Yes, I do too. The Red Shoes blows me away every time I see it, and I was sure I was going to love TOH, but didn’t. Makes me wonder if Anton Walbrook’s great performance in TRS was even more of a key element to that film’s magnificence than I realized.
I just felt like it wasn’t my thing, really. I’m sure that quite a lot of people are very interested in Tales of Hoffmann, but for me I was more interested in the imagery than the story or music.
I actually own The Magic Flute, but I’ve never seen it because it was a blind buy. I saw Bergman and went “MINE!” (it was used, and really cheap), took it home, looked at the back, and went, “Awww…” I’m not much for plays, musicals, operas, and ballets shot as films, I’d rather they expand beyond the stage (a la Red Shoes) and go deeper into the actor’s stories.
I should really get around to seeing it though, since it’s just sitting there being a useless piece of plastic otherwise. Sigh
—PolarisDiB
Polarisdib, if you’re not into traditionally filmed operas or ballets, then I would highly recommend you go ahead and watch The Magic Flute. Bergman reaches beyond the onstage events to show the audience in anticipation of the show, some of the actors preparing for their entrances in the wings and the casual goings-on backstage during intermission. It is a light and enjoyable opera with great music and the presentation is more playful than austere.
It’s a movie with a lot going on, and it surprised me when I first saw it, just because of how energetic the whole thing was. I consider Hoffman to be the duo’s best film only because the impossibility of it’s precise imagery, and fluid story weaving was actually accomplished, as well as the dance numbers which drew me in far more than the ballet of the red shoes.
I may need to watch The Red Shoes shoes again to appreciate it even more, but The Tales of Hoffmann had a different effect, it is not that I loved it or hated it, it is just that the film keeps swimming around in my head. I have to watch The Tales of Hoffmann again.
A very difficult film. Very complex. And very different from The Red Shoes.
I’ve seen the Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. Neither could grab hold of me, and not let go. They were visually pleasing films, but neither the themes or plots of these films impressed me.
I’m different.
Nick Kostopoulos
I have to confess, I’m an hour in and feeling underwhelmed. Having seen “The Red Shoes” for the third time in the past year, having begun writing an adaptation of Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and The Mouse King”, and just based on the general reputation of the film, I’d been waiting weeks to see this.
Perhaps, my expectations were too high, but I am sorely disappointed. Visually, it’s equally as stunning as “The Red Shoes”, but it doesn’t seem to be clicking with me. I’m a little bit put off by the translaion; I wonder if a more literal translation from the original French would work better; the lyrics seem a little stilted.
Anybody else feel the same way?