I’ve been in the mood for some foreign film lately, so I decided that today I would watch a couple. I picked the Vietnamese film, The Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000), and the American-made but French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007).
Strangely, both movies featured the same American rock song: 1969’s “Pale Blue Eyes,” by the Velvet Underground.
What are the odds of that? That two non-English movies would use the same old American song in their soundtrack? That I would pick both of those movies to watch? That I would watch both of those movies on the same day? That I would be familiar with the song and recognize it in both films?
And yet, here we are.
Below is the opening scene of Vertical Ray. YouTube doesn’t have a clip for the Diving Bell scene–that one was just instrumental anyway. Then here it is with lyrics.
Gently Hew Stone 