All language subtitles for Sophies.Choice.1982.1080p.BluRay.x264.anoXmous_eng

It was 1947,

two years after the war,
when I began myjourney

to what my father called
the "Sodom of the north,".

New York.

Call me Stingo,

which was the nickname
I was known by in those days,

if I was called
anything at all.

I had barely saved enough
money to write my novel,

forl wanted beyond hope
or dreaming to be a writer.

But my spirit had
remained landlocked,

unacquainted with love
and a stranger to death.

Even back then,

cheap apartments were hard
to find in Manhattan.

And so began
my voyage of discovery

in a place as strange
as Brooklyn.

(CHILDREN PLAYING)

I know.

You're thinking about the pink.
Everybody does.

See, my late husband Saul,
he got his bargain.

Hundreds and hundreds of gallons
of this navy surplus paint.

See, Iguessthey didn't have any use
for pink on those boats, huh?

Okay, I'll take it.

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING
IN DISTANCE)

(READING)

Huh.

NATHAN: Oh, I love you!

(CLATTERING)

(BED SQUEAKING)

(NATHAN MOANING)

(LOUD THUDDING)

(NATHAN SHOUTS)

SOPHÆ: Don%go! Don%go!

I'm out of here. Don't!
(SCREAMS) No!

(THUDDING CONTINUES)

(SOPHIE WEEPING)

We need each other.

I told you to leave me alone.

Stay away from me.
Get out of my way.

No, no, don't!

I'm not lying, you know!
You're lying.

I'm not! You're lying.

Please, don't go! Don't
go away from me, please!

You know we need each other,
Nathan, you know this.

We need each other.

Me need you? Yes...

Let me tell you something.

I need you like any goddamned
insufferable disease I can name!

(SHOUTING) I need you like
a case of anthrax, hear me?

Like trichinosis.

I need you like a biliary
calculus, pellagra, encephalitis.

Bright's disease,
for Christ's sake!

Carcinoma of the brain!

I need you like death.

Hear me? Like death.

No, Nathan.

Go back to Krakow, baby.

(SHOUTING) Back to Krakow!

(SOPHIE SOBBING)

(CHUCKLES) Well, good evening.

Did you have a good time?

I mean, did you enjoy
our little show?

Do you get off on your
little bit of eavesdropping?

You just... My door was open.
I just wondered what was going on.

(MOCKING IN SOUTHERN ACCENT) Your door was open?
You wondered what was going on?

Well, shut my mouth if it isn't our
new literate figure from the South.

Too bad I won't be around for
a little lively Conversation.

We would've had a great time,
you and I, shooting the shit.

We could've
talked about sports.

Southern sports like.

Lynching niggers, or "coons," I
think you all call them down there.

So long, cracker.
See you in another life.

(DOOR BANGS SHUT)

STINGO: You okay?

(SNIFFLING) Yes.

Yeah.

(CLEARS TH ROAT)

(STUTTERING) I'm very sorry.

That's not the way

he really is, you know?

No, don't apologize, all right?

I live downstairs here. If
there's anything you want...

Thank you.

You're very kind.

Anyway, I'm downstairs here.

No, I'm all right.

(SIGHS)

I'm Stingo.

Please forgive us.

(MUMBLING)

Sixty cents. Anytime
he raises 50 cents.

(KNOCK ON DOOR) Sixty...

Yeah?

(CLEARS THROAT) We had
invited you to dinner.

That's very thoughtful of you.

Uh, listen, Ivery often work
at night and type at night.

But if it's going to bother
you, I don't want to...

Oh, no!

When I was a little girl,

my father type and I go
to sleep to that sound.

It'll make me feel...

God, how do you say that?

Secure. Secure.

(CHUCKLES)

Your father was a writer?

No, my father was...

My father was professor of law.

He wrote articles

warning Polish people
of the Nazi threat

and trying to get help for those
Jews that was persecuted, so.

Yeah, that sound of typing will
make me think of my father

and of his goodness.

You Wouldn't want to
come in, would you?

Maybe some other time.

So, if you'll forgive me.

Good night. Yeah.

Sünko, yeah?

Süngo.

Stingo, yes! (CHUCKLES)

I never hear that name.

There's no "K"
in there, though.

I got it.

Just a.

Yeah, it's nice!

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

It's a friendly,
you know, happy sound.

I like it.

(SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)

(DOOR OPENS)

(GASPS) Oh, Nathan!

Oh, Nathan.

(SOBBING) Oh, God!

Don't you see, Sophie?
We are dying.

(MOCKING) Rise and shine, honey child.
Stir them lazy bones.

The grits on the griddle,
the corn's on the pone.

Old Ponkers plan to hitch up
the coach and four.

You're going to have a picnic
out and down by the seashore.

Good morning, Stingo.

Good morning.

We wanted to make friends

and to take you out on
this beautiful summer day!

We want you to come up
and have breakfast with us.

And then... Yes.

Coney Island.

Coney Island! Oh, boy!

NATHAN: Sorry about last night.

Yeah.

(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
(EXCLAIMING)

(SCATTING)

Ta-da!

Oh!

I know what you're thinking.
"These people are strange."

On Sundays, we like to dress up a
little differently and go out.

Ok Okay? ay'

I knew you'd understand!

You see, everybody out
there dresses the same.

Look at those poor,
pathetic people out there.

Look at them. Drones.

All walking down the
street, all look alike,

all wearing the same
drab, boring uniform.

(SHOUTS) You're boring!

Morning!

(SOPHIE LAUGHS)

Now, this one. Look at this.
God's gift!

Give me a kiss.

One kiss. Please.

All right, one kiss.
That's all you deserve.

One more. I need one more.

No.

I have to have one more.
Nathan...

Can%keep my hands off of you.

