The Red Violin

source: The Red Violin

Loved it Except for Samuel L Jackson. I try to avoid anything he is in. But the story is interesting and spans hundreds of years. If you ever wondered the lives that an antique passes through and influences.

I loved this movie so much my review may be too biased, but if you like complex stories that are formed from a lot of other stories this movie is for you. When it's done right like this movie is, the result is a masterpiece, the way it ties everything together about how a red piano passing through history touched the lives of so many people and how they all fell under its spell is outstanding storytelling. Without telling many spoilers the end wraps everything beautifully and Jackson gives it a great performance, I love the scene where his eyes tells us how much he loves the music from this violin and all that it represents.

I didn't have a clue what to expect from this movie. I was afraid it would be slow, tedious and somewhat boring, but it was engaging from the beginning and kept your interest as you followed along the saga of the red violin, which was the main "character" of the story. From it's creation, passing through a variety of hands of ownership, the red violin has a rich history and significant stories. It has multi-layers of interests: historical, artistic, relational, political. It includes beautiful music and an intriguing twist to the story and the significance to the instrument. Watching the movie is like the feeling many of us have had going into an antique shop, purchasing an item and wondering the life it had before it reached our hands. This story answers that mystery for the red violin and weaves the tales of it's existence into this interesting piece of film. It is a quality and memorable movie, well worth your viewing time.

"The Red Violin" is a great film that shows the travels and exploits of a "Red Violin" that was made during the 16th century, I believe. The story shows how the violin gets passed from one owner to another. The violin is, at first, constructed by a violin craftsman and then is given to a monastary, some gypsies, a wealthy British violinist, an owner in China and finally at a present day Montreal auction. What I found amazing about this film is how each of stories come together seemlessly by the end of the movie. That is typical of most "Canadian" movies and I think that formula is great. I also liked how the Talot card reader's predictions match the events of the film. It gives the story a sense of spirtuality. Being a violin/viola player myself, I highly enjoyed this film cause I could relate to why the owners of the Red Violin were so intrigued by the little instrument. This is a movie that I would recommend to anyone. It also has a very nice soundtrack.

As the violin spans several generations and continents, you witness how various people's lives are transformed by it, the sacrifices they make to hold onto it. It wields enormous power over its owners, or people who would like to own it. It's a clever idea, but by getting fleeting glimpses of various lives and time periods, you don't get to know any of the characters very well. The music and cinematography are beautiful but I need a strong plot and good character development to like a movie.

I'm going to buy the DVD TODAY! I saw it on Bravo last night, and stopped watching before the ending. (The commercial breaks were irritating.) It's my favorite kind of movie: epic in scale, intertwining story lines... GORGEOUS cinematography.

"Le violon rouge" (called "The Red Violin" in English) uses a masterful violin as a conduit to show various parts of history - such as Renaissance-era Italy, 19th-century England, and the Cultural Revolution in China - right up to a 20th-century auction in Montreal. It's beyond amazing how they do the movie and look at the numerous historical events (maybe the scene in China won't make your skin crawl, but it's not a pretty sight). This is definitely the sort of film that would make anyone revere musical instruments. And among other things, it shows that Samuel L. Jackson can do more than play bad mother****ers in movies. A most impressive piece of cinema. Also starring Colm Feore, Jason Flemyng, Greta Scacchi and Sandra Oh (of "Sideways" fame).

This film is known mainly for John Carigliano's score, which is fine. But all of its other qualities are overshadowed by it. The costume design and cinematography are both superb. But what really interested me was the script. The use of 5 separate little tales is a good idea. The 5 haunting stories takes place in 4 different centuries and are quite different but eerily similar. All of them deal with hope. The first four ends in tragedy, but the last one deals with triumph. A definite 10/10.

I prefer not to speculate on the reasons why so many people gave such good scores to this movie. This is the worst kind of "art" movie, as self-indulging, fawning, simplistic and manipulative as the worst kind of Hollywood product. It intends to portray the power of music to affect the lives of human beings, but it does so in such a facile way that it never achieves the power to move, only to irritate. The only segment I found (a bit) moving was the Chinese story, and even this one wastes the character of the old music teacher who risks prison or worse in order to save his instruments. The English segment was sooooo ludicrous, I would have laughed if I hadn't felt my intelligence so thoroughly insulted. The other segments were just forgettable. The music is pretty, but that's it.