"NOSTALGIA" "We've arrived." "I stopped here so we could stretch our legs." "It's a marvellous painting." "I cried the first time I saw it." "This light reminds me of the autumn in Moscow." " Come on." " I don't want to." " I'll wait for you inside." " I don't want to!" "I'm tired of seeing these sickeningly beautiful sights." "I want nothing more just for myself." "That's enough." "Have you come to pray for a baby too?" "Or to be spared them?" "I'm just looking." "If there are any casual onlookers who aren't supplicants then nothing happens." "What is supposed to happen?" "Whatever you like, whatever you need most." "But you should at least kneel down." " I can't." " Look at the others." "They're used to it." " They have faith." " Probably." "Can I ask you something?" "Why do you think it's only the women who pray so much?" "You're asking me?" "You see so many women here." "I'm only the sacristan." "But you must wonder why women are more devout than men." "You should know" "Because I'm a woman?" "No, I never understood these things." "I'm a simple man." "But I think a woman is meant to have children to raise them with patience and self-sacrifice." "That's all she's meant for?" " I don't know." " Thank you." "You've been a great help." "You asked what I thought." "You want to be happy." "There are more important things." "Wait!" "Pitiful Mother, merciful Mother" "Painful Mother, tormented Mother" "Merciful Mother, compassionate Mother" "Anxious Mother, blessed Mother" "Loving Mother, bright Mother" "Mortified Mother, holy Mother" "Painful Mother, proud Mother." "Inspired Mother, bright Mother." "Mother of all mothers, who knows the pain of being a mother." "Mother of all mothers, who knows the joy of being a mother." "Mother of all children, who knows the joy of having a child." "Mother of all children, who knows the pain of not having a child." "Mother who understands all, help your daughter to become a mother." "I just don't understand you" "You go on and on about the Madonna of Childbirth." "We drive halfway across Italy in the fog." "And you don't go in to see her." "What are you reading?" "Arseny Tarkovsky's poems." " In Russian?" " No, it's a translation." "Quite a good one." "Throw it away." "Why?" "The translator's a very good poet." "Poetry is untranslatable, like the whole of art." "You may be right that poetry is untranslatable." "But music?" "What is it?" "A Russian song." "But how could we have got to know Tolstoy, Pushkin and so understand Russia?" "None of you understand Russia." "Nor you Italy, then." "If Dante, Petrarch and Machiavelli don't help." "It's impossible for us poor devils." "How can we get to know each other?" "By abolishing the frontiers." "Which?" "Between states." "Hello." "You know a maid in Milan set fire to the house?" " Which house?" " Her employers' house." "Why?" "She missed her home and family down South so she burned the thing that stopped her going back." "Why did your musician, Dostoevsky go back to Russia if he knew he'd be a slave again?" "Why won't you confide in me?" "Read this." "You'll understand." "What is it?" "The letter from the Bologna Conservatory?" "Yes." "Was Sosnovsky successful when he returned to Russia?" "Was he happy?" "He started drinking and then..." " He committed suicide?" " Exactly." "I'm sorry, I was asleep." "Do you have any identification?" "I'll go and get the keys." "Those aren't the other hotel keys, I hope?" "No, they're to my house." "Here's your key." "It's our best room." "Good night, Andrei." "Your room is on the next floor." "It's nice here." "The countryside's pretty too." "There's the river, the mushrooms." "People keep coming back, they often fall in love here." " You and your boyfriend will like it." " He's not my boyfriend." " Go on, he's sad because he's in love." " No, his mind's on other things." " Did you knock?" " I hadn't yet." "Do you want to call Moscow?" "You haven't talked to your wife for two days." "No, thanks." "One, two, three." "Andrei." "Andrei, get up." "We'll be eating soon!" "I'll be downstairs." "It's lovely here." "St Catherine used to come too!" "I'm coming." "What does this Russian do?" " He's a poet." " What's he writing?" "A biography of a Russian musician." "In Italy?" "This musician studied in Bologna and came to these baths." " When?" " At the end of the 1700s." "Was it Tchaikovsky?" "No, his name was Sosnovsky." "Didn't he marry a local woman?" "No, he was in love with a Russian slave and died for her." "What's the hurry?" " Does your poet like Italy?" " Too much so." "What's this strange music we keep hearing day in and day out?" "Wonderful music!" "Beats Verdi any time." "Hands off Verdi." "This is Chinese stuff." "A different civilisation with no sentimental walls." "Voice of God, of nature." "Pretend they're