I saw this on television in 1962 in black and white and always wished for seeing it again. It would take 57 years, but it was worth the waiting.
Tchaikovsky's opera is slightly abbreviated but only favourably - all the best music is here, and it is some of the best music he ever wrote. It is important to remember, that Tchaikovsky was deeply engaged in this opera, one of his last, and so was his brother Modest, who wrote the libretto. The tenor part was specially written for a certain tenor with whom Tchaikovsky was in love. All these rather demonic and almost obsessed elements are well taken care of and communicated in the film.
The action of the opera is set in the 18th century under Catherine II, who actually makes an entrance as the finale in the great ballroom scene, but here they have aptly changed the setting to Pushkin's own time in the 1820s, and the film is introduced by marvellous water colour paintings of old St. Petersburg. All this and many other things add to the almost perfect realism of this great romantic film and opera.
All the actors are splendid and perfectly right for their terrible ordeals. Oleg Strizhenov is actually occasionally reminding of Robert Helpmann in his demonic appearances in "Tales of Hoffmann", another successfully filmed opera, and you can almost smell the relish of Powell-Pressburger throughout the film - the brilliant camera work, the expressionistic ingrediences (espcially in the ghost scene), the marvellous innovations, like when the scene changes from the three candles after the countess' death scene to the single candle in the barracks, the wonderful glowing colours, and the very inspired cinematography - this can only be acvknowledged as a masterpiece among filmed operas, and maybe the best - together with "Tales of Hoffmann".
Tchaikovsky's opera is slightly abbreviated but only favourably - all the best music is here, and it is some of the best music he ever wrote. It is important to remember, that Tchaikovsky was deeply engaged in this opera, one of his last, and so was his brother Modest, who wrote the libretto. The tenor part was specially written for a certain tenor with whom Tchaikovsky was in love. All these rather demonic and almost obsessed elements are well taken care of and communicated in the film.
The action of the opera is set in the 18th century under Catherine II, who actually makes an entrance as the finale in the great ballroom scene, but here they have aptly changed the setting to Pushkin's own time in the 1820s, and the film is introduced by marvellous water colour paintings of old St. Petersburg. All this and many other things add to the almost perfect realism of this great romantic film and opera.
All the actors are splendid and perfectly right for their terrible ordeals. Oleg Strizhenov is actually occasionally reminding of Robert Helpmann in his demonic appearances in "Tales of Hoffmann", another successfully filmed opera, and you can almost smell the relish of Powell-Pressburger throughout the film - the brilliant camera work, the expressionistic ingrediences (espcially in the ghost scene), the marvellous innovations, like when the scene changes from the three candles after the countess' death scene to the single candle in the barracks, the wonderful glowing colours, and the very inspired cinematography - this can only be acvknowledged as a masterpiece among filmed operas, and maybe the best - together with "Tales of Hoffmann".