"This movie received two awards at the Venice Film Festival in 1962" "The Special Jury Award and the Maschere Award (International Critics)" "SUNDAYS AND CYBÈLE" "Let go of me, please!" "I don't want to go there!" "Take me back to Granny." "I'll be good." "That'll do now, be quiet." "Will you?" "I don't want to go there!" "Come along." "Are you going to come along?" "Excuse me, sir, can you direct me to the Convent of St. Margaret?" "Yes, St. Margaret's School...." "Don't you know where it is?" "No...." "This is the Ville d'Avray." "Certainly, I know that!" "But it's at Ville d'Avray." "Come, we'll ask someone from round here." "No, Papa, I don't want to go there." "Now listen, I've already explained to you." "It's very nice." "You're going to have little friends." "And then everyone will be kind to you there." "And then on Sunday I'll come and see you, and then if you're very good at Christmas I'll give you a very nice present, you know that doll...." "Why is she crying?" "It's nothing, it will pass." "She mustn't cry." "Excuse me, sir, I know what I have to do." "Come along now, that's enough!" "She mustn't cry." "Sir!" "Take one." "Take one of them." "It's the piece of a star." "It fell from the sky." "No, thanks." "I can't." "But it was just a joke." "It's water." "Only water." "Excuse me, sir." "Come." "Is she the little new girl?" "You're bringing her very late, sir." "Forgive me, Sister, I couldn't" "Are you a relation of the child?" "I'm her father." "Come, my child." "I'll take you to our Mother Superior." "You heard?" "Come, my child." "It's very late." "You'll come back, won't you?" "You'll come back on Sunday?" "Above all, be good." "You're a big girl now." "Goodbye, Sister." "Slam the gate, it's very heavy." "Hey." "Sir." "Sir!" "Why, I thought you had gone." "Did you see a man who was running?" "When?" "Here, just now?" "A fellow in a raincoat?" "Another nut case was taking his ticket when the train's just leaving." ""You'll wait for the next," I tell him." ""Out of the question, out of the question!" "My plane goes in an hour." "I can't miss it, if I miss it, it will be terrible, terrible."" "Second platform." "And he thrusts his ticket under my nose." ""It's okay today, but I won't let you do this next time."" ""No danger of that, I'm leaving forever," he says to me." "Forever?" "But, in fact...." "Do you know him?" "He has gone...forever." "Ruined...." "What does that mean, a ruined life?" "A life in which one hasn't done what one wanted to in which one has had bad luck." "A life like mine." "Pierre." "Why do you say that?" "Aren't you happy with me?" "I'm nothing." "I'm nothing anymore." "Pierre, you're not being reasonable!" "Listen...." "Only a year ago you couldn't even go out alone in the street." "You were still having those horrible headaches." "Now you're a man again." "My man!" "Now!" "I walk about, I wait." "I walk about and I wait!" "And my memory doesn't come back." "Fortunately, there are the trees." "In the evenings, I go to the station and I wait for you." "I'm unhappy, Madeleine." "I still don't know who I am." "And you perhaps you know." "And you don't want to tell me." "Pierre, darling, don't be unkind." "You know quite well you shouldn't look backwards." "You know the doctor told you so." "The doctor." "The doctor's not inside my head!" "Pierre." "What happened today?" "Nothing, nothing." "I was at the station and then...." "That's all." "Quite sure?" "Ask the guard." "He'll tell you." "I believe you." "You'd better get undressed now, my darling." "Do you still love me a bit?" "Yes." "Are you going to Carlos'?" "Yes." "We've started on the cage for the birds." "Another Sunday I'm going to spend without you." "To think it's going on for six weeks." "Do you remember how we used to go for walks?" "But after Christmas I'll be free every Sunday." "Won't that be marvellous?" "Would you like a little more?" "Because there's some left." "No, thanks, Carmela, this is fine." "How is Madeleine?" "You can tell her she is becoming quite a stranger." "Why, Pierre look what I've found for the aviary." "Don't, Carmela!" "Let us listen, can't you?" "You must listen very hard to this!" "You weren't even listening!" "We were listening!" "We were listening without seeming to." "We were listening, but you'll never understand." "And, anyway, I don't mind." "I know it by heart." "No, be quiet!" "Now it's the end of the ceremony." "They have encircled the universe." "It's in Tibet." "Well?" "You feel the "Forces."" "Suppose you heard that at night?" "But come to think of it, you must have heard things like that, before." "Does it remind you of anything?" "No, nothing." "But I like it." "Help me." "Well, look, you put a wire here." "You pull." "And so on, right to the top." "Like that, it's quite steady." "There, pass me the pliers." "Yes, it's lovely." "Go along, Pierre, go for a walk." "Come back tomorrow and we'll carry on." "But no going to the station again, eh?" "Because your past is not going to come back by train." "No." "Look at the trees." "People hide themselves behind their faces." "They wear masks." "And you believe in them." "And then, you don't know where you are