Line #45 Film/TheTalesOfHoffmann1916


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tales_of_hoffman_1916.jpg]]
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3	The first film version of [[Theatre/TheTalesOfHoffmann the famous opera]], ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (''Hoffmanns Erzählungen'') is a German silent film, directed by Richard Oswald. Like the stage versions before it, the film tells the story of German [[{{Romanticism}} Romanticist]] author Creator/ETAHoffmann as he [[BiographyAClef stumbles his way through the tales he himself wrote]], finding both romance and danger along the way.
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5	Unique for this version is a flashback prologue featuring a teenaged Hoffmann, which sets up the rest of the story. ([[TimeShiftedActor Kurt Wolowsky and Erich Kaiser-Titz play the young and adult Hoffmann, respectively.]]) In exchange, the FramingDevice of the writer telling the tales to his drinking buddies was cut, removing the implication that Hoffmann might be an UnreliableNarrator.
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7	Oh, and look out for a [[Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari pre-Caligari]] Werner Krauss as the evil Conte Dapertutto.
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11	!!Tropes:
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13	* AdaptationalWimp: Lindorf, who the film basically changes from Hoffmann's ArchEnemy to just some rich guy Stella is cheating on. It doesn't help that the implication that the other villains either are or represent different aspects of him has also been AdaptedOut.
14	* AdaptationDistillation: Manages to distill the basic plot of the opera down to an hour and ten minuters, even with an additional prologue.
15	* AdaptationExpansion: The prologue, [[AlreadyMetEveryone which shows a young Hoffmann meeting many of his future friends and enemies.]] Notably, the Coppélius segment is actually based on a scene from Literature/TheSandman1816, which is ''not'' included in the opera itself.
16	* AdaptationExplanationExtrication:
17	** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. The film ''creates'' an explanation for why Coppélius wanted to tear our protagonist's eyes out. He was trying to make some sort of PhilosophersStone, using a process which [[PoweredByAForsakenChild apparently required]] the eyes of ''multiple'' children.
18	** Also [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with Dr. Mirakel, who has now ''gained'' a motive for murdering Angela and her daughter Antonia. [[NotGoodWithRejection Namely, both of them refused the "good" doctor's sexual advances.]]
19	* AdaptedOut: Nicklausse/The Muse doesn't appear. Possibly because the film downplays Hoffmann's role as TheStoryteller.
20	* AgeGapRomance: Hoffmann is at least a decade older than Antonia, who is first seen playing with him as a toddler. [[WifeHusbandry 18 years later, they're together.]] (This element is unique to this adaptation. In the original ''Rath Krespel'' story, the narrator only meets Antonia a few years before her death, [[PosthumousCharacter long after the passing of her mother).]]
21	* BiographyAClef: Much like the opera, the film presents the events from three of Hoffmann's tales as having happened to the man himself. (The ''actual'' stories were more prone to using an AuthorAvatar and/or a DirectLineToTheAuthor.)
22	* CompressedAdaptation: In the opera, Hoffmann's stories are said to have happened years apart ([[UrbanLegendLoveLife that is, assuming that they happened at all.]]) Here however, there is no explicit TimeSkip after the prologue, which has the side effect of making Hoffmann even more of a SerialRomeo who has all four of his romances ''in one day!''
23	* DecompositeCharacter: PlayedWith. The villains and love interests of Hoffmann's tales are no longer implied to be this InUniverse... meaning that the film ends up doing this on a meta level by explicitly making them different people. (This is somewhat TruerToTheText, as there was no continuity between the original stories.)
24	* {{Demythification}}: Despite being a fantasy film, it actually strips ''The Tale of Giulietta'' of all supernatural elements. Dapertutto is not an EvilSorceror, Schlemil hasn't given up his shadow, and Hoffmann never loses his reflection (even though the original story ''was called The Lost Reflection!''
25	* DownerEnding: All of Hoffmann's relationships end in tragedy, then he has an ImagineSpot in which all of his enemies show up to mock him. The End.
