René Schirrer

Among DVDs of "Hoffmann" currently available, this is the only one that even begins to stand comparison with the superlative Powell and Pressburger film (whose ideas it occasionally borrows). Olivier Py's baroque imagination, which sometimes leads him into self-indulgence and incoherence, is well suited to bringing out this opera's darkness and he does an excellent job

Featurette from the Opus Arte DVD of Les Paladins by Jean-Philippe Rameau staged at the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris, 2004.