It was like the sea was rocking us and while we were floating around
brushing the lamps and furniture,
I realised that what we were really doing
was dancing with the ocean. Perfect, crazy dancers,
locked in a joyful waltz on the golden parquet of night.
Want some ? Cheers !
Hallo, Captain.
-Care to go for a ride ? -Nineteen Hundred !
Who else on this ship would do anything as crazy as this ?
I was just experimenting, sir.
When I've perfected it, it won't happen again.
For me it's a question of brakes. Fix those and away you go !
-How much will that window cost ? -I don't know, it was huge !
We're going to be shovelling coal on this ship forever !
Oh, shit !
At least you know what you'll be doing when you grow up !
You'll shovel lots of coal.
-Hey, Conn. -What ?
-You're from New Orleans, right ? -How did you know that ?
-I love that town. -How come you know it ?
In the winter, it's beautiful.
And in March
there's always an afternoon, when you least expect it,
a roof of fog comes down, a barrier,
that hangs just below the street lamps and cuts everything.
Like a white sword. lt's magic !
The houses lose their top floors, trees lose their branches,
St Louis Cathedral loses its spires and the passers-by their heads.
From the neck up, everything disappears.
All you can see in Jackson Square is a bunch of decapitated bodies,
stumbling about and greeting each other.
''Everyone all right at home ?''
Wonderful ! Too bad it doesn't last long.
But how do you know all these things ?
Who knows ?
You know
eversince l've been on board, l keep hearing about this guy
with aname as long as a Georgia freight train.
Seems he was born on this ship and hasn't been off it since.
What a crazy story. Twenty years without ever setting foot on land.
Twenty-seven.
They say this guy makes music that's neverbeen heard before.
I've heard of him,too.
At first, I thought it was you.
-But something didn't add up. -Of course.
I thought : ''If he's Nineteen Hundred how could he know New Orleans ?''
I mean, you've been to New Orleans.
If I told you that I'd never set foot in that town,would you believe me ?
Whoever you are, Max Tooney.
Glad to meet you.
Hey, you up there, we're supposed to blow it up
not wait for it to be eaten by the fish !
We're almost done, just laying the last charges.
-Where the hell are you going ? -l have to look for someone.
-Do you want trouble ? -l can't explain.
What did you want to do ?
You bastards, let me on board !
Bastards !
-Can you repeat that ? -Sure I'll say it again !
You're not going to blow up anything, 'cause my best friend's on that ship.
-You'd be responsible for murder. -Get him out of here.
-Get him out of here ! -l'm not crazy, it's true.
If I say there's a man aboard the Virginian, it means there is !
We cleaned that ship from stem to stern, there's just lots of dynamite.
How can there still be a man on board?
If you've got proof, show it, because I'm the one who throws the switch.
I'm sure he's there.
I spent the best years of my life on the Virginian.
Did you find an upright piano in third class ?
The Virginian is the only ship to have a piano in third class.
Wast here or wasn't there an upright piano in third class ?
There was a piano in third class, but it was horizontal.
What has any shaped piano got to do with a ghost aboard the ship ?
There must be thousands of ghosts on a hospital ship !
Get out ofhere or I'll call the police.
Get your hands off me !
Amongst all those dead souls is the greatest piano player in the world !
A bloody piano player?
And were you tuning the strings all those years aboard the Virginian ?
-What was I doing on the Virginian ? -Yes.
What were you doing ?
I played !
Ladies and gentlemen,
Fritz Hermann here welcomes you aboard the Virginian
and wishes you a pleasant evening with the Atlantic Jazz Band !
Well done !
Please, Nineteen Hundred, just the normal notes. Okay?
We played because the ocean is big and scary.
We played so that people wouldn't feel the time passing
and would forget where and who they were.
We played to make them dance, because when you dance you can't die.
We played ragtime, because that's the music God dances to,
when nobody's watching him, assuming that God is black !
End of the line boys !
Jesus, I must be areal sinner. Is that it, God ?
This is music !
But it was in third class that Nineteen Hundred played his music.
He'd go in the afternoons or late at night,
when he didn't have to play the normal notes
and his music was made of notes that were everything but normal.
What the hell do you think about when you play?
What do you look at ? Where does your mind go while you hit the keys ?
Last night I was in a beautiful country.
The women had perfumed hair and everything glowed.
It was full of tigers.
He travelled and each time he ended up in a different place :
the heart of London, on a train in the middle of the country,
on the edge of a giant volcano,
in the biggest church in the world staring up at the crucifixes.
He travelled.
Hey, man, play us a tarantella !
Tell me how the tarantella goes, man !
The people getting off the ship would talk about a strange music
and a pianist who looked like he had four hands, he was so fast.
Weird tales circulated, some even true.
Like the one about Wilson, an American senator,
who used to travel in third class
to hear the music of Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred.
America !
Why did you stop ? Please, continue.
I'm sorry, Senator, I only play on the open sea.
-But that's absurd. -Ports are land.
-I don't play on land. -You've never gone on tour?
What does that mean ?
Long trips on which artists
display their talents around the world. -That's all I do.
