"SOME YEARS AGO, THE PAINTER JOHAN BORG" "VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE FROM HIS HOME" "ON THE FRISIAN ISLAND OF BALTRUM" "HIS WIFE, ALMA, LATER GAVE ME JOHAN'S DIARY" "WHICH SHE HAD FOUND AMONG HIS PAPERS" "THIS DIARY, TOGETHER WITH WHAT ALMA HERSELF TOLD ME" "IS THE BASIS OF THIS FILM" "HOUR OF THE WOLF" "No." "I've no more to tell you." "And you have the diary." "You're wondering why I'm staying on here." "The two of us lived here together for nearly seven years." "In the winter I can go to the mainland and work in the store." "I've done it other years when we were a bit short of money." "The child is due in a month, the doctor says." "He examined me in May before we came out here for the last time." "I remember it was on a Friday." "It was rather late - about ten o'clock... yet it was still light out." "We intended to stay here until August." "We were usually completely alone." "He never wanted to meet anyone." "He was afraid." "I said very little, and he liked that." "He liked me." "We got here about three in the morning." "In the shed on the beach was a wheelbarrow." "When we got to the house, we were delighted to find the apple trees in bloom." "Then we noticed footprints in the flower bed under the kitchen window." "Johan was annoyed about it, but we thought nothing more of it until..." "We were glad." "We were glad to be back home again." "Johan was somewhat restless." "He always was when work didn't go well for him, and it hadn't gone well lately." "He slept very badly." "He was afraid." "Afraid of the dark." "He had become even worse recently." " I know." " What?" " I shall draw you." " No." " Oh, let me." "Come on." " No." " Go and sit over there." " No." "Up you get, fatty." " Here?" " No." "A little further back." "There." " Are you cold?" " No." "I knew it." "Now sit." "Sit the way you always do." "Don't straighten up." "And bare your shoulders." "That's it." "Hold your hair up a little so that I can see your neck better." "There." "Just like that." "Where are my glasses?" "Damn!" "The side piece is broken again." "That's it." "Can you keep still like that?" "If I were to continue drawing you patiently day after day..." "Hi there." "Look." "I haven't shown it to anybody." "I have sketched them." "This is the commonest specimen." "He's practically harmless." "I think he's homosexual." "There's the old lady - the one who's always threatening to take off her hat." " Do you know what happens then?" " No." "Her face comes off with it." "Here's the worst of them." "I call him "the bird man"." "I don't know if it's a real beak or just a mask." "He's extraordinarily quick." "He's supposed to be related to Papageno in The Magic Flute." "The others..." "The carnivores, the insects... especially the spider man." "Here's the schoolmaster with the pointer in his pants." "And all those... chattering women as hard as nails." "You must stay awake for a while." "In an hour or so it will be daylight... and then I can sleep." "A minute can seem like an eternity." "It's beginning now." "Ten seconds." "Oh, these seconds..." "How long they last." "The minute isn't up yet." "Oh..." "Now it has gone." "Say something, won't you?" "Talk to me, Alma." "There's something I've wondered about for a long time." " Are you listening?" " Mm." "We've been living together for seven years now." "No, that's not what I was going to say." "Oh, I know." "Isn't it so that old people who have been living together all their lives begin to resemble each other?" "In the end, they have so much in common that not only their thoughts but also their faces take on the same expression." "What do you think is the reason?" "I want us to grow so old together that we think each other's thoughts... that we get small, dried-up, wrinkled faces that are exactly alike." "What do you think?" "Are you asleep?" "Johan, come now." " We'll go to bed." "Come on." " Yes." "Don't look so alarmed, my dear." "I'm not dangerous." "Give me your hand." "Well, can you feel my hand now?" "The fingers?" "The veins under the skin?" "At my age, one's hands are always cold." "After all, I'm 216." "What am I saying?" "76, I mean." "Well, I must be going now." "Wait." "What was I going to say?" "Oh, now I remember." "In this black satchel under the bed is that sketchbook with the drawings you saw last night." "He wants