"Serge Zilberman presents" "starring Jeanne Moreaux" "Mama's not home." "Nobody home." "Everyone's gone." "I'm all alone." "Nobody home." " What's your name?" " Serezha." "Nobody home." "Pity." "Good-bye, child." "Are you sure there's nobody else?" "Absolutely nobody." "I can't open the door." "Little boy, I really wanted to see Vera Ivanovna." "Mama's never coming back." "She died." "There's nobody here." "I can't open the door." "A long time." "She died." "She's never coming back." "Pity." "Come back!" "It's me!" "You came back." "It's impossible - she came back." "Come in, come in." "Besides earth, water, air and fire we must keep in mind another element - money." "These people stole electricity." "A short circuit resulted in a fire, the commode burned down." "Inside were photographs and letters, I don't know what else." "It was a very fine commode." "It stood near the window..." "It was a real fire." "Everything burned." "Absolutely everything." "Do you recognize it - this was the commode." "I mean your commode." "But when Maria Alexandrovna died... in her will, she..." "left the commode to me." "It is a... a very fine commode." "We kept produce in the top part." "We shared it with the neighbor." "She kept potatoes in her drawer, and I kept dried fruit." "What was in the lower part?" "It was a very convenient commode." "Because when you enter the kitchen, there's a drawer right there for you." "Right, the commode burned down, I understand." "Then there was a fire." "The commode burned and everything inside it burned." "But what was in the lower drawer?" "I'll tell you." "The other drawer contained letters, documents, photos belonging to Maria Alexandrovna, yout mother." "I already know that you stole electricity, there was a fire." "No need to raise yuor voice!" "You see, when Maria Alexandrovna died... the will said... the commode and everything inside..." "belongs to us." "And in case you came back..." "She left it to us, and if you came back..." "The commode burned and everything inside it burned." "I know." "No need to raise your voice!" "The wire caught fire, like we told you." "The fire traveled to the commode." "The wood was old, it flared up." "We weren't home." "Yes, we planted a "bug" - our neighbor did it." "We asked him and he did it." "He knows how to do it." "We were stealing electricity, as you put it, from the state." "Precisely a year before your mother's death" "I gave her a wad of money wrapped in a newspaper, 1000 rubles." "Our neighbor knows how to do it." "And we stole electricity, as you put it, from the state." "We were forced to do it." "Because we..." "You don't know all the circumstances." "It was a very fine commode." "We divided it in half." " We were forced to do it..." " Potatoes on one side..." "We're already on a tight budget..." "We had no choice!" "It was a very convenient commode." "Yes, she can tell you." "And suddenly your mother dies, and leaves us your commode, with all the documents - but no money!" "What do you make of that!" "Maybe you owe us the money!" "The girl came home, took out the top key to open the door - she always locked the top lock - but this time she locked the bottom lock - and remembered... that she had locked the bottom lock." "Then she had the subtlest idea!" "Absolutely subtlest!" "Perhaps she will catch off-guard the one who..." "But he, thinking that she will not remember - thinking that she will go for the top lock - made sure the door was locked with the top lock." "Then she, opening the top lock, could remember that she had locked the bottom lock." "Then he would be discovered and she would know that he exists and is active." "But that would have been an obvious error." "And he would not permit that." "But there must be something left of my mother's!" "Duvets, pillowcases, a towel, a curtain..." " There's also a photograph..." " ...another towel..." "No dark spots." "Give it back, this minute!" "This is all that's left of your mother." "It's made from real horn." "From the future horn of our Alexander Vasilievich." "What!" "what!" "Devil take it..." "Nobody home." "Everyone's gone." "I'm all alone." "Wait!" "Wait!" "On your right." "You've passed it." "The peeling door on your right." "Pull..." "Harder!" "Thank you for the tooth." "We couldn't pull it ourselves, and now you..." "Everything turned out well." "Nobody comes to see us." "Forgive me..." "I didn't know..." "I didn't mean to..." "Forgive me, who are you?" "That's Grandma Sonia." "Shake her hand and she'll bow to you." "That's all she can do..." "You see, she's a child now." "I matured, and she..." "A diffusion has taken place." "Like the tale:" "little girl slept on the furnace while the old woman baked, washed, sewed, knitted for her." "Then