One difficult thing about making a portrait or profile documentary is turning it into an interesting story about the person or subject being documented. Nadja Salerno–Sonnenberg is an extremely talented, and accomplished violinist. Her style of performance is aggressive and filled with the emotion she feels coming from the music. Her approach to performing is somewhat controversial. This sounds like someone you want to know more about. Certainly a documentary about this talented woman, her life and music should make for an enlightening experience.
Documentaries, like any form of storytelling, must tell a story. A story with a basic concept and beginning, middle and end. The test of a successful documentary is that it takes actuality; structures it in a storytelling format that both informs and at times entertains. There are subjects that are difficult to find entertaining but if you can walk away with a feeling that watching it was a meaningful learning experience, the documentary is successful.
There are moments in Speaking With Strings when Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is performing that are captivating. To a fan or anyone who appreciates the violin this may make the film worth watching. There are moments when her witty personality and her vulnerability are felt. There are emotional moments in her life that are glimpsed. Unfortunately all these moments do not add up to a cohesive story. There’s a superficial quality to the entire documentary, as if the real Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is not being revealed.
Directed by Paola Di Florio, a childhood friend, this film focuses an assemblage of clips of Salerno-Sonnenberg’s apparently dysfunctional life. You have to wonder how much of a friend, Di Florio, really is? After some photographs of Nadja, with voiceover comments about some vague problems with a gun; the documentary opens with Nadja in a hot air balloon telling us she believes in God! This is followed by some performance shots with some voice over. Then suddenly, there’s a shot of Nadja standing behind a tree, maybe waiting for a cue to walk out, which she does. She assembles some found objects in a field, then makes-up some funny faux symbolism about the parts. This scene comes off as contrived and meaningless.
A documentary portrait obviously must look at the entire person, for better or worse, but what is most interesting about a virtuoso violinist is her music. Nadja’s passion for music and the violin is apparent but not really dealt with in a way that goes beyond close-ups of her face as she plays. Where do those expressions come from? What does she feel about what she is playing at those moments? Pain? Joy? Fear? Agony? All of the above?
This documentary doesn’t appear to have a focus. It tries to create anticipation about Nadja’s suicide attempt but this comes-off as a “device” that trivializes her bouts with depression and her suicide attempt. It’s almost as if Di Florio tried to make Nadja appear as a spoiled diva.
There’s nothing wrong with a documentary having drama that stems from actuality and that fits into the story. When watching a documentary about a violinist like Salerno-Sonnenberg, what are you most interested in? Her work? Her creativity? How she got to where she is now? What’s unique about her style of playing? Discovering her personality and life behind the scenes? Seeing and hearing her perform? There are bits and pieces, fragments that address these issues patched together in this film, but they do not tell a story. What is it you are supposed to learn from these random clips of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s activities?
In Speaking With Strings there seems to be a focus on everything dysfunctional with clips of performance edited in between interviews. Once in a while Nadja’s humor, dedication to her craft, work ethic, and personality are revealed ,but ultimately drowned out by lack of context. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s “life story” would have made a great documentary but Speaking In Strings, is a documentary that is “Speaking In Tongues,” that are difficult to comprehend.
There are times when the film appears ready to end but doesn’t. Maybe, the director Di Florio, should have considered structuring the documentary narrative along the lines of some of the compositions Nadja performs. A beginning, middle and end with movements that tell us a story that truly speaks to us. Instead the end of the movie is all about her attempted suicide as if that is the climax to her accomplishments. Was the making of the documentary one big therapy session for Nadja to resolve this crisis in her life? Perhaps she now knows how she got to that point and where she wants to go, but this information is not shared with the audience.
Nadja Salerno-Sonneberg life experience and music must have a lot more to offer than what was portrayed in Speaking In Strings.
Review by James R Martin – Documentary Filmmaker and author Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia
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Trailer
LINKS
[amazon_image id=”B00005J75T” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Speaking in Strings[/amazon_image]
[amazon_image id=”0982702329″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.[/amazon_image]