In my own way. Excuse me.
Would you grant me an interview?
-An inter. . .what ? -An interview?
What's that ?
The senator asks : ''What do you like to do when you go back home ?''
Nineteen Hundred : ln Paris l love to wait at sunset
under the Eiffeltower,for the people who throw themselves off
and try to guess by their screams what country they're from
before they go splat all over the ground !
Why don't you get off just once ? Why not ? Just for once.
Why not see the world for yourself with your own eyes ?
Have you ever thought about it? You could do anything you wanted.
You play the piano like a god, people would go crazy for you.
You could make lots of money and buy yourself a nice house.
You could have a family. Why not ?
You can't spend the rest of your life travelling back and forth like this.
The world's out there. There's just a gang plank to go down.
What's a gang plank ? Just a few stupid steps.
Christ, everything's waiting at the bottom of those steps.
Why don't you just do it?
one time.
Why don't you just get off?
Why? Why? Why?
Why? Why?
I think you land people
waste a lot of time asking yourselves why.
Winter comes and you can't wait for summer
and in summer you live in dread of winter.
You're always chasing some place you aren't, where it's always summer.
Doesn't sound good to me.
Hold it, stop everything !
-Tell them to unhook the detonators. -Unhook them !
You'd better pray that we find someone hidden here,
even somebody who can mistake a three-legged cockroach for a piano.
It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
sir i found it.
This was his cabin.
Forgive me for allowing myself in,
but your music was so strong.
Northern ltaly, I'll bet.
Well done, Friuli, to be exact.
But don't stop playing.
Want a butt ?
You don't look happy about going to America.
It's not America.
It's everything I'm leaving behind.
Until a few years ago, my field was the only thing I knew.
The world started and ended there in that piece of land.
I'd never walked down the main street of a town.
Maybe you can't understand that.
I understand that perfectly.
Il know someone who went through something very similar.
One fine day did his field go dry,too ?
Did his wife run off with a priest ?
Did the fever take his five children ?
-No, but he ended up alone, too. -Then he's luckier than me.
I still have a daughter, the youngest one.
She survived.
It's for her that one day I decided to fight my bad luck.
I travelled the world without a destination.
Then one day, when going through one of the many towns l never knew,
I came to a hill, I climbed to the top and I saw. . .
My God, the most beautiful thing in my life.
The sea !
-The sea? -The sea.
I'd never seen it before.
I was like being hit by lightening.
Because I heard its voice.
-The voice of the sea? -Yes.
The voice of the sea.
I've never heard it.
It's like a huge shout, the voice of the sea,
that screams and screams and what it screams is :
''You !
Men with shit in your brains !
Life is immense ! Can you understand that ?
lmmense !''
I'd never thought about it. I had a revolution was in my head.
That's how I suddenly decided to change my life,
to start a fresh.
Change life, start a fresh.
Tell that to your friend.
1900!
-All we need is a talking ocean ! -It's Max Tooney, your friend.
Come out, Nineteen Hundred, I'm a friend, too !
Even if we've never met. Don't worry, no cops !
Where was this piano exactly?
-It was . . . -It was over there, sir.
Nineteen Hundred !
Ladies and gentlemen,
Fritz Hermann welcomes you aboard the Virginian
and wishes you a pleasant evening with the Atlantic Jazz Band !
On the violin, your own Fritz Hermann !
On bass, Freddie Loyacano !
Max Tooney on trumpet !
Jim Jim Breath Gallup on trombone !
Sam Scalisi onthe drums !
On saxophone, Sam Sleepy Washington !
On banjo, Oscar Delaguerra !
And finally, on piano, Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred !
The greatest !
-I'll ask you once more, just . . . -The normal notes, I know.
What are you doing here ? Take your places !
End of the line !
You've really got it in forme, you son of a dirty nigger !
One night the public's not going to appreciate your antics.
That night, I swear, Nineteen Hundred,
I'll have you thrown overboard !
-Where do you get it from ? -What ?
-The music. -I don't know.
See that woman over there ?
She must be German, look at her.
She look like someone, who with her lover, has just killed her husband
and is running off with the family jewels.
-Don't you think this music's her? -Sure, that's right !
And see that guy over there ?
He looks like someone who can't forget.
His head is bursting with memories but he can't forget anything.
Listen to his music.
And her?
Couldn't she be a prostitute who's thinking of becoming a nun ?
Incredible !
Now, look at this one.
See how he walks ?
It looks like he's wearing someone else's suit by the way he wears it.
I'd say he's a stow away slipped into first class
for a little amorous adventure. He's got Americain his eyes.
He'll be the first one to see it. l can already hear him screaming.
Nineteen Hundred knew how to read.
Not books, anybody can do that.
He knew how to read the signs that people carry on them.
Places, sounds, scents,
their land,their story. Everything written on them.
He would read and,with infinite care catalogue, organise, and make order
in that immense map that he was drawing in his mind.
Maybe he'd never seen the world,
dbut for almost thirty years the world had been passing on that ship.
And for almost thirty years on that ship, he'd been spying on it
and he would steal its soul.
America !
