A more complex, beautiful film than one had dared to hope. I’ll never giggle at yodelling again.
Heimatklänge
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:12
Fresh:9
Rotten:3
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: An unusual and strangely persuasive film about Switzerland’s folk-music heritage. This documentary is alive with the sound of yodelling.
Theatrical Release:10-07-2009
Reviews for Heimatklänge
Slightly stretched at 82 minutes, the film nevertheless makes a strong case for this high, wide and lonesome sound expressing the soul of the alpine landscape, beautifully captured by the aerial camerawork.
This film is strange, but all the more rewarding for that. It will change your view of yodeling forever - and for the better.
Echoes of Home is a feature-length musical documentary about the Swiss art of yodelling. Unintentionally titter-inducing in execution, yet deadly serious in conception.
Intriguing - but some of the musicians are just the tiniest bit smug about how wackily offbeat they are.
Some genuinely affecting moments punctuate their accounts, but overall this amiable documentary is as mad as a sackful of whippets.
Performances are intercut with file footage, home videos and family photos, creating a mannered film language that, like the music it documents, links the present to the past in a series of echoes.
Those who thought Alpine warbling ended with Julie Andrews as a nun (ie. all of us), get ready to open your ears, and your mind... and your mouth, as this yodelling malarky is catchy stuff.
There’s nothing dry about this study in tradition: Schwietert stresses the freedom and spontaneity in avant yelping, qualities his lead trio embrace with palpable passion.
A music film best appreciated with earplugs firmly in place, it's not just the unholy sound that's a turn-off but its inability to tell us anything interesting. The result is dry, unilluminating and, frequently, ear-splitting.
You probably couldn’t stand an entire evening of Zehnder’s music but the film offers a charming insight into a little known segment of world music.
As an anthropological document, this film has huge value for examining a form of music that's usually ridiculed.... Sadly, the film isn't sharp enough to win over many new fans.
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