the old woman lay down on the furnace and slept, while the little girl..." "I won't repeat the verbs." "You want to know about grandpa?" "He is dead." "He died last year." "He was old." "I repeat, he was old." "He let himself go and drank like a man who'd lost his mind and all sense of his own station in life." "It's useless to speak to her." "She's mad." "You see, when we lived in the south during the war" "Grandma went to fetch the family ration." "She picked up the salami ration for the whole family." "She was very hungry and she ate the whole stick." "When she returned she was already mad." "It is as though god punished her." "Since then she stopped speaking." "You may address yourself to me." "Marie." "Grandpa did not die a natural death." "Alexander helped me." "I poisoned him." "How did it happen?" "Simple." "Like in Shakespeare." "I read about it in a play." "We rolled up a paper funnel and when he fell asleep we put one end to his ear and poured a lot of salt." "Grandpa died." "I had a dream - it was revealed to me that if he died our parents would come back." "You know the quip:" "if you weigh Cezanne's apples against the cathedral of Rouen it's not clear which side will turn out heavier." "Parents did not come back." "The dream was from the devil." "I became mistress of the house." "My brother doesn't go to school." "I'm against it." "I told you before." "Yes, a matter of principle." "He will not go to school." "Me neither." "We have left society." "Forever, I imagine." "You smoke?" "Go ahead." "There are cigarettes on the still-life table." "Left over from grandpa." "They braid, and I unbraid - imbeciles..." "And... what did my mother have to say?" "Thank you." "You were friendly with her, no?" "Shortly before her death, when white raspberries ripened in her garden... in the fall... we were supposed to start school." "We did not go." "Alexander was starting 1st grade, and I the 3rd." "Maria Alexandrovna insisted." "I refused." "She stood under our window all day." "I did not open to her." "She pleaded." "I didn't open." "Like any decent person, she did not report us." "That wasn't the break..." "No, the break came earlier." "Maria Alexandrovna told me once that life happened according to a plan, that someone is working toward some end by means of our lives." "In order to hope to understand this plan one must first of all submit oneself to it." "Do what is required of us." "I couldn't agree to that." "That's when I decided to end it all." "Hold on..." "What if Maria Alexandrovna was right?" "A man is put in a boat, Marie, and pushed out to sea." "And he sails on and on..." "That's the way of the world." "Perhaps Maria Alexandrovna was right?" "It's the way of the world." "Each of us must trust someone." "Each of us must pass through school." "Do you understand me, child?" "Each of us must start with the ABCs." "Must?" "Yes, must, if you will." "I see." "If you take a hungry, half-blind man from a street-corner, lead him inside a fine structure, and make him move some stick up and down - then before this man can ask why he was chosen, what the stick is for," "whether the entire establishment is rational, this beggar... must first of all move the stick." "If he moves the stick he will learn that the stick operates a pump, which pumps water, which is channeled to orchards." "Then they will take him from the well put him in another place, and he will pick fruit for his master, and so move from lower positions to higher." "And then... then..." "they get tired." " That's not what I meant to say!" " I see." "I see." "But we want to eat like masters, without doing the master's bidding." "Instead of yielding to power we gather in a circle and contemplate:" "Why move the stick?" "It's foolish." "And so we have concluded that the master is a fool, or he doesn't exist." "Because we are intelligent creatures, better than everyone else, and we are nothing without our free will." "We have to get rid of ourselves somehow." "Quiet, girl!" "Quiet!" "You're ill, Marie!" "You have a fever!" "If a sick man is taken to an infirmary, and then robs the infirmary." "Then he will think that life that life is the greatest of evils." "Yes, but that view would be correct only for someone who is mad." "Mad like me?" "I don't know..." "What did you mean by it?" "You're addressing me with ty?" "What did you mean by it?" "I... don't know, Marie." "You're ill." "You need to rest." "You must be quiet!" "Go on, go on!" "Maybe I should be put in an asylum to keep me quiet!" "I don't know..." "You said it!" "You're ill!" "You're ill!" "I hear you loud and clear." "You're just like the rest, and your mother was no saint." "Silence!" "Heartless brat, silence!" "I order you!" "Right, she was no saint." "I