anymore." "Goodbye, Pierre." "Say hello to Madeleine, and tell her to come and see us a little more often." "Goodbye." "A tree is different." "If you take time, you can understand everything." "Trees...." "Yes." "They help." "But if I look up for too long, I feel bad." "I get" "Vertigo." "I'll tell you something." "The day you stop having vertigo, you'll be cured." "You must get used to it gradually." "It's the same with water." "If I look too long I feel as if I were falling in and I feel ill." "Don't be afraid, go on, make yourself do it." "Well, what are you waiting for?" "Go in, this is heavy!" "Delivering at this hour!" "I deliver when I can, Sister!" "My driver is ill and I have to do his work." "At 57." "And with a weak heart since Verdun!" "And you." "What do you want?" "I came to fetch the little girl." "What?" "I came to fetch the child, over there." "What have I done to deserve this?" "Go to confession, you may find out." "Then you're the father of the new girl?" "I couldn't guess it." "You must come earlier next time!" "Come here, child!" "Someone's come to fetch you." "You've come to fetch me?" "You recognise me?" "But where is my father?" "Are we going to meet him?" "Yes, he sent me." "No later than 7 p.m. Otherwise no more permission." "Those are the rules." "It doesn't surprise me that my father asked you to take me out." "At my grandmother's when he was supposed to do it he was always putting it off." "My grandmother had only one idea, to get rid of me." "When one thinks of it, I really have no luck." "My mother ran away with a conjurer." "Perhaps because my father never wanted to marry her." "And, in all, I've seen my father three times." "All that isn't much fun...." "Is it?" "Weren't you surprised when Sister Opportune called me Françoise?" "No." "Why?" "You know quite well my real name's not Françoise." "My father did tell you my real name?" "No." "The nuns made a great fuss about my first name." "It's not Christian." "So they decided to call me Françoise." "I don't mind that, you know." "Tell me it." "Guess." "It's very ancient, because my grandmother is Greek and it's after her." "Well, have you given your tongue to the cat?" "What?" "You don't know?" "Yet it's very lovely." "Tell me it, I'd like to know it." "No!" "That would be too easy." "Look!" "I'll tell you, if you'll get me the cock from the steeple." "Don't you think it's very beautiful?" "The other Sunday I had the feeling I had seen you before." "And I thought that maybe you...." "You could help me." "He has deserted me." "I felt it coming." "The other day, on the train, he was sad." "He talked of a journey he was going to make." "When I asked him when, he didn't answer." "I said to myself, this is it." "I'm going to find myself all alone again." "I've dreaded it for a long time." "When you came to fetch me for him I was glad." "Then time went by." "Just from the way you looked, I saw you had something bad to tell me." "And that was it." "I am left all alone!" "And where has he gone?" "I don't know." "He explains in a letter that your grandmother can't keep you any longer." "And that he has got to go away." "His life is ruined." "The letter is in there." "But when you came to fetch me, what did you tell Sister Opportune?" "Nothing." "She thought that I was your father." "She took you for my father?" "All the same, it's very wrong to have lied to me as you did!" "You realise that for two hours you've done nothing but tell me stories!" "No!" "It's true I wanted to know you." "So that you'd help me." "But...." "It has come to nothing." "Well, it's too bad." "What should I tell the nuns?" "Whatever you like, it doesn't matter now." "I'll take you back." "What's going to become of me?" "My grandmother doesn't want me anymore." "My mother has already abandoned me." "So I wonder what's going to become of me." "Let me stay with you!" "I don't want to go to the Council home." "But I can't." "Let me stay with you!" "I'll be good!" "If I'm sent to the orphanage, I won't have anyone anymore!" "Will you let me stay?" "But why can't you?" "Why?" "My grandmother told me that if my father didn't bother more with me I'd be put in a Council Orphanage!" "Be quiet." "Be quiet." "May I stay?" "I've explained to you." "I'm no good for anything anymore." "You managed to take me out this afternoon!" "Yes, but if Madeleine knew, it couldn't be done again." "Madeleine?" "Does she live here?" "But why wouldn't she like it?" "Because she is jealous?" "Perhaps." "She loves you?" "Yes." "And you?" "But as you aren't married, she hasn't the right to be jealous." "What if we don't tell her anything?" "Then it should be possible not to keep me here with you, but to take me out on Sundays." "On Sundays?" "Yes." "Is she here other Sundays?" "Not at present." "She is on duty." "Then, listen, it's not difficult!" "I agree to go back to the nuns." "I should have preferred not, but it can't be helped." "And we'll keep everything a secret from them and from Madeleine too." "Everyone will believe that you're my father." "You'll see, it will be great fun." "I'll be nice and I'll love you very much." "Don't leave me!" "I'll come and fetch you." "You won't desert me?" "Swear