Red Violin With Such Disjointed Stories, One Essay

Red Violin

With such disjointed stories, one would think that Francois Girard's The Red Violin (1998) would not coalesce to form one single story about the film's main character: the red violin itself. But the magic of the red violin came through in this film, because this item itself tied all of the stories together, forming a powerful connection that has spanned not only countries and cultures, but also time. Through the storytelling, the vivid scenic time periods, and -- most importantly -- the music, Girard's movie created such vivid depictions of a journey that's got even Roger Ebert proclaiming the movie's beauty and "perfection" (Ebert, Roger).

The storytelling of The Red Violin mixed the past and present time periods. In the present time period, the story follows Charles Morritz (Samuel L. Jackson) and his experience with discovering the past and the authenticity of what could possibly be Nicolo Bussotti's final violin. In Montreal, he witnesses the group of potential buyers who have, in some form or other, a reason for purchasing such an artifact.Simultaneously happening is a view of the beginnings of the red violin in question: at the home of Nicolo Bussetti himself, in Cremona, Italy, during the late 17th century (Grove, Jeff). This Bussetti scene is poignant, because the story really does encompass Anna's journey, proved vicariously possible through the journey of the violin. During a tarot card reading, chronological scenarios begin to play, those corresponding to the cards drawn from the deck. Here, the storytelling takes the audience to a series of segments, all of which take place at a different time period, with varied characters.

There is no discussion of The Red Violin that could be complete without speaking of the time periods and the scenery. Not only does the movie take the viewer to Italy and Canada, the film also shot directly at Vienna, the United Kingdom, and Shanghai (Grove, Jeff). The viewers watched as, 100 years after the violin's conception, the….....