A longtime pet project of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute was finally brought to the screen in 1973. In so doing, Bergman used a device he'd been toying with in other films, notably Persona: he offers a stage production of the opera while detailing the backstage intrigues of its participants. While the opera itself is offered in a highly stylized and theatrical fashion, the fluidity of the camerawork turns the affair into a purely cinematic experience. Sung in Swedish, the libretto remains as ever: a gentle parody of the initiation ceremonies of the Masons, offered as an other-worldy fantasy involving a kidnapped princess (Irma Urrila), a vengeful Queen of the Night (Ulric Cold), and a carefree wanderer who periodically plays the titular flute.