it on my head." "How?" "Well, you put your hand on my head, you say, "l swear it."" "And if you're lying, I die." "I swear it!" "Daddy!" "Hello, Daddy." "Sir." "Monsieur!" "Bring her back at 7:00!" "Not later." "Leave the gates open, please." "You know, I called you Daddy because of the nuns." "Yes, I quite understood!" "Pierre, look!" "Look at the circles!" "There, we're in our own home." "We've entered the circle." "Come on!" "Oh, look." "Sir Magician, do you give me that tree over there?" "Pierre!" "What's the matter?" "Vertigo." "Vertigo?" "It's the water." "There are times...." "It's as if I were at a great height and I was falling." "It's a good thing that you don't repair houses." "You'd be falling all the time!" "One can only fall once." "Afterwards one is dead." "That depends." "You fell, and what's more, in an aeroplane!" "Father is dead." "What?" "My father is dead." "No" "He is, I tell you!" "That's how it is." "He's dead." "He won't come back ever again?" "Isn't that true?" "Right." "So...." "And I have even decided that he was buried." "And that you are going to show me his grave." "Come on, show me where the body has been put." "Where?" "Here?" "Tell me where." "There?" "Yes." "Thank you, God." "In place of my father you have given me a Pierre, who is very much nicer!" "Pierre, how old are you?" "Probably 30." "Thirty and I'm 12, well nearly." "So...." "Twelve, 30." "Thirteen...." "Thirty-one." "Fourteen.... thirty-two." "Fifteen...." "Thirty-three." "Sixteen, 17...." "You'll be 36 when I'll be 18." "Thirty-six is not too old." "Listen." "We'll get married when I'm 18." "Will you?" "I should like that!" "I can cook, you know." "And keep house." "At my grandmother's, it's I who used to make her crystal ball shine." "Did I tell you my grandmother was clairvoyant?" "I used to polish her magic knife." "Why, there was something unusual." "My grandmother had a very beautiful knife with an ivory handle." "And do you know what magicians do in Africa with a knife like that?" "They stick it in a tree and they listen to the spirits talking!" "Think of that!" "Was your grandmother unkind?" "No, not really." "She used to say I was a mouth to feed, but that I was nicer than my mother." "And your mother?" "You don't remember anymore, of course." "It's really rather sad." "In fact, you're like a lost child." "Listen." "If you had things to say to your mother you need only tell them to me." "Will you?" "If you know how much I love you!" "How handsome he is!" "The horse?" "Yes, its rider also!" "How I wish he would take me away on his horse." "With him, I shouldn't be afraid." "Pierre!" "Wait for me!" "Pierre!" "Why are you going away?" "I don't like the man on the horse." "Everyone has his own tastes!" "And me, don't you like me anymore now?" "It's you who don't want to stay with me anymore." "Are you crazy?" "If you like, I won't ever go back to the school and I'll stay with you all the time!" "I'm your fiancée, aren't I?" "We'd better turn back towards the houses and you can buy me a fizzy drink." "I've no money." "Then we'll have to find a way to manage." "Because you know, one can't live without money." "And I'm still too young to earn any." "Oh no, Pierre, wait." "The other evening, it was my father who didn't want me to take one." "Take them all!" "No, thank you." "This one." "I love it, it's beautiful." "Tell me, they aren't bits of stars, are they?" "No." "Where did you find them?" "In the hand of a statue of Carlos'." "I thought them pretty, so he gave them to me." "Carlos is an artist." "We wouldn't need to hide from him, I feel sure." "Pierre, look!" "Pierre, what's the matter?" "I don't know." "Nothing." "Nothing?" "Perhaps I'm growing worse." "Have you a headache?" "No, it's something different." "I feel queer." "Since we came out, I've forgotten to think about....before." "How do you mean?" "Other days I keep turning over in my head...." "Who was I?" "Where do I come from?" "What did I used to do?" "And here, I'd forgotten to think about it." "And that frightens me." "When I'm grown up, I'll study medicine, and I'll make you better." "Madeleine." "Hello." "Hello." "By the way, how is Pierre?" "Fine." "One of my friends just got married." "We're having a party Sunday." "Will you and Pierre join us?" "I'd like to, but I'm on duty Sunday." "Felicie or Marguerite could stand in for you." "Good idea, will you fix it up so I get my Sunday?" "Rely on me, it's done." "In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, so be it." "You look like a calendar by Hokusai." "It's jolly good!" "You've done a fine job, you know!" "Here!" "While I think of it, take this." "It's for me?" "Of course." "If I had asked someone else, I would have had to pay him." "It's wonderful how much better you seem to me to be lately." "Get along with you now." "It was not chance that we had arranged to meet at the cemetery that Sunday...." "If the Sister Superior had been there, we would have been sunk!" "She is terrible, the Superior!" "And curious." "She does nothing but ask questions!" "You're such a bungler, we would have been in a real mess!" "In any event, you must fix it so you never meet her, eh?" "Sister