Dryden Theatre to screen The Silence Before Bach Saturday and Sunday, May 10 & 11

Pere Portabella's unique cinematic essay pays homage to Johann Sebastian Bach

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House will screen The Silence Before Bach at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 10 and 5 p.m. Sunday, May 11. This film by Spanish writer-director Pere Portabella features a series of comic, dramatic, and documentary episodes that pay homage to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Richard Brody from The New Yorker noted the film "brings Bach's music to life with a mysterious, magnificent blend of drama, documentary, and quasi-surrealist whimsy. Beginning with a scene of a player piano rattling off the Goldberg Variation while rolling through a bright, bare loft, Portabella tickles the senses with a series of skits (while) a great and serious notion emerges: the construction of modern Europe on the basis of classical music."

The Silence Before Bach (Spain/Germany 2007, 101 min., Spanish/German/subtitles) is strung together by separate scenarios and film styles to form a visual and aural experience. This surrealist cinematic style is then juxtaposed by a sequence of skits, including a truck driver who plays a Bach tune on his harmonica, a butcher who sells a piece of meat wrapped in Bach's sheet music, and Bach (played by Christian Brembeck) teaching his son to play a piece of music he has written on the keyboard. These episodes pay tribute to the classical musician, while collectively suggesting that modern Europe owes much more to its classical music tradition than we might expect.

S. James Snyder of The New York Sun described the film as, "A meditation on the power of music to transcend geography and time and unite humanity in a kind of universal ecstasy. The film evokes the spirit and legacy of this artist, shedding light on the lasting beauty of his work."

Admission is $6 general admission, $5 students and $4 members. For more information please visit dryden.eastmanhouse.org or call (585) 271-4090.

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