|
THE DEVIL'S VIOLINIST Send This Review to a Friend
The less said about “The Devil’s Violinist” the better. Writer-director Bernard Rose’s film purports to be a slice of biography about the renowned 19th century violinist Niccolò Paganini, depicted as the womanizer and difficult character he is reputed to have been. But the film comes across as a poor costume drama without a convincing flesh and blood portrait of Paganini.
In effect, he sells his soul to “the devil,” appearing in the form of a manager named Urbani (Jared Harris), who has his vision of how to achieve success and fame for his client. We, of course, meet the women in the violinist’s life. Much of the story takes place in London, where impresario John Watson (Christian McKay) and his mistress Elisabeth Wells (Veronica Ferres) take a huge financial gamble in an attempt to bring Paganini, and themselves, success.
The most interesting thing about the film is the casting of real violinist David Garrett as Paganini. But alas, his acting is flat and nowhere up to his bowing and fingering. A further misfortune is that given the musical skill of Garrett, the film doesn’t take advantage of this with more of a concentration on the musical aspect that might have given the film a desperately needed lift.
Thus, we are left with neither artistic pleasure nor a worthy film biography. Reviewed January 30, 2015.
|