This is... No, Nathan Landau!

NATHAN: What do you
think of that, Stingo, hmm?

Here I am, a nice Jewish boy,

pushing 30.

I fall crazy in love
with a Polish shiksa.

STINGO: What is that?
What is a "shiksa"?

A shiksa is a goy girl. A lady
of the Gentile persuasion.

She's a... Oh!

All right. I just
assumed that she was...

She was Jewish? Yeah.

(SOPHIE LAUGHING) Jewish?

No, no, no. No, our
Sophie is Catholic.

Yeah. Well, it's okay, but I'm
not anymore Catholic, so.

Well, Catholic-ish.

When I first met this one here,

she was a rag and a bone
and a hank of hair.

And that was a whole
year-and-a-half

after the Russians had
liberated the camp she was in.

Yeah, it looked like something
that scares the birds.

What is that? Scarecrow.

(CLEARS THROAT)
I had "scurbut."

No, no, no! She means scurvy.

And typhus and anemia
and scarlet fever.

It was a fucking miracle that she
emerged from that camp alive.

Right.

I mean, (SCOFFS) I thought
that I had leukemia.

I thought I was dying.

But it was Nathan that see
that it was only anemia.

Are you a doctor?

NATHAN: No, no.

That's my brother's domain.

But I'm a biologist.

Yeah!

I graduated in science from Harvard.
Harvard.

And he... (STUTTERING)

MA in Developmental
and Cellular Biology.

I do research now.

He works at Pfizer.

Pfizer, it's a big pharmaceutical
house here in Brooklyn.

Anyway, I took her to this
friend of my brother's,

a doctor who teaches up
at Columbia Presbyterian.

Yeah.

He confirmed my diagnosis.

And we put the
little sweetie here

on massive doses
of ferrous sulfate

and she began
to bloom like a rose.

A rose.

A rose.

A beautiful fucking rose.

You're something.

Thank you for making me
to bloom like a rose.

Not "to bloom," just "bloom."

She's so good. It's about
time she was perfect.

(SCOFFS) "To bloom." So what? I mean,
this is a ridiculous language!

There's too many words!

The word for "velocity," okay,
there's "fast, quick, rapid,"

and they all mean
the same thing.

Swift, speedy.

Hasty.

NATHAN: Fleet. Brisk.

Expeditious. Accelerated.

Winged.

No, no! Stop it!

It's ridiculous!

In French, it's so easy.
You say vite.

Or in Polish, szybko,
and in Russian, bystro.

It's only in the English
it's so Complicated!

How many languages do you know?

Well, my father was a
linguist, so I mean, I...

He teach me German, French,
Russian, Hungarian,

the Slavic languages.

So, what language
I am butchering now?

EngHsh!

I bet your father was
a very interesting man.

Yeah, my father was

a civilized man.

That's the word, yeah?
"Civilized"?

NATHAN: Very good word. Yeah?

My father was a civilized man
living in a non-civilized time.

The civilized,
they was the first to die.

STINGO: Do you play the piano?

No. I used to play, but I...

I no longer play.

(CHUCKLES)

I don't anymore.

My mother was
a beautiful pianist.

Nathan surprised me with
that piano on my birthday!

(PLAYING SOFT PIANO PIECE)

I love that piece.

(HUMMING ALONG)

When I was a little girl,

I remember, I'd lay in bed

and I'd hear my mother
downstairs playing the piano,

and the sound of my
father's typewriter.

I think no child has a more
wonderful father and mother.

And a more beautiful life.

(TUNE CHANGING)

Swanee, you know
that song, right?

SOPHIE: Stingo, hit it!

(INDISTINCT)

(EVIL LAUGHTER)

(SCREAMING)

NATHAN: Oh, God!

STINGO: Suddenly,
/shivered violently.

I remembered Nathan's voice
that night before.

"Don't you see, Sophie?
We are dying. ".

I longed desperately to escape,

to pack my bags and flee.

But I did not.

I stayed at Yetta Zimmerman's,

and thus I helped fulfill Sophie
's prophecy about the three of us.

We became the best of friends.

(INAUDIBLE)

TEACHER: Here is an example of how
emotionally evocative English can be.

STINGO: Sophie loved to tell
how Nathan saved her life.

Their meeting was,
for her, a miracle.

TEACHER: "Because
I could not stop for Death",

"he kindly stopped for me."

"The carriage held but just
ourselves and Immortality."

Rhymes, rhymes.

It's not hard enough to
understand thelanguage.

(SHUSHING)

Just everyday life talk.
He has to read us rhymes!

What the beauty of the language
can be when written by artists.

I look forward to seeing you all next week.
And now remember,

you must not get discouraged.

You'll see.

One morning, you'll wake up and find
you've been dreaming in English.

(STUDENTS LAUGH)

Excuse me. Who did he
say wrote that poem?

Dickens.

Emily Dickens.

Thank you.

(SPEAKING POLISH)

(MAN TALKING IN
FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

MAN: All I want is that we should
be able to make living...

Are you all right,
Miss Zawistowska?

(SIGHS)

Yes.

Thank you, I'm very fine.

I'm a little tired.

I noticed that you've been looking,
well, a little delicate lately.

I hope I'm not
being too personal.

No! No, I...

Could you help me with that?

Thank you.

Thank you for your

concern.

Goodbye.

(CLEARS THROAT) Excuse me, sir.
Could you tell me what...

(SIGHS)

Where would be that
listing in catalog file

for

19th century American poet,

Emily Dickens, please?

In the catalog room
on the left.

But you won't find
any such listing.

Oh, I won't find that listing?

Why Wouldn't I find it?

Charles Dickens
is an English writer.

There is no American poet
by the name of Dickens.

(SIGHS DEEPLY)

I'm sorry. No, that is,
I'm sure, American poet.

