Well, so far as "finding the context" you can't expect much from a 5 minute scene with little dialog taken from somewhere in the middle of *any* movie in that regard.  I imagine that if one has actually watched the movie it maybe makes more sense.

The movie was also written and directed by Klaus Kinsky, it was the last movie he did before he died.

It is on my list of movies to watch sometime.  I tend to rather like Klaus Kinsky's characters.  True, they usually aren't very nice or pretty, but they are often quite interesting and intense.

But by all accounts I've ever heard, Paganini was kind of intense and probably more than a bit odd and possibly unpleasant to deal with, considering the syphilis and the mercury they used to treat it back then.  The blood in the scene might even be due to tuberculosis (which he also had).  Allegedly in league with the devil, by most accounts unpleasant to deal with on a personal level..

I don't know, Klaus Kinsky sounds like a fair bet for playing him, other than the height difference.  Klaus could do strange and intense characters better than most actors.  Probably because he *was* sort of strange and intense himself.

Anyway, I definitely want to see it eventually.

Added on the edit:  Oh, and btw.. So long as Paganini has been mentioned, I recently ran across a website with some very nice pics of his "Cannon" violin including some nice detail pics.     http://www.kevinleeluthier.com.....ganini.HTM