Wednesday, January 22, 2020
The Red Violin
- Commentary: I didn't buy this movie for the story, I bought it for the music and the performance of Joshua Bell, but I enjoy the story well enough and will likely watch it, again. It's lively, involving, wide-ranging and, for the most part, the actors are good, if a bit hammy. And, it's not the story of people, really, it's the story of a musical instrument and, desire for, as Samuel Jackson's character says, (I paraphrase) the desire for perfection and beauty, for which we all yearn and which is curious and provocative to contemplate. The movie case says the violin has a "shocking secret", but it's not shocking to me, just delightfully surprising.
The score won an Academy Award in 1998; that is how I learned of the movie. The score is full of beautiful classical-standard-sounding pieces, all written by John Corigliano [see, also Wise Music's page on John Corigliano or, if you prefer, his Wikipedia page, which is surprisingly sparse, considering his accomplishments], a much lauded composer who, at this writing, is alive and continuing to compose and teach. I heard the intriguing music before I knew anything about the story contained in the movie.
I think, as well, this movie is one my mother would have absolutely loved, dementia-lite or not. And, yes, I continue to enjoy watching movies that my mother loved or I think she would have loved. These movies bring my mother back into the living room, into her rocking chair, next to me, whenever I watch them.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Samuel L. Jackson Charles Morritz Colm Feore Auctioneer Carlo Cecchi Nicolò Bussotti Irene Grazioli Anna Rudolfi Bussotti Christoph Koncz Kaspar Weitz Jean-Luc Bideau Georges Poussin Jason Flemyng Frederick Pope Greta Scacchi Victoria Byrd Joshua Bell 1st Violin Sylvia Chang Xiang Pei/Her Mother) Liu Zifeng Zhou Yuan Sandra Oh Madame Ming
Here's the Wikipedia write-up for this film.
Release Date: 1998
Directed by François Girard.
Labels: adventure2, drama2, historical1, musical1, mystery1, samuel-l-jackson
