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The Red Violin Resurrected
Here is interpretation regarding "The Red Violin," which I hope helps you to gain insight into the movie's hidden meaning: <
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>Charles Morritz (Samuel Jackson) is called on by a Montréal auction house to assess the value of a recently procured violin. His initial reaction is that the violin is the long-lost, world famous Nicolo Bussotti "Red Violin". In verifying its authenticity, the film flashes back to the birth of the violin... <
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>Famous Italian violin maker Nicolo Bussotti (Carlo Cecchi) designs the perfect violin, originally intended for his unborn son, but he soon confronts the death of both his son and beloved wife while she is in childbirth. He subsequently varnishes the violin with a mysterious red pigment, and it makes its way across the continent of Europe, first appearing in an orphanage where a Mozart-like child prodigy Kaspar Weiss (Christoph Koncz) comes in possession of it. Ushered off to Vienna and poised on the precipice of worldwide fame, Weiss suffers a heart attack, and in memorial the violin is buried with him. Thereafter, his grave is subsequently looted and the violin is "resurrected" [Lazarus-like] by gypsies, who give it a home with them for some time before it is acquired by the Dionysian inspired red-haired musical genius, Frederick Pope (Jason Flemyng). When Pope injures the heart of his longtime lover Victoria (Greta Scacchi), the violin is damaged by a bullet... <
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>A servant of Pope's eventually transports the red violin to the Asian Continent where it is purchased and used first as a teacher's aide, and then eventually given to a care-taker to hide during a Communist regime which fears the potential influence of aristocratic 'Western music' and the musical instruments used to create and disseminate it. When the Shanghai violin care-taker in possession of the red violin dies "upstairs" with all the angelic musical instruments he has been protecting from harm, the Chinese government confiscates the collection and places the instruments up for auction with Duval, a Canadian auction house. <
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>Finding the red violin in its midst, two experts work to verify its authenticity, and when they do, a fierce bidding war takes place to see who will get the prized possession. But an article of such great value can only be held by someone who truly appreciates the truth of its "provenance and beauty"... <
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>The plot is not conventional, but it is a moving tale about loss and rebirth [not always in its most obvious form)] There is the story of the creator, who, upon his wife's death, infuses the violin with his wife's body and soul. There is the young protégée who dies just before his great talent is discovered. There is the Diablo/Dionysian musical genius who gains musical inspiration from his passion. There is the secret music lover and her sacrifice for the love of her family and country. Finally, there is the violin expert who recognizes this instruments worth, and finds that it is what he has been searching for his whole life. <
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>Remember that early in the film [in 1681], the famous "luthier" Nicolo Bussotti [17th century violin maker] smashes an employee's handiwork because it's only fit for ordinary people to play and therefore not worthy to carry his name; ironically his own personally crafted "perfect" masterpiece, the Red Violin, subsequently follows the exact path he demeans and goes on to provide the story of the film [i.e., his masterpiece ironically comes into the hands of "ordinary people" such as orphans, gypsies, an opium addict adulterer, a mother, a little girl, etc..]. <
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>Also in the beginning, Nicolo's wife, Anna Bussotti, tells her husband that he is jealous of her affair with "Luna [the Moon], but he exclaims, "no I'm not, because I know you will always return." Anna has her future read by her [gypsy?] house-servant. The Tarot card reader tells her she cannot predict her unborn child's future [because their "humors" (or "blood") are still the same. She therefore predicts a very long life for the wife with many exciting events of love, death, and passion. The actual scenes of the Tarot reading are performed well, and over the course of the film, we come back to this scene again and again; thus, the table upon which the Tarot are read becomes the stage. <
