ARVO PÄRT: 24 PRELUDES FOR A FUGUE

ARVO PÄRT: 24 PRELUDES FOR A FUGUE
ESTONIA 2002
DIRECTOR: DORIAN SUPIN
Estonian Arvo Pärt is one of the most popular and distinctive composers working today, his work finding new audiences through use in numerous films from Tom Tykwer’s HEAVEN to Gus Van Sant’s GERRY. Director Supin captures the composer in short segments, as if trying to trace the source of his genius. Pärt copies out a score, recalls his childhood, argues with his wife about whether tomatoes are sweet or savory, comments on his trademark simple style (dubbed “tintinnabulation”) and on his turning point composition, “Für Alina.” Pärt quotes a street sweeper he once met, “A composer should love every sound,” and says that “when they announce the time on the radio, it sometimes sounds like one’s whole life is behind it.” Pärt spent 13 years in exile before returning to Estonia in 1993, where he accepts the gift of his supreme talent with a touching sense of wonder, responsibility, joy, and melancholy.
(87 mins.)