''Magic Hunter'' ( hu, Bűvös vadász, ger, Freischütz) is a 1994 Hungarian-Swiss-French fantasy film written and directed by

Ildikó Enyedi Ildikó Enyedi (; born 15 November 1955) is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. Her 2017 film ''On Body and Soul'' won the top prize at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival and went on to be nominated for a Foreign Language Acad ...

and loosely inspired to the opera

Der Freischütz ' ( J. 277, Op. 77 ''The Marksman'' or ''The Freeshooter'') is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 1 ...

. The film was entered into the main competition at the 51st edition of the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

Plot

Cast

Gary Kemp Gary James Kemp (born 16 October 1959) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the New Romantic band Spandau Ballet. Kemp wrote the lyrics and music ...

as Max *

Sadie Frost Sadie Liza Frost (née Vaughan; born 19 June 1965) is an English actress, producer and fashion designer, who ran fashion label Frost French (until its closure in 2011) and a film production company (Blonde to Black Pictures). Early life Frost ...

as Eva *

Alexander Kaidanovsky Alexander Leonidovich Kaidanovsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Леони́дович Кайдано́вский; 23 July 1946 — 3 December 1995) was a Soviet and Russian actor and film director. His best known roles are in films such as '' At ...

as Maxim * Péter Vallai as Kaspar *

Mathias Gnädinger Mathias Gnädinger (25 March 1941 – 3 April 2015) was a Swiss stage and film actor. Career Initially a typesetter and typographer, Gnädinger began his acting training at the ''Bühnenstudio Zürich'' (now part of the Zurich University of ...

as Police Chief * Alexandra Wasscher as Lili * Ildikó Tóth as Lina * Natalie Conde as Virgin Mary *

Zoltán Gera Zoltán Gera (; born 22 April 1979) is a Hungarian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He played for Fulham, Pécsi Mecsek and Harkány SE, as well as enjoying two spells at Ferencváros and West Bromwich ...

as Shoemaker * Philippe Duclos as Monk * Andor Lukáts as One-Eyed Monk

Reception

Film critic Stephen Holden described it as "an unwieldy stylistic hybrid of narrative film making and arty montage" and as "klutzy and vague in its symbolic connections". ''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

critic Jeff Vice noted that "Enyedi has an interesting visual style, but she's too busy to concentrate on the storyline". According to Barbara Shulgasser, "Enyedi's visuals, shot by Tibor Mathe, are often beautiful enough to distract you from narrative failings".

References

External links

* 1995 fantasy films English-language Hungarian films Films directed by Ildikó Enyedi Hungarian fantasy films Films based on operas 1990s English-language films {{fantasy-film-stub