Rating: 
Summary: Fancy fiddle.
Review: One of those movies, like *Tales of Manhattan*, where we get to follow an inaminate object -- in this case, an antique violin -- as it passes from hand to hand. *The Red Violin*, however, takes this conceit to absurd heights: we follow the darn thing across centuries of time, across continents, across oceans, across ideological divides. As for the ultimate "secret" of the musical instrument, the secret which supposedly explains its mystical force, it's so outlandish that not even the screenwriters seem to believe it, much less the actors. (The AUDIENCE certainly won't believe it.) The separate episodes, or short films, are firstly too many in number; secondly, too sparsely composed to carry much resonance. Significantly, the movie's at its best whenever it cuts to the present day, where the red violin is being sold at a Sotheby's-type auction house. A fair amount of suspense is generated from the question of who will actually possess the thing by movie's end. The writers even inject a bit of criminal maneuvering surrounding the auction reminiscent of *The Thomas Crown Affair*. But director Francois Girard earns more demerits by being apparently unable to compose a decent shot through the entire movie (inexcusable, this, given the wide-ranging locales and subject matter). Finally, the music, composed by someone called John Corigliano, fails to live up to the hype inspired by the violin. The filmmakers may have been better off patching together a score from various old classics . . . an apt idea, considering that the movie's about a Stradivarius-era musical instrument. At least Joshua Bell doesn't disappoint with the solos.
Rating: 
Summary: Stopped Time
Review: This movie stopped time for me. You know the feeling you have when the floor seems to fall out from under your feet? Now you can understand why musicians play and singers sing - just see this film.
Rating:
Summary: beautifully filmed, intriguing plot
Review: This film is excellent. In the present, a famous and rare antique violin, called the Red Violin, is up for auction. Several people are bidding on it -- each has a connection with a past owner of the violin.The film traces the history of the violin from its creation several centuries ago in Italy to each owner who has it -- a child prodigy, a master virtuoso, etc. and its journey from Italy to New York. Throughout the movie, the viewer wonders who will own the violin in the end and do they deserve it more than the other bidders? There is no right or wrong answer! I also love that, aside from Samuel L. Jackson, the film is truly independent in its use of unknown actors -- one concentrates more on the plot and its setting than on celebrities. This is a great film -- rent it today!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Dreamily Beautiful
Review: This movie is one of those that gradually takes a hold of you, and before you know it you're totally hooked by its beautiful photography, glorious score and great story. It starts in Italy, where a violin maker paints his dead wife and child's blood into the varnish of his latest creation. Then the viewer watched the violin pass through the ages up to the modern day. Whilst it's true that this method of drawing a tenuous link between several stories has been done before, this wasn't really the point of the story. It's much more about the power of music and the spell it can cast. In this sense it's a very important movie because, like 'Almost Famous' and 'Hilary And Jackie' have also stated, the power of music has mostly died in recent years. First of all the violin passes through an orphanage in Austria, where a child protegy takes hold of the violin. Then it passes through a variety of people including gypsies, an unstable Victorian genius and to a group of suppressed art lovers in China. All of this is well linked back to the first story as the woman who dies in the beginning has her fortune read and the viewer is given a small insight into what is going to happen in each successive story unfolding in front of them. Between each story there is also the modern day auction of the fabled 'Red Violin', which stars an effectively subdued Samuel L. Jackson. It may be true that despite the powerful message concerning the importance of music (which is resonant at the end) there are few moments which will truly excite. Yet the movie's gentle pace works well and is genuinely interesting, if not entirely involving. This is a breakthrough in subtitled movies.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: ...Not every story needs to be full of a deep and profound meaning. This story has its share of social commentary, if that's what you're looking for (in the form of Chinese repression of American music). Otherwise, enjoy the marvelous acting, exquisite music and glorious colors and cinematography. The jumping back and forth in time is actually not as confusing as I thought it might be. This format is used to feed you information of the violin's origins very slowly as you see the travels it has taken. I LOVED this movie and wanted to see it again immediately after I saw it the first time. A fan of violin music MUST see this movie, but if you just want to watch a beautiful movie full of passion, beauty and mystery this is it. Watch for the progression of the violin in owners. There is meaning behind it (from unborn child to child to youth to man to child again, if you must know).
