Video of the Week #99

This week, some rare footage of guitarist Django Reinhardt, with Stephane Grappelli on violin and the Quintette du Hot Club de France playing "J'attendrai." This 1939 clip is from a documentary that tries to explain the meaning of jazz. You will notice that Reinhardt did not have the use of the last two fingers of his left hand, which were injured in a fire when he was 18.

Spaghetti western fans will be familiar with the 1966 film Django by Sergio Corbucci. (Quentin Tarantino paid tribute to it, and its star, Franco Nero, in Django Unchained.) Corbucci named the title character after Django Reinhardt. In the film, Django's hands were crushed by the bad guys, but he was still able to operate a machine gun in the final shootout.

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