not there." "Just go on your way." "It's gotten into my mouth." "Move slowly." " What does it taste like?" " It's a liquid sulphur!" " So it's good for the skin." " Disgusting!" "I'm fine." "I'm falling asleep." "In the '60s a drowned body was found here." "Don't talk about it otherwise I get scared." "In the war I've seen thousands of dead soldiers." "Now listen, it's never too late to learn." "Whatever happens, don't interfere." "Have you heard them talking, what they're interested in?" "You've got to be different." "You know why they're in the water?" "They want to live forever." "Look who's here!" "Look at them!" "My cigar's gone out, anyone got a light?" "Why do they make fun of him?" "He shut himself up in the house with his family for seven years to wait for the end of the world." "A religious fit, they say." "Nonsense." "He was jealous of his wife." "Later she ran off with the children." "Jealous my foot, he's nuts." "You can tell it from miles away!" "That's not it, he was just scared." " Scared of what?" " Everything." "You're wrong, he's a man of great faith." "And how!" "He kept his family locked up for seven years!" "When they broke down the door his kid shot out like a rat and he chased after him." "We thought he wanted to kill him!" "Here's the Russian poet!" "Miss, I don't smoke but could I have a cigarette?" "Of course, as you don't smoke." " It's gone out." " So it has." "Thank you." "Never forget what he said to her." "He who?" "And her?" "St Catherine!" "So what did God say to St Catherine?" ""You are she who is not" ""but I am he who is."" "Did you hear that?" "Bravo, Domenico!" "Did he speak to St Catherine himself?" "Don't tease him." " Domenico has a degree!" " In what?" "What is "faith"?" "Even your Italian was better when you first came." "What does "faith" mean?" "In Russian it's "vera"." "Why do they say he's mad?" "He's not mad." "He has faith." "There are lots of these lunatics at large in Italy." "Asylums have been closed down but the families won't have them." "What is madness?" "They're troublesome, inconvenient." "We refuse to understand them." "They're alone." "But they're certainly closer to the truth." "He has another fixation now." "What?" "He gets into the pool with a lighted candle." "Everyone's afraid he wants to drown himself so they throw him out and save him." " I don't believe it." " Ask them." "Can we ask him to have lunch with us?" " When?" " Now!" "Now?" "You don't know what time is it." " What time is it?" " It's seven in the morning!" "In the morning?" "Does that man with the wet shoes come often?" "It depends." "Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't." " Where does he live?" " Up above Bagno Vignoni." "In the square." "What's so funny?" "Andrei!" " Stop." " Why?" "You're prettier in this light." "I'm beginning to understand." "What?" "Why do you think he locked up his family for seven years?" "How should I know?" "There he is." "I've brought a famous Russian writer." "My life is normal, there's nothing interesting about it." "But we hear you had a lovely experience." "I read about it too, in the papers." "Tell him about it." "It's not worth it." "Maybe not, but this gentleman has come from Moscow." "For me?" "He's come a long way." " What did he say?" " He doesn't feel like talking." "Try again, it's very important." " Stop for a minute!" " Go!" "What's wrong?" "Have you offended him?" "You've offended me!" "He's crazy!" "It's not up to me whether he talks or not!" "I'm going." "You try, you know a bit of Italian." "If you don't like the way I work say so." "But I'm a good translator and I even improve on the original." "I'm going back to Rome." "Our trip's over." "All right." "Excuse me." "I think I know why you did that." "What?" "The bicycle?" "Before, with your family." "I'm tired." "Where are you?" "Come in!" "Did you hear that?" "It's Beethoven." "One drop plus one drop makes a bigger drop, not two." " May I?" " Please." "When I don't know what to say I ask for a cigarette too." "But I never learned to smoke." "It's too hard." "You have to learn to not smoke, to do important things." "Such as?" "Some wine?" "We need bigger ideas." "What?" "I was selfish." "I wanted to save my family." "Everyone must be saved, the whole world." "How?" "It's simple." "You see the candle?" "All right." "Why do you say "all right"?" "You're confusing me." "You cross the water with the lighted candle." "Which water?" "The hot water." "St Catherine's pool by the hotel." "The steaming water." "All right, when?" "Now." "I can't do it." "I don't want to." "When I light the candle and get into the water they pull me out." "They kick me out." "And they shout, "You're crazy!"" "Get it?" " All right." " All right?" "It's all wrong!" "Help me." " Help me." " All right, but..." "Of