to tear them up." "Tell him not to do it." "And one more thing." "In the same satchel he hides his diary." "Read it." "Wednesday, July 22." "I have just been ill." "Not serious - just enough to be unpleasant." "Forgive my intrusion, but I've been considering the best method of approach, and finally decided to come to the point." " My name is Baron von Merkens." " Borg." "As you may know, I own this island and live in the old castle on the north side over there." "Would you and your wife care to have dinner with us?" " That's extremely kind of you." " Simple food with good wine, and our salmon fishing is famous, is it not?" "Goodbye." "Perhaps I should say that my wife and I are admirers of yours." "I venture to say two of your very warmest admirers." "Thursday, July 27th." "A hot, hazy day." "I'm still unwell after my illness." "Do you see this bruise?" "You must be careful, my darling, or else it will end in disaster." "Don't you remember?" "I was going to a party and had on my green brocade dress." "And afterwards I had such trouble doing my hair again." "And I forgot my gloves." "I must talk to you about something." "I've had a letter I must show you." "I received it yesterday." "This is what it says." ""You can't see us, but we see you."" ""Awful things can happen."" ""Some dreams can be made known."" ""The end is near."" ""The springs will go dry and then other fluids will dampen your white thighs."" ""So it has been decided."" "I felt sick when I read it." "How hot your hands are." "Do you have a fever?" "I always get so worked up when I'm going to see you." "Isn't that funny?" "I go about in a dream all afternoon." "Everything I do is unreal and meaningless." "Help me with my zipper." "It always gets caught." "It's very windy, but it's magnificent, isn't it?" "This must be an ideal place for a painter." "You have lived here for some time." "One returns to the scene of the crime, so they say." "And commits new crimes." "You look tired." "Don't overdo things." "At our age a certain caution is advisable." "Young people are tougher." "I know what I'm talking about." "My name's Heerbrand, analyst." "I examine souls and turn them inside out." "And what do I see?" "I need hardly tell you." "You're an artist." "You know the human heart." "Who hasn't seen your facial studies and self-portraits?" "Why do you look at me like that?" "Are you angry?" "Are your nerves bad?" "Is something worrying you?" "Shut your mouth!" "Shut up!" "I think you'll have to give me some money." "What I got at the beginning of the month is nearly gone and I have to pay the grocer bill next time we go to the mainland." "It's a total of 176.50." "And there's the milk." "No, don't just hand over money like that." "You must take a look at my accounts." "It's important." "At any rate, for me." "Let's see." "I got 500 on the third." "Then you gave me that rug." "It cost quite a lot." "It was 35." "But it's lovely and warm when I lie down alone." "Then there was the store's earlier bill." "It was a big one." "We had to have flour and sugar and canned goods." "It came to over 200. 219." "Then pocket money and stamps and the chain for my bicycle and new batteries for the radio, and the potato peeler... and soap and washing powder and a nail brush." "You must buy a new toothbrush." "The one you have looks just awful." "Then for your boy's birthday, there was 50 kroner and 75 for a stamp." "That makes 500 kroner in total, all but 7.36." "Will you add it up and check it?" " We're invited to the castle on Friday." " Yes, I know." "How did you know?" "Good evening." "May I introduce my wife Corinne?" " How nice of you to come." "Welcome." " My mother, Countess von Merkens." "My brother Ernst." "How do you do?" "Glad to meet you." "And this is Mr Lindhorst." "I'm so glad to meet you." "I'm one of your warmest admirers." " And here is Mr Heerbrand." " Charmed." "I think we've met before." "Would you like a drink?" "I think dinner's finally going to be served." "Damned awful servant." "But she's cheap, of course, and my brother can't afford a better one." " But it's not his fault." " We've settled down now." "We used to travel a lot." "Do you like travelling?" "I love it." "It's so stimulating." "Alma is an unusual and pretty name." "Incapable of feeling aggression." "A certain bureaucratic desire for revenge." "The