""But" is important." "I make him responsible." "I mean, can I say, for myself and for now..." ""Listen, it's your decision"?" "That's more on an emotional level... so we'll set that aside." "It works with the bleeding." "Should we start with small bits?" "So, where do we take it from?" "From the beginning." "Just to read it through..." "You needn't wait." "I'll pass on your congratulations." "Your father won't be long now." "That's the evening news." "We spoke on the phone." "Did he say what he'd have done if we'd been taken over?" "He was sure he'd win." "Of course." "Funnily enough... today..." "something odd happened." "Everyone was working." "Your father was fighting to keep his company and then..." "William turns up in my office." "Bloody hell..." "De Lille comes to me to tell me about his disasters." "That was the last thing I felt like hearing." "I wanted to talk to you about it." "Why do people gamble like that?" "They're fools." "Could he kill himself?" "William hasn't got the initiative." "He leaves all the big moves to others." "His company has run up debts of 40 million." "With his reputation, he won't get a loan." "He's your friend." "You lend him the money." "You didn't think I was going to ask you to lend him money?" "It'd be throwing it down the drain." "What are you getting at?" "The creditors are meeting tomorrow." "To bankrupt him." "His order book's patchy but the outlook is good." "He's got a modern factory, well-equipped." "It's just a bit over-manned." "If you go in, you could get the company back on its feet." "The potential's there but the debts are going to sink it." "How much?" "Eight million." "But it's not the money..." "Too complicated." "It's late, I need to get to bed." "You know your talent is being wasted!" "At your age, time is decisive." "If you don't develop your potential over the next year or the next months you'll pay for it until the end." "Never..." "You'll never get another chance anywhere near as good." "My father wouldn't allow it." "Perhaps we shouldn't tell him." "No!" "I've worked for him for thirty years and I've never wanted to leave." "But we learned his faults long ago." "He chews the hook and spits out the bait." "What is it?" "You're bleeding?" "It's nothing." "Here." "It's nothing." "Your father admires you." "He wants you to be his successor." "He's obsessed." "If you fail, you'll recover." "You're young, Leonard." "But he's an old man." "So I have to go behind my father's back?" "He won't let you take any risks." "He'd be breathing down your neck..." "Sir, may I serve?" "Please." "You can use your own money or I can raise a loan for you." "Give me a report on this company." "I need something for the creditors tomorrow." "Your father's here, sir." "I'll take it." "What time is it?" "47 minutes past eleven." "Anything else?" "No..." "Mr Doniol?" "Thank you, Jonas." "Did you see his watch?" "It's a human face." "Don't miss this chance." "William was like you once, young, full of promise." "But he never had to fight." "This is my father's lucky day." "And you, you don't mention giving me my chance until almost midnight." "Congratulations, sir." "Thank you!" "I feel as if I have the legs of a twenty-year-old." "I'm learning to walk again!" "It's turning into a stampede." "Over 60% of our shareholders have taken my offer." "Hammer will hold onto his 10% but we're safe from a take-over for all time." "You're so stern!" "Why are you always so stern?" "I have the closing accounts..." "Tomorrow." "Is this my whisky?" "Have you heard from Hammer?" "He'll send a line." "Won't want to look miffed." "What's your plan now?" "Go to bed!" "Claude, did you want something?" "To thank you for seeing Hammer off so brilliantly." "Thanks, Doniol." "We must remain vigilant." "When you make guns, you must be more alert than the men who fire them." "I must go." "I need to be up early." "Good night." "He hung on to congratulate me." "You should have told him to go." "Did you see me on TV?" "Yes, you were very good." "You didn't go to celebrate?" "No, you should've done." "You earned it." "I've hardly seen you recently." "I can't see why Hammer tried to buy us out." "What can't you see, Leonard?" "Do you need a clairvoyant to tell you that crisps are crisps?" "The arms trade has good prospects." "It's hard to get into on our level." "Hammer was shopping." "Father..." "With an 80% share, you as good as own the company." "So what?" "Will I get it when you die?" "All of it." "I want to join the board." "It's too late to discuss this." "Saying yes or no won't take long." "There are ways of doing things." "We'll do it after I see Doniol and the accountants..." "You'll be busy." "That's true." "We'll fix a future appointment." "What's wrong?" "My whisky doesn't matter." "Let me fix you one." "It's all right!" "I'm not an alcoholic!" "What were we saying before you got agitated over my drink?" "My place on the board." "I don't feel you're ready for it." "If I put you on it now, they'll associate you with weakness." "I've built up a good board." "They're all fighters." "Most of them are former soldiers." "I'll learn to survive." "Others have drowned on being thrown in the deep end." "If the board obstructs me, I'll get rid of them." "You'd sack them?" "Listening to you, I feel I need to protect them from you." "That's settled." "We'll keep it for now." "Can you note it in the big script?" "His father keeps on pushing him aside." "His frustrated demands have got him all twisted up inside." "But for the father..." "It's very hard to hear." "Yes, it's hard to hear because it's a bad time." "A very bad time..." "To talk..." "I mean... the guy says, "When you die, will I get it?"" "Precisely." "I often have the feeling with Leonard that he's almost..." "We enter the play when it's on the tip of his tongue, he can't go on, he can't hold back." ""Leave it till tomorrow." "Each thing in turn."" "There's the fuss over the whisky but then, we see the hard side of the businessman and also..." ""I'll tell them to beware of you."" "Everything okay, sir?" "Yes, thank you." "His whisky isn't right." "It is!" "It's fine!" "Something's wrong, sir?" "It's perfect." "You're too kind, Servun." "Why did I mention it?" "It's no bother to fix the drink, sir." "It's fine." "I'll drink it in a while." "Don't upset him." "He spills everything." "He'll be jittery all day tomorrow." "I won't let you slight my board." "I didn't say I'd get rid of them." "Don't tell me what I heard!" "Only if they tried to get rid of me." "You