won't be silent." "How dare you!" "You must obey me." "I obey higher orders." "I'd like to know what higher orders there are for madmen!" "Had you even a smidgen of courtesy in you, you wouldn't dare speak to me this way." "Yes, I will tell you about the death of your mother." "She was no saint." "So hear it." "One time... she hadn't visited for a long time." "Hadn't visited?" "She had died!" "She had died!" "I went to see her myself." "She did not answer the door." "I picked the lock." "She lay there dead." "Dead!" "In her bed." "Nobody came to get her." "Nobody cared about her!" "Nobody!" "Nobody!" "A lonely old woman." "Not a soul came to see her." "I was the first to discover her dead." "I crept to her bed and I realized that she smelled." "Just a second, I will see you out." "I just need to quiet my nerves." "Then I will see you out." "I buried her alone." "Nobody knows here it is." "I wanted to embrace you - but I changed my mind." "I won't tell you where it is." "Because I'm..." "because I'm too little." "I made it up." "I made it all up." "Did you like it?" "Marie!" "Marie!" "Open the door!" "Idiot!" "Do you hear?" "Open the door!" "Marie, open up!" "Because I'm too little." "I made it all up." "Bitch!" "Idiot!" "You enter the cemetery from the alleyway." "You will see the gate covered with ivy or something else." "When you go in, don't be frightened - there is large black dog." "It responds to the name Kaplan." "Follow the dog toward the north-east." "To the left will be the chapel of the grand dukes, turn left into a narrow alley between the enamoured schoolboy and the doric column, the alley will turn into a cramped and snaky path," "keep going, to the right you'll see something gothic-like, tall and grey." "If you stand with your back to it you will see a grave in the corner of a vegetable garden." "Some time passed..." "Wait!" "Comes from afar." "This is Natasha." "Natasha - played by Natta Leble" "Flower" "Drinks" "Apple" "Give three knocks!" "Movie factory urgently in need of extras!" "This is Elena." "Elena - played by Elena Solovieva" "Dream" "The girl came home, took out the top key to open the door " "she always locked the top lock - but this time she locked the bottom lock " "and remembered that she had locked the bottom lock." "Then she had the subtlest idea!" "Perhaps she has caught red-handed the one who..." "But he, thinking that she will not remember - thinking that she will go for the top lock - made sure the top lock was locked." "But then she, opening the top lock, might remember that she had locked the bottom lock." "Then he would be discovered and she would know that he exists and is active." "That would have been an obvious error." "And he would not permit that." "Lena recognized Natasha." "She tried to rouse her." "Remeber, twenty years ago we became separated." "I though you had died, but you are alive." "Twenty years ago we were together, we lived in our country," "I was a famous actress, says Lena, and you were just starting out." "But the times became troubed, our movie factory closed down." "Everyone escaped to the south, but we could not go immediately, because we possessed treasures." "We collected rugs, she says." "The country was falling into disorder and we tried to save the rugs, sell some, abandon others, wall rugs for residencies, palaces, mosques, carpet bags and chest covers, place mats and seive mats." "bergans with garlands and flowers, priceless persians..." "We tried to save them." "One day the idea was born, I don't know who had it first, to sell all the rugs and buy a single, most important rug." "A tailor, who is also a sorcerer, had told us about it." "We had used his services many times." "The lot fell to Katya, our youngest sister." "When she came back she told us what we had all suspected long before:" "This rug was woven by a sufi from Gerdes, hence the name Gordian Knot, and it possessed magical powers." "The ornament and numerous knots greatly enhanced the spell." "The legend says that whoever owns the rug is invincible." "The powers of evil are powerless before him." "His country enjoys prosperty for 100 years." "The rug may be bought from a Bukharian emir." "He is passing through our city just now and he needs money." "His country is in turmoil, and he must buy weapons." "You and I agreed to make one last film in our country, to earn enough money and buy this rug." "We were making our most profitable picture." "WE ARE MAKING OUR MOST PROFITABLE PICTURE" "We sold off some of our rugs." "We also got money from people who knew of the mystery of the rug." "The legend was made-up..." "We were ready to buy, and all of our friends accompanied us to the negotiations." "Some of them were dukes, I think, I forgot the