The Red Violin

This movie appeared in 1998, and was directed Francois Girard.

It is a story of a violin made with blood, sweat and tears, of passion and betrayal, of judge jury and executioner, of greed and love.

The story is set around an auction house selling the legendary last violin made by Nicolo Bussotti. The auction is intertwined with various passages from the instruments history. Places like Vienna, Oxford or Shanghai give a real impression of credibility to the motion picture.

The main concept behind the movie is the crossroad between the destinies of the violin's various owners, although distant in time, all end up in the same auction house. The movie easily swings through the various time planes of the story, and although a bit unclear at the start, everything clarifies.

The score is very good, and it gives the movie a great lot of punch. Joshua Bell plays solo violin and actually appears in a cameo in the Oxford bit.

In the end I would like to say this is a good movie, not brilliant, but good.