Looks at the profound relationship between image and music where the latter is not merely conceived as subsidiary to the image but as a subject of the narration in its own right. It springs from a previously defined musical structure, and the soundtrack feeds on works by J.S. Bach and two of Felix Mendelssohn's sonatas; a promenade through the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries led by the hand of J.S. Bach.
The Silence Before Bach is a movie in which to take refuge, and it abjures the summer heat of pop culture for a cool and lasting immersion in the miracles that people are and can create.
The demolition of the music bio-pic as witnessed by Todd Haynes' I'm Not There and the parody Walk Hard continues robustly with this time-tripping melange from Spanish director Pere Portabella.
Arguably stronger conceptually than visually, surreal mix of the unexpected and the banal is definitely not to everybody's taste. But the music is inarguably sublime.
The film swings back through history with its own delicate meshing of enchantment and mystery, contemplating a planet whether before Bach or in our own time 'of emptiness with no resonance.'
"The Silence Before Bach" is a partially successful attempt at showing the journey that the music of Johann Sebastian Bach(1685-1750) has made from the 18th century to the present day, as displayed in a series of vignettes starting and ending with a player piano. In fact, there are a wide variety of musical instruments
used in this film including a harpsichord(which I've always liked the sound of), a kickass organ, a wind instrument, a harmonica and cellos played on a subway train. The journey started with Bach working as a cantor in a church in Leipzig, so it may not be a surprise that the one continuing thread throughout is the importance of religion in his work, even in this thankfully more secular age. For example, one character drives a truck cab decorated with Virgin Mary's on the side. While seamless transitions happen throughout, a graceful segue from one definition of passion to another is particularly of interest. But the one element missing is the creative spark. And if you say that it is divine, I will scream.
February 10, 2008
Walter M.
Super Reviewer
This movie's general statement consists in trying to 'spruce up' Bach by creating some sort of "bold" audio-visual statement with his music, in some sort of hyper-aware, almost ironical manner. The film's main message is mainly to state that Bach's music is not good enough anymore to be enjoyed 'plain'; it has to be
"shifted" towards some sort of cinematic performance art in which the music is never enough: it has to be accompanied by a dancing clavichord, with said clavichord being dumped in the ocean later on; music students playing the Prelude to the first Cello suite in a moving subway train in unison (see how clever the director is?); a dude in a bad powdered wig pretending to be Bach while doing out-of-synch mimicry to the music and all kinds of stupid nonsense and other 'artistic' gimmicks.The point is that the music this film tries so hard to "spice up" is in reality a trillion times better, deeper, more nuanced and more beautiful that whatever hipster statement the filmakers where trying to convey here. Bach's music is a colorful, infinita, intricate tapestry that doesn't need 'help' or homages. It needs to be listened to, without distractions, in a manner in which every synapse is focused on the music. This film, on the other hand, is basically like trying to wipe your ass with a Rembrandt to make yourself look interesting. Bach's music will live on forever, while no one will remember this piece of shit in two years.
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