"If the wind frightens you" "Private property" "Keep out" "From the medial third of the superior nuchal line of the occipital bone, from the external occipital protuberance of the posterior cervical ligament," "of the spinous process" "of the seventh... of the seventh cervical vertebra." "Of the seven..." "Of the ten..." "Of the seven..." "Of the first ten dorsal vertebrae and the interspinal ligaments." "Corresponding." "From the third inner one to the superior curve of the occipital bone, of the outermost protrusion of the back of the head, of the posterior cervical ligament of the... of the... of the spinal crest of the seventh cervical vertebra" "of the first ten dorsal vertebrae and the interspinal ligaments." "Corresponding." "'The love of fools, of bunglers, of weaklings, of boring people, of distant people, of the dumb, isn't love." "Love is cheerful, lively, without holding back." "They're poor lovers, the dumb, the serious and the stiff, the solemn ones.'" "How's your anatomy coming along ?" "'Marvellous youth that reflects briefly on the face of lovers who are no longer young." "I've never fancied an amorous adventure and I've never set foot in a...'" "Say, Pierre..." "What ?" "What ?" "We shouldn't have gone on holiday together that summer." "But the idea ofgoing camping in the sand dunes, all alone, appealed to us." "My sister had failed her exam and I had worked too hard all year." "She had to study and I had to rest." "We'd be outside and we'd have some rest." "Nobody could have foreseen that it would turn out differently." "It was enough that we were alone for everything to begin." "Of the third inner one of the superior curve of the occipital bone, of the outermost protrusion of the back of the head... I'm cold." "Can I put this on ?" "Did I want it to happen ?" "I longed for it, of course, but I seriously tried to prevent it." "I knew what threatened me." "Claude didn't." "We got along famously." "She was perfectly at ease with me." "Cheerful, teasing and flirting without realizing." "I sometimes felt like a monster." "Of course, it'd have been better if I'd painted trees or flowers." "I thought I couldn't help it that she was so pretty." "Had I told her already ?" "No doubt the drawing made it clear." "But she wasn't sure she understood it well." "So, that's how I saw her." "Didn't she have thinner ankles ?" "Wasn't her waist more slender ?" "Did the mirror image flatter her ?" "She tried to find the resemblance between the idea I had of her and who she really was." "There's this man who wanted..." "What did he want ?" "The drawing." "The chicken." "Yes, the chicken." "Have our guests arrived ?" "Elisabeth has made herself up." "What will she think ?" "We were undoubtedly caught red-handed, as they say." "We didn't feel at ease at all." "Elisabeth, a well-bred girl, wouldn't be wrong about it." "Will you dance with me tonight ?" "Sure." "Claude found it very amusing." "She couldn't stand Elisabeth." "I was afraid when I saw her coming." "She was capable of anything to make her mad." "After all, I was hers." "The other one simply had to behave." "Look, dear friends, the secret recipe for chicken a" /a roya/e." "First you pluck the chicken." "Then... you push with your finger." "Where do those feathers come from ?" " That's the beginning of metaphysics." "Where do feathers come from ?" "Where does the chicken come from ?" "Where does the egg come from ?" "From the firm Dubois  Sons." "I thought to myself I shouldn't have been afraid." "My mind was set at rest." "But that wouldn't last." "Stand up, will you, Pierre ?" "Annette, you're making someone jealous." "Is your brother so irresistible ?" "I should bejealous of you then." "What are you saying ?" "Let me tell you something, dear friend." "You don't need to be jealous of me, because he's my brother." "Furthermore..." "Pierre isn't my brother." "Didn't you know that, one day, my mother, my good and honourable mother went off the rails a bit ?" "It happened in Venice." "The olive trees were in bloom." "The Italians were handsome, the gondolas were comfortable." "And my mother was weak." "He was a prince." "He was young." "And my mother kept getting weaker." "I'm the living reproach of so much weakness." "As was expected, we went dancing." "I tried to pay attention to Elisabeth and Annette." "I wanted to be somewhere else." "Claude had disappeared." "That bothered me." "I couldn't help feeling bothered." "And it made me furious." "I felt as ifl kept turning round." "I tried to hold on to Elisabeth or any other girl, but it was useless." "Eventually, I fell anyhow." "I told Elisabeth I was getting a bit of fresh air." "Have you got a light ?" "Thanks." "I didn't have the nerve to go back to the dance hall." "Because I was bored without Claude and because I couldn't stand not knowing what she was doing." "I supposed she'd found a flirt." "That didn't bother me." "She'd tell me and we'd laugh about it together." "But I no longer had the power to play without her." "Whatever the game." "What's wrong ?" "You look so serious." "Your breastbone-collarbone-nipple- muscle is beautiful." "It's a four-sided muscle stretching along the front and side of the neck." "From the protrusion of the temporal bone to the breastbone, to the collarbone." "Your delta muscle is also fine." "Just fine." "Pierre's is the more solid." "Pierre ?" "That's my brother." "You're almost as tall as he is." "But his chest is better developed." "It's a shame my brother won't wear something