The Pied Piper

The classic story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin comes to life courtesy of French New Wave magician Jacques Demy. Psych-folk legend Donovan plays the titular, magic-flute-playing troubadour, who encounters greed and corruption when he arrives in a fourteenth-century German town in the grip of the Black Plague. Demy’s ever-imaginative costumes and production design and a surprising cast that includes John Hurt, Donald Pleasence, and Diana Dors provide some of the many pleasures in this offbeat blend of dark-tinged fairy tale, medieval pageantry, and flower-child bohemianism.