condemn them out of hand." "You're blind!" "If the job wasn't yours, my so-called friends would be at each other's throats." "One day, you'll come to them as a peacemaker." "So there's no problem." "Unless you make one!" "This whisky's undrinkable!" "Father..." "If I'm to do your job one day," "I must have determination." "When I show it, I'm unsuitable." "I understand your frustration but you don't know the responsibility I bear." "It's greater than if you were my actual son." "Adoption is a contract." "And I honour my contracts." "Learn to get what you want without grabbing." "Get rid of your ambition, of every scrap of pride." "If you can't manage, you should look for a more comfortable future." "You want that?" "Don't be childish." "It's a father's duty to warn his child so that the child won't expose his own weaknesses." "In your situation they could destroy you." "I'm tired." "This conversation must end." "I'll do it." "I can't win with you." "I don't want gratitude but why do this today?" "I thought I'd be allowed to come home to peace for once." "We work to give others a living and have the skin flayed from our hands." "I dropped the subject five minutes ago." "You're intolerable!" "The subject's dropped when I say so." "Don't try those tactics on the board." "I'm sorry." "I shouldn't have asked today." "If you go on the board, we'll be squabbling in public at the first disagreement!" "Here..." "Hammer wasn't such a pushover." "What do you mean?" "You sweated when the bankers took time over raising your second loan." "Carry on." "I see..." "Six weeks fighting for you and you treat me like this." "Doniol and Servun congratulate me." "You say, "Give me mine!"" "Please." "It's finished." "We shouldn't end the day like this." "It must seem as if I didn't care." "It's only when I'm tired, isn't it?" "Hammer scared me." "He thinks with his mouth open." "He devours everything." "I wish you didn't have to meet people like him." "It's good we had this conversation." "You must learn to be patient." "Fortunately, I believe in you." "I can wait." "I knew your answer." "Good night." "See you tomorrow." "Not yet in bed, sir?" "I'm doing my rounds before setting the alarm." "What's going on?" "Mr Jurrieu was pissed off all week." "A certain Hammer tried to take over my father's company." "Today, we acquired more than half of the shares." "We're a private company now." "Mr Jurrieu must be relieved." "Yes." "I certainly am." "I've learned to live the hard way, reading between the lines before they're printed." "If Mr Jurrieu had lost, I'd have been flushed down the toilet." "I don't think..." "I get along with Mr Jurrieu." "Not many gents would want a man with my history." "There was this court martial." "Mr Jurrieu saw the unfairness of it." "But... what prejudice!" "Mr Jurrieu, sorry to bother you." "I'm looking for work." "After 11 years in the forces, civvy street is hard to take." "What force were you in?" "The navy, sir." "What rank?" "Leading seaman Jonas Servun." "What ship?" "The Inflexible." "The engine room." "That's a submarine." "Yes, sir." "Sixteen nuclear warheads." "You have your service record?" "Got a nerve, hasn't he?" "You're known in the forces for hiring old soldiers." "You little shit." "Think I wouldn't notice the court ruling?" "No, sir, I didn't." "What's wrong?" "With all due respect, I was discharged, sir." "He was court-martialled." "And you're here for a job?" "What do your superiors write?" "They don't explain." "I was victimized, sir." "I don't give a fuck." "I'm a civilian." "Tell me why you were court-martialled on a nuclear submarine." "On the submarine, they hang truncheons on the wall in all the missile rooms." "That way, if a man goes berserk, they beat his head in." "Officially, it's one tap and a tablet when he comes round." "But the master-of-arms gave us different instructions..." ""Beat the bugger's brains out," "I don't want loonies on my sub!"" "It's nuclear, see." "If a man goes nuts, he can kill mankind." "They're big ships..." "On Christmas morning," "I went round all the truncheons and put a condom on each one." "All the truncheons." "As a joke." "Beneath the Atlantic... with the submarine decorated with condoms like garlands." "The captain took it personally." "He thought I meant he was a prick." "If you have anything... driver, cook, batman..." "People see a court martial as the Last Judgement." "It sticks to you like glue." "Saying the verdict was wrong is like blasphemy!" "If I was fired from here," "I'd never find another job." "My father would give you references." "Yes, no doubt." "Mr Jurrieu would give me that." "In a manner of speaking, we're both his sons." "He took us both in, right?" "I'm not saying I'm your equal." "No way." "That drink." "It's like a trap for a lazy servant." "It's the soda." "I can't ever get it right." "For Christ sake, Jonas, go to bed." "If I take his drink up," "I'll disturb him." "Shall I take it or not?" "I'll see to it." "Good night, Jonas." "Good night, sir." "Wait here for me." "Arsehole!" "I haven't been drinking." "I'm okay." "Good morning." "Is my father up?" "I'm very early." "William's in the car." "What?" "I don't want to see him here!" "He has a board meeting at 9." "If the creditors see him, they'll back off." "Tell him to leave!" "It ended badly last night." "He went gambling." "He's bleeding!" "Shit!" "Feeling better?" "How do you do?" "Hello." "It's kind of you to see me so early." "The coffee's ready, sir." "Your man kindly lent me a shirt." "Doniol!" "I had a little accident." "Sorry, you can't stay." "My father, see." "The car's parked in the yard." "We're off already?" "Sir, I had a drop too much last night and said some stupid things." "Don't worry." "There's a track to the right." "I'm glad it's come to this." "I feel as if I'm off to my own funeral but that I'll leave an empty casket." "Sorry you're in trouble." "It's nothing." "Life is always worth living." "Gamblers know that... you come home at dawn, everyone's asleep, the bins are out and you feel young." "The money doesn't matter." "Mornings are beautiful." "The days are shabby." "Think positive, eh, William?" "You don't want to hear this." "You don't gamble." "No." "Listen, I can't commit until I read Claude's report." "You won't lose a penny of your investment." "I'll make a few calls to the creditors." "They'll jump at it!" "Here." "Thank you." "Beautiful shirt!" "My shareholders will love your father's name!" "It's the perfect guarantee." "Claude told me..." "your