like this." "How strange." "It's a souvenir." "You look so much like James." " I don't want to look like him, but I've been told that before." " It's a matter of personality." "Are you fond of the night ?" "Sure." "Me too." "I love you." "You love me ?" "I love you." "You haven't said I was beautiful." "Ifyou told me that..." "Would you like to kiss me ?" "I see you already don't love me anymore." "You don't understand me." "Why ?" "Don't you want to kiss me ?" "Come on." "Ifyou win, you can." "But if I win..." "You'll get a kiss ifyou run to the sea and come back all wet." "Come on." "My medal." "It could get rusty." "You have a good heart." "It beats like crazy." "You should hear it." "You have a heart for great passion." "But you're all wet." "Not there." "I don't like that." "I'd rather stay here." "We're so good together." " Fine..." "If you already see us as a married couple..." "Do you want to kiss me ?" "Then you'll have to run." "When you come back, I'll be fresh again." "Pierre..." "What's the matter ?" "If you only knew..." "There, on the beach, a lover has arisen from the waves." "He's looking for me, running in the night." "Don't you see I'm still tired and pale from passion ?" "Yes." "The first kisses, the first promises that two mortals exchanged on this earth, at the foot of a tree" "defoliated by the wind, on a rock of dust." "Everything around them died and on top ofall that rubble... their hands of clay folded." "Diverted by the flashes ofa moment of fun they thought they could escape that motionless being that watches us die." "Foolish, says the wise man." "Happy." "Says the poet." "What sad loves does your heart foster if the sound of the torrent disturbs and distresses you, if the wind frightens you." "Where did you get that medal from ?" " He gave it to me." "He had the body of Marlon Brando, the smile of James Dean." "He held me in his arms." "He said I was unique in his eyes." "The only one." "I felt his strong chest." "And then I listened to his heart beating." "Even faster than yours." "He was soaked to the skin because he arose from the water as a nymph." "But I sent him back to the water because he was clumsy." "And I made him run, so his heart would beat even faster." "We did some arm-wrestling." "If he won, he could kiss me." "If he lost, I'd send him back to the sea." "He became serious." "'I don't want to leave you anymore, my love." "We're so good together.'" "Everything was said." "So, I ran away." "He'll run to the end of the world to find me again." "Did she pretend to be a bit in love with her brother ?" "Or did she dream up a partner who met her expectations better ?" "She compared the others with me." "Was she discovering she liked me better ?" "Sometimes I dared to enjoy our being together." "The years had strengthened our bond." "We shared everything." "But we had to snatch away from what was pulling us towards each other." "We had to deny ourselves the only happiness possible." "And why ?" "Of course, I knew why." "But I didn't always believe it." "And I was afraid." "Because if Claude wouldn't believe in it for one minute," "I'd never believe in it anymore." "What made us closer, drove us away from others." "I didn't doubt that she knew that." "Funny, all the names of lovers in this old bunker." "You'd think that in times of peace there's nothing but lovers." "I think it must be difficult to love someone." "Accepting that the other is everything you expected from life." "That he is all that, and that it is him, his body, his eyes, his thoughts you were looking for." "That nothing is unknown anymore." "And before that he knew nothing about your life." "All ofa sudden it was there." "Love at first sight." "He had never seen you before." "And he wants to know everything about your life." "So, you want to tell him everything." "And he'll believe that all that was waiting for him." "For him." "That anxiety, those gestures threatened me." "A kind of madness captured us." "Our moments of silence scared us." "Our laughs burst out into screams." "I don't know if we were more relaxed the following day, but we succeeded in pretending to be calm." "We decided to do some sightseeing." "We fled from the desolate dunes to the listed monuments and the honest pleasure of gothic architecture." "It could have been a trouble-free day if Claude hadn't pretended we were siblings like any other." "That's the legend of St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgins." "Ursula, daughter of the Christian king of Brittany, had consented to marrying the son of the pagan king of England on condition that he would find 11,000 virgins to accompany her on a three-year pilgrimage to Rome." "They embarked in Basel and crossed the Alps on foot." "On their way back they were all massacred by pagans." "Their leader, prince Maximus, was touched by ursula's beauty and wanted to spare her life ifshe married him." "They married and wept together at the bodies of the 11,000 English virgins." "No, she refused to marry him and an archer killed her..." "Here." "Nothing's prettier." "I'm Gerard Dumont." "I teach at the College of Europe." "Are they waiting for you ?" " That's my brother." "His trousers suit you." "She's not listening." "She's English." " How do you know ?" "The English only look at the left panel." "The English have stayed primitive." "They don't know what love at first sight is." "On the Continent, on the other hand..." "I believe in it." "Funny, I want to talk to you, but don't know