The Red violin

¶ … Red Violin

This film is episodic, because it does follow the life of the violin, but it begins in an auction house in Montreal, and ends there, with flashbacks to the auction house throughout the film. The actual "acts" of the film follow the violin from its creation to the auction house in modern times is linear, except for the flashbacks that occur. Therefore, the film is linear in a sense, but also episodic. It is an usual film, and that can be seen by the way it can be both episodic and linear at once.

The lineal inciting incident is the creation of the violin in Italy. The focal points of the episodic elements are the death of the violinmaker's wife and son, which causes him to create the violin to honor them. Then, the monks in Austria teach orphans to play the violin, and the best is groomed to solo for royalty. The next incident is the love affair between its English owner and the writer. Then, it is the Chinese woman who gives up the instrument to her teacher for safekeeping. Finally, it is the auction house dealer who recognizes the violin for its true value, and steals it, rather than let it go to bidders who do not seem to understand the worth or history of the instrument.