The Red Violin (5 Stars)

I feel scared to review this film. It's one of the most beautiful films ever made, and I'm afraid that what I write won't live up to it. I want my review to make every reader jump up and buy the film (or at least watch it with a streaming service), but I fear that my words might make the film seem dull. What can I write to convince you?

As the film's title suggests, the film is about a violin. More accurately, the film is about the auction of a violin. The same sequence of the bids being made is repeated five or more times – I didn't count – as the story unfolds. In flashbacks the tale of the violin is told from 1681 to the present day. Each time the bidding is repeated the camera shows us the faces of different people making bids, all of whom have a connection with the violin's past.

Three timelines are overlaid in the film. On paper it looks confusing, but it's easy to follow. There's a Tarot reading in 1681, the present day auction, and the violin's progression from owner to owner. Anna Bussotti, the wife of the master violin builder Nicolo Bussotti, wants to know her future. The cards drawn, in order, are the Moon, the Hanged Man, the Devil, Justice and Death. Unintentionally, the fortune teller doesn't predict Anna's future, she predicts the future of the last violin her husband will make. There's a connection between her and the violin which isn't revealed until late in the film.

Over the centuries the violin is passed from hand to hand. It has a powerful effect on those who play it and those who listen. People become obsessed with the violin and are willing to commit any type of crime to possess it.

It makes no difference if the people are adults or children, the effect is the same.

In one of the best performances of his career, Samuel L. Jackson falls under the spell of the violin when he has to appraise it for auction.

I don't know what else to say about the film. Giving a step by step description of the plot would spoil the film for my readers. If I haven't persuaded you to watch the film by now, I've failed.

Success Rate:  - 1.0

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