Marie des Anges is quite different." "She is kind." "You saw, she was quite shy because you were there." "I am sure she thought you very handsome!" "Me?" "Oh, I feel easy." "She saw your eyes!" "Why did she ask my address?" "Why, that's quite natural as she believes that you're my father." "That's it, Pierre." "We've entered our house." "I wondered if you were going to forget our ceremony." "No, with you, I never forget anything." "Hello." "It's Pierre, Madeleine's friend." "Do you think it's his daughter?" "How's the fishing?" "Oh, Pierre, look." "Did you see what that queer fellow is doing?" "He has a nerve, I must say!" "That's my tree!" "He has no right!" "Don't you like my picture?" "Yet it's pretty, isn't it?" "Besides, I really think it's a good likeness!" "That's not what I mean." "It's my tree." "Someone whom I love gave it to me." "And I don't want it to be taken away from me!" "I'm not taking it from you, I'm drawing it." "It's the same thing!" "It's mine, my own!" "Children are charming, but cruel." "However, Monsieur, when I see something beautiful I have to paint it." "It's a need." "Unfortunately, for that, leisure is necessary and I only have Sunday." "And if, moreover, I were to tell you that my wife disapproves she doesn't care for my passion." "What's your name?" "Come, let's have fun." "Come on, come on!" "Pierre!" "And by saying "disapprove," I swear to you it's much less than the truth." "Yes, Monsieur, that's how it is...." "Pierre!" "Can I go and play a game of Blindman's Buff?" "Just one game!" "Do you mind?" "Come on, start counting." "Quick." "Come." "Come on, let's get warm." "You are it!" "Come on, hide!" "Who did, Charles?" "Did that big man over there hit you?" "Yes." "Why, you great brute, aren't you ashamed?" "Hold on, I'll call my husband." "Fernand!" "Fernand!" "Dirty rotter!" "What is it, Mother?" "What happened?" "What has happened?" "What has happened?" "You dare ask me that!" "When I could have been attacked, your son killed without you lifting a little finger on the excuse that you were playing!" "Pierre, you are wicked!" "It's not done to hit someone smaller than yourself!" "Don't cry." "No, don't cry anymore." "It was because he was annoying you." "It's not true!" "You don't understand anything at all." "We were playing." "And you, you...." "Even my grandmother, who is bad, she never slapped me." "I'll never do it again." "I promise you!" "I hope not." "Because otherwise I shan't love you anymore." "And I'll never marry you and you'll remain all alone!" "Why do you look at him like that?" "I feel sure that he would never have hit a little boy!" "But then he doesn't know you." "Pierre?" "Could you be jealous?" "Would you like to be nice?" "Carry me in your arms." "I was just having a dream." "It was Christmas...." "There was a big fir tree with stars and garlands." "I had given you an extraordinary present." "And you had given me the cock from the steeple!" "And you were carrying me round the tree in your arms, like now." "And I was looking at the world upside down." "Like when one is dead." "If you knew how lovely it is like that, Pierre." "I seemed to be flying." "No, no, don't stop." "Go on, go on." "And then we had drunk glistening champagne." "And I fell asleep in a big bed next to my Pierre." "With my hand in yours." "Pierre, go on singing!" "Madeleine...." "Oh, Pierre, you were singing!" "You're happy!" "You know I've heard you singing several times now." "Oh, Pierre." "Why do you push me away?" "Don't you want me anymore?" "Madeleine...." "Darling." "I understand, I understand." "I love you, Pierre." "I love you, the rest doesn't matter.." "If you want me again your slave will be there." "For the moment she must make herself beautiful!" "I haven't told you yet, I've a surprise for you." "You're going to put on a white shirt, a tie, your suit and I'm going to put on my vamp's dress, you know, the one which...." "We are invited to a wedding, to lunch of course!" "You remember Bernard?" "Thanks to him, I've got my Sunday." "And we are going to lunch at a restaurant with one of his friends who got married." "They are coming by car to pick us up." "Are you pleased?" "If you knew how happy I am to have a whole Sunday with you at last!" "I want to be very beautiful." "For you." "It's Bernard who is going to be jealous." "I told you that at the start, he was making up to me." "Oh, in friendly fashion of course." "But if I had wanted...." "There are not many in the hospital who can boast of having resisted him." "But I've my Pierre, and the rest...." "Pierre?" "Stop." "It's Pierre!" "Where's he going like that?" "Pierre, hey." "Hey." "It's the lad who lives with Madeleine." "Hi, what are you doing here?" "He had a plane crash." "He was found half dead in an outlandish village." "Come, come, we'll take you back." "That's how he came to the country hospital where Madeleine was a nurse." "Madeleine." "What's going on?" "Bernard!" "Pierre has gone." "Pierre." "Where were you?" "You'll drive me mad." "What got you in such a state?" "We met him on the street, on his way to your friend, the sculptor." "I wanted to tell Carlos that we were invited." "But why leave