 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2018) |
| Swing | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Tony Gatlif |
| Screenplay by | Tony Gatlif |
Swing is a French film by Tony Gatlif, released in 2002.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2018) |
| Swing | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Tony Gatlif |
| Screenplay by | Tony Gatlif |
Swing is a French film by Tony Gatlif, released in 2002.
In a suburb of Strasbourg, Alsace, France, ten-year-old boy, Max, spends his summer vacation with his grandmother. He hears Manouche gypsy Romani music being played in a local bar, and loves it. He goes to visit the gypsies in search of a guitar, where he meets a young Romani tomboy, 'Swing'. She introduces Max to her gypsy community who live in caravans and down-at-heel public housing. Over several days, Max is taken into the community to witness Romani lifestyle, traditions, knowledge of plants, and particularly their Manouche music. Max is particularly fascinated by Miraldo, the Romani guitarist he first heard in the bar, and asks to take guitar lessons with him (Miraldo is played by one of the greatest guitarists of gypsy jazz, Tchavolo Schmitt).
Max and Swing develop a close bond, set to many strong and catchy musical moments (some featuring the music of Django Reinhardt). Max hears from a chainsmoking grandmother (played by Helene Mershtein) how she and one other child were the sole survivors of a group or Romani interred and shot during the Second World War. The mixed Algerian/Romany heritage of the Director is given homage by featuring a musical jam session with Miraldo and Khalid, played by Abdellatif Chaarani.
The film comes to a climax as Max finally learns to play a gypsy tune during his lesson, but just as we surmise Miraldo has succeeded in teaching him, he suffers a heart attack outside his caravan and dies. Following Romany tradition, Miraldo's caravan and personal effects are burned. Max's holiday comes to an end, and Max and Swing part company with sadness. The implication is that Max's Gadjo status (a Romani term designating those who are not of that ethnic group) is a gulf between them.
Jean Reinhardt, known by his Romani nickname Django, was a Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.
Tony Gatlif is a French film director of Romani ethnicity who also works as a screenwriter, composer, actor, and producer.
The Crazy Stranger is a 1997 French-Romanian film directed and written by Tony Gatlif. Most of the film was shot at the village of Creţuleşti some kilometers from Bucharest and some of the actors are local Romani people.
Gypsy jazz is a style of small-group jazz originating from the Romani guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt (1910–53), in conjunction with the French swing violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908–97), as expressed in their group the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Because its origins are in France, Reinhardt was from the Manouche clan, and the style has remained popular amongst the Manouche, gypsy jazz is often called by the French name "jazz manouche", or alternatively, "manouche jazz" in English language sources. Some scholars have noted that the style was not named manouche until the late 1960s; the name "gypsy jazz" began to be used around the late 1990s.
Tchavolo Schmitt is a gypsy jazz guitarist. Schmitt performed as a member of various ensembles in the 1970s. Then he settled in Strasbourg and left the professional circuit for a time, releasing solo albums in 2000. He played Miraldo in the Tony Gatlif film Swing.
Matéo Maximoff was a French writer and Evangelical pastor of Romani ethnicity. His eleven books have been translated into fourteen languages. Born in Spain, he had parents who had migrated from Russia and France. His family sought shelter in France with relatives during the Spanish Civil War. After the outbreak of World War II, they were arrested as foreign nationals and interned for years, along with many other foreign refugees. He settled in France after the war and made his literary career there.
Mónika Juhász Miczura is a Hungarian Roma singer, also known as Mitsou and Mitsoura. She is a former member of the folk ensemble Ando Drom, and a founding member of the electronic/world music group Mitsoura. She has contributed to film soundtracks; in Tony Gatlif's film Gadjo dilo (1997) she provided the voice of an unseen singer pivotal to the story. She has also sung in the films Kísértések (2002), Swing (2002), Vengo (2000) (uncredited), and Je suis né d'une cigogne (1999). She formed the ensemble Mitsoura that released two albums so far: Mitsoura (2003) and Dura Dura Dura (2008). She has been a guest artist on the albums of other groups, including Fanfare Ciocărlia's Queens and Kings (2007), Bratsch's Rien Dans Les Poches (2000), Besh O Drom's Once I Catch the Devil (2006), GYI! (2005) and Can't Make Me! - Nekemtenemmutogatol (2003). She is a member of the "Global Vocal Meeting" project.
Angelo Debarre (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʒelo dəˈbaʁ] is a French Romani gypsy jazz guitarist.
Latcho Drom is a 1993 French film directed and written by Tony Gatlif. The movie is about the Romani people's journey from north-west India to Spain, consisting primarily of music. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.
Fapy Lafertin is a Belgian guitarist in the Belgian-Dutch gypsy jazz style.
Patrick Leguidecoq, known professionally as Romane, is a guitarist born in Paris, France in 1959 who specializes in gypsy jazz.
Florin Niculescu is a Romanian violinist of Romani (Gypsy) ethnicity.
Jean Pierre "Matelo" Ferret was a French musette and gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was an associate of Django Reinhardt and the youngest brother of guitarists Baro and Sarane Ferret. He recorded with his own sextet in Paris in the 1940s and continued performing there, with occasional recording sessions, until his death in 1989. He was noted for a musical style that incorporated Russian and Hungarian influences and lived long enough to see a resurgence of interest in gypsy jazz in which he was recognised as one of the great surviving players of the genre. Two of his sons, Boulou and Elios Ferré, continue to play a more modern and individualistic form of gypsy jazz-based guitar music in Paris.
Korkoro is a 2009 French drama film written and directed by Tony Gatlif, starring Francophone actors Marc Lavoine, Marie-Josée Croze and James Thiérrée. The film's cast were of many nationalities such as Albanian, Kosovar, Georgian, Serbian, French, Norwegian, and nine Romani people Gatlif recruited in Transylvania.
Pierre Joseph "Baro" Ferret (1908–1976) was a gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was known by his gypsy nickname "Baro," which meant "Big One" or even "King" in Romany. Through his brother Jean "Matelo" Ferret, Baro met Django Reinhardt, and the two men became both friends and rivals. From 1931, the Ferret brothers, along with their third brother Etienne "Sarane" Ferret, and cousin René "Challain" Ferret, were favorite sidemen of Reinhardt. Baro recorded around 80 sides with Reinhardt. The Ferret brothers played with musicians including Didi Duprat.
Dorado Schmitt is a French guitarist and violinist in Gypsy jazz.
Franz "Schnuckenack" Reinhardt was a German gypsy jazz musician (violinist), composer and interpreter. He was considered the "great violin virtuoso of Sinti music." He was a German Sinto; his music was mostly published and categorized under the contemporary names gypsy jazz or "Musik deutscher Zigeuner". He "made this music accessible to a broad public" and made the most significant contribution to the presentation of gypsy music and jazz in Germany into a concert form. He was the pioneer of this style of music in Germany and directly or indirectly inspired many of the succeeding generation of gypsy jazz players in that country, as well as preserving on record a great many folkloric and gypsy compositions for future generations.
Lulu Reinhardt was a French gypsy jazz guitarist in the tradition of Django Reinhardt. He performed lead/joint lead guitar duties with the groups Romanesj, the Häns'che Weiss Quintett, the Titi Winterstein Quintet, and subsequently with Dodi Schumacher, Rigo Winterstein and Peter Petrel. He is considered an archetypal figure in the 1970s German gypsy jazz school.
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