The Red Violin
| The Red Violin | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | François Girard |
| Produced by | Niv Fichman |
| Written by |
Don McKellar François Girard |
| Starring |
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| Music by | John Corigliano |
| Cinematography | Alain Dostie |
| Edited by | Gaëtan Huot |
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Production
company |
New Line Cinema International
Channel 4 Mikado Film Rhombus Media Sidecar Films & TV Telefilm Canada CITY-TV |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
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Release date
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Running time
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131 minutes |
| Country | Canada Italy United Kingdom |
| Language | Italian German French Mandarin English Romani |
| Budget | $18 million |
| Box office | $10 million |
The Red Violin (Original French Title: Le Violon Rouge) is a 1998 Canadian drama film directed by François Girard. It spans four centuries and five countries as it tells the story of a mysterious red-colored violin and its many owners. The film was an international co-production among companies in Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
The film frames the history of the "Red Violin" around a Canadian auction in 1997, where the violin is at the centre of multiple bids by interested parties, and a tarot card reading in 1681, where a violinmaker's wife has her future read for herself (and, by extension, that of the violin).
(Language of dialogue: Italian)
Nicolò Bussotti (Cecchi) is a violinmaker whose wife, Anna Rudolfi (Grazioli), is pregnant with their first child. Anna is worried that her age may complicate her pregnancy or childbirth. Despite Nicolo's confident assurances that he will have the best people available when she goes into labor, Anna asks her servant Cesca (Laurenzi) to foretell her unborn child's future. Cesca cannot determine the future of someone not born, but she does offer to read Anna's future using tarot cards. Anna chooses five cards, with the first (The Moon) signifying that Anna will live a long life.
In the meantime, Nicolò has fashioned a new violin that he believes will be his masterpiece, with the hope that their child will become a musician. He is about to varnish it when he is summoned to the bedside of his wife, only to find that both she and the child have died. Distraught, Nicolò returns to his shop and begins to varnish the violin (it is later revealed that this violin is the last one Nicolò made). The violin then makes its way to an orphanage in Austria. Each orphan there is given a violin which will be theirs for his/her entire duration at the orphanage, and thus the Red Violin passes through a number of children over the next 100 years.
(Language of dialogue: German and French)
Cesca turns over the second card, The Hanged Man, which means disease and suffering for those around Anna.
At the orphanage, the violin comes into the possession of Kaspar Weiss (Koncz), a young but brilliant violin prodigy. A violin instructor, Poussin (Bideau), is called to assess the boy's talents and is asked by the monks at the orphanage to adopt the boy to further his development. Poussin agrees and brings Weiss and the violin to Vienna, in spite of his wife's concerns that they cannot afford to raise him. Poussin, however, is convinced that Weiss's talents could bring prosperity to Poussin's household. When he learns that a Prince Mannsfeld (Denberg) is visiting Vienna and is looking for a prodigy to accompany him back to Prussia, promising fame for Weiss and a generous reward from the Prussian monarchy, Poussin puts Weiss through a strict practice regimen. Using his "Poussin Meter" (a primitive metronome), Poussin has Weiss practice his piece, steadily raising the tempo each day.
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