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The Violin (2007)
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Reviews Counted:33
Fresh:31
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: Vargas makes a strong debut with The Violin, which features crisp photography, a poetic screenplay, and a breakthrough performance by Tavira.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release:00-00-0000
Synopsis: Don Plutarco, his son Genaro and his grandson Lucio live a double life: on one hand they are musicians and humble farmers, on the other they support the campesina peasant guerilla movement's armed... Don Plutarco, his son Genaro and his grandson Lucio live a double life: on one hand they are musicians and humble farmers, on the other they support the campesina peasant guerilla movement's armed efforts against the oppressive government. When the military seizes the village, the rebels flee to the sierra hills, forced to leave behind their stock of ammunition. While the guerillas organize a counter-attack, old Plutarco executes his own plan. He plays up his appearance as a harmless violin player, in order to get into the village and recover the ammunition hidden his corn field. His violin playing charms the army captain, who orders Plutarco to come back daily. Arms and music play a tenuous game of cat-and-mouse which ultimately results in painful betrayal.--© Film Movement [More]
Starring: Don Angel Tavira, Gerardo Taracena, Mario Garibaldi
Starring: Don Angel Tavira, Gerardo Taracena, Mario Garibaldi
Director: Francisco Vargas
Director: Francisco Vargas
Screenwriter: Francisco Vargas
Producer: Francisco Vargas
Composer: Cuauhtemoc Tavira
Studio: Film Movement
Reviews for The Violin
The weathered Tavina, who lost his hand in an accident at the age of 13, makes a fittingly indomitable hero. He's a character you're likely to remember - his face alone is worth a thousand words.
Shot in luminous, high-contrast black and white, it has the rugged if faintly self-important authority of a Hemingway short story.
Another sort of movie would find a feelgood way of resolving the story; Vargas's vision is more grim and more realistic, but it is persuasively real, and in Tavira the director has found a natural star of the screen.
A quietly gripping adversarial duel lies at the heart of this political thriller, which has been hailed as a masterpiece in Vargas's native Mexico.
The film’s strongest asset is octogenarian newcomer Tavira, who exudes stoic dignity.
Told with ruthless efficiency and no sentiment or sermonizing, stands as a fitting tribute to the human spirit.
A slightly meandering build-up is saved by a second half that really cooks, with Vargas ratcheting up the tension by flirting with genre convention in order to deal with Plutarco’s unconventional psychological stand-off with a malodorous Captain.
The austere monochrome photography gives the story a gravitas that’s reinforced by the dignity of the amateur cast.
An impressive debut for Mexican writer and director Francisco Vargas.
The film from first-timer Francisco Vargas puts a human face on universal suffering. It is also about the power of music, as the title instrument saves (for a while anyway) three generations of peasant men in their roles as guerrilla fighters.
You may not remember how exactly this trio passed the time during most of the film's too-spare 98 minutes, but Plutarco is a character you likely won't forget.
The Violin is so beautiful to look at, it almost wouldn't matter if it had a story. But it has one, and it's riveting.
It's all stripped down to a conflict more abstract than historical, a fable of heroic defiance in the face of brutal oppression.
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