If you like this movie anyway, it is imperative that you get the soundtrack (though Pope's breathing is not on the track of his concert piece. A pity). It makes great relaxing music and the best car music (good for driving through beautiful scenery).
See this movie! If only for Samuel L. Jackson (a different performance than his usual, but amazing all the same. Fans should be pleased)!!!
Rating: 
Summary: If you like this flick then watch paint dry for an encore...
Review: This movie is a pointless piece of drivel - a bad joke. The so called story line bounces back and forth worse than a ping pong game for no apparent reason mixing every conceivable language which the director has kindly translated with annoying subtitles. I kept watching only because the dust jacket promised an exciting secret that would eventually be revealed. I am still waiting for the exciting part... I will never again trust the judgment of the person who recommended this to me.
Rating:
Summary: SPECTACULAR!!!!
Review: I can't say enough about how thrilling, mind-blowing, epic and suspenseful this film is! It's by far one of the most uniquely wonderful films I've seen in the last ten years. I'm not someone who usually cares much for art cinema, but this one is so engaging and accessable as to be the perfect exception to that rule. I don't want to give too much away about the plot, but I will say this -- it follows the fate of a very special violin as it travels the world and ends up in the possession of many diverse people over four centuries. Everywhere it goes sadness, misery and death follow, so much so that when watching the film recently my friends and I came to the conclusion that it was decidedly (if unintentionally) Tolkienesque, with the Red Violin having an almost "One Violin to Rule Them All" feel to it. I love the way the various vignettes that make up the film's retelling of the Red Violin's past and present are independent of one another yet seamlessly blend into a perfect whole. My personal favourite is the breathtaking but all too short sequence in which the Red Violin falls into Romani (Gypsy) hands for many years... about the Gypsies robbing the grave to get it, I don't think that is what the director meant to imply. Yes, true Roma (Gypsies) certainly wouldn't have done so. I got the feeling that it was the French violin master who did it, and that later on it was obtained by the Gypsies. The ending of this film is the most tantalizingly shocking one I've seen since "The Sixth Sense." Altogether, an absolute classic!
Rating:
Summary: Red Violin secret is in the blood
Review: This is a Classic film about a Classic story of a classic instrument The violin. The story is well organized as it goes back and forth between the birth of the violin in the 17th century to its present resting place in the 20th century. It is prophesy about a women whose blood gives life to a violin and to those who play it. I have a new appreciation for the arts and its history behind them. Simple the best movie I have seen in a while. Great!!!
Rating:
Summary: Hitting "Pause" for bathroom breaks not required
Review: What a yawner! I can't give this movie one star only because we actually watched it through to the end, with only two short naps. Yes, it's very pretty to look at, and yes, the music is lovely, but it stops there. The violin wasn't a strong enough thread to tie the different stories together. Although we were shown why each bidder at the auction wanted the violin, there was absolutely no reason to care about the modern folks as much as their historical counterparts. Samuel L. Jackson's character is completely unlikable. By the way, Gypsies are generally far too superstitious to be grave-robbers.
Rating:
Summary: Music traveling through time, time traveling through music
Review: A simple violin maker making his simple instruements in Italy is living with his simple wife when she simply "dies" during childbirth. The simple man returns to his shop, disraught over his wife's death, and proceeds to prodcue his final piece of work. Here begins the enchanting story of the Red Violin.
It is extraordinary how the director takes us through subplot through subplot, revealing a different part of the violin's journey through time. The traditional elements of film are thrown out the window and the movie adapts to jumping throughout time, from story to story, while still keeping its audience fixed upon the screen. From communist China, to a monastary in eastern Europe, to an American auction house, the violin is painted a deeper shade of red as it passes through time, and time passes through the violin.
Not only was the plot unconventionial, but the music was, as well. One would expect to hear suspenseful music during the suspenseful scenes, romantic music during the romantic scenes, up-tempo music during the up-beat and action scenes, etc. . .However, it is the calm and almost serene music interwoven within the movie, not the plot, that takes the audience throughout the entire story on a journey as if the audience was traveling on a peaceful river.
A movie for all to see, and to be seen by all.
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