Emily Dickens.

Listen!

D-I... I told you!

There's no such person.

Do you want me to draw
you a picture? No.

I'm telling you, you hear me?
All right.

(GAGGING)

It's all right, it's all right.

Just lie still.

Let the doctor
take care of everything.

You're so beautiful.

Yes! How did you get
to be so beautiful?

I think I'm going to die.

No, no, no.

No, your pulse...

Your pulse is fine.
It's steady.

You're going to live to be 100.

(MOANS SOFTLY)

Why I am so tired?

The doctor thinks you need to get some color
into that beautiful white skin of yours.

I'm going to take you
to see my brother.

He is the best doctor going.

No, but you...

Oh, you thought I was a doctor?

No. No, I'm a biologist.

Have you been eating
properly lately?

Yes! Oh, yes! I am...

I am six months in here,
in US and...

So I eat more good
now than in my life.

You could've fallen behind with iron
and never had a chance to catch up.

Look, I'm going to go now
but may I come back later?

No, don't answer that.
I'll be back.

Okay?

Yeah, okay.

(DOOR SHUTS)

How long you have been there?

Just long enough
to get dinner started.

You look much better.

What did you do here?

It looks beautiful.

We're having calf's liver,

prepared Veneziano in a
special vinaigrette sauce,

loaded with iron,

andleeks filled with iron.

Also will improve the
timbre of your voice.

(IN DEEP VOICE) You know, Nero had leek
served to him every day to deepen his voice.

No, I didn't know that.

So that he could croon while he
had Seneca drawn and quartered.

Let me help you there.

No, no! You're not to move.

Ah!

Will madame taste the wine?

(GASPS)

"Chåteau Margaux Grand Cru."

UNFRENCH)

MY God!

Special day, special wine.

(MOANS SOFTLY)

You know, when you...

When you live a good life

like a saint and then you die,

that must be what they make
you to drink in paradise.

Yeah.

Thomas Wolfe.

(SPEAKING GIBBERISH)

(LAUGHS)

SOPHIE: Look Homeward, Angel.

Oh, God!

What does Wolfe
sound like in Polish?

Mmm...

(IN POLISH)

A stone, a leaf,
an unfound door.

(IN POLISH)

Of a stone.

(IN POLISH)

A leaf.

(IN POLISH)

The door. The door.

(IN POLISH)

Of all the forgotten faces.

Forgotten faces.

God! This is a first.

(CHUCKLES EXCITEDLY)

Hearing Thomas Wolfe
read aloud in Polish.

Yeah, the first for me too hearing
that Wolfe read in English.

God, if that poor bastard Wolfe had
heard you read this aloud in Polish,

he would've written in Polish.

No, I don't think so.

Oh, yeah! Oh, yes!

You were...

You were in a
concentration camp?

Yeah, I can't...

Can't talk about that, though.

I'm sorry.

I have a knack for sticking my big schnoz
into places where it's got no business.

I

Want so much to know you,

to be close to you.

Hmm.

Emily, Emily Dickinson?

That's the woman?

(LAUGHING) Oh, no! Oh, no!

"Property of Nathan Landau."

That's you? That's me.

It's your book?

No, it's yours.

Thank you!

Thank you.

"Ample make this bed."

"Make this bed with awe."

"In it, wait till
judgment break,"

"excellent and fair."

"Be its mattress straight."

"Be its pillow round."

"Let no sunrise yellow noise"

"interrupt this ground."

(EXCLAIMING EXCITEDLY)

STINGO: Nathan, my new
and dear beloved friend,

introduced me to what seemed the answer
to my relentless all-consuming horniness.

Before I went into analysis,
I was completely frigid.

Can you imagine?

Now all I can do is
think about fucking.

Wilhelm Reich has
turned me into a nympho.

I mean, sex on the brain!

STINGO: Her name still
curls across my tongue.

Les/ie Lapidus.

(DOORBELL RINGS)

LESLIE: Door is open, come in!

Hello!

Boy, you look excellent.

Thanks. Yeah.

What would you like to drink?

I'll have a...

I don't know, let's see.

I think I'll have a...
Oh, my God!

Oh, fuck!

Fucking, fantastic fucking!

(MOANING)

(PHONE RINGING)

Wait! Just let it ring!

(EXHALES DEEPLY) Hello, Mother.

I'm fine, fine. Yeah,
I told you I'd bejust fine.

Yeah, plenty.

Yeah, I'll make sure
that the plants are watered

and the dog is fed.
Well, Mother...

Yes, Daddy. Yes, your little
princess will be good.

Okay. Bye!

(RECEIVER CLATTERS)

They go away for the weekend
and then the maid's out sick.

And they carry on about how will I survive
for a weekend in this apartment by myself.

And that's with this totally stocked
fridge, and a lock on every door,

and God only knows what else.

(ROMANTIC MUSIC PLAYING
ON RECORD PLAYER)

STINGO: Thus, lrealized that Leslie and I
would be left to frolic in this place alone.

My cup ran over.

Oh, my cup turned into a spillwa y
flooding across the spotless carpet,

out the door down
Pierrepont Street,

across all the twilit carnal
reaches of Brooklyn.

Leslie.

A weekend alone with Leslie.

Have you ever read D.H. Lawrence,
Lady Chatterley's Lover?

No. Oh!

He has the answers. He knows
so much about fucking.

He says...

He says that when you fuck,
you go to the Dark Gods.

Uh-huh. Stingo,
I really mean it.

To fuck is to go
to the Dark Gods.

Let's go to the Dark Gods!

(WHIMPERING)

(SHRIEKING)

Well, I think I have the right
to ask, what is going on?

You don't understand.

I can't go all the way.

(SCOFFS)

I've reached a plateau
in my analysis.