love of being humiliated." "We still have our fangs intact." "A few years ago, I bought a picture from a well-known artist." "Don't say anything, my dear Ernst." "I hung it upside down in my drawing room and invited the artist together with a lot of nice folks who enjoyed a good joke." "How we laughed!" "Heavens, how we laughed." "A good joke, wasn't it?" "The sores never heal." "The pus keeps oozing out." "The infection is chronic." "Then it's not long until the end." "Depends how strong the heart is." "I'm constantly losing weight." "I go all over the world consulting specialists." "Sometimes it stops - as now in the summer." "But then it starts again." "My husband says it's psychological and it started when we lost our money." "When I embezzled the family money." "I'm the culprit." "My dishonesty." "Why is Lindhorst sitting here at our table?" "Why can't we sell it all and go away?" "My fault, my fault!" "All this suffering!" "My fault!" "And then I wrote "To the devil with your medicines."" ""It's not better." "It will never be better."" ""You must operate and cut it away."" "I'm an old crone." "There's a limit, after all." "Then he grinned, that silly professor, and do you know what he said?" ""No, Countess." "I have never heard of any limit."" "Yes, I have children." "Two boys." "Oh, not here." "Oh, my, no." "They live with their uncle." "I do think they are friends of yours." "You know Veronica Vogler, don't you?" "Very well, I am told." "A very beautiful woman." "Veronica Vogler is a charming lady." "Have you met her?" "What hatred in those eyes." "Well, let us have coffee in the library." "Ladies and gentlemen, your attention!" "Let us divert ourselves with a little puppet show." "Shall we kill the lights?" "There." "Our guests of honour." "No, our guest of honour." "Music." "O endless night" "When will you be gone" "When will the daylight greet my sight?" "Soon" "Soon" "Soon, fair youth" "Or never" "Soon, you say, or never" "Tell me, O invisible ones" "Does Pamina still live?" "Pamina" "Pamina" "Still lives" "The Magic Flute is the great example and I shall prove it to you at once." "Tamino's guides have just left him in the dark courtyard outside the temple of wisdom, and the youth calls out in the deepest despair:" ""O endless night, when will you be gone?"" ""When will the daylight greet my sight?"" "Seriously ill, Mozart feels these words with a secret intensity." "And the chorus and orchestra answer with:" ""Soon, fair youth... or never."" "The loveliest and the most disturbing music that has ever been written." "Tamino asks "Does Pamina still live?"" "The invisible chorus replies "Pamina still lives."" "Listen to the strange, illogical, but brilliant division." ""Pami... na."" ""Pami... na."" "It's no longer the name of a young woman." "It's a formula, an incantation." "A naive text." "In short, a work composed to order." "And yet the high manifestation of art." "Does our artist not agree?" "Forgive me." "I call myself an artist for lack of a better name." "In my creative work there is nothing implicit, except compulsion." "Through no fault of mine I've been pointed out as something extraordinary - a calf with five legs, a monster." "I have never fought to attain that position and I shall not fight to keep it." "Megalomania?" "Yes." "I've felt it waft about my brow at times, but I think I'm immune." "I have only to think of the utter unimportance of art in the world we live in to bring it down to earth." "And yet the compulsion is there all the same." " There speaks an artist." " A real confession." "What courage!" "What perspicacity!" "Let's drink to our artist." "He's not just a genius, but a thinker too." "Bless my soul." "I had no idea." " A glowing rose in your hair!" " Ah!" "Oh, dear." "I caught my nail in your cheek." "Why, it's bleeding." "Here's my handkerchief." "No, it's clean." "To think I could have been so clumsy." "You must calm down." "You've drunk too much." "Come with me for a while." "He doesn't sleep nights, so drink goes to his head." "Let's get some air." "The heart of the castle is 15th century." "It has been in the family since the 16th century." "We got rather worked up." "No wonder - we live in isolation." "We frightened you." "But you won't desert us now, will you?" "Look, Corinne." "The old place doesn't look so bad at night." "As