The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) is a unique and important film, both in the history of British cinema and in the history of interdisciplinary art-making. It is the first full-throttle presentation of an opera on screen: a Technicolor exploration of romance, fantasy, and failure, more danced than sung.

William P. Germano is Professor of English Literature and Dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, USA. He is author of Getting It Published (2nd ed., 2008) and From Dissertation to Book (2nd ed., 2013). He is currently writing a book on Shakespeare and opera.