The Silence Before Bach (2007)

Johann Sebastian Bach llega con su familia a Leipzig para ocupar el puesto de cantor en la Escuela de Santo Tomás. Trabajador aplicado y devoto, su posición social y laboral dista de ser ... See full synopsis »

Director:

Pere Portabella

Writers:

Xavier Albertí, Pere Portabella

Stars:

Christian Atanasiu, Féodor Atkine, George-Christoph Biller

4 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Christian Atanasiu	...	Mayordomo
Féodor Atkine	...	Vendedor de pianos
George-Christoph Biller	...	Himself
Christian Brembeck	...	J. S. Bach
Alex Brendemühl	...	Camioner (as Àlex Brendemühl)
Georgina Cardona	...	Violonchelista
Lucien Dekoster	...	Afinador de pianos
Beatriz Ferrer-Salat	...	Amazona
José Pedro García Balada	...	(as J. Pedro García Balada)
Gertrud Kossler	...	Clienta
Bert Kripstädt	...	Camarero
Lina Lambert	...	Madre de Mendelssohn
Daniel Ligorio	...	F. Mendelssohn
Jordi Llordella	...	Amigo de Mendelssohn
Ferran Ruiz	...	Hijo de Bach

Storyline

Johann Sebastian Bach llega con su familia a Leipzig para ocupar el puesto de cantor en la Escuela de Santo Tomás. Trabajador aplicado y devoto, su posición social y laboral dista de ser privilegiada; pero su fama como compositor e intérprete crece exponencialmente a lo largo de su vida y trasciende su muerte, siendo en la actualidad tanto un referente cultural como un icono popular.

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Plot Keywords:

shower | subway | singer | piano | piano playing | 

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Genres:

Musical

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Details

Official Sites:

Medula Films [France] Official site

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish German Catalan

Release Date:

21 December 2007 (Spain)

Also Known As:

The Silence Before Bach

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

€1,400,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Films 59

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Informe general II. El nou rapte d'Europa (2015)

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Soundtracks

Prelude in A minor, BWV 543
Written by Johann Sebastian Bach

User Reviews

The music that fills the void

The first sequence of "Die Stille vor Bach" is highly significant: a completely white piece, similar to an art gallery, the camera makes a long travelling in a complete silence and then appears a mechanical piano moving freely while plays a piece Bach. In the next scene a blind man plays a new piece accompanied by his dog German shepherd. Although the film is an open book, an excellent piece of camera to be reinterpreted in intimate spaces and inclined to reflection, the segment that has captivated me most deeply is the translation in images of how music can fill the void of people throughout history and in particular since the time that Bach changed the way of conceiving music reinterpreting the technique of low encryption. The film of Portabella, like all his films, is strongly experimental and avant-gardist in its technical planning, full of discrete virtuous details, with a non - narrative development: scenes take place in a more aesthetic narrative, more intellectualized than purely logical and the film has the ambition to translate the spiritual world of Bach's music in a series of visual images of great power despite its apparent simplicity as the concert of violoncellists wagon in the subway or the image of the staff with the music of Bach. As expresses another of the images in this film, "Die Stille vor Bach" is a journey into the bowels of music, to its essence and has the great merit of represent a world of sensations in a motion picture that sometimes becomes a bit topical, as the image of the half-naked woman playing the cello but others makes subtle tributes to the History of Art, such as the back of the subway cellist, reminiscent of Man Ray's "Women-Violin" or the same half-naked cellist, a voluptuous figuration of Malevitch's "White on White".