Anna Magdalena Bach: Two women
2023 · 25m · España
Directed by Miguel Ángel Barroso
Genres: biography, essay film, musical
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A poetic portrait of singer Anna Magdalena Wilcke, second wife of J.S. Bach, in which the girl and the woman she became face each other through music, memory and the changing seasons of a life.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
This is exactly the kind of reverential heritage film that makes me want to scream—until you realize Barroso is using Bach's widow as a mirror to collapse the distance between historical subject and living witness, which is genuinely disorienting if you're paying attention.
A formally disciplined essay film that understands its place in the lineage of poetic biography—the seasonal structure, the dialogue between ages, the score as architecture—all orchestrated with the kind of considered restraint that rewards close viewing.
The decision to literalize the duality through actual dialogue between the girl and woman she becomes could be mawkish, but the film's commitment to letting music do the emotional heavy lifting instead of sentiment is what makes it breathe on a minimal budget.