The Magic Works of Ingmar Bergman is now located at www.bergmanorama.com. Please update your bookmarks. Thank you for visiting!

Ingmar Bergman said that making this film 'was the best time of my life: you can't imagine what it is like to have Amadeus Mozart's music in the studio every day.' Actually, watching the movie, one can. He has treated Mozart's peerlessly silly masterpiece with elegance and supreme affection. He emphasizes the theatricality of the piece, using space as stage space but with the camera coming in close. We get the pixilated feeling that we're near enough to touch the person who is singing; we might be dreamers sailing invisibly among the guests at a cloud-borne party. The English translation of Bergman's adaptation (he clarifies the text) has considerable grace, and he titles are unusually well placed in the frame; the story comes across even more directly than when you hear the opera sung in English. (Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies)