The first sequence of "Die Stille vor Bach" is highly significant: a completely white piece, similar to an art gallery, the camera makes a long travelling in a complete silence and then appears a mechanical piano moving freely while plays a piece Bach. In the next scene a blind man plays a new piece accompanied by his dog German shepherd.
If Luis Bunuel cared about music, he would have made this movie. Writer/Producer/Director Pere Portabella was the producer of Bunuel's "Viridiana," so it's OK to draw a line between their approaches to film.
This film is a series of vignettes, some scripted, some documentary style, of people who have been influenced by Bach's music or are playing it. It weaves in and out between fictional and not, and at first seems to have no form until you realize that some of these episodes are interrelated.
