Stephane Grappelli tells his own story of a 77 year career with various artists commenting on his work and his life. With his birth anniversary on 26^th January, this is the best tribute to a great violinist.

This is a two-DVD set, with the first disc profiling the great jazz violinist and the second containing supplemental material, a generous three hours-plus overall. There's the expected assortment of "talking heads," including guitarists Martin Taylor and Diz Disley, violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Nigel Kennedy, and British talk show host and jazz fan Michael Parkinson.

A frail Grappelli near the end of his life reminisces about his life as well, but despite its length this project offers a rather sketchy overview of the violinist's 77-year career. This set has all the filmed music, which contains all known film footage of guitarist ‘Django Reinhardt’ and a newly restored seven-minute glimpse of ‘Quintet of the Hot Club of France’ in action, plus much, much, more in that regard.

It also appears that most of the portrait of Grappelli in this long film is taken from the book ‘Stephane Grappelli: With and Without Django’ by Paul Balmer that was published not long after this DVD package was released. Balmer, by the way, was also the director, writer, and presenter of this DVD production.

The documentary begins with the story of his early years and a reinactment of a twelve year old Grappelli playing his student violin in a courtyard in Paris. From there we learn about his earlier career as a silent movie pianist and a pianist/violinist with Gregor and the Gregorians (great accompanying film here). From there we see him meeting up with Django and forming the Hot Club Quintet where they performed for seven years before some of the biggest celebrities of their day and changed jazz forever.

Following the story of the breakup of the band prompted by the outbreak of WWII in England, we see the Stephane Grappelli Quintet and are introduced to the surviving octogenarian bassist from that band. Next is the reunion with Django and the story of his untimely death, followed by an account of the lean years for swing music (late 40s and 50s) where Stephane played mostly in restaurants in England and France. The part I truly enjoyed is the story of the rebirth of Grappelli's career after the Cambridge Folk Festival where a whole new generation of jazz and folk music fans discovered his genius and unique musical style. Finally, we see Grappelli's final years where he is still being productive and creative, although his health is obviously declining. (The interviews with Grappelli were recorded a year before his death when he was 88 and quite weak).

Back to the dvd and what you get here is not only Grappelli in various photos and film/video clips over a 60 year period playing with the likes of Nigel Kennedy, Martin Taylor, Yehudi Menuhin, Diz Dizley, our very own L Subramaniam and Django Reinhardt (supposedly every Django clip known), you also get to see him in a number of settings including a taping of This Is Your Life back in the 70s when his daughter and grandsons joined him on stage. Subramaiam played with Grappelli on the masterpiece Conversations, a song that is played and played over again.

Also included on this 2 DVD set are a photo montage, a behind the scenes account of the making of the documentary, interviews, a promo for the movie, 11 bonus chapters, 7 music archive clips, research notes, a bibliography, a discography, internet links, and a map of Montmartre where Grappelli grew up. In addition the viewer is given the option of watching the movie with the creator's commentaries, or with subtitles. (Trust me, you'll need subtitles for most of the interviews with Grappelli.)

There is history and music on these two DVD's that should be owned by anyone who loves Stephane Grappelli and the music of him and Django Reinhardt.

The collection is a feast for any violinist, jazz or classical,for any guitarist, or other musician, or for anyone who will appreciate the genius of Stephan's musicianship, a life is explored from early childhood to the age of 88, just before he left us.

Format: Color, NTSC

Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)

Subtitles: English

DVD Release Date: 1st July, 2003

Run Time: 128 minutes

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira