Storyline
The long-awaited new film from former Bunuel producer and visionary director Pere Portabella, one of the world’s most distinctive and original film voices, “The Silence Before Bach” is a true wonder. “Bach’s music is the only thing that reminds us the world is not a failure,” says a character in the film. Portabella, taking Bach’s music as a theme and a starting place, but taking it on the road, both literally (two Spanish truckdrivers discuss its fine points; a group of several dozen young cellists play rapturous Bach on a subway car they appear to have taken over) and otherwise (as Portabella recreates the composer’s lifeāsort of; the film opens with a player piano moving of seemingly its own accord through a bare art gallery, really dancing a pas de deux with Portabella’s camera.) The music is as glorious as the cinematic art; the film’s meanings open and perhaps even profound.