Analysis: The Red Violin

The Red Violin presents some interesting ideas about the qualities of an instrument. The varnish on the violin contains the blood of Bussotti’s wife, from just after she died. It seemed as if the wife lived on within the violin, implying that violins can have personality, which can be seen as true. Each violin has different tendencies, sound, different distances between notes, differing amounts of reverberation. This is what makes some violins sound so unique and what makes some valued so much more than others. In this vein, one parallel that I noticed while watching the film was that between the violin and the life of a human being. The violin was created around the same time, Bussotti’s wife gave birth, so she nearly gave birth to the violin.