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Canada, Italy, United States · 1998
Rated R · 2h 11m
Director François Girard
Starring Carlo Cecchi, Irene Grazioli, Anita Laurenzi, Tommaso Puntelli
Genre Drama, Music, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
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Crafted by the Italian violin-maker Nicolò Bussotti in 1681, the red violin derives its unusual color from the human blood mixed in at the finish. With this legacy, the violin travels to Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake.
Girard and his collaborators are so focused on the stunning tableaux that all other considerations fall by the wayside, leaving their visual achievements -- miraculous on such a small budget -- mired in the elaborate but maladroit storytelling.
It's almost as lame-brained as any Hollywood blockbuster, if prettier and more pretentious.
It's unlikely that anyone will be bored. But it's just as unlikely that anyone will be swept off his feet either.
San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Graham
Some will say this film is overly ambitious, but what the hell. The man put five years of his life into making this epic mystery. We can surely give it two hours of ours.
Fails on a number of counts, mostly because the individual stories aren't very gripping.
It sustains its purplish, epic sweep by thrusting broadly etched characters into extravagantly hokey situations, and registers mainly as a flamboyant joke.
Almost by himself, Jackson transforms the film's final chapter into a serviceable view -- faint praise, perhaps, but a crumb to savor, given what has come before. [11 June 1999, Life, p. 6E]
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