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| Directed by François Girard; Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Don McKellar, Carlo Cecchi, Irene Grazioli, Jean-Luc Bideau, Christoph Koncz, Jason Felmyng, Greta Scacchi, Sylvia Chang, Liu Zifeng, Colm Feore, and Monique Mercure |
The Red Violin is a bit of a surprise film for me. Upon entering I thought that I could very well be walking into yet another costume drama that takes no time whatsoever to work on an able story (i.e. Valmont), but instead I was treated to a beautifully layered film that is probably the second best I’ve seen so far this year.
The film follows the life of a red violin, made by an instrument maker for his son. For the duration of the film we are treated to the violin changing hands from a child prodigy in Vienna to a group of gypsies to a famous violin player in Oxford to the communist take over against European goods in China. All this while placed beside the tarot cards of the maker’s servant and beside the present day auctioning off of the instrument.
The whole placing of the film was ingenious, as I was interested in each story, only to again be overtaken by the next. I found myself especially close to the present day scenes in Montreal with Samuel L. Jackson appraising the instrument for auction while trying to keep it a secret. The Red Violin was at times breathtaking (especially in the Vienna based story) and fun (especially in the Montreal scenes). Girard has proven himself as somewhat of a modern day Milos Forman with the ability to sell costume dramas (Amadeus) and modern day comedy dramas (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest). Whether Girard has a very promising future is only to be seen, one must keep in mind that Milos Foreman did direct the aforementioned Valmont.
