Francisco Vargas makes a marvellous debut with his magnificent The Violin.
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01/17/08
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The Violin (2007)
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Reviews Counted:33
Fresh:31
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: Vargas makes a strong debut with The Violin, which features crisp photography, a poetic screenplay, and a breakthrough performance by Tavira.
Theatrical Release:Dec 5, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Don Plutarco, his son Genaro and his grandson Lucio live a double life: on one hand they are musicians and humble farmers, on the other they support the campesina peasant guerilla movement's armed... [More]
Starring: Don Angel Tavira, Gerardo Taracena, Mario Garibaldi
Director: Francisco Vargas
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Reviews for The Violin
It's all stripped down to a conflict more abstract than historical, a fable of heroic defiance in the face of brutal oppression.
02/08/08
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.
01/04/08
Un retrato crudo y humano %u2013filmado en riguroso blanco y negro- sobre pequeños y grandes actos de rebeldía frente a las injusticias.
06/10/07
Stark but absorbing drama follows an aging musician, beautifully played by Don Angel Tavira, who fiddles his way into the front lines of Mexico's peasant revolts during the 1970s.
05/25/06
Top CriticAs far as battlefield-as-life parables go, humanity gets a fairer shake in Francisco Vargas's The Violin than in Bruno Dumont's Flanders.
12/03/07
by turns shocking, observant, picturesque, and thought-provoking, the film is a moving expression of the tumultuous existence of countless Mexican lives.
09/26/07
Told with ruthless efficiency and no sentiment or sermonizing, stands as a fitting tribute to the human spirit.
01/04/08
The tiny, tough, sneakily moving film The Violin wears its revolutionary romanticism on its sleeve, not far from its gun.
12/05/07
Top CriticThe film’s strongest asset is octogenarian newcomer Tavira, who exudes stoic dignity.
01/04/08
Life-or-death matters are handled with compelling gravity.
02/08/08
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.
02/22/08
A movie of undeniable gravitas and monumentality -- even if it is too fond of its own effects.
12/04/07
Top CriticA 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.
01/04/08
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.
01/04/08
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.
01/04/08
Subversive musical warriors confront political injustice through the powers of the seductive artistic imagination.
11/27/07
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.
03/07/08
Top CriticTavira'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.
12/05/07
Top CriticYou 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.
02/28/08
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