Before going into this film, there were a few factors that led me to believe that this was going to be a dark film. One, was that it was described as a crime film, the R rating and the fact that it is Swedish. I must guiltily admit that as an American, there is a stereotype that Swedish film is dark and/or depressing (considering the work of Bergman, Moodyson, Let the Right One In, The Steig Larssen adaptations etc). Unfortunately, this is due to the aforementioned artists and narratives as being what is presented to the US market. However, I will no longer harbor such a skewed image of said culture.Sound of Noise is certainly not a dark film by any means. It is a heart-warming, quirky tale of family, forgiveness and the ultimate quest for silence. It's an extended adaptation of a short from nearly a decade before that involved the leading actress of the film, comedian Sanna Persson.The films centers around two percussionists who recruit a motley crew of other drummers to help them carry out their elaborate performance pieces. Each drummer has a different specialty, as in the orchestral percussionist, the lounge drummer, the electronic drummer and so on. The film takes on a satirical form of a heist genre pic. Just imagine Oceans Eleven but with drummers instead of safecrackers and card counters. Some may feel that the elaborate performances are over the top and too Stomp-like but I think that is the point. In the most subtle sense, it strives to provide tongue-in-cheeck commentary on the urban, avant-garde squatters who are constantly trying to top themselves at every gallery crawl.For the most part, despite the rating, Sound of Noise is fun for the whole family. Your kids need to read subtitles anyway. It's good for them.File under: Napoleon Dynamite, Wes Anderson

Have you ever left a movie theater with your feet stamping and your head shaking in rhythm, as if you had a persistence of hearing a Funk drum & bass beat when you just came out of a concert?No? So let yourself experience « Sound of Noise »! You will follow the adventure of drummers/percussionists determined to perform the piece of the Century: « Music for a city and six drummers », whose four movements will be played in four very different public sites in the city and this despite a musician-hunt, a police hunt which chases the percussionists to each of their illegal concerts.The directors of this project and these musicians/madmen (Sanna Persson, Magnus Börjeson Anders Vestergard, Marcus Boij Haraldson, Fredrik Myhr and Johannes Björk) drew the attention first with a short film: « Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers » where they took possession of an apartment for 9 minutes. Then the concert/squat took place in the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom and the living room where the percussionists were performing with only day-to-day's objects as instruments in this temporary impromptu in A minor. The movie was produced in part thanks to this short film.Following the same principle that in the short-film, the musicians use this time everyday objects of the city for each musical « happening »: white stripes on the asphalt, car's engine, containers on the docks, construction's grids, piping, dogs barking, electronic and hydraulic systems, the banknotes that pass through the shredder, ink pads, steam shovel …They decide to use the city first in order to protest and to rebel against the sound pollution in the city, at least initially. The film is the object, the cause, the means and the symbol of the fight: Down with musical obscurantism! Long live freedom! The most Rock'n Roll and political part in the same time is one scene where policemen arrest all the musicians and another one where we can see the funniest police road check-point I've ever seen (and simultaneously very disturbing): - « What do you have to declare? - I repeat, I do not have drums in my trunk." (As it was cocaine or weapons ...) »The musician hunt is lead by an investigating officer: Amadeus Warnebring and despite of his promising name, he's allergic to music. He chases relentlessly the drummers until he falls in love...The soundtrack is so clever in providing alternations between silences, percussionist's innovations, noise pollution the musicians are fighting and classical music which represents traditionalism. The film is it more a documentary about a fantastic and unique concert? There is a story (stories of love on many levels), a fantasy and the director seems to use emotions and scenes like sounds as if it were four guitar chords: going from tenderness to revolt, from fear to laughter in one swipe of fingers.The inventiveness of the six percussionists, including the composer, goes all the way in ending musical apotheosis when using the most formidable guitar-electric bass ... trying to undermining the noise, pop music in the city, slaying and musical obscurantism.

When The Sound of Noise ended, I wasn't entirely sure what to think about it. Here is a film so bizarre, with a plot so daffy that it becomes one of those films that you either embrace or reject. It took me quite some time to figure out where I stand with it, and as of now I'm on the embracing side with a few minor reservations.This is a caper film, but not of the Michael Mann variety. This is something that might make have added Bansky to its thank you's during the closing credits. It involves an unfortunate soul named Amadeus Warnebring, who was born into a family of musical legends. Unfortunately, he was born tone deaf. With that, he grew up and became a detective.Amadeus seems to be very good at this job, but seems trumped in his current task of tracking down the identities of a terrorist group who have been committing random acts of public disruption. They don't blow things up or hurt anyone, no, they play music at inappropriate places. As the movie opens, the ringleader is being chased through town in a van by the cops while her boyfriend sits in the back and plays the drums in time to a metronome. They act as a sort of Bonnie and Clyde of auditory disruption. What they are doing doesn't seem to make any sense, but what they accomplish is some kind of weird genius.The crooks get away, and Amadeus is on their trail. We meet the couple, Sanna and Magnus as they work to pull together a masterpiece of musical distraction. They hire four expert drummers, all with differing styles, and determine what objects make the perfect percussive sounds. Their plan is to break into four major institutions, a hospital, a bank, an opera house and high-tension towers and play their music on objects that might be considered non-musical. Each crime will represent a different movement in their composition.The music isn't especially good, but the audacity with which they commit their dastardly deeds is kind of fun. Attempting to find a purpose behind this might be as futile as trying to understand why clouds look like everyday objects. In the pattern of poetry, it might be said "because it's there." The film has an inevitable sense of humor from which it never recedes. A film this bizarre wouldn't work if it allowed any measure of seriousness to seep in. The scene set in a hospital is the most curious, a the terrorist use the belly of a fat man as one of their instruments and the sound of the oxygen tanks for the tones. The scene at the high-tension towers is the most memorable, with the city's power grid blinking on and off like a bizarre Christmas light display. It is a sight to behold.If there is a weakness, I'm afraid that it is that this film runs on a bit longer than it should. It is based on a 2001 short film called "Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers" which ran this premise just about as far as it possibly could. This film, at an hour and forty-two minutes, runs its course probably about a half hour longer than it should. Yet, while I complain about the length, I won't complain about the content. I will only say that while it is a good film, not a great one, it succeeded in giving me an experience that I can't say I've ever had before. That's a good thing.

Viewed at the Festival du Film, Cannes 2010Now that you've read the plot summary... Okay, a group of drummers terrorise a city with their daring musical 'raids' while a tone deaf, music hating, detective tries to track them down... The Sound of Noise is the kind of dark comedic madness only the Scandinavians do so well: percussionists as musical terrorists laying down the beat for an entire city.This is a conceit built around the musicians themselves, taking several of their set-piece numbers and weaving them into a narrative structure. In this sense, seen as a film with the classic three act structure, story and character development etc., Sound of Noise is less successful. But as a showcase for amazing musical ability and sheer imagination, this film cannot be beaten.