"BEYOND the CLOUDS" "Excuse me." "Can you suggest a hotel?" "A good one or a simple one?" "You choose." "I'll trust you." "There's one just back there." "Thanks." "I need a room, please." "A single?" "Room 4." "Any luggage?" "I'll be right back." "We met earlier, but you didn't even look at me." "The beautiful thing is that I came here by chance." "Why beautiful?" "I was supposed to go somewhere else." "At one point I let the car drive me." "Me, I'm stuck here in the fog." "I'm a teacher." "I can't escape except when school is out." "Where do you go?" "The city." "I just escaped from there." "Have you noticed nobody watches sunsets anymore?" "Maybe it happens in towns too... but when my job brings me out to the country..." "I'm always enchanted by the sunsets." "I'm a drainage pump technician." "There are lots around here." "My name is Carmen." "I'm Silvano." "Voices never become part of you like other sounds." "The sea, for instance." "You end up not hearing it." "But a voice you can't help listening to." "It's strange." "We always want to live in someone's imagination." "Maybe that's the secret of being in love." "I like your eyes." "They're so empty of everything... except sweetness." "Which is your room?" "The one on the right." "Good night." "Night." "Has the girl in Room 8 already left?" "She's always up early for work." "Where can I buy flowers here?" "Flowers don't grow in the lagoon." "Can you send those to her room?" "I'll get some fresh ones." "Did you like it?" "It's a miracle meeting you again!" "Nothing happens by chance." " This is Sara." " Pleased to meet you." " I have to go." "I'm running late." " Did I scare you off?" "No, I must get to the shops before they close." "Bye, Carmen." "See you tomorrow." "Bye." "I've wondered for two years why you left that morning... without even saying good-bye." "I waited all night for you." "I've been wondering lately... why I have such a need to hear words." "Eyes are in fashion." "True words are shut up inside." "Bring some out." "All right." "There's a kind of enslavement that we can desire... when we're under a spell." "For example, now..." "I'm enslaved by your silence." "Do you live here?" "Yes, this is my home." "You must be very rich!" "It's beautiful." "Who else lives here?" "A family from Naples lives upstairs." "Are you with somebody?" "Not at the moment." "There's always something left behind." "Like dregs in a coffee cup." "My grandma used to read coffee cups." "She knew all about everyone who drank coffee with her." "I lived with a man for a year." "Ten days ago, he wrote me a letter." "I know it by heart." "Some scents cling to your skin forever." ""I can still smell the scent of your skin and your words." "Where we stopped last time." "I stayed there... feeling you close to me."" "Words do us good, even in writing." "A woman expects them." "She always does." "Can I help you?" "Excuse me." "Sorry to bother you." "May I?" "Thank you." "I read a strange thing in my magazine." "I want to talk to someone about it." "And you picked me?" "You're not French, are you?" "No, I'm from New York, but I live here." "Where are you from?" "Italy." " So may I?" " Go ahead." "I'm "all ears."" "Isn't that what they say?" "I hope so." "In Mexico... some scientists hired porters to take them... to an Incan city in the mountains." "At one point, the porters stopped." "They refused to go on." "The scientists got angry and tried to get them moving." "They couldn't understand the long delay." "After several hours... the porters set off again." "Finally, their leader decided to explain." "What had happened?" "I see you're interested." "Now, very." "He said... they'd been walking too fast." "They'd left their souls behind." "Their souls?" "It's wonderful!" "It's like us." "We go rushing around... and lose our souls." "We should wait for them." "To do what?" "Everything that seems pointless." "You're still up?" "Were you with her?" "We met briefly." "Since that story about souls in the cafe..." "Some things can't be called off overnight." "It's her or me." "You're late." "Sorry." "The traffic was bad." "Everything's against us." "Look, we've got to talk." "But caress me at the same time." "Gently." "I've forgotten it all." "Patricia." "Oh, shit." "What's up?" "What are you up to?" "I've been calling you for two days." "That's a vase to me." "What's a vase to you?" "Vase of flowers." "Flowers... colors." "Colors... beauty." "Beauty..." "love." "Everything seems ridiculous." "Love is ridiculous." "It has to be said." "It's an illusion." "A trap." "But the trap is mysterious, so we all fall into it." "Like stewed prunes!" "You bring me your calm... after sleeping with her?" "I slept alone." "I felt bad." "I was away on a trip." "You know that." "Didn't you take her?" "I didn't take anybody." "I loved making love to you." "Go fuck yourself." "You've got a new vocabulary." "Because you're talking gibberish." "Say what you like, but last night..." "I realized how much I miss making love to you." "I'll come back if you leave her." "I will." "I swear." " When?" " Today." "This morning." "Now." "Don't leave me." "Don't leave me." "Tell me." "Do you still make love behind my back?" "I've been saying no to her for three years." "Would she want to?" "Probably, yes." "And you've always refused." "Well, yes." "And today?" "Did you say yes or no?" "I pitied her." "Don't you pity me?" "For three years you've been bringing her smell here!" "The smell on your clothes." "The stale smell of a cheated woman!" "Thanks." "Bye." "You're back?" " Where are you?" " Somewhere." "What's gotten into you?" " Emptying the house." " It's my furniture." " You could leave a note." " You never did." " Because