The Magic Flute

Have just gone to see Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of The Magic Flute (de Zauberflote), and it is to be highly recommended. It is a lovely film and has an awful lot of very long pan shots -- this is an amazing display of technology and mostly is not obviously enhanced (although admittedly when the earth was healing itself from the ravages of war, i managed to not be fooled). The opening single-shot sequence during the overture is probably close to five minutes.

It is a strong statement against man's violence against man, is very dismissive of created cultural and racial boundaries, and supportive of Faith and Fate. Although I have seen The Magic Flute on stage before, I had not gotten the idea of the flute as an alternative phallic representation -- instead of the expected knife or gun, this is an image of man using power in a different way. It (the flute) even makes the men put down their guns as they are coming out of the top of the trench. V. interesting.

There is more than a bit of humourous spark (due no doubt to Stephen Fry co-authoring the screenplay and English libretto). One raised eyebrow, however, has to do with some of the stretches in reality suspension: the flying birds sequence is a little too much like the hallucination of Pink Elephants on Parade in Dumbo. But then, who am I to say?

It could do with an intermission, perhaps, although this might be avoided if there weren't so many flipping adverts at the beginning...

This was also the first time I have gone to a film at the newly restored Cinema City, which is a five minute walk from my house. It opened in October, right before I left for a month, and is an arthouse theatre, showing a wider selection of shorter runs, which is very nice! Seats are plush and comfortable, which was good since my back is being horribly self-centred this week.

It is an interesting building, which in part dates from the 14th century. There is evidence of earlier buildings there, and even a ditch below the current courtyard, which dates from before the 1066 Norman Conquest; this is thought to represent a boundary ditch at the western edge of the Anglo-Scandanavian town, which had as its centre the Tombland marketplace (now in front of the Cathedral). I could type everything in the brochure, or perhaps interested readers could click here and read about the building's history :)