The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) is a British film adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera Les contes d'Hoffmann, written, produced and directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger working under the umbrella of their production company, The Archers. The film stars Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Léonide Massine, and features Robert Rounseville, Pamela Brown, Ludmilla Tchérina and Anne Ayars.
The production team included cinematographer Christopher Challis, Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hein Heckroth, who was nominated for two 1952 Academy Awards for his work on the film, as production and costume designer. It is not just a film of a staged opera, but a true cinematic opera that makes use of film techniques not available to an opera presented on stage.
Plot
In a tavern in Nuremberg, the young Hoffmann (Robert Rounseville) tells three stories of past loves (played by Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tchérina, and Anne Ayars). He recounts the stories during the interval of a ballet, which stars his new love Stella (also played by Shearer). Léonide Massine and Robert Helpmann have roles in each story.
Adaptation
Though the original French libretto is presented in 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 key changes were made in the process of adapting the story to film.
In the prologue of the film, all of Lindorf's music is deleted, making him a silent character. Also, Stella's profession is changed from an opera singer appearing in Mozart's Don Giovanni 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 Nicklausse is abridged. Footage of (Pamela Brown), who in the original play is revealed to be a disguise of the Muse of Poetry, was shot but deleted.
Cast
- Prologue and Epilogue
- Philip Leaver as Andreas
- John Ford as Nathaniel (uncredited)
- Richard Golding as Hermann (uncredited)
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- Singing voices
- Dorothy Bond as Olympia
- Margherita Grandi as Giulietta
- Monica Sinclair as Nicklaus
- Joan Alaxander as Antonia's Mother
- Grahame Clifford as Spalanzani / Franz
- Bruce Dargavel as Coppelius / Dapertutto / Dr Miracle
- Murray Dickie as Cochenille / Nathaniel
- Owen Brannigan as Hermann / Schlemil / Crespel
- Fisher Morgan as Luther
- Rene Soames as Pitichinaccio
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Production
Alexander Korda, who was often sympathetic to the duo's earlier movies, was skeptical about this film and went as far as to slash nine minutes of the original cut (which were subsequently restored). The cut scenes included portions of the Dragonfly ballet performed by Stella in the prologue under Lindorf's lustful gazes.
In the later years of their partnership, Powell became interested in what he termed "a composed film", a marriage of image to operatic music. The finale of Black Narcissus and the celebrated 'ballet' sequence of The Red Shoes were earlier forays to achieve his goal.
The Tales of Hoffmann is an achievement of this ideal, as the entire opera was pre-recorded to create the soundtrack and the movie was edited to the rhythms of the music. The production is completely without dialogue and, with the exception of Robert Rounseville and Anne 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 for several years, and Monica Sinclair, was fast becoming an audience favorite at Covent Garden; she would later become one of the company's most popular artists of the next two decades. The acting (especially by Helpmann) is highly stylized and similar to that of the silent film era.
The film is also highly regarded for its production design and cinematography. Each tale is marked by its own individual primary colour denoting its respective theme. "The Tale of Olympia", set in Paris, has yellow contours highlighting the farcical nature and tone of the first act. "The Tale of Giuletta" 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 sets similarly stylized. The opening scene of the 'Tale of Giuletta' (where Giuletta performs the "Barcarolle", the most famous theme of the opera) is staged on a gondola which 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 1–16 July, 1950[1] at Shepperton Studios in Shepperton, Surrey in the U.K.[2]
Critical reactions
- "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." — Cecil B. DeMille, in a letter to Powell and Pressburger.[3]
- "This is one notch out of alphabetical order, but I decided to give it the status of last position because it's my favourite film of all time; the movie that made me want to make movies." — George A. Romero, while explaining the list he submitted for the 2002 Sight & Sound poll.[4]
Awards and honors
The Tales of Hoffmann received two Academy Award nominations in 1952, both for Hein Heckroth, for "Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color" and "Best Costume Design, Color." In addition, Powell and Pressburger were nominated for the Grand Prize of the 1951 Cannes Film Festival, and won the Exceptional Prize.[5] They also won the Silver Berlin Bear award for "Best Musical" at the Berlin International Film Festival that year.[6][7]
References
Notes
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