sclvr I stumbled on this today. It's on Netflix now, which apparently is the first time audiences in the US have had an easy way to see this. I was blown away. I have loved this opera for most of my life, and the interesting setting in WW I was compelling to me. Kudos to Kenneth. But the grandeur of Mozart's music really overshadows everything. Pure genius. Why isn't this easily available in the US? No, it won't make a lot of money at the box office, but there are a lot of people who would end up getting a copy of this on DVD/Blu Ray.....Mozart is very popular and a nice version of one of his best operas in English will do well over the long term. It might even lure some people in who haven't listened to Mozart before. Lets get it out there, guys!

Carey T. Coleman As a musician and critic (of European ensembles and musicians/singers) I admire the effort made to modernize this old fairytale of a flamboyant singspiel. The libretto while pleasantly awkward much of the time and almost ridiculous, fits the attitude that Mozart in his music exudes. The bucolic scenery of this movie makes the movie most enjoyable. The articulations of the musicians both orchestra and singers are impeccable and rival some (and not most) opera singers on stages. The film presence of every character is natural and fits perfectly. However the unfortunate thing was, the film whilst in post-production could have advertised more, and been shown in the US. And even then the film has to be imported from Europe for US Viewers to watch. Make sure you have a DVD/bluray what be it, that can do Region 2 or other region you import it from. I again recant my praise for this production of Mozart's immortal opera "Die Zauberflote" (otherwise known as "The Magic Flute").

bob the moo When a soldier is near-fatally wounded in battle, he is recovered by three women and wakes to find himself in a strange land. Here he sees a beautiful woman that he is instantly besotted with. However when he learns that the woman has been kidnapped by the evil Queen of the Night, he sets out with a new companion to rescue her.OK so this flopped in the cinemas but did anyone expect otherwise? Branagh may have sold Shakespeare to the masses but opera is not as generally accepted as an art form; most of us see Shakespeare as of value (even if we never go to the theatre) but yet things like opera and ballet still have the air of snobbery about them. Despite this though I was interested in this enough to put it on my rental list. Coming to it to see what it offers me helped me I think because I was in the middle of two extremes that I think reject this film. On one hand we have those that reject the film for being opera and hard to follow. On the other hand are those that cannot believe the opera has been "sullied". The truth for me is somewhere in the middle because the film is not as good as it could have been but is not a failure either.The music is the selling point of course and Mozart is treated well with really well delivered music throughout. To the untrained ear it contains recognisable emotion and beauty and it was this that held me. Juts as well really because the plot is hard to follow – something I found strange from the man who has delivered Shakespeare with such clarity and accessibility. The lyrics may be English but many of them are rendered almost indecipherable by the nature of the singing. This doesn't affect the music but it does affect the story-telling and makes it almost easier to listen to than watch at times. This isn't ever totally true though because Branagh does do the best he can with a limited budget. His sets and effects have a consistently "unreal" quality which feels like a cross between a film and a filmed opera. Sometimes it gets a bit tiresome (too many elevated/elevating shots) but mostly it works.The cast are all OK: really good in regards giving "stage" performances but on film it doesn't totally work and mostly they add to the feeling of watching a stage performance through a camera. This isn't a fantastic film by any means then, but it is not a deserving flop either. Instead it is an interesting attempt at something different that has strengths in the music and creativity but never really engaged me beyond the superficial trimmings.

writers_reign Kenneth Branagh could well have subtitled his second turkey in as many weeks and his third this year The Cranes Are Flying for yes, folks, our Ken has discovered a thing that you can mount the camera on and it will then climb in the air and allow you to shoot the film from the point of view of a cloud and that's his angle of choice for a good 30 per cent of the running time; if this was a ploy to detract from his lack of ideas then it doesn't work and only draws attention to the pretentiousness on display. It's got to be a prime gobbler when Liz Smith pointedly excludes it from her CV and presumably asked for her name to be removed from the credits. Stephen Fry has the chutzpah to take a bow for the lyrics; it's patently obvious that he has never heard of Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Frank Loesser, etc, let alone studied them, in fact if it comes to that he hasn't even bothered to study a Rhyming Dictionary and is clearly a paid-up member of the Kiss My Assonance School Of Lyric Writing. Branagh himself is clearly an advocate of the If It Ain't Broke, Break It, brigade for having set Shakespeare in Japan earlier in the year he now sets Mozart in the First World War but not the one you may have seen in the newsreels where the trenches were furnished with a melange of mud and rats; you could EAT off the floors of these trenches and though he allows an occasional rifle shot for authenticity infantrymen topple over without so much as a scratch let alone any of that nasty blood. This doesn't leave a lot on the positive side; okay, the singers Mime effectively enough, they are, after all, mostly trained opera singers but apart from that there's a two-hour gap where the film should be.