Doyou rememberthe names?
Maybe nothing was said.
The end of a demonstration.
She's with a male friend.
To make him happy
- she wears a yellow star. - A trinity of stories
The beginning
The end
Then she writes something...
SOMETHlNG
"You jobless,
"use this time to start thinking"?
Then these guys arrive,
see the yellow star, try to tear it off,
telling her:
"Wanna see some fascists? Well, here they are."
Then they beat her unconscious.
Time passes.
Don't move.
What times!
Humans remain.
And if you were to be asked:
film, play, novel or opera?
Which would you choose?
Novel, I guess.
We have a project.
It relates something of the story
of three couples:
young, adult,
and old.
And this something
is one of the four moments of love.
The meeting,
the physical passion,
the separation...
then the reconciliation.
So what will you play?
I think I'll play the young girl.
I'm thinking of something.
His name is Perceval.
And her name will be Eglantine.
I'm Eglantine.
Do you understand it's not Eglantine's story,
but a moment in history...
History moving through Eglantine?
The moment of youth.
Let's call it a sociological study.
For example, when the old man and woman meet,
it'll be in a soup kitchen.
In this project, in fact,
we can't help but depict...
depict the down-and-out.
They're everywhere nowadays.
The ones Victor Hugo...
You know Victor Hugo?
Take a seat.
You can smoke if you want.
What are you thinking about?
I was wondering if my cigarette would hold out till tonight.
And if my laces would hold out till tomorrow.
And if my breath
would hold out till next week.
Do you work?
Yes, a lot.
At night, too?
Especially at night.
And in the night of day.
Do you ever cry?
At first glance, you can see why children cry.
While people are walking by.
That's how Albert and Albertine loved each other.
I don't know.
It all depends on how I still see myself.
Someone who plans to keep moving ahead
implies that his previous self
is a self that no longer exists,
and he loses interest in it.
On the other hand, the plans of others
reject time...
and thereby create a strong bond with the past.
It's true of almost all old people.
They can't abide time
for fear of wasting away.
Everyone,
in his heart of hearts...
There are the poor.
I don't know how memory
can help us
reclaim our lives.
It's not whether man will endure,
but whether he has the right to.
Here comes the little fellow.
In ancient times they emphasized relationships.
That's the fundamental question.
Who's this one by?
When will we have an answer?
We still need a green light from the national bank.
You seem very fond of that young man.
Too fond, in my opinion.
That's your opinion, dear fellow.
A thief is a thief, museum or not.
They apologized.
- Then neither did l. - You're different.
What if they only return the Braque and Vlamincks.
We know how they are.
The Louvre curator wants to protect the Winged Victory,
but as author of this protection on equal terms with Phidias.
Times have changed.
There's a feeling of yesteryear. It's discouraging.
Too many changes are in the air
that still lack a means of expression.
We make fun of 1900 but our age
will probably seem just as ridiculous.
And maybe just as charming.
I don't know. Memory is a complex thing.
When they were arrested in the '42 roundup,
Edgar's grandfather was the same age as Dad.
They were partners in the gallery.
I was 10. I'd play in the park with his daughter.
I was madly in love.
She preferred someone else.
So I said to her,
quoting Jouvet:
"Happy with that hapless man?"
What became of him?
With her 50%,
Helene bought him a Gordini, then a Talbot.
He killed himself at lndianapolis. The same year as Ascari.
Then your debt is paid.
But there's still memory.
Yes, the obligations of memory.
No, the right.
Memory has no obligations. Read Bergson.
Or else I must
still be in love.
She looked like that girl in the Boubat photo,
staring into the distance,
wearing a black bra under her white blouse.
- You've kept in touch with her? - No, she committed suicide.
Luckily she had no signature power.
I found 2 Corots at Vollard's,
a Lichtenstein at Castelli's in NY, but too late.
I managed to buy back the little Breughel,
but I think it's a copy.
All that remains of this business
is that the boy make something more than money.
I got to know him
by chance at the Soulages' home.
Antoinette Sach's daughter introduced us.
I think she's Edgar's godmother.
Maybe he's aware of the situation, but he said nothing.
It's still a lot. Even if it's a fine project.
I have no idea what it's about.
An opera, maybe. A film.
A film in the documentary tradition.
But I don't understand the term.
And what's it called?
Something "to Love."
"Ode," I think.