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>Right after Anna's future is told, she and her child die, but her husband [the violin's creator] varnishes the violin [we later discover] with her blood, in order to resurrect her soul into an instrument that will soon speak the words of angels [namely, music and harmony]. From that moment, the truth of the fortune that was told Anna, now instead transfers to the blood of the violin [she has given birth to this red violin], and Anna Bussotti's soul guides the destiny of the violin in a long journey through time. As expected, therefore, all the predictions given to Anna, instead happen to the violin [i.e., by finishing the red violin with his wife's life blood, Bussotti has nailed the fate of each of the owners of the violin to the fate that the cards foretold to Anna]. Thus, throughout the film, just as foretold by the Tarot, the soulful and haunting music carries the viewer and her into the gifted hands of a "motherless and fatherless" orphan prodigy [query: was this the gifted son that the violin's master creator himself foretold or intended?], then to gypsies resurrecting the violin from the grave, giving it new life in their hands while roaming Europe, to the hands of the diablo, English virtuoso Frederick Pope, who plays her with a devilish flair. Again, as the cards foretold, she is tried, almost by fire [is almost burned in China], and when she finally yields her secret to Morritz [violin appraiser], another predestined link to a human soul is forged. <
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>What this violin has is a soul, and a gift or a curse [i.e., an ability to totally possess its owner or those who come in contact with her]. Therefore the real star of this movie is the red violin, who is soulful, hauntingly enchanting, desirous, and ultimately pierces the lives of those who think they have possessed her, but in fact have become possessed by her. <
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>All in all, the movie methodically develops a wonderful plot, which has a fantastic underlying message, but I do have two critical comments: <
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>Firstly, the editing or proper lack thereof left the viewer completely confused at times. Certainly it was a monumental task to edit together all the different scene locations and historical time frames. I therefore do appreciate the effort that was put into the film by the editor [especially since this film is noteworthy in that it is only one of two films to ever contain more than four different languages spoken in it; and in which each of the languages remains true to the location and time where the action is being filmed]; but still I felt that a little more attention to editing would have made this film a shining gem, whereas it instead remains a diamond in the rough [waiting for the enlightened viewer to polish and properly cut it]. Perhaps the intention was to get the viewer to watch it a second time and with more understanding. In this regard, it succeeds. <
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>Secondly, upon first impulse, I felt that Samuel L. Jackson was wrong for the part he played, and was he even acting or just grunting and scowling his way to a paycheck? He seemed so groundlessly angry and unpleasant, so miscast and unbelievable in his role that he distracted from the goings-on that should have held the attention at vitally significant times. For example, he plays the jet-setting violin broker who deals in antiquities that typically cost no less than 50 grand and, often, many, many times that. Jackson however handles this role as though he has just stepped off the set of "Pulp Fiction" and walked onto the set of "The Red Violin"- hot-headed, crude, impatient, and explosive, he embodies the exact opposite personality of one whose job involves dealing in fine antique instruments. My initial thought therefore was did the producer demand a big name draw? However upon further reflection, it all became clear that one should instead look at Jackson's character [Morritz] as the reincarnation or spiritual rebirth of Bussotti, the master creator of the red violin. Morritz shows the same temperament as Nicolo, and he also has a deep need - beyond the love of a fine instrument - to possess the violin. At the end, when Jackson rides away in the taxi with the moon [Luna] overhead - he is heading home to his wife and child - completing the circle full round from Nicolo, Anna and their unborn child; and profoundly confirming Nicolo's earlier statement to his wife Anna that despite her affair with "Luna," she will always return. <
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>On a much higher plane, could this be the myth of the creator Osiris's rebirth [reincarnation or transformation of the master violin creator], through the journey of Isis [his divine female soul within the red violin], collecting all of the "lost" parts of the master violin creator during her journeys through time and through each of the characters [e.g., the heart of the child, the phallus of the red-haired master musician, the self sacrifice of the Chinese mother, etc..], which are all delivered and put back together to be transformed into the newest Creator now in possession of the violin? <
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>In the end, I believe, the prodigal violin is grown old and wise, and she finally realizes the destiny that her creator intended. <
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A stunning movie
Visually and audibly stunning. This movie follows the path that the Red Violin travels through different era's of time.