2h 8min | Fantasy, Music, Musical | 1 April 1951 | Color
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Thomas Beecham ... conductor (as Sir Thomas Beecham Bart.)
Stars: Moira Shearer, Robert Rounseville, Ludmilla Tchérina, Ann Ayars, Léonide Massine.
Frederick Ashton ... choreographer
Alan Carter ... assistant choreographer
Joan Harris ... assistant choreographer
Got my 9-film order from overseas today, and have watched more than tested the discs. Thought I should write about this one.
I have the feeling that the more I watch this, the higher my rating will go. I would love to compare this with a live opera staging, because P&P have done some fantastic things with images here, which will be missing onstage. And, I wonder how much ballet is involved in an opera staging.
Per Simon's 100 Greatest Operas, Offenbach's opera was first staged in 1881, and consists of a prologue, 3 acts and an epilogue. Hoffman sings about his 3 past loves: Act 1 is for Olympia, the mechanical doll, Act 2 for Giulietta, the courtesan, and Act 3 is for Antonia, the consumptive opera singer. These are played by Shearer, Tchérina and Ayars, respectively. Shearer also plays Stella, Hoffman's current love.
The music is lovely, and P&P do wonders with color, even without Jack Cardiff here.
I'm not a fan of ballet, but this and P&P's The Red Shoes ('48) are exceptions, perhaps because the dancing is so dramatically constructed and surrounded by cinema trickery (in a good way).
This wasn't included in the chronology because I didn't already own it, and it's not American.
This wasn't included in the chronology because I didn't already own it, and it's not American.
The Archers, distr. British Lion Film Corp., dir. Powell & Pressburger, cond. Beecham; 7