father mustn't know." "I'm not just lending you money." "No, I know." "As you wish." "I'll put you on the board." "I want to be chairman." "Really?" "Claude didn't mention that." "I'm sorry, but the position isn't free." "It's that or nothing." "I need to think it over." "The offer of a seat remains, of course." "You got me here under false pretences." "It's all negotiable." "No." "Chairman!" "Full personal control." "Or no money!" "They'll be glad to be shot of you." "Unless they're too geriatric to notice." "Don't push me." "I'm calm and sober now." "If not, I wouldn't be here." "I can make you money." "Claude knows." "We can't thrash out the details now." "I know what I'm doing." "You're the one who's confused." "Why take on my piddling company?" "A mere ant!" "You act as if you're in a trap!" "This is absurd!" "Leonard must simply state his interest during the meeting." "That doesn't commit anyone." "I want it on paper before the meeting!" "No!" "No!" "I'd sooner dig up my father and pawn his suit." "I've been such a jerk!" "Last night, I was like a condemned man." "But I looked forward to dawn." "I had a goal." "The drink, the stupid night sweats, the gossip in the press..." "all in the past!" "10 years ripped from the calendar." "Now I'm to turn over my inheritance to a boy who crushes everything he grasps!" "Leonard's right." "No one can trust you..." "You can't know!" "You haven't been through it." "Be reasonable." "Cutting off a dog's legs won't make it beg!" "We must go, the board..." "Shut up!" "Dismiss your employee!" "The board's waiting." "Go!" "So cocksure!" "You have no idea." "I should give in and destroy you." "Just for the look on your face." "This is getting us nowhere, William." "Nowhere." "Run him to his creditors." "He'll say he's a reformed drunk." "I don't know why I'm crying." "It's not appropriate." "Parents do that..." "whip their child and cry." "You'll soil my shirt." "I don't want anything from you but your enmity." "Not the chair..." "I can take that." "But when it's mine, please, be my enemy." "Enmity and hate." "I'll thrive on the worst you can do." "I'll use the stones you throw at me to bury you." "I'll give you reasons to hate me." "I'm a slot machine that won't let you win." "You stand no chance!" "I wish you success." "And, please, don't hesitate." "If things go wrong, come to me." "I'll help..." "Do his paper for him." "I won't be at the meeting." "They'll accept your word." "He's drunk." "You can't escape from yourself." "He wasn't drunk." "Leonard never mentions William's offer to his father." "With Doniol's help, he works skilfully to acquire the company and then oust William without old Jurrieu noticing a thing." "Doniol knows him." "They're not in liquidation." "8 million in two days without giving your name won't be easy." "I know." "I can't appear." "Sorry, Leo, but it's too risky for me." "You won't appear." "I can let you have by-products..." "You pay even if you lose." "All right." "Not Luxembourg." "My father knows people." "I know someone on the exchange commission." "Switzerland, okay, but they mustn't call me." "Arrange an appointment on a pay-phone with them." ""Be my enemy."" "The two rats!" "Fuck you!" ""Hate and enmity."" ""I'll thrive on the worst you can do." "I'll use the stones you throw at me to bury you." "I'll give you reasons to hate me." "I'm a slot machine that won't let you win." "You stand no chance!"" "Not bad..." "But it lacks women." "Yeah, I'm sorry." "Not one of you has a woman." "We have two widowers, bachelors, but not one girl." "Bond didn't write a female part in "In the Company of Men"." "We'll use Shakespeare." "Ophelia could work as Doniol's daughter." "Hammer could be Claudius." "The father would be the ghost..." "I don't know..." "So when you say Shakespeare, that could be any character in Shakespeare." "But Hamlet is the main reference." "I'm Laertes." "Well, I'm Ophelia's father." "In other words, I'm Jurrieu's chamberlain," "Polonius." "But I have a daughter, Ophelia, who doesn't have a mum." "I'm Iago too, in a way, since I betray my master, Jurrieu." "For Leonard and his favour, hold it a fashion and a toy in blood." "The perfume and suppliant of a minute." "No more but so?" "It's not more." "Really?" "Perhaps he loves you now, and now no soil doth besmirch the virtue of his will." "But his will is not his own." "He is subject to his birth and his inheritance." "If he says he loves you, you may believe it as his particular position may give his saying deed." "Fear it, Ophelia, and hold back your affection, out of the shot of desire." "Here is thy father." "Remember well what I said." "It's locked in my memory and you shall keep the key of it." "What did he say?" "So please you, something touching Leonard." "Marry, well bethought." "I am told he hath lately given private time to you, and you yourself have of your audience... been most free and bounteous." "What is there between you and Leonard?" "Give me up the truth." "He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders of his affection to me." "Affection!" "You speak like a green girl unsifted in such perilous circumstances." "Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?" "I do not know what I should think." "Marry, I will teach you." "Think yourself a baby to take these tenders for true pay." "Which are not sterling." "Tender yourself more dearly." "Or you'll tender me a fool." "My lord... he hath importuned me with love... in honourable fashion." "Ay, fashion you may call it!" "He guarantees his words with holy vows." "Springs to catch woodcocks!" "My daughter, be scanter of your maiden presence." "Set your entreatments at a higher rate." "For Leonard, believe this much in him..." "he is young." "Do not believe his vows." "Look to it, I charge you." "I shall obey." "Do you have the audit?" "The list." "Five of them." "The draft agreements?" "Let's go." "Good evening." "De Lille Enterprises owes all of you money." "I'm ready to invest 8 million but I can't find a penny more to refund you." "You have two options." "Either liquidate De Lille but the losses are such, you'll never be paid, even on the corpse." "I've had a new audit done." "Or, second, you trust me." "If you sign a one-year waiver, I'll buy the company." "I'll refloat it and you'll be paid in a year... from the profits." "My offer stands until 11 tonight." "After that, I withdraw my money and my offer." "Doniol has prepared the papers." "Doniol's duplicity is breathtaking and calm." "Leonard