The Tales of Hoffmann

Gloriously silly and frequently awesome. It's basicly The Archers jizzing as much color and culture into your cranium as their scrotums can muster. I know, I know- that doesn't exactly sound inviting, but still... doesn't it sound better than the actual summary?

Offenbach and Barbier (and Arundell) never really capture the uncanniness of Hoffmann's stories, altering and condensing them rather violently, but Powell and Pressburger's attention to aesthetic detail in every aspect of the production makes this a constant delight for the audience, and exemplifies how cinema contains the potential to reinvent and renew cultural wealth, but has perpetually avoided doing so. All opera should keep the singers invisible and have them replaced onstage by dancers!

It's a story about a dude who falls in love with a woman, and then another, and then another, and then he dies. It's one of those tragic accounts of a man who died before managing to acquire a personality. Or... meeting someone who possesses one. It' a great showcase for the technical prowess of P & P. It's also a shining example of how weird the combination of great storytelling + no actual story can be. They should have made it a ballet, 'cause those parts were not even boring at all.

I'm sorry but I can't do sustained opera singing. I mean, I can, it's just not always going to be on my wavelength.

One of the few less than brilliant Powell/Pressburger films. George A. Romero and Martin Scorsese, my two favorite filmmakers, love this movie, but I think it's just "eh". There's something that's just so deeply wrong about that

Incredible set design, mouth-watering Technicolor, and a goodie bag full of dazzling technical tricks. The cinematography rivals Cardiff's work on Red Shoes in terms of sheer gorgeousness. And I enjoyed the German influence. Most of the stuff going on here is astonishing, and part of me desperately wants to love this film. And yet, I can't stomach opera and I find ballet very silly. Just not my cup of tea, I'm afraid.

Pretty fuzzy on the details here but P&P provide exactly the sort of performing-arts spectacle I respond to most with a dab of strictly cinematic fun on top.

Bright colorful, expressive and full of style! But I can't help think Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger have become too high-brow for me at this point. Never much of a theater fan, so even if it's a very unique stage presentation, I can say it's not for me, even if I do appreciate all the incredible details that went into this production.

Extremely well made but somewhat cold adaptation that is perhaps the best showcase for Powell/Pressburger's formal skill and extravagant style. The colourful and surreal sets predate Fellini by years, and the quasi-abstract approach taken here surely influenced later film makers. Appreciation though largely hinges on the degree to which one becomes emotionally engaged with the story, enjoys opera, especially in English, and is familiar with the source.

Not as good as Red Shoes but visually as impressive. Suitable from a big screen while slightly intoxicated.

Viewed January 22, 2022. It’s a very Powell and Pressburger move to make an opera film and then have the first sequence be a ballet-within-the-opera.

This was very special, unlike anything I've seen before.; an opera, ballet and movie hybrid. It's an absolute feast for the eyes with jaw-dropping sets, costumes and cinematography. Unfortunate the plot isn't as engaging as the visuals. Which is also the results from all the dialogues being sung, this is after all an opera, in which the poetic and musical part of the text is more important than explaining the plot.

Powell and Pressburger continue to set the bar for high-brow musical cinema, The Tales of Hoffmann being just as lavishly produced and directed for a movie-opera as The Red Shoes was for a movie-ballet, if not as tasteful and considerablly less grabbing. Offenbach was not a very exciting composer, and the libertto isn't great either.

watched: 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016

Visual marvel, but you have to be willing to accept that it's a literal opera, which means dialogue where musical intonation is more important than clarity and a story whose originality lies only in moments as the overall arcs are nothing new. Even with my reservations about the operatic aspects I did enjoy it, but I could never fully get into it and the luster of the visuals was starting to wear off towards the end.

The most beautiful and emphatic cinematic article that still [slightly] bored me by the end. I feel bad just admitting that.

A bad taste classic, sequins and costume jewelry, colored lighting, grown men prancing around in tight tights, and waaaay too much eye make up. Lots of fun in a camp way; do love Moira Shearer though.

Furthering a concept first realized in The Red Shoes. Cinema transcends theater, libretto and dance altered with the magic rhythms of cinematography and editing. A culmination of The Archers' occupation with unreality, of their stories about romantic follies and of creators and creations. Lively and opulent, though a bit wearying, the final act reaching nowhere near the extraordinary heights of the three preceding.

It took me a bit to get into the mood (opera is kinda goofy, admittedly), but once I did, I had a blast. Each act is compelling in its own right - imaginative love stories dosed with an appropriate amount of humor - and the stylistic aspects of the film are jaw-dropping, with stellar Technicolor photography and knockout set designs. The singing is enjoyable enough that by the end of the film I hardly realized I wasn't listening to spoken dialogue. Some of the most fun I've had with a movie.

Contos de Hoffmann tinha sua première no Metropolitan Opera House de New York há exatos 70 anos. Infelizmente não foi dessa vez que teremos um blu-ray desse filme, mas o primeiro Blu-ray e Powell e Pressburger no Brasil foi anunciado hoje pela Versátil e é o The Red Shoes restaurado. Enquanto isso vou revi esse aqui com os comentários em áudio do Martin Scorsese que saiu no DVD da Criterion.

Overwhelming combination of opera, ballet, and rich production design, an indigestible hodgepodge with flashes of superior talent.

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