Isn't it strange
how works of art demand titles,
- like in the days of nobility. - And Wall St.
Speaking of films, did you know Henri Langlois?
Not really.
Meerson's wife, yes.
But not him. Maybe once, at a lunch at the Raphael,
in '58 or '59.
It seems he founded the Archive Federation here
with a German and a New Yorker. I forgot her name.
In 1938. Iris Barry.
See Counselor Forlani out.
The Americans are everywhere, aren't they, sir?
Who remembers Vietnam's resistance?
Explain it better.
It's like this...
With young people it's obvious.
You pass them in the street
and the first thing you say is: they're youngsters.
With old people,
same thing.
Before anything else,
you think:
that's an old man.
But with adults, it's anything but obvious.
They're never entirely naked, so to speak.
They have to have a story, even in porno movies.
I understand.
We have to examine this business more closely,
but I see the point you're making.
We need the three ages, you see.
Or else the project's dead.
It becomes a story with Julia Roberts...
Hollywood.
Not History.
Yes, I understand. It's hard.
But you'll find something.
And that young lady Philippe told me about.
Still haven't seen her?
I've seen so many.
On top of it, she acted in a TV series.
That depresses me.
I hear she refused to speak her lines.
Wasn't she fired?
That counts for something these days.
True.
I'll make an effort.
Don't have a photo on you?
She wouldn't give us one.
I don't seek, I find.
Most people have the guts to live their life,
but not to imagine it.
So how I can do it for them?
Two years ago I met someone.
I didn't tell you, did l?
Not very attractive,
but she dared speak her mind.
I wonder what became of her.
What's your definition of an adult?
She really had something to say about the State.
And the impossibility of the State falling in love.
Actually, I'm dreaming.
What'd I like is someone
Iike Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt.
A shame you gave up your cantata.
- Was the music the problem? - It was me.
Know what she earns as a waitress?
3000 or 4000 francs.
She also works elsewhere.
When they earn more than 10,000 francs a month,
the French let themselves be led by the nose.
- Don't you agree, Philippe? - I don't know, sir.
The strangest thing is
the living dead of this world
are modeled on the world as it was.
The way they think and feel comes from before.
So, did you find the line?
"Jeanne, what a strange path led me to you." But I'm not sure.
I'll check the bookshop.
I was right. She's working at a railroad depot tonight.
Things are right in front of us.
Why make them up?
We're looking for a girl with big eyes who works here.
Go see the girls outside.
You again? I said no.
- You're killing yourself. - It's my business.
Maybe not.
How are you, otherwise?
I have work to do. Leave me alone.
And how are you?
I'm fine.
How'd it go with the Americans?
Which Americans?
The Americans of North America.
You have some memory.
I think I do.
Too much of it, even.
I wouldn't know.
It's no longer my business.
Can we talk a minute?
Please.
Can't you see I'm working?
So am l.
I can wait.
I noticed an Arab restaurant.
It was still open.
I'll wait for you there.
No, I said.
I have to clean offices after this.
We can give you a lift.
I don't want you to.
Next week, then.
You must have a day off.
I have to drive my son to Dijon.
So long. It's all right.
I want to discuss a project.
Maybe better than that.
Sure, but I already said no.
You prefer never?
- What did she say? - Maybe.
When young people break up, things become incomprehensible.
Take them.
They're at the pool.
She watches him swim with a girlfriend.
She shivers.
Why doesn't he love her now?
"You didn't get my letter?" he asks.
"l don't understand it."
"But it's simple enough.
"l love you so much, you're so present,
"you're so real for me
"it's useless to see you as you'll always be there,
"whatever happens."
She tugs anxiously on her necklace.
It breaks.
The beads fall into the pool.
He dives in and brings one back.
He says something else.
She cries.
"Why run after something you have already?
"ln a word, you're too lovely to be desired,
"and I placed you too high for you to satisfy me.
"l love you, you're mine.
"But since you're mine I don't have to see you."
You see what's going on?
And you?
Could you say that to the person you love?
Would you accept it from someone you love?
That's why Eglantine and Perceval broke up.
We'll wait 5 more minutes.
You have time?
Someone said that two years ago.
I remembered it, but not clearly.
Once, at a book stall I found the text.
It's a short novel by Georges Bataille.
You heard of him?
On the Spanish Civil War people always cite "Man's Hope,"
never "Blue of Noon."
True, it came out after the Liberation.