name." "When we settled on the price, the son of the Emir confirmed the legend of the rug." "Whoever believed in it had all his wishes granted." "But he made it up." "We sensed that everything in this life is intertwined." "That everything is reflected in the pattern of the rug, trodden by a divine foot." "And that the idea of the legend is woven into the pattern, and that whoever invented the legend had woven his invention into the pattern." "We bought the rug." "In the women's quarters, the Emir's senior wife told us more about the legend." "She said that the court had lived in peace for 100 years all thanks to the legend." "But that the legend demands that innocent blood be spilled on the rug once every 100 years." "Only then does it have power." "It had been almost 100 years since the rug was dowsed in blood." "The spell had lost its power." "We had bought a worthless rug." "We had to do something." "Finish the film, escape..." "The country was in the throes of civil war..." "The sense that all things are intertwined, are all part of the pattern trodden by a divine foot, never left us." "Once the director Prokonin-Gorsky - you remember him - drove us out to a country road, and tried to convince us to have faith in the legend." "He believed in the idea of the rug more than anyone else." "He cried, demanded, begged us - to visit to the general - Grishin-Almazov - he was an admirer of ours, loved the cinema, adored us - our photos were sold in stores!" "" "I was at the hight of fame, and you were just starting out, but people recognized you on the street..." "So the director begged us to visit the general, and ask him for a pass to the front." "The ideas was simple and horrific:" "take the rug to the battlefield full of duped, innocent people, let someone fall upon it, dowse it with blood and ressurect the legend." "We will save everyone!" "We shouted, resisted, insisted that the legend was fake!" "That the weaver could have woven anything." "But he said that whoever invented the legend invented also everything that will happen to us." "He could have woven anything..." "We did not give up." "The battle went on on the chessboard." "We and our rug were at stake." "But we had to give in when Katya received a medal from the Empress." "The lady-in-waiting Vasilchikova came in person to present her with a diamond cross, for the future which, perhaps, we held in our hands." "Blood" "Then everything happened all by itself " "We received a pass to the front from the general." "Early one morning in September of 1917 we found ourselves in a trench with the rug." "The director Prokonin-Gorsky spilled his own blood." "While directing he leaped from the trenches and threw himself under the enemy horses." "He was struck down with a saber." "He fell on the rug." "When the smoke subsided and we reached him - he was dead." "Our priceless rug was soaked in blood." "Whoever invented it... invented everything that will happen to us!" "What then, asked Natasha?" "Nothing, said Lena." "They had been fooled." "The legend was a fake." "The weaver could have woven anything." "But he made up this particular story, and they believed it." "We did just what he wanted us to do, said Natasha." "Whoever invented it, invented also everything that will happen to us." "We wrapped Prokonin-Gorsky in the rug and buried him." "Nobody came to the funeral." "Only a strange and imperial woman appeared suddenly." "Who was she?" "Then our actions are part of the pattern?" "Then we were separated for 20 years and wandered along different roads." "I thought you had died, said Lena." "And Natasha thought that Lena had died." "But we found each other." "We were fooled!" "That was a rug and this is a tapestry!" "A tapestry is a picture." "A picture could also be seen as a pattern." "Not as images, but colors, serrations, lines." "This line points here, that line points there." "But this line goes here and that one there not as a pattern but in order to represent something, someone's mug." "The reality is... there is no pattern." "On a rug lines correspond to other lines, even if we see a lamb or a swan - this is right, because in real life a swan's wing corresponds to its other wing." "A horn to a horn." "Everything comes in pairs." "Because it is a pattern of nature." "Then our lives, actions and incidents..." "are part of the pattern?" "No, not a pattern." "A pattern needs an axis." "Everything emanating from this axis is more or less the same." "But life, with its encounters and farewells, new loves produces no pattern..." "Or maybe a very intricate pattern, we don't see the axis..." "Where is it?" "It can be seen from the stars." "Where is it?" "Only from the stars..." "This is why they told fortunes by the