The Magic Flute (2006 Film)
The Magic Flute is Kenneth Branagh's English-language film version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's singspiel Die Zauberflöte. The film is a co-production between France & the UK, produced by Idéale Audience and in association with UK's The Peter Moores Foundation.
In November 2005, it was announced that, as part of the 250th anniversary celebration of Mozart's birthday, a new film version of The Magic Flute, set during World War I, was to be made, directed by Kenneth Branagh, with a translation by Stephen Fry. The film was presented at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2006, at the Venice Film Festival on September 8 of that year, and released in Switzerland on 5 April 2007. It has played in many European countries.
The film is the first motion picture version of the opera specifically intended for movie theatres. Ingmar Bergman's 1975 film version was made for Swedish television and only later released to theatres. Branagh's version was shot in Super 35 and released in anamorphic widescreen, while Bergman's was filmed in Academy ratio for television sets of the 1970s.
A DVD of the film was released in France in August 2007 with a bonus soundtrack CD (lasting around 79 minutes) and a "Making of" featurette (50 minutes). The film has also been released on DVD in the Netherlands (in a three-disc set), Finland, Argentina, and Japan.
Revolver Entertainment is giving the film a theatrical and home entertainment release for the first time ever in the United States in June, 2013.
Read more about The Magic Flute (2006 Film): Interpretation, Casting, Awards
Famous quotes containing the words magic and/or flute:
“Without, the frost, the blinding snow,
The storm-wind’s moody madness—
Within, the firelight’s ruddy glow,
And childhood’s nest of gladness.
The magic words shall hold thee fast:
Thou shalt not heed the raving blast.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“there’s nothing compared with the ould Orange flute.”
—Unknown. The Old Orange Flute (l. 8)