I have chosen this topic for my essay, since this movie has had a great impact on me personally because of my connection to musical instruments. I am aware that it is not necessarily touching the subject of searching for an identity, or the debatable nature of multiculturalism, but I have come to some very interesting and thought provoking ideas as I have watched the movie and read some reviews and articles. In the movie, we cannot clearly distinguish a soul searching for consolation and an identity. But I believe that each character in this movie is somehow finding their own identity or their own voice in the object that they are using to communicate: the Red violin. I would like to use this essay as an opportunity to analyze how each character's identity is shaped by the appearance of the violin. I would like to begin my analysis with the creator himself, then move on to his wife, his unborn child, and then the rest of the characters one by one. Also, there can be hints found in the movie regarding multiculturalism in the sense, that the violin itself becomes multicultural, by travelling through many centuries and over many continents, being the tool of expression of many people from different nations.
But as an introduction I would like to first write a little bit about the origin of the Red Violin. The Red Violin, Francois Girard's movie was built upon the myth and legend of the Stradivarius Red Violin. The historic violin was crafted in 1720 by Antonio Stradivari, who lovingly made his instruments in his small shop in Cremona, Italy centuries ago, and remains the most famous violin maker of all time. Not long after its creation, the instrument appeared to vanish from the radar screen; no one knows where or to whom the violin belonged for more than 200 years, spawning any number of historians, writers, journalists, critics as well as Canadian filmmaker, Francois Girard, to speculate on the violin's mysterious history.