has found serenity in action." "His hallucinations fade away." "Very good." "Shall I dismantle the gun?" "It's all right." "You're not leaving?" "Not yet." "It's 6 pm." "Goodbye." "Good evening." "Are you all right?" "I certainly am." "William called you again." "I'm sorry." "The whole company knew he was a failure." "He's in the next room." "Has he been drinking?" "You don't have to see him." "I'm happy, for the first time." "Why would I let him spoil it?" "Take him to the Ritz if they'll have him." "He'll off-Ioad his bile on you." "As usual." "Mr Hammer?" "My father's away in the country." "Was he expecting you?" "You knew." "Evening." "Let's get this out in the open." "Let me postpone my appointment." "No need." "I saw Willy and sent him packing." "Who let you in?" "I want a witness here." "That's the last thing you want." "As chairman of De Lille, you owe me 40,300,000 francs." "Long overdue." "I want immediate payment." "I have a one-year debtor's waiver." "No." "Yes." "You weren't on the list." "Not when you checked." "Between the moment Doniol gave you the list and the waiver's date, I bought the debts." "The paper that you signed simply states "debts outstanding"." "It doesn't mention my 40 million." "Why was the paper worded that way?" "I told Doniol to word it that way." "I had a meeting with the creditors." "I've never fled my debts." "But I wasn't there." "That must be Willy's fault." "Mistakes happen in the best run companies." "And he's known to drink." "Any lawyer could rip through that in his sleep." "Let sleeping lawyers lie." "Let's talk business." "I own 12% of Jurrieu and Partners' equity." "Your father's growing old." "When time takes its toll and you inherit, you'll top me up to 51%." "Doniol has put it all down on a bit of paper." "I checked it." "It's safe to sign." "No catch... it says what it says." "I'll pay you off." "I'll borrow from my father." "Would I go to this trouble if you could wriggle off the hook so easily?" "The other creditors had faith in me." "I'll give you a good return." "You can't borrow behind my back." "They'd want your balls and they'd be mine by then anyway." "Any messing, my bill goes where your father sees it." "If you weren't scared, you'd've gone to him first when Doniol came to you with his evil little plan." "I'd have gone to my father." "So would have Doniol." "And Tom, Dick and Harry." "You're the only person who couldn't." "And it's got worse!" "The first move you make on your own puts his whole company at risk!" "My God!" "If Daddy could see the cock-up you're in... he'd never forget." "He'd fill your pockets but his company would vanish like Mont Blanc down the plughole." "With all the loot I don't know about." "The treasure stored within." "The whole world really." "That's what you're scared of losing, not the company or the money." "The little no-man's land between father and son." "That's where it all turns." "That's what delivered you to me." "Claude!" "May I take such a liberty?" "Claude, come in." "We've been building paper castles." "You're wrong to judge my father." "He shows no treachery towards me." "Doniol, your comment?" "A month ago, your father came to me in my capacity as company secretary..." "Doniol, from now on, my doubts are official." "But if you support Leonard, my son is dangerous." "Promise him anything so he won't harm me." "We'll give him a salary, expectations." "A fictitious job to shut him up." "I'll just take a controlling share." "I'll leave you your incentive." "You must have missed something." "Don't judge me by the common man's standards." "If a man was strangling me, I'd crush his wrists with my chin and let him plead while his fingers dribbled down my shirt." "I can't cheat my father until he dies." "It'll come easier with practice." "I won't sign." "I enjoyed meeting you." "I'll expect the paper by Monday." "We must go to your father's shoot tomorrow." "If we drop out, it'll look suspicious." "How now, Ophelia!" "What's the matter?" "My lord..." "I was at the club when Leonard arrived, his jacket all torn." "He was as pale as his shirt, with a look so piteous as if he had lived through the horrors of hell." "He comes before me." "Is he mad?" "For the love." "My lord, I do not know." "What said he?" "He took me by the wrist and held me hard." "Then he stepped away... and with his hand over his brow, like this... he fell to such a perusal of my face as he would draw it." "And then..." "Long stayed he so." "Then thrice his head waving up and down, like this... he raised a sigh so piteous... as it did seem to shatter all his bulk and end his being." "That done, he let me go and left." "He scares me." "Have you spoken any hard words of late?" "No." "But, as you did command, I did deny his access to me." "That's it, that hath made him mad." "My sweet darling," "I miss you so much." "I'll fix things with Leo for the company." "Hello!" "Why do you do this alone?" "I'll help you." "No!" "You're young." "It's an old man's task." "It's quiet here." "I think of Therese and that's all." "Hello." "How do you do?" "What'll it be?" "Champagne." "We only have half bottles." "A half bottle then." "Two glasses!" "We're celebrating." "I didn't want to tell you sooner." "I'm going to put you on the board." "I'll speak to the managers this month." "They won't object." "You'll start as a trainee-director." "It's what you want?" "What do we celebrate?" "Me knocking out that bastard Hammer?" "You on the board?" "Or the new rifle tomorrow?" "The whole Defence Ministry will attend." "You've changed your mind." "You passed me every day with this in mind." "As if we were cars passing on the street!" "Would it have made a difference?" "Are you being bloody-minded or is it lack of confidence?" "I took you by surprise with the will." "We can look back at the strangeness of our lives." "Your first parents left you on a doorstep." "And I opened my doors to you." "What would you say to them today?" "I'd ask them to forgive me." "Mother burned the rubbish I was found in." "Did they even look at you when you were born?" "Your mother signed papers to abandon you." "Did they clothe you?" "The hospital did it." "There might've been a clue." "These papers were drawn up over 15 years ago." "You now own half of your father's shares." "You can now sit on the board." "And this deed makes you your father's executor." "Do you think about my father?" "No." "I've always pictured him clearly." "You didn't know my parents." "Children are born with nothing." "I gave you