Jann and I watched The Red Violin last night. This is the story, or a collection of stories that are tied together, of a violin that was concieved out of passion and love but was ultimatly born out of obsession and despair. The movie follows the violin over several centuries and countries and tells of the extraordinary lives of several of the owners of the violin. Individualy each of the stories are at the same time beautiful and sad and each one is excelent. The attempt to tie together each of the stories with both the past and the present was interesting but I felt actualy took away a very little from the overall story, I do mean very little.

The soundtrack was every bit as good as the movie. It obviously features the violin, the score and performances were A+.

The transfer is full frame and average at best. I don't know if a wide screen transfer is even possible ( I don't know how the movie was originaly filmed) but I don't think that much is lost with the full frame.

The sound is DSS. This is not the kind of film with lots of special effects in the surrounds and the sound track did a good job of relaying the atmoshere and beautiful music.

Jann and I truly enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it.

Mike

PS. This was the Canadian release by Alliance Atlantis. I think I read that some one is going to release it in the US with both a DTS and a DD sound track. Maybe they will also improve the video.

I wish I had a red violin.

Thanks for the review, Mike. I look forward to seeing this movie.

--Heather

Reviews Forum Moderator