Expecting the worst, an opera filmed in a claustrophobic studio emphasizing the theatricality of the production and translated into Swedish from the original German. Ingmar Bergman, the master of existential despair should have had a major musical disaster on his hands.
However, Bergman was also a very smart director who took this property and with a high level of skill filmed a very lively version of Mozart's opera. There are so many clever and witty touches through out the film that one tends to forget that Bergman was also a director of very sophisticated comedies during his career. He was also a noted director of actors and in this version of The Magic Flute, he gets very naturalistic performances out of larger than life opera performers.
In the end the real auteur of The Magic Flute is W.A Mozart. Even if this film had been an absolute disaster, it would have been impossible to screw up the wonderful music in this opera.
This is one of Bergman's finest films.
135 minutes.
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