things because I had them." "That's how I made you mine." "Women are different." "To make you hers, your mother had to strip you." "Don't begrudge her her bonfire." "She had a withered womb." "She's been dead long enough." "I can tell you now..." "She hadn't eaten for days, I found out later..." "Then she swallowed a colic, a violent blend of bitters and abortives." "And this medicine I shall drink off and through all my veins it shall run." "My pulse shall race, my blood shall flow for you, my lips shall fade, as shall my cheeks." "To ashes." "When my husband comes to wake me," "I'll have become your mother." "Love gives me the strength." "True, I fear I'll die before he arrives." "Oh, sweet apothecary!" "The drugs work swiftly." "Your mummy's in a little pain." "It doesn't matter." "A little smile." "What are we going to do?" "It's a bit cold, you'll see." "It feels nice." "What is it?" "You're not scared, are you?" "It's pretty." "Nice and red." "It's good blood." "And "Blood will tell"." "Good ambrosia." "Sweet as honey." "And you'll be as strong as Achilles." "Because you're my little hero." "Come along." "Let's go and sit down." "Mummy felt a little pain." "You're tiny!" "My tiny little baby." "What mother, a new-born shape upon her lap that the honey of generations has betrayed and that must sleep, shriek and struggle in an attempt to remember." "And it's memories that fade..." "What mother would think her son..." "Do I but imagine you at 30... or at 60?" "An old man with white hair..." "You, my son... are compensation for the pang of your birth." "Thank you for the pang you give me." "I came home." "At first I thought the burglar alarm was playing up." ""Her whimpering was drawn out like a scream."" "You see, I did it." "I'm brave." "She was tearing the sheet with her teeth, along the top, holes and rents." "Pain and fear, both real." "I wanted it so much." "She wanted to bear you." "You almost killed her." "He's clean, ma'am, I'll put him in his crib." "She'd smeared you with something like blood." "I don't know what." "You were beside her on the bed, sleeping naked." "Cosier than a doorstep." "God, you can be icy-blooded." "Show some respect when I talk about your mother." "After she got well, you were like a gift I bought for her." "There was something between you." "You'd given her fear and pain." "And you gave me a new woman." "I didn't know she had such tenderness in her." "And I lost her." "Put your arm around my shoulders." "He might come in." "Does a foundling worry about such things?" "Do it." "There." "Not my flesh, but good." "All right now." "The rifle!" "We must get the house ready." "Sign." "Tomorrow, we're receiving." "They'll renew their stock." "It'll fill our orders for five years." "My good friend, how do you for this many a day?" "I humbly thank you... well." "Sir, I have remembrances of yours that I wish to return." "Please, receive them." "No, not I." "I never gave you aught." "You know well you did." "And with them such sweet words as made them richer." "Their perfume lost, take them again." "Rich gifts wax poor when the givers prove unkind." "Take them back." "Are you fair?" "What?" "Are you honest?" "What do you mean?" "Your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty." "May beauty have better commerce than with honesty?" "Yes!" "For beauty's power will transform honesty into a bawd." "This was sometime a paradox but now the time gives it proof." "I did love you once." "Indeed, you made me believe so." "You shouldn't have." "I loved you not!" "I was the more deceived." "Get thee to a nunnery!" "Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?" "I am myself indifferent honest yet so corrupt that it were better my mother had not born me." "I am revengeful, I am ambitious." "I have more offences at my beck than imagination to shape them or time to act." "We are arrant knaves, all." "Believe none of us." "Where's your father?" "At home, I think." "Let the doors be shut so he plays the fool only there." "Farewell." "Would that I could help you." "If you marry, I'll give you this dowry." "Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, you shall not escape calumny." "Go." "Get thee to a nunnery." "Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool." "For wise men know well what monsters you make of them." "Be gone." "Go!" "Leonard, you're ill." "I have heard of your paintings." "You change the face God gives you." "You jig and amble, you nickname God's creatures and make wantonness your ignorance." "I want no more." "It has made me mad." "I say we will have no more marriage." "The married shall live." "The rest shall keep as they are." "Go now." "Be gone." "Off with you!" "Leonard?" "Is that you?" "Yes, Dad." "I woke early." "Come in." "What time is it?" "Six." "No one's here yet." "You can go back to sleep." "Why are you up so early?" "I don't know." "That's good." "I'll go back to sleep." "Stay here a while." "It's going to be a long day." "You should get some rest." "Is your room suitable, sir?" "Yes, I sent my bags up." "Am I the first?" "Bloody hell!" "It's the new FRG3." "Not a prototype, the first factory run." "Mr Jurrieu's showing it today." "By the way, I was looking..." "Any chance of a drink?" "I have my flask." "Mr Jurrieu dislikes liquor before a shoot." "Accidents, see..." "Here." "Another, sir?" "To dilute the first." "Why must I go out today?" "I'm in no state to kill things." "A mint, sir?" "For your breath." "Oh, Leo!" "Don't go." "Father's waiting." "He's in the shed." "Say I'm looking for him." "I'll look after the gun." "Hurry." "I've been trying to see you." "Don't speak to my father." "I've nothing against you." "Doniol came with his filthy proposal." "What could I do?" "I destroyed myself, now I'm used to harm others." "Odd, isn't it?" "I prayed before we met." "Not that I believe." "Gambling cured me of that." "It's a nervous tic left over from catechism." ""O God, let him be a crook and a bastard and let my innocence shine as the victim."" "And there you were... innocent." "It's cruel to be that innocent." "I was so ashamed." "I had one hope... he'll see I'm scum!" "Surely he won't trust me?" "O God, he's so innocent he does!" "Find me out!" "Run me down!" "Help me, you fool!" "Yum, yum, you lapped up every drop of the poison and asked for seconds." ""Make me chairman!"" "Why are you here?" "It's Claude." "He sent me a pretty invitation." "Hammer wants you to smell my stink of failure." "If you don't sign, you're supposed to end up like