El violín
Mexico,
2006, 99 min
Shown in 2007
CREDITS
- dir
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Francisco Vargas
- prod
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Francisco Vargas
- scr
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Francisco Vargas
- cam
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Martín Boege Paré
- editor
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Francisco Vargas, Ricardo Garfias
- mus
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Cuauhtémoc Tavira, Armando Rosas
- cast
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Don Ángel Tavira, Dagoberto Gama, Gerardo Taracena, Fermín Martínez, Mario Garibaldi
- source
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Film Movement, 109 West 27th Street Suite 9B, New York, NY 10001. FAX: 212-941-7812. EMAIL: cassidy@filmmovement.com.
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COMMENTS
Received the Skyy Prize. Francisco Vargas attended. The film also received the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.
OTHER
His right arm maimed, the elderly, grizzled peasant Don Plutarco ties the bow of his violin to his damaged appendage in order to play. The Captain, leader of a squad of brutal soldiers of the Mexican army who have been sent in to repress a band of peasant guerrillas, is seduced by Don Plutarco’s music. But there is more to the crippled old man than the soldiers realize, for Don Plutarco’s son, Genaro, is one of the rebels hiding in the jungle. Risking his life, the violinist uses his influence with the Captain to secretly aid the rebels. There is no flowery idealism to the rebels; their fight is one of survival amid poverty and exploitation. Yet their respect for human values is evident. Tension builds on the increasingly likely possibility that Plutarco’s scheme will be discovered. Don Plutarco explains what life is all about to his grandson, Lucio, using a parable from antiquity: “The true people returned to fight for their land and their forest. Their grandparents had left the land for their children, and their children’s children. And we'll do the same.” Set in the early 1970s and filmed in striking black-and-white, The Violin evokes a Mexico inspired by the photographs of Manuel Alvarez Bravo and the cinematography of Gabriel Figueroa. Characters named Genaro and Lucio echo the names of real-life ’70s guerrillas Genaro Vásquez and Lucio Cabañas. With growing suspense, The Violin explores the basic humanity that moves ordinary people to fight oppression, regardless of the consequences.
—Miguel Pendás
FACTOID #319
The Library of Congress supplied the Festival with the only existing print of Double Indemnity for the Fred MacMurray tribute in 1987. The problem was, the reels were not marked for the projectionist. But the show must go on! The projectionist ordered the reels using his intuition and the gamble paid off—the film was screened in perfect sequence.
