This is a Canadian film originally entitled Le Violon Rouge. 
This film begins with a brief scene as Samuel L. Jackson entering a Montreal auction house that is selling fine antique musical instruments. After that, it moves to a series of vignettes around the several-century history of the famed (in the world of the film) Red Violin, separated by the auction house scene being retold from the point of view of different prospective buyers. The framing sequence is in English and the other stories are spoken in (and subtitled from, when applicable) Italian, German, French, English and Mandarin depending on the setting of the stories. This format could easily be boring, as I don't find the history of a musical instrument to be particularly entrancing, but each of the stories is quite different from the others and each is a quite good short story on its own. They have character and they have heart. It would take a sharper ear than mine to hear the differences between one violin and another when the same musician is playing the same musical piece, but the title instrument is said to be "the perfect acoustic machine", and some characters in the stories can tell this immediately.
This film begins with a brief scene as Samuel L. Jackson entering a Montreal auction house that is selling fine antique musical instruments. After that, it moves to a series of vignettes around the several-century history of the famed (in the world of the film) Red Violin, separated by the auction house scene being retold from the point of view of different prospective buyers. The framing sequence is in English and the other stories are spoken in (and subtitled from, when applicable) Italian, German, French, English and Mandarin depending on the setting of the stories. This format could easily be boring, as I don't find the history of a musical instrument to be particularly entrancing, but each of the stories is quite different from the others and each is a quite good short story on its own. They have character and they have heart. It would take a sharper ear than mine to hear the differences between one violin and another when the same musician is playing the same musical piece, but the title instrument is said to be "the perfect acoustic machine", and some characters in the stories can tell this immediately.
This film has a different cast in each segment including a brief appearance by Sandra Oh (Sideways, Grey's Anatomy) and a story largely about Jason Flemyng , who I had no idea how much I like. I don't know that Flemyng could support a movie in the leading role, but I suddenly realize that I tend to enjoy everything I see him in, or at least the scenes of his (admittedly lesser) parts: X-Men: First Class, Lock(,) Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Kick Ass, Clash Of The Titans... I haven't seen Stardust yet, but I hear it's good, and I don't have many good things to say about Spice World.
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| Tell me the truth now: did you just fart? |
If you like anthology films (which tend to be more common in the horror genre, which this is definitely not) with well-told stories, then you will like this film. Some are better than others, or at least some will be more to a given individual's tastes than others, but overall I thought they were very good. For me, this film is 4 stars. It didn't rock my world, but I did find it solidly enjoyable. If you've seen the movie (or if you plan to soon, then check back here afterwards), and if you feel like there's something you don't understand (hopefully you'll know what thing I'm refering to here), then hilight and/or copy and paste the segment I'm about to type in white below so it won't give anything away to those who prefer not to see it.
Remember that the Cesca the fortune teller told the pregnant lady of the house that she couldn't read the unborn baby's future because their humors (body fluids, especially blood) are one. Did you notice that she was reading the violin's future instead of the lady's? Wonder why?
I had a long discussion with Bruce Campbell about this one time, and he believes, as do I,that he key to this is the blood paint.
ReplyDeleteWhen the lady's blood was used in the paint for the violin, she then lived through the violin and its music (which in a way may have been the intention of the man who crafted it) The lady was telling her future. She knew about the hard pregnancy and then continued to tell her what would happen to her, throught her "existence" (as conditional and limited as it may be)