Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

The Tales of Hoffmann

The Tales of Hoffmann

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger create a phantasmagoric marriage of cinema and opera in this one-of-a-kind take on a classic story. In Jacques Offenbach’s fantasy opera The Tales of Hoffmann, a poet dreams of three women—a mechanical performing doll, a bejeweled siren, and the consumptive daughter of a famous composer—all of whom break his heart in different ways. Powell and Pressburger’s feverishly romantic adaptation is a feast of music, dance, and visual effects, and one of the most exhilarating opera films ever produced.

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Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1951
  • 133 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #317

Special Features

  • 4K digital restoration by The Film Foundation and the BFI National Archive, in association with STUDIOCANAL, featuring newly rediscovered footage and with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary from 1992 by filmmaker Martin Scorsese and critic Bruce Eder, newly updated by Eder
  • Interview with filmmaker George A. Romero from 2005
  • The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1956), a short musical film based on the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe story and directed by Michael Powell
  • Collection of production designer Hein Heckroth’s design sketches and paintings
  • Gallery of production and publicity photographs
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Plus: An essay by film historian Ian Christie

    Cover based on a theatrical poster by Hein Heckroth

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • 4K digital restoration by The Film Foundation and the BFI National Archive, in association with STUDIOCANAL, featuring newly rediscovered footage and with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary from 1992 by filmmaker Martin Scorsese and critic Bruce Eder, newly updated by Eder
  • Interview with filmmaker George A. Romero from 2005
  • The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1956), a short musical film based on the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe story and directed by Michael Powell
  • Collection of production designer Hein Heckroth’s design sketches and paintings
  • Gallery of production and publicity photographs
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Plus: An essay by film historian Ian Christie

    Cover based on a theatrical poster by Hein Heckroth
The Tales of Hoffmann
Cast
Robert Rounseville
Hoffmann
Moira Shearer
Stella/His Ladylove/Olympia
Pamela Brown
Nicklaus
Edmond Audran
Cancer
Robert Helpmann
Councillor Lindorf/Coppelius/Dapertutto/Dr. Miracle
Meinhart Maur
Luther
Frederick Ashton
Kleinzach/Cochenille
Philip Leaver
Andreas
John Ford
Nathaniel
Léonide Massine
Spalanzani/Schlemil/Franz
Alan Carter
Bank clerk
Ludmilla Tchérina
Giulietta
Lionel Harris
Pitichinaccio
Ann Ayars
Antonia
Mogens Wieth
Crespel
Credits
Director
Michael Powell
Written, produced, and directed by
Michael Powell
Based on the opera by
Jacques Offenbach
English libretto by
Dennis Arundell
Musical director
Sir Thomas Beecham
Written, produced, and directed by
Emeric Pressburger
Cinematography
Christopher Challis
Art director
Arthur Lawson
Editing
Reginald Mills
Associate producer
George Busby
Assistant director
Sydney Streeter
Choreography
Frederick Ashton
Assistant choreographers
Alan Carter
Assistant choreographers
Joan Harris
Recorded by
Ted Drake
Camera operator
Freddie Francis
Production design
Hein Heckroth
Director
Emeric Pressburger

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Current

The Tales of Hoffmann
The Tales of Hoffmann
Of the 18 movies made by the filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, none was as personally and artistically fulfilling as The Tales of Hoffmann. This dazzling screen adaptation of the Offenbach opera—a visual, sonic, and sensual …

By Bruce Eder

Essays — Jun 16, 1992
A Visit to the Nitrate Picture Show
A Visit to the Nitrate Picture Show

During the second incarnation of this festival dedicated to movies preserved on nitrate film, Jared Case, the festival’s executive director, talks about his work bringing the Nitrate Picture Show to life, selecting this year’s films, and why nitr

…

By Hillary Weston

Interviews — Jun 3, 2016
Powell and Pressburger in Wisconsin

Repertory Picks

Powell and Pressburger in Wisconsin
This week, The University of Wisconsin–Madison Cinematheque will present a special screening of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s dazzling 1951 film The Tales of Hoffmann, adapted from French composer Jacques Offenbach’s 1881 opera of the…
In Theaters — Mar 31, 2016
Annie Baker’s Top 10
Annie Baker’s Top 10

Playwright Annie Baker won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Flick, which is entirely set in a movie theater.

— Jun 30, 2015
Kim Newman’s Top 10
Kim Newman’s Top 10

Kim Newman’s books include the Anno Dracula series and Nightmare Movies. He is a contributing editor at Sight & Sound and Empire magazines and also writes for Video Watchdog.

— Oct 25, 2013
Gothic Riots: The Work of Hein Heckroth

Features

Gothic Riots: The Work of Hein Heckroth

The following essay was originally written for Criterion’s website in 2005, on the occasion of the DVD release of Powell and Pressburger’s The Tales of Hoffmann. We have posted it here to coincide with BFI Southbank’s ongoing Hein Heckroth exhi

…

By Andrew Moor

— Nov 30, 2009
The Tales of Hoffmann: Tales from the Lives of Marionettes
The Tales of Hoffmann: Tales from the Lives of Marionettes
Why would ambitious filmmakers simply film an opera? Many admirers of the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger have assumed that their decision to make The Tales of Hoffmann, in 1950, was in some way an admission by the longtime collaborator…

By Ian Christie

— Nov 22, 2005

Explore

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Writer, Producer, Director

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Though The Red Shoes is possibly the most popular and visually entrancing dance film of all time, the producing, directing, and writing team of the British Michael Powell and the Hungarian Emeric Pressburger created numerous other odes to the power of art and the imagination, always going against the realist strain of British cinema. Known by the name of their production company, the Archers, Powell and Pressburger forged a working alliance that lasted from the late thirties to the early seventies, and from the anti-Nazi propaganda of 49th Parallel and the astoundingly designed and edited epic The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp to the erotic, magical excesses of A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I’m Going!, Black Narcissus, and The Tales of Hoffmann. The duo were never as successful on their own as with each other, though Powell’s controversial Peeping Tom remains one of the most subversive and disturbing films ever made.

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