In this sensual meditation on the perception of sounds, the masterful compositions of Director Thomas Riedelsheimer frames the exquisite subtleties of subject Evelyn Glennie's percussion based improvisations, which at times produces a transcendent immersion into the essence of sound stimuli and the creative process no musical film has ever captured as well. Alas, the film works best when capturing Glennie's spiritual exaltations to noise- through the immersed directing we can raise our own perceptions of sight and sound simply by reflecting and relating to the character's rapturous posture as the rhythm she spontaneously concocts becomes more and more intense. It is in these sublime moments that Glennie's philosophy, which advocates silencing one's own chattering mind in order to hear the chorus of sounds we all play with together, comes to the fore. Unfortunately these notions are constantly watered down by the excessive use of environmental shots interspersed to show us how this woman perceives everyday sounds around her. I felt that the lack of narrative forced the filmmaker to put too much stock in capturing the surroundings, which definitely was appreciated at first, but ultimately much of the beautiful, amazingly detailed imagery did feel superficial and ended up making the film feel a little too light. As far as taking this piece as some sort of alternative concert video however, this is an experience not to be missed by anyone who even dabbles in instrumentation, as well as anyone who simply wants to feel...more...
