Bluebeard's Castle
Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1BB
Sunday 26th April 2026
Michael Powell, 1964, Germany, 60 minutes, PG, sung in German with English subtitles
A newly-wed bride enters her husband’s dark and forbidding castle. Offered the opportunity to leave, she refuses but asks for all the doors to be opened to allow light to enter into the interior. Her husband refuses saying each of the seven room are private places not to be explored by others. The wife insists and behind each unlocked door comes another sinister revelation about the man she married. And then the final door is unlocked...
Béla Bartók’s one act symbolist opera is considered to be amongst the greatest musical works of the 20th Century. Here we present it in Michael Powell’s boldly original 1963 production. Unavailable for many years, Bluebeard’s Castle has been painstakingly restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation. The film stars Norman Foster as Bluebeard and Ana Raquel Satre as his wife Judith.
A newly-wed bride enters her husband’s dark and forbidding castle. Offered the opportunity to leave, she refuses but asks for all the doors to be opened to allow light to enter into the interior. Her husband refuses saying each of the seven room are private places not to be explored by others. The wife insists and behind each unlocked door comes another sinister revelation about the man she married. And then the final door is unlocked...
Béla Bartók’s one act symbolist opera is considered to be amongst the greatest musical works of the 20th Century. Here we present it in Michael Powell’s boldly original 1963 production. Unavailable for many years, Bluebeard’s Castle has been painstakingly restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation. The film stars Norman Foster as Bluebeard and Ana Raquel Satre as his wife Judith.