I went into her room, she jumped on me
and I tore her clothes off. -Go on !
-Do you always make up this crap ? -Sure !
Singleton, Lee Claire.
Hallo ?
You don't know me, but I wondered if we might have a little chat.
A little chat ? What are you talking about ?
About anything you like,weather conditions, anything you choose.
Go to hell !
Hallo ?
-Is that the race-track ? -Yeah, you betting ?
-Can you tell me if Mama's racing ? -No, it's your sister !
-I think there's a misunderstanding. -Shove it up your ass !
The telephone should bring out the best in people.
I know who you are. If you don't stop calling, I come over and kill you !
Christ, he's already here !
Hey, are you the guy with that friggin difficult name ?
Come on out, I'm talking to you.
Catch him !
Stop !
Where are you going ?
-Hold still. -Stop, you idiot !
-Keep still, you son of a bitch ! -Where are we, in hell ?
-We don't want to hurt you. -Come on out. Where are you ?
We're players, man, musicians.
Over there.
-Bon appetit ! -Thanks, have you got some wine ?
Are you the one that plays ten kinds of jazz rolled into one ?
To tell the truth I've never counted them, I'm just a piano player.
-It's him. -Well, you'd better start counting.
The man who invented jazz sent us here.
-And what does he want from me ? -He challenges you to a piano duel !
A piano duel ?
What the hell is a piano duel ?
It's a duel, with pianos instead of pistols.
It's a musicians thing. No blood, just a little hate.
Real hate, under the skin. It riffs like you never heard.
It could last all night and at the end, one would win.
Nineteen Hundred !
If I were you, I wouldn't be so sure he's still here.
If I know him at all, he won't be any place else.
I'm sure of that..
He must have gone. What would he have done here without a piano ?
Besides, with the war,who knows ?
He might not even be any longer in this dirty world.
Someone like him doesn't end up like everyone else.
-It's not his style. -Think what you like.
But I can't ask the owners to keep this carcass going
just because someone who doesn't exist is on board. I can't delay it.
Nineteen Hundred, it's Max. I have to talk to you !
-How did the duel end up ? -It was in Boston.
The summer of 1931.J elly Roll Morton boarded the Virginian.
Dressed entirely in white, wearing a diamond as big as a meatball !
Even the garters on his socks were diamond studded.
Jelly Roll, what's the reason for a trip to Europe on a steamer?
Till now, you've only gone up and down the Mississippi !
I don't give a damn about Europe !
The only reason I'm going on this crappy ship is to meet a guy
they say tunes a good piano !
But I also heard that he doesn't want to set foot on land.
-Is he talking about me ? -Sure he is.
One day some asshole says to me :
''Hey, Jelly, there's someone who plays the piano better than you.''
So I says to myself : ''Shit ! How come this guy plays so good
when he doesn't even have the balls to get off the boat ?
Damn it, Jelly, you were the one who invented jazz !
Then I says to myself : ''You can afford to buy a first class ticket !
You can even buy the ship just by raising your little finger.''
Get a shot of it, boys !
-Tell the truth, are you scared ? -I don't know.
Why a duel ? What happens when you have a duel ?
It seemed like he really didn't care much.
Like he didn't even understand it. But he was curious.
He wanted to hear how the devil the inventor of jazz played.
He really believed that the guy invented jazz.
I believe he thought that he could learn something new.
That's just how he was, a bit like old Danny.
He didn't have any sporting sense.
He didn't give a damn who won, it was the rest that amazed him.
It's true !
I believe you're sitting in my seat.
-You're the one that invented jazz ? -That's what they say.
And you're the one who can't play unless the ocean's under your ass ?
That's what I say.
Jelly Roll Morton didn't play, he caressed those notes.
It was like a slip sliding down a woman's body.
His hands were butterflies, so light.
He started off in the brothels in New Orleans, learning to stroke the keys.
People making love upstairs didn't want any uproar.
They wanted music that would slip behind the curtains, under the beds.
Without disturbing. He played that music there.
And in that, he truly was the best.
-Bravo ! -Bravo !
It's your turn, sailor.
Go on.
What's he doing ?
He's nuts !
Is it Christmas ?
-Did he win ? -No, they're just warming up.
Bravo !
-What's up, Nineteen Hundred ? -This music makes me cry.
The whole crewbet on you !
I put a year's pay on the line and you're crying ?
Start thinking about your music !
-Can I bet,too ? -Betting on yourself isn't sporting.
But I want to bet on him ! He's terrific.
-You're crazy ! -But if you lose, I'll give it back.
It's the same music that the other one played.
We've already heard this !
He's fooling around.
-Did he lose ? -Not yet.
Well done, Nineteen Hundred !
Stick this up your ass !
- Max? - Eh?
-Give me a cigarette, will you ? -You're not doing too well !
-Just give me a cigarette. -You don't smoke !
What's wrong with you ? You could lick this guy with one hand !
-Pardon me, I didn't catch that. -I didn't say anything.
Bravo !
-Where's this cigarette ? -We'll be shovelling coal forever !
Just give me a fucking cigarette !
Clown !
Listen carefully.