Film based on the opera of Richard Wagner

“De Walkure (The Valkyrie) is part two of a startling, irreverent and visually inventive adaptation of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. (…) De Walkure is no video transposition of the classic opera, but a fully realized reinvention that casts the action within a pliable electronic space. (…) In De Walkure, the Theys brothers have employed the specific qualities of video, fashioning a clever and audacious work that rings true.” Steve Reid, Pacific Film Archive, Sept. 89

“Wagner has been subject to so much revision over the past 40 years that some audiences may be ready to face the 85-minute video “Walkure” of the Belgian brothers Frank and Koen Theys. (…) Purists shouldn’t even think about going. But for anyone else, the brilliance of the Theys’ imagery may make up for the unthinkable liberties they take: their futurist/surrealist vision of the drama would mark them as superb designers even if they had been limited to a conventional stage. (…) The temptation is to keep listing images. The Theys have a great sense of style, weird or funny as the notions they come up with may be, they‘re never tacky, and how many productions of Wagner can you say that about?
But the brother’s manipulation of electronic space – their use of video overlays – is what makes this “Walkure” stunning. (…) They go way beyond the familiar plasticity of screen space. By layering and by changing video overlays as fluid as Wagner changes keys, they come up with a kind of visual chromaticism, a method in which the pictures rival – or at least have the potential to rival – the richness and the complexity of the music. (…) The brothers set out to master Wagner and they end up serving him. Their “Walkure” deserves to be seen.” Craig Seligman, San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 29th 1989

Boldly said, Koen and Frank Theys appear to have uncovered a new aspect of Wagner, by claiming that his theory of the myth and the actual mythological functions of TV and video are complementary. Their thesis about TV as carrier of the original mythology is rich and subtle. (…) Theys and Theys even avoid a fundamental Wagnerian problem: it is well known that the music is continuously more eloquent than what happens on the scene (…) In Theys’ and Theys’ adaptation we see for the first time a second act of The Valkyrie where more is seen than a fat god discussing with his daughter. (…) The associative richness of the leitmotivs can, as we see now, have its perfect visual equivalent through video. Just as detailed and honest to the drive of Wagner’s story, a second soundtrack conquers with the singers and the music. Theys and Theys deconstruct with respect Wagner’s exuberance of meaning and signifiers. Godard and Derrida really exist.” André Hebbelinck, Knack 12-04-89