The Tales of Hoffmann

12/28/2022

Though I really enjoyed watching this, it isn't really a film at all. Messrs. Powell and Pressburger have elicited the help of the supremely talented Christopher Challis and of the late Jacques Offenbach and basically filmed an augmented theatrical production of his eponymous, uncompleted, opera. They have assembled a curiously effective collection of gloriously clad acting talent - most of whom, aside from the narrator/composer himself in the form of Robert Rounseville, cannot actually sing - and proceeded to present us with something that is really quite beautiful to watch and listen to; but that is really not that different from that which we might see at Covent Garden. It features the landmark P&P colour schemes - vibrant, lively and bold with the use of light and the staging of this t