Its six years after the end of the war, and one of the first things The Archers have come to realise, is that the terms under which any film is now made have radically changed. Its much harder to raise the finance to get a film off the ground. There are increasing pressures on film making to be commercial and make money at the box office. The moral boosting roll of film has disappeared, as has the hands off policy of their producers and commisioners.
During the war Powell and Pressburger were given a huge amount of creative freedom. which allied with supporting the war effort, helped produce their best films. War restrictions helped. Shortages of colour film stock meant many films had to be made in black and white. If there wasn't the budget or ability to film abroad, you made the best of studio space and film techniques in the UK. All these things required them to dig a little deeper.
In the post war the inventive teamwork between Powell and Pressburger does not noticeable flourish under the pressure of financing and film distributors. How they then raised enough money to film Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffman in colour, well that's anyone's guess. Maybe calling upon the cudos of having made The Red Shoes might have helped.
Yet this is a very niche film. If you don't appreciate opera, however light it is, then this film will not change that. It was definitely aiming to make it accessible to everyone. It has high production values and their are many examples here of The Archers Team pulling off some bravura cinematography, staging and editing effects. Conjuring up very other worldly dream like sets and scenarios. But I get a sense that somewhere along the line of its production they lost sight of the magic their war period films had.
All the old Archers favourite performers are assembled here, just like in the old times. The mix of part mime, dance and opera leads to quite an uneven performance style. Robert Helpmann in particular does his most broad and melodramatic expressiveness, as though he was in a silent movie. Which would be OK if everyone else was pitched at the same level of intensity. But some are going for light mime, others for naturalness or comedic caricature. In short this is a rather beautifully conceived, if patchy, bit of a mess.
CARROT REVIEW - 4/8
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