The Silence Before Bach

An audiovisual delight, The Silence Before Bach sets unconnected vignettes to the composer’s glorious music.

The tone and style of the episodes, which take place between Bach’s lifetime and the present day, vary from playful to documentary to dramatic to ecstatic in an effort to suggest that Bach’s music is the quintessence of European civilization. It’s no surprise that the film exudes a sense of surrealistic rigor, given that director Pere Portabella is a veteran iconoclast in the Spanish film industry and served as the producer of Luis Buñuel’s scandalous Viridiana (1962). (102 mins., 35mm)