and afterwords he drove him home
by
Douglas Messerli
Pao
Zanki (animator) Take Me Out / 2019 [4.30 minutes] [animated short film]
Los
Angeles-based Pao Zanki (who prefers the designation of “they”) has created an
animated film in Take Me Out that represents a pop-cute rendition of The
Smiths’ and Morrissey’s “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.”
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Below are the lyrics of the first few
stanzas if you need reminding of that wonderful 1992 release.
Take
me out tonight
Where
there's music and there's people
Who
are young and alive
Driving
in your car
I
never, never want to go home
Because
I haven't got one anymore
Take
me out tonight
Because
I want to see people
And
I want to see light
Driving
in your car
Oh,
please don't drop me home
Because
it’s not my home, it’s their home
And
I'm welcome no more
And
if a double-decker bus
Crashes
into us
To
die by your side
Is
such a heavenly way to die
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Zanki, creating two very young boys to
signify their take on the story, show one boy calling for the other, as they
race away in his car to a party filled with booze, a couple of drunks already
laying face down on the grass in the yard. The elder boy gets the younger one a
beer, and they sit together a moment on the couch, certainly in the mood for
live, but as in The Smith’s song “…then a strange fear gripped me and I just
couldn't ask.” The younger boy does, however, manage to whisper into the
elder’s ear, and they quickly leave the party, driving off into the countryside
in the older boy’s car. The joy of the younger boy’s face certainly represents
the feelings of the original song’s “Oh, take me anywhere. I don't care, I
don't care, I don't care.”
The younger one shows the other boy his
favorite spot, where they sit on the grass and finally, as the sun slowly
rises, manage to sneak in a final kiss.
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This is definitely a Hallmark Cards
version, I’m afraid, of Morrissey’s far darker original, a song about the now
without any concern for a future.
Los
Angeles, September 8, 2024
Reprinted
from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2024).
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