Movie Misleading and Insulting
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Movie Misleading and Insulting Posted on Sep 23 2006 at 1:43pm by He started of visiting festivals and fans. But then it became more and more condescending and insulting. The movie was not a salute gypsy jazz. It was more about insulting the more extreme fans, and making the rest appear to be morons. By the time the movie was over I was uncomforable and confused about what the director was trying to acheive. I think that if the director wanted to show the absurdity of extreme fans of the genre it could have been done better. 
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RE: Movie Misleading and Insulting Posted on Dec 5 2006 at 4:09am by I hit the return button too soon!... I do not agree with the author who found this documentary Misleading and Insulting. As a Django fan, I found the film informative and delightful. The film is not a salute to "Gypsy Jazz"... after all, it is mainly (only?) about Django.
My only problem is how do I find a recording of that superb French Django band that showed up the last night of the Belgian Django festival?
Dave Huffman
shiekdjango wrote:
(Sep 23 2006 @ 01:43pm)
He started of visiting festivals and fans. But then it became more and more condescending and insulting. The movie was not a salute gypsy jazz. It was more about insulting the more extreme fans, and making the rest appear to be morons. By the time the movie was over I was uncomforable and confused about what the director was trying to acheive. I think that if the director wanted to show the absurdity of extreme fans of the genre it could have been done better.
Movie Misleading and Insulting--Not to me Posted on Dec 6 2006 at 11:57am by Dunno why Shiekdjango thought the filmmaker was being insulting. Big fans of anybody always appear a bit odd.
I thought the film interesting in that I never knew there was this Django Reinhardt following--my Dad (who was a Jazz guitar player from the 1930's on) loved Django and turned me onto him. Gypsy jazz is way cool. Now I'd like to hear a band that takes this form of music into the jamband scene!
davehuf wrote:
(Dec 05 2006 @ 04:09am)
I hit the return button too soon!... I do not agree with the author who found this documentary Misleading and Insulting. As a Django fan, I found the film informative and delightful. The film is not a salute to "Gypsy Jazz"... after all, it is mainly (only?) about Django.
My only problem is how do I find a recording of that superb French Django band that showed up the last night of the Belgian Django festival?
Dave Huffman
shiekdjango wrote:
(Sep 23 2006 @ 01:43pm)
He started of visiting festivals and fans. But then it became more and more condescending and insulting. The movie was not a salute gypsy jazz. It was more about insulting the more extreme fans, and making the rest appear to be morons. By the time the movie was over I was uncomforable and confused about what the director was trying to acheive. I think that if the director wanted to show the absurdity of extreme fans of the genre it could have been done better.
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RE: Movie Misleading and Insulting Posted on Dec 8 2006 at 3:53pm by Documentaries always have the potential to be or appear misleading. A good doc always illuminates a genre or an issue. They are not necessarily conveying the truth, in whole or in part, and there are always questions. It's the POV of the documentarian. I can't say how much truth resides in this doc or not. One interesting thing that Kastner touched on was whether or not Reinhart played to his favor with some of the Nazi jazz buffs. This ran counter to the comments of his current Gypsy brethren's praise of him. But whether there's truth to one telling or another, as Toots Theilmanns (sp?) said, you can't put too much on the politics of the situation; it may have been more about the music. And, to his credit, Kastner presented these opinions.
As to being insulting, I don't feel that this doc was guilty. Avid fans can appear ludicrous to less extreme fans or non-fans in any interest. True, Kastner may have mugged on screen or written teasing lines about some of the participants, but I don't feel he was being insulting. I think the teasing humor is part of his style. What I saw as insulting was the wealthy ex-Microsoft guy and his family being "gypsyphiles". They may study gypsies, but they seem to have no interest improving treatment to their lot around the world. They seemed more interested in the clothing fashion, vintage guitars and the music. Likewise, the attitude of the residents (therefore, non-Gypsy) of Reinhart's birthplace was as insulting as racist behavior usually is. Kastner revealed this two-faced racism: "Let's make some money by having a Django festival, but let's try to pass laws keeping the filthy Gypsy people out of town and make them keep their caravans at an inconveniently distant place."
Like many good docs, this one drew me in with my love of Django's music and musicianship and brought up many other issues of which I wasn't aware.
shiekdjango wrote:
(Sep 23 2006 @ 01:43pm)
He started of visiting festivals and fans. But then it became more and more condescending and insulting. The movie was not a salute gypsy jazz. It was more about insulting the more extreme fans, and making the rest appear to be morons. By the time the movie was over I was uncomforable and confused about what the director was trying to acheive. I think that if the director wanted to show the absurdity of extreme fans of the genre it could have been done better.
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RE: Movie Misleading and Insulting Posted on Dec 18 2006 at 10:55pm by birdnutz1 wrote:
(Dec 08 2006 @ 03:53pm)
One interesting thing that Kastner touched on was whether or not Reinhart played to his favor with some of the Nazi jazz buffs. This ran counter to the comments of his current Gypsy brethren's praise of him. But whether there's truth to one telling or another, as Toots Theilmanns (sp?) said, you can't put too much on the politics of the situation; it may have been more about the music. And, to his credit, Kastner presented these opinions.
And to Kastner's discredit, he presented absolutely no evidence to support his opinion. He simply continued to press his agenda, even while interviewing people who actually knew Django and denied any collaboration between him and the Nazis. Kastner seems to just want to stir up controversy by raising issues with no substantiation. No credit is due for that.RE: Movie Misleading and Insulting Posted on Aug 18 2007 at 3:29pm by Ignorance of the Gypsy culture is the biggest issue. I believe that doing your homework about a culture helps when doing a documentary on it. Political issues should have stayed out of it. This was about Jazz and one of the greats. If you are going to make any comments about the Nazi era you need to have lived it. We who are the children of suvivors of that era and having survived the racism before AND AFTER, know only too well how "Gadge" like to exploit the "Gypsy" theme. To educate, we are not Gypsies, we are Roma and SInti.
I found it horrible that the insinuation was at left at the end that Rhinehard collaborated with the Nazis. SHame on him.
The real theme should have been these talented musicians that have no formal education and many who do not read or write, especially not music and look at what they can do!!
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