Best of Bergman

Press, 14 November 1977, Page 14

Best of Bergman

No-one should be put off “The Magic Flute’* (Savoy One, G) because previous films of operas were less than, satisfying. This is Mozart at his best, but it is also Ingmar Bergman at his best — the Swedish director has made many memorable films, but none so unquestionably enjoyable as this.

j Bergman uses a Swedish stage production, and : accepts the limits of the stage in the film. However some of the fun is generated by his brilliant use of stage conventions, and the production gains intensity and immediacy through much close-up work. The opera is sung in Swedish, perhaps a little distracting for anyone used to German, but the English sub-titles are clear and make the action of the opera easy to follow. The singing of Tamino, Pamina, the Queen of the Night and Sarastro is superb and the scenes with Papageno and Papagena provide delightful comedy. This film is not to be

f missed. Anyone unfamiliar i with the opera should go a : s little early to read the! > synopsis sheet given to ■ every member of the audi- ! ence. 5 Most of the actors in r “Futureworld’’ (Carlton, GA) ! play robots, but the leading • humans, Peter Fonda and

Blythe Danner, are hardly more believable as a pair of hard-nosed journalists. “Futureworld” is a huge pleasure resort where the ccmputer-controlled robots are programmed to provide everything from sword fights to sex, but the mad scientist in control has an evil scheme afoot. Fonda and Danner come face to face with themselves during their attempt to get to the bottom of it, and Yul

• Brynner makes a brief I appearance in his role as the ' gunslinger from an earlier robot film, “Westworld.” The sets and some special effects are interesting but i most of the acting is teri rible. Richard T. Heffron is , the director. j The acting in “Cousin Cousine” (Westend, Rl6) is

. much better. Marie Christine Barrault and Victor Lanoux, as two friends who feel obliged to have an affair, bring a warmth and sparkle to a film full of delightful scenes I of French family life. I Jean-Charles Taccheila, who directed and wrote the screenplay, has some harsh things to say about double standards in marriage but he makes most of his points : with humour. The film is dubbed into English and much of the dialogue is a bit flat because of this. However scenes such as the wedding at the beginning of the film are so full of life that the talking hardly matters.- “Cousin Cousine” is a happy movie — a very pleasant way to spend an evening.

AT THE CINEMA By Russell Jones