Sound of Noise (2010)

A tone-deaf cop works to track down a group of guerilla percussionists whose anarchic public performances are terrorizing the city.

Directors:

Ola Simonsson, Johannes Stjärne Nilsson

Writers:

Ola Simonsson (screenplay), Johannes Stjärne Nilsson (screenplay)

Stars:

Bengt Braskered, Sanna Persson, Magnus Börjeson

8 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bengt Braskered	...	Amadeus Warnebring (as Bengt Nilsson)
Sanna Persson	...	Sanna (as Sanna Persson Halapi)
Magnus Börjeson	...	Magnus
Marcus Boij	...	Marcus (as Marcus Haraldson Boij)
Johannes Björk	...	Johannes
Fredrik Myhr	...	Myran
Anders Vestergard	...	Anders
Axel Bergendal	...	Amadeus as a Child
Nina Brundahl Warnolf	...	Mother as Young (as Nina Brunndahl Warnolf)
Martin Bergendal	...	Father as Young
Bilo Frenander	...	Grand-Father
Tage Persson	...	Oscar as a Child
Benjamin Peetre	...	Policeman with Radio
Lasse Svensson	...	Motorcycle Police
Paula McManus	...	Colette

Storyline

The narrative revolves around police officer Amadeus Warnebring, tone-deaf scion of a distinguished musical family, and his attempts to track down a group of six guerilla percussionists whose anarchic public performances are terrorizing the city. The drumming set pieces correspond to an avant-garde score with four hilariously titled movements. Where the short involved the six drummers imaginatively using standard apartment furnishings as their instruments, the feature unleashes them on an unspecified city's civic and cultural institutions. Including an amusing backstory for each of the soberly dressed drummers as well as their nemesis, music-hating investigator Warnebring, the film creates a treat for the eyes and ears from the dull, repetitive sounds of everyday life.

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Plot Keywords:

police officer | based on short film | drummer | drumming | excavator | 

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Taglines:

The first musical cop movie

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Music | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

Sweden France

Language:

Swedish English

Release Date:

9 March 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Brzmienie halasu

Filming Locations:

Malmö Opera, Malmö, Skåne län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

EUR4,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,877, 11 March 2012

Gross USA:

$24,565

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$241,072

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bliss, dfm Fiktion, Nordisk Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min 110 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the concert the main character's brother is conducting the 2nd movement Haydn's Symphony No 94, the Surprise. It features one loud note - a wake up note - to rouse the possibily sleeping audience, but also as a way of poking fun at the overly pretentious listeners. This fits exactly with one theme of this movie where they are poking fun at the pretentious nature of modern artists who believe everything they make is significant.

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Quotes

Sanna: This is a gig! Everybody keep calm! Move! We don't want to hurt anyone! We're only here for the music! You are our audience! Sit down, listen, and nobody will get hurt!

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Crazy Credits

This is a work of fiction. Don't try this at home - electricity kills!

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Connections

References Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers (2001)

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Soundtracks

Symphony No. 94 in G Major - Surprise
Written by Franz Joseph Haydn
Performed by The Malmö Opera Orchestra

User Reviews

Inventive, intense, funny, zany, and oddly warm film...excellent

Sound of Noise (2010)

An absurdist, zany, intense, unpredictable film. Rather amazing, really, if you can let go of an ordinary sense of plot and progression.

At the center is a group of drummers who agree to perform a series of pieces by a cutting edge composer all around the city. But their instruments become found objects, heavy machinery, office items, hospital equipment (and hospital patient), so that their performances are intrusive, dangerous, illegal, and wonderfully outrageous.

And funny. Sometimes you laugh aloud, sometimes you just are amused and amazed.

In opposition to this group is a detective who grew up in a family of musicians but who is tone deaf. And he as a special ability to track the musical perps in their crimes--which you'll see.

Kudos should also go to the filmmakers themselves, who make this craziness very fluid and beautiful. Contemporary Stockholm is shown as complex and beautiful and modern and not a Swedish Ikea stereotype.

Finally there is a kind of interpersonal plot that is sort of fun and thin and helps hold the various performance pieces together. Maybe anything more intense on this score would have watered down the absurdist heights of the best of it, but this subplot does have a feel-good pops quality that the rest of the movie avoids. And it's the rest of the movie--mainly the "music" as it happens before your eyes--that is what counts. Great stuff!