"I had this dream last night." "The light is bright." "There's a woman in a park on a hill." "Below, the city crushed by silence." "The four of you are nearby." "Joélle and Stéphane sit on the grass while Xavier and Sonia walk below." "The woman calls your names but you don't turn." "At first, I don't recognize her but then realize she is me." "The woman doesn't have my face but I realize she is me." "She sings." "I recognize the tune." "Close the gate, Stéphane." "Xavier, what time do you start?" "4 o'clock." "I finish at 8." "Late opening on Thursdays." "What number on Rue Brancas?" "20." "Okay?" "Yeah, I'm beat." "I woke at 6 AM and couldn't get back to sleep." "I'm set to working hours." "I'm already sick of it." "You still run?" "I don't have the wind for it now." "I try to walk everywhere." "It takes me 30 minutes to walk to school from my place." "You gave up smoking." "It's not that." "I feel I've gone soft." "Christmas has had that effect on me these last few years." " Not you?" " Yes." " Bought your presents?" " No, not yet." "I still have three days left." "True, but three days soon pass." "Every year, I find myself wandering in stores with no ideas." "It was crazy at Montparnasse yesterday." "You should buy your presents early." "In August, say." "Sure." "Hey, I'll go and see Marc." "How did dinner go?" "With my cousin?" "It was fun." " You know Jérémie?" " Yes, I think so." " My Breton cousin." " Right..." "He's weird." "He ends every sentence with "man"." ""Okay, man?"" " "Get anywhere with chicks, man?"" " Tacky..." " Even with girls?" " Sure, even with my mum." ""Can you pass the mash, man?" Straight up." "It must feel weird." "Sophie!" "With the baby." "Okay?" "No kisses today, I'm sick." "Hi." "I hadn't seen your little Claudine yet." "She's brand-new." "Here she is." " Where's Marc?" " Playing soccer at the park." " How old is she?" " Two months." " Aren't you cold?" " I'll go back in." "See you." "I didn't know he had a kid." " Two months, she said?" " Yeah." "On waking, that tune haunted me." "Maybe the five of us played it." "Ever noticed that the few times you and I are together, you talk about music?" "Nothing but music." "I can't remember us ever having a serious conversation." "Serious how?" "This is serious." "I'm talking about an album that moves me." "See, you make fun of everything." "Either you talk about music or you get absurd." "No at all." "There's nothing absurd about it." "I'm not criticizing or aggressing you." "It's just something I thought of recently." "It doesn't matter." "You think my conversation?" "limited?" "No, that's not what I meant at all." "It's just that..." "Name one time when we talked about something other than the group or an album." "I don't know." "I don't note everything down." "There must have been times." "I don't know..." "That's the way things are." "We say a lot when we talk about music." "If I mention "North Marine Drive", try to see behind it." "What can I see behind it?" "You listened to "North Marine Drive" again, period." "No, not period." "Your thesis is in musicology?" "Musicology and literature." "Anyhow, forget it." "I knew you'd take it badly." "By the way, what's my thesis on?" " It's on Balzac." " Balzac..." "Balzac is a name, not a thesis." "What's it on then?" "Forget it." "Tell me, don't give me a fait accompli." "Music and the theory of humours in "The Human Comedy"." "I knew that." "It's just hard to put into words." "Shit, you jerk!" "I've hurt myself." "He's crazy!" "Lost your childlike soul?" "I see your four outlines against the light." "The blinding light on the hill." "You seem almost unreal." "I can't touch you." "You know, I saw Nathalie yesterday." " Nathalie?" " Andréani." " You didn't?" " I did." " Where?" " At the station." "And?" "It was weird." "I don't really know her." "Shit, she's a pretty girl." "She's so cute." "It's true." "A very beautiful face." "Such grace..." "Did you speak?" "We just chatted a little." "The chick does brochures for insurance companies." "I wasn't exactly concerned." "I soon ran out of things to say." "Is she in touch with others?" "We talked about that." "She still sees Magali, Florent, Alex..." "The living dead!" "I hadn't heard those names mentioned in ages." "Zombies!" "What are they doing?" "Apparently," "Magali and Florent left for Brittany like they said." "Paranoid?" "The thing is, I can't really tell." "Every time I find myself somewhere with her and with him, together," "I don't know, it's as if..." "It's a physical thing." "Know the title of Joelle's thesis?" "Why do you ask?" "No reason, just asking." "Is it on Balzac?" "Yeah, but what's the title?" "What's it about?" "It about humours or something." "The theory of humours?" "Yeah, that sums it up more or less." "Her thesis is a joke." "She's always teaching." "We were supposed to read it 3 years ago but I've seen nothing." "I'm not complaining." "We'd need to say what we think of it." "What can I say