The bloody curse - The Red Violin

A famous Italian violinmaker, Bussotti, makes a perfect violin. He wants to give this violin to his son. However, his wife and his baby infant die during the process of delivery. He loses all his loved ones. He puts his passion, sadness and anger into the violin and paints it with his wife's blood. This perfect violin is called the Red Violin. The Red Violin stretches across the world  over three hundred years to link up five touching stories. Everyone who owns  this violin will be cursed. In this essay, I am going to discuss the messages,  love, fate and life  in this film, as well as its production, and argue that this is an excellent movie.

The main message in this movie is about love and family. The soul of Bussotti's  wife hides in the violin. The violin never experiences happiness because of her death.  It makes everyone fancy it but no one really loves it. When a talented child gets the violin, the violin is fancied by the child as well as his violin teacher. Superficially, the teacher loves the child. But in fact, he loves his talent. He forces the child to practice and practice in order to produce  good performances. The child is exhausted and finally dies. His teacher still wants to get the violin after the child's death. The child, master of the violin, lives in such a cool world. How can the violin experiences happiness?

Later the violin is the hands of in a very famous English violinist, Frederick. Again he fancies the violin very much. He gets inspiration from the violin. But he is poisoned by the violin. He loses himself and does not care about his wife. When his wife realizes he is no longer loyal to her, she shoots the Red Violin, which is the devil to him. The violinist, another master of the violin, does not know what  love is. He even lets his wife leave. The violin still cannot find its love.

During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Violin is named as the symbol of opposition. A member of the Chinese Communist Party, also a music lover, owns the Red Violin. She secretly keeps the violin but her secret is discovered by her friend. Her friends lead other communists to arrest her. She successfully escapes and asks a music teacher to keep the violin. In this story, the master of the Red Violin, again, experiences  no love. The music lover is even being arrested by her own friends. It seems that the Red Violin is really a curse. But the misfortune bought by the Red Violin stops here.

At last, the Red Violin comes into an expert's hands. His job is to judge whether the violin is valuable or not. He does  not fancy  the Red Violin. He loves it. He tries his best to keep it, to have it, no matter if his behavior is illegal. He loves the violin because he feels something. He wants to share the feeling with his children and his wife. The situation is very different from the previous stories in which the masters either know nothing about love or experience no love. The curse of the Red Violin is broken by the expert as the violin is kept by a man with love. The violin, actually, returns to the side of the violinmaker. The expert is just like the violinmaker who loves his family wholeheartedly. Finally the Red Violin experiences love again. The last line  of the movie,  "Go back to your husband" indicates that the Red Violin, the soul of Bussotti's wife, has returned to the warm world. The love of family is clearly emphasized here.

Another message of this movie is about continuation of spirit. Everyone will die but everyone's spirit and soul will survive. In this movie, the successors of the talented child, the famous violinist and the Chinese Communist appear to try to seize the violin at the end. The expert, actually the symbol of the violinmaker, also tries his best to keep the violin. The woman crosses over three hundred years and her soul still hides inside the violin. Although lives seem to be short, this movie tells us that we should not be afraid of death. It is because lives are still going on. Our souls will live.

This movie is a meaningful one. It tells us about fate, love and life. These concepts  are brought out with the great screenplay and film editing. The screenplay successfully links up the five stories. The first story serves  as the background while the last one is the ending. When a new chapter starts, the story turns to the background and the ending and forms an unforgettable and impressive condition. The very ending is notable. When the expert is going home and phones his wife, the movie turns to the dialogue, "Go back to your husband" from the background. This linking, by great film editing, obviously shows the essence of love.

Another thing that impresses me is the original score. Maybe it is the best of the year! The music is passionate. In the hands of the talented child, the sound is  demanding. From the hands of the violinist, the sound becomes sexy and fascinating. From the hands of the Chinese communist, the sound is soft. The arrangement of the music is great. Of course, we cannot forget the brilliant performance by Joshua Bell as violin soloist. He plays touchingly. He gives the best performance in original film music since Itzhak Perlman plays in Schindler's List. The violin music not only shows the characters of different people, but also links up the whole movie as all masters of the violin play the same piece of music with a different presentation. As independent pieces, the film music is also an amazing classical performance.

Apart from the screenplay, film editing and the music of this movie are also outstanding. The cinematography is beautiful and creates  different atmospheres in different regions and periods. The art direction and costumes designs bring us to the real situation of the Red Violin experiences. We just like travelling over Italy, Austria, England, China and Canada. The sound is also effective and powerful in heightening  atmosphere. This movie is a great combination of production techniques.

A good movie is made up of  good actors/actresses. The ensemble cast of this movie, in fact, is satisfactory only. This is mainly because the movie is divided into five parts. Actors/actresses can only play a small role and do not get  much opportunity to show their talents. However, Sylvia Chang and Samuel L. Jackson's performances are good. Sylvia Chang shows her love and care towards the Red Violin but she can no longer love it. She must give the violin to someone else so that the violin can be preserved. Her performance is powerful. Samuel L. Jackson, on the other hand, is the best one in the movie. He acts as the expert. He really shows his love towards the violin. That is really love, not fancy. When he is listening to the music that is played on  the Red Violin, his eyes are full of passion. This sight will touch us easily.

All in all, "The Red Violin", the movie, is an excellent movie. It is a good combination of production values. The most impressive part of the film is the underlying message, that is love. The Red Violin has experiences over three hundred years so that it can find its real love again. How about us?