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On an immediate level, we feel the connection between the two lovers, and like them feel the desire to see them together. The piece immediately reminds us of its first and only other association, juxtaposing those days of innocence with the current tragedy experienced by the character and creates a massive rush of emotion for the viewer. At the opera, he was hoping that she would actually shift her attention away from the stage and look in his direction, the music actually in direct opposition to his aims.īut here, the music is that point of connection between the two and sure enough Dora responds, hearing the music clearly. Sure enough, it is that same duet from “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” and once again, Guido’s aim is to connect with his beloved. As he searches through another connection of LP recordings, he finds something and puts it on, shifting the megaphone toward the window so that the music can play out into the camp. Guido is serving a banquet and suddenly comes upon a phonograph, the current LP finished. The two are now separated yet again with Dora on one side of the concentration camp and Guido and his son on another.
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It has been seared into our subconscious, becoming, in a way, their love motif.īut we don’t hear it again until late in the film. As if to remind us of the association of their love with the “Hoffmann” duet, Guido starts to sing it out loud as she runs down the street. Right after this, the two enjoy a night together that climaxes in Guido expressing his love for Dora. It is almost a turning point from where there is no escape. We have felt the flirtation between them earlier in the film, but it is here, with the backdrop of Offenbach’s alluring melody for two voices, that we feel that they might really be connected on a deeper level. It is a quick and brief moment, but it furthers their connection, becoming, to that point, the most intimate moment between them, their eyes meeting. We focus on a tight closeup of Dora as she looks at the stage and then ever so slowly turns to make eye contact with Guido. We get a rather comic moment when a woman beside him turns in his direction and he notes that he can only hear out of his right ear.Īnd while this humor appears in the scene, the crux really comes down to the connection between these characters.
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He even ushers in a “magic trick” based on Schopenhauer’s philosophy that repeating words have power. Guido’s main objective in this moment, amidst a theater of other opera goers is to get his beloved to make eye contact with him. Far off onstage, we see and hear the voices of Nicklausse and Antonia intone the famed words “Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour,” which Guido later repeats. While he is in the orchestra section, she is in a box above him, the distance between the two future lovers a prominent aspect of the cinematography. Dora goes with her fiancée while Guido heads over in search of her. The first such instance of the famed passage comes at the Opera House in Venice where both characters attend. And we hear Offenbach’s barcarole from “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” on two occasions, one in each half of the film and both pertaining to his relationship with Dora.