This movie was based on the "Real Red violin" that was purchased in 1990 at Christies auction for 1.7 million dollars.
It was given to a young (now famous violinist) for her 16th birthday.
Follow the link and see it for yourself:
http://www.elizabethpitcairn.com/html/redviolin2.asp
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Cool!
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Hugs...
Very cool.
Thanky, Thanky Thanky.
Yes, definitely "WORTH a LOOK"
Wow! What a beautiful instrument. You can tell its a masterpiece just by looking at the pictures. The maple is absolutely gorgeous done in red like that. I am a luthier (guitars, mandolins, lap guitars, resonators, but no violins) and this movie always held a special meaning for me. It is every luthiers dream to have their instruments stand the test of time and have someone playing and admiring your work 2 or 3 hundred years down the line (or more). This movie always stirs my imagination as I think about who my instruments might meet up with in later years.
I do have one question. I wonder why they portray the red violin in the movie as being made by Niccolo Bussoti instead of simply identifying it as a Strad?
Oh well, not that big a deal, just makes me curious. I love this movie. I always wondered how blood would actually affect the sound of the instrument. Obviously a violins finish can make a huge difference in sound quality (some say that Stradivarius' secret lacquer formula(horse urine?)is what seperates a Strad from other lesser violins) and a pint of blood added to the lacquer is an interesting idea.
Finish doesn't make as great a contribution to a guitars sound or I might be tempted to draw a pint a see what happens. (actually I'm kind of glad that the finish DOESN'T make as much a difference to a guitar<G>)
Don't get me wrong, finish DOES affect the sound quality of a guitar, but in a much different way than with a violin. With a guitar, less is more, so adding a thick substance like blood to the finish would likely diminish sound quality by distorting and muddying the vibrations of the top wood.
The ideal finish for a guitar top is actually NO finish at all (One of the Beatles had a guitar that was stripped of finish on the top and was said to have loved the results. Can't recall WHICH Beatle right off hand, but I do recall that the guitar in question did not hold up well without finish and was ultimately given it's finish back). Wood needs some protection and it also makes the appearance much nicer by making the grain "pop", so a little is o.k. (ex. to get a nice finish on my guitar tops I give it about a dozen coats and remove about 10 of them. Coat-Sand-Coat-Sand-Coat, etc, etc, etc. Only a little finish remains from each successive coat)
On really special guitars (and when my customers are willing to pay for the best) I French Polish the top. By French Polishing you get a really nice result with hardly any actual finish left on the wood. It's a beautiful way to finish wood, but is very labor intensive and not as durable as modern lacquers so is usually reserved for a really fine piece of wood that I couldn't bear to finish any other way or when the customer will pony up the extra filthy lucre to have it done. French polishing an instrument requires that you will have to refinish that instrument somewhere down the road. It's not like a piece of furniture that will just sit in the corner and look beautiful. The act of playing the instrument and the handling required to place it on and remove it from it's stand or carrying case is hard on French polish. Depending on how often an instrument is played and how diligent the player is towards the care and feeding of that instrument you will need to refinish the wood sooner or later.
This is something I wondered about in the movie. It seems that French polishing would have been the way finish was applied by violin makers of the time and not by using a brush. I wonder if they used a bit of "poetic license" to be able to show Bussoti using his wifes hair for the brush? I am not sure about this, but I do know that there were limited ways of finishing wood until just recently with the advent of synthetics, water based lacquer, etc. In fact using water based lacquer is something that has only started being used (and relied on) in the last 4-5 years. It was USED before that, BUT was unreliable. Like I said, I am not a violin maker so I don't know for sure what the masters might have done to finish their instruments I just thought it looked odd to see Bussoti using a brush to apply lacquer. Pianos for ex. would have been French polished.
Anyway, I see I've gotten totally carried away and off topic so I'll end it here. Thanks once again for the link to the REAL red violin. As you can see by my long babbling post, it really got my juices flowing. Amazing how a few scraps of wood can excite the senses when they are put together the right way.
Cheers (and Tables;-)
JEF
jsylvan, thank you for such an insightful post! My question to you is on the topic of whether or not you would think blood could sustain its full-bodied color over the period of several hundred years.
Blood is not a lacquer, a paint, a finish or a varnish. It's blood. And it naturally fades in color over time. You can see this in real life through either old blood-stained bandages, or through things like Abraham Lincoln's blood from the bed covers he died under, 150 years ago. The color of blood ages from red to DEEP red (almost a black), to a grayed musky color.
I understand that in the film Bussoti/Stradivarius mixed the blood with a concoction of other things, unknown to us, and that these also helped bring out the natural color of the wood. But if blood was the most identifying component, as is lead to believe, could it have really remained rouge for so long?
Perhaps it's just a neat idea, part of a story, and not one that has to be true. Yet, I would be curious to know if there have been actual wooden pieces imbued with blood that have stood the test of time, as is supposed with The Red Violin.
Again, thanks for your post - very interesting all around, and if you have time, would be curious on your thoughts!
Blood should color like any food dye. nything will fade withotu protection, so the other ingredients in the mix would be what prevents the fading.
shareI would have thought the answer to the one question, "Why portray the red violin in the movie as being made by Niccolo Bussoti instead of simply identifying it as a Strad?" would be obvious. A made up master luthier can have a made up legend attached to him. Anything made up about Stradivarius could be refuted. Niccolo Bussoti is fair game.
He would have admitted climbing the golden stairs & cutting St. Peter's throat with a bowling ball.
Awesome! This information is EXACTLY what I came here looking for today - I was curious if the story was based on any actual events or not. Thought the movie was fantastic, very compelling... just saw it a week or 2 ago & keep thinking about it.
shareThanks for taking the time to post this. Red Violin is one of my all time favorite movies and it's fascinating to know the real facts.
The owner of the Red violin announced that she will be playing in concert in Philadelphia in October. I have already made plans to attend and can't wait to hear the Red Violin live. This is gonna be awesome.
shareWow this single instrument really looks magnificient, it looks like an old mysterious artifact. Like a holy grail of the ancients or something.
Like an unique example of a rare breed of a mutated animal race. An earth unique trough the whole universe.
The red violin prop in the movie doesn't look nearly as exciting.
Gorgeous movie! One of my favorite after Amadeus (1984)