The Red Violin . The Boston Phoenix . 06-21-99

The Red Violin

DIRECTED BY: Francois Girard

REVIEWED: 06-21-99

After the Baroque brilliance of 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, the Canadian filmmaking team of director François Girard and co-screenwriter Don McKellar pass from the solo to the concerto form in The Red Violin. In emphasizing the instrument, however, they've sacrificed the players, not to mention the music. A worn, faintly crimson violin goes up for auction in Switzerland -- the legendary, long-lost "Red Violin" made by the master craftsman Nicolo Busotti (Carlo Cecchi) in the late 17th century (this is all fictitious), and in the tense minutes as the bidders scramble to possess it, the history and the peregrinations of the object they covet unfolds in flashbacks. Of these episodes, the best are the tragicomedy of a 19th-century orphan child prodigy with a weak heart and the chilling travails of those trying to preserve the violin from the Red Brigades during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. But the tale of a Paganini-like British artiste (Jason Flemyng) and his passion for a muse played by Greta Scacchi sounds a sour note, and the film's prevailing theme -- the transcendence of love over greed, transience, and delusion -- falls flat. As does the original music by John Corigliano. Samuel Jackson puts in the standout performance as the present-day restorer who first discovers the violin -- imperious, vulnerable, driven. It's a pity he doesn't get to play it as well.

--Peter Keough

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