what to say." "But it's simple." "Strangers have nothing to say to each other." "Strangers have an awful lot to say." "I couldn't believe it." "I didn't know if I was jealous." "She was mine." "What were they saying ?" "Won't your brother be worried ?" " No, he knows what I'm like." "Does this happen to you often ?" " No, this is the first time." "I'm not asking you to lie." "I've never loved before." "We've never loved when we start loving." "You already stopped believing me." "And yet..." "You know nothing about me." "I know I'd like to know you." "Give me that chance." "That's all I'm asking." "You don't know me." "And you talk as ifyou're afraid of losing me." "lam afraid." "As if I've known you a long time." "I have to go." "They're waiting for me." "Wouldn't you rather stay with me ?" " Why '?" "Without reason." "We'll see each other again ?" "When ?" "When ?" "You're a good kisser." "I should have known." "You're too pretty." "You have no faith." "You seem too easy." "Do you have to have faith to be able to love ?" "Your beauty is confusing me." "Is that all ?" "You're very honourable." "I'm not honourable." "As soon as she came back, I knew it was only a matter of time." "We'd known each other all our lives." "She had thought that in no time she could be as close to a stranger as to her own brother." "You smoke too much." "We experienced a seriousness and anxiety that didn't go with our age." "We should have been cheerful, laughing, kissing..." "To find that again, we had to accept it." "Other people had a word for it." "A word charged with aversion, after having been forbidden for centuries." "Very handy for decent people." "What bewildered us and what seemed so normal to us, so natural, so inevitable, they called incest." "Until then, she didn't know what she expected." "Now she began to understand." "She was afraid." "That we'd be lonely, forced to hide ourselves, to lie, condemned at the first suspicion." "She tried to defend herself, poorly, like a child, confronted with its destiny for the first time." "What's wrong with you ?" "Take him along." "Are you going to the coast ?" "You are ?" "Thank you." "Did you fall into the water, Miss ?" "No, no." "We're on our honeymoon." " I see." "I wanted to kill myself." " You did '?" "Why '?" "That..." "I don't believe in love anymore." "I'd like her to change clothes." "I had no choice." "It was the only bistro around there." "A world full of bodies and of all bodies that one is forbidden." "I didn't dare to reassure her." "I didn't dare to get out of the car." "I didn't dare to talk." "Every gesture, every word threatened to be a confession." "People who marry, promise each other protection and faithfulness." "Faithfulness, yes, but protection ?" "Condemning her to silence, to secrecy, to the disapproval of decent people." "The beautiful present that I wanted to give her so badly." "And that she'd accept gladly." "I was afraid." "If I waited five more minutes, one hour, one night, wouldn't I avoid it then ?" "Maybe it was enough to say no when everything screamed yes." "Aren't you changing ?" "I'm almost dry." "Sal'--'" "Did you see the priest's face when I said I wanted to kill myself?" "Come to bed." "I don't like yelling." "I have a sore throat." "Imagine Elisabeth's face when I tell her tomorrow." "What ?" "I thought it was different." "I couldn't have known." "Are you angry ?" "Why 7" "I can see you, Pierre." "You're a lousy liar." "I ran away." "I had to keep on trying." "I knew very well I'd accept." "If I had no more strength to offer resistance, anyway." "Hey, lovebirds..." "What's the matter ?" "You needn't walk along with us." "Tell Claude there'll be four of us at lunch." "Bonjour." " Are you alone ?" "Pierre invited us." "They're waving at us." "Little Annette, you should never become like your sister." "She's a foolish girl." "I was afraid." "Afraid of Claude, of me, of others." "I wanted to disappoint her." "Elisabeth was in love with me." "And I wanted to make use of that." "I tried to be a boy for Claude like all other boys." "I tried to be a boy like all other boys." "Shall I prepare lunch ?" "Did Claude see us, do you think ?" "She'll imagine all sorts of things." " That's what you think." "Why not ?" "Her temper..." "Tell me, why did you bring me here ?" "Don't you like walking with me ?" "That depends." "On what ?" "On you." "Are you comfortable ?" "I'm all right." "Are you leaving already ?" "Claude mustn't start imagining things." "Does it bother you what she thinks of you ?" "Ifyou want to harm my reputation." "Or your reputation..." "Are you crazy ?" "Are you 7" "Come and kiss me ifyou're not afraid." "You have a nice tan." " You think?" "Do you love me ?" "Tell me you love me." "If you don't love me..." "Say, are you coming from a funeral or are you going to one ?" "Ican see." "She's controlling your every thought." "Is that love at first sight ?" "You succumb at once." "Sal'--'" "I've won." "Wait." "It's too hot for me." "Do you want to seduce me ?" "Go ahead." "Yourturn." "You're so skinny." "In fact, you've always been skinny." "Aren't you bored with this ?" "It's a children's game." "The kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these." "It never ends." "To kill time." "You lose." "I love you." " I know." "Censorship." "Michel." "We were lying there." "Judged." "Condemned." "The declaration of our love was one of despair." "The sun was warm and I felt we had to give up." "The sun was warm and in the dunes summer began."