me." "I was sober." "But I scrounged a guzzle from your man." "Stay down-wind of servants or they get nasty." "He offered me a mint!" "How low I've fallen!" "Sell up what's left and go." "Too late." "If I was bleeding to death," "I'd sell my bandages to bet on the 2:30." "Leonard has stolen a cartridge." "He will now have to switch the two magazines." "His project is fuelled by total hatred and total love." "He'll try to kill his father to seize his realm and, as a loving son, avoiding to admit his downfall to him." "You want to call me scum?" "No." "I shan't take offence." "Please." "Just say scum." "It's almost an anagram of mucus." "I don't demand repartee..." "just one nice insult." "You won't oblige?" "No matter." "I do brilliant imitations." "Hammer..." ""I'll flog your skin off your back." "Hate me and we'll sit by the same corpse, nibbling its bones."" "You..." ""I'm Leonard." "I'm the young master, I'm the king of the castle!" "I want to be chairman."" "Who said that?" "Only scum would." "Scum, William." "S for shit," "C for crap, U for 'uckers," "M for mess." "Scum." "And now, my piece de resistance, my imitation of myself!" ""My dear Leo, you don't miss a thing." "I am pongy." "Can I scrounge the loan of some socks?"" "O God..." "Was that me?" "Who's that weeping?" "Who's it imitating?" "The world, the whole fucking world." "I shouldn't have drunk." "I was expecting a normal weekend in the country, harmlessly shooting birds out of the sky." "I'm sorry." "First, I ruin your life, now I ruin your weekend." "Hello, William." "Mr Jurrieu..." "I hope you're comfortable here." "It's delightful." "So are the grounds." "What made you invite him?" "I don't like strangers." "I felt sorry for him." "You shouldn't mix with his sort." "De Lille reeks of failure." "Welcome." "Come in." "Come here, my dear boy." "Sit down by me." "No, dear father, here's metal more attractive." "Hi, lady." "Do you mark that?" "My I lie between your legs?" "No, my friend." "I mean, my head on your belly." "If you so wish." "Do you think I meant a "cunt-related" matter?" "I think nothing, Leonard." "A fair thought to lie between maids' legs." "What?" "Nothing." "You're funny today." "Me, funny?" "Ay, my friend." "What makes a man funny?" "Look how cheerful your father looks and how they all try to ruin Jurrieu." "That was two months back." "Two months." "So long?" "What do you mean?" "You're crude, Leonard." "Let me listen to the music." "No real bullets for now, sir?" "No, use a blank in the gun." "Gentlemen, let's proceed." "The new generation of precision rifles." "Leonard... 16.9 kilos, 1.37 metres, barrel rifled to the right, with 8 grooves per 380 mm thread." "J10 telescopic sight." "Special night vision." "All powered by two lithium batteries." "Leonard!" "The telemeter beam isn't visible prior to use, of course." "There's an electric verification system within the safety housing." "Muzzle velocity..." "820 metres per second" "Magazine... seven RWS rounds." "Manual loading." "Shot groups of under 60cm diameter at 1800 metres." "Excuse me, sir." "Wait!" "Wait, son!" "Wait!" "Just a second!" "Oh, shit!" "I didn't do that." "I don't believe it!" "Problems?" "No, no problem." "Take the telemeter." "We're off." "I didn't do it." "C'mon." "Give me the magazine." "Doniol..." "Kindly check this round." "That one wasn't on the gun." "It was on the gun." "De Lille, you saw the gun loaded with it." "I know nothing about guns." "Gather up your things." "Send him to the station." "You're fired, with a month's pay." "Tell security in Paris to watch him while he removes his things." "Go!" "Mr Jurrieu..." "Your irresponsibility could have burdened my son with guilt." "This company has its rules." "Careless handing of weapons and/or rounds means instant dismissal." "That doesn't concern servants." "I did nothing." "I swear to God." "You're in no state to swear." "I won't argue with an ex-employee." "You're drunk, on my property!" "This flask has a viewing strip too." "It's three-quarters empty!" "Go!" "I'll bring you Hammer's assignment before dinner." "You must dress." "Your father asked for dinner early." "Leonard signs the assignment and leaves his father's house." "The court hereby rules in absentia and on the first hearing that the conditions of the deed were not carried out by the donee, that the donee, Leonard Jurrieu, is guilty and orders the return of the said goods" "to the donor, Henri Jurrieu, and sentences the defendant to pay all legal costs." "The hearing is adjourned." "I'm not hungry." "One kebab, one chicken and chips." "All right?" "Another chicken and chips." "That costs a lot..." "One day you'll be rich." "I won't." "It's over." "Shut up!" "You think I'm your flunkey." "You only slash your wrists if I clean up." "17 francs 50." "Jesus!" "Let me see." "No gangrene in my place!" "What a stink!" "Can't even open his veins!" "Ask me next time." "The woman at the chemist's thought I wanted to drink this!" "Leonard..." "Know why the navy chucked me out?" "You lied?" "You think only you lied to the old man?" ""Victimized by my superiors."" "Subs and nuclear stuff fascinate people." "Your old man stood there listening." "That's when the lie came to me." "I swear it was in his head first." "I told him what he wanted to hear." "Where'd I get thirty condoms on a navy sub that's been under the sea for eight weeks?" "Old Servun's not as daft as you think!" "Come." "A brown ghost." "Just one?" "For now." "For now?" "I told Doniol a crate." "Later..." "I came on my own." "Can we talk?" "Congratulations." "No one got the better of me before." "Where's my crate?" "Finish that for now!" "I had obtained your undertaking to give me full control..." "And you got yourself disinherited." "You're a fanatic." "Shall I go?" "Stay here!" "That man is money!" "You can go on, sir." "Wait outside." "Why did you want my father's company?" "I'm in transport, clothing, construction but mostly in food... the biggest chain in Europe." "Now I have a problem..." "I need to expand but I can't sell my stores anymore." "So I thought about moving into Africa or Asia, where people are dying of hunger." "The trouble is, the governments don't want food, they want weapons." "So I need weapons." "Ordinary, reliable, cheap weapons." ""Let my stores in and I'll sell you weapons!"" "I'm offering you a 100-year sales franchise." "You simply have to go back to your father." "I have no father." "I've come to this ruin like a salesman to flog you a kingdom." "What more do you