"No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Leave me alone!" "Go away!" "Leave me alone!" "Open up!" "Do you hear?" "Leave me alone!" "Open up this minute!" "Wake up!" "Are you raving mad?" "You're in luck, though you don't deserve to be." "The Marquis says he'll pay for the damage." "What Marquis?" "l'm most grateful..." "Don't mention it." "Sit down and eat." "You must be starving after a night like that." "He's my guest!" "And a glass!" "So my friend, what am I to call you?" "My name's Jean." "Jean Berlot." "Well, my dear Jean..." "Cheers." "Cheers." "To your good health!" "Your good... mental health!" "In you get!" "We've a long drive ahead of us." "Come along, you too!" "Right." "Let's go." "Where are you heading?" "Home. I'm going home." "Going home?" "So am I." "Lormes. I'm going to Lormes." "That's on my way." "I'll give you a lift." "I don't know what I've done to deserve such kindness." "You don't know me." "Give me your hand." "It's alright, I won't bite." "The left one." "Someone very close to you died recently." "My mother. I'm on my way back from her funeral." "This is the only keepsake I have of her." "Why are you burying her so far from home?" "She died in an institution." "What kind of 'institution'?" "What kind of 'institution'?" "The asylum at Charenton." "My mother was insane." "And your father?" "He died years ago." "He was much older." "Mother never got over it." "And you take after your mother." "Do you often have that dream?" "Only when I'm unhappy or under stress." "When something upsets my routine..." "That's when they come." "They?" "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" "Just as well." "So, young man, this is the parting of our ways." "Fetch some clothes for Jean, light the stove and make some tea." "Get out of those wet things or you'll catch cold." "It was just a harmless prank." "I apologise." "Never mind me and do as I say!" "Don't argue." "Just go!" "They cut out his tongue." "Who?" "Tell young Jean who cut out your tongue." "Why are you hesitating, my dear Jean." "May I call you Jean?" "You can relax for a few days." "No one's expecting you." "Or are they?" "Well then." "lt's a kind offer." "But I cannot abuse your goodness." "Never utter that word!" "Fools and hypocrites talk of goodness to mask their evil intentions." "I am neither fool nor hypocrite." "If I offer you hospitality, I have my reasons." "O Christ, prince of impostors, thief of our noblest pleasures!" "Listen to me!" "All you've done since you crawled from that Virgin's belly is shirk your responsibilities and break all your promises!" "For centuries we've waited, but still you remain silent!" "You promised salvation, but not a single soul have you saved!" "You monster, who in your cruelty created life and inflicted it on every innocent soul, then cursed us, in the name of some unknown power, with 'original sin', only in order to punish us in the name of that same 'authority'!" "We demand you confess!" "Admit you lied to us!" "Confess to your heinous, inexcusable crimes!" "We shall drive new nails even deeper into your flesh and crown your brow with even sharper thorns, until your agonized blood spurts from your dried-up wounds!" "Worthless being, in whose name so much blood has been spilt!" "You are nothing, a mere figment of man's foolish hopes and fears!" "You only exist to torment mankind!" "What suffering we could have been spared if we had strangled that first idiot who uttered your name!" "Show yourself!" "Go on, punish me for insulting you!" "I despise your glory!" "I scorn your bounty!" "You claim to work miracles, so let's see one now!" "If you exist, God, appear to us!" "Don't hide from me, you whore!" "Come back at once!" "l'm leaving." "Sit down and have some breakfast." "Under the circumstances I can stay here no longer." "And what circumstances would these be?" "Last night I happened to witness certain..." "So you were snooping?" "Sit down." "Sit down, have some food and stop sulking like a child." "I thought you were a grown-up." "It's got nothing to do with being grown-up." "That was blasphemy!" "It was a crime!" "And that bothers you..." "blasphemy and crime?" "Are you still a virgin?" "We must do something about that." "Stop!" "Sit down!" "What exactly did you not like about last night?" "Was it that we were acting as free, unprejudiced individuals?" "Rejecting false morality and slavish convention in favour of pleasure?" "Using our imagination, rebelling?" "is that what you object to?" "It's against nature." "It's against God and religion." "Wait... one thing at a time." "What does nature give us?" "is she not greedy, destructive, cruel, fickle and utterly callous?" "Wouldn't you say that what she does best is murder and maim?" "Don't you see that evil is her natural element?" "That she uses her creative powers only to fill the world with blood, tears and sorrow?" "She is our mother." "What kind of mother expends all her energy causing