about the theory of humours?" "You liked her, right?" " Joélle?" " Not Joélle." "Andréani." "She's very beautiful." "That's not the word." "It's odd." "She's a strange combination of someone... very kind, very courteous and very sexual too." "That's pretty rare." "She's the kind who started fucking at 12 or 13." "Because of that, they give off a sort of serenity, calm and so on." "It's odd." "I realize when I'm on the verge of loving a woman, it's often a woman who doesn't inspire sex." " See what I mean?" " Not really." "Got a ciggie?" "Maybe I'm totally wrong." "Maybe I can't see it." "I need that tension, I guess." "Invented fire yet?" "Sorry." "That paradox between sexuality, gentleness and the rest." "Maybe that's all bullshit." "I think it is." "I mean, Myriam, Nathalie, they're all pretty sexual girls." "Myriam, yeah." "But Nathalie's different, see." "She's a girl who clearly likes physical love." "But there's this kindness about her, a genuine generosity..." "It's like a... a form of relinquishment, a vocation." "A vocation?" "Are you high or what?" "You're riled but I call it a vocation." "I'm no prude." "But your theory's pathetic." "I don't see why it's pathetic." "It's absurd." "When I hear that, what can I say?" "Nothing." "Don't say a thing." "Shit!" "Yes, Mahdi." "How's it going?" "He's still in IC?" "No, I'm with..." "I'm with Stéphane and Sonia." "I have to be at the media library by 4." "I'll tell him." "Okay, see you later." " What that Mahdi?" " Yes." "He wants us to go and see Riccardo." "I don't feel like it." "I hardly know Riccardo." "It's more for Mehdi's sake." "He's stuck there all day." "You didn't really explain it to me." "How did it happen?" "No one knows." "They were at his dad's." "He'd invited people over, they started messing about on the balcony and they fell." "His pal landed on the balcony below but they found Riccardo on the square outside the supermarket, six floors below." "Shit..." "I didn't get all the details." "His brother's a real headcase though." "Mahdi tells me the crazy shit he does." "When I woke, I got out the photos of our last trip to London." "There's one of you on Primrose Hill." "The hill in my dream." "It's an August afternoon." "The hotel fire alarm had gone off in the middle of the night." "I can see us in a daze on the Bayswater streets." "That morning, we met early in the basement breakfast room." "We chose a route at random, with the hill as our goal." "It's crazy, we moved to Malmousque over a month ago now." "You should come and see what the place is like." "I will come." "Are you still working in the bar?" "Yeah, I'm still there but less now." " And I'm still doing drug tests." " I thought you'd stopped." "No, because it pays really well." "I freaked out last summer." "They tried out..." "They tested an after-sun cream on me." "In two days, my arm doubled in size, it was covered with a rash and hard pimples..." "I've still got the marks." "I can't get rid of them." "I really freaked out, believe me." "Samuel told me to quit." "But the money's good." "There's another one in February." "You get 4,000 euros to stay awake for 48 hours in a room without sleeping." "You stay awake for 48 hours and they do all these tests." "It must be dangerous if they pay that well." "I can take it." "Why isn't Samuel here?" "You're totally out of it again." "We told you." "I told you." "He's at a symposium." "A symposium in London." "He didn't want to go back and forth so he stayed." "Right." "That morning, I called Marc from the hotel phone." "He had stayed in Paris." "I went and waited for you outside." "We talked a little outside the hotel." "I might give up the rehearsals when we get back." "Do you and your parents still see Marc?" "Not really." "I only see him when I come to see you at the media library." "They invited him to dinner but I wasn't there that night." " Has he heard from your sister?" " Not a thing." "Were they together long?" "Four years." "Maybe a bit longer." "They'd split up a year before." "Okay?" "Why so defeatist?" " It's useless with three!" " Just a second." "I thought we agreed on nee-realist songs." "They're a real plague!" "They're rancid." "Xavier!" "Sonia plays with Plutonium!" " I can't hear." " She plays bass with Plutonium!" "What?" "I'm not shitting you." "That's not right, Sonia." "What's going on?" "My bag is full of ideas and ham..." "Cut it out." "You've already lectured me about reggae." "Not reggae, raggamuffin." "It's different." "It lasted three hours." "He's right." "Trying the didgeridoo next?" "What if I did?" "What if you did?" "It's an instrument for jerks." "Ever played a didgeridoo?" "It doesn't make a sound." "You have to sing notes and blow." "It's an aberration!" "Shouldn't even be called an instrument." "It's for jerks!" "You have to sing the notes." "A waste of time." "All I wanted to say was it's good playing with them." "I mean, it's no big deal." "They're in Marseilles, we rehearse..." "It