Pulling the heartstrings

>> Canadian duo orchestrate an epic with The Red Violin

by JOANNE LATIMER

Imagine following the 400-year history of a red violin. That's what screenwriters Don McKellar and François Girard do in The Red Violin--and the result is an unusually well-crafted story that bridges continents, centuries, governments, economies and passions.

Made by master violinmaker Nicolo Bussotti in 16th-century Italy, the violin was intended for his first-born child. However, after his wife consults a family servant and Tarot card reader to predict the unborn child's future, catastrophe hits. The violin travels to far reaches--from an Austrian monastery to musical impresarios and child protégés to grave-robbing gypsies, English composers, opium dealers and repressed music teachers during China's Cultural Revolution. Eventually, it ends up in the hands of violin appraiser Charles Morritz (Samuel L. Jackson) and his technician (Don McKellar).

The Red Violin is nothing if not ambitious. It takes a galloping run across time and space, but manages not to feel rushed. If anything, the methodical pace and mood of each scene contrasts the film's narrative leaps. There's a weird neutrality hanging over the scenes--as if everything's filmed in the third-person tense when we expect a first-person perspective. This distancing effect offsets the characters' passion for the violin, ensuring that the story doesn't play like a string of heartbreaks. And that's exactly what it is.

Director François Girard's casual virtuosity is evident again, putting together a film so artfully with considerable production demands. The Red Violin, like his 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, is a beautiful assemblage piece. Montreal's ace production designer François Séguin is also at his best, giving Bussotti's violinmaking workshop the air of a Baroque painting. He easily switches sets to Shanghai and 19th-century England.

McKellar, poised for a backlash from too much fawning media exposure, is at home in the role of Evan Williams, the technician who authenticates Stradivarius violins and tests instruments. McKellar has never seemed so relaxed on screen, even while aiding and abetting a white-collar thief. On the other hand, Samuel Jackson has never seemed so stilted. His character, Morritz, is called upon to appraise an old Chinese music teacher's collection of instuments that are going to auction in Montreal. Morritz, suspecting one is the "red violin," secretly tests the varnishes and uncovers a mysterious clue to its origin. Jackson does all this with stony resolve--an even bigger mystery--and The Red Violin concludes with an ironic "full circle" note.

The Red Violin opens Friday, November 6