disasters?" "Mercilessly and systematically murdering her own children?" "Just look at that 'mother' of yours and you'll see she only creates in order to destroy." "All she does is murder!" "So why should we, her children, behave any better?" "I would kill a mother like that!" "And as for God..." "Nature at least exists independent of our will and desires." "But God is merely a figment of human fears and hopes." "People have always been unhappy." "They've always been afraid." "They look for the cause of their suffering and hope it will end." "So they dream up a mythical God hoping he will grant their wishes." "God is no more than a fantasy" "born of our fear and weakness." "But religion teaches us..." "What does Christian dogma tell us about this mighty God of yours?" "What does your religion have to say about him?" "All I see is a fickle and barbaric being, who creates the world one day, only to regret it the next, a feeble creature incapable of making people do what he wants!" "But if God made us perfect, why strive to be worthy of salvation?" "What banality!" "Why should people be worthy of their God?" "Making us incapable of evil, that would be an act worthy of God!" "But give a man freedom of choice and you give him temptation." "God in his infinite wisdom must have known where that would lead." "He leads his own creatures astray simply to amuse himself." "What a terrible God!" "What a monstrous God!" "A mischievous God who deserves only our hatred and vengeance!" "But don't you fear God's wrath?" "His retribution?" "God will never forgive such terrible blasphemy." "And aren't you a monster, forcing defenceless, innocent girls to..." "Defenceless and innocent!" "What a joke!" "I warned you... I shouldn't have watched." "I shouldn't have listened." "God forgive me..." "Our Father, which is in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name..." "Do...mi...nic!" "Dominic!" "Dominic!" "Dominic!" "Dominic!" "Hurry!" "Your master needs you!" "Quick, he's dying!" "Call for a priest." "We can't let him die in such terrible sin!" "Come on!" "Do you hear?" "I know you're there!" "Open the door!" "Do you hear?" "He's dying!" "Come on!" "Hurry!" "Come on!" "Dear Friend, you are doubtless puzzled by all you have seen here." "I apologize if I have caused you any distress, though perhaps my apology will mean little to you." "Chance brought us briefly together." "Now, before we part, I ask for your help." "You owe it to me." "Go with Dominic, help him." "Follow his orders, however strange they may seem to your naive soul." "Your Marquis." "You can't just bury him!" "How do you know he's really dead?" "Has a doctor seen him or even a quack?" "What if he's only unconscious?" "Call a doctor, quickly!" "He may still be alive." "Do something!" "You won't get away with it." "You'll end up under the guillotine." "You can't just bury him like that!" "You villain... you evil rat!" "They should have cut off your head, not just your tongue!" "You're even more of a monster than your master!" "God, how did I get into this?" "You nearly killed me!" "They used to do this in ancient Egypt." "Only they would chuck in a couple of dead slaves too." "What's the idea?" "Listen to me!" "Are we going to spend the whole night here?" "You've just been using me for your disgusting games." "You wanted to frighten me." "Just to amuse yourself." "Not content with blasphemy and debauchery and rape, you're also a... I understand you're upset." "Perhaps I owe you an explanation." "The 'disgusting game' that you saw and took part in last night, that monstrous spectatcle, was not for your benefit." "I merely needed your physical strength." "You saw what hard work it was pushing the cart to the graveyard, much too hard for one man." "And as for the tombstone..." "That clown nearly killed me!" "But I asked you in my letter to help Dominic and do as he said." "It was your fault." "Besides, he's is an excellent shot." "That's only a scratch." "Goodbye." "Without waiting to hear my story?" "That's not very courteous." "I listened to your story." "It may make you think more kindly of me." "You will see that you and I are not as different as you think." "In fact our stories are very similar... identical." "Like you, I had a loving mother." "She died when I was five." "We buried her in the family vault." "My father was devastated and died of grief a few years later." "Does that remind you of anything?" "Now listen to this:" "When we took my father's coffin to the vault and removed the stone, we found Mother's decomposed body on the steps, her nails all torn." "Yes, we had buried her alive." "She'd had a cataleptic fit and the doctor had pronounced her dead." "But she woke up in the coffin." "She managed to push open the lid, though not the heavy stone slab." "I have been reliving her ghastly ordeal ever since." "You've heard of reflex psychosis?" "My identification with her was so strong I too became cataleptic." "I'd go into