of my job!" " Leaving me stuck at home!" " Where are you?" " Don't try to find me." "Is the lady here?" "No, she went out." "I spoke to her about renting the place." "What place?" "This one, I think." "I brought the newspaper ad." "It's entirely my wife's idea." "I'm not even sure I agree." "Don't say that or I'll go crazy." "May I explain my situation?" "I prefer short stories." "I'll put it in a nutshell." "My husband has been having an affair for three years." "I was patient." "He always said it would pass." "But in fact..." " The doorbell rang." " I didn't hear it." "I'm expecting the furniture." "My husband's." "So you emptied an apartment too." "I don't know." "I guess I'll have to go away again." "Where to?" "I have commitments outside Paris." "So you'll cope somehow." "Yes." "But this time I was planning to stay put." "I told her so." "Maybe that's why she went to live with him." "With whom?" "The lover." "So you're in a precarious position too." "Right." "It seems to be the thing." "This is her." "She's beautiful." "My wife." "Don't try to find me." "There's a cure for everything." "That's what disturbs me." "May I?" "I told you." "Don't phone me again." "I wonder why our society needs all these copies of things." "Not just paintings." "Copies of everything." "Even things like clothes, suitcases, bags, watches." "Originals are very costly." "True." "But in your case, a reproduction of Cezanne... or a photo of the landscape would do." "I believe that anyone who copies a masterwork... has a chance of repeating the artist's action... and possibly recapturing, if only by chance... the exact gesture." "A copy of the gesture." "Why not?" "Recapturing a genius's nature... will satisfy me more... than any brushstroke of my own." "I can see why you laugh." "I won't sell it to you anyhow." "Don't worry." " Please." " I'm sorry." "Thank you." "I'm looking for the architect's office." "It's across the street." "Excuse me." "May I come with you?" "I'm going to church." "Are you a Catholic?" "Do you believe in God?" "What is this, a test?" "If I say yes, I can escort you, and if not, I can't?" "Is that the idea?" "Sorry." "No, I'm not sorry." "Are you always so quiet?" "Why?" "I have nothing to say." "With so many things going on around you?" "Maybe I should go alone." "No, I should escort you." "Don't worry." "Nothing can happen to me." "You must read a lot." "Not even the papers?" "I used to browse through them." "Not anymore." "Once I read this in a paper:" ""If only a cherry tree could eat its own cherries!"" "You're the tree that eats its own fruit." "I think that to be happy we should eliminate our thoughts." "That's a thought in itself." "That's true." "That's why I prefer to keep quiet." "That only makes it worse!" "Silence fills our heads with thoughts." "I mean pointless thoughts." "How do we get rid of those?" "I'd escape." "Where to?" "Away from my body." "Why?" "One of the body's shortcomings... is that it needs so much." "It's never satisfied." "Don't run down all its needs." "Some can be fun to satisfy." "Try giving up your little fun." "You'll see the peace it brings." "We already have so many unfulfilled dreams... at the end of each day!" "I think I've got it." "You show all the signs of a girl in love." " It's true." " I knew it!" "You're detached, like all satisfied women." "Yes, I am satisfied." "So peaceful!" "Right now I have life's rarest treasure:" "Serenity." "It comes from being with a satisfied woman." "Satisfied people are rare." "Excuse me." "Are you satisfied?" "Don't be ridiculous." " See?" "It's rare." " What time is it?" "A quarter to 5:00." "Can we hurry?" "Where are we going?" "St. John of Malta's." " Are you from here?" " No." "Will you tell me where you're from?" "I'd really rather not." "Like flowers." "That's true." "It's pretty." "This sounds like sacrilege... but I don't like flowers." "I do, but they make me sad." "They're beautiful..." "gorgeous for two days." "Then they wilt and get thrown away." "The Japanese don't grow flowers so as not to see them die." "Why are you smiling?" "You're scared of death, aren't you?" "Scared is not the word." "I'm scared of life." "A girl your age, scared of life?" "Absurd!" "The life people lead." "You undervalue it." "What do you want from life?" "Nothing." "What?" "Nothing?" "Life is all we have." "It's all there is." "It's the only thing we know exists." "Look." "Here we're alive." "There we're dead." "Here we can laugh." "There we can laugh all we like..." "no one will see." "We're in the beyond." "Your opinion is beside the point." "Please don't treat me like this." "Your courtesy reminds me too much that I'm a woman." "You don't like it?" "I wish I were a man." "A strong man." "Almost all women say that... but usually for practical reasons." "I mean I'd like to be as strong as a man." "An enigma..." "that's what you are." "And, like all enigmas, disconcerting." "I want to know you better." "Discover you." "I'd like us to be friends." "It's hard to relate to someone who's in love... but I'd like to try." "I'm not saying this to please you." "You're not the type to like compliments." "Not that kind of compliment." "I'd rather be told that I pray well." "Can you be good or bad at praying?" "Oh, yes!" "The way you looked in church, you must be brilliant!" "It was like you were dead." "I was dead." "A little." "Look!" "Lone men at night look like criminals." "Typical!" "A criminal who lets you by and then starts singing." "Are you hurt?" " Sure you're okay?" " I'm fine." "You got your coat dirty." "What if I fell in love with you?" "You'd be lighting a candle in a room full of light." "Can I see you tomorrow?" "Tomorrow I enter a convent."