The Silence before Bach

Real-life drama and documentary-style filmmaking blend with surrealistic whimsy in director Pere Portabella‘s passionate look at the ties between classical music and the construction of contemporary Europe. From a scene of Bach patiently teaching his son, Christoph Friedrich, how to play the piano to a truck driver who plays the composer‘s music on his harmonica, a pianist who plays the Goldberg Variations while rolling through his enormous loft. The film springs from a previously defined musical structure. The soundtrack feeds on works by J.S. Bach and two of Mendelssohn´s sonatas to create a promenade through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.