long as it's night." "Oh, my garter!" "Turn away, Mr Heerbrand." " Ernst?" "Where were you?" " I took another path." "I'm ashamed that the park has been so neglected." "Think back ten years." "It was a showplace." "We never kiss each other." "Can you tell me why?" "I can count our kisses." "There's something that scares me out of my wits." "I met a strange man on the road." "We talked of this and that." "Suddenly, he turned to me and struck me on the cheek." "His face was deathly pale and his eyes blazed with hatred." "I was quite bewildered." "I felt ill and my nose started to bleed." "I stammered out a few incoherent excuses, horribly upset." "And I asked myself, when the man had gone, "Is it true?" "Must he be like that?"" "I can never forget the man's eyes." "Are you leaving already?" "No." "Not until you've seen where I've hung your portrait of Veronica Vogler." "Alma, my dear, come with me." "Oh, she's asleep." "We won't disturb her." " No, I'm not asleep." " Do you feel like coming?" "Come, then, both of you." "It won't take long." "Alma, you're going to see something beautiful that your husband has done." "Here's the picture." "Facing my bed." "I can see it every morning and evening." "It has become a part of my lonely life." "I love her." "How long did you live together?" "Forgive such a personal question." " Five years." " Oh, he has told you." "He loved her, didn't he?" "There's no need to ask." "It was a big scandal at the time." "But so romantic." " Jealous?" " I don't think so." "My husband is rather jealous." "He is a splendid lover." "Look at this mark, by the way." "It's a scar from another man's..." "shall we say, advances." "A perpetual source of renewed excitement." "It's all very trivial, of course, but to me it's stimulating." "I'll have to think up something new." "This mark can't keep its fascination forever." "Can you help me?" "Alma, my dear, don't be cross with me." "I was only joking." "A silly joke, wasn't it?" "Come." "Let's go down to the others." "Anyway, I have bought myself a fairly large slice of your husband." "Wouldn't you say?" "I want to tell you that I've read your diary and I'm nearly sick with fear." "No, wait." "Let me finish." "I want to say something I've been thinking about." "This is what I've thought." "I can see that something terrible is happening." "Just because it can't be called anything..." "But don't think I'm going to run away from you." "I'm not going to, however frightened I am!" "One thing more." "They want to destroy us." "They only want to own you." "If I'm with you, it will be much harder." "Johan." "They can't force me to run away from you no matter how hard they try." "I'll stay with you." "I'll stay as long..." "Johan, answer me!" "Johan!" "HOUR OF THE WOLF" " Do you hear the quiet?" " Yes, it's quiet." "There was a time when the nights were for sleeping." "Deep, dreamless sleep." "To sleep and wake unafraid." " Alma?" " Yes." " Tired?" " No, not really." "We have stayed awake every night now until dawn." "But this hour is the worst." " Do you know what it's called?" " No." "The old folks called it "the hour of the wolf"." "It's the hour when most people die, when most children are born." "Now is when nightmares come to us." " And if we are awake..." " Then we're afraid." "We're afraid." " What is it?" " No, it's nothing." "It just made me think of something from my childhood." "It was a kind of punishment." "They pushed me into the wardrobe and shut the door." "There wasn't a sound and it was pitch-dark." "I was crazy with fear, and I pounded and kicked." "You see, they had told me that a little man lived in that wardrobe and he could gnaw the toes off naughty children." "When I stopped kicking, I suddenly heard something rustling in the corner." "I knew that my hour had come." "In a kind of silent panic," "I started climbing on shoe boxes and shelves." "I tried to pull myself up." "Clothes fell down all around me." "I lost my grip and fell." "I struck out wildly to save myself from that little creature." "And all the time I screamed with terror asking to be forgiven." "And at last the door was opened and I could step out into the daylight." "My father said" ""Mother tells me you are sorry."" "I said "Yes." "Please forgive me."" ""Get ready on the sofa," he said." "I went up to the green sofa in Father's room and