The Red Violin

Rating:
Summary: Le Violon Rouge
Review: What a wonderful, beautiful piece about the intriguing history of a violin. The composition of color, music and superb acting combine to make a collection of rare and intricate look into the history of a beautiful instrument. It is obvious the filmmakers took pain-staking strives to make every detail of this film perfection yet enticing, leaving the viewer wanting more.

Rating:
Summary: A Rare Gem
Review: It is exceeding rare that I can watch a movie and not even have one "oh that is stupid" moment. Even some of my favorite movies require me to overlook quite a few such moments.

The Red Violin is perfect on that account! Such incredible attention to detail was lavished on this movie, it is about as perfect as the Red Violin it portrays. And let's get that straight right from the start. This movie is about a Red Violin not the people used so elegantly to develop the character of the violin. And I think it is a real testament to the brilliance of this movie that the entire supporting cast of actors can so fully develop an inanimate object. The whole gist of the story is that a magnificent violin is born hundreds of years ago. We are then on a magic carpet ride as we follow the great events of this perfect violin through the ages to the present. That's it. That is really all this movie is about. Who would have thought that such a simple story could be so interesting, so engaging, so thoroughly original, and so uniquely told.

The unique way in which the story is revealed is another tool utilized to make this story so fantastic. This is high story telling at its best. The auction for example, is rerun continually as we learn more and more about the Violin. Each time, though, we glimpse a little more of the auction as we glimpse more of the soul of the Red Violin. Combining with this, we jump repeatedly from the auction, to the birth of the violin, to the different phases of the Violin's life, and to the Violin's Tarot reading. The effect is totally engaging and refreshing. Bravo.

The production values of this movie are top notch; the acting is magnificent, the photography stunning, and the music a feast for the ears. The slavish attention to details adds to all of this and causes a total suspension of disbelief.

The DVD edition of the movie is Anamorphic Widescreen. On a regular TV the characters will look slightly skinny. However, on a widescreen TV you will be blown away by the copious panoramic vistas that can only be truly appreciated in their widescreen glory. This DVD lacks any of the usual goodies such as the Making of the Red Violin etc. This is really a shame because I would have loved to learn more about the scores, the musicians who played them and the composer who created them.

Overall, this movie is one of those incredibly rare gems that are flawless. What more can I say?

Rating:
Summary: Music is the soul, and sometimes the mind and body as well..
Review: I watched this movie only because my brother brought it home from Blockbuster on a boring Friday night. I got around to seeing it that next Monday and thought intensly the whole time!

This movie is truly for the poetic at heart and lovers of classic style momentia. Aside from the nudity and "sex" scenes it has a strong basis for true perfectionism. I don't think that there is any other movie that stands anywhere near this is it's context, besides Imortal Beloved.

I think that this movie is a very interesting look on the way "music" and love eternal tie in together. Looking at this film I see that there are many different ways to interpret it, but there is always the mind, and the it goes is what we go with. I liked how all the doifferent cultures were brought into the story and how it began in one place, slowly but surly heading boutlessly toward another...

From Italy, to Austria, to Asia, To Canada, and finally America. It shows that true forms of art can still be found somewhere. Wherther this is real or not makes no mind, it is truly a masterpiece!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfull movie!
Review: Touched my heart. Thank you, "Red Violin!"

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This was a simply wonderful piece of work beautifully put together.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Story ... Lots of Intrigue
Review: "The Red Violin" is one of the most fascinating films I've ever seen. Samuel L. Jackson purchases the violin at auction and goes about learning its complex history. The instrument has passed through many hands since its making, and has affected many lives (e.g., a Russian orchestra consisting of orphans). I do not want to give too much of the plot away, as there are many fascinating twists and turns before the final revelation is made. If you like beautifully constructed films with some intrigue, you will thoroughly enjoy this one.

Rating:
Summary: not just a movie
Review: I don't normally write reviews for movies but this is different. Red Violin for me is really not just a movie, it is philosophy. It is hard to describe why I love this movie because there are so many things to mention. The plot is very well structured, the story line is original, the music is beautiful. There isn't many movies that can triggered a certin emotions from the viewer and this is one of these rare movies. I recommend this movie to everyone who likes quality movies or beautiful music. Samuel Jackson is one of my favriote actors.

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent Music, Mesmerizing story
Review: What a wonderfully pleasant surprise this movie was. One cannot help but be taken in by the beautiful, academy award winning music, performed mostly by virtuoso Joshua Bell, as well as the actors who carry this story of a rare and perfect violin and it's travels to several continents over the course of three hundred years. An incredibly beautiful movie to watch, as well, like a fairy tale for grown-ups. It's end result: satisfaction for that rare time when we actually have "picked a good (movie) one". This movie is definitely a "keeper" in your home theater library of DVDs.

Rating:
Summary: It's All About the Music!
Review: I have read many reviews of this movie in which critics like to bash the story because of lack of character development. While I agree that the viewer doesn't get to know the characters very well, the point is see the music itself, symbolized by the violin, transcend the shortcomings of the characters such as greed, lust, oppression, and even time itself. Because of the mini-episodic format of the film, the viewer gets more of a glimpse of the character's lives rather than a full examination. There is simply too much going on to advance the story of each mini-episode to fully develop the characters. It would be a daunting task indeed to cram 25-30 minutes with more expansion on the struggles of the individual characters without making it look cliched.

