PHM – About the Musical Comedy “Sound of Noise”

PHM – About the Musical Comedy “Sound of Noise”

A movie that musicians should not miss, seriously!

On Wednesday night I had the difficult choice of either going to “Meet the DJs” at Goethe or the Screening of “Sound of Noise” at ATK, and after seeing this cool trailer, the movie won.

This is a Swedish musical comedy set in Malmö, Sweden. The movie centers around a policeman named Amadeus Warnebring who was born in a prominent musical family. Everyone in his family is a musician, especially his brother who is a music genius and a world famous conductor. Unfortunately, Amadeus is different from all his family members – he is totally tone-deaf and allergic to any kind of music. He always feels isolated in family get-togethers and cannot even have a proper talk with his superstar brother.

Then he gets involved in a case where 6 crazy musicians decide to create “a hell of a work of art” by turning the whole city into a big music hall which they call “music for the city”. Their first “concert” happens in a hospital where they play music on the medical instruments and (hilariously) on the sleeping body of a hateful TV star. Their second performance is set in a bank with the office equipment and the bank’s money, which results in the destruction of a huge amount of money since they think when money is destroyed in the paper cutting machine it makes a perfect sound. The third case happens in front of the concert hall where the orchestra led by Amadeus’s brother is playing Haydn; this time their instruments are bulldozers and constructions tools, and of course it causes a panic scene inside the building. The last show and the grand finale is called “Electric Love” in which they use the electricity net to turn the whole city into a beautiful concert of lights and noise.


This is a very entertaining movie about music, crime, comedy and a silent love story. Even though I thought the movie’s rhythm was a bit slow from time to time, we the audience couldn’t stop laughing throughout the whole movie. In my opinion, the ending with a sort-of-love-story and a weird silent concert conducted by Amadeus’s brother going along with a soft song that should not be played by the terrorist band(!), is not very rational, but well, those are just minor points and you can judge it yourself after watching the movie.

Nevertheless, I like the message delivered which I “translate” into: Music is not only the thing accepted by the majority of people, but music is everywhere and can be played on anything and by anyone, music can be noises we hear every day on the streets, music can be some shapes of lights; or sometimes music can be just silence, complete silence; everyone is a born musician, we just need to be sensitive enough to find out what music is to our ears and play with it; and the most important of all, music needs passion and it has no patterns.

A shoutout to all self-recognized musicians, this is a movie that you should not miss! Contact the Onion Cellar to ask them if it will be shown again, download it somewhere, buy a DVD, or catch it when it is screened in Ho Chi Minh City (to be announced)! However you find the movie, believe me it’s well worth it!

PS: Just one thing.. musicians, do us a favor! You can be crazy and passionate, but please don’t even think about using any city in Vietnam for such a concert, I don’t think the idea of blowing off the front of the Opera House or living without electricity in the coming terribly hot summer is a good one(!).

Photos provided by the Onion Cellar.

Pham Hoang Mien has been with Hanoi Grapevine for some time, mainly involved in social media and occasional translation. As an enthusiastic music lover, now she wants to challenge herself in a new role – being a columnist writing about music and musicians for the site.

3 COMMENTS

    • @ nganngan: Chào bạn, bộ phim này đã được The Onion Cellar trình chiếu vào tuần trước ở Hà Nội. Thời gian tới sẽ được trình chiếu tại TP HCM. Và có lẽ cách tốt nhất để bạn có thể xem đc bộ phim là.. tải từ trên mạng về ;-)

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