Before I reach this
plateau of vocalization,

I could never have said
any of those words.

Those Anglo-Saxon four letter words
that everybody should be able to say.

Now I'm completely
able to vocalize.

STINGO: Leslie Lapidus could say
"fuck, " but she could not do it.

SOPHIE: Nathan!

I'm so glad you're...

Oh!

Yeah, little ol' Stingo.

Süngo? Yeah?

You want to come up and
have a night hat with me?

Sure.

You know, when Nathan
gets involved,

he forgets all about
the time and I don't know.

Süngo, youlook„.

You look very nice. You're
wearing your "cocksuckeL".

It's my seersucker.

Oh, yeah. Right, seersucker.

(SOPHIE SIGHS)

I love it here.

I'm glad you couldn't sleep.

You hurt your mouth?
You talk funny.

I bit my tongue.

Uh-huh.

You want me to get
something for you?

No, please, no.

It just needs to be left alone.

Hey, what you...

You've changed all the
furniture around?

Mmm.

Yeah, you like it? I do that
when I can't sleep, you know.

It's a good thing to do
because then you don't...

You don't have to
think about anything.

Well, I better try that.

Oh, no.

Süngo.

You do not have
to move furniture.

You will move mountains.

Right now, I can't
even move my tongue.

Maybe you moved it too much.

Why aren't all the women
in the world like you?

You'd better thank God
they're not. Look at this.

I see many,
many women in your life.

Many beautiful women who adore you and
who'll make all that love with you.

Sometimes, I can see myself just
being alone forever.

Oh, Stingo. (CLICKS TONGUE)
I'm not fair with you.

I think, "Oh, Stingo,
he's so young."

"He's a talented American."
You know.

"He doesn't have any real,
real problems, but..."

You don't know
if I'm really talented.

You've never read
anything I've written.

Well, I mean, I don't ask you about that
work because, you know, what it's about

because I know that a writer, he
likes to be quiet about his work.

It's about a boy.

(SCOFFS)

A 12-year-old boy. Hmm.

And...
Yes, so it's autobiographical?

Yeah, to a certain
extent, maybe it is.

Uh... It takes place in a year,
which is the year his mother dies.

I didn't know your mother died.

When I was 12.

You loved her very much?

Not enough.

What do you mean "not enough"?
What do you mean?

I mean not enough.

That is what is
so terrible about

outliving those people that we love.
I mean, that's...

That guilt.

Your father?

My father,
my mother, my husband.

You were married?

Yeah, I was married.

When I was very young, I was married
to a disciple of my father.

Assistant at the university.

Your father's
anti-Nazi writings,

well, that probably
got him in trouble.

His writings.

Well, (CLEARS THROAT)
one day, I was at the Mass

and I have a...

(INHALES DEEPLY)

I had a presentiment.

I had many fears and I...

I run out of the church
and I go to the university,

and I see that
the gate is locked.

And there were many,
many Germans there.

(SIGHS)

And I saw the professors. They
was loading them into the truck.

And this one part of
canvas has moved away.

And I see my father's face and the
face of my husband behind him.

And...

Ilooked.

But the German,
he pulled that away

and I never saw
those faces again.

They took them to
Sachsenhausen, you know.

That's a German work camp, but
they shot them the next day.

That's what we have heard.

Your mother?

My mother...

My mother got.

(STUTTERING)
tuberculosis and...

Oh, she is very sick, you know.

She started to die of that,
and I can't do anything.

But I think
if I could get mieso...

If I could get that meat for my
mother, I would make her strong.

So I go to the country,

and the peasants there,
they're selling ham.

And I go with that
black market money,

Ibuythatand Ibnngitback.

But, you know,
this is forbidden because

all the meat goes to
the Germans, you know.

If you get Caught...

So I hid the ham under
my skirt on the train.

I'm pretending that
I'm pregnant, you know.

Ah! I was so afraid!

I was shaking.

And then that German,

who was in the front of
the train, and he saw me.

And I'm sitting there
and he came up to me

and he take under
my skirt that ham.

(SCOFFS)

So they sent me to Auschwitz.

You were sent to Auschwitz
because you stole a ham?

No. I was sent to Auschwitz because
they saw that I was afraid.

Oh, yeah.

You know what that means?

Yeah.

You tried to commit
suicide in Auschwitz?

No, it was after that.

After that, I was in...

After liberation.

After you were safe?

Yes, safe, yeah.

I was safe. I was in Sweden.
I was in that refugee camp.

I mean, that was good. They
try to help you, you know.

They try to...

They try, but...

I knew that

Christ had turned
his face away from me.

And that only a Jesus
who no longer cared for me

could kill those
people that I love,

but leave me alive
with my shame.

Oh, God.
So I went to that church.

And I took the glass,
I knelt down

and I cut my wrist.

But I didn't die, of course.

Of course not.

(SIGHS)

Stingo, there's so many things
you don't understand.

There's so many things that I

cannot tell you.

I want you to trust me.

I want you to trust me.

Just trust me.

(DOOR OPENS)

Oh, God! There is Nathan!

Nathan!

ASTRID: Sophie! SOPHIE: Astrid!

I'm working night duty at
Brooklyn Hospital this week.

My patient is this old lady
Who's meaner than my mother,

if you can believe.

Well, good night, Astrid.
Have a good sleep.

That was Astrid, you know.

Maybe I'll leave the door open.

In case he comes,
we could hear him.

So you want another drink?

Your bottle is empty. Well...

Hmm.

Oh, I know where Nathan
keeps another bottle.

Be careful, it's dark in here.

(SIGHING) Oh, God.

STINGO: I think you'll feel better
ifwejust call him at the lab.

I can't do that.

I mean, he doesn't like for me to call him.
You know, at work.

