Fictional representations of Romani people

Gypsy Fortune Teller by Taras Shevchenko.

Many fictional depictions of the Romani in literature and art present Romanticized narratives of their supposed mystical powers of fortune telling, and their supposed irascible or passionate temper paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. Critics of how Romani people have been portrayed in popular culture point out similarities to portrayals of Jewish people, with both groups stereotyped negatively as wandering, spreading disease, abducting children, and violating and murdering others.[1]

Romani people were portrayed in Victorian and modern British literature as having "sinister occult and criminal tendencies"[2] and as associated with "thievery and cunning",[3] and in English Renaissance and baroque theatre as incorporating "elements of outlandish charm and elements which depict [them] as the lowest of social outcasts," connected with "magic and charms," and "juggling and cozening."[4] In opera, literature and music, throughout Europe, Romani women have been portrayed as provocative, sexually available, gaudy, exotic and mysterious.[5] Hollywood and European movies, as well as popular music and other forms of pop culture, have promoted similar stereotypes.[6][7][8][9][10]

Particularly notable representations of Romani people appear in classics like Carmen by Prosper Mérimée and adapted by Georges Bizet, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Miguel de Cervantes' La Gitanilla. The Romani were also heavily romanticized in the Soviet Union, a classic example being the 1975 Tabor ukhodit v Nebo. A more realistic depiction of contemporary Romani in the Balkans, featuring Romani lay actors speaking in their native dialects, although still playing with established clichés of a Romani penchant for both magic and crime, was presented by Emir Kusturica in his Time of the Gypsies (1988) and Black Cat, White Cat (1998). Another realistic depiction of Romanies in Yugoslavia is I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967).

Literature

Other media

Comics

Anime and manga

Video games

Television

Film

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Year Title Country Notes
2011Sherlock Holmes: A Game of ShadowsUSDir. : Guy Ritchie. Madam Simza (Sim) Heron - 'a mysterious Gypsy' of the French Romanies or Manouche.
2009Drag Me to HellUSDir. : Sam Raimi. Horror. An ambitious bank worker incurs the wrath of an elderly Romani woman, who places an ancient curse on her.[17]
2009FreedomFranceA Romani family travels the French roads during the Second World War. They learn that a new law forbids them from being nomadic.
2009The WolfmanUSRomani fortune-teller.
2008KhamsaFrance The main character, Marco/Khamsa is half-Romani, half-Algerian. Most of the main characters are his Romani relatives, who live together in a camp in the city.
2008Filth and WisdomUK
Ukraine
Ukrainian Rom lives in London
2008Stone of DestinyUKScottish nationalists bury the Stone of Scone in a field. They return to find a Romanichal camp, and one barters with the Romany leader for the stone.
2006TransylvaniaFrance Italian lives with Roma in
2006The Indian and the NurseCzech RepublicRomani nurse and non-Rom in love.
2005Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of ShamballaJapan Romani character Noa is pursued by Nazis.
2003Japigia Gagi Roma StoriesItaly documentary by Giovanni Princigalli who lived one year in an illegal camp of Roms of Romania emigrated in Italy
2001Gypsy WomanUKStarring Jack Davenport and Neve McIntosh.
2001SwingFrance
Japan
Max becomes friends with Swing, a boyish romani girl, who shows him the nature and takes him to exuberant mucic evenings.
2000ChocolatUK
France
Johnny Depp plays Rom love interest of mysterious chocolatier Juliette Binoche. Also starring Judi Dench.
2000VengoSpain
France
Germany
Japan
Two Romany families locked in an age-old struggle for power.
2000The Man Who CriedUK
France
Johnny Depp portrays Rom in France.
2000GitanoSpainRomani central characters.
1998Black Cat, White CatSerbiaRomani central characters.
1998The Red ViolinCanadaThe Romani takes the red violin across Europe from Vienna to Oxford over a century.
1997Gadjo diloFranceFrench lives with Romanies in Romania.
1996ThinnerUSMan cursed by Romanies after killing one.
1996The Hunchback of Notre DameUSRomani woman Esmeralda helps the Hunchback
1995HauntedUKStarring Aidan Quinn and Kate Beckinsale, an old Romanichal fortune reads the palms of two characters.
1993Latcho DromFrance The journey of the Romani people told through musicians and dancers of India, Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungry, Slovakia, France and Spain.
1988Time of the GypsiesYugoslaviaTelekinetic Romani in realistic community at home, and in Italy.
1988The Raggedy RawneyUKStarring Dexter Fletcher and Zoë Wanamaker, about a young soldier who falls in with a gypsy camp.
1986Tras el cristalSpainDir.: Agustí Villaronga.
1983Angelo My LoveUSAll-Romani cast; dir.: Robert Duvall.
1983Les princesFrance Romanies who decided to settle down in the Paris suburbs.
1982Corre, gitanoSpain Romanies from Granada and Seville.
1979TsiganUSSRRomani's child was adopted by a Russian woman; after 17 years, a single old Romani man appears in the village and gains the respect and love of the boy, disturbing the peace of the family (Цыган).
1978King of the GypsiesUS Gypsies in New York City come into conflict with modernity as they use ancient traditions to select their new king. Starring: Judd Hirsch, Eric Roberts, Susan Sarandon, and Brooke Shields.[18]
1976Rosy DreamsCzechoslovakiaRomani and non-Romani lovers, societies.
1975Tabor ukhodit v Nebo USSRFree-spirited Gypsy central characters; US title: Queen of the Gypsies.
1967I Even Met Happy GypsiesYugoslaviaRealistic Romani central characters.
1966Sky West and CrookedUKInspired by the novel The Gypsy and the Gentleman by D. H. Lawrence. A young girl played by Hayley Mills finds happiness and friendship with a young English Romany played by Ian McShane.
1965Pearls of the DeepCzechoslovakia5 shorts − last: 24-min. Romance with Romani female lead; dir.: Jaromil Jireš.
1965Sheriff Behind BarsCzechoslovakiaAmong prisoners is a Rom.
1963From Russia with LoveUK007 in Gypsy camp in Turkey.
1963Let Him Who Is without Sin...CzechoslovakiaRomani soldier copes with love, hate.
1947Golden EarringsUSMarlene Dietrich is Hungarian Gypsy in Germany, other Romani characters.
1946CaravanUSAmerican marries Gypsy in Spain.
1944Cry of the WerewolfUSRomani werewolves.
1943For Whom the Bell TollsUSRomani character Rafael in Spain.
1941The Wolf ManUSRomani fortune-teller.
1938Gypsy LoveCzechoslovakia Love and jealousy in Gypsy camp.
1929The SquallUSA family shelters a gypsy girl (played by Myrna Loy), resulting in havoc.
1922Gypsy LoveAustria Dir.: Thomas E. Walsh.
1921GypsiesCzechoslovakiaCount's son brought up by Romanies.
1921JánošíkCzechoslovakia
Slovakia
Romani woman helps capture hero.
1918CarmenGerman EmpirePola Negri is Carmen; dir.: E. Lubitsch.
1915CarmenUSDir.: Cecil B. DeMille.
1908Drama in a Gypsy CampRussian Empire2-minute scripted story.
1897A Camp of Zingari GypsiesUK1-min. document, Romanies in Hungary.

