Listen to my story: it was maybe 1996 or 1997, I don't remember accurately. At last, I had my own TV away from the family's one. But it was the family's old one, well, the very old one, namely; black and white, and got just 3 channels! At one Tuesday, 6 PM, on the third channel, that used to air only to the inhabitants of Cairo, I came upon a French movie. I missed the opening credits, which's something that can, to date, bug me very much. After a while, I found myself literally spellbound. This is one of a kind movie, being nothing like I have ever seen before. Not an action, fantasy, or even a musical.. a usual musical to me at the least. And among the other Novo movies, I mean the artistic ones, it's wholly different as enjoyable!
It's about that violinist who wanted to be free and pure, because music is, or must be, free and pure. So in a hectic world, where the classic music is imprisoned away from the simple people, and the intellectual meditation became as fast as the metro train--he determined to be the "station" in this exhausting trip that we call life, to feed himself of the people he misses, and feed these very people the classic taste that they need. Or in a word, to express what he wants, and communicate with who he wants.
At the long final sequence, I was out of this world. This last section pushed me to an ecstasy that not many movies can reach. It was this poor violinist's testimony about the deep power of music, as if everything in the universe is a melody. Hence, whatever the degeneration is, or the attempts to get rid of eminence in the sewer are, nobody can prevent the freeness of music, because simply it's in us and around us, as the holy melody of existence. It's a spiritual language to express and communicate, so when it loses its way to the human, especially while the domination of one material kind, this very human loses big part of their humanity; the integral part between them and the universe, and the high relationship between them and their selves. So maybe the "missing something" is just the human's perception of that, to perfect the superior melody, and to be a human, a real one.
I can't forget the splendor of that last musical composition, the greatness of the lead actor as if he is the actual player (I still think that he is!), culminating awesomely the extremist mysticism he can, and the images' waterfall of everything that has spiritual music (there is a swift yet venerable shot for the rotation of the Muslims around the Kaaba during the hajj).
This is unforgettable piece of cinema. Look at how many points this movie achieves: It is one of the best ever made about music, and the human of today as well. Standing by individualism wasn't more creative and effective. It is rare to be that spiritual, or originally a defender of it, in our present time. Moreover, it managed to be a serious and diaphanous movie that could own you while watching, and leave you so influenced with deep feelings about yourself, music, and the world. So, it has A-plus, on all the levels.
After its end, I was near to crazy, shouting in my mind WHAT'S THE TITLE OF THIS MOVIE?!, IS IT A REAL ONE? OR I WAS IMAGINING THINGS?! Back then, I wasn't familiar with the IMDb, rather the whole internet, yet. The only way to know such a movie's title was by reviewing our local newspaper, or the TV guide in a weekly magazine titled (El Eza'a Wel Telefezyoon) or (The Radio & The TV). However, I didn't find a thing!
So, I had nothing but one last option. Believe it or not, I called the national TV, seeking the third channel's line. And finally, I attached the team that was working on air at that night to ask desperately: "I just want to know, what was the title of the movie that just ended?!", so after the man on the other line founded it unusual, he said nothing for a while, then came back to me saying: "The Violinist"!
To tell you the truth, for years and years I thought that he lied, answering by anything close to the movie's events, to finish this weird conversion anyway. But in 2009, I was watching another French movie titled (Tais-toi!), to meet again the same actor who played the lead of the vague movie I watched more than a decade earlier. His name is (Richard Berry). And by checking carefully his page on IMDb, I discovered the truth. It proved the guy who answered me right. I'm sorry dear man, and thank you whoever you are. It is "The Violinist" indeed; the movie that I fell in love with once, and I still love ever since.
It's about that violinist who wanted to be free and pure, because music is, or must be, free and pure. So in a hectic world, where the classic music is imprisoned away from the simple people, and the intellectual meditation became as fast as the metro train--he determined to be the "station" in this exhausting trip that we call life, to feed himself of the people he misses, and feed these very people the classic taste that they need. Or in a word, to express what he wants, and communicate with who he wants.
At the long final sequence, I was out of this world. This last section pushed me to an ecstasy that not many movies can reach. It was this poor violinist's testimony about the deep power of music, as if everything in the universe is a melody. Hence, whatever the degeneration is, or the attempts to get rid of eminence in the sewer are, nobody can prevent the freeness of music, because simply it's in us and around us, as the holy melody of existence. It's a spiritual language to express and communicate, so when it loses its way to the human, especially while the domination of one material kind, this very human loses big part of their humanity; the integral part between them and the universe, and the high relationship between them and their selves. So maybe the "missing something" is just the human's perception of that, to perfect the superior melody, and to be a human, a real one.
I can't forget the splendor of that last musical composition, the greatness of the lead actor as if he is the actual player (I still think that he is!), culminating awesomely the extremist mysticism he can, and the images' waterfall of everything that has spiritual music (there is a swift yet venerable shot for the rotation of the Muslims around the Kaaba during the hajj).
This is unforgettable piece of cinema. Look at how many points this movie achieves: It is one of the best ever made about music, and the human of today as well. Standing by individualism wasn't more creative and effective. It is rare to be that spiritual, or originally a defender of it, in our present time. Moreover, it managed to be a serious and diaphanous movie that could own you while watching, and leave you so influenced with deep feelings about yourself, music, and the world. So, it has A-plus, on all the levels.
After its end, I was near to crazy, shouting in my mind WHAT'S THE TITLE OF THIS MOVIE?!, IS IT A REAL ONE? OR I WAS IMAGINING THINGS?! Back then, I wasn't familiar with the IMDb, rather the whole internet, yet. The only way to know such a movie's title was by reviewing our local newspaper, or the TV guide in a weekly magazine titled (El Eza'a Wel Telefezyoon) or (The Radio & The TV). However, I didn't find a thing!
So, I had nothing but one last option. Believe it or not, I called the national TV, seeking the third channel's line. And finally, I attached the team that was working on air at that night to ask desperately: "I just want to know, what was the title of the movie that just ended?!", so after the man on the other line founded it unusual, he said nothing for a while, then came back to me saying: "The Violinist"!
To tell you the truth, for years and years I thought that he lied, answering by anything close to the movie's events, to finish this weird conversion anyway. But in 2009, I was watching another French movie titled (Tais-toi!), to meet again the same actor who played the lead of the vague movie I watched more than a decade earlier. His name is (Richard Berry). And by checking carefully his page on IMDb, I discovered the truth. It proved the guy who answered me right. I'm sorry dear man, and thank you whoever you are. It is "The Violinist" indeed; the movie that I fell in love with once, and I still love ever since.