want?" "Tear up what I signed." "No." "It's my only hold on you." "The fucking..." "What's that?" "Help, Leo!" "His brain sucks up alcohol like a sponge." "It'll soon pass." "No one pisses me off!" "Give me back my bones!" "There's no romance in squalor." "Doniol says your father wants you." "He has no one to hand on to." "I could've done so much." "I was strong." "I was fit." "I was like a child who always had its arms open." "I knew I had enemies." "But why were you waiting to break my back?" "People massacring each other..." "Faces screaming on TV..." "Soldiers' hands blotting out the cameras..." "Why should I care about their suffering?" "Airmen bombing little children." "Would they stamp on their faces?" "7The answer doesn't interest me." "Women making bombs..." "If you gave them a bonus, they'd make them in their womb." "Do you think that can go on?" "Who says I'm doing this?" "That this is on my hands?" "Come with me." "You're sick." "Your mind is sick." "I'll take you to a safe place and care for you." "You can think and tell me what you want." "Be gone!" "I'm rich." "If it worked out, I'd make you boss of Jurrieu." "Just go." "If I go back out alone, you won't exist." "The door won't exist." "You won't even be dead." "A stain..." "in an abortion clinic." "The bricks are turning!" "The walls turned into teeth!" "The stairs!" "He threw the stairs on me!" "Is this hair or people?" "I haven't drunk it all." "I'll sober up and become real again." "You'll kill yourself, man." "Why are you staring at me?" "Your eyes are shut." "Sub-men see in the dark." "Would you look-see if it's empty?" "Yes." "Was I out long?" "Five minutes." "You drink too fast." "No..." "When it's short, it's bad!" "I was happy once." "At sea." "I'm never be happy nowadays." "It's all pretend, pretend... and getting old." "I could teach you a thing or two." "Why was I discharged?" "I blew up the planet hundreds of times." "Five years in the service." "gEight months on shore, four under the sea." "Are you sure you're listening?" "Yes." "Every two or three days, the order comes..." ""Fire!"" "Move it!" "The captain knows it's practice but the crew doesn't." "Every time could've been real." "They didn't tell us in case we ever said no." ""The deterrent works on the ignorance of the rank and file."" "After, we knew it wasn't real cause we're still alive." "If we'd blown up the world, our officers would've killed us," "because..." "once everyone had been killed, there'd be no sense in staying underwater like that." "You see, that's discipline." "Discipline on deck." "Leading seaman Servun, mopping the muck and blowing up the world." "One day, I was in our mess." "I was eating." "A rating cut his arm, quite nasty." "He came through to the sickbay behind the mess." "He stopped to get his breath." "He leant on the table and steadied himself with his hand." "The blood ran down his arm." "I went on eating." "Some fella cracked a joke." "Then the two lads went to the sick bay." "Where his hand had rested on the table, there were some spots." "Some tiny drops of blood." "I had a bit of bread in my hand." "I dipped it in the blood, to mop it up..." "Holy fuck!" "What's up?" "Seen Jonas?" "And I ate it." "Not a nice thought." "The blood was red, the bread was stark white." "They seemed to go together." "He's crazy." "What an arsehole!" "My hand just cleaned up the mess, on automatic pilot, and dropped it down my gob." "The cook told the captain." "And the captain told the medical officer." "He isn't very talkative and seems lost at times." "He won't say why." "A couple of drops of Atropine." "Don't wipe your eyes." "Now look at me." "Open your eye wide." "All right, you can wipe it now." "Medical check-up." "Tell me what you see." ""What's it like?"" "Here's the first blot." "An inkblot, captain." "Turn it over." "Do you want to stop and take a break before we go on?" "The next blot." "An inkblot, captain." "You don't see anything else?" "I did the tests." "Well..." "Inkblots on paper!" "Spots!" "I was ashamed!" "The same." "Look at this blot here." "Others see people here." "What had I done wrong?" "All that fuss about a bit of bread dipped in blood?" "Shit!" "It was bread... so I ate it." "Okay, Steph?" "Hi, Christian." "Attention!" "Present broom!" "Hold on, I'm coming." "Don't act the mad dog." "I'm not right in my head." "What do I know?" "This sub's too small." "Cleanliness is important on board a sub, see." "Filth is a sin." "Like being ill or not putting your stuff away." "Take that!" "My eye!" "Happy now?" "Get a doctor!" "He's pissing blood." "Calm down." "I can't fucking see!" "I jabbed the cook's eye out with the handle of my knife." "The bastard had ratted on me." "Fighting on a sub on active service... out!" "You're wrong cause you're innocent." "Leo, man, will you hold my hand?" "I don't feel too good." "Strong stuff..." "Wasn't there another?" "You spilt it all." "Don't be offended but the two of us are no good together." "What is it you want?" "Maybe I can't die." "That's my problem." "They shovel the dirt on me..." "Leo, leave me now." "Father..." "Father..." "What do you want?" "Did I wake you?" "The house is quiet." "You want money?" "I'll authorize my accountant." "Father, I have to tell you why I left." "I'm not your father." "Don't pretend." "When you went, I loved you as a son." "Now, I feel nothing." "I stare at you." "There's nothing." "I made a mistake." "You're not coming back." "My wife's dead." "I don't have friends." "I don't even need a servant." "We couldn't look at each other." "I'm afraid of you." "When you took me in, I didn't deserve it." "I was nobody." "I lay in my shit and cried." "You weren't kind to me." "I was just a thing in the way." "But I survived and grew up..." "I looked everywhere for you." "You know I bought De Lille's company?" "The accountants found out." "An impetuous waste of money." "I was tricked." "There was a debtor with a death-grip on me." "It was Hammer." "Father, look at me." "You've come to burn the house down." "Calmly, you say monstrous things." "Doniol is on Hammer's payroll." "He drew up the paper to sink me after you die." "Doniol is my friend!" "I tell him everything!" "He knows all my secrets." "It's not..." "He's not..." "I'm being stupid." "It's a joke!" "You're joking, right?" "You must trap Doniol." "Say this to his face!" "Claude!" "Don't betray me." "Let me help you." "Claude!" "Good evening, Leonard." "Good evening." "The prodigal returns." "At last!" "It's been a bad time." "Claude, would