I think it sold 300 copies.
- Philippe, do it with him? - Yes, sir.
"Love of a mortal being.
"You say love,
"but the antithesis of the loved one
"is the State,
"whose role negates the sovereign value of love.
"The State has not, or has lost, the power to embrace
the world in its totality.
"This totality of the universe offered both
" in the beloved, as an object,
"and in the lover, as the subject."
This is no good.
Why not?
I told you why.
There's no such thing as an adult.
Do you ever think about death?
I mean, your own death?
Then you haven't made a will?
A man was executed at the Liberation 50 years ago.
He wrote this the night before.
Read it to us.
" In Year 35 of my years, Like Villon, a prisoner."
- "Like Cervantes..." - That won't do.
Learn how to read, ma'am. Or recite.
Or learn how to listen.
Isn't that so, Philippe?
I didn't say, look.
I said, listen.
Hear.
"ln the awkward scrawl of these pages
"l begin my last will and testament.
"By court order, my worldly goods
"And heritage they'll take from me.
"That's easy, I had neither
"Land or money in my patrimony.
"As for my books and images
"Let them be dispersed to the wind.
"Neither tenderness nor courage
"Are things a court can rescind.
The minister gave his green light.
Thank you, counselor.
Strolling or working?
We're going to a talk on Kosovo.
Mark Hunter just came back from there.
You've been following this business?
A little.
And the young lady, Edgar?
We went to see her. Not great.
She's no Berthe Morisot.
You knew I'd met her before?
Two years back, on the coast.
"l knew how history would be told.
"The Serbs committed horrors
"in their frightful persecution
"of the Albanians of Kosovo.
"No journalist noted that most of the refugees
"were in their homes when the war broke out
"and that the Serbs warned they'd settle the Albanians' score
" if NATO attacked Yugoslavia."
"l recognize their fear.
"The radio said that the Serbs had the right to kill at will.
"Even women, children and old people.
"But I cannot hide my shame at learning
"that for the first time in our history
"we, the Albanians of Kosovo,
"are equally capable of acts just as monstruous."
Your nationality?
I have none.
Kurd, but stateless.
I'm from Madrid.
There are good Americans, too.
Mark left his country during the Reagan era.
There can be no resistance without memory or universalism.
"No peace without justice," it was said at Sarajevo.
What do we do?
We're stupid.
The American accent's awful.
You wanted America, you got it.
Not me, I didn't ask for anything.
And your parents, in 1944?
And your grandparents, in 1918?
What are you talking about?
Nothing. It's history.
He's looking for someone
to edit his book and correct the proofs.
There can be no resistance without memory
or universalism.
Isn't it strange how history has been replaced by technology?
But why politics by gospel?
The church is in step with time.
Drop Mr Forlani at the lntercontinental.
If you don't object, Paul,
part of your fees will be paid in kind.
What do you mean?
Weren't you looking for a Balzac edition?
Absolutely.
"A Harlot High and Low."
The 1844 edition.
Where did you find it?
Better than the original.
The living copy. Living.
"She had hair
"that no coiffeur's hand could hold, so thick was it,
"and so long that it fell to the floor in rings."
Living Esther, Paul.
- A Jewess? - As only Raphael could draw them!
The church is in step with time.
Like troops moving through unfamiliar territory
where normal provisioning is impossible.
How can it bequeath to the meek,
the legitimate heirs of God,
a kingdom not of this world?
You never think of it,
but the truth may turn out to be sad.
What are you after?
With me?
I have papers to sign.
"Here peace officer Revel was shot by the Germans..."
I don't understand the lawyers.
I need people for this project.
I don't like that world.
Same here.
I'm full of doubts.
- Shall we walk? - I walk home anyway.
You'll tire before me.
They shouldn't phrase it like that.
Neither "officer" nor "peace"
nor "Germans."
People often say something in a discussion.
They don't agree, so they say,
"And you? What are you doing here?"
The other answers, "That's another story."
But they never tell that other story.
They never start from there.
Maybe because it has to be told another way
and they haven't the guts.
That's what happened to my parents.
They committed suicide.
I don't know about Mother,
but my father left a letter.
He never said "globalization." He said "the universal stage."
I was 5 years old.
I was born 3 years before May '68.
What are you thinking about?
The empty fortress.
That sounds familiar.
I was thinking of the Communist trade union.
There is no emptiness.
There's always a voice somewhere.
