Speaking in Strings
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Movie Reviews of Speaking in Strings
Movie Review: A Great Message For America
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a landmark documentary of home movies, videos, powerful stills and original camera work supported by a unique sound track teasing scenes with audio precursors enabling fast cuts in places where dissolves would be used by less an artist than producer-director Paola di Florio.
Of course Nadja is manic. What could be more unsettling than going from the applause of Carnegie Hall to a lonely life with endless hours of practice, personal denial and dreams that seem more than a little insane?
She is in the prison of great talent. We, who don't know such highs and lows have no way to understand much less judge.
That Nadja is an Italian immigrant, working class; street-smart, scrappy New Yorker drives the aristocracy of the music intelligentsia nuts. How dare she poke into the parlors of the high born and challenge their grip on an art? Blinded by their own glitter, they cannot see that she is a hope for classical music. Her success is an inspiration to the young of all classes proving once again that America works, The New York Times notwithstanding. Careers are open to talent in our free enterprise economy. It is a system that creates what it needs. We needed a Nadja to show the world that classical music is not just for snobs.
Nadja's detractors want to tell us what we like much as their kind have long told us what to think. But, the people are not buying it any more. If Nadja attacks the music with powerful skills we applaud in spite of the blue bloods and not because of them. That makes them crazy. They arrogantly tell us dead composers would not like what Nadja does. Composers only write the outlines. Players bring their work to life. We believe every composer would applaud her.
Reviewer Bernard Chapin made outrageous errors in his analysis of this film. He accused Nadja of having said, "...classical music is a joke," when she actually said, "...classical music is a job," perhaps reflecting her working class regard for employment further offending the effete ear of Chapin. The sound track is thin at this point so this mistake may have been honest, but when he picked out "The only time I feel good is when I play," for his review title he stooped to distortion as she said this only for the time she had a flu. This is very clear misrepresentation by Mr. Chapin. But, he tops this with allusions to her homosexuality in response to the friendship shown Nadja by her female friends. He clearly has no acquaintance with the battlefield mentality of creative people and the kinds of friendships that forms. The only moments where Nadja is seen in anything like an intimate moment with anyone are a still photo with Mr. Mandy Potinkin and rubbing the arm of friend Mats Lidstrom in a textbook hominid friendship gesture plus her smiling expressions while playing in an ensemble, all to men. In the Tonight Show appearance shown her conversation is all about her recently having "broken up" with a "boyfriend." And, her scene with the fortune teller where she is told "you will make your family in a year" her response is, "So there will be at least one child in my life..." and expresses she is happy to hear it. From where comes Chapin's homosexual idea but from the depths of a distorting, destructive, sick mind.
Movie Review: Nadja Rocks!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This film, while giving the impression of exploring NSS's turbulent life and her continuous metamorphosis to a better version of herself, actually emphasizes her enigma. And what's more interesting, you do not realize this until you watch the movie again. And then it hits you - there is a very big piece lacking in this film that leaves you hanging, as if Ms. DiFlorio gave you the head, the torso, the feet, but she purposely left out the Heart.Okay, maybe it's just me. But NSS's "existential crisis" was triggered by a love gone wrong, and you have to take her word for it, but you don't know much more about it. What kind of love could bring this brilliant person (or anyone else, for that matter) so much pain and desperation? That part seems to be held back on purpose, and its absence was very obvious. And then, also, maybe it's just me, but you just want to reach out and give the big kid inside this prodigy a big hug...
The editing was brilliant - you have to watch the movie more than once to get the chronology in order (if you want to read into it more than necessary, as I do) and to understand NSS' evolutions. At the very least, the movie makes you appreciate classical music as a visual performance (rather than merely audio). Although when NSS plays that violin, you can just close your eyes and listen to her music - it's magical.
In the end, you feel you know NSS a little bit more, and you almost feel guilty for watching this very personal movie and intruding into her private life. NSS - despite the obvious blank spaces in the movie - is as transparent as a person could be. She fills in the spaces for you. And you cannot help but cheer her on whenever she takes that bow.
I am ready for the SEQUEL!!!
Movie Review: Nadja Rocks
Summary: 5 Stars
This film, while giving the impression of exploring NSS's turbulent life and her continuous metamorphosis to a better version of herself, actually emphasizes her enigma. And what's more interesting, you do not realize this until you watch the movie again. P>Okay, maybe it's just me. But NSS's "existential crisis" was triggered by a love gone wrong, and you have to take her word for it, but you don't know much more about it. What kind of love could bring this brilliant person (or anyone else, for that matter) so much pain and desperation? That part seems to be held back on purpose, and its absence was very obvious. And then, also, maybe it's justme, but you just want to reach out and give the big kid inside this prodigy a big hug...The editing was brilliant - you have to watch the movie more than once to get the chronology in order (if you want to read into it more than necessary, as I do) and to understand NSS' evolutions. At the very least, the movie makes you appreciate classical music as a visual performance (rather than merely audio). Although when NSS plays that violin, you can just close your eyes and listen to her music - it's magical.
In the end, you feel you know NSS a little bit more, and you almost feel guilty for watching this very personal movie and intruding into her private life. NSS - despite the obvious blank spaces in the movie - is as transparent as a person could be. She fills in the spaces for you. And you cannot help but cheer her on whenever she takes that bow.
I am ready for the SEQUEL!
Movie Review: wow!
Summary: 5 Stars
I think I had heard of SPEAKING IN STRINGS, in passing, when it first came out in 1998. However, I only knew that it was about Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, a phenomenally talented violinst. This woman has been called "possessed," "frightening" and "brilliant" with good reason. I can honestly say that I have never heard (or seen) such an incomparable artist perform great classical pieces with such fire and spirit. Nadja has been criticized as much as she has been proclaimed. The intensity of her connection to the music is so strong that she has the tendency to contort her face and physicalize the mood of the pieces she interprets. This, of course, has generated criticism from the press. For me, Nadja really is feeling the essence of the music she expresses through her instrument.
Not only do we hear great excerpts from some of Nadja's finest performances (including her Carnegie Hall debut, at the age of seventeen in 1982, and an interview with Johnny Carson), as well as a really engrossing look at her formative years (complete with clips from home movies and family photos). We also see a very intimate side of Solerno-Sonnenberg and we really see the personal setbacks that almost put a permanent end to her career. Director Paola di Fiorio was granted a well-earned Academy Award nomination for Best Documementary, and you don't have to look too closely to see why.
Movie Review: Speaking in Strings leaves me speechless
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this documentary years ago and I never forgot about it. Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, the subject of this film, is an artist of exceptional talent, but that is not what she or this film is about. This video chronicles the passion, obsession, torment, joy that is the world of this amazing violinist - how she lives for and through her music and how she begins to reconcile herself to the personal, emotional and spiritual cost that comes from her intensely passionate and personal relationship with her gift. Nadja doesn't just play the violin - it is an extension of her thoughts and soul. To hear her play is to be allowed to touch the edges of that experience - to envy her and pity her. Since watching this video I have had the honor to experience Nadja perform live in concert. The experience was more overwhelming then I thought it would be, and I realized how really excellent this film was, as it did capture so much of what makes this artist so exceptional and compelling.
Being a classical music aficionado is irrelevant to this the worth of this video. It is really about being given a small window into the life of a passionate person who seeks their own life's truth.