You won't be disappointed!

best movie i've ever seen.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Of all of Mozart's operas, I cannot decide which is my favourite out of Don Giovanni, Marriage of Figaro(Le Nozze Di Figaro) and Magic Flute(Die Zauberflote), though I have a fondness for Cosi Fan Tutte too. I love the stories and characters of these operas, and the music in all of Mozart's operas(even those with stories not as strong such Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail) is magnificent.I have seen several opera productions, and a number of opera films. My favourite opera films prior to seeing this Magic Flute were the 1976 Tosca, Losey's Don Giovanni, Zeffirelli's La Traviata, Rossi's Carmen, Ponelle's Le Nozze Di Figaro and Ponelle's Rigoletto. I saw this Magic Flute for two primary reasons, one that Magic Flute is one of my favourite operas, and the other being the great Ingmar Bergman.The Magic Flute didn't disappoint. Bergman's direction was accomplished as always, the cinematography was gorgeous and the largely symbolic images looked amazing and enhanced the compelling story. The only ones that didn't quite work for me were the shots of the audience in the overture, which were a little distracting and unnecessary for me. The sets are suitably lavish and the costumes while different than one would expect are good.As for the orchestral playing and conducting, they were superb, with the orchestra playing with power and clarity, and the conducting rock-solid with well-judged tempos. The acting and singing are very good generally, the best being Hakan Hagegard's hilarious Papagaeno and Birgit Nordin's imperiously chilling Queen of the Night. Josef Kostlinger is excellent as Tamino too, which is surprising in a sense since I have often come across some dashing, beautifully-sung but very bland tenors in the role.Irma Urrila is very poignant as Pamina, and the three ladies and three boys are very well blended. Ulrik Cold's Sarastro is firm in the acting, but part of me would have liked a darker and perhaps more powerful voice, but he does do very well. Ragnar Ulfung's Monosatos is rather over-played for my liking.As for staging, I liked it, especially the two trials and the delightful Papagaeno-Papagaena duet. The decision to especially move Papagaeno's second aria to the second trial was actually a very good one. Only the first scene with the dragon struck a false note with me, the dragon looked decent but Kothlinger's acting could've been much more panicked.Overall, despite the few flaws I had with it, it is a great film and one of my favourites to do with opera. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Opera is hard to present as a movie, particularly an opera like The Magic Flute where the mixture of fairy-tale fantasy, serious concept risk at lesser hands to present a hodgepodge with no real idea what the director has in mind. Alternatively, others may strive to stress the imagery to the detriment of the substance. Losey's Don Giovanni is a case in point, where the sheer beauty of the surroundings averted attention from the music. There can be no better Magic Flute than Bergman's. The gradual movement of the story from the initial sight of the obviously fake scenery to the sublime ending where we are really transposed in the realm of Sarastro is incredible. The occasional pictures of members of the audience listening raptly is a marvelous touch. No words can do justice to this masterpiece. Watch it .

The Magic Flute is a great story. It's fast-moving, funny, touching and Harry-Potter fantastical. It's ideal for film. Unfortunately, it is also an opera, a theatrepiece unavoidably diminished when not experienced live. Indeed, given this opera's fantastical nature it is a wonder that anyone manages to stage it competently at all. It would seem that mounting any sort of a production is a compromised, Faustian arrangement.Inevitably perhaps, Bergman's The Magic Flute is a model of how opera could be seen on screen. Instead of a double compromise, he essentially succeeds in offsetting the detractions of one form with the advantages of the other. Where the modern audience may baulk at the formal oddity of the actors singing to a disembodied camera, he assuages us with an overture full of that audience - modern, multicultural, multigenerational and attentive. The players themselves, though occupying fantastical roles are occasionally shown in the wings or backstage, notably in an irreverent 'interval' sequence.In this way we are left watching a staged opera - Bergman has been able to avoid the temptation of filming either on 'location' or in a studio... but if you watch closely, as the film progresses, the theatre becomes a studio, the camera moving onto the stage and changing the theatrical two-dimensions into a cinematic three. He manages to have it both ways.With this subtlety at work it's almost superfluous to talk about the production of the opera itself, although Bergman's respect for it demands our scrutiny. Given the period restrictions of the Drottingholm theatre where it was filmed it's a fairly inventive production, with a good range of quickly implemented effects (a snowy penultimate sequence is in-theatre rather than in-studio and entirely convincing). The vocal performances are mixed - Hakan Hagegard's Papageno, Irma Urrila's Pamina and Birgit Nordin's Queen of the Night the pick of the bunch. Ulrik Cold and Ragnar Ulfung as Sarastro and Monostatos are comparatively weak.A little tinkering with the running order may be to blame for a slowing of the pace just before the trials, close to the denouement. Otherwise this is a brilliant film, the perfect advocate for an opera hamstrung only by it being one. 9/10

i had heard much about ingmar bergman's magic flute on film and had wanted to see it for a while. what better opportunity then, to rent it as an intro to opera for a classical-music-neophyte-friend. the answer is: nay! trollfloetjen - in Swedish, which quelled my instinct to sing along with every Sarastro aria - is a product of its time, the mid 70's. while it is a fine adaptation of the opera for film, it's more cute than anything else, the imagery would serve your children very well. it is rather straight-forward mozart/schikaneder - only that the snake in scene i act i became an adorable dragon (not very fearsome, but very cute, actually!) and the first encounter of monostatos with papageno is acted quite in opposite to the words. (only papageno is afraid, rather than the mutual fear of the 'other'...)only bergman's skill can keep the whole venture from slipping into the campy... barely. act three, however, has some of the most arresting imagery to offer that you can hope for from opera on film: the ballett dancers enacting a Dante-esque inferno in the fire-test for tamino is stunning and actually quite disturbing. the water test is almost as effective... and the onslaught of the queen of the night's army makes for another juicy scene.to introduce yourself or especially your youngens to this so charming opera, you could not pick something better. for yourself, knowing the work well, or knowing bergman's work well, you might be a little disappointed. new insights are not likely gained. a DVD of an opera production might be more satisfying then!