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See: Mein Name ist Bach (My Name is Bach)

"Mein Name ist Bach"

Charles Francis wrote (May 11, 2004):
I recently had the opportunity to watch this prize winning film about Bach's trip to the court of Frederick The Great. Not too bad actually, although little things like the tone of the supposed fortepiano were disconcerting. The film departs from the historical record somewhat, but after all who knows what really happened? For example, regarding the origin of Musical Offering theme, the action is as follows: Frederick the Great, while having his daily massage, comes up with an "irregular" five note theme and then goes to Quantz to develop it for him. Quantz performs a poor improvisation, never thinking to extend the theme. Then Bach arrives and with all assembled is given the Royal Theme as a subject for a fugue. He politely points out to the audience (Professor Quantz etc.) that the theme is incomplete (it stops on the leading tone) and thus unsuitable for a fugue. He pauses for a few seconds and then plays the 5 royal notes very slowly followed by the completion of the theme as we know it today. He doesn't bother to improvise the fugue, however, as the audience is already suitably impressed by the mere feat of completing the theme in such a chromatic manner. All quite plausible, really.

Olle Hedström wrote (May 11, 2004):
[To Charles Francis] Where can I find this film "Mein Name ist Bach" ?

Charles Francis wrote (May 11, 2004):
[To Olle Hedström] Just type the title into Google. Here's a couple of links in English:
http://www.swissfilms.ch/detail_n.asp?id=-500364625
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/inCamera/july2003/meinP.shtml#p

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Thomas Braatz wrote (December 3, 2007):
[To Aryeh Oron] Recently I saw the German movie, 'Mein Name ist Bach' (2003) which I was able to view on one of my international channels, German Kino (I have finally acquired a satellite dish so that I can watch a wide array of international programming). It was difficult for me to watch this film all the way through since my expectations were very high and I was quite disappointed with the fictional aspects that are always present when a biographical episode in the life of a great composer is depicted. Seeing this film once was more than enough for me.

I assume that you are well-acquainted with with the IMDb for locating the films you are searching for. There you will find for the above film: 'Filmmakers: Dominique de Rivaz - Director / Writer, Jean-Luc Bourgeois - Writer, Leo Raat - Writer, Karl Baumgartner - Producer, Uta Ganschow - Producer, Thanassis Karathanos - Producer, Jean-Louis Porchet - Producer, Gérard Ruey - Producer, Ciro Cappellari - Cinematographer, Frédéric Devreese - Composer, etc.etc.'