you mind?" "Let's have a drink." "Whisky?" "Right away." "The blood didn't even rush to his face." "Are you deceiving me?" "No." "Your father was very worried." "Your health, old friend." "To Leonard." "To father." "You two must talk." "You're right." "As always." "Good night." "He's bugged the room." "No need, you tell him everything." "What have I done?" "Since you left, he stays late." "Snooping around." "I'm here now." "You need someone but you can't trust Doniol." "Yes." "I need my bed." "We can't do a thing until the lawyers open their offices." "Why did you hand me over to Hammer?" "Greed." "The fear of poverty." "Won't that do?" "Two things you mustn't trust..." "God and the servants." "They know too much about you." "Well..." "Doniol has the power of a god..." "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance." "Pray you, remember." "And there is pansies, that's for thoughts." "There's fennel for you and columbines." "Here." "There's rue for you." "And here's some for me." "We may call it herb of grace on Sundays." "Wear it differently." "Here..." "There's a daisy for you." "I would give you violets but they withered when my father disappeared." "For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy." "Won't he come again?" "He'll never come again." "I've just been going through your will." "A duplicate of the one you tore up." "To be signed by you, then sealed in the presence of two witnesses." "Desk lamp, please." "I'll be in my office." "He was sitting on my chair." "Don't be silly." "Have it photocopied." "There'll be interpolations, invisible ink that comes through when he sprinkles my ashes on it." "I must not be bitter." "Give it here." "I'll sign it." "Your pen, father." "I've something else to confess." "I'm reading." "I must tell you now." "You'll sign but only after you know." ""...whatever goods and chattels I may own at my time of death..."" "I'll tell the truth, Henri." "Don't leave or speak." "Leonard, please." "Later." "The truth's a "one off"." "Like getting conceived." "I tried to kill you." "I would've done it." "You can hear it in my voice." "You're listening to a recording of your killing." "No, no... no." "I switched the magazines." "It would've been a plausible accident." "Don't move, be silent!" "I would've aimed well." "A clean death." "You wouldn't even have winced." "You handed me the gun in front of witnesses." "The whole sky was grinning at me." "You were bending down to kiss me." "I could count the stubble on your chin." "I lived your last seconds for you." "I filled them with life." "I stretched them out." "I gave you a long life." "You're thinking..." "Servun saved my life." "An idiot reprieved me." "But no!" "I didn't shoot..." "because of a bird." "One last thing." "I said I didn't kill you, father." "That's not true." "You're dead." "So am I." "You walk around and breathe but I killed you." "I got inside your skin." "That's where I'm sitting now." "Your bones are in me as if wrapped up in the wrong parcel." "I killed you to show..." "that I'm fit to take your place." "I earned the right to take your place!" "I can live for you!" "Who could you trust your company to except a killer?" "Any father would envy you." "I'm a son worthy of yours!" "I killed you." "But now I'm giving you life." "We can't ignore it now." "I'm both father and son." "If you choose wisely, you're the father I longed for." "We'll live together as brothers." "Father!" "Your father had a stroke." "Where is he?" "In his room." "Father!" "For God's sake!" "Do you hear me?" "Do you hear me?" "Do you hear me, c'mon!" "Half a signature..." "He wrote half his name and stopped." "When did he go up?" "I don't know." "Oh, fuck..." "Imagine the lawyers' fees on a half-signed will!" "Did you see him?" "No." "Shit!" "I can't think with a dead man in the house." "We must fulfil the signature." "The pen..." "What can I do?" "Spare me the hypocrisy." "The pen!" "I learnt to copy his signature..." "for minor documents." "We'll say he signed his will this morning." "I heard the window break." "I've come to talk, brother." "I saw the old man's death on TV." "Not too worn out from counting the loot?" "You're going to pay now." "Should I go to the police?" "Why?" "I couldn't figure out why you came to my hovel." "What's he want?" "Is he sorry for me?" "Pouring out sweet honey for me?" "You're a bastard." "You fiddled with the rifle, stole the magazines and tried to kill your father." "Who'll believe you?" "I can't prove what I know but you're going to pay." "For the navy!" "I want a million francs." "A real million." "I envy you... you're brave." "You want so little." "So little?" "I want the bloody lot!" "You should've come a month ago and told my father." "The police are onto you, kid." "I'm the man you need." "I'll swear on oath that I loaded the gun." "I'll swear anything." "But you pay first." "I'll give you... 500.000 francs." "But you have to earn it." "All right, hand it over." "And I'll be gone." "I don't have that much on me." "We've to go to the bank." "Hey..." "I thought you're getting the dough!" "Get that stool there." "What's it for?" "Over there." "Oh no." "I'm not doing this." "There." "You have a screw loose!" "The money." "I'm not doing this." "Is this for you or one of your pals?" "Test it." "It'll hold." "Test it!" "I fucking tested it!" "You play on your own now." "You'll kick the stool." "No... no." "I've done crazy stuff, but no." "Shit, give me my money and I'm off." "When I'm dead." "Dead?" "I'll knock you out and take my money!" "Don't steal it, earn it!" "No." "You can take my watch." "Yours is ridiculous." "You bastard!" "You won't get away with it." "The man who blew up the world..." "I'll cut the rope." "You'll fall down and I'll take your dough!" "500.000 to knock over a stool." "You're a monster!" "You can stuff your 500.000 francs." "Hey..." "How do I know that you didn't drop it in the gutter when you left the bank?" "I'll tell you when to kick." "Don't do it, son." "It's not necessary." "Let's go." "Now!" "But..." "your arms are not bound." "No use, arsehole, you'll reach up anyway!" "Now!" "I didn't want to do it." "My money!" "The salary of a lifetime!" "Hallelujah!" "The watch!" "I'll take it, eh?" "You told me to take it." "Fuck!" "I hope it's not too painful, son." "I have to go." "Let go of the rope, it's only getting worse." "Leonard?" "Leo!" "You're sure you don't want me to take you down?" "It's not too late." "Subtitles taken from the Pacific Marketing release."