MOVIE • 2000

The Art of Violin

The Devil's Instrument, Transcending The Violin

A film written and directed by Bruno Monsaingeon. Drawing on archival performance footage and interviews, The Art of Violin evokes the vast panorama of the world of the violin in the 20th century and its most outstanding performers. It is hard to express the explosions of joy occasioned by the discovery of long sought-out but undreamed-of archives, such as some silent - and later resynchronised - film footage, or the few brief moments of Chausson's Poeme played by Ginette Neveu, the silent yet moving (in every sense of the word)images of Kreisler and Ysaye, the awe of a young Menuhin, the superb single camera shot of David Oistrakh performing the cadenza from Shostakovich's First Concerto. Contributions from Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel, Hilary Hahn, Laurent Korcia, Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, and Mstislav Rostropovich, Produced by Pierre-Olivier Bardet & Stephen Wright.