The Magic Flute

The curtain opens and the audience is in its seats. The camera goes over the faces: children, old people, people from different countries. Then it turns to the stage. Tamino is fleeing a serpent and faints. The Queen of the Night gives him a task: her daughter Pamina has been taken and must be rescued. Tamino sets out and takes the bird catcher Papageno with him. Where they arrive the situation is not as described. Whether Sarastro is a bad man or the queen is lying, the film leaves open. Ingmar Bergman directs. Josef Köstlinger, Irma Urrila, Håkan Hagegård and Elisabeth Erikson are in the cast. It is a Swedish production. The source is Mozart's opera. It was made for television and broadcast on Swedish television; afterwards it reached cinemas as well. The opera is sung not in German but in Swedish; Bergman had the text translated into the language the audience would understand. It was shot in a studio and the stage was built on the model of the theatre at Drottningholm near Stockholm. The film does not hide the stage illusion; what is behind the curtain, the pauses and the performers' dressing rooms are shown too. Bergman's own daughter is among the faces at the opening. The matter it treats is watching itself; the camera records not the stage alone but the person watching it. Its limit is form; it is long for anyone without knowledge of opera, the narrative simple, and the pace low. Who it is for: viewers who like opera adaptations and Bergman's cinema. Who it is not for: it is long, the staging artificial, and the ending ceremonial.