Tan Dun Tea -broken Silence

Tan Dun

Film 1 : Tea recounts how chinese composer Tan Dun wrote the opera Tea, a tragig love story set against the background of the Japanese tea ceremony. He combines eastern and western composition techniques with musical ideas to create a unique sounding fusion between two great musical traditions. The Tea opera is the door to this journey into the mystical world of Chado, the Way of Tea. A world in which the ultimate objective is, as Tan Dun himself staes, "to hear colour and see sound". Beautifully crafted by Franck Scheffer, Tea includes interviews of Tan Dun, Librettist Xu Ying and Director Pierre Audi, as well as performances with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Dutch Chamber Orchestra conducted by Tan Dun.

Film 2 : BROKEN SILENCE draws the portraits of five Chinese composers widely regarded as the founders of Chinese contemporary music : Tan Dun, Chen Qigang, Guo Wenjing, Mo Wuping, and Qu Xiasong. Children of Mao's cultural revolution, a troubled time when classical music was forbidden in China, they grew up listening to local folk songs and the Communist Party's revolutionary operas. When China opened in 1978, Tan Dun and his fellow students discovered Beethoven, their life would be forever changed.
Filmed in China, New York, Paris and the Netherlands, Broken Silence won the Grand Prix Visions du Reel in Nyon (Switzerland) 1996, the Festival du Nouveau Cinema award in Montreal and the Best Discovery award

Director(s):
Frank Scheffer

Features:
Ring, a previously unreleased short feature by Franck Scheffer, 12-page booklet with authoritative essay, discography and biographies. Chapter access , video catalogue, DVD-ROM section with booklet files in French and German.

Available version(s):
English, French, German, Spanish

DVD format:
4/3, NTSC, Zone 0

Sound:
Dolby Digital 2.0

Duration:
176mn