a fugitive breeze, a rustle of leaves, choral insects

~ Live & Learn

Quiet, please.

In contrast to “Baby Driver,” with its high-decibel cacophony, this week also brings Patrick Shen’s “In Pursuit of Silence.” It isn’t really silence that’s being pursued in this beguiling, meditative and elegantly photographed documentary. As one murmuring head after another observes, absolute silence can’t be achieved in these earthly precincts, and doesn’t warrant chasing after in any case. What’s de-stressing for the body and nourishing for the soul is quiet that contains benign sounds—a fugitive breeze, a rustle of leaves, choral insects, a bird sending signals from the far reaches of a serene acoustic surround.  The film begins with a tribute to “4’33,” the seminal composition by John Cage in which music is not played—by a pianist, or a full orchestra—for the four minutes and 33 seconds of the title. In Mr. Shen’s evocative sequence, words are not spoken but, if you listen carefully, sounds of nature and even human laughter can be heard under—or over, or within? —a succession of graceful images.

~ Joe Morgenstern, from ‘In Pursuit of Silence’ Review: Dulcet Symphony. A meditative documentary explores quiet and the auditory world around us. (wsj.com, June 29, 2017)

Note: Rotten Tomatoes Movie Review

21 thoughts on “a fugitive breeze, a rustle of leaves, choral insects”

    1. They are worth it…

      Mankind must join a sort of resistance movement. What will become of our world if it does not look for intervals of silence? Interior rest and harmony can flow only from silence. Without it, life does not exist. The greatest mysteries of the world are born and unfold in silence. How does nature develop? In the greatest silence. A tree grows in silence, and springs of water flow at first in the silence of the ground. The sun that rises over the earth in its splendor and grandeur warms us in silence. What is extraordinary is always silent. In his mother’s womb, an infant grows in silence. When a newborn is sleeping in his crib, his parents love to gaze at him in silence, so as not to awaken him; this spectacle can be contemplated only in silence, in wonder at the mystery of man in his original purity.

      ~ Cardinal Robert Sarah, “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise” (Ignatius Press. April, 2017).

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  6. I love those moments when I step outside of my house and notice that all is completely still. I can’t even hear the usual drone of the highway (rare) and it feels like the Earth is taking a deep breath…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. I’d not heard or read fugitive being used as an adjective,before now… interesting me thinks./// I love silence…think it has to do with spending time in nature and having been mute for so many years..and probably having so many siblings & neighbor children, fun times for sure :),/// and I think of not yet,two weeks ago, lying on my left side in bed I had a most westerly vantage point allowing me to see the expanse of stars merging, meeting the ocean’s beauty and lulling sound as the high-tide rolled in, glowing..The curtains stayed open as I drifted off to sleep…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. Thank you for sharing this film with everyone…I went to see it at our Princeton Environmental Film Festival…beautiful. And, yes, we can find the silence within…so that we can really listen to what is there beyond the noise and insanity…love, joy, peace…presence……

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply