Back in October 2014, it was revealed in the UK that the famous 1951 film The Tales of Hoffmann, by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, was to be restored with an astonishing new 4K technique. "The Tales of Hoffmann: Revealed afresh in this remarkable Technicolor restoration, Powell and Pressburger’s 1951 musical phantasmagoria is the stuff of beautiful nightmares. Prepare to be astonished by the audacity and inventiveness of Powell and Pressburger’s dazzling take on Jacques Offenbach’s 1881 opera. Drawing on some of the greatest film, music and dance talents of the period, they transform it into a musical phantasmagoria. This revelatory 4K restoration (containing previously unseen footage) from the original 3-strip Technicolor negative unleashes feverish colours straight from the candy box: a cacophony of clashing yellows and purples as disturbing as they are enchanting. Out of this decadent world of surreal, sensual delights Ludmilla Tchérina seduces us as a 19th-century dominatrix ; a menacing chorus of pan-sexual mannequins appear to have raided the dressing-up box of Marc Bolan and, most unsettling of all, there’s the image of Moira Shearer’s dismembered head as it blinks back at us." [Source] Maybe next up for restoration will be Michael Powell's 1963 adaptation of Bartók's opera Bluebeard's Castle! Watch the HD trailer for the restored film The Tales of Hoffmann, see more details of the film including the full cast and synopsis, and look at more than twenty gorgeous movie stills, after the jump.