So, anyway.

I did it an hour ago.

And there was no answer, so.

I'm sure the switch
board's just shut off.

Yes, I think that's right.
I'm sure that...

You know, sometimes when
he can't sleep at night,

he goes and he walks
all over the city.

Yeah, he goes into
all these neighborhoods.

I mean, I don't know where he
goes, but once he came back,

he had a black eye and hisjaw
was all swollen there.

Yeah, I thought it was broken.

You know, he could be hurt.

I don't know where he is, but I think
we should call the police right now.

No, look, I think we
ought to wait two hours.

You know, just wait till somebody
is on the switchboard there.

We'll just call him then.

He's working late. He probably just
got tired and fell asleep there.

Yeah. He's probably
asleep there.

I'm sure.

I'm sure you're right.

Look at this. The Nazi Primer.

He must have everything ever written
about the Nazis in those years.

Yes, he is obsessed with the Nazis
that are escaping justice. (SIGHS)

Do you suppose all this
started after he met you?

Look, I know I shouldn't
tell him about that place,

but what could I do?

I know it's my fault that he...
Look, I can understand.

After all, he is a Jew.

Yes, he is a Jew, but don't you
think that I'm angry, too?

That these men, these terrible
Nazis live, and my father...

Such a good man who tries
to help Jews is killed.

Don't you think
that I am angry?

But, you know,
you don't understand Nathan.

You don't know.

Him, what he might do,
you know. I think...

Sometimes I think...

NATHAN: What do you think?

What do you think, Polish baby?

SOPHIE: Oh, Nathan!

You are all right?

I'm all right. What
about the two of you?

Yeah, well, I was so frightened, you know.
I was stupid. (CHUCKLING)

I got so scared, you know, I thought
something had happened to you.

I would've called, but I didn't want
to take the chance of waking you up.

We're on to something
in our work. Something big.

Yeah? Something very big.

That's wonderful, Nathan.

(WHISPERING) Yeah, wonderful.

But you were here

with Sophie.

(STUTTERING) Yes,
Stingo, you know, he...

Stingo came home from his date.
(CHUCKLES)

So I heard the door, I thought it was you.
So I run out, but...

Anyway, I called him, I said, "Why
don't you come up for a drink?"

Because I was worried and he
was a very good friend to me.

He was keeping me company.

(SCOFFS)

(SIGHS)

So now you've seen
my sanctum sanctorum.

Now you know all of Nathan's
dark and dour secrets.

Hardly.

NATHAN: They wipe out
six million Jews

and the world lets them escape.

Wannajoin me in a little
lynching party, Southern boy?

I expect you might have
a lot to teach me there.

I'm going to call
it a night here.

Stingo, wait.

Stingo is our best friend.
Why do you do that?

He is our best friend.
He deserves only our thanks.

Nathan, listen to me.

I was frightened, I didn't know what
I would do if he had not been here.

(SHUSHING)

It's true.

Forgive me, old buddy.
I'm sorry.

Of course my beloved
Sophie is right.

Yeah.

I must've got crazy
with the work, you know.

I know you do.

We're on to something big.

I know, darling.

I'm just another mad scientist,
we're alla bunch of nuts.

Comeon_

I'm leaving.

Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you for
taking care of Sophie.

Yeah, all right.

(DOOR SHUTS)

(GIRLS RECITING)

(GIRLS RECITING)

GIRLS: Oh, Nathan!

I'm sorry.

(MUMBLING)

(DOOR OPENS)

Darling, I'm home.

Right! Are you all right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Are you sure?

Yeah.

Don't you catch things
in the South?

How's it going?

Fine. It's going well.

Think fast!

(EXCLAIMS)

Jesus!

You came in and
you wreck everything.

Yetta, you know,
always provides the best.

The best you can
find in Brooklyn!

(FOOTSTEPS PATTERING)

Oh, shit!

(SIGHS)

Sophie should be
taking a nap after work.

She just doesn't sleep anymore.
Not since the war.

How's it going?

Yeah, fine. Thank you.

Well, let me take
a look at those.

No. No, no, no! Come on!

I won't interfere, I won't make any comments.
I won't even...

Look, I've shown this to
no one. No one's seen this.

Yeah, but I'm not no one.
I'm a friend.

Don't you have
those down South?

"Friend," a person
attached to another

by a feeling of personal
regard or affection.

Look. One who offers assistance.

A patron, a supporter.

Look, I vowed to myself
when I started this,

I was not going
to show it to anyone

until I finish
the very last sentence.

Then only after that,
can I offer it to any person.

Well... Hmm.

Okay. You mean, you're just terrified
that somebody won't like it.

Terrified as in
filled with terror.

Terror, a sharp,
overmastering, intense fear.

All right, all right! That which
renders the victim Chicken shit.

Yeah, all right, all right.

That will give you some idea.

Oh, my God!

What about the page
in the typewriter?

No, this is a...

(SHOUTING) Nathan! Stop!

All right.

(LATCHING DOOR)

Stingo! What is the
worst that can happen?

I may discover you
can't write! Bye!

Shit! Fuck!

Nathan, get back here!

It's beyond your
reach now, old buddy!

Fine, right!

SOPHIE: Stingo, waita minute!

Wait! Nathan have ordered me
to take you to the movies.

He made me your guardian
while he read that.

Yes, so you don't do
no violence to yourself now.

(ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING
OVER RECORD PLAYER)

Nathan must have
finished reading that.

Yeah.

Come on, let's go see.

I think I'll wait in my room.

SOPHIE: (LAUGHS) No, come on!

If he's got something to say to me,
let him come down and tell me.

Yes, don't be silly.

(MUSIC BLARING)

(MOUTHING)

STINGO: Bravo.

