In 1951 the filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger went in a completely different direction than they had before when they opted to film an opera. Not only was this an odd move, but also it was an odd opera that they chose to use as the source material for their project. The results, however, are quite impressive.

The Tales Of Hoffman starts off in an Opera house where we find Hoffman in the audience enjoying a ballet performance. The lead ballerina, Stella, is the real reason he's there, as he is instantly head over heels in love with her. From here, Hoffman exits to head out to a tavern where he runs into three students who are all eager to hear from him. With Stella wearing heavy on his heart, he decides to tell the students three tales of love from his past…

The first of the three stories is The Tale Of Olympia. Flashing back to his time in Paris, we hear of the time when he himself was a student. Two twisted puppet makers dupe the poor man into falling in love with their latest creation, a lifelike doll they name Olympia. One of the puppet makers pretends that the doll is his daughter and hopes that he'll be able to weasel some money out of Hoffman, and they throw a formal ball in her honor. When the doll sings a song, Hoffman becomes enthralled with her but the puppet maker is angry that he's been unable to get any money thus far and he destroys Olympia to get back at Hoffman.

The Tale Of Giulietta is the second story, we find Hoffman a little older and a little wiser but still very susceptible to the fairer sex. He falls for a Venetian woman named Giulietta who is in cahoots with an evil magician. What Hoffman doesn't realize is that Giulietta has stolen his soul and is keeping it captive in a mirror. He ends up killing Giulietta's current beau in a duel and then runs off to find her but soon realizes that she's left him for the magician. In a fit of rage he smashes the mirror and inadvertently frees his soul from her grasp.

The third story is The Tale Of Antonia. Hoffman's again a little older and a little wiser this time out, as he meets and quickly falls in love with a beautiful woman named Antonia. Her mother has recently died and it has driven her father quite insane with grief, and as such the father does his best to keep his daughter from the world, holing her up on a remote Greek island. Her deceased mother was a singer before she died and now her father forbids her from singing, as it's too painful a memory for him to bear. Hoffman and the crazed doctor who let Antonia's mother die make it in to see Antonia, and when the doctor convinces her to sing once more, she dies in Hoffman's arms.

After Hoffman has told his three tales we cut back to the opera house where Stella has finished up. Without spoiling the ending, she heads to the tavern where Hoffman is hanging out and… let's just leave it at that.

While a lot of people will probably turn their nose up at the very idea of watching a filmed opera, The Tales Of Hoffman is so well filmed and makes such excellent use of its sets, costumes, and color schemes that it is from start to finish an absolutely gorgeous treat for the eyes. The storylines move at a very staged pace (which makes sense, considering, well, they're… staged and all) and the singing will take some getting used to for those who aren't familiar with opera in general but the overall experience is so lavish and over the top that you can't help but be pulled into it.

The music, being a huge focal point of this production, was all recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the entire production was filmed on an actual theatre stage, which adds some authenticity to the proceedings. The score is powerful, if at times completely undecipherable in terms of being able to understand the lyrics (subtitles are available in English) but the emotion comes through even when the words don't.

A little bit of research unearths the fact that the composer of the original opera, Jacques Offenbach, passed away before he finished the project and that as such, there are many varying interpretations of how he wanted the final version to be. Without being able to attest to the accuracy of this adaptation, it's hard to say where this one fits in, in terms of faithfulness to Offenbach's original vision and intent, but that doesn't devalue the work captured here on film – it's impressive, and very theatrical.

Video:

Criterion's 1.33.1 fullframe transfer presents the film in its original aspect ratio and aside from some mild print damage, things look pretty good on this release. Color reproduction is handled very nicely, the reds look nice and distinct without ever bleeding into the other hues, and the black levels stay strong and stable from start to finish. There are no problems on the disc in terms of mpeg compression artifacts or serious edge enhancement. There's a very pleasing level of both foreground and background detail and although an understandable amount of film grain is present throughout, it's never really overpowering even if you're aware of it pretty much from start to finish.