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Occasional posts on subjects including field recording, London history and literature, other websites worth looking at, articles in the press, and news of sound-related events.

09 November 2010

Recordists on film: Lisbon Story and Gadjo Dilo

ONE OF THE best places for sound-hunters to chew the fat online is Phonography on Yahoo Groups. It’s worth signing up with Yahoo just to read the messages there.

A few days after the Sound collectors post here about portrayals of recordists, I put a message on Phonography asking for more examples. This got some very helpful responses citing several different films. Here are just two of them.

John Singer, Rinus Van Alebeek and Maria Arias all separately recommended Wim Wenders’ 1994 film Lisbon Story, about a sound recordist who sets out to make the soundtrack for an unfinished film. As Maria Arias wrote:

Win Wender´s movie in Portugal – Lisbon Story, the sound recorder is an amazing character.

And here he is:


Greg Simmons recommended a 1997 Romanian film with the English title of Crazy Stranger:

In Tony Gatlif’s movie ‘Gadjo Dilo’ the main character visits a gypsy village in search of a singer his late father enjoyed listening to. There is a scene where he pulls out a portable recording rig (a Sony TCD10 MkII and an equally respectable microphone, IIRC) to capture a musical performance in the village. Anyone who has ever recorded an ethnic music performance on location will nod knowingly when watching it.

This looks like the scene Greg’s referring to:


Next up, two 1970s British horror films in which sound will take you to the threshold of madness – and then beyond.