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still Bluebeard’s Castle (Michael Powell, DE 1963)

Bluebeard's Castle

Michael Powell / DE, 1963 / 62 min.

Daring, innovative adaptation of Béla Bartok’s opera. The intense psychodrama is replete with lively colours and expressionist sets. Norman Foster plays the murderous Bluebeard and Ana Raquel Satre his doomed wife Judith.

poster Bluebeard’s Castle (Michael Powell, DE 1963)
Béla Bartok’s 'Bluebeard’s Castle', a magnificent, one-act opera for two vocalists was itself an adaptation of a French folk song about a women discovering the sinister truth about her husband. This opera was once considered impossible to perform due to the lack of action on stage. However, film director Michael Powell used this to his advantage when he adapted Bluebeard’s Castle for West German TV. The result was a dark, intense opera that immerses viewers in its images and music.

Details

Not (yet) rated

Director

Michael Powell

Production year

1963

Country

DE

Original title

Herzog Blaubarts Burg

Length

62 min.

Language

English

Subtitles

NONE

Format

DCP

Part of

The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger enjoyed huge success with films such as The Red Shoes (1948), Black Narcissus (1947) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Eye presents the first-ever extensive retrospective of Powell & Pressburger’s work in the Netherlands.

Learn more
campaign image The Creative Worlds of Powell & Pressburger
still Bluebeard’s Castle (Michael Powell, DE 1963)
still Bluebeard’s Castle (Michael Powell, DE 1963)
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  • 13 October 2024 — 5 January 2025

    Underground

    American Avant-Garde Film in the 1960s

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