FIFA 2015: LE RETOUR EST LE MOUVEMENT DU TAO

LE RETOUR EST LE MOUVEMENT DU TAO 
ZHU XIAO-MEI ET LES VARIATIONS GOLDBERG

FRANCE / 2014 / COLOR / 52 MIN / FRENCH S.T. ENGLISH

Production Team

Realisation: Michel Mollard
Script: Michel Mollard
Cinematography: Alan Guichaoua
Sound: Thomas Buet, Pablo Salaün
Editing: Nicolas Peltier
Music: Les Variations Goldberg, Johann Sebastian Bach
Participation(s): Zhu Xiao-Mei
Producer(s): Michel Mollard
Production: Michel Mollard Productions, ARTE
Distribution: Michel Mollard Productions

Official Synopsis

"Zhu Xiao-Mei (b. 1949) ranks among the greatest pianists of our time and is one of the most celebrated interpreters of Bach. The artist carefully selects her public performances, and limits her repertoire to the few works she describes as “mountains of the soul.” The Goldberg Variations represents the “greatest musical encounter” of her life, and launched her international career. How does she approach the Cantor’s masterpiece? What mysterious connections does it have with high Chinese culture? By what miracle can a work like Goldberg Variations resonate with people around the world? Shot in places that are dear to her, the film centres on music and its mystery, on the links between Bach and Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu, and the dialogue between cultures."

With great artistry, this film presents a portrait of the pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei and her relationship to Johann Sebastian Bach's music, namely, his Goldberg Variations.  She does not simply interpret the partition but creates in her soul a complex structure, a multi-dimensional understanding of how Bach music relates to nature, to the Chinese Tao philosophy, and to God. This global view of Bach makes her to find her personal and very unique way how to interpret the notes Bach put on paper. The vision she creates is very compelling, easily impacting and enriching a listener.

The director has chosen a sensitive and a precise approach how to portray Zhu Xiao-Mei's complex inner artistic world with which she comes on to a stage to deliver Bach's music. It is seen through the way the film is segmented into separate Goldberg Variations chapters, the way the nature is brought into the film with the magnificent shots of brooks and mountains, and how this ties up with Zhu Xiao-Mei's monologue and the way she lives, and especially with the way she plays Bach.

Although my own liking for Bach is not to such a degree meditative or ZEN as how Zhu Xiao-Mei's interprets his music, and although we will never know what exactly Bach felt in his heart and soul when he created the Goldberg Variations, what intensity and colour of sounds he precisely heard inside himself, each interpreter brings his or hers personal perspective and understanding into Bach's music. And this enriches our common music heritage.

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Top photo courtesy of FIFA.
Film Review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova