The Red Violin

A violin made in Italy in the seventeenth century passes from hand to hand for three hundred years: a monastery, a child in Vienna, a musician in England, China during the Cultural Revolution, and finally an auction in Montreal. The film cuts the episodes against the present of an expert waiting for that auction. What binds them is a fortune telling: cards read for the maker's wife, each corresponding to one chapter. The structure does not join the stories, but it carries what the object carries. Francois Girard directed and wrote it with Don McKellar. The score is by John Corigliano and the violin is played by Joshua Bell. It was shot in five languages. Who it's for: those who like episodic narrative and films about music. Who it's not for: viewers who want to attach to one character; the film stays with nobody for long.