like that without saying anything?" "I got into a terrible state." "You can't imagine all I thought!" "Madeleine, you think too much." "Right." "Well, get dressed quickly and I'll try to persuade the others to be patient." "We thought you would be ready." "Darling, are you dreaming?" "Pierre?" "No, I'm watching." "Aren't you hungry anymore?" "Come closer to me." "What time is it?" "Why, are you tired?" "Here, Françoise, give me your glass." "Ah, don't drink it all." "To your love life, Monsieur Pierre!" "It's here that Corot used to come to paint." "Corot, his poetic charm, the light and shade of his woods." "All that, it's here that he got it!" "No, you shouldn't have been a chemist." "What you should have been is an art critic!" "Don't get excited!" "He read all that yesterday in the guidebook." "What about it, the guidebook is an instrument of culture like any other." "Please, what time is it?" "You don't drink champagne like mineral water." "Well, now I'll tell you the story of the acupuncture and the captive balloon!" "Oh no, can't you keep quiet for five minutes?" "You are making a mistake, it's a scream!" "Françoise, I'm going to tell you one." "But it's a story without words." "I need a big spoon and a little one." "You accompany me by rubbing the edge of a glass with a wet finger." "Right." "Now try to understand." "That's it, Pierre, we're home." "You know the blue stone which you gave me?" "I've still got it." "When they put the light out in the dormitory, I put it on my bolster and I look at it." "I look at it as hard as my grandmother looks at her magic ball, and I repeat:" ""Pierre." "Pierre. "" "Until I see you." "Then I talk to you." "One night you kissed me." "And do you know how that was done?" "The little blue stone had rolled on the bolster and had touched my shoulder, like lips." "If I hadn't woken up at that moment I would never have known if it were true or not." "You never kiss me." "I love you, Pierre." "I love you." "Take me away, Pierre." "Pierre!" "Françoise!" "Well, Pierre, what's the matter with you?" "What do you want?" "Françoise." "What time is it?" "Why?" "Have you got an appointment?" "You ought to give him a watch, Madeleine, he has no notion of time." "Or else he has too much!" "It's not late darling, 4:00." "But if you are tired, we'll go home." "You never kiss me." "Miss!" "Miss!" "The bill, please." "Pierre, are you coming?" "We are leaving." "Look, your face is all wet." "You'll catch cold and you'll have a headache again." "What's he doing?" "Where's he going?" "I want to go home." "ln a short while." "At once!" "But, Pierre, they want to visit the fair." "We can't refuse now." "Anyway you'll see, it will be fun." "No." "There is too much noise!" "Yes, come...." "To please me." "Well then, come at least out of courtesy." "During the whole of lunch you were looking disagreeable." "Be a bit nice now for a change." "Well, are the lovers having a siesta?" "I am sure there are among you intelligent people who are sure that fate influences life!" "Then don't hesitate!" "With me you will learn everything without deception." "The truth...." "That is what I am offering you!" "My dears, on a day like this, we must go in." "No, no, out of the question!" "Things like that frighten me!" "You!" "Young man!" "I read a great future in your face!" "Oh, no!" "No!" "It's rather the past which interests him." "I read the past just as well as I read the future." "Go on in, Pierre, it's you she has noticed!" "Why of course!" "Second sight to the rescue of amnesia!" "Very funny, thanks." "And intelligent!" "Let's move on, are you coming?" "No, I want to go in." "No, Pierre it's idiotic!" "Let's go home." "Madeleine, you are not going to make a fuss." "If he wants to after all we are here to enjoy ourselves." "Oh no, Madam!" "The whole truth but only to the one concerned." "You must take your turn." "You understand, young man, daylight is no help to mystery!" "Sit down." "The cards are 1500." "That all right?" "You are the generous one!" "Give me your hands." "You have had an accident." "A serious one." "Yes." "I see it, very serious." "Look at me." "Look into my eyes, otherwise I see nothing." "There." "Good." "Wait." "I see...the sun, trees, the sea." "You have travelled." "Clouds...." "Wait." "You are fighting." "I see fire...flames." "You know what I am talking about?" "That's the hair of Hindu priestesses." "It's only for decoration." "And that?" "That...." "That's a magician's knife." "It comes from Africa." "You stick it in a tree and put your ear against the handle." "And you commune with the spirits." "And shall I tell you what, it's full of fluid!" "Would you like to hear about romance?" "Give me your hand." "No, not that one, the left." "How very much you are loved!" "Wait." "I see...." "I see...." "What did she tell you?" "She said I was very much loved." "Bernard, have you your licence?" "Serves you right!" "Rotten road-hog!" "Let him go." "Let him go!" "Clear the track, clear the track, or I'll call the cops!" "Well, children." "Well, your pal's the man for me!" "A champion!" "It's your fault, all this, you made him drink." "Well, that's the limit!" "It's my fault