stars." "Seen from the stars..." "This is why they told fortunes by the stars." "They say in Paris they still do." "Only from the stars." "Miss... wth a hat there..." "Go sleep at the train station." "Lounging about here..." "She awoke." "Invented everything that will happen to us." "Death is inevitable." "I note that you are stepping on frozen ...mother-of-pearl..." "spit!" "I'm looking only at the tree tops." " Are you a writer?" " A reader!" "Do you wish to come work..." "for us?" "What did you do before?" " For a while..." "What do you do for money?" "You must be very wealthy." " You must be... very wealthy." " Occasionally... one or two episodes..." " You steal?" " Just once..." "I'm all out of money..." "I used to turn pages for a pianist friend who accompanied a famous singer." "If you'd like..." "Like the French horn..." "it can do a great frog." "You can't even imagine how important this was for me." "The accompanist was very famous, and I got the chance to turn pages for the Divine One." "He was playing for Her, you see." "He was over 80, couldn't see or hear very well, and he convinced the presenters to take me on." "But disaster struck when the accompanist, who was too old for a major tour, started saying nonsense and fantasizing his own death." "If I have a heart attack when the Divine One hits a high note you must push me off the chair and continue as though nothing happened." "She would not even think of pausing." "While the maestro was dreaming of his magnificent death mid-concert, the Divine One in turn feared that the maestro will die if he is not allowed to go on tour with her." "But they let him go and my job was gone, too." "How well you explain everything, just like a book." "How old is she?" "What do you care?" "You're stepping on frozen spit again." "I'm only looking at the tree tops." "If you have nowhere to sleep you can come with me." "But I warn you, my kittens get all the comforts." "They have the sofa, the bed, the commode, etc." "Chopin... is not sentimental." "He is a man of strong emotions, but he is not sentimental." "Emotions and sensitivity are unrelated." "An abyss lies between them." "This composition speaks of concealed pain." "So you didn't finish your studies?" "It's too late for me to start a third life." "How so?" "I said it's too late." "For two reasons." "On the one hand society condemns late-starters, casts them out." " On the other..." " Too late?" "Too old?" "Where do you get money?" "You already asked me." "Too old." "Don't get me wrong." "I'm not judging you." "Because I knew exactly who you were when I made you invite me over, and there is only one bed here, as it turned out." "But you must not suspect me, because I do not judge you at all." "I understood who you were right away." "You are the Divine One who sings." "I am sure of it." "When she sings you believe it is you singing." "You want to survive, I know." "Even when are silent, or thinking or telling me," ""I'm just a poor musician" - at the same time you burn everything around you and the world becomes noting to you." "I do not judge you, I don't tell you that you are mad." "I'm saying that I understand you, believe you..." "Because I've known you for a long time." "But you do live poorly here!" "Is it better to be rich?" "You're confusing me." "You're provoking me." "I don't think so." "Although there's a bit of that too A desire to provoke." "You know, I've noticed that at a certain age some children want to set fire to something." "They set fire to everything." "It's a disease." " It's called pyromania." " Yes, perhaps.." "That's not what I'm talking about." "The important thing is that I had an idea." "I need you." "And you need me." "You won't refuse me." "The two of us will be rich." "Maybe very soon." "Tomorrow we will go to the theater and bring a rich bouquet." "We will spend all of our money." "You will have lots of flowers, and I will wear a beautiful dress." "A kind of dress I never dreamt of." "I'm serious." "Chopin is not sentimental." "He is a man of strong emotions, but he is not sentimental." "The performer must be calm, serene, even stern." "Emotions and sensitivity are unrelated." "Dumbass!" "It is easy enough to play." "One must clench and unclench one's ass." "Clench ass..." "Unclench..." "That's all it is." "I despise all arguments." "All systems can go to hell." "I'm serious." "If I decided to help you, then I decided to help you." "No, no, meaning yes." "You've read my mind." "There are moments in which men love crime." "You've read my... everyone and at all times loves it." "Everyone will tell you that it is evil, but inside they love it." "You can trust me." "I won't go on about myself." "I was in a camp, came back." "Don't have anything or