A movie for us!

[buttafingers]

If you haven't seen this movie, it's worth a watch. Starring the deceased father from Six Feet Under and the male nurse from Nurse Jackie, it features a subject near and dear to all of us...you guessed it.

http://www.thevisitorfilm.com/

Actually, don't watch the preview if you haven't seen it already. It gives away too much of the plot. This should be sufficient to sucker you in, though--

[michi]

That's a really good movie, with quite a few laughs in it, and quite bit of food for thought. The djembe isn't really central to it and makes more of a cameo appearance.

One funny gaffe in the movie: at one point, the "djembe master" explains that one important thing is to get away from the western mind set of playing everything in 4/4 and that the Africans do everything in threes and proceeds to give a demonstration, promptly playing a 4/4 rhythm (It looked like the actor received a few djembe lessons for the movie--he definitely wasn't a djembe player.)

But the movie is great, with terrific acting, and very enjoyable. I will definitely watch it again.

Cheers,

Michi.

[bops]

One funny gaffe in the movie: at one point, the "djembe master" explains that one important thing is to get away from the western mind set of playing everything in 4/4 and that the Africans do everything in threes and proceeds to give a demonstration, promptly playing a 4/4 rhythm

Even when a rhythm is in four, it's still in three. Just playing devil's advocate.

The movie was pretty good.

[Carl]

While I was hoping for more on the djembe front, I did think that the movie captured some of the "djembe class culture" here in the east. I'd be interested what west coasters thought.

I would have liked to have seen more of the djembe in it's "traditional" context, the fact that the "teacher" played in a jazz band and that the student went to the park to play in a drum circle is pretty consistent of what I was running into in the late 90's. It wasn't till the early 2000s that I started to hear about people actually playing West African music in Boston. (I'm sure it was around, but it was difficult to find!) There were dance classes and djembe classes, but few performances. Now you can find many venues with West African music (traditional or modern) most weekends!

As to the non djembe aspects of the movie. I liked the movie on that front as well, interesting characters and situations.

All in all, I'd watch it again, but I probably wouldn't buy it unless it was pretty cheap. But then again, I don't buy many dvds (except for drumming and ballet but then again I have issues...)


C

[michi]

Having been prompted by this thread, I went last night, got the movie, and watched again, this time with my wife, who hadn't seen it yet. The movie definitely stands up well to a second viewing. I smiled quite a few times, and the empathy I felt with the characters was as strong as the first time around.

Definitely worth watching, and even worth watching a second time!

Cheers,

Michi.

[buttafingers]

I loved his role in Six Feet Under. That entire series was excellent, a very powerful show.

[michi]

One funny gaffe in the movie: at one point, the "djembe master" explains that one important thing is to get away from the western mind set of playing everything in 4/4 and that the Africans do everything in threes and proceeds to give a demonstration, promptly playing a 4/4 rhythm (It looked like the actor received a few djembe lessons for the movie--he definitely wasn't a djembe player.)

Just stumbled across a clip of this scene on YouTube:



Cheers,

Michi.