Hoffmanns Erzählungen

In this silent version of the well-remembered opera by Jacques Offenbach (libretto by Jules Barbier) director-scenarist Richard Oswald offers his interpretation of the work.

Happily the copy I looked at was bolstered by a score that excerpted the opera (with interpolations from La Belle Helene and Orphee en Enfer) which work very well. However it is a fairly primitive work. First, it makes use of the illustrated text method of telling its tale. This means that titles appear to tell you what you are about to see, and then you see it. More advanced movie makers could tell a tale with fewer titles. Even with the titles, a great deal of what goes on is unclear unless you already know the work.

Movies like these make me suspect that the production team does not take them seriously. Perhaps his attitude had changed by 1924, when he formed his own production company.