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The Magic Flute
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 9:47 am
by What A Disgrace
Ingmar Bergman's film being released as a dual format edition on Feb 26.
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:59 am
by TMDaines
Lovely. A world first, no?
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 12:24 pm
by tojoed
TMDaines wrote:Lovely. A world first, no?
I believe it is. "Lovely" is the right word. The best opera on film in my view.
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 1:49 am
by ethel
I’d give you equal first with THE TALES OF HOFFMANN (Powell & Pressburger) and DON GIOVANNI (Losey)
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 12:23 pm
by MichaelB
Full specs announced:
The Magic Flute
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Music by Mozart
Dual Format Edition release on 23 April 2018
Mozart’s immortal opera The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten) is masterfully reworked for the screen by the great Ingmar Bergman in this sublime rendering of one of the composer’s best-loved works – a cheerful and charming operatic celebration of love, forgiveness and humanity. This marvellously melodic visual treat is now available for the first time on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK, released in a Dual Format Edition by the BFI on 23 April 2018, following its recent theatrical release.
A variety of special features include Lotte Reiniger’s enchanting silhouette-animation inspired by the opera.
The Magic Flute stars Josef Köstlinger as Tamino, a young man determined to rescue beautiful princess Pamina (Irma Urrila) from the clutches of parental evil, helped – or perhaps even hindered – by the roguish pipe player Papageno (Håkan Hagegård).
Special features
• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
• Papageno (1935, 11 mins): Lotte Reiniger’s enchanting silhouette-animation inspired by Mozart’s opera
• In Mozart’s Footsteps (1938, 11 mins): fascinating post-Anschluss travelogue by roving aristocrat Lady Dunn
• On Such a Night (1955, 37 mins): the colourful adventures of an American opera buff on his first visit to Glyndebourne, directed by Anthony Asquith
• Illustrated booklet with new writing by Sameer Rahim and Vic Pratt and full film credits
Product details
RRP: £19.99/ Cat. no. BFIB1299 / Cert PG
Sweden / 1975 / colour / 137 mins / Swedish language, with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 stereo audio (48kHz/24-bit) / DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio (320 kbps)
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 12:46 pm
by What A Disgrace
Is this the HD debut of Anthony Asquith talkies?
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 12:53 pm
by rockysds
No, Network have released The Importance of Being Earnest.
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Tue May 01, 2018 11:02 pm
by domino harvey
Uh
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Tue May 01, 2018 11:09 pm
by Big Ben
To say there's a discrepancy is an understatement but I truly am aghast at that. What happened?
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 1:31 am
by jsteffe
This is just a guess, but the Criterion release appears to have been transferred from a different distribution version. Maybe that shot always had a different color timing compared to the Swedish version. It's not the first time something like has happened.
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 12:58 pm
by RobertB
How annoying that I didn't watch it on Swedish television earlier this year. Maybe someone else did, or even better have an old recording from TV, and can give a more definitive answer. But my guess is that the BFI edition is as shown on Swedish TV. The film doesn't try to show opera as seen if you are in the audience. Bergman does a bit more. Possibly the US distributors didn't like the various extreme coloured scenes. It was the most expensive Swedish TV-movie ever, so it was important to sell it to other markets.
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 4:32 am
by colinr0380
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 4:53 am
by Lost Highway
I could imagine some scenes having originally had a blue filter applied, as much of the opera takes place at night, going with the realm of the Queen of the Night. I saw this once at the cinema when it came out and once or twice on TV since, but it’s too long ago to remember. Will definitely get this. My favourite opera and my favourite movie of an opera.
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 3:17 am
by martin
RobertB wrote:How annoying that I didn't watch it on Swedish television earlier this year. Maybe someone else did, or even better have an old recording from TV, and can give a more definitive answer. But my guess is that the BFI edition is as shown on Swedish TV.
Exactly. Here's a screenshot from Swedish TV (
DVDBeaver for comparison):
My screenshot is softer than what was shown on TV because it's from a heavily compressed mp4 file but the colours should be ok.
Re: The Magic Flute
Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:36 am
by tenia
Has any of your copy its cover cut in a biased way ? My copy has it cut in such a way that the front cover ends up being much shorter in height than the back cover (the spine already shows it). It looks like the bottom wasn't cut straight, missing some bits at the bottom.
Nothing worrying, only funny, but I'm wondering if my cover is a one-off or if the whole batch is affected.