Le Violon de Rothschild

/ / FR / 1996 / Cozarinsky, Edgardo / drama

Violon de Rothschild, Le / Rothschildin viulu. PC: Les Films d’Ici. M: Dmitri Shostakovitsh, Benjamin Fleischmann, Modest Mussorgski (”Boris Godunov”). CAST: Sergei Makovetski (Dmitri Shostakovitsh), Dainius Kazlauskas (Benjamin Fleischmann). 100’. Letterboxed. Russian dialogue. Visa de contrôle 87801. Rating: G. Finnish subtitles by Jertta Ratia. PAL transmission of Yleisradio TV2, ”25th hour” series viewed in Helsinki, 7 October 1997. **** Masterful blend of drama, newsreel footage, and opera focuses on the Yiddish theme in Dmitri Shostakovitsh’s life. He finishes the one act opera ”Rothschild’s violin” inspired by Chekhov and composed by Dmitri’s friend Benjamin Fleischmann, who falls as a hero of the Siege of Leningrad. During Stalin’s campaign against ”rootless cosmopolitans” (= Jews) the Jewish impact in Shostakovitsh’s art grows more profound. ”The musician’s duty is to go on composing. That is the only way for us to say what we want”. ”Too many of us have been killed. Music will be my epitaph.” The montage of artists charmed by Stalin - Paul Robeson, Maxim Gorki, Bernard Shaw, Lion Feuchtwanger, Pablo Neruda, Paul Eluard - is poignant.