The Red Violin
The Red Violin | |
---|---|
Directed by | François Girard |
Written by |
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Produced by | Niv Fichman |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Odeon Films (Canada) Mikado Film (Italy)[1] FilmFour Distributors (United Kingdom) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 131 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English French German Italian Mandarin |
Budget | $10–18 million[2][3][4] |
Box office | $10 million (US box office)[2] |
The Red Violin (
The screenplay, inspired by a historic 1720 Stradivarius violin nicknamed the "Red Mendelssohn", was written by Don McKellar and Girard. The film was shot in Austria, Canada, China, England and Italy and features a soundtrack by John Corigliano, with solos performed by violinist Joshua Bell.
After premiering in the
Plot
Cremona, 1681 (Language: Italian)
Nicolò Bussotti is a
In the meantime, Nicolò has fashioned a new violin. He is about to varnish it when he finds that both she and the child have died. Distraught, Nicolò returns to his shop and varnishes the violin with a red color. The violin, the last one that Nicolò ever made, then makes its way to an orphanage in Austria.
Vienna, 1793 (Language: 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, a young but brilliant violin
Weiss is buried at the orphanage he grew up in. When Poussin inquires about the violin, the monks explain that they buried it with Weiss. The violin is later stolen by
Oxford, late 1890s (Language: English and Romani)
Cesca's third card is
Lord Frederick Pope comes across the gypsy procession setting up camp on his estate, as a gypsy woman plays the violin. He offers his hospitality in exchange for the violin. Frederick finds great praise in his public concerts with the violin as well as his compositions, with his lover Victoria Byrd serving as his carnal
While Victoria is absent, Frederick loses his inspiration to compose and degenerates. When Victoria does not receive his letters for a full week, she resolves to return immediately. But when she arrives, she finds him in the arms of a new muse, the gypsy violinist woman. In a moment of rage, Victoria shoots the violin, grazing its neck and detaching its strings and tailpiece, before storming out.
Frederick's final letter to Victoria states that he will be committing suicide and that he is leaving his entire estate to her. The violin ends up in the hands of Frederick's Chinese servant, who returns to Shanghai and sells it to an antiques dealer, who repairs the damage. The instrument is sold to a young woman with her daughter during the 1930s.
Shanghai, late 1960s (Language: Mandarin)
Cesca predicts the fourth card,
In the chaos of China's
Xiang arrives at Zhou's house and pleads with him to take the violin to keep it safe. He relents and vows to keep it hidden, while Xiang leaves to face possible prosecution from Communist Party officials. Years later, Chinese police enter Zhou's home to find his dead body amid a "sanctuary" of dozens of musical instruments. Upon this discovery, the present-day
Montréal, 1997 (Language: English and French)
The final card,
Charles Morritz arrives in Montreal as an
When the results of the varnish tests arrive, Morritz is shocked to learn that the violin's varnish contains human blood. Nicolò had carried his wife's body to his shop after her death and slit her wrist to collect blood for making the red varnish. He admits to the auction manager, Leroux, that it is the Red Violin.
As he prepares to fly home, Morritz stops by the auction house "Duval's", with the London copy in hand. As the auction for the previous lot ends, Morritz switches the Red Violin for the London copy, which is sold for $2.4 million. Morritz calls his wife at home in New York City and asks to speak to his daughter, telling her he has a special present for her upon his return.