26	* DuelToTheDeath: Hoffmann and Schlemil have a sword fight over Giulietta's love. Hoffmann wins, killing Schlemil, but it doesn't really matter as Giulietta has made a getaway along with Dapertutto, using the duel as a distraction.
27	* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery:
28	** The present day Hoffmann [[EstablishingCharacterMoment is introduced romancing Stella]], who is -- in this version -- already engaged to Lindorf.
29	** Giulietta plats with the emotions of both Hoffmann and Schlemil before running off with Dapertutto.
30	** FridgeLogic dictates that Hoffmann was likely already involved with Antonia while having his other romances. (In the opera, they are implied to have met during the TimeSkip inbetween the acts.)
31	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Creator/ETAHoffmann himself, of course. As well as his aunt and uncle, and his actor friend Ludvig Devrient.
32	* HistoricalInJoke: The young Hoffmann gets chided and sent to his room by his aunt and uncle for drawing an unflattering picture of Conte Dapertutto. The real Hoffmann actually did get in trouble -- even losing his job -- for drawing political caricatures.
33	* InvoluntaryDance: Dr. Mirakel's method of assassination is changed from [[TheMusicMeister involuntary singing]] to this.
34	* KarmaHoudini: All of the villains, really. Dapertutto rund off with Giulietta, having robbed a now dead man. Dr. Mirakel murders both Angela and Antonia before successfully covering it up, and while Coppélius and Spalanzani ''do'' respectively get scammed and have their expensive automation destroyed, they are never brought to justice for their attempted murder (which is implied to have been a fluke in a series of ''successful'' murders.)
35	* LostInImitation: Despite being a silent movie, the film is clearly based more on the opera than on Creator/ETAHoffmann's original stories. Granted, the opera was itself adapted from a stage play.
36	* MagicCauldron: Used by the alchemists Coppelius and Spalanzani during their experiment (well, it's really more of a big hanging cooking pot, but it fills the same function.)
37	* MayDecemberRomance: Dr. Mirakel -- who is even older than Hoffmann, with visibly graying hair in the present -- ''wants'' this to happen between himself and Antonia, but she isn't having any of it.
38	* MusicalAssassin: Dr. Mirakel kills his victims by playing them the violin. This compels them to dance, eventually killing them by exhaustion.
39	* TheMusicMeister: Dr. Mirakel [[MusicalAssassin kills his victims by playing them the violin]]. [[InvoluntaryDance This compels them to dance]], eventually killing them by exhaustion.
40	* {{Nephewism}}: Hoffmann lives with his aunt and uncle at the start of the film, which is TruthInTelevision. His mother moved back in with her siblings after she and Hoffmann's father seperated.
41	* RandomEventsPlot: A side effect of cutting the framing device which gave the opera an anthology format is that [[WeirdnessMagnet Hoffmann seems to rum straight from each dramatic encounter to the next.]]
42	* RobotGirl: Olympia. Hoffmann falls in love with her, unaware of her true nature, and is rather shocked to learn the truth. In fact, this version of the character might actually be the first example of this trope in movie history.
43	* SettingUpdate: While the opera is set in multiple countries across Europe, the characters in the film all seem to live in a pair of nearby towns, most of them within walking distance of one another.
44	* ShaggyDogStory: Schlemil manages to win a fortune at the gaming table, but he never gets to enjoy any of it as Hoffmann stabs him shortly thereafter, with Dapertutto stealing much of his winnings.
45	* TamerAndChaster: This is probably one of the more "family-friendly" interpretations of ''The Tale of Giulietta''. While the [[ProtagonistTitle titular protagonist]] herself is still a seductress, her house does not serve as a literal brothel, as is often the case in the opera.
46	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Spalanzani, Coppélius, Mirakel and Dapertutto are all well-liked public figures whose illicit deeds are largely unknown, even by the end of the film.

Context Film / TheTalesOfHoffmann1916