Way to go, Canada!

Rating: Null/10 (30 June 1999)

While the vast majority of the world's films emerge from the United States, along with a handful from Italy, the U.K., France, and India, a country of only 30 million people, not well known for creating masterpieces in film, has come up with this jewel, "The Red Violin". Canada has generated scores of famous actors - Michael J. Fox, Jim Carrey, Donald Sutherland, William Shatner, John Candy, and Neve Campbell to name but a few, but Hollywood's empire of film production has drawn them all down south, while, ironically, so many US films are shot in Canada (especially Vancouver).
In the past, Canada made the odd good, low budget film ("Who Has Seen the Wind", "The Grey Fox") but in the past decade, its government has been setting more funds aside for the development of its entertainment and culture industry. The result has been the creation of about one very good film per year ("Decline of the American Empire", "Jesus of Montreal", "Black Robe", "Exotica", and "The Sweet Hereafter" to name a few).
Just as Canadian film-makers borrowed England's Helena Bonham Carter in making "Margaret's Museum", the latest Canadian creation - "The Red Violin" - features a well known US actor - Samuel L. Jackson. Perhaps "we" have done this as a drawing card to attract attention to great films that, because they are Canadian made, run the danger of passing unnoticed outside of the country.
I glowed after watching this heart-galvanizing spectacle of beauty out of slight feelings of humble patriotism, seeing that my country really is capable of landing a winner in the movie making game. Everything is likable about "The Red Violin" - great acting, dialogue, production, cinematography, music (score), compelling characters, and interesting stories woven together into a work of art. And, just think, this was pulled off without Hollywood's gargantuan enterprise of talent, experience, and funding. WAY TO GO, EH!