Cast
Cremona
- Carlo Cecchi – Nicolò Bussotti
- Irene Grazioli – Anna Rudolfi Bussotti
- Anita Laurenzi – Cesca
- Samuele Amighetti – Boy
Vienna
- Christoph Koncz – Kaspar Weiss
- Jean-Luc Bideau – Georges Poussin
- Clotilde Mollet – Antoinette Poussin
- Arthur Denberg – Prince Mannsfeld
Oxford
- Jason Flemyng – Frederick Pope
- Greta Scacchi – Victoria Byrd
- Eva Marie Bryer – Sara
- Joshua Bell – Orchestra member: First violin (cameo)
Shanghai
- Sylvia Chang – Xiang Pei (& Xiang Pei's mother)
- Tao Hong – Chen Gang
- Liu Zifeng – Zhou Yuan
- Han Xiaofei – Ming
- Wang Xiaoshuai – one of the four police officers (cameo)
Montreal
- Samuel L. Jackson – Charles Morritz
- Colm Feore – Auctioneer
- Monique Mercure – Madame Leroux
- Don McKellar – Evan Williams
- Ireneusz Bogajewicz – Ruselsky
- Julian Richings – Nicolas Olsberg
- Marvin Mill – Limousine Driver
- Russell Yuen – Older Ming
- Sandra Oh – Madame Ming
- Rémy Girard – Customs Agent
Production
Development
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.[5][6] By the time the film was made, the Red Mendelssohn was owned by Elizabeth Pitcairn, heiress to the PPG fortune, whose grandfather purchased it for her 16th birthday for $1.7 million at auction at Christie's London.[5][6] Despite rumours and the film, the Red Mendelssohn is varnished with burgundy rather than blood.[5] Stradivarius used red varnish on numerous other violins from 1704 to 1720, the so-called "golden period", and other red-coloured violins besides the Red Mendelssohn survive.[7]
Director François Girard opted to make a film about a violin due to his belief that "Making film is making music".[8] The concept of a history of a violin was the starting point, with Girard not initially realizing the project would call for five languages or an unusually large budget.[9] His screenplay, written with Don McKellar, sees the eponymous instrument travel over greater distances, while the years separating each segment become shorter. This suggests a musical structure, though Girard said this was not planned and only developed as he and McKellar continued to write.[8]
Girard and McKellar proposed their story and project to various Hollywood companies, but were unwilling to give up creative control,[10] or to limit the number of languages spoken in the film, as U.S. companies requested.[11] As a result, they produced the film with Rhombus Media.[10]
Filming
The film is an international co-production, allowing for a larger budget to be accumulated from various sources, making The Red Violin one of the most costly Canadian films produced to date.[12] Its final budget was $15 million.[3] Girard and McKellar employed a few crew members from their previous film, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993), including cinematographer Alain Dostie, editor Gaétan Huot and actor Colm Feore.[13]
The co-production also allowed for shooting in Canada, China, and around Europe,
The most challenging part was securing permission from the government of China to simulate the
Music
Girard had no formal musical background; his main experience working with music was as a film director.[19] The film score was written by composer John Corigliano, with every violin solo in the film performed by violinist Joshua Bell.[3] The conductor was Esa-Pekka Salonen.[20] The score is mainly of the Chaconne genre,[21] while the ostensibly Romani music was also actually written by Corigliano.[22] Bell said he was eager to join the film crew, citing his enthusiasm for Corigliano's work and his use of form. Corigliano, looking for a romantic musical performance, also referred to Bell as the ideal choice for a musician, calling him "an aristocrat as a violinist".[3] Girard stated Bell and Corigliano were involved from the outset, and reviewed every version of the screenplay as it was in development.[23]
Much of the score had to be written before principal photography, which is rare in film.[3] Since the violin movements seen in the film had to match Corigliano's music, real-life child prodigy Christoph Koncz was cast. However, Girard tied up two musicians to actor Jason Flemyng to help him give his performance as a violinist, the "Octopus" method.[10][24] After shooting completed, Corigliano finished "Anna's theme".[25]
Release
The Red Violin premiered at the
Reception
Box office
By February 1999, The Red Violin had grossed $2 million in Canada, surpassing the previous year's winner of the
The film finished its run having made US$10 million in the United States.[31] In Canada, it finished with a gross of $3,378,800, making it one of the most seen English Canadian films in national box-office history.[32] It was not a major hit overseas.[33]
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 74% based on 42 reviews, and an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's consensus states: "A symphony of storytelling whose lulls lead to satisfying crescendos, The Red Violin weaves a centuries-long saga with the journey of a single instrument."[34] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[35]
