When i know that Arts Central is having the TV premier of Francois Girard's Red Violin, it was a 1) Yayyyyyy! finally here! feeling and 2) what the heck is Arts Central doing? Having their so called TV premier after waiting for years?
Overall, it is one of the few finest arthouse film ever watch, with a blend of several different types of cast. Put Samuel L Jackson and Sylvia Chang Ai Chia plus several Italian, French and German actors n actresses and you get a unique blend of the history of the red violin, where it was initially made by a craftsman named Nicolo Bussotti for his pregnant wife in the 17th century Cremona, Italy. 5 tarot cards from the results of the fortune telling determines the fate of the violin for the next few hundred years.
If you still coudn't figure out what the heck is this film about, i make it simple for you: it's about a Nicolo Bussotti violin that i mention just now, which has been passed to different owners in different times and eras and different countries. It ends up on auction in Montreal, France, in 1998. And each time the violin founds itself a new owner in different land, it tells us a story behind the era or the owner. The violin was eventually passed down to 18th century orphanage in Vienna, 19th century violinist in Oxford, the Cultural Revolution in Shanghai in the 60's (where Sylvia steps in as the violin's new owner, but has to give it away to another violinist, cos if she was found to own a violin, she will be shamed in the public. You know what i am talking if you know the Cultural Revolution.) and eventually on auction at Montreal, where Samuel steps in as Charles Morritz, who was invited to examine some violins that was found in China, and eventually going on auctions.
What's so worth watching was the history of violin, the types of people the violin sees, and the ugliness of the human through the violin. Ugliness in the sense of : the orphan was adopted by a musician and has to perform for an aristocrat in Vienna, an affair in Oxford, to be destroyed by the extreme communist in Shanghai, and eventually, everyone in the auction house claim that they are the right owner of the violiin.
Ah, not to forget that that was Samuel's 1st arthouse film he ever acted, but sad to say, he did not crosspaths with Sylvia. Ah...what a disappointment.