The Magic Flute (1975)

The Queen of the Night offers her daughter Pamina to Tamino, but he has to bring her back from her father and priest Sarastro. She gives a magic flute to Tamino and magic bells to the bird ... See full summary »

Director:

Ingmar Bergman (uncredited)

Writers:

Emanuel Schikaneder (libretto), Ingmar Bergman (screenplay)

Stars:

Ulrik Cold, Josef Köstlinger, Irma Urrila

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Josef Köstlinger	...	Tamino
Irma Urrila	...	Pamina
Håkan Hagegård	...	Papageno
Elisabeth Erikson	...	Papagena
Britt-Marie Aruhn	...	Första damen (First Lady)
Kirsten Vaupel	...	Andra damen (Second Lady)
Birgitta Smiding	...	Tredje damen (Third Lady)
Ulrik Cold	...	Sarastro
Birgit Nordin	...	Nattens Drottning
Ragnar Ulfung	...	Monostatos
Erik Sædén	...	Talaren
Ulf Johansson	...	Andra prästen (Second Priest)
Gösta Prüzelius	...	Första prästen (First Priest)
Jerker Arvidson	...	Vakt i Prövningarnas Hus
Hans Johansson	...	Vakt i Prövningarnas Hus

Storyline

The Queen of the Night offers her daughter Pamina to Tamino, but he has to bring her back from her father and priest Sarastro. She gives a magic flute to Tamino and magic bells to the bird hunter Papageno, who follows Tamino and wants to find a wife. The duo travels in a journey of love and knowledge.

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Plot Keywords:

magical instrument | flute | priest | journey | queen | 

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Taglines:

We only see Bergman, we only hear Mozart

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Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy | Music | Romance

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

1 January 1975 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

The Magic Flute

Filming Locations:

Drottningholm Castle Theater, Drottningholm Castle, Drottningholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

$650,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sveriges Radio

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Sven Nykvist and Ingmar Bergman can all be seen in the audience during the Overture.

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Crazy Credits

There are no onscreen credits in this film, other than the title.

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Connections

Version of The Magic Flute (2006)

User Reviews

The exemplary film of an opera

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