Django Film News!

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sorry...
i thought that it was a whore who taught django how to be daper. i think it might have been a dancer or a cabaret singer.

Teddy Dupont

Elva Ledesma wrote:

Any chance you could be less offensive to women?

--Elva

Well the fact is that Django was involved with such women. Not only that but his friend Baro Ferret was one of the most successful pimps in Paris for a while. So you can be assured, Elva, that any offence to anyone is perceived rather than intended. These people were great musicians not moral crusaders.

Elliot

Teddy Dupont wrote:

Elva Ledesma wrote:

Any chance you could be less offensive to women?

--Elva

Well the fact is that Django was involved with such women. Not only that but his friend Baro Ferret was one of the most successful pimps in Paris for a while. So you can be assured, Elva, that any offence to anyone is perceived rather than intended. These people were great musicians not moral crusaders.

Nor evidently are you...

Now perhaps you can provide for us more than the a priori assumption that since one of Django's friends was a part-time pimp that it necessarily follows that Django was a whore-monger instead of the typical womanizer that he is presented as, keeping in mind that even if true, it has nothing to do with the objection Elva has raised concerning the manner of presentation in this forum.

Wirralgitane

Here's me thinking elagancy was crucial in playing GJ music.
..NOW i know these are normal human beings (Django, Barro etc) who liked to cromatically run up woman's legs to get their kicks.
So it has nothin to do with being capable of doing arpeg's & shapes, its the breast stroke and runs you do on a whore that make you a better 'player'

I reckon all for the making of this movie anyway!
Sweet and Lowdown got me into Django :oops: i jumped outa bed when it came on tv and thought what the hell is this music 'Gypsy Jazz'!!! and i couldn't even turn it up coz me mum was in bed!
So i watched the repeat which kept me up that night untill past 5ish (work for 7am btw!..anyway..)
Embarrisingly i didn't even get onto the fake playing in the film untill i managed to get the film on disc, paused the Dvd trying to see wtf he was doing, but then no real/live playing so it ruined it, dissapointed etc so i always look away at that part of the film, (but 'forever blowing bubbles' is great, it might not really be GJ but i couldn't give two hoops)
So my point is i wouldn't have had the pleasure for the last 3years has given me to my ears and playing. So bring it on i say, just don't have bluffs playing, have it real, there's nothing worse than watching something about a musician/virtuoso but having actors who can't even play the instrument! These movies attract players so its a crucial elemant in making it successful then things should fall into place and this music will spitfire more and more as it is already.

Ps can i suggest for whore #10 to be Kelly Brook? (based on pysical attributes only)

steven_eire

a recent article on MTV's site about the biopic:

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/01/10/in ... zz-biopic/

not much new in the way of info really except that Marshall is saying the movie will be influenced by la vie en rose.

badjazz

At first I thought this would be a cool idea, but the more I think about, the more I wish they'd just leave Django alone. Sweet and Lowdown, to me, was the right balance in that it got a lot of Django-esque stuff in there without making it an all out biopic.

Maybe it's just me, but just like a novel I've read being turned into a movie, it never lives up to what I hope and it kind of ruins my own idea of how things happened and inserts somebody else's image (which is probably no closer to reality than my own) into my brain.

AJATango

if it puts Django and this music in to the mainstream, that's what counts. La Vie en Rose is nominated for an Oscar, imagine a Django pic made that well.

steven_eire

whether the movie is good or bad it's going to bring some exposure to this music. I think it would be great to see a few modern gypsy jazz players on the soundtrack to this movie although thats probably unlikely

Bill Barnes

This is a comment I had posted on the MTV site in response to a query about public interest in a film about DR:

As to wanting to see you make a biopic of Django Reinhardt, two answers. Yes and No:

Yes, if this would be a complex, historically accurate, musically faithful, objective and intelligent illumination of the life and times of perhaps the most innovative and groundbreaking guitarists to ever walk the planet. Yes, if it was well done, in the tradition of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, or perhaps the excellent biopic of Toulouse Lautrec, Moulin Rouge. Yes, if the culture of the Romany and the scope of historical events were properly fleshed out. Yes, if the characters were shown to be complex and fallible, not cardboard cutouts of musical superheroes and villains. Yes, if it has a balanced, literate script, well conceived and recorded music score and proper production values.

No, if the end product resembles most music bio-pics. No, if conjecture and fantasy take the place of well-documented facts. No, if you haven't done extensive research, immersed yourself in the post-Django Hot Club revival and really listened to his living legacy. No, if the dark side of Reinhardt's character is emphasized over the man's many positive, triumphant achievements. No, if casting is based on box office draw rather than the appropriateness of the actors in question. And, above all, NO, if the real star of the film is not emphasized: Django's music.

This is not a simple task; there are probably three to six different stories here, all equally compelling. There’s early Django, his musical development , the evolution of Le Hot Club du France, the personal conflicts between Reinhardt and Grappelli, the rivalry between Django, Baro Ferret and Oscar Aleman, the unsavory street life of the Pigalle, Django’s activities during the Nazi occupation, the ‘failed’ American tour, etcetera, etcetera. Whoever takes on the daunting task of bringing this man’s story to the big screen had better get it right. As to the commercial viability of such a quirky biographical subject, ask yourself this question: how many average moviegoers had ever heard of T.E. Lawrence, prior to 1962, when David Lean brought his story to the big screen?

Make this film, Mr. Marshall. But do it right.

Korat

Bill Barnes wrote:

: how many average moviegoers had ever heard of T.E. Lawrence, prior to 1962, when David Lean brought his story to the big screen?

Quite a lot, I think. Perhaps almost unknown in the US, he was quite famous in Europa during his lifetime already.
He was, after all 'Lawrence of Arabia' and, a.o., advisor to Winston Churchill