Comment

Jun 23, 2014akirakato rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
This is a 1998 Canadian drama film directed by François Girard. It spans four centuries and five countries (Cremona, Italy 1681 -> Vienna, 1793 -> Oxford, late 1890s -> Shanghai, late 1960s -> Montréal, 1997) as it tells the story of a mysterious violin and its many owners. Charles Morritz arrives in Montreal as an appraiser for the violins sent by the Chinese government. Almost immediately, he notices the Red Violin and believes it may be the legendary last violin of Nicolò Bussotti. He has a restorer perform some work on it, while sending samples of the varnish to a lab at the University of Montreal. At the same time, he purchases a copy of the Red Violin from a private collection in London, the closest copy to the original available. A wealthy concert violinist named Ruselsky samples some of the violins and spots the Red Violin and tries it out, though Morritz convinces him that it is not the actual Red Violin. When the results of the varnish tests arrive, Morritz is shocked to learn that the violin's varnish contains human blood. The film was inspired by one of the violins of Antonio Stradivari, the 1721 Red Mendelssohn, which features a unique red stripe on its top right side, but the notion of a red violin painted with the blood of the maker's wife is an invention of the director. In any case it is a fascinating, gripping and thrilling film.