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Whistle Stopper - Latcho Drom
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List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $58.95
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Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
Starring: La Caita
Directed By: Tony Gatlif
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304263198
Format: Color
ISBN: 6304263198
Label: New Yorker Video
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Yorker Video
Release Date: 1998-11-11
Running Time: 103
Studio: New Yorker Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1994-03-04
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Latcho drom: an exploration of gypsy music
Comment: A wonderful journey through two continents, exploring present-day music of the Roma people. Colourful, exciting, moving, you see the most extraordinary performances in the most inhospitable circumstances.....Tony Gatlif, himself part-Roma, was privileged to be able to join these groups of travellers and record their very special, and exclusive to them,culture.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Drop in on a dying culture
Comment: If you are interested in Gypsy music and dance this is an incredible look at the culture, sans boring narration blah blah. Because Mr. Gatlif had unprecedented access to these relatively unspoiled groups of performers, the viewer feels like a traveler on the Gypsy Trail, starting out in India,through Egypt, Turkey and through the Balkans, ending with a lively village Flamenco scene. I wish that they had continued into England and Ireland, but that is a minor quibble. Each scene goes directly into the performances, with so much feeling and joy. Not to be missed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Travelling Gypsies Both By DVD & CD
Comment: The Gypsies left their original homeland in northern India around 1000AD. This much has been established by historical and linguistic research, but the reason for their exodus westward is less certain. They reached Europe by the early C14th, crossing from Asia Minor by way of Crete and the Peloponnesus, and continued their dispersal westward and northward. By the end of the C14th they were already settled in large numbers in the Balkans and Danube lands, where an undeveloped economic structure and primitive technology gave Gypsy smiths and cobblers the chance to compete with local artisans. Early accounts of their arrival suggest that the curiosity and sympathy they originally aroused were accompanied by suspicion and hostlity, and soon their status changed dramatically from protected guests to persecuted outlaws. Within a 100 years of their first appearance, most countries in western Europe had passed savage laws for their expulsion: some even legislated to include the death penalty. 'Lacho Drom' is a wonderful travelogue of Rom music which traces this migration. The music and demeanour of the people says it all; languages that transcend regional barriers. Clearly, by Czechoslovakia, we have entered the Rom estate popularised by European literature's cliches, extolled by the excessive practice of all vices known to Man. The film's concluding lament caps an increasingly sad tale of persecution born, nevertheless, with brave equanimity. The appropriate footnote, if you can source it, is Joseph Koudelka's grave portfolio of Gypsies that was published by Aperture in the mid 1970s. I hestitate to trumpet aesthetics here, where it obviously hurts, but Koudelka's images are some of the most stunningly beautiful you'll ever see. There's nothing vouyeristic about Koudelka as in nearly every instance he's acknowledged by his subjects. And that implicit trust is rarely evinced anywhere, anytime, resulting in a candour that might well move you to tears.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and moving documentary!
Comment: This is one of my favorite documentary, still wish that they would release on DVD! I love the stories, and the beauty that it shows. It also is a great way to see the life style of Nomads from all over the world!
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Summary: The gypsy journey
Comment: Fascinating, educating, beautifully done. Congratulations to the film maker and the sound maker. A story in music louder than words.
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Editorial Reviews:
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This majestic, French-made film wishes viewers a "latcho drom"--a safe journey--as it follows the roots of the Rom, traveling people better known as Gypsies. Stunning and evocative, it transcends language and culture, bringing together the best elements of National Geographic-style documentary and music video in a kind of anthropological MTV. Using only music and image, without any steady characters or plot, award-winning director Tony Gatlif (himself of Rom descent) tells a compelling story of Rom migrations from Northern India to Europe and the rest of the world. Beginning with a gathering of lavishly dressed nomads singing across the harsh deserts of Rajasthan, viewers are transported through the lush oases of Egypt into the ghettoes of Turkey, from the muddy lanes of Eastern Europe through lush French fields to the windswept coastal cities of Spain. Every step of the way, there are hypnotic reminders of the harshness and beauty of the Rom lifestyle: the rhythms of labor pounding into vibrant dance, the songs of Turkish flower sellers merging with the plaintive political satires of a gray-haired Romanian violinist. Music is everywhere--children barely able to walk dance alongside great-grandmothers--and covers all styles and subjects--from the wintry strains of an Auschwitz lament to a flamenco devotional in a Spanish shrine to a festive Dixieland number that borrows as much from New Orleans as from northern India. And wordless stories abound, told in the smiles of strangers waiting for a train or in the frowns of rifle-toting farmers come to evict travelers from their land. --Grant Balfour
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