Synopsis

“Through the eyes and ears of Arend Jan Talstra, a person suffering from Down syndrome, the Philharmonie becomes an organique univers thanks to the experience that creates the musique of Ravel, played by the orchestra La Dissonance. The way that we perceive Art is personal to each individual, very subjective and yet in some way very universal. Music for instance communicates without using images or words.

Music is for me the most essential form of arts because it manages to touch directly our feelings and our human thoughts. Music can break any barrier between people , like language, shape and material. That’s why I think that people who have mental or physical disabilities can feel something with art. Here they can feel the music fully, maybe even more then us people called “normal”.

Maybe thats why I consider our language and our rules to have become more like our barrier than our freedom.

“We” use language to create a form of order of things or to exchange but in reality we’re still confused and frustrated because we feel that something is missing, something is being wrongfully interpreted. That this langage is insufficient to express our deepest feeling. I wish to concentrate on the experience without any words of our main character Arend Jan. Inside this almost magical building we discover with him the richness of symbolical music and the architectural masterpiece that is the Philharmonie. Arend Jan observe’s, stagger’s , listens…

The music of Ravel played by the orchestra  during their rehearsal is like a story, a tale that attracts and invites Arend Janto to explore this labyrinth that is the Philharmonie. His silhouette and his presence wander more and more into this universe. Searching for the origin of those wonderful sounds.  He goes through many corridors, doors, and rooms. Until he finally reaches the birth place: the rehearsal room where the enormous orchestra is. I hope I can succeed to transmit the intensity of the music and the creative process of the orchestra. Thanks to the reaction of Arend Jan. I come near his eyes and his ears with delicacy , and I catch his words and movement of his body more openly.

The film will be entirely shot in Steadicam to really discover the surroundings we’re going to walk through and create at the same time a sensation of flowing, echoing the music that we’ll hear. During all of our wandering with Arend Jan in all the different spaces of the Philharmonie and around the orchestra , we can feel the music getting more and more alive. The face of Arend Jan will change. With very few words we can feel everything that his going through in this huge concert room. When the orchestra get’s ready , when there’s a silence as the maestro raises his wand to begin the concert . At this moment We will feel what my words can’t express.”

Tom Fassaert