The Red Violin is about the perfect violin that was mad by a man named Nicolo. He made this instrument for his unborn son, in hopes that one day he would be come a great musician, but when Nicolo lost both his wife and son during child birth, he decided to finish the violin and donate it to an orphanage.  After his wife and son’s death he brought his wife’s body back home. Nicolo was in the stages of varnishing the instrument, he put in some of his wife’s blood, which gave the violin the rich red coloring. The violin travels throughout the world, from one musician to the next and because of it, its owners have experienced anger, love and betrayal.

Personal: I thought that this clip was very dramatic in the way that the atmosphere and the body language of the character kept changing as well as the emotion. Each scene gets more depressing as the time passes, to the point where you almost get the sense that Fredrick might be dying from such sadness. The way the clip beginnings, with the lack of lighting, and how dark it is outside, as well as the music that is being played i could tell right away that this was going to be a sad, depressing but very passionate scene.

Historical: the film began in 1681, and in this clip (in the 1890s) Fredrick was smoking opium to easy his “pain.” I think at this time it was common for people to use opium to relive themselves of physical pain, but in this case i think it was more emotional and mental pain. Things appeared to be kept very classic looking, everything from Victoria’s carriage to the exchanging of letters between the two lovers, because at that time there were no phones.

Technical: In the beginning of the clip Fredrick is sitting at a desk about to write a letter to Victoria, you can see that there is a good about of natural lighting or maybe even a key light coming from the window in front of him; this lighting is able to illuminate the room. In the scene where Fredrick is causing the hair’s of his bow to loosen or unravel, the lighting in the room is very dim, your able to get a sense of his agony. While Fredrick is in the tub there is that shines on the letter he is reading from Victoria, but not so much on him. I’m not sure if that is a key light, but because there is hardly any light shined on him you are able to get that feeling of sadness coming from his character still.

Ethical: I feel the film maker had the responsibility to make this scene as real and as passionate as possible. Part of the story behind the red violin is that it has a way of bringing out the best and worst in people and situations, and in this clip the film makers had to be able to portray the type of emotions that the violins owner must go through.

Critical: In this film the red in the violin was from the dead wife Nicolo the man who made the violin; you find that in this clip alone that there is a lot of red objects in this film. the curtains, the bed post, the covers on the bed, red in the carpet and Fredrick’s red hair. All of these things possibly symbolize the foreshadowing of death, since he eventually kills himself.