But if it's only half as good, it will still be a decent novel. Just about everyone I know who had read it before the nominations nominated it, but that wasn't a big enough group. This is a film that gets better as it goes along and presents the viewer with several interesting puzzles. The classical music that goes with the story is a THE MT VOID Page 5 definite plus. There are several different ways to write an anthology film, a film made up of several episodes.
Some films manage to have the whole be greater than the sum of the parts.
One that does rise well above the parts is this history of the Red Violin, a violin of astounding acoustical properties. Francois Girard, who directed, co-authored the screenplay with Don McKellar, who appears as a scientific violin expert. While it is not true that each episode stands on its own as a good story, the combined film is actually quite well-written. The story is set at the Montreal auction of the violin and then flashes back over the history of the violin and its travels from Italy to Montreal. A band of gypsies plays the great violin for years without ever knowing its true value.