The Tales of Hoffmann
1951, UK, 128 minutes, released November 22, 2005
Produced and Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus)
Recognitions: Designer Hein Heckroth received Oscar nominations for
both Best Art Direction, Set Design, and Best Costume Design, 1952
Based in Offenbach’s opera of the same name — but not just a stage performance — the film uses ballet as well as opera to dramatize the three great romances in the life of the poet, Hoffmann. Presented as a flashback in three parts, each tale depicts the struggle between human
love and the artist's dedication to his work. The hero loses each of
the women he loves but gains instead poetic inspiration — the ability
to transform painful experiences into art.
The best is definitely the
second part, The Tale of Giulietta. When I was eight, a very beautiful
woman came to stay at our house in London and I was asked to “prattle”
to her all day long as a sort of crash course in English. She turned
out to be the Russian ballerina, Ludmilla Tchérina, who plays Giulietta (as well as
Irina Boronskaja in The Red Shoes)
and does the magical dance of the dragonfly. I always loved this film and am so pleased that after many years it has finally emerged on DVD
so that all classic film fans, and admirers of the ballet can finally
see it. Watch for the magical sets and costumes from the days before
“special effects” were officially born.
The DVD should be available for both sale and rental from any major source.
Twin Sisters (De Tweeling), 2002, Netherlands/Luxembourg 137 minutes,
subtitles
released September 2005
Director: Ben Sombogaart
Recognitions: Oscar Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, 2004;
Golden Calf for Best Film, Netherlands Film Festival, 2003. Adapted from the immensely popular Dutch novel De Tweeling by Tessa de
Loo which has currently sold more than 3 million copies in Europe.
This thought-provoking film explores the old "nature or nurture"
question. Can the differences in the upbringings of a set of twins be reconciled through their common experiences of love, loss and war? The twin sisters are orphaned in the Germany of the 1920s, and each is sent to grow up in a very different world. Lotte, who suffers from 'consumption' (tuberculosis) goes to live with her upper middle class aunt, in
Holland. Anna, the stronger one, is sent to work on her uncle's farm in
Germany. At the outbreak of World War II, Lotte, who has been raised in
a wealthy liberal Dutch setting, has fallen in love and married a
Jewish intellectual. Anna has escaped her violent uncle — who treated
her as a virtual slave — to become a Countess's maid and then the wife
of an Austrian soldier who will become and SS officer. Laced with
flashbacks, the film explores a period after the war when both women
have lost their husbands and are tentatively seeking reconciliation.
The film also offers an opportunity to explore World War II from both the Dutch and the German viewpoints and may help you understand why so
many German civilians supported the Nazis.
The DVD should be available for both sale and rental from any major source.
Coming Soon: The Secret Life of Geisha, Ladies in Lavender and the
classic, Julia.
Angela Pressburger grew up in the film industry (father Emeric Pressburger made The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus and Stairway to
Heaven). She has been been an international program consultant at the
Vancouver International Film Festival for the past ten years, and has
spoken about film and sat on festival juries in both Europe and North
America. She has recently written Show It in Public! — a grassroots guide to showing film in public (www.showamovie.ca) and keeps busy
writing reviews for her home video for discerning viewers website,
MapToMovies.com. Email: angela@showamovie.ca
Angela's reviews of films to watch during the holidays>>
Book reviews: Page One, Page Two
Culture Watch
