Red Violin

I want to blog on Sundays, Signs and Wonders on "Red Violin". This film is about the long history of this one, red violin and all the people who has one's own it in their day. With the violin being the main character, the film would occasionally show a scene through the S whole of the violin to give the perception that it was living and that the viewer was seen through the eyes of the violin. But what I want to talk on, is the technique that was used to make this film. The violin had many owners, which means many short stories that made up this one movie. I found it interesting that three nights ago at last Signs and Wonders, the film making method was the opposite, when they showed "The Idiot". There it was on just one story, ONE VERY LONG STORY about an idiot that was gifted in knowing the true nature of people, two women who recognized that, their longing for his love, and all the drama that goes with it. It's not my intention to say which method is better, but rather to point out the diversity there is out there, when it comes to film making. One of the many things I liked about Red Violin was how the violin (the one constant) was used to tie all the stories together in order to make the method work.

▲The Idiot's Blog▲

▲The Idiot's Blog▲

So I watched the Idiot in signs and wonders the other night. And this was my reaction to it.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it was a bad movie or anything. My reaction was mainly due to it's length and the fact that we watched it late at night. However, the incredibly slow pace certainly played a part in it. 

Out of the Kurosawa movies we've watched so far, this one was my least favorite. It was long, slow, tiring, frustrating, and was difficult to understand the point until close to the very end. The whole love triangle thing was exhausting, and honestly I didn't care to much about it. It came to a point when I just wanted to yell "GET WITH ONE OF THE GIRLS, I DON'T CARE WHO, JUST STOP THE DRAMA! 

This movie has muddled my mind so much that I don't even know what else to say about it. Leeper, you've achieved your goal. I've officially walked into a tree.

But I would like to talk about imagery and elements that Kurosawa likes to use in his films a lot. Three in particular:

The Weather. In all his movies so far, Kurosawa has used the weather as a prominent visual and atmospheric force. I've been thinking it represents a pressing uncontrollable force that represents the character's own inability to control their situation. I'll have to think about this more, but I think I'm heading in the right direction.

Flowers: I've noticed that a flower or flowers seem to always appear in Kurosawa's movies, and I've been pondering what it might mean. I'm still working on the meaning if this, and will get back to it some other time. Do you guys have any thought on what the presence of flowers mean?

Children: And finally, his movies always end with a child, to represent hope, because I think at heart Kurosawa is a real softy and can't leave us with completely bleak endings.

Anyway, I'm done.



~Josiah▲