(PANT5)

(POPS)

On this bridge,

on which so many great American writers
have stood and reached out for words

to give America its voice,

looking toward the land
that gave us Whitman,

from its Eastern edge dreamt his
country's future and gave it words,

on this span

of which Thomas Wolfe
and Hart Crane wrote,

we welcome Stingo into
that pantheon of the gods,

whose words are all
we know of immortality.

To Stingo!

STINGO: How could I have failed
to have the most helpless crush

on such a generous mind
and life-enlarging mentor?

Nathan was utterly,
fatally glamorous.

NATHAN: (SHOUTING) Sophie!

NATHAN: (SHOUTING) Sophie!

We did it!

Süngo! STINGO: Nathan!

(LAUGHING EXCITEDLY)

We did it!

What? What did you do?

(NATHAN GRUNTING)

(SOPHIE YELPING)

Nathan!

NATHAN: Remember I told you
the day when I came home

and I said we were
on to something big?

SOPHIE: Yeah.
Today, we cracked it.

What? What? What?

(LAUGHING EXCITEDLY)

I can't tell you. I'll tell
you about it all tonight.

No, what's a few hours make?

No, I can't tell you!

Come on!

Pretty soon, the whole
world will know.

Oh, God.

One of the greatest medical
advances of all time.

(GASPS)

I can't tell you.
(ALL EXCLAIMING EXCITEDLY)

STINGO: Come on.

I'm talking about Stockholm. Next
year, the three of us together.

I'm talking
Nobel-fucking-Prize!

Oh, my God.

Sorry, kid, I'm going
to get there first!

Wait! I got something
for you to celebrate!

Oh, no! What is that?

One for you.

Oh, my God.

These go with that one.
Oh, God, Nathan.

Oh, Nathan!
What a beautiful dress!

Do you like it?

Try it on.

Put it on. Come on,
let's get dressed. Try it on!

Oh, Nathan!

Come on! Come on,
come on, come on.

Could I go... Into the bushes!
Into the bushes!

Come on. Try it on.
Please, I want to see it.

Nathan, I'm not going to do that.
I wanna see it.

I just want to see it on you!

All right, hold it up.

SOPHIE: It doesn't have a top.

NATHAN: You're the top.

Nathan, it's beautiful!

I have to get back
to the laboratory.

Why don't you stay and
have some lunch with us?

Tonight we'll celebrate.

Look at all this
that I have here.

(PANTING) I know. I can't, I can't.
I got to get back to work.

Tonight we'll celebrate.

Make sure Sophie
gets home safe, okay?

(GASPS) I want to see you
in those clothes tonight.

Look at these shoes!

Tonight. Tonight
I'll look at it.

Oh, my darling,
I'm so proud of you.

Tonight.

SOPHIE: You were the one who
gave me the idea to get it.

STINGO: (CHUCKLES)
It's like mine.

It's a beautiful watch, yes?

Dr. Kats, my boss,
you know, his wife.

Her family is in
the jewelry business,

so he took me
over there in the car

to get it engraved.

It probably opens
at the top, like mine.

What? Don't get your fingers...

You got your fingerprints
all over it.

I got nothing on that.

Anyway, you think
he will like that?

Sure, he will.

Yeah, I think
he will be very pleased.

It cost a great deal of money,
more than I could afford.

Anyway, who cares? (DOOR OPENS)

Today, money doesn't
seem very important.

(DOOR SHUTS) Uh-oh!

Get the champagne! Quick.

This light... Get them!

I got it!
Champagne is in the back!

I couldn't remember Nathan's
brand when I went to the store.

Yeah? What kind?

The guy at the shop
said something Rose.

The guy at the shop
said it's very good.

(CORK POPS)

(YELPS)

Surprise! Surprise!

Is this the brand you said you liked?
I couldn't remember.

(PANTING)

Stingo got you that champagne.

Yeah.

That's sweet.

It's beautiful. Look at you.

Yeah, do you like?

Very becoming.

Fidelity would become you more.

What?

Haven't I told you that the only
thing I absolutely demand of you,

the only single
thing is fidelity?

And didn't I tell you that if you
ever were with this guy Kats

ever again outside of work,

that if you ever so much as walked 10 feet
with this cheap schmuck, this fraud,

that I would break your ass?
Yeah, but...

And this afternoon,

he brings you home again in his car.
Yeah, but...

You spent the whole fucking afternoon
with him, didn't you? Didn't you?

Or should I say, you spent the
whole afternoon with him fucking?

Nathan...

Did you try on your
new dress for him? Hmm?

So he could strip it off you
in a cheap hotel room?

Did he line up your vertebrae
in a nice neat line

while he was humping you?

I bet he does quite a number with that
fast chiropractor's dick of his, huh?

No. Wait! Nathan! Come
on, you can tell me.

How do you know he took her home?
What have you been doing?

You were following
her all afternoon?

Süngo„.

What if you find out
why Kats took her home?

I think you're going
to feel like a fool.

Just find out why
he took her home.

Please, don't!

(LAUGHING) Our baby Southern artiste
defending a little Polack whore.

Too bad our Celebration will be of more
mundane stripe than I had intended.

Stingo, I think that
you should go...

I'm not going to leave
you alone with him.

You don't understand, you're
making it worse by being here.

No! He's not going to
get away with this shit!

You don't understand him.

Let's just cut out
all the ugly shit!

Yeah, pourthis. Let's celebrate.
You know what?

We're here to toast you.

But what are we doing here?
What are we here to toast?

You're right. You're right.
I'm terribly sorry.

That's all right.

I don't know
what's come over me.

Here is to my best friend

and my best girl. There we go.

Here, yeah.
Look what I got you, anyway.

I had the wrapping, but...

It's beautiful.
That's really beautiful.

Do you like it?

I like it? Like it? I love it.

