The Red Violin (5 Stars)

This is a difficult film for me to describe adequately. If I tell you what it's about you'll shrug and say it sounds boring. It's about a violin made in 1681 and the people who play it over the centuries. Does that sound interesting? Not really. And yet I remember when I first saw the film, before I started writing my blog. I sat on the edge of my seat, repeatedly saying Wow at the various twists and turns.

Is the violin cursed? It would seem so. Those who play it suffer early deaths, whether by sickness or suicide, but the deaths are caused indirectly. Those who hold the violin become obsessed with it, and it's the obsession that causes death, not the violin itself. The fortune teller Cesca makes a mistake while reading the Tarot cards. She predicts a long life for Anna Bussotti, the wife of the violin maker Nicolo Bussotti, and yet she dies in childbirth the next day. Cesca has unwittingly foretold the future of the violin, which will travel the world for hundreds of years.

A hundred years after its creation, the violin is buried in the hands of an orphan who played it. But that can't stop the violin. Grave robbers loot the cemetery, looking for buried treasures, and the violin finds its way into the hands of gypsies travelling across Europe.

Some of the lives are shown in detail, while others flash across the screen for a few seconds only. There are many untold stories.

Lord Frederick Pops lies in the arms of a beautiful woman, but he can't take his eyes off his violin. She tells him she's jealous of the violin. It has a seductive beauty that no woman can match.

Wherever the violin is played, tears are shed. Crimes are committed by men who've been honest all their lives.

The film doesn't show the end of the violin's life. It's merely the next phase. At the end of the film we see the violin being carried from Montreal to New York, where it can continue to influence people.

I've tried to make "The Red Violin" sound interesting. I hope I've succeeded.

Success Rate:  - 1.0

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