Canadian Maclean's critic Brian D. Johnson, referencing Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, wrote "The Red Violin amounts to more than Five Short Films About a Fiddle", crediting Corigliano's music for supplying intensity and the story for making the eponymous violin into its own interesting character.[27] Roger Ebert called the film "heedlessly ambitious", possessing "the kind of sweep and vision that we identify with elegant features from decades ago".[36] For The Guardian, Jonathan Romney wrote that "as flawed movies go, it's elegant, entertaining and quite breathtakingly ambitious".[37] Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times that the film did not live up to its score.[38] Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B, with Lisa Schwarzbaum writing the fictional violin surpassed all real fiddles in colourful pedigree, and finding the storytelling interesting.[39]
In Queen's Quarterly, Maurice Yacowar analyzed the film as presenting the characters of Kaspar, Xian, Peng and Morritz as manifestations of different aspects of Bussotti's passions, while the characters of Poussin and bidder Ruselsky wanted to use the instrument to further their own interests. Yacowar concluded the film "explores passions directed outwards".[44] In the Canadian Journal of Film Studies, Brenda Longfellow criticized the film for materialism and depicting "the sacrifice of a woman on the altar of art".[44] In 2002, readers of Playback voted The Red Violin the third best Canadian film ever.[31]
In 2001, an industry poll conducted by Playback named it the fourth best Canadian film of the preceding 15 years.[45]
Accolades
Composer John Corigliano was previously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score for the 1980 film Altered States before winning for The Red Violin.[46] He won over American Beauty, which he had considered the front-runner before the ceremony.[20]
At the Genie Awards, Don McKellar was effectively competing against himself as a screenwriter of both Last Night and The Red Violin.[47] The Red Violin dominated the awards, with eight wins.[48] The film also competed in the 1st Jutra Awards, launched to honour the Cinema of Quebec. Due to the international production and amount of English, numerous English Canadians accepted awards.[49]
The Red Violin was also nominated for Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score, but lost to South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.[50]
Legacy
Corigliano adapted his score into a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (The Red Violin), performed in Baltimore, Dallas and Atlanta from 2003 to 2004. In 2005, it was performed at the San Francisco Ballet. He later wrote another adaptation, The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra.[46]
After the film's release, the Red Mendelssohn owner
References
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- ^ a b Fletcher, Suzanne. "History of the "Red Mendelssohn" Stradivarius". Elizabeth Pitcairn Productions. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013. Retrieved May 13, 2013.
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- ^ Romney, Jonathan (April 9, 1999). "Sex and violins". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
- ^ Holden, Stephen (June 11, 1999). "Film Review; That Old Fiddle Sure Got Around". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
- ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (June 18, 1999). "The Red Violin". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
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Bibliography
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- Haenni, Sabine; Barrow, Sarah; White, John (September 15, 2014). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317682615.
- Hill, Brad (2005). American Popular Music: Classical. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 081606976X.
- Johnson, Brian D. (September 14, 1998a). "A violin rhapsody in red". Maclean's. Vol. 111, no. 37.
- Jones, Eluned (2002). "Reconstructing the Past: Memory's Enchantment in The Red Violin". Canada's Best Features: Critical Essays on 15 Canadian Films. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. ISBN 9042015985.
- Jones, Nicola; Jones, Deborah; Williams, Leigh Anne (August 9, 1999). "Playing The Red Violin". Time. Vol. 154, no. 6 (Canadian ed.).
- Pryke, Kenneth G.; Soderlund, Walter C. (2003). Profiles of Canada (3rd ed.). Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press Inc. ISBN 1551302268.
- Schoenbaum, David (December 10, 2012). The Violin: A Social History of the World's Most Versatile Instrument. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393089608.
- Stoltie, Annie (September 17, 2012). Explorer's Guide Adirondacks: A Great Destination: Including Saratoga Springs (Seventh ed.). The Countryman Press. ISBN 978-1581577761.
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