course." "The taxi's here for the Russian who's going to Bagno Vignoni." "It's late." "I must go." "Thank you." "Why me, of all people?" " Have you got children?" " Two, a girl and a boy." "Is your wife pretty?" "You know the Madonna of Childbirth?" "By Piero della Francesca." "She's like that, but all black." "Go with the candle." "We're planning something big in Rome." "Zoe!" "Where are you?" "Answer me!" "I'm scared of being alone." "I know what you're thinking, but that's enough now." "It's wrong to keep thinking the same thing." "What do you want?" "Dad." "Is this the end of the world?" "Are we going?" "Stand back!" "They're letting them out!" "I knew they were in there." "I used to listen in secret." "The water had run out in my bathroom." "Do you mind?" " I thought you'd left." " No, I'm still here." " Good." " You don't look pleased." "Look what he gave me." " Who?" " Domenico!" "You're a coward!" "Full of complexes." "You're not free." "You all seem to want freedom but when you get it you don't know what to do with it or what it is." "That's enough." "It must be this country, the air one breathes here." "Because in Moscow I met some wonderful men." "What are you all after?" "This?" "Not you!" "You're a kind of saint." "You're interested in Madonnas." "You're different!" "One "intellectual" tried to keep me locked up!" "Can't I ever meet the right man?" "I don't mean you, you're the worst." "But I swear I'll find my kind of man!" "And I have, he's waiting for me in Rome." "You dress badly too." "And you're boring." "You're the kind I'd sleep with rather than explain why I don't feel like it." "What are you saying?" "Don't you see?" "I found myself in the most embarrassing position!" "I've had enough!" "I can't take any more!" "I'd like to sleep for ten days and wipe you out." "Maybe there's nothing to wipe out because you don't exist." "It's my problem." "Why do I like idiots?" "Men with no charm." "I might look young but I know all about charm!" "Go, go, please." "You know, the night I met you" "I dreamt that a soft worm with lots of legs fell on my head." "It stung me." "It was poisonous." "I kept shaking my head until it fell off." "I tried to squash it before it reached the wardrobe but it was no good." "I kept just missing it," "I just couldn't squash it." "Since that night I keep touching my hair." "Thank God there's been nothing between us!" "Just the thought makes me sick!" "She's insane." "Run back to your wife!" "Though you nearly betrayed her!" "You're a pig!" " Anything else?" " Hypocrite!" "We're going to listen to some music." " What's going on?" " Nothing, nothing." "Oh, God!" "Now the General and his Chinese music!" "But you won't drive me away!" ""Dear Pyotr Nikolayevich" ""I've been in Italy two years, very important ones," ""both for my profession and for my everyday life." ""Last night I had a bad dream." ""I had to stage an opera in the theatre of My Lord the Count." ""The first act was set in a park full of statues" ""but they were naked men forced to stand motionless." ""And I was a statue too." ""I knew I would be harshly punished if I moved" ""because our lord and master was watching us." ""I could feel the cold rising from my marble pedestal" ""as the autumn leaves settled on my upraised arm." ""I stood still." ""But when I sensed I could resist no longer" ""I awoke." ""I was afraid." ""For I knew it had been no dream but my reality." ""I would die if I never returned to Russia," ""if I never again saw my homeland," ""the birches, the air of my childhood." ""An affectionate greeting from your abandoned friend," ""Pavel Sosnovsky."" "Maria." "Andrei!" ""As a child I once fell ill from fear and hunger." ""I'd scratched off the scab from my lips and licked my lips." ""I remembered the cool and salty taste." ""But still I go, but still I go, I go," ""I sit on the front stairs and warm myself." ""Delirious, I wander as though to follow the tune of the pied-piper to the river." ""Heat grips me, I undid my collar and laid down" ""and trumpets started trumpeting, my eyelids were struck by light." ""Mother is flying above the cobblestones," ""she beckons and vanishes..." ""And now I dream beneath the apple trees, a white ward." ""As a child I once fell ill..."" "I must go and see Dad." "I've got a jacket in the wardrobe." "It's been there three years." "I'll wear it again when I'm home in Moscow." "I never go anywhere, I never see anyone." "What are you doing here?" "Don't be afraid." "Don't be afraid of me." "I should be afraid of you." "You could shoot me." "Everyone shoots in Italy." "And there are too many Italian shoes!" "Dreadful!" "Why does everyone buy them?" "These are ten years old." "It's not important." "All right!" "You know of great romances, no kisses, nothing at all." "Very pure!" "Hence