of Giulietta" is a hellish depiction of Venice, where dark colours, especially red, are used. The final tale, set in Greece, uses different shades of blue, alluding to its sad nature. The set design is deliberately made to look artificial with the costumes similarly stylised. The opening scene of the "Tale of Giulietta" (in which Giulietta performs the "

Barcarolle A barcarolle (; from French, also barcarole; originally, Italian barcarola or barcaruola, from ''barca'' 'boat') is a traditional folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers, or a piece of music composed in that style. In classical music, two of the ...

", the most famous theme of the opera) is staged on a gondola that moves through deliberately artificial Venetian canals, although it does not seem to actually move on the water. ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' was in production from 1 to 16 July 1950 at

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused w ...

Shepperton Shepperton is an urban village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, approximately south west of central London. Shepperton is equidistant between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames. The village is mentioned in a document of 959 AD ...

, Surrey, UK.

Critical reception

Following the film's world premiere in New York City,

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote: Reportedly,

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

sent a letter to Powell and Pressburger saying: "For the first time in my life, I was treated to Grand Opera where the beauty, power and scope of the music was equally matched by the visual presentation." For the 2002 ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' poll,

George A. Romero George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...

called it his "favourite film of all time; the movie that made me want to make movies." Three years earlier, Romero had introduced the film as part of the "Dialogues: Talking with Pictures" programme at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival. Romero later taped an interview for the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

edition, discussing his love of the film and its influence on his career.

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

, an ardent fan of Powell and Pressburger, provides an audio commentary track on the Criterion edition. In a book on the British cinema,

André Bazin André Bazin (; 18 April 1918 – 11 November 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine ''Cahiers du cinéma'' in 1951, ...

is quoted as saying:

Accolades

At the 24th Academy Awards, ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' received two nominations, both for

, for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color and Best Costume Design, Color; the awards in both cases went to the crew of ''

An American in Paris ''An American in Paris'' is a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and energy of the French capital ...

''. Powell and Pressburger were nominated for the Grand Prize of the

1951 Cannes Film Festival The 4th Cannes Film Festival was held from 3 to 20 April 1951. The previous year, no festival had been held because of financial reasons. In 1951, the festival took place in April instead of September to avoid direct competition with the Venice Fi ...

and won the Exceptional Prize. They also won the

Silver Bear The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

award for best musical at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was recorded at Shepperton Studios between May and September 1950, conducted by Sir

. Decca obtained permission from London Films to release the soundtrack album. In response, Beecham sued, as he had not approved the release because the soundtrack did not truly represent his interpretation of the opera because of the changes made for the film. On 20 March 1951, he failed to obtain a high court injunction to prevent the release but received assurances that the album would be clearly labelled as having been taken from the soundtrack.

2015 rerelease

In March 2015, the

4K restoration 4K, 4-K or 4k may refer to: * 4000 (number) * Four kibibytes (4 × 1024 bytes, better written 4 KiB) ** 4K disk sector size (Advanced Format) ** 4K demoscene compo, a computer art competition using programs limited to 4 kibibytes ** The Java 4K G ...

of the film, produced by

The Film Foundation The Film Foundation is a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the exhibition of restored and classic cinema. It was founded by director Martin Scorsese and several other leading filmmakers in 1990. The foundation ra ...

, the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

and

Studiocanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns ...

, was released in the U.S. by

Rialto Pictures Rialto Pictures is a film distributor founded in 1997 by Bruce Goldstein. A year later, Adrienne Halpern joined him as partner. In 2002, Eric Di Bernardo became the company’s National Sales Director. It was described as “the gold standard of ...

. The restored version runs 136 minutes, including a final - credits sequence of all the performers and singers not seen in any previous releases.

References

Bibliography

* Gibbon, Monk. ''The Tales of Hoffmann: A Study of the Film''. London: Saturn Press, 1951. 96pp (illus) * Christie, Ian. ''Arrows of Desire: the films of

and

''. London: Faber & Faber, 1985. . 163pp (illus. filmog. bibliog. index.) * Powell, Michael. ''A Life in Movies: An Autobiography''. London: Heinemann, 1986. . *Germano, William: ''Tales of Hoffmann'': London: BFI/Palgrave Macmillan: 2013. * Powell, Michael. ''Million Dollar Movie''. London: Heinemann, 1992. .

External links

* *
''The Tales of Hoffmann''
at the

''The Tales of Hoffmann''.
Full synopsis (with film stills and clips viewable only from UK libraries), from the

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lot ...

''The Tales of Hoffmann''
reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger website
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' essay
by Bruce Eder at the

''Tales from the Lives of Marionettes''
an essay by Ian Christie at the

Rialto Pictures page on re-release of the film
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tales Of Hoffmann, The 1951 films 1950s musical fantasy films Opera films British musical fantasy films Films by Powell and Pressburger Films based on operas Films set in the 1800s Films set in the 1810s Films set in Germany Films set in Venice Biographical films about writers Films based on works by E. T. A. Hoffmann Jacques Offenbach Films based on The Sandman (short story) 1950s English-language films 1950s British films