put a couple of cushions one on top of the other." "Then I went over and got his cane, took down my trousers and bent over the cushions." "Then Father said" ""How many strokes do you deserve?"" "I said "As many as possible."" "Then he beat me." "Hard, but not unbearably." "When the punishment was over, I turned to Mother and asked" ""Can you forgive me now, Mother?"" "She wept and said "Of course I forgive you."" "She held out her hand... and I kissed it." "Alma?" "Are you asleep?" "No." "I'm awake." "My back is aching." "It's still quite dark." "How quiet it is." "It's strange when the sea is quite still." "Frightening, in a way." " Are you crying?" " No." "I'm thinking of the child." "And this great, silent darkness." "It's as if there may never be light again." "Poor you." "Take my hand." "There." "That's much better." "Do you remember the day I said I'd been bitten by a snake?" "Yes." "It wasn't a snake bite." "It wasn't a snake bite?" "I thought I'd never tell anyone." "I don't even know if..." "You must tell me." " You're not to tell anyone." " No." "Don't worry." "I won't tell anyone." " That steep rock where the water's deep?" " Yes." " Are you sure you locked the door?" " Yes." "I tried it twice." "Good morning." "I'm so sorry to disturb you." "Please forgive me." "It looks like a storm." "I thought I'd just drop in." "I also have a message." "May I sit down?" "I won't be long-winded." "There is an invitation from the castle." "We're giving a party." "Nothing special." "It's just to amuse those poor people." "There they are all year, getting on each other's nerves." "As I said, only a few guests, but I think they will interest you." "Veronica Vogler will be there." "You will come, won't you?" "Good." "That's settled then." "Von Merkens and I were discussing your chances of defending yourself." "I mean, against all the small game on the island." "That's all for this time." "Goodbye." "I hope to see you at our little party." " Can't we lock that gun away, please?" " No." "Why?" "What shall we do today?" "You can talk about Veronica Vogler." "What do you want me to tell?" "It lasted for five years." "Well, you know that." "We were caught, it was a huge scandal, then it was hushed over." " And that was the end of that." " That's not what it says in your diary." ""My obsession with Veronica became a torment to us both."" ""I shadowed her on the road and spied on her jealously."" ""I think my passion stimulated her, but she was always passive and undecided."" ""Once or twice it came to frightening scenes, utterly devoid of reason."" ""We moved from town to town in an effort to escape her relatives and lawyers..."" "No!" ""We carried out the words of the Bible - that man and woman 'shall be of one flesh'."" ""Then her husband came and took her away."" ""I was shut up in a hospital and we didn't see each other for several years."" "You once said... what you liked about me was that God had made me all together." "That I had whole feelings and whole thoughts." "You said it was important that such people should be alive." "I thought it sounded wonderful." "I was glad." "I was wrong." "I don't understand." "I just don't understand." "I cannot figure you out." "I'm only afraid." "Do you think I want to stay here and perhaps be killed?" "Do you think I like to watch you running after that woman, talking to your ridiculous ghosts, having to guard myself the whole time?" "But I'm still here." "Get up from the table now." "Now go over to the door." "Now go out the door." "Go down the stairs." "It's not dark." "You can see your way." "What a lovely surprise!" "How nice to see you." "Carry the tray for me, will you?" "Thank you." "This is my supper, you see." "Lindhorst, who knows the world, says that old harlots have a morbid desire to satisfy their mouths and stomachs." " Are you sure you wouldn't like some?" " Isn't there a party tonight?" "Not that I know of." "No, no, don't go." "Please help me take off my stockings." "You like touching me." "I feel that plainly." "I can't make you out." "Veronica Vogler has come." "There's only me who can tell you where she is." "Look at my feet, my dear artist." "Have you ever seen younger and firmer arches?" "Take a good look." "Look at my heel." "So nice and smooth." "Such strong toes and such pretty nails." "Kiss my foot." "That's the way." "I'll