24. The Red Violin

Debuting at the end of 1998 and boldly entering the crowded U.S. movie arena in 1999 -- a year which boasted a plethora of notable works from The Matrix to Fight Club, from Magnolia to Being John Malkovich -- François Girard's The Red Violin heightened its chances for obscurity from its already discouraging position of being an over-120 minute movie featuring subtitles for several sections, each employing a different language, ranging from German to Italian to Mandarin Chinese. And, on top of everything, it was about a violin -- not exactly a seat-filling film subject. 

But those who did take the time to discover this ambitious Canadian film found themselves enjoying multiple stories of passion, each adding life and detail to one simple thesis: music-plus-perfection equals obsession. As one violin, gifted by its creator with flawless construction and sound, finds itself passed on from owner to owner, the viewer is invited to behold the bonds it creates with the musicians who play it, and to see how such bonds are universal, formed despite differences in century, country, and culture. The theme is enforced by John Corigliano's Oscar-winning, captivating score; the movie itself is blessed with detailed period production, as adept at providing an Austrian monastery as it is in recreating the turbulent Cultural Revolution of China. 

If that isn't enough, the entire story provides an involving mystery to be solved. Overall, that mystery and the movie's La Ronde structure won't be what resonates within you -- it will be the idea that music, beautiful and timeless, may be the only true way a soul can directly express itself, and that is what gives it its potential to overpower. Still not curious?  Then how about the presence of one Samuel L. Jackson?  In The Red Violin, he plays a violin appraiser you wouldn't want to mess with, proving once again that he can make any character a badass. (Jeffrey Chen)