Click here to view the embedded video.

my love for this video is well known. I put it here as a reminder to me to watch it again.

Unknowns:

• What is the name of that dance?
• What kind of mouth-tuba is that?
• Why does a man come onto the screen and blow onto a pane of glass?
• How can it be called "Czech Roll'd" when it is clearly a pleasure to watch?

English Translation [via nikokaojabg in youtube comments]

I'm driving in a Skoda 100 to camp in Orava
Because I'm in a hurry, I risk crossing Moravia
A monster prowls around there, it comes out of the swamp
It mainly eats people from Prague, and it's called Joe

Joe Swamp creeps through the bogs
Joe Swamp approaches the village
Joe Swamp is sharpening? his teeth
Joe Swamp bites and strangles
Who'dve thought that the way to deal with Joe Swamp
The only thing that works is a plane with white powder

I was driving through a village on the road to Vizovice
I met the village elder who told me over some slivovice
"Whoever brings me Joe, dead or? alive,
Shall have my daughter and half the collective farm"

Joe Swamp creeps through the bogs
Joe Swamp approaches the village
Joe Swamp is sharpening his teeth
Joe Swamp bites and strangles
Who'dve thought that the way to deal with Joe Swamp
The only thing that works is a plane with white powder

I say, "Chief, give me the plane and the powder
I'll give you Joe, no problem"
The Elder agreed, and at dawn I rose to the skies
The powder fell beautifully from the plane onto Joe

Joe Swamp is now all white
Joe Swamp escapes from the bogs
Joe Swamp has turned to stone
For Joe Swamp, this is the end
I caught Joe and now I have him, woohoo!
Cash is always? good so now I'm selling him to the zoo

In Czech after the jump.

Original Czech [via Trooperer in youtube comments]

Projížd?l jsem d?dinou cestou na Vizovice.
P?ivítal m? p?edseda, ?ek mi u slivovice:
"Živého ?i mrtvého Jožina kdo p?ivede,
tomu já dám za ženu dceru a p?l JZD.

Jožin z bažin mo?álem se? plíží,
Jožin z bažin k vesnici se blíží,
Jožin z bažin už si zuby brousí,
Jožin z bažin kouše, saje, rdousí.
Na Jožina z bažin, koho by to napadlo,
platí jen a pouze práškovací letadlo.

?íkám: "Dej mi p?edsedo letadlo a prášek,
Jožina ti p?ivedu, nevidím v tom há?ek.
"P?edseda mi vyhov?l, ráno jsem se vznesl,
na Jožina z letadla prášek p?kn? klesl.

Refren:Jožin z bažin už je celý? bílý,
Jožin z bažin z mo?álu ven pílí,
Jožin z bažin dostal se na kámen,
Jožin z bažin tady je s ním amen.
Jožina jsem dohnal, už ho držím, johohó,
dobré každé lóvé, prodám já ho do ZOO.

DAVID KITT "No Truth in Your Eyes" Official Video, dir. Asad Raza from David Kitt on Vimeo.

Walter: Is this your homework, Larry?
Dude: We know it's his fuckin' homework. Where's the fuckin' money, you little brat?
Walter: Son. Have you ever heard of Vietnam?
Dude: For crying out loud.
Walter: You're entering a world of pain, son. We know this is your homework. We know that you stole the fuckin' car.

It was fun, it was cute, it was beautiful, it was well-directed. It was also superficial, and in the end, a bit of movie fluff. If it wasn't set in India, it would have just been any old movie, an Underdog Millionaire. The moral message was so standard that it might have been, ugh, Serendipity: All will work out in the end; love is eternal; just be good, persevere. Even slumdogs grow up to look like models.

(After Sunshine, and now this, I've come to think that Danny Boyle has a habit of sabotaging the endings of his films.)

God, I love these guys. Shame about the googly-eye problem, though.

But there is another reason I wanted to write this post. This is the true story of a French man who lived this tale in a French hospital. This is his story, told, blinked out, letter by letter. And thankfully, this story was acted by French actors, in French, set in France. It didn't have to be so: The director was American, the screenwriter was British. Fortunately, Schnabel, the director, knew that this story needed to be told authentically. How many movies, without naming names, reject this kind of authenticity?

Schnabel, the painter-turned-director, in his traditional bed-time wear.