A single shot of two interpretations in dialogue with each other, by two people, of the same composition, the Prelude Op. 28 No. 2 by Chopin, in reference to a notable scene in the film Autumn Sonata (1978), by Ingmar Bergman.
In Baroque music, fugues are compositions made in counterpoint, which are structured in polyphony through imitative sequences: forms of repetition and variations around a central phrase. In this film, which is titled with a fugue by Chopin, we hear the same composition twice, performed by two pianists. Only that a third fugal dimension is added when we realize that this scene is already a quotation from a fundamental sequence of Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata (1978), in which the same piece is also played twice. Thus, elevated to the cube, everything is organized in a sequence shot, as virtuoso as it is mysterious. Until – in a final fugue – everything repeats itself! A cinematic eulogy that becomes a hypnotic conceptual mise en abyme. (Ricardo Vieira Lisboa)