now!" "Anyway, you won't get me again!" "As far as I am concerned, loonies...." "That'll do!" "Don't you think things are bad enough?" "Right." "We'll carry him up to your place." "He'll be all right, he's strong, but if you like I'll stay with you." "Thanks, but I don't need anyone in order to look after him." "My love...." "Forgive me, it's my fault." "I'm an idiot." "Excuse me, sir, it's about Françoise." "Come in." "Oh, no, no, it's not worthwhile." "Anyway, I am not alone." "One of our sisters is waiting for me at the chemist's." "I mustn't be long." "What is it?" "It's not serious, don't worry." "This is it." "Françoise is ill" " Not really ill." "She's a very sensitive child and you didn't come to get her on Sunday." "But you were to take her out, weren't you?" "You had promised her to?" "That's the cause of the trouble." "She imagines that you don't love her anymore that her father is going to desert her." "She's such an excitable child, so extreme!" "And as sick children have a right to visitors I took the liberty of coming to fetch you." "Françoise, here is your papa." "I will leave you a minute." "I wanted to come last Sunday." "We were invited to a wedding." "It's not my fault that I couldn't let you know." "Afterwards it was past 4." "Too late." "You remember, the other Sunday?" "You had a dream, for Christmas." "The tree, and the stars, and the decorations." "I am going to do all that." "If you won't look at me, I am going." "No, stay!" "Pierre, you deserted me." "Who was she?" "Madeleine!" "She's your wife then?" "No." "Liar." "Why did she kiss you like that?" "Nice manners!" "She certainly deserved that you beat her but you oughtn't to have done it." "It was awful, Pierre." "You frightened me." "Then you don't love me anymore?" "Of course I love you!" "What a business!" "I must say!" "You said that you wanted to do what at Christmas?" "Do like in your dream!" "Why, you're crazy!" "And your wife?" "What is she going to say?" "She won't know anything." "I've been thinking about it, and I have got it all worked out." "Have you seen Pierre?" "Pierre?" "Well, he must be at the school." "I saw one of the nuns on a bicycle stop at your place." "I wanted a kilo of oranges, please." "Tell me, Charles, what should I give Mme. Madevil?" "Give her some of the Maltese." "Fine, I'll choose them." "And a little later he came out almost running." "Perhaps the little girl is ill?" "Little girl?" "I forgot the biscuits." "Please add them to my bill." "Don't get panicky, it's probably not serious." "No, no, I am tired just now." "He went to see the child." "But he should have left me a note." "Thank you." "What did you say to her?" "You remember the pretty little girl we see on Sunday with him at the pond." "She does look upset." "What's the matter with her?" "It's not possible." "Oh, Carlos...." "He must have made the acquaintance of a little girl from the school." "He managed to see her again every Sunday." "That was why he told me he was with you." "Or he was going to the station to see the trains." "He was lying." "In our neighbourhood people thought it was his daughter." "They believed I knew all about it." "But it's all very sweet!" "No." "If he hid it from me it means trouble." "He's frightened of me." "And to think my only chance was that he should have absolute confidence in me." "So we could start a real life." "A normal one." "Did he never speak to you?" "No." "But you are wrong to get excited about it." "It's not serious." "Pierre loves you." "No." "No, everything has changed." "To think I fancied he was better lately." "I even heard him singing once." "Now I understand, Carlos." "Yesterday we went to the fair." "Already in the morning he had gone out without saying anything to me." "It was to warn her that he couldn't see her!" "Yes, of course!" "Now I remember exactly." "When we were on the Dodgem...." "It was after having seen a little girl from the school who was watching us." "Oh, Carlos, I could recognise her." "She had a way of looking at us." "And it was then that Pierre seemed to become mad." "Hitting me like a brute." "It started a fight." "When he was taken home he was delirious." "He kept saying the same words as when he was brought to the hospital." "Half dead." "He was saying in English:" ""ls she dead?" "Did I kill her?"" "No, you mustn't get everything mixed up!" "He's in love!" "It's not more complicated than that." "When one is in love, naturally one has secrets." "Oh, no, you're not going to call that lies!" "Be quiet!" "In love with a child!" "And you consider that normal?" "Me?" "I consider it marvellous!" "Have you gone crazy?" "What about it?" "What harm do you think he can do with a little girl?" "He's no Bluebeard!" "No, listen." "Pierre is like a child himself." "And with the child he has found a world cut down to size, a world where he is happy." "Shall I tell you what, I'd like to be in his place!" "Oh, you!" "You've no idea of anything!" "Reality isn't necessarily like in your dreams!" "After all, Carlos, Pierre is no longer a child." "Don't listen to Carmela." "She's a good girl, but in love affairs she reasons like an evening paper." "Listen to me well, Madeleine