does me good." "What's the problem?" "You know their name, right?" "Plutonium Urchin." "That's a problem to start with." "You can't get much worse." "If you had any common sense, you'd keep well away." "I'm pulling your leg but it can't be serious." "You piss me off." "At least I play." "I thought we agreed." "You're the one who said you loved nothing more than the lightness of pop." "So?" "I still do." "You mix everything up." "No, but I just love our consistency." "That belongs to us." "It suits you well too." "Maybe it does suit me but other things could suit us too." "Every time we talk about changing, everything goes down the drain, nothing works anymore." "You seem to react as if we're betraying you." "Give it a rest." "You fly off the handle." "Besides, we're not that prolific." "Because we don't play." "We just need to start again." "And we need to drop this French-English shit." "We both sing but neither one can write a song in French." "It's rock, not poetry!" "That's not the problem anyway." "You're changing the subject." "Why are we talking about this?" "I just want to say that trying something new doesn't have to be a problem." "Give me a break." "I know what you think." "See you, Marc." "You always get the same guys at the library." "Kind of twisted." "The kind who never gives in." "They'd buy you dinner just because you recommended an album." " That doesn't sound bad." " Sure!" "It'd be great if some cute chick talked about a rare recording you love." "But they're all guys." "You should see them." "Real social dropouts, living on the edge." "Guys who spend mornings hunting down rare vinyl albums." "In the afternoons, they try haggling with the importers and discounters." "And, in the evening, they piss you off with their finds." ""See this?" "It's incredible!"" " There must be a good side." " Give me a break!" "It's 5 o'clock, you're done in and that's when the nerd brings his stuff." "He'll show you some incredible old Dylan album, a recording of Johnny Cash in prison or of Neil Young on the moon." "Get the idea?" "I can see you're sick of it." "You go on about the people you work with but you seem pretty bitter yourself." "Yeah, I've been contaminated by the general gloom." "But you're right." "I'm no better than they are." "Let's shake ourselves." "We need to get back to it." "I mean it." "I think it's too late." "We don't have the energy for it now." "We all have shit to deal with." "I don't get it." "You go on about being brain-dead at the library and now you can't stir yourself to get things moving?" "That's not the problem, Stéphane." "We put too much into it, you more than anyone." "Of course we want to but what can we do?" "We don't work hard enough or something's missing." "Xavier's at the library all day." "Sonia's always in Marseilles." "You soundproof studios and I teach or work on my thesis." "It's freezing here." "Let's move." "That day, before we set off," "Sonia and Stéphane dragged us to the Netting Hill Gate record stores." "I see them with their second-hand albums." "I recall details of that day, like that house by the park and the man watching, concealed by the curtain." "Want me to get you a coffee?" "Maybe later." "A weird thing happened yesterday." "The metro stopped between stations, near Mouton-Duvernet, for 20-25 minutes." "Then they made us get out onto the tracks." "They did?" "It was weird, we had to walk to the next station." "You've got a real feast." " Are you okay?" " Fine." "No problems." "I'm getting settled." "Maybe we should go out while you eat." "No, it's okay." "Shall we wait downstairs?" "I recall that hill where we spent the end of the day." "The hill in my dream." "The one in the photo." "That photo is strange." "You're walking on Primrose Hill." "It's the month of August." "It's very hot." "The city is silent." "But I'm no longer in the photo." " You still have this?" " Yeah." "No one else puts this thing out." "Trying to set a record?" " Still, you're right." " Of course I am." "I shouldn't criticize." "I've spent summers here." " Can I take it?" " Sure, no one borrows it." "We're not taking root here." "I can't stop thinking about Mehdi's brother." "I shouldn't have gone there." "Mahdi was pleased." "Same time tomorrow at Xavier's parents'." "You won't forget?" "I'll call you later." "How does Xavier stay in that bunker all day?" "I don't think he knows either." "How are you doing?" "I haven't asked about Sylvia lately." " Meaning?" " I don't know." "Had any news?" "I think I'd have told you." "The police called us three months ago." "A possible sighting near Dijon." "But that was all." "When we called back, they said it was a mistake." "What are you doing later?" "I'll probably have dinner with my dad." "You're useless." "You didn't tell me anything again." "You dodge my questions." "You see how you manage to change the subject?" "I don't really know." "What can I tell you?" "I don't think it can turn out well." " Do