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| Images courtesy DFM Fiktion |
It’s not everyday where it’s necessary to use the words ‘anarchic, Swedish musical terrorists.’ But that adjective-heavy phrase is needed to describe Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stärne Nilsson’s Sound of Noise (2010).
The film can seem like no more than a way to connect some incredible musical set pieces where six drummers create music from a paper shredder, a hospital patient’s belly, and a bulldozer. But the plot holds together well, creating a meaningful story for the movie’s protagonist, police inspector Amadeus Warnebring (Bengt Braskered) .
Warnebring is the only member of his family that is not musical because he is tone deaf. He lives in the shadow of his musical parents and younger brother, a famous orchestra conductor. Amadeus is given the case of a famously obnoxious TV personality who is ‘molested’ in a hospital while there for hemorrhoid surgery. He soon learns it’s a literal band of music school rejects and anarchic drummers creating songs that work to disrupt society and create a ‘true work of art.’
Before one such public performance in the film, drummer Sanna shouts to those inside a bank, ‘This is gig! Everybody keep calm. We don’t want to hurt anyone. We’re only here for the music! You are all our audience. Sit down, listen, and nobody will get hurt!’
This and other set pieces are so entertaining that it works to tie the different genres of the film together. Amadeus’ search for the band adds some notes of police procedural while his relationship with Sanna also adds some hints of romance. The film itself melds these various genres well and uses just the right amount of dry humor to keep the pace of film quick and light. The movie is almost like if a bunch of musicians tried to plan Project Mayhem from Fight Club and record the performances along the way.
The actors who play the Six Drummers are all musicians in an eponymous band who specialize in public performances where everyday and uncommon objects are used for percussive music. Their website even offers a Master Class in this.
The film garnered numerous nominations and awards from various international film festivals, including the Guldbagge for Creative Achievement Award ( the Swedish equivalent of the Oscars) in 2011. It’s sound design is, naturally, a thing of beauty and could be compared to the design used in the Oscar-winning Sound of Metal.
While the movie can be seen as nothing more than a promotional
gig for the band, it’s so enjoyable and hilarious that you might not care that
you’re watching a vanity project.
Sound of Noise is streaming on Kanopy.
-Eric Beach