Hoffmanns Erzählungen

At night in Lutter & Wegner's wine bar, the poet and student E. T. A. Hoffmann tells his drinking guests about all kinds of wondrous travelling adventures he has had. His impressions are characterised by strange encounters, strange figures and his love for three women: Olympia, Giulietta and Antonia. In a town on the Rhine, he buys a pair of magic glasses that create ‘beauty and love’ from the dodgy illusionist and junk dealer Coppelius and promptly ‘falls in love’ with Olympia, the automaton wife of the doll maker Spalanzani. Hoffmann realises too late that he has been tricked. He travels on to Venice, where he falls in love with Giulietta and leaves her his reflection as a love pledge. Director Max Neufeld guides us through the dream worlds of his film as Hoffmann himself. (Anett Werner-Burgmann)