In these two works by the radical Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella, music, art and architecture provide the starting point for a beguiling, and often playful, exploration of European history, fragmenting and unravelling its substance to comment on our modern world.
The acclaimed The Silence Before Bach unfolds through a series of filmed vignettes, as a meditation on the harmonies and rhythms of Johann Sebastian Bach's sublime music. Portabella's opulent reverie leads us through the centuries, investigating the profound, complex relationship between image, music and sound.
Mudanza quietly records the removal of art, furniture and household goods from the home of poet Federico García Lorca - missing since 1936, assassinated at the hands of Franco’s Nationalist forces - inviting the viewer to move through the empty spaces that remain, and to contemplate what is lost.
Second Run's world premiere Blu-ray edition presents both films in new director-approved HD transfers, plus an archival in-depth interview with Pere Portabella from the acclaimed Spanish tv arts show 'Sala 33' in which he discusses both films, plus a 20-page booklet with writing on the films by Pere Portabella and Marcelo Expósito.
