The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

The Tales of Hoffmann
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itself. It was the filmmaking, the fantasy, the fact that it was a fantasy and it
had a few frightening, sort of bizarre things in it. It was everything.
It was really a movie for me, and it gave me an early appreciation for the
power of visual media—the fact that you could experiment with it. He was
doing all his tricks in-camera, and they were sort of obvious. That made me
feel that, gee, maybe I could figure this medium out. It was transparent, but
it worked. It didn’t bother me in those days, nothing bothered me. I thought
King Kong didn’t look fake.
And do you have a particular scene that you are drawn to?
Romero: The duel. I thought it was beautiful. The music is slow; the action
is very fast. It’s just a well-described scene. And I like the shots of one of the
characters walking down statues, like stepping on lost souls.
You’ve called this film a constant metaphor for the transforming power
of imagination through art.
Romero: It really is very heady. Powell was able to take whatever ideas
came at him. The basic storylines are in the opera, so he wasn’t inventing
the whole thing. But he was able to visualize it and imagine things the
way he thought they should look and the way they could never be done
on a stage at the Metropolitan or anywhere else. It’s like painting. Even
though it’s not literal, it’s not abstract. I think it was referencing painters
in the overhead shot of everyone at the table at the tavern. I think he was
able to really use his imagination to pull these wonderful ideas out and
execute them.
There’s a scene in which a life-size mechanical doll, whom Hoffmann
falls in love with, is torn apart. I couldn’t help but think of a similar
scene from Dawn of the Dead in which your zombies tear apart one of
their victims. Do you have any conscious homages to Powell and Pressburger
in your films?
Romero: No, not really. I generally don’t play around with that. I don’t
try to think of how to emulate. I generally try to just serve whatever I’m
doing the best I can think of. So, if anything, I think there might be some
subliminal stuff.