What about silence?
Even in silence.
- What about death? - There is no death.
When it comes, there's always a sense of self.
When I said "empty fortress,"
I was actually thinking of workers' struggles.
And the ephemeral.
We haven't really discussed your project.
It keeps jumping the track.
But which track?
The one from childhood to old age.
You referring to adulthood?
If you want.
Am I wrong
or you don't have children?
You're right. I live alone.
And you?
I have a 3-year-old boy.
After you got married?
My boyfriend left me.
Since our breakup,
and when I think about it, and only then,
things start making sense.
What you're saying is interesting.
Things beginning, things coming to an end.
Not your story or mine,
but, whatever happens, our story.
Even if we aren't acquainted.
History.
When we met in Brittany and talked a bit,
you had nothing to say about what was going on.
Even if it didn't concern you.
How you really felt.
The principle of it, I mean.
I think you were right.
- Americans have no real past. - Those in the north.
Not the Mexicans. Not Brazil.
Yes, the Americans of the north.
They have no memory of their own.
Their machines do, but they have none personally.
So they buy the past of others.
Especially those who resisted.
Or they sell talking images.
But an image never talks.
That's what they want.
I agree with you.
When I think about something,
I'm really thinking of something else.
You can only think about something
if you think of something else.
For instance,
you see a landscape new to you.
But it's new to you
because you mentally compare it
to another landscape,
one which you know.
Is that Auteuil over there?
Way down there.
It was near the Mirabeau Bridge,
in 52 B.C.,
that Caesar's general crossed the Seine
into the Grenelle plain to attack
the Gallic troops of Lutetia.
There was forest there, all round.
What remains today
is the Bois de Boulogne.
"Drancy Future"
Who ever connected Drancy with the future?
Oh, some upright family man.
He came home from the office, kissed his children
and told his little girl he'd worked well.
You're right.
The truth may turn out to be sad.
I'll lend you a book on the subject.
No, I won't tell you where I live.
At the bookshop.
They hold on to my mail.
Why don't you talk about your project anymore?
I'm not right for it now.
I'm not beautiful enough.
I think, though, that you think so.
My grandfather, 3 years ago...
You asked why he still belonged to the Communist Party.
He would never say "women,"
he would say, "persons of sex."
Good, I made you laugh.
Yes, true.
We can never know what a thought is all about.
You win. I was smiling.
Say it again, slowly?
"Every thought
"should recall
"the debris
"of a smile."
I hope so.
Goodbye.
After your meeting with Jean Lacouture,
I left, too.
I never kept in touch.
I took the same train you did.
I figured I shouldn't stop them.
No, just things.
Things just.
Not very cheerful here.
Happiness is never cheerful.
You didn't make that up.
No, sir. It was Max Ophuls.
Come on. You, mister.
- "l think: If He came back... - "Who?
"You knowwho. The Galilean hobo.
"The redhead with a heart larger than life.
"lf the spotless lamb returned..."
They're waiting for us.
And Edgar?
He's here.
And they say Daumier isn't a painter.
So you dropped the play idea.
Yes, too much shouting.
Remember what you said to me?
Nothing is lost now but our honor.
So, the honor is yours, sir.
- What must I do? - You just say, "Go on."
So Eglantine and Perceval met again.
What are you doing here?
A friend.
We were visiting Mr Rosenthal.
How's he been?
Since you left he's let himself go. His memory's going.
And you, how are you?
I'm fine, now.
I've taken up boxing again, and my cantata.
It's turning into an opera.
"Joy of Man's Desiring."
That's right.
I heard you got married.
You must be joking.
True, in time she became pathetic.
You know how things go, I think.
Every thought should recall a capsized smile.
- Where'd you hear that phrase? - Nowhere.
I just made it up.
Philippe, the days of phrases are over.
- How's she been? - I'm about to find out.
I have an appointment next door.
- Good luck. - Yes, sir.
Is that Edgar?
Why call him "sir"? He's younger than you.
Maybe, but he's the only person trying to become an adult.
We got a letter from Amsterdam.
They have people there who help others end it all.
You know about her parents, don't you?
Yes, she told me.
Recently?
Or when you came that time?
Recently.
She was working here?
We were only told she still had some things here.
And that she wanted to leave you one of her books.
Take your pick.
How did you get my address?
She didn't have it.
Apparently, she did.
You shouldn't have dropped that project.
