Tall Tales

We got our Netflix disc of The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) after being on Long Wait status for a while. When it arrived, it was cracked. I was pretty sure that the replacement would take forever - but it came the very next week. So glad we waited.

This movie is essentially Powell and Pressburger mounting Offenbach's final opera. performed largely in ballet. It starts in a theater where Moira Shearer as the ballerina Stella is performing "The Enchanted Dragonfly", wearing a charming bodystocking. She has two particular admirers: One is Councilor Lindorf (Robert Helpmann), a sinister old man with a big en bataille hat (which reminds me of the Commendatore from Don Giovanni). The other is poet and lover E.T.A. Hoffmann (Robert Rounseville).

At the interval, everyone hustles over to the student pub across the street to get a drink. Hoffmann starts talking about his past loves, and the crowd decides to skip the rest of the ballet and listen to his three stories.

In the first, he falls in love with a oerfect automaton, played again by Shearer. It was created by puppeteer Helpmann. This conceit gives the composer and choreographer a chance to make some music and dance jokes about her running down. In the second, Hoffmann is seduced by a Venetian courtesan, Giuliettsa (Ludmilla Tcherina). She has been bribed by a wizard (Helpmann again) to steal Hoffmann's reflection. The style is lush and exotic. In the last story, Hoffmann falls in love with Antonia (Ann Ayars), a singer with a disease that will kill her if she sings. Her father (seemingly cruel) forbids her to sing, but Hoffmann encourages her. Finally, Dr. Miracle (Helpmann) gets her to sing, and she dies tragically.

The conclusion is that Stella is the best of all these loves, but when she appears, she finds him passed out drunk, and leaves with Helpmann.

The production uses opera-style costume, sets, and acting style (although most of the singing is dubbed), but it isn't stagey - more fantastic. The colors are striking and stylized. I don't know much about opera, but Offenbach seems fun. He has a modern style with a lot of wit. There are elaborate songs on silly topics, simple beautiful melodies and dances, and some very fancy soprano showpieces. Just the kind of thing I like. 

I didn't mention the role of Hoffmann's servant Nicklaus, which is played by Pamela Brown in pants. I mention this because I learned about "pants" or travesti roles from Ariadne Auf Naxos. Did you know that "travesty" is based on the Italian word for "transvestite"?