- Title: USA: PREMIERE OF SAMUEL JACKSON FILM "THE RED VIOLIN"
- Date: 4th June 1999
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MAY 18, 1999) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SAMUEL L. JACKSON SAYING: "I actually played in orchestras from the time I was in, like, third grade until the twelfth, so I understand the passion. I mean, there were certain pieces that we played that, you know, I couldn't wait to play, and there were certain pieces that I hated to pl
- Embargoed: 19th June 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA5PMZQEPH4YI3032ET0L9MENUB
- Story Text: Fresh from his publicity push for his small role in the new "Star Wars" film, Samuel L.Jackson attended the Los Angeles premiere of a considerably smaller film called "The Red Violin" on Thursday, May 27.He was joined by the film's French-Canadian director Francois Gerard.
Jackson has one role of many in this epic-scale ensemble drama that centers on the three century long history of a mysterious and enigmatic violin nicknamed "The Red Violin."
He plays violin historian and expert Charles Morritz who is brought to Montreal from New York to appraise a highly-publicized collection of musical instruments that will soon be going up for auction.Although most people are focusing on a potential Stradivarius violin in the collection, Morritz immediately suspects one of the lesser-known pieces is indeed the famous Red Violin, created by Italian violin master Nicolo Bussotti in his 17th century workshop.
From there, the film flashes back to the long and dramatic history of the instrument, from Bussotti's workshop, to an Austrian monastery where it comes into the hands of a brilliant child prodigy, to 19th century England where it becomes the property of passionate virtuoso Frederick Pope, to the mid-1960's Chinese Cultural Revolution, where it is reviled as a irrelevant symbol of corrupt Western decadence.
Like the story, the film's crew, led by French-Canadian filmmaker Francois Gerard, had to skip from time period to time period, and from continent to continent.Locations included Cremona, Italy, Vienna, Austria, Oxford, England, Montreal, Canada, and Shanghai.
Gerard also chose to film each sequence in its native language, meaning his crew spoke five languages and the script had to be translated for each locations.
Another big challenge was to make his actors look like violin virtuosos.The child who plays the Austrian prodigy is already a master violinist, but Jason Flemyng, who plays Frederick Pope, had no previous experience with the instrument.To solve this problem, Gerard employed the talents of world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell as a music coach, advisor and body double.
In fact, Gerard and Bell were so dedicated to making the close ups of Pope playing realistic, at times, Bell and another violinist were hidden out of frame behind Flemyng with their hands reached around him holding the neck of the violin and bowing.Add to this scene actress Greta Scacchi, who had to make love to Pope while he was playing, and Gerard says he ended up with a truly bizarre sight on the set.
In addition to helping out on the set, Joshua Bell also recorded all the violin music for the film, most of it in advance of shooting.The soundtrack is now available on Sony Classical records, which also happens to be Bell's own recording label.
This is the third feature film from Francois Gerard, following his debut movie "Cargo" and the critically acclaimed "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould."
"The Red Violin" has already enjoyed good response at last fall's Toronto Film Festival and had a successful release in Canada.It opens in theaters throughout the United States on Friday, June 11. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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