She told you about it?
Early last fall.
We'd had no news for 3 years. She believed in it, you know.
That's no reason to commit suicide.
Maybe it's none of my business, but how'd it go with those Americans?
No, it's none of your business.
There was also her tuberculosis.
I didn't know.
She hid it, like her mother did.
What about her little boy?
Did you know her well?
I don't even know her name. Or yours.
At your hotel we hardly talked 10 minutes.
Not much more when we met again.
Her tone of voice interested me.
It often brought ideas to life.
As for the rest...
she was a letdown.
- I'll take this one. - You're the letdown.
Good luck.
What luck?
TWO YEARS EARLlER
You're Edgar?
You've come to see Jean Lacouture.
He asked me to fetch you.
I'm in charge of culture for the city.
You're writing on Catholics in the Resistance.
It's just a study.
I have some interesting records.
My great-uncle left many papers.
"Memoirs of a Free France Agent"
And all the "Confrerie de Notre-Dame" archives.
Actually, I'm composing a cantata.
A cantata for Simone Weil.
I wonder if they're who I think they are.
- Who do you mean? - Pain-in-the-ass Americans.
As Peguy said
on June 17, 1940:
"ln war, I side with he who won't
"surrender the citadel."
Catholics and the Resistance.
But right now I'm doing background research.
I'm writing a cantata for Simone Weil.
You know what she said about the Bible?
That it wasn't a theory about God but a theory about Man.
Do you think the people in London pondered those things?
Christianity is definitely part of the spirit of resistance.
There's that dimension that was experienced
among French resistance fighters on home soil.
Look, half of Shakespeare is set in France.
Can this war be said to have been a religious war?
One of drama's great love scenes
is in "Henry V," when the French princess
Iearns a few words of English.
The most erotic ones.
I think, if the Catholics and the monarchists
were generally the first to go to London,
it's because they originally came from there.
We were coming out of a totally strange period...
Stay two more days.
To see the two Resistance veterans who sold their memory to Hollywood.
What's going on?
Berthe looked at the contract. We've been had.
Are you quite sure? You can always negotiate.
She's crazy.
We had to close the restaurant.
What if we have to return the money?
Winter's coming.
What does Francoise think?
I'll do what she wants.
Who's that guy with the bag?
A student working on de Gaulle and the Catholics.
Tragedy is convenient.
It runs on its own.
Death, despair, and betrayal are on the march,
and the storms, the tears,
the stillness, all stillness...
Tragedy is clean.
It is restful.
With melodrama, with its traitors and wicked villains,
A LONG TlME AGO
its avengers,
its glimmers of hope, death becomes horrible,
Iike an accident.
In tragedy, there's no problem.
First, we're among friends.
We're all innocent, in short.
60 years ago, I crossed the Channel in that thing.
- The sad hope... - Free France.
We're trapped,
finally trapped.
We rebuilt it identically.
You're right:
when the fact becomes legend, print the legend.
And who's the gentleman?
Why Washington?
What's he talking about?
They're saying that trade follows films.
What should we do?
We'll think it over, I'm taking notes.
You think it over. We'll talk again.
Basically,
the Resistance had
its youth...
And it had its old age...
but it never went through adulthood.
Who's to decide if your past is alive or not?
It depends on how you see yourself.
Someone who plans to keep moving ahead
defines his former self as a self that no longer exists.
But some people's plan implies rejecting time.
They have a strong bond with the past.
It's true of almost all old people.
They can't abide time for fear of wasting away.
Each clings to the conviction that he is unchanging.
But to what extent does memory help us reclaim our lives?
I can't find the tape that you recorded...
"The Secret War."
Is that you, during the war?
Is that you, there?
That one is when lntelligence asked me to work for the Gestapo.
Many people died because of that.
I was acquitted twice.
I remained a Communist, so they said I was a Russian spy.
True, I knew someone in the Orchestre Rouge.
And who's that?
You just said hello to her.
It was an amateur opera production.
Berthe was 19 years old. A fabulous swimmer, too.
Then...
- she fell ill and quit. - And now?
She works in a Paris law firm.
A LONG TlME AGO
That was with my wife at the beach
in '45.
We thought it was starting.
In fact, it was ending.
I realize that it takes
- 50 years for it to end. - It skips over the parents
and it lands on the grandchildren.
Maybe you're right:
Adulthood
doesn't exist.
