Can you recommend a book or movie where the main characters are gypsies or are based on or around the gypsy way of life?

“Chocolat”

Here are other potential films:

http://www.imdb.com/find?s=kw&q=Gypsy&x=29&y=15

Hunchback of notre dame

The Raggedy Rawney

The Man Who Cried

I only have seen one, to my recollection and that one is: Tony Gatlif’s Vengo.
I loved it from the first time i’ve seen it and it only got better when i actually found myself in an almost identical situation as the first scenes from the movie.
That was pure magic, now that i think of it again.
Great soundtrack too, which i play regurlaly still.

@teh_kvlt_liberal That’s my all time favourite book! However apart from maybe the Disney version, which, lets be honest, is not true to the story for obvious reasons none of the films made about it have excited me much.

Mulengro, by Charles de Lint, focuses on a modern day Rom living in Canada. It’s a dark fantasy and delves deeply into Roma culture.

Lloyd Alexander’s Gypsy Rizka is about a half-gypsy girl awaiting the return of her Gypsy father.

Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy has a gyptian race who travel on boats instead of wagons.

Jessica Duchen’s Hungarian Dances tells the story of a British-born violinist, Karina, whose discovery of hidden truths about her Hungarian family history and her formidable grandmother Mimi’s Roma background challenges her own sense of identity.

Rumer Godden’s The Diddakoi in which little Kizzy is catapulted out of her familiar and somewhat idyllic existence and forced to face life among people who are determined to bully her for being a “Diddakoi” when her grandmother dies.

Louise Doughty’s Fires in the Dark is the saga of a traveling Czech Roma kumpania in the first half of the 20th century, including the impact of the Roma Holocaust.

Bury Me Standing (nonfiction)
“Bury me standing. I’ve been on my knees all my life.” [page 302]

The list of citations on that Amazon page might be of interest too.

The opera IlTrovatore, by Giuseppe Verdi

@Jeruba I’m a huge fan of Opera. Carmen is my favourite which also has a strong gypsy influence.

Oh, yes, definitely Carmen too! I saw Carmen on stage only last season. I should have thought of it.

@Leanne1986, there is quite a number of opera lovers and classical music fans here on fluther, some of them extremely knowledgeable. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of company in your interest, if you haven’t already.

Gypsyworld. I read it in sixth grade and really enjoyed it.

King of the Gypsies

Angelo, My Love

Directed by Robert Duvall

Excellent !

It is currently available in divided segments on YouTube if you want to see it for free.

Brad Pitt was a Gypsy in Snatch wasnt he?

Into The West – the 1993 movie by that name, with Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin. They’re referred to as Travelers, and it’s set in Ireland, but they are Gypsies in every other sense of the word. It’s an old favorite of mine, magical, OK for most kids.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104522/

And if you can have fun with the idea of Marlene Dietrich as a gypsy, Golden Earrings (1947) with Ray Milland.

Movies—
Chocolat
Thinner
The Wolf Man

Book—
Lady Gypsy—Pam Crooks

The Riches

An unfortunately canceled series with Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard.

Lots of really interesting insight into the Traveler lifestyle and way of viewing the world.

@Jeruba I am ALWAYS excited to meet fellow Opera lovers especially as I don’t know many people of my age (23) who loves Opera or even appreciates it.

@Leanne1986 – I enjoy opera, too. I have a singing coach who is a retired opera singer and what he can do with his voice is amazing. Last year one of our movie theaters did the live simulcast of the Metropolitan Opera – that was exceedingly cool.

I can see I am in exceedingly good company here at Fluther :)

@MagsRags Golden Earrings! I Love that movie. I used to play the song on accordion.

“The Thinner” by Stephen King deals with Gypsies, although they aren’t the main characters, but they’re pretty much secondary.

However, as much as I love Stephen King, his portrayal of the Gypsies in the book is tacky, extremely stereotypical and rather unrealstic at best.

@Symbeline I agree with you on “Thinner” but, despite that, it was still a good book. He used us obviously in a stereotypical manner as the “heavy” but the book skill kicked butt. I had an original copy under the name Richard Bachman but it was stolen. Movie was pretty good too.

@Jeruba I agree. One of the best. One of these days I am going to put together a proper list for this question but that shall take a lot of thought.

@Buttonstc I have been told by others of my people (I am Rromani Gypsy) to never watch “The Riches” because it might result in me destroying my television. This show resulted in a lot of swearing and I know of one guy whose wife turned off the television and pulled him away because he was cussing so loudly at the show. Of course, by the time “The Riches” was released, I had turned off my television. I turned it off in 2003.

I was told by people who watched it that the “traveler” lifestyle was slanderously portrayed.

@Arisztid

Are the travelers considered to be Romani? I was under the impression that they were two distinct cultures.

As far as the travelers being portrayed slanderously, I don’t personally know any travelers but was basing my comments upon what I had seen in a documentary.