Yes. It's just like Stingo's.

It is?

Oh, yeah.

It has an engraving.

It's beautiful. Beautiful.

This toast is in honor

of my complete disassociation
from you two creeps.

Disassociation from you,

the coony chiropractic
cunt of Kings County,

and you, the dreary
dregs of Dixie.

You've not fooled me,
young Stingo.

Since you so graciously allowed me
to read your magnum Southern opus,

yourpuhng, adolescent self-pity

for your poor dead mother.

Knock it off, Nathan.

However, look on it
optimistically.

You might be on the verge
of a whole new form,

the Southern comic book.

And now, my sweet, my sweet.

Süngo„.

I want to ask you one question that's
been burning in my mind for so long.

Yeah, well, maybe you can
explain something to me.

(MOCKING IN ACCENT) The reason
maybe of why you are here.

Wait...

Walking these streets drenched
in enticing perfumery...

Mmm.

.„engagedin
surreptitious venery

with not one, but two.

Count them,
ladies and gentlemen.

Two chiropractors.

In short, making hay
while the sun shines,

to employ an old bromide,

while at Auschwitz,

the ghosts of the millions of
the dead still seek an answer.

No.

Tell me.

Tell me, Sophie.

The same anti-Semitism
(GASPING)

for which Poland has gained
such worldwide renown,

did a similar anti-Semitism
guide your own destiny,

help you along, protect you
in a manner of speaking,

so that you became one of the
minuscule handful of people who lived

while the millions died?

Tell me. Tell me why.

Hmm?

Explanation, please!

Tell me why,
old lucky number 11379.

Tell me why you inhabit
the land of the living.

What splendid little
tricks and stratagem

sprang from that
lovely head of yours

to allow you to breath
the clear Polish air,

while the multitudes at Auschwitz
choked slowly on the gas?

No!

Explain!

Explain! Stop it!

Lay off of her!

Get out of my way!

Get out of my...

Stay away! Stay out!

Stay out! Get out of here!

Go away!

(DOOR SLAMS SHUT)

YETTA: I'm leaving
the house, they're here.

I come back, two empty rooms.
No Nathan, no Sophie.

And the last anybody knows,

he puts her in a cab and
he runs off the other way.

I can't tell you
how hurt I was.

Is this Dr. Blackstock?
(OVER PHONE) Yes.

Listen, I'm a friend
of Sophie Zawistowska's,

and you may have
heard, I'm Stingo.

Oh, the writer!
Sophie's very proud of you.

Yeah. Listen, I'm trying
to track her down.

But don't you live
in the same house?

Mmm-hmm. She moved
out last night.

Moved out?

When she called in this
morning, she wasn't well.

I was worried about her.
She's such a darling girl.

Listen, do you have any
idea how I can find her?

What about the boyfriend?

Um, I think that's over.

Maybe she went to
stay with a friend.

I don't know any
friends of hers.

There was this Polish girl who worked
for a professor at Brooklyn College.

I remember her name.
It was Sonja Wajinska.

Does a woman named
Sonja Wajinska work here?

No, I am sorry. She went back
to Poland six months ago.

But if you like, I can
give you her address.

Thank you.

You don't happen to know a friend of
hers, Sophie Zawistowska, do you?

Yes.

She came here once
to visit Sonja,

but she did not
come back again.

I recognized her from my days
at the University of Krakow.

She is the daughter
of Professor Bieganski.

Were you a student of his?

I heard him lecture once.
That was enough.

I know that he was very
outspoken about the Nazis.

He was crazy about the Nazis.

I think because they hated
Jews as much as he did.

The Nazis killed him.

They came one day and made a
clean sweep of all academics.

And they didn't stop to check
their political convictions.

I think you have the wrong man.

Look, I shall show you.

(SIGHS)

Bieganski.

Look, Bieganski,

professor of law at
the University of Krakow

from 1919to 1939,

known for his
anti-Semitic tracts.

A major promulgator of
the ghetto bench rule,

which made it illegal for Jewish students
to sit on the same bench as Poles.

So.

YETTA: Astrid, your
mother's on the phone.

STINGO: I told Yetta
I was leaving.

A few weeks before, I had
received a letter from my father.

He had inherited a small farm,

and knowing I was
running out of money,

proposed that I come back
South and live on it.

I could not bear
to stay in Brooklyn.

YETTA: Come down,
your mother's waiting.

ASTRID: All right,
already. I'm coming.

(DOOR OPENS)

SOPHIE: Hello!

(DOOR SHUTS)
(FOOTSTEPS PATTERING)

Hello!

YETTA: Sophie, you're back.

Oh, yes, hello, Yetta.

I came to get
the rest of my things.

Have you heard from Nathan?

YETTA: No. Not aword.

Just sent some mover this morning
to get the rest of his things.

SOPHIE: Okay.

Okay-

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

Süngo?

(DOOR OPENS)

(SIGHS)

Yeah.

I'm sorry about what happened
last night, you know that.

I want you to know that Nathan didn't
mean what he said about your book.

Well, you know that. Right?

I know he really
loves your writing.

Look, that doesn't
matter anymore.

But, I mean, we will
still be friends.

You know, I'm leaving.
I'm going home.

It should be a better
place for me to write.

We have driven you away.

It has nothing to do with you.

I spoke with
Dr. Blackstock today.

Oh!

Oh, Stingo, did you go
looking for me there?

I would've left you
a note where I went,

but I just didn't
think of it. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry you worried about me.

He seemed to think that your friend
Sonja might know where you were.

Sonja? Sonja Wajinska?
But she went back to Poland.

Yeah, I know that.

I went over to the
Brooklyn College.

Hmm.

She used to work for a
language professor there.

Yes.

I think you met him once.

He knew your father.