I know what I am saying, and if I say it, it is for your good." "And for Pierre's good too." "Come now, have you seen Pierre's eyes?" "Exactly, I have seen his eyes." "He hasn't normal eyes." "And it's not because he has amnesia that he has that look." "No doubt he doesn't realise it himself, but he may be dangerous." "That is the result of the full moon!" "When it's the full moon one woman in three becomes crazy." "And with Carmela it never fails!" "Why not say at once that Pierre is a sadist?" "Why hide?" "If it is normal, if he hasn't ideas" "And when you were a child, did you tell your parents everything?" "Try to understand him a little instead of brooding over him like a mother hen." "Come now, Carlos, it's not the same thing." "Anyway, Madeleine must warn the nuns." "Why, of course!" "And have a real sensation!" "No, I'd stake my life that he loves this child in a very pure way." "He is re-living his childhood, you understand." "What is needed is for you to arrange that he tells you himself." "Carlos, if I ask him, he" "Don't ask him." "He'll freak out and it will be pointless." "No." "Get back his confidence first of all." "You must make him feel that it is not he that has need of you but you who need him." "I am sure that at heart he would like to talk to you about it." "I'd like to believe you, Carlos." "But I must get the matter cleared up." "Take great care." "Respect him, Madeleine." "You mustn't dirty something beautiful." "You know Sunday I hit you." "I didn't want to do that." "I don't know what happened." "Perhaps it was the noise." "There was so much noise and...." "It was the noise." "Yes, of course." "We were silly to take you there." "You know next Monday is Christmas." "I have a day off to take." "And I can choose between Sunday and Tuesday." "Which would you prefer?" "Tuesday would be best." "I haven't been to Paris for a long time." "Go." "Go now." "Don't let Carlos wait." "We are home." "Listen." "What can I bring you?" "Two warm Grenadines." "Two warm Grenadines?" "Yes." "No, no." "Two grogs." "Yes." "One, two grogs." "Yes, two grogs, please." "Was it like this where you were?" "No, it wasn't so nice, but you could see the pond." "Is it true that you said nothing about us two to your wife?" "All the better." "Are your hands still cold?" "I'm absolutely frozen!" "Will you tell me your real name one day?" "And you, will you give me the cock from the steeple one day?" "Do you think this is a real café?" "Why?" "There's no one here." "Perhaps it is because it is very dear." "Will you have enough money?" "Yes, I think so." "You know, if one day you didn't come anymore I think I would want to die." "Die?" "Yes." "To close my eyes." "To become quite cold." "I'd be put in a coffin." "The lid would be nailed down." "On the grave there would be no name." "Because no one would know my real name." "Even if they wrote "Françoise" it wouldn't mean anything." "I wouldn't exist anymore...at all." "I will always come." "And if I died, would you die?" "Or would you forget me with your wife?" "You would forget me, eh?" "Tell me." "Would you die too?" "Yes." "Tomorrow is Monday." "But I don't care because tomorrow is Christmas!" "And you made me a promise!" "No, Bertrand, really, don't dazzle people!" "Higher, higher!" "The good Lord didn't exactly favour you, my poor Bertrand!" "Do you think all this old iron looks nice on a Christmas Eve?" "The cock!" "The cock!" "Papa!" "Papa, Papa!" "He's the one who hit me." "But how do you know that it's him?" "And who else would do such a thing?" "And then he nearly poked out a neighbour's eye with the tree!" "No, the thing that upsets me, is for my little nephews." "And then the door!" "Look at it!" "There was no need to break it in like that!" "I'm afraid." "Come now, you told me yourself that you had understood, watching them." "But what's the matter?" "Where are you off to?" "But where are you going?" "I don't know." "To look for them!" "I'll see to my little nephew and then I'll call you during the evening." "We'll sort it out." "Can I telephone?" "ls it a Paris number?" "Yes." "You haven't a phone booth?" "Here, no one has any secrets from anybody." "Ah, yes, my dear children  the loveliest day of the year for children and grown-ups is Christmas." "Christmas is a celebration" "A white wine." "Dry?" "House wine?" "Dry." "Hello?" "Bernard?" "Bernard, I don't know what to do anymore." "Pierre hasn't come home." "He must be with the child." "He has taken a big Christmas tree from Carlos'." "Excuse me?" "Happiness is a gift we all receive....." "No, I don't know." "But he must have gone to fetch her." "Telephoned where?" "To the school?" "No, suppose he's not with her, suppose she is" "Come here." "I'll wait for you, eh?" "Be quick!" "Hello?" "Rue de Sevres." "Oh, yes, wait." "What number is this?" "Twenty-two, same as for the cops!" "Twenty-two." "How long will you be?" "Right, hurry!" "I'll wait for you." "Bernard, he must be found." "Otherwise, I'll be the one to go mad!" "or play with electric trains." "Christmas:" "Dolls with eyes that close, preferably." "My dear children, Christmas is also...." "How much do I owe you?" "Ninety-five with the