This a film version of the opera "The Tales of Hoffmann", however it is NOT
just a film of a staged performance. 'Michael Powell' & Emeric Pressburger
(and the rest of "The Archers") work their usual magic here. The opera
dramatises the three great romances in the life of the poet-hero presented in
a series of flashbacks. Hoffmann's tales depict the struggle between human
love and the artist's dedication to his work. Hoffmann loses each of the
women he loves but gains instead poetic inspiration -- the ability to
transform
painful experiences into art.