It is almost impossible to escape the lure of music. But why is it that acoustic waves can cause certain emotions within us? What is it inside us that is responsible? Is it the brain? The spirit? The soul?
As far as modern science is concerned, the key to the answer lies in the brain. Students of research are forging their way ever deeper into the neuronal jungle of the brain, and they hope that one day they will find an answer to the question that asks what it is in human beings that gives us the power of recognition and experience.
But the whole idea that some clump weighing three pounds and made up of water, albumen, carbohydrates, fat and billions of neurones, can shed light on the more fundamental secrets of our existence awakes fierce opposition in so many people who refuse to relegate the soul to a formula.
BRAIN CONCERT delves into the nature of feeling and the poetry of consciousness. But the film also makes us realise the inadequacy of our imagination. For there is nothing that is so near and yet so far from us than our own consciousness.
BRAIN CONCERT is a visual, musical journey into the universe of the spirit in which the whole is more than the sum of its individual components. It is a journey which traces the footsteps of our emotions when we hear music. How is it possible that such subjective sensations can emerge in a physical universe? What do we know about it? What would we prefer to remain a secret?
Documentary, CH 1998, 90′, colour, 35mm
Director Bruno Moll
Original version:
Swiss-German
