I’m greatly anticipating the upcoming release of Etienne Comar’s film,”Django Melodies,” which aims to tell a chapter from the extraordinary life story of legendary French jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt , specifically Django’s adventures trying to flee from Nazi persecution during World War II.
Reinhardt co-founded the iconic Quintette du Hot Club de France with violinist Stéphane Grappelli in the 1930s. He is regarded as the father of jazz manouche, or gypsy jazz.
The movie stars Reda Kateb as Django, Cécile De France (so terrific in the Dardenne Brothers‘ The Kid With the Bike) and the beautiful Hungarian folk singer Palya Bea.
The cast certainly looks the part (see below.) The proof of the pudding (or better, gypsy goulash) will be Comar’s telling of Django’s thrilling story fleeing the Nazis, and not in any attempted recreation of Django’s guitar playing. Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown was a very good movie, and Sean Penn received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his portrayal as the Django-obsessed “Emmet,” despite the fact that Penn’s guitar fingering was not particularly realistic. Certainly, the manner in which Django’s wonderful gypsy jazz music is presented will help determine the film’s success, but hopefully there will be few closeups of guitar fingering. Why bother?
Django Melodies marks the directorial debut of Comar, who also co-wrote the script with Alexis Salatko. Dutch jazz band Rosenberg Trio re-recorded Reinhardt’s music for the film’s soundtrack.
– [Mike Stevenson / Pas De Merde]

Django, sa femme, son groupe et… Etienne Comar, le réalisateur

Penned by Etienne Comar together with Alexis Salatko, and based on the novel Folles de Django, written by the latter, the story kicks off during the German occupation in 1943.

Gypsy Django Reinhardt, a true “guitar hero”, is at the top of his game. Every evening, he thrills the Paris smart set at the Folies Bergères cabaret music hall with his swing music, while elsewhere in Europe his brethren are being hunted down and butchered.

When the German propaganda machine wants to send him to Berlin for a series of concerts, he senses he is in danger and decides to escape to Switzerland with the help of one of his female admirers, Louise de Klerk. In order to make it there, he heads to Thonon-les-Bains on the shores of Lake Geneva with his pregnant wife, Naguine, and his mother, Negros. But the escape attempt turns out to be more complicated than anticipated, and Django and his family find themselves plunged headfirst into war.

Nevertheless, even during this dramatic period, he remains an exceptional musician who puts up a fight through his music and his sense of humour, and who seeks to attain musical perfection. [http://cineuropa.org/]