We can't go on discussing for hours.
Let me start again:
"Our company, Spielberg Associates,
"has acquired the right, signed by Mrs Bayarde..."
Bayard!
"Mrs Bayard here present...
"By this agreement
"that Mr Bayard has also signed,
"our company has acquired the rights to their story
"during the terrible years of '41, '42, '43 and '44.
"The film's title will be 'Tristan and lsolde,'
"the name of the network the couple founded in 1941.
"Mrs Bayard as the young resistant,
"will be played by Juliette Binoche,
"who has just won an Oscar."
Miss Binoche was unable to come,
but will call Mrs Bayard this very evening.
We have hired a top American writer
to do the screenplay.
You say "American writer."
What "Americans" do you mean?
South America?
The United States, of course.
Of course,
but Brazil's states are united, too.
In Brazil they're called Brazilians.
No, I said the United States of North America.
The United Mexican States are N. America,
and they're Mexicans.
In Canada they're called Canadians.
Which united states do you mean?
I just said: the United States of the North.
Well, then,
an inhabitant of your united states,
what's he called?
See? You don't have a name.
This man signed for a country
whose inhabitants have no name.
No wonder they need other peoples' stories,
other peoples' legends.
You're like us.
You're looking for the origin: parents, siblings, cousins...
Nothing original about that.
But we seek it inside ourselves.
Poor you! With no history, you have to seek it elsewhere,
in Vietnam, Sarajevo...
Okay, but you can do it gently...
Nicely.
Know the origin of the word "OK"?
One of your generals,
during the Civil War, used it in his report:
- "0 killed." - Let me finish.
The first check for 50,000 USD
was remitted as agreed on signature.
This check was cashed two days later.
Nude scenes!
So we see no reason to rework
- the present agreement. - They didn't notice.
Today, in all films
girls must undress and roll all over their lovers.
Was that really yours and grandpa's story?
Mrs Schindler was never paid. She's in poverty in Argentina.
Don't stay outside.
I'm looking for a videotape grandpa recorded.
It shows terrible things:
the guilty's gaze on the innocent.
SO LONG AGO
You say "State,"
but the State is the very antithesis of the image of a loved one,
whose sovereign reason negates that of love.
Thank you, Father, for showing the babes
what you hid from the wise and the intelligent.
Listen to this:
"October '45." It's still true.
"Today,
"August 20, 1945,
"in this deserted and starving Paris,
"the war has ended,
"peace has not yet begun."
And this...
"But we're back in the Year 1000.
"Each day is the eve of the end of time,
"the eve of the day when our honesty and courage
"will no longer have meaning for anyone."
"Henceforth my freedom is purer."
And this...
"But we, born in France, what can we say?
"It's not much to say it is our homeland. It's vague.
"It's our concrete situation,
"our chance, and our fate.
" 'Until now, I lived in fear,' said Tristan Bernard
"when they came to arrest him,
" 'From now on, I will live in hope.' "
Tristan Bernard is the one who said
"lf you can see Le Havre, it will rain.
- "lf you can't see it anymore... - "...It's raining."
- How's it going downstairs? - You should've come.
ALREADY TWO YEARS EARLlER
I want to tell you something.
You wanted to say something?
When did the gaze collapse?
10 years ago?
1 5 years?
Maybe 50.
Before TV.
Who knows?
Be more precise.
Before TV took precedence.
Over what?
Over current events?
Over life.
Yes.
I feel our gaze has become a program under control.
Subsidized.
The image, sir,
alone capable of denying nothingness,
is also the gaze of nothingness on us.
I hope not.
What bothers me is not success or failure.
It's the reams and reams written about it.
So it's the literature that bothers you.
Not necessarily,
but why bother saying or writing that "Titanic" is a global success?
Talk about its contents.
Talk about things,
but don't talk around things.
Let's talk
on the basis of things.
- Did you see it? - No, not yet.
I may agree to some extent.
At Marrakesh, they discussed the fate of the world.
In fact, they use others to talk of themselves.
It's deadly, you're right.
They confuse existence with life. Is that it?
I'm no philosopher but in my opinion, yes.
Look at a cell. There's a nucleus of an atom, as well.
It's the basis of existence. Around it is life.
They treat life like a whore
which they use to improve their existence.
The extraordinary to improve the ordinary.
That's right.
One can enjoy existence, not life.
Exactly.
I didn't quite follow their discussions.
