Annecy Review: The Violinist finds beautiful music in the midst of war

After following a retired legendary violinist to her home following a concert, a Spanish music journalist finally scores an interview with her. She's stepped out of the spotlight in recent years, and doesn't understand why he so desperately wants to speak to her. Isn't everything there is to know about her readily available on the internet? What more could he want to know? But the journalist brings with him a photograph of the violinist when she was a young girl, standing next to a boy her age. They both hold violins. The journalist notes that one of the violins in the photo is the same one she played in every professional appearance of her career, despite it not being the cream of a crop. "Stories and music are all we have," the journalist notes. He wants to know the story of this violin, and the beautiful music it made over so many years.

The Violinist, the Spanish-Singaporean coproduction which won this year's Annecy Cristal (the top prize at the festival), is a sweeping historical epic, the kind of movie that I'm not used to seeing rendered in animation. This is the kind of story that many filmmakers would envision as a live-action piece, full of sublime period art direction and costuming, wartime set pieces, heartrending close-ups on actors' tearful faces. It's so refreshing, and unexpected, to see animation used to tackle this subject matter. This is a lush, detailed, and intricately told story that covers a lot of ground and takes its time in doing so.

If you've read my reviews, you probably know I'm a movie crier. It's one of the reasons I love movies. I love to get caught up in a story, get emotionally attached, and do some light weeping before the credits roll. I especially love when I can tell a movie is going to make me cry, and then it does. That is exactly what happened with The Violinist. As soon as the journalist holds up the photograph, I felt a lump in my throat. Suddenly, I needed to know what happened to the boy in the photo. I craved the answers to this story just like the journalist himself did, despite me just now entering the story rather than having years of research behind me. I thought, Oh, this movie is going to wreck me. And spoiler alert: it did. 

I'm a sucker for this kind of story structure: someone probing into the past, searching for answers that only one other person can provide. The journalistic excavation of a life, which then becomes a broader look at history. It's like catnip, such a sturdy, classic way to get into a story, and it's done beautifully here.

The Violinist follows the lives of both Lee Fei (the famed violinist being interviewed in the frame story) and Kai, an orphan boy who is adopted by the Lee family's beloved servant, Ying Jie. They live in Singapore during the time of British rule, in the years leading up to World War II. Kai is a bit of a troublemaker, and has a tendency to get under Fei's skin. But he also has a natural ear for music, and starts carefully observing Fei's violin practice as she gets ready for a performance for the governor. Kai proves to be a prodigy, and starts studying in his spare time with help from Fei's teacher, a kindly Japanese woman. Soon, the two kids start dreaming of a life of touring and performing. Kai's talent far exceeds Fei's, but he knows that she, too, has a great violinist within her, if only she can focus and find it.

Much of the film takes place during the time of the Japanese occupation of Singapore, and the war with China. The war pulls Kai and Fei apart. He's determined to play a role in the resistance effort, following after his mentor/benefactor and becoming a spy. Fei stays behind, taking in a couple orphans, becoming somewhat friendly with a Japanese officer, and getting a job playing with an orchestra, which sometimes takes her to prisons and military bases. The horrors and struggles of the war are depicted with appropriate brutality. The film isn't graphic, but it also doesn't shy away from the violence of the time period. Bullets fly, blood splatters. Back at home, Fei faces a threat of sexual violence by a drunken soldier. 

Clocking in at close to two hours, The Violinist really takes its time in telling its story, giving the audience ample time to really become attached to these characters, and to wonder where the story will go. I'm a fan of this kind of deliberately paced historical film, and this is a great example of one. For my part, I thought I had an idea of what was going to happen, some of the beats that we would encounter. But time and time again, the film proved more sophisticated in its storytelling, repeatedly surprising me with the way it unfolds. You can feel the violent weight of history barreling toward these characters, terrifying and uavoidable. It's a powerful, beautifully told tale.

Visually, this movie isn't a stand-out for me. Everything looks perfectly fine, but there's a kind of flatness to the animation here that makes it feel a bit cookie-cutter at times. Again, not ugly or "wrong" or anything, but it didn't wow me on an aesthetic front. However, the detail that went into depicting the musicians' hands moving on their instruments is really impressive, and some of the wartime moments have a bit of extra oomph to them, such as the haunting depiction of the atomic bomb being dropped.

If stories and music really are all we have, then we're in good hands with The Violinist. Here is a movie with a great story told with fine attention to detail, and absolutely packed with gorgeous music. It gave me so much of what I want, and left me a total wreck, tears streaming down my face. It's a worthy Cristal winner, and hopefully will herald a new era for Singapore's animation scene.