trances." "Briefly at first..." "then for hours, even days." "I started to have another phobia." "That I would end up like her, that like her I would be buried alive." "But I also yearned to experience the same suffering as her." "That's how much I love my mother." "Are you reminded of anything?" "This desire became an obsession, that couldn't be suppressed." "In time a found a way to satisfy it, which also lessened my fear." "At least for a while." "That is what you witnessed last night: my purgative therapy." "Now I can live normally again, at least for a while." "Excuse my for dragging you into my private affairs." "You aren't the only one who still uses his mother's comb." "No, leave me alone!" "Let me go!" "Wake up!" "Was it them again?" "It's all right, I was going to have it redecorated anyway." "Do stop crying." "It's my fault." "The excitement has upset you." "I'll work to pay for the damage." "I have a better idea." "I think I can help you." "Don't worry." "The director, Dr Murlloppe, is a friend of mine." "It's all arranged." "But you needn't feel under any pressure." "Just look on it as an experiment." "If it doesn't help you, call me and I'll take you away at once." "Knowing you can leave at any time should in itself be therapeutic." "You've seen how my own preventive therapy has helped me." "Most of all we fear the unknown." "What we know, we no longer fear." "And you can satisfy your secret urge to suffer as your mother did in a similar institution." "No, I..." "Be honest with yourself!" "Don't deny your repressed desires!" "Marquis... I am Dr Murlloppe." "Welcome to the sanatorium." "Berlot." "This way, gentlemen." "Charlotte!" "This way please." "Charlotte!" "We have important visitors!" "Charlotte!" "Why didn't you tell me?" "I want nothing to do with him!" "I'm not fooled by his false beard!" "l can't possibly stay..." "My daughter Charlotte." "She helps with the patients and paperwork." "Go and make some tea, my dear." "Mr Berlot, our mutual friend has told me why you are here." "I believe you are a suitable case for 'preventive therapy'." "But it will only work if applied of the patient's own free will." "Even then the effects may be only of limited duration." "Medical science has yet to find a permanent cure for obsessive states." "Follow me." "Before you finally commit yourself let me show you round." "We believe in modern methods rather than fancy new equipment." "There is no coercion..." "Yes, yes..." "There you go!" "No punishment, no straitjackets, no electric shocks." "We treat the patients as equals." "Let me show you something." "Well?" "What do you think?" "Our art therapy." "The ball." "Please." "No thank you." "Excuse me." "They seem happy, don't they?" "Good girl!" "Mine!" "Mine!" "May I?" "Right or left?" "Gentlemen, please." "Where are your clothes?" "And what's that?" "Give it to me!" "Those are dangerous." "Take them back to the kitchen." "Go!" "Go on, off with you!" "Get back to bed before you catch cold." "You must rest." "Charlotte, dearest." "Look after them, will you?" "So... what's your decision?" "I'll stay." "Wait here while I see about the admission formalities." "I'll be right back." "So you knew she was his daughter and he was abusing her!" "My dear fellow, you mustn't believe everything you're told." "She's asked me to help her." "If I've decided to stay it's only for her sake." "My own problems are secondary." "You think it's funny?" "Little bitch!" "Don't speak about her like that!" "l do believe he's in love!" "Don't tell me I didn't warn you." "She's a nymphomaniac and a hysteric." "Just going to bed with somebody's not enough for her." "Normal sex isn't enough for her." "She likes it special... kinky." "She's a devious whore, like the rest of them." "l forbid you to speak of her..." "That's all taken care of." "Come, I'll show you to your room." "It's me, Charlotte." "Thank you. lt was very noble of you to say you'd stay." "I don't know what to do." "Terrible things go on here." "Doctor Murlloppe is a madman." "Your father?" "He's not my father." "He's a violent maniac." "So is the Marquis." "Some time ago they stirred up a revolt among the inmates." "They locked up the real director and staff of the sanatorium." "They're still down in the cellar." "They only spared me because you saw what happened at the Marquis' castle." "You are our only hope." "I trust you." "My life is in your hands." "So, what exactly did you have in mind?" "A tableau vivant representing Liberty." "Like Delacroix' painting." "An interesting idea." "I think it will reflect the spirit of our celebrations." "And our philosophy!" "All our resources are at your disposal." "Thank you. I intend to make full use of them." "When do you start?" "At once." "The anniversary of our... of your sanatorium is on Sunday." "There's no time to lose." "What do you think of the Marquis' idea, Mr Berlot?" "I think it's splendid." "Charlotte dear, I hope you will also take part in the