Film snippets, pt. 2
by Nandia Foteini Vlachou
From yesterday’s glorious black and white to today’s delirious technicolor. Dizzying levels of narrative complexity, and bizarre excesses of artificial decor and saturated color characterize the Michael Powell – Emeric Pressburger masterpiece The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). It is unlike any other film – and, possibly, unlike the medium itself. An opera/ballet within a ballet within an opera within a film (and that’s not counting the puppet scenes within the opera/ballet), it has rightly been called hallucinatory. Its famous admirers include Martin Scorsese (who offers the audio commentary in the Criterion edition) and George Romero – but I suspect Christopher Nolan must be green with envy over this. There is a scene involving eyes, mirrors and illusions, that should be right up his alley. And as if the film itself wasn’t enough, the end credits include a surreal “meeting” between the opera singer and the ballet dancer that jointly interpret each character. Delicious!
[watched on February 12, 2016, at the Cinemateca Portuguesa]
It has been decades since I last watched this film, but I echo your joy at the creativity displayed. Then again, The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus are also two of my favourite films, and from the same team that made this. Something about their use of colours that nobody else ever managed to replicate.
Best wishes, Pete.
LikeLike
Mine too! Besides, my love for the creative duo is openly displayed in the name of the blog, which is one of my perennial top ten favorite films. I just love them, and it’s so wonderful to watch their films on the big screen (just reminiscing of the past year though, since it’s been a while I have seen any film at all, on any medium…).
LikeLike