Latcho Drom: A Roma Documentary

The onus of any filmic work is to keep its audience engaged. Arriving at such a point, regardless of the whether the film is a comedy, a horror flick or a documentary, necessitates a great deal of planning by all involved. Scriptwriters, cinematographers and a film’s director need to collude on some specific approach to how a feature is going to keep folks in seats. In the best cases this entire process comes off seamlessly, resulting in a magnificently entertaining and engaging work. Other times, the visual splendor of a project, no matter how deep and wide, isn’t enough to maintain any viewer’s attention.

Latcho Drom suffers this in spades.

The internet is obviously full of worthless information as well as some misinformed stuff. So the fact that Rotten Tomatoes grants this film a rating of 80% isn’t that surprising, but it is vastly misleading.

Comprised of a series of musical performances, dances and snippets of daily life, Latcho Drom initially sounds as if it might be a fascinating way by which to gain access to a Roma (better known to the world as gypsies) culture that most know nothing about.

Director Tony Gatlif, who himself comes from the background portrayed over the one hundred minutes of this film, lends his project no narrative thread. There’s nothing apparent tying one disparate portion of the film to the next. Only the loosest of concepts hold it together. One might find that the series of dances performed throughout the film in various different locales serve to unite a culture spread out all over the world – and the film. That’s not wrong, but it doesn’t necessarily make for an entertaining view.

The performances do vary a bit, though. And after viewers are granted entrance into a day at the market, replete with dancing bear, a music centered portion of the film begins. Of course, the fact that there’s suddenly a gentleman driving a car around while everyone else is making use of horses is a bit confusing. But viewers should also be curious about why this guy’s looking for the Roma caravan in the first place.

Thankfully, that’s answered as there’s no shortage of gypsy jazz jams subsequent to the appearance of this car owner whose searching out his musical cohort. The songs performed seem directly tied to the culture’s most famous son – Django Reinhardt. Most of the tunes are centered on some congenial gathering of what looks to be some social group convened to have a go. The results are certainly entertaining and make this aspect of Latcho Drom one of the truly memorable ones.

But as that section of the film gives away to a youngster wearing a track suit playing Road Racer in a Spanish arcade, the film again moves on in a confusing fashion. Viewers shortly find the video game enthusiast singing as some of his kin dance – again in a convivial, family-like setting.

The purpose of these performances isn’t ever explained – there’s no narration at all. So it’s incumbent on the audience to suss it all out, if they even care to do so.