MovieChat Forums > Le violon rouge (1999) Discussion > My, what big hand you have;

My, what big hand you have;

posted 10 years ago by dorseybelle
1 reply | jump to latest

I, too, have watched this movie with a fair length of time between each screening. In the Trivia section, it was stated that Joshua Bell would finger all the notes on the violin by standing behind the person. For this, he was called the stunt violinist. I happened to notice the close up shot of Kaspar when he is very young. This big old giant left hand shoots out and is doing the fingering.
It's worth a look. Don't have to watch the whole movie; the snippet is very short. It's the last performance at the orphanage.

Here lies Lester Moore. Four slugs from a .44. No e, no more.

[–] mlaiuppa 8 years ago

That wasn't Kaspar when he was young. That was the first orphan to play the violin. There are a series of vingettes that show each orphan that plays the Red Violin through the ages. The monks say it's been with them 100 years. The time period fits as Kaspar is after Mozart and the violin would have come to them during the 17th century and it's obviously late 18th century by the look of their clothing.

The child playing Kaspar was actually the only actor that did all his own playing. He was a child prodigy starting around age 4 (like Bell) and he's a concert violinist in Germany now. I think he plays with the Berlin Philharmonic. Not an easy gig to get.

What I find amusing is that Bell probably had to wear red nail polish to do the fingering for the Chinese girl.