tell you where she is." "Look in the west gallery." "At least, she was there five minutes ago." " I beg your pardon." "I thought..." " You are welcome, my friend." "You come, you stay, you go." "You're at total liberty." "Let's be frank." "You've come in search of Veronica Vogler." "I should perhaps mention that she has been my mistress for a number of years." "She has been kind enough to tell me in detail of your time together in the past." "I can assure you, I suffer." "Tonight I shall stand by your bed." "Every word, every kiss, every movement of your bodies - nothing will be spared me." "Come." "I'll show you the way." "It's only jealousy." "Please go away." "Of course." "Of course, yes." "I'll go." "It's Mr Kreisler who is playing." "Mr Kreisler is a master of his instrument." "Don't you think Veronica has waited long enough?" "She began getting ready for your visit very early today." "She is lovelier than ever." "My husband suffers." "He is so jealous." "And your pathetic little companion..." "Three shots, one of them fatal." "What wonderful music." "I must take my hat off." "Then I'll hear better." "What a smell of glue - though she makes out that everything is synthetic." "But it's ordinary, common glue." "She can't fool me." "We know the ropes, don't we?" "Let's see now if we're presentable." "How pale you are, my dear fellow." "You look a sight." "Your lips are blue as if you'd been eating blueberries." "We must touch them up." "Let's see now what we can devise." "A nice Cupid's bow... and a sensually swelling underlip are very titillating." "Your eyes are bloodshot and swollen." "Soothe them with this." "There." "Well, I never." "Now a couple of lines on the eyelids." "So there." "A little fresher colour in the face wouldn't do any harm." "What next now?" "You can borrow my dressing gown." "It suits you." "Wait." "Beautiful pyjamas are needed for encounters of this kind." "Some perfume?" "No?" "You'd rather smell of yourself, of course." "Each one has his own odour." "Poof!" "A little scent, anyway." "I knew it." "Take a look in the mirror." "Now you are yourself and yet not yourself." "The ideal conditions for a lover's meeting." "Come now." "This way." "That is her door." "You see what you want to." "Veronica." "Veronica..." "Veronica." "Never mind them." "Never mind them!" "I thank you." "The limit has at last been reached." "The glass is shattered... but what do the splinters reflect?" "Can you tell me that?" "Yes, he fired three shots." "One of them grazed my arm and I still have a small scar." "I fell over in sheer fright and thought it better to lie still." "I heard him walking up and down and round the house and then he ran towards the trail." "I got up and went inside, washed the blood off and put on a plaster." "Then I put the gun away and sat down and waited." "He was gone some minutes." "Then he came running back." "I hid, to be on the safe side." "He looked out of his mind." "He stalked round the room talking to himself." "Then he took out his diary and started writing." "He wrote for several hours." "In the early forenoon, he packed his satchel and then went off into the woods." "I thought I'd better follow in case he got hurt." "Johan?" "Can't you see me?" "Johan." " Where is he?" " I know where you can find him." "Come." " Call to him." " Johan!" "Johan!" "There's one thing I've been puzzling over." "Are you in a big hurry?" "I'd like to ask you something." "It's this." "Is it true that a woman who lives a long time with a man eventually winds up being like that man?" "I mean, she loves him and tries to think like him and see like him." "They say that it can change a person." "Was that why I began seeing those others?" "Or were they there after all?" "I mean to say, if I had loved him much less, and not bothered so about everything around him, could I have protected him better?" "Or was it that I didn't love him enough that made me jealous?" "Was that why those cannibals - as he called them..." "Was that why we came to such grief?" "I thought I was so close to him." "Sometimes he said he felt close to me." "One time he told me definitely." "If only I could have stayed with him always." "I've been wondering so about it all." "So many questions." "Sometimes I don't know which way to turn and I become quite..." "Visiontext Subtitles:" "Sue Whitfield"