anybody." "I had a friend back there." "She kept a horrific poison for revenge." "One time during a break in the woods she told me:" "I don't have a penny to my name, but there are worse things in this world." "I don't want to leave prison with a heart burdened by a hatred of the world." "The vengeance I sensed in my heart has dissipated, and I only feel a sense of resignation." "If someone had told me about it before I would have disavowed it." "But it has come from within and I want to preserve it." "Here is the vial, I will not need it anymore." "She died." "The vial is with me." "In my suitcase." "She died, but the vial remained." "Now it is mine." "Resignation is the strangest thing of all." "You can't get rid of it, and you can't get it from another." "To get it you must lose everything you ever had." "Only when you have lost all you understand it as your only fortune." "Can I possibly take vengeance on anybody?" "But I've decided to help you, and that thought set me ablaze." "I believed you." "You are a trial sent by god." "You are the fire-starter I had dreamt about." "This is the vial." "It is poison." "So I started turning pages at concerts." "To my horror or joy I realized that it is even more important to prompt the Divine One and feed her lines." "You see she started having trouble remembering." "Some cynic reviewer in some provincial newspaper wrote" ""the page-turner also sang."" "Look..." "We need an apple and a syringe." "She isn't especially young..." "Hey there." " You're..." "looking for me?" " This is for you." "Fruit." " But... you're here to see me?" " Yes." "From a secret admirer." "Strange, we had made an appointment for tomorrow." "Yes, decidedly, tomorrow on the boulevard..." "You." "I expected anything, but you've exceeded all my expectations." "It is extravagant." "Your wife is away." "I was the one that called you." " You?" " Yes, me." "Strange, I don't recognize your voice." " The tone of your voice is much..." " Younger?" "I would have never recognized you." "I am conquered." "I kept watch over the house." "She is gone." "So you spied on me?" "I don't like that." "Now, why don't we..." "One second." " You live richly." " Yes, I am rich." "If I ever get poor I'll kill someone." " God will judge you..." " You're angry, I see." "What do they do to you up there for the capital sin?" "You look like you have first-hand knowledge." "Please, eat something, I'm begging you." "These apples are from Crimea." "Who?" "Who are you?" "Who's calling?" "I don't understand..." "What the devil!" "Impossible." "Who?" "Karamazova, Anna?" "She's here." "Who are you?" "I just heard my friend's voice." "Who are you?" "My god, what's happening?" "Who are you?" "I don't like that." "My god..." "No, you're not Anna Karamazova." "Anna Karamazova?" "Who in the world is that?" " What's happening?" " I never heard of her." "My head is spinning..." "Who's behind you?" "There are people who can divine a personality through handwriting." "I knew such a man, named Roschin-Ilsarov." "He was a true graphologist and plied his trade at the Mars Theater." "People wandering through the lobby approached his booth and asked him to detail their personality from their handwriting." "Roschin-Ilsarov, wearing dark glasses, looked at me mysteriously when I was writing for him." "He saw in me a potential murderer." "But he also saw that there was no evil in me." "Don't move." "Thief!" "Freeze!" "I knew it." "I had the intuition to come back." "I admire your courage, thief." "I've never seen such a smart-looking thief before." "You dropped a bond certificate." "Shove the coat sleeve in." "Press it down - with your knee!" "What are you waiting for?" "Now, tie it with a belt..." "It's all ready to go." "Ah, my clasp!" "Thief!" "I understand everything now." "You thought you could get away with anything, you bitch!" "That you're acting on higher orders." "That you can do whatever you like." "Tell me who you are!" "Go on, bitch!" "Who's behind this?" "What's this?" "Blood!" "Hey you, in a hat!" "Come back!" "I'm talking to you, princess!" "You better clean up after yourself!" "Where are you going?" "Come back!" "Princess!" "The Doll House" "September 24, night." "There is money in the doll dresser, top right drawer." "Bond certificates in the left drawer." "Everything else in the bottom drawer." "You must take everything and run." "Leave jewels, rubies and silver for yourself." "I know you will like them." "I'm sure you will blame me, but who can judge someone who has already paid for everything with her whole life." "But we can say what is true and what isn't." "Perhaps we should shout:" "stay away!" "Don't inhale the sulfury smoke." "Amen." "Amen." "Vanish." "Fire!" "Amen!" "Disappear!" "THE END"