project." "Hold that arm a bit higher." "To the right." "No... back a little." "That's it!" "Now your other arm." "Further from your body." "Hold it there!" "You, Sir." "It's a rifle, not a broom!" "You're fighting for liberty, not clearing snow!" "That's it!" "No gentlemen, please!" "That's no way to work!" "Break!" "Well?" "Any progress?" "With Charlotte." "Knowing her, she'll be in no hurry." "Foreplay, you know." "Some women absolutely insist on it." "Some even prefer foreplay to actual intercourse." "That's all they want..." "foreplay." "For a long, long time." "Nothing but foreplay." "You're disgusting." "You know nothing about her." "Wait!" "Has she given you her party piece yet?" "All that guff about a mutiny." "It really turns her on!" "The libido can take strange forms." "Once again I warn you:" "She's a cunning nymphomaniac." "You'd be way out of your depth." "Ask Dr Murlloppe about her, before you do anything silly." "He's the real expert." "Her medical record is that thick." "Why did he lie about her being his daughter?" "I don't know." "Ask him." "Maybe it's part of the treatment." "Break's over, gentlemen." "Let's continue." "I couldn't get away sooner." "The Marquis kept changing everything." "He terrifies me." "When was this mutiny?" "A year ago... exactly." "That's why they're celebrating..." "Didn't you realize?" "And now they want me to take part." "Those madmen have been in charge for a year and no one's noticed?" "Does no one ever visit?" "Relatives, inspectors, the postman...?" "Who brings your food?" "Surely someone must have noticed?" "Don't you believe me?" "Of course." "It just seems rather..." "You think I made it all up?" "Why would I do that?" "I thought that you at least..." "No!" "You've ruined everything." "l didn't mean to..." "You want proof?" "I'll give you proof!" "Come with me." "Dr Coulmiere..." "Sir..." "Before they locked them up they covered them in tar and feathers." "Whatever for?" "To humiliate them." "To degrade the authority they stand for." "It's a custom from the French Revolution." "l bet it was the Marquis' idea." "l've never found the cell keys." "I'm sure they're in Murlloppe's study." "We must find them." "O holy passion...!" "O holy passion...!" "O holy passion, proud emotion" "'Tis you we hold in deep devotion" "Wise men bow before your might" "To be uplifted in your sight" "Thus Nature..." "Thus Nature..." "Thus Nature kindles our desires" "And Her command to 'crime' inspires" "Sweet acts and sensual diversions" "Said by fools to be perversions" "Give us the joy that Nature loves" "Lust and vice fit us like gloves" "And all our being swells sublime" "When we commit a bestial crime" "When after years of carnal pleasure" "She gathers us back to Her treasure" "Mocking the gods we'll hasten home" "To the great bounty of Her womb" "She's whore and mother to us all..." "She's whore and mother to us all" "Alike embracing great and small" "Wicked or good, on us She'll smile" "Our noble deeds or murders vile" "Marvellous!" "Congratulations!" "Thank you." "Didn't you like it?" "It's wicked to brainwash the mentally ill with stuff like that!" "Luckily they don't understand." "Are you sure?" "And now... the crowning glory of the evening!" "Bravo!" "Long live Liberty!" "Long live Liberty!" "Long live Liberty!" "Long live Liberty!" "Long live Liberty!" "Long live Liberty!" "Long live Liberty!" "The festivities are over!" "Now all go back to your rooms!" "Thank you for rescuing me." "Now my dear Marquis, it's time we thought about ourselves and our own celebration!" "I trust you're coming with us, Charlotte." "Charlotte is staying here." "She's my fiancée." "As her father, I think I might have been informed." "Alright, we'll take Mlle Rosset." "Mademoiselle Rosset!" "No, I'll go!" "The coach is ready." "This is your chance." "Tonight you must set them free." "I'll make sure we don't get back till the morning." "Yes, Father..." "I want it now!" "She's whore and mother to us all Alike embracing great and small" "Wicked or good, on us She'll smile" "Our noble deeds or murders vile" "Long live liberty!" "Long live liberty!" "Long live liberty...!" "Thank God, he's coming round!" "Now all is well." "Your heroic deed will go down in the annals of the sanatorium." "We are free at last!" "Soon this will seem like a bad dream." "This is the man who hit you on the head." "He'd like to apologise." "Now back to work!" "Make us some tea, my dear." "It must have been ghastly for you, in the clutches of those lunatics." "We've already caught Murlloppe, and we'll soon catch the Marquis." "He's a dangerous criminal, a pervert and a libertine." "If he hadn't been sent here he'd have gone to the guillotine." "A complex case." "But I have no sympathy for him." "Murlloppe was a fine psychiatrist." "One of the very best." "His prevention therapy is quite brilliant if used in conjunction with other techniques such as electric shocks, solitary confinement and punishment." "But