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MOVIES / ON DVD / SILENCE BEFORE BACH, THE
Silence Before Bach, The

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Silence Before Bach, The (2008)

91%
100%
57%
N/A
N/A
N/A
91 %
Reviews Counted: 11 Fresh: 10  Rotten:1 Average Rating: 7/10
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Theatrical Release: 2008
Synopsis:
The Silence before Bach is an approach to music and the trades and subjects that surround it through Bach’s works. A look at the profound dramaturgic 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... [More]
The Silence before Bach is an approach to music and the trades and subjects that surround it through Bach’s works.

A look at the profound dramaturgic 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.

The film springs from a previously defined musical structure. The soundtrack feeds on works by J.S Bach and two of Felix Mendelssohn’s sonatas to create an architectural vault beneath which the story of the film unfolds ; a promenade through the XVIIIth, XIXth and XXIth centuries led by the hand of J.S. Bach. --© Official Site [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Director: Pere Portabella

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Ratings Image

Think of it strictly as a wonderful music video. Hey, Pink Floyd has a movie, so why not Bach?

Full Review | Comment
03/03/08 03:24 PM
Steve Rhodes
Internet Reviews
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Driven solely by the filmmaker's prosaic associations. Portabella does not discover the composer through his music.

Full Review | Comment
02/05/08 07:49 AM
Maria Garcia
Film Journal International
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About as far away from a conventional composer biopic as Kraft's products are from real cheese.

Full Review | Comment
02/03/08 06:03 AM
Boyd van Hoeij
european-films.net
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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.

Full Review | Comment
01/31/08 10:18 AM
Jan Stuart
Newsday
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Provide[s] gorgeous lensing and art direction and some of the world's most beautiful music.

Full Review | Comment
01/30/08 10:26 AM
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
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Like the music it celebrates, this is a film made in glory of the world.

| Comment
01/30/08 10:24 AM
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
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A slippery formal exercise of the kind that divides viewers into the enthralled and the infuriated.

Full Review | Comment
01/30/08 10:17 AM
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide
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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.

Full Review | Comment
01/29/08 02:05 PM
Ronnie Scheib
Variety
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At once cerebral film essay and unsweetened ear candy, Pere Portabella's The Silence Before Bach is nearly as tough to categorize as its maker.

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01/29/08 12:50 PM
J. Hoberman
Village Voice
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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.'

Full Review | Comment
01/24/08 05:43 PM
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze
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Brings Bach’s music to life with a mysterious, magnificent blend of drama, documentary, and quasi-surrealist whimsy.

Full Review | Comment
01/24/08 11:59 AM
Richard Brody
New Yorker
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