we have to talk about this?" " Why not?" "It could help you." "No, I don't think so." "If it helps, I feel like I'm using it." "I find that obscene." "Obscene?" "Don't you think you're exaggerating?" "Deep down, you're too proud." "You could deal with things more simply." "You talk, it helps you and that's that." "Aim for a little more simplicity." "Do you want to meet up somewhere after dinner?" "I have to see my parents too." "We don't have to go to Paris." "We can keep it simple, meet the others at the Jardy." " Call me when you decide." " Okay." " They've redone the Jardy." " They have?" "An extra room and a glass roof." "I was there with Ethel." "It was fun." "It must have been a blast!" "It's fun spending a bit of time together here, right?" "Yeah." "It's weird." "You're not wrong." "Just a second." "You've got one at last?" " I didn't have much choice." " The last pocket of resistance..." "It's Joélle." "I'm on my way." "I'll be there in 10 to 15 minutes." "I'll hurry." "See you later." "I have to go." "I have to get my bike from Xavier's." "Maybe I'll call by later." "If you want." "I'll bring the new Teenage Fanclub." "I downloaded it." " Any good?" " Yeah, it's..." "Not bad but not as good as the one before?" "Exactly." "I'm not surprised." " Taking the path?" " It's a short cut." "We can go pan of the way together." "You could have rung the bell." "It's simpler." "Have you seen the time?" "It doesn't matter." "We've never been here much." "C'mon, you all came here." "But with my dad in pyjamas all day, I felt uneasy." " How long have you been here?" " I forget." "Since '87 or '88." "Maybe." "You've never moved from here?" "At first, I'd spend weekends with my mum but then I stopped going." "Are those album sleeves?" "Yes, I had no way to listen to them so I put them on the wall." "Come and sit here." "You'd be more comfortable." "When do you go back to work?" "At the end of next week." "The 3rd or the 4th, I can't remember." "And you?" "When school starts again." "Okay?" "You want me to stop?" "No, it feels weird." "It's instinct." "Your instinct's charming." " You don't want to?" " I do." "I do." "I don't know..." "It feels weird." "And your dad's just next door." " I can hear the TV." " I'll put some music on." "Want draw up a play-list or will that do?" " Want me to help you?" " Yes." "I can't do it." "I'm beat." "I was thinking about going to bed." "Are you okay?" "Are you staying tomorrow or leaving?" "I don't know yet." "See you tomorrow maybe." " Are you okay?" " I'm fine." "You're staying tonight?" "Yes." "Is your music going well?" "Not really." "But maybe we'll get there." "We've only just started." "If you record it, you can send it to companies, like you said." "What was it you said?" "To labels?" "Yes." "I don't know yet." "You know, we may not record it." "It depends on how it all goes." "Whether we think it's worth it or not." " I saw Marc the other day." " He said he saw you." "How was your week at work?" "It was okay." "They still piss you off?" "It's okay, it's down to an acceptable level." "That's good." "How about you?" "I'm okay." "Nothing very interesting." "Waxman has retired so I've changed offices." " It's less convivial." " Shit." "It doesn't matter." "Your mum's not doing too well." "She went back to Sylvia's place." "I told her not to but... she wanted to get her notebooks." "Maybe that's not a bad thing, if she really wanted to." "Maybe but... she came back, like before." "It takes her days to get over it." "We had already looked at them but she wanted to read pans of them again." "We did that." "Take a look at them if you want." "They go up to... just before she left." "But there's nothing there." "It's just her stuff." "It's a diary." "She'll get in touch when she feels like it." "Yes, she'll call." "I'll stop pissing you off." "You must be tired." "Thaw some bread for breakfast if you want." "You can stay while you're making your music." "We're glad to have you here." "Okay." "Want the TV left on?" "No, you can turn it off." "I'll be going to bed soon." "Looking at that photo," "I was able to find the tune the woman sang in my dream." "The same tune that guided our steps to Primrose Hill." "A cartography of the city that we were discovering through our favourite songs." "How many places did we visit because a lyric mentioned them?" "Everything seems so clear in the photo." "Everything is light." "You're already some way off." "Before pressing the shutter, I called your names and so you're turning to me, frozen in unlikely poses." "The sunlight dazzles you." "Sonia is ahead of you and stands out against the sharp light of the day's end." "The colours are striking." "The reds and whites of the T-shins," "Joélle's yellow dress as she steps behind Stéphane, the orange flowers of a tree to the left and our shadows cast over the ground." "Then, above it all, the deep blue of the empty sky." "Subtitles:" "Ian Burley" "Subtitling Titra Film Paris"