I can’t remember the channel or even the year, but it was a very well documented report about several affiliated family groups who had been scamming people all up and down the east coast and made their home base in ( I believe) N. Carolina.

I’m not going to go into excessive detail about their scams and practices as I can’t say for certain that this is representative of all traveler groups.

But most of what was portrayed on The Riches was in line with what was portrayed in the documentary.

I would imagine that the groups portrayed in the documentary would want to throw things at the TV cuz it pretty much hit the nail on the head.

But, again, I have no way to determine if every traveler group is like that.

@Buttonstc The groups called “travelers are usually Irish Travelers, or Pavee, who are completely different than Rromani. Then there are Rromani, obviously. That you answered a question about Gypsies with this show shows that you associate it with Gypsies… my people.

I live in America which has an extremely small Pavee population. I have heard of both Rroma and Pavee called “Travelers” over in Britain. The people I know who are the angriest about this show are from Britain. I do not know where the show is set but, if it is set in America, I really have no clue what they are referring to as “Travelers” and I do not know if they used the word “Gypsy.”

Yes, there are Rroma and Pavee scammers. However, we are not all like that. I cannot speak for Pavee but I can for Rroma and say that most of us are not like that. Every ethnicity has its bad eggs, however, those from ethnicities stereotyped as such gain the press. If I stole something, it would reflect on all of my people. If you stole something, it would reflect only on you. The problem with the show is that it just feeds into the stereotype and gives us even more bad PR. The show did it to make money… and they did.

@Arisztid Oh for sure, the book was great. I think it took me like two days to read it. Still cheesy as all hell though. :)

I guess I should have specified. This was in America and the group was referred to as Irish Travelers.

I was unaware of any Romani groups called travelers.

So I can well imagine that folks like this in the UK would be the most outraged.

The only reason I mentioned it in this thread is because I was taking the word gypsy (UNcapitalized) to mean it’s generic sense of those with itinerant lifestyles.

Had it been capitalized in the original question, I wouldn’t have brought it in as my understanding of Gypsies (with a capital G) refers to Romani

And, yes, I really am that freakishly nit-picky about noticing everything relating to punctuation, grammar and spelling :) Somebody has to, I suppose.

I’m aware that an entire group cannot be stereotyped by the actions of some. However, if there are any Irish Travelers who are honest and upstanding, I have yet to hear of it. My guess would be that if they were honest and upstanding, they would no longer want to be identified with that group (and possibly been expelled from the group)

I do wish I could locate a source for that documentary because I remember a sheriff who was helping with the documentary who had grown up in that culture as a child. Obviously being in law enforcement, he is regarded by them as a pariah.

But this group evidently has no connection with the Romani, if I understand you correctly.

I was unfamiliar with the term Pavee so I learned something new today. Thanks.

Btw

The Riches did not use the term gypsy at all.

Even tho they used the name travelers they did not say Irish Travelers-not sure why.

However, it was pretty obvious as most of the main characters had Irish names. Not hard to put the pieces together :)

Btw

How is the word Pavee pronounced ? Is the last syllable pronounced like ee or more like ay ?

See what I mean about freakishly nit-picky ?

You are as nitpicky as I am. Welcome to the club!

Thankyou for knowing about the uncapitalized “g” vs. capitalized “G.”

In the UK they lump Rromani together with Pavee at times, calling the community the “travelling community.” In the USA I have not heard of “traveler” being used other than the very few Irish Travelers. See how nitpicky I am? I used the double “l” when talking about the UK and single “l” when talking about the USA. Beat that for nitpicky!

I have not known any Pavee from the USA but know some from the UK who are fine, upstanding individuals. There are about a million of us here and much fewer Pavee… guesstimate of about 10,000. Probably many have faded into the woodwork. They have pretty standard British Isles coloring while we tend to have darker skin, dark hair (black or brown), and dark eyes. I am certain they would have an easier time fading into the woodwork than we do. Of course not all of any group has the customary characteristics.

If you find that documentary, I would be interested in seeing it.

The Rromani and Pavee have no genetics in common and are lumped together as “Gypsies,” along with Gitanos, Sinti, and a few others. Gitano and Sinti are related to us, Pavee are not. I am not familiar with Pavee culture so cannot comment on it. The Pavee tongue (Shelta) is based on Irish Gaelic. Ours is based on Sanskrit.

I actually have no clue how Pavee is pronounced… I have never heard it said. Ack now my OCD is kicking and I am going to have to write to a Pavee friend to ask.

I have re-read your last post several times and am still befuddled by the double ii.

Double R, I noticed but I’m still scratching my head.

Anyhow, I’m sure you can set me straight.

More later. Errand to run.

@Buttonstc Double “L,” not “i.” I must have mistyped. “Traveller” in the UK has two “L“s, in the US it has one “L.” Have fun.