This business about a film.
What do the grandmother and her husband want?
Jean wants money to save the hotel.
I don't know about her.
I think she wants to be star like she was 60 years ago.
The Tristan network was an ugly business.
The English weren't very "orthodox."
He turned her in under orders.
No one knows what either of them knew of the other.
- I know. - You know nothing at all.
Then I can guess.
So they got married?
When she returned from Ravensbruck.
In the camp she met Genevieve de Gaulle.
She embraced Catholicism.
That's right.
Heaven and Earth shall pass.
My words shall not pass.
For 4 years, during the organized Resistance,
money was reduced to a means. No longer an end.
Listening to your music?
"Spiegel im spiegel." What's that mean?
"The mirror in the mirror."
It's late.
Where were you?
With Godfather and the man interviewing him.
Did I go overboard this morning?
That's your business, sweetie.
True, I'm ignorant about movies.
Godfather told me to give you this book.
What is it?
Robert Bresson, "Notes on the Cinematograph."
Listen to this...
"Director:
"It's not a question of directing someone
"but of directing oneself."
And this...
"Be sure to exhaust what can be communicated
"by stillness and silence."
And this...
"Let feelings bring about events,
"not the contrary."
You and Grandpa made a decision.
Is it for the money?
If it goes through, what's it for?
Obviously anything I can say is pointless.
What are you thinking about, Grandma?
When I was in the U.S. and they asked me, the young French student,
to speak about wartime France and the concentration camps,
I think I did so without any trouble.
I always rattled off the same memories.
People reacted like they do now in front of their TV sets.
My words weren't heartfelt.
Want to hear the record again?
You know,
there's a question I never dared ask you.
Nor Grandpa.
Why did you keep your code name, and not your real one?
My name is Samuel.
Dad's was, too.
Why do you still call yourself Bayard?
During the war, sure, but afterward?
I'm going to bed.
Every desire must meet its lassitude,
its truth.
We're all jesters.
We outlive our problems.
Action and reaction,
the oldest couple in history.
You told the Americans that?
And also that we originated our search for origins.
And that was the Resistance's originality.
- You said that? - And that I held to Peguy's plan:
Not to relax too soon.
I'm also thinking about love.
Courtly love.
They say it was the French but it went on at court,
the court of the king of England, Henry ll.
Essentially in Anjou,
in Normandy, in the duchy of Aquitaine.
Alienor was his wife.
Again, the originality of modern France is defined by its origins.
In any case,
its highly original ties with England...
Hence,
perhaps, despite what everyone says,
with America as well.
England is the refuge
for everything that is resistance to revolution.
The England of Pitt and Burke, yes, it's natural.
The ties are historical, geographic,
and political.
Brittany, Great Britain. There's a tie.
I'll see what I can do.
A petition to dub "Matrix" into Breton.
Image and sound are vital to History,
and most important is that basic element:
not knowing how History will end.
You're not very talkative.
I'm going through a hard time.
I broke up with my girlfriend.
We'd been together for 10 years.
It's strange, in fact,
how things take on meaning when the story ends.
It's because History is coming in.
With a big H.
The fairy struck the frog with her wand
and suddenly the princess appeared.
The preterit creates a present image.
Every problem defiles a mystery.
In turn, the problem is defiled by its solution.
It's not by chance.
What do you mean?
There's the service entrance and the main entrance.
They use the latter for the apartment of the world
and leave us the service entrance, sir.
Words.
Through our use of speech,
we come to realize how words present us with ideas.
Man manufactures ideas.
He is an intrepid maker of ideas.
A current condition results from this faculty, Miss.
Do you know that saying by Saint Augustine:
"The measure of love is to love without measure"?
I'm thinking about something.
When I think about something,
in fact,
I'm thinking of something else.
You can only think about something
if you think of something else.
For instance,
I see a landscape that is new to me
but it's new to me
because I mentally compare it
to another landscape,
an older one,
one that I knew.
"Thus everything in my story wanes.
"As I am left with only images of what happened so quickly,
"l will go down to the Elysian Fields
"with more shades than a man has ever taken
"with him."
And then these guys arrive.
Then she writes something.
And if you were to be asked, if you had the choice:
film, play, novel,
or opera, which would you chose?
We have a project.
It relates something of the history...
And this something
is one of the moments...
And the first moment.
Do you remember the names?
Maybe nothing was said.