The Magic Flute - Criterion Collection

The Magic Flute - Criterion Collection

The Magic Flute - Criterion Collection
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Helene Friberg, Jane Darling, Jerker Arvidson, Nina Harte, Sven-Erik Jacobsson
Primary Contributor: Josef K?stlinger
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: Swedish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 135 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-05-16
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Criterion

Movie Reviews of The Magic Flute - Criterion Collection

Movie Review: Even if you are not a fan of opera
Summary: 5 Stars

Even if you are not normally a fan of opera, you can't help but love The Magic Flute. Bergman's film, Trollfl?jten, is a clever mix of stagecraft and film effects, and a delightful introduction to this wonderful work. Although not sung in the original German, it still captures the beauty of Mozart's music and the complexities of the story--the meaning of which is still debated after all these years. His Papageno and Papagena are unforgettable, and Birgit Nordin is near perfect as the Queen of the Night. As Hermann Hesse had one of his characters say about The Magic Flute: "(it) presents life to us as a wondrous song...it preaches optimism and faith."

Summary of The Magic Flute - Criterion Collection

Ingmar Bergman puts his indelible stamp on Mozart's exquisite opera in this sublime rendering of one of the composer's best-loved works: a celebration of love, forgiveness, and the brotherhood of man. The Magic Flute (Trollfl?jten) stars Josef K?stlinger as Tamino, the young man determined to rescue a beautiful princess from the clutches of parental evil. Criterion's edition features the film's glorious soundtrack in the original stereo format.
Ingmar Bergman's vision of The Magic Flute (sung here in Swedish) remains one of the indisputable classics in the opera-as-film catalog, its charm and enchantment undiminished since the film's initial release in the 1970s. This is a case not of competition between two geniuses (and two media) but of affirmative, graceful, and enlightening synergy. Instead of simply filming a staged run-through of the opera, Bergman chooses to play with the framework around such a performance (given in Stockholm's elegant Drottningholm Theatre)--and he moreover rearranges the order of the scenes in the final act. Intermittent shots of audience reactions--including those of a young girl infectiously involved in the story--and sudden, psychologically probing close-up angles result in a richly textured, multilayered effect.

Certainly Bergman renders the fairy-tale aspects of Mozart's mise-en-sc?ne with such buoyant detail that the film makes an excellent entr?e both for youngsters and for anyone who is uneasy about how to approach an opera. Yet there is much food for thought to be savored by the already initiated as well. One of Bergman's more brilliant interventions is to depict Sarastro and the Queen of the Night as a divorced couple engaged in a bitter battle over daughter Pamina. The director supplies plenty of energetic wit and arabesques of allusion (in addition to his Prospero-like demeanor, the high priest Sarastro is shown at one point during the intermission perusing the score of Parsifal), and--as might be expected of one of film's greatest symbolists--teases out the opera's weightier allegorical levels with hauntingly beautiful effect. Brilliant chiaroscuro and contrasted lighting patterns, for example, offer ongoing visual commentary on the contest between darkness and light. The cast is exceptionally photogenic, their abundant youth and obvious chemistry more than compensating for the often no-more-than-mediocre vocal performances (with the exception of H?kan Hageg?rd's utterly disarming, still-fresh portrayal of Papageno). For a desert-island audio recording, try Thomas Beecham. --Thomas May

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