Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

momirza66 This is story of an exceptional artist stuck in Nazi-occupied France and the treatment of his community of gypsies in the form of an adventure to escape the country. The most enjoyable bits are those in which he plays music with his band in front of Nazi or french audiences, where his style and technique transpires exceptionally well and the people are lifted to a trance. However, the subject of the movie is grim and filmed in no special way. Django Reinhardt is caught between the between a rock and a hard place and though the tale is told like an adventure, one feels frustrated by the melancholy and the hardship. No more than he of course!

Haringpakkerstoren A splendid gripping film, released on the day we Dutch honor all those who have fallen during the 2nd World War. The captivating acting and the way in which the film was shot, immerses you in and meanders you along a distressing part of Django Reinhardt's life. The spellbinding music in the film, paying homage to Django Reinhardt's innovative jazz with an infusing Gypsy flavor, will stay with you for the rest of your life. And if you ever have the good fortune to visit the chapel of Saint-Pierre in Villefrance-sur- Mer (France) and look at the details of the wall paintings by Jean Cocteau, you will realize what a big impact Django has made on lots of people.

alexdeleonfilm World Premier at Berlin film festival, Feb. 9, 2017. Django Reinhardt was one of the most brilliant pioneers of European jazz and the father of Gypsy Swing. "Django" portrays one chapter in the musician's eventful life and is a gripping tale of survival. Constant danger, flight and the atrocities committed against his family could not make him stop playing. Rarely is an opening festival film so compelling and overwhelming that you feel as if the festival ended right there the trip to Berlin would have been justified. Reda Kateb as Django Reinhardt the gypsy musician with the German sounding name, made me forget I was watching an actor playing a part but felt like I was watching the jazz legend Django himself back from the great beyond in the flesh, carefully trimmed Gable moustache and all. This film like last year's Jazz Legend Berlin biopic "Miles Ahead" (Miles Davis) assumes that the audience knows the personality in question well enough not to require any back story and plunges right into a certain segment of the life under scrutiny. In actual fact, while Three fingered guitarist Django Reinhardt was highly regarded by black American Jazzmen such as Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman, et alia, because his name is mainly associated with the french "Le Hot" jazz scene of the thirties and forties, he is not as well known to the general American public as he should be. Django was simply a musical genius whose hot jazz quintet was the hottest band around in France and surrounding countries up to and including the German occupation years of WW II. This film focuses on two things: The incredible music of Django with half a dozen virtuoso foot stomping musical sequences, and (2) the persecution of Gypsies under Nazi racism. The musical sections show in great detail the fantastic guitar fingerings of the inimitable Django as well as his backup musicians, notably the clarinetist who was also jamtastic. A German officer who is a great fan of Django's lines up a German tour for the Hot Quintet to entertain Nazi bigwigs in Germany. However there are restrictions that must be met supposedly removing all Black Jazz elements such as the Blues and certain percussion instruments deemed as racially impure by the Nazis. Django finally realizing that if he goes on the tour he will probably never return flees with his feisty mother and family south hoping to make it over the border to Switzerland and safety. Apprehended there he is forced to stage a concert for a group of high level Nazis at a luxurious lakeside villa, but the heat of Djangos hot jazz drives the Germans into a Frenzy and results in a riot. Django escapes in the confusion and survives the war. At the very end after France is liberated a Requiem he composed to honor the Exterminated Gypsies is played on a momentous church organ and Django's heroism is recognized. A final message on screen notifies us that all but the opening bars of Django's requiem were lost, but have been reconstructed by serious musicians to prove that Reinhardt was not only a virtuoso performer but a noteworthy composer as well. Magnificent, beyond words. Cécile de France was also captivating as Django's fictionalized Gadjo (Non-Gypsy) girlfriend who marries a Nazi to save her own life but risks it at the end to save Django, and the old woman who plays Django's mother is a scene stealer every time she appears. Director Étienne Comar has done both the film and music worlds a great service with this remarkable picture. PS: By no means to be confused with Q. Tarantino's comic book entitled "Django Unchained" under penalty of death!

JvH48 This movie was shown at the festive opening of the Berlinale 2017, a gathering that attracts lots of important guests from all over the world, as well as sponsors and local politicians who want to be included and photographed. As usual, the general public is left uninvited (I digress, this being a different matter altogether). I had to go to a repeat screening the day after. Because this movie was also selected for the Competition for the prestigious Golden Bear, in addition to being chosen for the opening, all this gives rise to expectations. It brings you in the mood for something novel or original or discovering new grounds. Alas, neither of this was the case.Though the central plot of this film is my favorite theme "how will I act in similar circumstances?", nothing that I saw here could involve me, nor did it show something that I consider thought provoking. I had even trouble staying awake (may have other reasons). It was nice to watch how they have reconstructed the buildings and dresses of the WWII time, but that is something that belongs to the trade of a costume drama or historical documentary, and these two genres mostly fail to attract me (I know of a few exceptions, however). Remains an intriguing plot or interesting dramatic developments, but my hopes disappeared little by little and none of these promises became fulfilled.It looks like the main protagonist Django stretches his luck much farther than anyone should be trusted to do. Maybe because his music moves hearts and conquers even the strongest opponents, Django's usual experience is that everyone falls for it, giving him the last word, that is until now. His refusal to cooperate with the Germans is a daring act, but I think he did it for artistic reasons and nothing else (the Germans had a list of musical genres and especially rhythms he was not allowed). I doubt there were fundamental principles involved, nor had he thought of the consequences for others in his environment, like his family, his colleagues and his fellow-gypsies. This film lets us see how irresponsible that was, and what a powerful enemy like the German army can do in order to get what they want. On the other hand, the Germans were not shown as pushy either, since they could have brought in several other means of persuasion. Due to all of the above, all main protagonists felt like cardboard characters, unclear what makes them do what they do.Finally, on a more positive note: In a final scene we saw and heard the presentation of a musical piece, one for which we saw that he had sketchy ideas years earlier. It was May 1945 so after WWII, a piece for choir, organ and orchestra as per his original sketches. We saw it being directed (very loosely) by Django himself (so Django survived; is that a spoiler?). It was a sort of Requiem, but I don't remember the details. It sounded impressive, as church music sometimes does, and the fragment we heard was much longer than just a few measures. I like this sort of music better than the "jazzy" notes we heard in abundance in the earlier scenes, but I wonder whether the average viewer can stand this "classical" sort of music, and especially the organ for which most people have nasty memories, and they spontaneously dislike the instrument because of it.