5 Rather Longish Short Films About a Violin

Rating: 7/10 (20 September 1999)

A beautifully crafted and designed film which succeeds quite well despite its unnecessarily long two-and-a-half hour running time.
The film charts the life of the mythical musical instrument of the title in five distinct segments: Its manufacture in Renaissance-era Italy; its initial life as a teaching instrument in a monastery; its possession by, and inspiration of a Victorian English composer; its clandestine life in a Chinese attic during the Cultural Revolution; and its sale at an up-market auction house in modern-day Montreal.
Director Francois Girard and screenwriter Don McKellar haven't mastered the fragmentary style and structure as comprehensively as they did in their earlier 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, but the superb cinematography, costumes and original score more than make up for that.
In the ensemble cast, the best performances come from Samuel L Jackson as the instrument's present-day discoverer, Colm Feore as the Auctioneer, and Carlo Cecchi as the Violin Maker. Fans of Greta Scacchi be warned, however; although she appears naked again after a long period of on-screen modesty, she and Jason Flemyng (as lecherous composer Sir Frederick Pope) are wasted in the film's least successful segment