The Silence Before Bach (2008)

This latest feature from the eccentrically experimental Catalan director Portabella is a beautiful sometimes faintly bonkers celebration and contemplation of the role Bachs music plays in the world today Blending historical reconstruction with very loosely linked dramatic scenes and documentary sequences the film constitutes a playful painterly sequence of variations on the argument that Johann Sebastian changed the way the world hears thanks to his extraordinary ear for harmony