See also

References

  1. Mayall, David (2009). Gypsy Identities 1500-2000: From Egipcyans and Moon-men to the Ethnic Romany. Routledge. p. 266. ISBN 0415566371.
  2. Bardi, Abigail R. (2007). The Gypsy as Trope in Victorian and Modern British Literature. ProQuest. p. 65. ISBN 0549452893.
  3. MacKay, edited by Marina (2009). The Cambridge companion to the literature of World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 0521887550.
  4. (eds), Paola Pugliatti & Alessandro Serpieri (2008). English Renaissance scenes: from canon to margins (1. Aufl. ed.). Bern: Peter Lang. pp. 293–295. ISBN 3039110799.
  5. Button, edited by Marilyn Demarest; Reed, Toni (1999). The foreign woman in British literature: exotics, aliens, and outsiders (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. pp. 152–155. ISBN 0313309280.
  6. Segal, [edited by] Vasiliie Demos, Marcia Texler (1994). Ethnic women: a multiple status reality. Dix Hills, N.Y.: General Hall. p. 52. ISBN 1882289234.
  7. Smith, Jerilyn. "The marginalization of shadow minorities (Roma) and its impact on opportunities". (dissertation): 90.
  8. Smith, Paul Julian (2000). The moderns: time, space, and subjectivity in contemporary Spanish culture (1. publ. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 181. ISBN 0198160003.
  9. Malvinni, David (2004). The Gypsy caravan: from real Roma to imaginary Gypsies in Western music and film. New York, N.Y.: Routledge. ISBN 0415969999.
  10. Brunvand, edited by Jan Harold (1998). American folklore: an encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 743. ISBN 0815333501.
  11. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Joseph Allen Bryant
  12. When Romeo Met Juliet by Leslie Dunkling
  13. As You Like It by William Shakespeare Editorial Review - School Library Journal vol. 55 iss. 3 p. 171 (c) 3 January 2009
  14. 1 2 E. K. Chambers. William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems, 2 vols., (Vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930)
  15. 1 2 Shakespeare's Caliban: a cultural history by Alden T. Vaughan, Virginia Mason Vaughan 1993 Cambridge University Press
  16. Albert Kluyber, "Kalis and Calibon", trans. A. E. H. Swain. Englische Studien XXI (1895): 326-28; John Holland A Hystorical Survey of The Gypsies (London printed for the author 1816) p. 148; B.C. Smart and H. T. Crofton, eds., The Dialect of The English Gypsies 2nd ed., London 1875. p. 92.
  17. Sumner, Don (2010). Horror Movie Freak. Krause Publications. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-4402-0824-9.
  18. http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/kinggypsies.php
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