telephone call." "You wouldn't have seen a man with a Christmas tree?" "I'll say, we've seen a few go past today!" "A big tree...." "All decorated." "What does he look like?" "He's tall, blond." "With very short hair, and very light eyes." "You don't mean the Satyr?" "Yes." "It's a joke." "My wife and I call him that." "Because every Sunday we see him go past near the lake." "We go there to fish." "So, you see, he is always with a kid." "They're like lovers." "In reality, it must be his little daughter." "Only, as he looks a bit odd we had christened him the Satyr." "Just a nickname!" "My dear little friends, never miss, even if you have grown up your appointment with Father Christmas!" "I say, where did you get all those big candles?" "At church." "They were given to you?" "Yes." "You really can't lie!" "I hope no one saw you take them!" "Wait, come and see." "Look." "You know, this is going to be my first real Christmas." "The other times, I was always sent to bed at 9, like any other evening." "What is it?" "Oh, Pierre, you have cut yourself." "It's broken." "lt doesn't matter, one will do us." "But let me see your finger." "Poor Pierre." "You know, in such cases, it needs to bleed a little." "There, it's over." "I know all your thoughts now that I've drunk your blood." "You're going to open the champagne?" "Good." "Well, while you're opening it, I'll leave you a minute." "Mind you don't turn round!" "You know, in such cases, one should make a wish." "I would like to stay with you forever and ever." "And then, next holidays, we would go to the sea." "I have never been to the sea." "We would see fish that fly." "You laugh, but it's true, they exist." "There are fish that have wings." "I read that in a book." "How lovely that must be, mustn't it?" "We must drink to that, perhaps it would be best." "Your turn now." "Oh, that's enough." "Don't forget I'm a little girl." "And, anyway, you know, the main reason I think it's so lovely..." "...is because of the bubbles." "Well, I am thirsty." "Pierre, look." "Undo it now." "Cybèle." "Do you like it?" "Cybèle." "It's your name, your real name!" "It's lovely." "It sounds like si belle." ""So lovely!"" "It's my name." "It's me." "It was the name of a goddess." "The goddess of trees and earth." "So I was told." "It's a very ancient name, you know." "What's the matter?" "Nothing but later on I'll have a surprise for you too." "I thought you were never coming!" "You've seen the traffic jams." "And anyway, I looked in to warn the police." "We're going to your place now, I gave your telephone number." "What did you do?" "lt was the only thing to do." "I phoned the school first." "He had already been to fetch the child." "So I went to see the cops." "I shouldn't have called you." "It's my fault." "You don't understand." "I saw them last Sunday." "They were like two happy children." "And you, you've gone and denounced Pierre like a criminal." "It's possible, but we haven't the right to take such a risk." "But what risk?" "What are you thinking?" "That he's going to kill her, that he's going to rape her?" "Pierre is sick, one can expect the worst." "It's you who are sick - you and Carlos' wife." "All of you who call yourselves normal!" "When you see somebody being happy outside of your conventions then he is not normal and you reject him." "Why?" "Does sincerity embarrass you?" "Even I was getting ideas." "Right." "Listen, we're not going to start getting sentimental." "To me, it's simple." "Pierre is in a violent phase." "If, in his subconscious he believes he killed a little girl before" "It's you who told me so." "If he believes he escaped punishment he could easily end by killing another in order to be punished." "Just to free himself of his obsession." "When the human brain is deranged, one must" "Oh, yes, one must, one must, Bernard." "You may have a lot of sense, but no intuition." "What must be done is to stop the police from interfering in this." "Pierre would never get over it." "You're going to phone them." "Tell them anything, that it was a joke" "In any case, it's too late, the nuns have lodged a complaint." "The vertigo." "I haven't vertigo anymore!" "Hello?" "Hello, Pierre?" "No." "Who is speaking?" "Carlos." "Isn't Madeleine there?" "Hello?" "Carlos?" "Well, what's happening?" "It was Bernard who answered you." "We're waiting." "Bernard has called in the police." "The police!" "What for?" "You're crazy!" "What have you done?" "Do you realise it?" "!" "Listen to me, Madeleine, for your own sake." "This is no time for sentiment." "You don't want the phone to be busy just when they call to let us know." "Hello?" "Madeleine?" "We were cut off." "Yes." "I hit it with my elbow." "I see." "I don't know what can be done now, but things mustn't stay like this." "Wait for me, I'm on my way." "Hello?" "Yes, it's me." "Ah, so they've been found?" "What?" "You have killed him?" "You can call it a real miracle!" "Two moments later and we would have been too late." "He had a dagger in his hand and was slowly approaching the girl who was asleep." "What are you called?" "What is your name?" "I have no name anymore." "I have no name anymore." "I am nobody now!" "Nothing!"