The Silence Before Bach
Aug 01 - Aug 07, 2008
Pere Portabella, Spain, 2007, 35mm, 102 min
Sponsored by Henry Art Gallery
The meaning is in the music, or so the story goes in veteran surrealist filmmaker Pere Portabella’s THE SILENCE BEFORE BACH. Portabella, who in the 1960s produced Luis Buñuel's VIRIDIANA, proves he is still as idiosyncratic and energetic with this film on all things Bach. The title refers to a poem by the Swedish poet Lars Gustafsson, "The Silence of the World Before Bach." In it, the significance of Bach and the position of his music in the history is made clear by the simple reflection that there was once a world without Bach's music. Filled with visually stunning images, this wonderful film is as much music for your eyes as for your ears.
"Beguiling. A work shaped by correlation and metaphor… by beautiful images and fragments of ideas, a work that locates the music in the twitching of a dog’s ears, in the curve of a woman's belly, a child’s song and an adult's reverie. Like the music it celebrates, this is a film made in glory of the world." - Manohla Dargis, NY TIMES