The Tales of Hoffmann

The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) is the film-opera by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and you can watch it online on iFILM. A poet looks back on three women he loved and lost, and each memory unfolds like a separate waking dream.

The first is Olympia, a wind-up doll so flawless that falling for her feels inevitable — right up until the spring snaps. The second is a Venetian courtesan who collects reflections and souls. The third is the consumptive daughter of a composer, for whom every song costs a little more life. There is almost no spoken dialogue: Jacques Offenbach's score and pure dance carry the whole thing. Moira Shearer, the star of The Red Shoes, and choreographer Robert Helpmann turn each act into a painting that moves.

Sir Thomas Beecham conducts, and nothing was shot on location — the entire film lives on painted sets and optical tricks, so the image looks like theatrical backdrops brought to life. This is cinema that mesmerizes rather than narrates, and Martin Scorsese and George A. Romero have called it a formative obsession. Realists may struggle; everyone else gets a world of rare beauty. Stream The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) online on iFILM.