Good Sights and Sounds

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2002)

"The Red Violin" follows the long life of...a violin. As a historical back story, the "Red Violin" (fictional)is considered by collectors to be the greatest instrument produced by a certain 17th Century Italian violin maker--a "perfect acoustic machine" as described by a violin restoration expert. It is because of the instrument's perfection that it was coveted by many who encountered it, and survived centuries of owners and pawn shops. Most of it's owners had no knowledge of the violin's origin or unique qualities, and the movie audience itself discovers the violin's most unique characteristic only at the end of the film. Shot on location in a number of cities around the world, and combined with a marvelous soundtrack (in glorious DTS sound on the DVD), it's a joy to watch the sights and sounds along the violin's journeys. This violin is sort of the "Forrest Gump" of musical instruments, finding it's way by accident through many historical events. Don't expect a huge surprise twist ending. The ending is only mildly surprising, and really not the point of the film. The purpose of the film is the journey, and the violin, and it's effect on it's musician owners, obsessed with music and rare objects of perfection.

Some interesting observations (spoilers!): It's interesting that the fortune teller was probing the woman's future, and yet the tarot cards told the future of the violin. Presumably this is because the violin is varnished with the woman's own blood. It carries her essence, so the cards extended her future into that of the violin. Is this not an interesting technicality of tarot cards? The woman was already dead when her blood was extracted, yet the cards considered her blood a continuation of her life, and therefore, her future. For tarot cards, at what point is a dead person's blood no longer considered part of the person? On first viewing I thought perhaps we are supposed to notice that each person who possesses the violin suffers an untimely death. This turned out to be an unintentional thread on the part of the director. Interesting that there was no Mozart played in this movie, even though Mozart was a grand master of violin composition. Mozart was even mentioned in at least one scene "...even Mozart, God rest his soul, played a child sized violin. There's no shame in it...". Perhaps they were trying to avoid direct comparison to the movie "Amadeus" with which this movie has many similarities.