About

'The Silence Before Bach is a mélange of genres including narrative vignettes and documentary sequences on the theme of the transformational power of great music. At one moment his camera records a subway car packed with passionate cello-playing musicians; at another he is following a guide who gives tours of Leipzig dressed in full Bach regalia; and in a third he stages Felix Mendelssohn’s discovery of sheet music for the St. Matthew Passion used by a butcher to wrap meat. By turns funny and serious, poignant, sexy and refreshing, The Silence Before Bach is very nearly unclassifiable, like so much of Portabella’s oeuvre.' Film Forum

Ages 15+