the 'free will' method he began to introduce latterly, based on a more liberal attitude, that was bound to fail." "There's no place for freedom in a lunatic asylum." "Without the evil influence of the Marquis, he'd have realized this." "But the rogue only encouraged him in his efforts, using some perverse philosophy to justify his monstrous experiments." "In the end Murlloppe, too, became a psychotic and a libertine." "That's when he was dismissed as director, and became my patient." "My method is based on traditional conservative principles:" "strict supervision and punishment." "Aren't you interested?" "As a deeply religious man, I believe our whole life is a constant struggle between the mind and the body." "A struggle for our mental and physical well-being." "If the mind gains the upper hand, the body becomes susceptible to illness: infectious diseases, coronaries, cancer... ln this state people even become more prone to accidents!" "If the body proves the stronger, the result is mental illness." "That's why my method is based on corporal punishment." "Yes!" "If the mind is sick we must subdue the body." "Only by weakening the body can we restore the balance." "The more severe the illness, the more severe the punishment." "Do drink your tea." "It's horrible cold." "We've caught them!" "Where did you find them?" "ln Avalon, at a roadside inn." "They didn't get far." "Bring them in." "Do you still not understand?" "You won't be laughing long." "Charlotte, get me his file." "Yes... treatment number eight." "Seems to have healed nicely." "So we can go on to treatment nine." "Take him away!" "I know your case history by heart." "In your case, my dear Marquis, I must make a rare exception." "I am reluctant... in fact I have never done this before." "But you leave me with no choice." "Last time we applied number five, so now it should be number six." "But now for the promised exception." "Prepare the operating theatre for treatment number thirteen!" "No!" "You can't do that!" "Yes I can." "In fact I must." "Jean..." "Charlotte... don't let him!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "What is treatment number thirteen?" "As I said, my method is to weaken the body to restore its harmony with the mind." "This is achieved this by a series of 13 corporal punishments." "These are applied progressively until we find the right balance." "Go too far, and the body becomes sick." "Pneumonia, prostate cancer." "What is treatment thirteen?" "We always begin with number one." "Twenty strokes of the whip." "This usually cures 50% of all non-acute new cases." "Mostly malingerers and neurasthenics." "Treatment eight, as you saw, is the removal of the tongue." "And number thirteen?" "That's a treatment I always administer personally." "Come along, Charlotte dear." "I'll need your help." "What is treatment thirteen?" "I wish to leave at once." "Charlotte is coming with me." "That's not possible." "It's against the rules." "Patients may be discharged only at 8 a.m." "lt's now... 9 p.m." "But that's absurd." "I'm not a patient!" "I'm here voluntarily. I was told I could leave whenever I liked!" "Who told you that?" "The sanatorium director." "I am the sanatorium director." "Besides, it's ten miles to the nearest coach stop." "There's one coach a day, at 11 a.m." "You can leave in the morning, after being formally discharged." "That's the usual procedure." "And now I have work to do." "Where's Charlotte?" "She went to lie down." "She went to have a rest." "She sends her apologies." "How is the Marquis?" "He's alright now." "Poor fellow." "You're sorry for him, after how he treated you?" "Read this." "You were to be a guinea-pig for their monstrous experiments." "He'd have kept you here for ever." "And still you pity him!" "Take Mr Berlot to his room." "Charlotte!" "Charlotte, it's me, Jean!" "Have you come to admire your handiwork?" "What did they do to you?" "Treatment number ten." "Coulmiere made an exception in my case, too." "What about the Marquis?" "He screamed terribly, but now he's calmed down." "You let that whore manipulate you." "This is the result." "That's a lie!" "I love her and I'm going to marry her." "In a few hours we'll be leaving this madhouse forever." "Then I ought to give you a few tips for your conjugal life." "I bet the whore's in bed with that madman Coulmiere as we speak." "And now, darling Charlotte, for the climax of our soirée." "It arrived today from Paris, special delivery." "Let me see!" "Shall I open it?" "Yes!" "I can't wait!" "You can't back out now..." "after we've waited so long." "No of course not." "Let's do it... now!" "Leave me alone!" "Leave me alone!" "I'm not mad!" "Leave me alone!" "Wake up!" "You did this!" "It's all your fault!" "My friend, your vital equilibrium is seriously disturbed." "Your body has become too dominant." "And now your mind is sick." "But don't despair, I'll cure you." "Let's start at the beginning." "Apply treatment number one!"