French Roma Accents of the 1930s and 1940s

September 10, 2021 12:40 PM

I'm looking for movies, documentaries, recordings, etc. where I could hear how the Roma peoples in the early 20th century (1930s-40s) in Western Europe -- specifically France -- spoke. I'm not so interested in the language itself or their modifications of French, but really just the accent and how they sounded when speaking. Recommendations?

For my acting class, I'm currently working on a Roma character from 1930s France, and I'm trying to learn the accent (I'll be speaking in English with the Roma accent). I can do a kind of standard modern French accent, but I'd like to do something more authentic. Thanks everyone!

posted by Saxon Kane to Society & Culture (2 answers total)

There's (French) audio of Django Reinhardt here, although he's by no means a garrulous interviewee.
posted by misteraitch at 12:51 PM on September 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

You might want to try Gaumont Pathé Archive which is the repository for the archives for Pathé studio which was the main producer for film newsreels in France until the invention of television. Try the search terms : Tziganes / Tsiganes, Gitans, Bohémiens, Manouches, Romanichels, in the 30-40s that would have been some of the names Roma people would have been called.
posted by SageLeVoid at 2:55 AM on September 11, 2021 [2 favorites]