Cast
Program notes
The ideal door to enter the world of one of the most inventive composers.
The Crystal Liturgy, from the name of the first movement of the Quartet for the End of Time, is the ideal introduction to the world of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), whose original work is like a singular planet revolving around nature and faith, its stars.
The film makes use of rare documents: we see Messiaen teaching with generous simplicity at the Conservatoire de Paris; we follow him on the paths of nature as he writes down the songs the birds teach him; we admire Yvonne Loriod, his wife, student and accomplice, who plays the works of her teacher...
He's also interviewed at length, at different ages, which allows us to understand the peculiarities of his creative process and the mysteries of a vocation: how could an eight-year-old boy, living alone with a mother who wasn't a musician, in a family where there were no musicians, know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a musician?