great." "Feelings, unspoken feelings are unforgettable." "Here it's like in Russia." "I don't know why." "You know." "I don't speak Italian well." "Here's a story." "A man saves another who was sinking into a slimy pond, thereby risking his own life." "Now they are both lying on the edge of the pound, out of breath, exhausted." "The rescued man says, "Idiot." ""Why did you do that?" "I live in there!"" "He was offended." "What's your name?" "Angela, good girl." "Are you glad?" "About what?" "About life." "Yes." "Good girl." "Sight grows dim, my strength, is two occult, adamantine darts." "Hearing weavers for my father's house breathes distant thunder." "The tissues of hard muscles weaken like hoary oxen at the plough and no longer when night falls do two wings gleam behind me." "During the party, like a candle I wasted away." "Gather up at dawn my melted wax and read in it whom to mourn, what to be proud of, how, by donating the last portion of joy to die lightly and in the shelter of a makeshift roof" "to light up posthumously, like a word." "Why must I think of this?" "I have enough worries." "My God, why did I do it?" "They're my children, my family, my own flesh and blood." "How could I?" "Years without seeing the sun, fearing the light of day!" "Why?" "Why this tragedy?" "Lord, do you see how he's asking?" "Say something to him." "But what would happen if He heard my voice?" "Let Him feel your presence." "I always do, but He's not aware of it." "I'll bring the car around in ten minutes." "Mr Gorchakov, phone call for you." "For me?" "Please wait." " Hello?" " Hello?" "It's Eugenia." " How are you?" " Fine." "Guess why I called?" " Because..." " No, listen." "Your Domenico is here, the lunatic from Bagno Vignoni." "No, I know he's not mad." "It was so you'd understand." "He's here in Rome for a demonstration." "He's been making speeches for three days." " Come and say goodbye to him." " I'm leaving." " When?" " Immediately." "He keeps asking if you've done what you were supposed to do." "Of course." " I'll tell him right away." " Thank you." "I'm glad we could say goodbye." "I'm going away with Vittorio." "We'll probably go to India." "Vittorio's my man, he's from a distinguished family in Orvieto." "Good, Eugenia, I wish you all the best." "Same to you." "Say hello to Moscow for me." "How are you keeping?" "How's your heart?" "I don't know, I've reached the limit." "I'm bored." "I want to go home." "Bye, Vittorio." "I'm going to buy some cigarettes." "I want to change my ticket, I'm leaving in two days' time." " What's happened?" " Nothing." "Can you drive me to Bagno Vignoni?" " When?" " Now." "I'll have to let Italy-USSR know." " I wait, right?" " Right." "Trust him not to leave today." "What ancestor speaks in me?" "I can't leave simultaneously in my head and in my body." "That's why I can't be just one person." "I can feel countless things at once." "There are no great masters left." "That's the real evil of our time." "The heart's path is covered in shadow." "We must listen to the voices that seem useless in brains full of long sewage pipes of school wall, tarmac and welfare papers, the buzzing of insects must enter." "We must fill the eyes and ears of all of us with things that are the beginning of a great dream." "Someone must shout that we'll build the pyramids." "It doesn't matter if we don't!" "We must fuel that wish and stretch the corners of the soul like an endless sheet." "If you want the world to go forward we must hold hands." "We must mix the so-called healthy with the so-called sick." "You healthy ones!" "What does your health mean?" "The eyes of all mankind are looking at the pit into which we are plunging." "Freedom is useless if you don't have the courage to look us in the eye, to eat, drink and sleep with us!" "It's the so-called healthy who have brought the world to the verge of ruin." "Man, listen!" "In you, water, fire and then ashes." "And the bones in the ashes." "The bones and the ashes!" "Wait for me in the car." "Hello." "Where am I when I'm not in reality or in my imagination?" "Here's my new pact:" "it must be sunny at night and snowy in August." "Great things end, small things endure." "Society must become united again instead of so disjointed." "Just look at nature and you'll see that life is simple." "We must go back to where we were, to the point where you took the wrong turn." "We must go back to the main foundations of life without dirtying the water." "What kind of world is this if a madman tells you you must be ashamed of yourselves!" "Music now." "Music!" "I forgot this." "Oh mother!" "The air is that light thing that moves around your head and becomes clearer when you laugh." "The music doesn't work!" "Zoe!" "Zoe!" "TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER"