Absolutely amazing

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

A perfect red-colored violin inspires passion, making its way through three centuries over several owners and countries, eventually ending up at an auction where it may find a new owner.I know precious little about violins or about Stradivarius and why his violins are considered the best in the world. But this story is told in such a way where you need to know nothing in order to appreciate that history. Everything is laid out here and in a much grander story arc than any real violin likely ever went through.Perhaps best of all was the casting of Samuel L. Jackson. He is the only real "star" in the cast, and his character is among the most complex. Though we go through several centuries and multiple countries, Jsckson's story really ties it all together -- like the moment in "2001" where the bone becomes the satellite, Jackson is the modern day counterpart to the violin's entire history.

A Nicolo Bussotti violin, known as "the red violin," is auctioned off in Montreal. It was built in 1681 and Nicolo's last. The movie follows the violin from the story of its construction to the present. Nicolo's wife Anna Rudolfi is pregnant and her servant Cesca reads the tarot cards. When Anna dies in childbirth with her child, Nicolo mixes her blood with the vanish to paint on the violin giving it the unusual red color. The tarot cards foretells the future of the violin and not Anna.This is a difficult thing to make each section as compelling as possible. In the end, that is not achieved. Each section doesn't have enough time to tell its drama compellingly. Also the movie already shows that the violin doesn't get buried or burned. The music is beautiful as long as you love violin music. This is a beautiful sounding movie but the plot doesn't have much tension. There are some poetic moments but it meanders a bit.

The Red Violin (1998)A total romantic fiction, rather compelling in its construction over many centuries, and beautifully wrought in each era.I don't suppose the violin needs romanticizing, nor does it need a kind of obvious group hug view of its history, but that's the feel good, up and down, loving story it takes. First there is the small violin shop where it is made, and the tragedy around this particular model, the maker's last. It's supposed to come from the same era as the Strad and other timeless fiddles. It's a great place to begin a story filled with mysteries (and the mystery of a great violin, it's shape, wood, and varnish, is given high tech reinforcement in the end with an electronic awe). So the violin is born.And it moves from a Austrian orphanage (with an unbelievable prodigy) to generations of gypsies (some interesting filming with the violin suspended in space as one after another player takes it up) to a crackpot British prodigy (who acts more like a rock star and an indulgent one, if that's not redundant). Finally it winds its way (not so improbably, because life is weird) to China, which of course echoes the modern rise of the Asian virtuosi coming from that part of the world.So the tale is the history of a violin, a possessed one. The spirit of the instrument seems to inhabit the movie. This is reinforced by an Italian fortune-teller (a kindly witch) who has an early Tarot deck. The Tarot was not used for divination that early--it was introduced a card game in Northern Italy in the late 1400s--but that's okay, because it works into the plot really well. Five cards are chosen by the pregnant wife of the master violin maker. Each is turned over for another twenty minute chapter in the movie. In a key moment, the wife asks the fortune teller, what if I don't like what it says, what if it's evil? And the fortune teller says, "I'll pretend not to notice." Promptly the moon is the first card, the most ominous card in the deck (I've studied tarot a bit, which is why, weirdly enough, I watched the movie). But the fortune teller doesn't say that doom is facing the pregnant wife. Instead she lies, and the movie takes one turn after another.You might think this is brilliant stuff, and it has the trappings of that. It could have been, with some slight twist of intentions, artfully transcendent. But it's a hair long at times, and by the last (modern) scenes, a bit cold and unfulfilling. I don't know the solution to what might have worked, but I know it left me interested and curious by the end, not quite bowled over, which is clearly (on the sleeve) the intention.Still, an engaging, musically rich tapestry of great scenes, great music, and a brimming story. Recommended, with slight reservations.

There are a few great films about artists like Camille Claudelle, Goya in Bordeaux and Tous Les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World). But this is the only film I can recall about a piece of art, and the remarkable journey it takes, with many people through distant lands, over hundreds of years. With all of it fitting nicely into 2 hours of great cinema, drawn from a most exceptional story. Perhaps I should say stories - as there are many, and of course the stories are about people.I don't think a great cast necessarily means famous names, lengthy reputations, or even a lot of acting experience - but one that simply works well. Meaning actors (or acting ability) that fit the characters, with a flow of believability or at least the right feel. Some of the best movies I've ever seen have had several cast members that were never heard of before or after being seen in the one film I saw them in. Here everyone fits. From the child prodigy in Vienna to the instrument expert in Montreal (Samuel Jackson) - this film is well cast. Shot on location in at least 4 different countries, this is storytelling at it's best. One of my favorite films, it is one of the truest examples of what good movie making is all about. It also happens to have an inanimate object (a violin) as one of the stars of the show. Like so many of the rare occasions in your life when something happening seems like a dream come true, it would sound like a fairy tale if you told it. It's that way here. This is a real gem of a movie and a bit of a fairy tale, but it is one for grown ups . . . and a most delightful one at that.http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/destiny/