The Tales of Hoffmann

+ intro by Andrew Moor, Manchester Metropolitan University

Dazzling, one-of-a-kind feast of music, dance, costume and cinema.

  • Directors

    Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

  • With

    Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine, Robert Rounseville, Ludmilla Tchérina, Pamela Brown

  • UK 1951. 128min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    U

Powell and Pressburger’s subversive, audacious take on Offenbach’s opera drew on some of the greatest film, music and dance talents of the period. Transforming it into a phantasmagoria of feverish colours, the sensual and unsettling delights include Tchérina as a 19th-century dominatrix, a chorus of pan-sexual mannequins who appear to have raided Marc Bolan’s dressing-up box, and Shearer’s dismembered but still-blinking head.

Robin Baker

Supported by Simon and Harley Hessel.

Joint ticket available with Queering Powell + Pressburger on Tuesday 12 December 18:00 NFT3 £14, concessions £11 (non-Members pay £2 more). Book in person at the box office or by phone on 020 7928 3232.

See other screenings.

Also available on BFI Player