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The Inner Film

Facts

Series of Musical Shorts, 5 x 10 min, 2021-22

Directed by Jan Schmidt-Garre

What’s going on in a musician’s head while he or she is performing? We combine a performance with the inner thoughts, feelings and sensations the musician is revealing to us listening to his or her recording with headphones and eyes closed. We obtain a short film that opens a window to the Inner Film that is being projected during the performance.


Season One:

Francesco Piemontesi plays Chopin’s Barcarole op. 60

Ermonela Jaho sings Puccini’s Suor Angelica
Munich Opera, conducted by Kirill Petrenko, directed by Lotte de Beer

Asmik Grigorian sings Strauss’ Salome
Salzburg Festival, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, directed by Romeo Castellucci

Barbara Hannigan conducts and sings the last movement from Mahler’s Symphony No. 4
Göteborgs Symfoniker

Zlata Chochieva plays Liszt’s 2nd Mephisto Waltz

Inner monologues in Italian, Albanian, Lithuanian, English and Russian


Cinematography: Ralph Netzer, Michael Kotschi, Thomas Bresinsky
Editor: Sarah J. Levine


Photos

01Francesco Inner Film 01 v2 02Francesco Inner Film 02 v2 03Francesco Inner Film 03 v2 04Francesco Inner Film 04 v2 05Ermonela Inner Film 01 v2 06Ermonela Inner Film 02 v2 07Ermonela Inner Film 03 v2 08Ermonela Inner Film 04 v2 09Asmik Inner Film 01 v2 10Asmik Inner Film 02 v2 11Asmik Inner Film 03 v2 12Asmik Inner Film 04 v2 13Barbara Inner Film 01 v2 14Barbara Inner Film 02 v2 15Barbara Inner Film 03 v2 16Barbara Inner Film 04 v2 17Zlata Inner Film 01 v2 18Zlata Inner Film 02 v2 19Zlata Inner Film 03 v2 20Zlata Inner Film 04 v2

Videos

Episode I – Francesco Piemontesi – Teaser


Awards

Invited to FIPA, Biarritz, 2022

Additional

Poster "The Inner Film"

Image not found

Texts

"The Inner Film" – Director’s Notes

By Jan Schmidt-Garre

Mysterious call
It was my 9-year-old son who made me curious about what’s going on in musicians’ heads when they play. I am myself rather a formalist. I think in terms of harmonic progression: going up or down the circle of fifths – the Hanslick approach... But when my son played the piano he said things like “there comes the forest track, and here we go down the hill“ or “it becomes calm and cozy here, I am in my cardigan"...
I started enquiring professional musicians. Maxim Vengerov imagines the musical piece like a story: “Not everything is on page one, you have to thrill the audience." ... “In this phrase I’m in a boxing ring. There I avoid getting beaten, here I pack a punch myself." Or Igor Levit: He sees people in the music he plays, faces of friends.
I thought of Scriabin’s performing instructions: “Luminously, enchanted, dizzily, velvet". “With profound, veiled ardour", “with increasingly caressing and sickening sweetness". Or this: “mysterious call". Erik Satie is even more extreme: “Don’t turn around, scratch yourself, smile, from the corner, precious!" This is not just dada – there is a profound correspondence to the music. How could I bring this out in a film? Musicians cannot talk and play at the same time...

A state of trance
We film (in cinemascope) a musician – a pianist, a singer, a violonist, a conductor – performing a piece of about 10 minutes. We repeat it several times in order to get a flawless result. We meet a second time. The musician sits in an arm chair, with headphones – eyes closed – and listens to his or her recording. In his imagination he re-performs what he did, in almost a state of trance – if he or she was playing the piece here and now again. And the musician tells us in his mother tongue what he or she sees and feels in this moment. No analysis: an unfiltered stream of consciousness. We get as close as possible to the actual thoughts and sensations of the artist while making music.
We record this two or three times. Then the two layers – the concert and the monologue – are being cut together. We obtain a 10 minute short that opens a window to the Inner Film that is being projected during the performance.