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The Violin (El Violin) (2006)

tomatometer

94

Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 34
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 2

Vargas makes a strong debut with The Violin, which features crisp photography, a poetic screenplay, and a breakthrough performance by Tavira.

100

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 0

Vargas makes a strong debut with The Violin, which features crisp photography, a poetic screenplay, and a breakthrough performance by Tavira.

audience

80

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 15,907

My Rating

Movie Info

Filmmaker Francisco Vargas makes his feature-film debut with this expansion of his well-received short film detailing the struggle between the peasants and military in 1970s-era Mexico. Don Plutarco (Angel Tavira) is a dignified elder who, along with his son Genaro (Gerardo Taracena) and grandson Lucio (Mario Garibaldi), makes his living as a traveling musician. On the side, the trio secretly smuggles weapons and supplies to the freedom fighters who are bravely attempting to overthrow the

Unrated,

Art House & International, Drama

Francisco Vargas

May 27, 2008

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All Critics (36) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (2) | DVD (1)

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.

March 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Life-or-death matters are handled with compelling gravity.

February 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A message this political has rarely been delivered in so poetic a form.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Shot in a silvery black and white that lends a photojournalistic effect, this is not an easy film to sit through. But it will be a tough one to forget if you do.

December 7, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Daily News
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Tavira's acting is the high point of this suspenseful yet beautiful movie, which -- for a while at least -- proves that music can soothe the savage breast.

December 5, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Post
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Perfect casting: the photogenic Ángel Tavira is a valuable find for writer/director Francisco Vargas

June 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Habit
Movie Habit

An impressive debut for Mexican writer and director Francisco Vargas.

April 30, 2008 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

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.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Let's Not Listen
Let's Not Listen

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.

February 22, 2008 Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press

It's all stripped down to a conflict more abstract than historical, a fable of heroic defiance in the face of brutal oppression.

February 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Francisco Vargas makes a marvellous debut with his magnificent The Violin.

January 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

Of course, there's Tavira, who, even if he never appears in another film, has left an indelible mark on cinema with his work here.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News
Los Angeles Daily News

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.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: This is London
This is London

Shot in luminous, high-contrast black and white, it has the rugged if faintly self-important authority of a Hemingway short story.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Independent

A terrific debut by Vargas, who wrote, directed and produced.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Independent

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.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

The plot is slimmer than a bowed string and lacks tension.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Sun Online
Sun Online

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.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4

The film's strongest asset is octogenarian newcomer Tavira, who exudes stoic dignity.

January 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Total Film
Total Film

Audience Reviews for The Violin (El Violin)

This mexican film, winner at the 2005 CANNES Film Festival, "Un Certain Regard"- Best Actor: Angel Tavira, follows Plutarco (amazing actor Don Angel Tavira), his son Genaro (played by another great actor, Gerardo Taracena) and his grandson Lucio, who lead a double life, as musicians, and as supporters of the guerrilla movement against the government. When the army invades their town, the rebels decide to escape and leave the ammo behind, so, Plutarco, taking advantage of his "inoffensive violinist" looks, treats the captain to violin music everyday, so he can go to his corn field to pick up the ammo he has hidden days before. This low-budget independent movie was filmed in its entirety in black&white and features amazing and heartwrenching performances by Don Angel Tavira, Dagoberto Gama and Gerardo Taracena, it is directed by newcomer Francisco Vargas Quevedo, whose other work include a short film, that served as base for this one, also called "El Violin". Although it opened in 2005 and 2006 around the world, it didn't open until April 2007 in its country, Mexico, because no company wanted to release it and not one theater chain wanted to show it, because of its low-budget and beacuse it wouldn't appeal to larger audiences that seek blockbusters. Like its director, Francisco Vargas said, they know more of "El Violin (Le Violon)" in France, that they do in Mexico and that's sad... Guillermo del Toro approached the mexican senate and urged them to promote films like El Violin, but they've done nothing. Luckily, Cinepolis (LatinAmerica's biggest movie theater chain) picked it up and released it in limited theaters around the country, one of hose located in Tijuana, so yesterday i got the chance to see this marvelous mexican film and it was a wonderful, raw, real experience i'll never forget and i wish for all of you to see it.
Following the tradition of my friend Vince Flores, the best snack to watch this movie with is LifeSavers Gummies
Bye, and support mexican cinema!
Fernando :)
June 14, 2007
[font=Century Gothic]In "The Violin," Plutarco(Angel Tavira), his son Genaro(Gerardo Taracena), and his son Lucio(Mario Garibaldi) are a trio of troubadours traveling the country attempting to simultaneously supplant their meager income working the land and fund a revolution. For those keeping track, it is Plutarco on violin, Genaro on guitar and Lucio working the tip cup. On the return to their village, the men find a new round of fleeing in progress as the army is on the way. Gerardo runs off, fearing for the safety of his wife and worrying about something he may have left behind...[/font]
[font=Century Gothic][/font]
[font=Century Gothic]"The Violin" is a cliched movie with little context, replete with two-dimensional characters populating the landscape. It is a shame because there are some particularly good ideas that are just never developed that well, especially the relationship between Plutarco and the army captain(Dagoberto Gama). It is a nice touch that Plutarco creatively explains the peasants' struggle to his grandson as a fable but the villains of the tale turn out to be the ambitious.(Something lost in translation?) For the record, not all ambitious people are bad. What if you want to be the first person to walk on Mars? No harm in that. Or is that the peasants are good just because they are humble, a stereotype if ever there was one?[/font]
January 9, 2009
Harlequin68
Walter M.

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  • The Violin (DE)
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