The scenes of this movie are very atmospheric. Authentic (at least to my untrained eye) costumes and scenery play a large role in making the foreign locals believable. More so than anything else, however, is the use of actual foreign languages that correspond to the geographical locations of each mini-episode. One important aspect is that the subtitles themselves correspond to the speaking (unlike most DVD subtitles which hang on screen for unnecessarily long periods of time). This movie is definately aimed at viewers that have surpassed the fourth-grade reading level.

The critics that label this movie as "empty" have simply missed the point. Perhaps this movie can only be enjoyed fully by actual music lovers rather than movie lovers. Both groups, however, will enjoy this movie once, if not many, times.

Rating:
Summary: A feast for the senses ... and music's everlasting magic
Review: "Cinque carte" - five tarot cards servant Cesca (Anita Laurenzi) makes her mistress Anna Busotti (Irene Grazioli) draw in 17th century Cremona when Anna, wife of the legendary violin maker Niccolò Busotti (Carlo Cecchi), asks her servant to tell her and her unborn child's future. And those five cards, along with an auction in 20th century Montreal, provide the framework for the tale that is about to unfold: The Moon - a long life, full and rich, and a long voyage. But there is a curse over her, Cesca tells her mistress as she turns the second card; there is danger to all who are under her thrall, and there will be many ... indeed, the Hanged Man is a powerful card! Then there will be a time of lust and energy, her Lazarus soul will travel across mountains, oceans and time, and she will meet a handsome and intelligent man who will seduce her with his talents "and worse" - in short, the Devil. The fourth card Anna has drawn is Justice: There will be a big trial before a powerful magistrate, Cesca tells her; she will be found guilty ... "beware the heat of the fire!" And indeed, the last card that Anna turns, much to her alarm, is Death - but the card is upside down and Cesca tells her not to worry because at this point this might be good news: She will be carried by the air and furious wind, but then her voyage will come to an end, "one way or another." There is "trouble" in this, Cesca says, "but you are strong now, like a tree in a forest." She will also not be alone; the servant sees a crowd of faces ... friends, family, enemies, lovers and a lot of admirers fighting to win her hand (lots of money, too) - and ultimately, a rebirth.

Each card symbolizes one of the stories told about the travels through time and space made by the Red Violin, Niccolò Busotti's last masterpiece, over the course of the centuries. And each of the violin's owners we meet symbolizes a stage of life: birth, childhood, coming of age, political awakening and maturity. In that, it is not so much the violin's voyage that links the five vignettes dealing with its owners' lives, such as Glenn Gould's life provided the links between the individual parts of writer-director Francois Girard's first film, "32 Short Films About Glenn Gould." Rather, the humans' stories provide snapshots of various stages of the instrument's existence, brought to life by John Corigliano's magnificent and Oscar-winning score and Joshua Bell's virtuoso performance - and of course, it is also obvious throughout that a link exists between Anna Busotti and the violin created by her husband.

"The Red Violin" is feast for the eyes and ears - luscious and true to detail in its costume design and cinematography, it not only faithfully uses the original languages of its various locations but also actors who are native speakers (to the point of having Suisse-born actor Jean Luc Bideau portray the French teacher of Austrian wunderkind Kaspar Weiss [Christopher Koncz], thus choosing an actor who is on the one hand fluent in German but on the other hand speaks it with a "genuine" French accent ... and although I don't speak any Chinese/Mandarin, I wouldn't be surprised if the scenes taking place in China were linguistically as faithful to their location as those set in Vienna and elsewhere).

So why only four stars, not five? Because, as others have noted, the movie's plot lines fall somewhat short of its visual and acoustic splendor. Granted, there was only limited possibility to develop meaningful stories for each of the vignettes. But given the highly symbolic nature of the movie's five parts, too many gaping holes remain. Although we know the violin's story doesn't end with Kaspar, for example, we can only guess as to how it falls into the hands of gypsies. And the following sequence, involving British composer and virtuoso Frederick Pope and his mistress Victoria Byrd, has rightfully been criticized for the shallow waters it treads: Even if you don't have a whole movie to develop the relationship between a sensual, gifted and somewhat eccentric composer and his novelist lover (such as 1991's magnificent and in the U.S. sadly overlooked "Impromptu"), and even if Greta Scacchi's Victoria is far from being another George Sand, her talent seems ... well, maybe not wasted, but reduced to another "blonde bombshell" role unworthy of her Old Vic training. And don't even get me started on the final scene in Montreal and the "conflict" faced by violin appraiser Charles Morritz ... (although Samuel L. Jackson, at least, gives a finely tuned and sensitive performance which almost manages to smooth out the edges of the script's sometimes scratchy composition.)

But this movie's real star and ultimately, its saving grace, is the Red Violin itself - not the six models physically representing the instrument throughout the film of course, but the personality it gains through Corigliano's score and its uniquely beautiful interpretation by Bell, and the idea the violin stands for; that of music's everlasting magic. For bringing this idea to life alone, the movie is well worth seeing.