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The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)

Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

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From Time Out Film Guide

Made at the instigation of Sir Thomas Beecham - who conducts the Offenbach operetta - Powell and Pressburger's follow-up to The Red Shoes lacks the earlier film's coherence and emotional pull, but is equally lavish in its attempts to combine dance, music and film. Basically a trio of stories (plus prologue and epilogue) in which unrequited love figures strongly, the movie is inevitably uneven, and some have pointed to a rather kitschy element in its equation of Cinema and Great Art. But Powell's eye - aided by Hein Heckroth's designs and Chris Challis's camera - is as sharp and distinctive as ever, revelling in rich colours, fantastic compositions, and swooning movements (most notably in the lavish episode featuring a Venetian courtesan). Sumptuous spectacle.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Producer: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Cast: Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Leonid Massine, Ludmilla Tcherina, Pamela Brown, Frederick Aston full cast

Genre(s): Musicals

Duration: 127 mins


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