I just saw this movie tonight. That director should be ashamed-especially since I loved the Red Violin. The pacing here was incredibly slow. Sllllllooooooowwwww. I don't require every movie to movie like a music video, but this was like the unabridged version of Les Miserables-60 pages of unnecessary exposition on something of no consequence to the story.<br /><br />For example, the Dutch Merchant? What happened to him? Why were we given that ominous clue if Herve did not try to find out what happened to him? That scene never should have been in the movie. Why did the Concubine slip him that note? Why were we told that detailed story of Ludovic's silent father? The boy and his mom were very minor characters.<br /><br />I also don't require movies to spell out everything for me, but this was certainly one of those adaptations where people who had not read the book were a bit lost. Even the central question of why Helene did what she did, and how she knew who he was obsessed with was never answered. And how did they both know to go to the Japanese prostitute? Alfred Molina's character must have had something to do with it? The childlessness and long illness seemed tacked on-if they had something to do with Helene's weird behavior, I could have accepted it. But this all seemed like a lot of strangeness in the 19th century.<br /><br />Maybe I'll read the book.