Yeah, my father.

He heard him lecture once

at the University of Krakow which, I
believe, is where your father taught.

Yeah, if he told you, then
he told you about my father.

Sophie, why did you lie to me?

Yeah, I lied because, you know why?
I was so afraid.

I was afraid
I would be left alone!

So...

Goodbye, my friend.

(DOOR OPENS)

(DOOR CLOSES)

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING
IN DISTANCE)

Sophie, I want to understand.

I'd like to know the truth.

The truth

does not make it easier
to understand, you know.

I mean, you think that you
find out the truth about me,

and then you'll understand me and then
you'd forgive me for all those...

For all my lies.

I promise I'll never leave you.

You must never promise that.

No one, no one should
ever promise that.

(BELL DINGING)

Oh, the truth.

The truth. I don't even
know what is the truth.

(KIDS SHOUTING EXCITEDLY)

After all these
lies I have told.

(SIGHS DEEPLY) My father.

How can I explain
how much I loved my father?

My father believed that human
perfection was a possibility.

Every night I pray
to God to forgive me

for always making a
disappointment to my father.

And I pray to him

to make me worthy
of such a great, good man.

(MAN SPEAKING IN POLISH
OVER SPEAKER)

I was a grown woman.

(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)

I was fully come of age.

I was a married woman

when I realized that I hate my
father beyond all words to tell it.

It was Winter of 1938.

And my father was working for
weeks on the speech he calls.

"Poland Jewish Prob/em. ".

Ordinarily I typed
those Speeches

and I don't hear to the
words, to their meaning.

But this time I came upon a
word, repeats several times,

that I have never heard before.

(SPEECH CONTINUES IN POLISH)

The solution for
Poland Jewish Problem,

he concludes,
is die Vernichtung.

(SWITCHES OFF RECORDER)

Extermination.

I had not meant to go to
the ghetto that afternoon,

but something made me go there.

I stood there,
I don't know how long,

watching these people that my
father has condemned to die.

For all these men, these women,

these children,
die Vernichtung.

Extermination.

I suddenly remembered that my
father is waiting for that speech,

and I hurry home
to finish the typing,

but in my rushing and my
haste to finish that,

I make so many mistakes
in the sentences.

(SIGHS) And I run with
it to the university,

and my father has no time
to check that before speaking.

And he get up in front of all those
people, and he reads the speech

and make those mistakes and
I see him getting so angry.

And when it was over,
he came up to me.

I was with my husband,
of course.

And in front of him and all
his colleagues he said,

"Zosia, your
intelligence is pulp."

Pulp.

I did not have
any courage to say,

"Yes, but what about the Jews?"

The Jewish people, but...

After that, he didn't trust me anyway.
And neither did my husband.

(EXCLAIMING PLAYFULLY)

After that in Warsaw,

I had a lover

who was very, very good to me.

(WOMAN SPEAKING IN POLISH)

You must help us, Sophie.

(IN POLISH)

Stop torturing her.

SOPHIE: Jozef/ived with
his half-sister Wanda.

She was a leader
in the Resistance.

(IN POLISH)

Sophie!

(IN POLISH)

What is that?

It's a photo of children rejected
from the Germanization program.

The "Lebensborn" program.

These are children

taken from Polish parents

who, at first, were believed

to have Aryan racial features.

They were to be
taken to Germany

and raised as Germans.

But, at some point,
it was decided

that they were
racially unsuitable.

Unsuitable!

That's why they were consigned

for disposal.

All we ask of you is to translate
some stolen Gestapo documents.

I can't.

Icannotendanger my children.

Your children could be next.

No. No. I do not want
to get involved.

SOPHIE: Two weeks later,
the Gestapo killed Jozef.

They cut his throat.

They had courage.

Oh, God, they had courage.

Not long after they killed
Jozef, I was arrested.

My children were sent
with me to Auschwitz.

When the train
arrived at Auschwitz,

the Germans made the selection,

who would live
and who would die.

Jan, my little boy...

(FLUTE PLAYING)

(SNIFFLES)

(SIGHS)

Jan, my little boy,
was sent to the Kinderlager,

which was the Children's camp.

And my little girl, Eva,
was sent to crematorium two.

She was exterminated.

Thanks to my perfect German
and my secretarial skills,

the things my father
had taught me so well,

(PEOPLE CLAMORING)

I came to work

for Reichsführer, Rudolf Hoess,
Commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The day they took me
to work for Hoess,

I was forced to
walk past Block 25.

That is where they
took the prisoners

that were selected
for extermination.

The people there were made to
stand for, sometimes, days.

They were naked
and they had no water.

And their hands reached out from
the bars, and they cried and pled.

(KIDS SHOUTING PLAYFULLY)

(IN GERMAN)

This woman will be.

Commandant Hoess' secretary.

(IN GERMAN)

Take her downstairs. See
that she showers thoroughly.

(IN GERMAN)

Give me your clothes.

Here is the shower.

You must use
this disinfectant soap.

It burns and it stinks.

But you must use it,
because she has a good nose.

Shoes!

Put your shoes here.

(IN GERMAN)

Please don't take them. They
were a gift from my father.

My God, how'd you
keep them in the camp?

I hid them. Please...

If she sees them,
she'll take them away.

I'll clean them.
Please, they are all I have.

Well, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

(WATER RUNNING)

(WATER STOPS)
Shh! (WHISPERING IN POLISH)

Don't be afraid.

I was told you could help us.

Will you help the resistance?

(IN POLISH)

But what can I do?

Emmi Hoess has a radio. Her room
is under her father's office

where you will work.
If you could get the radio,

bring it down here.
I could smuggle it out.

Sure, sure,
I give you the radio,

you smuggle it out, and I
get shot for stealing it.

That's why you must
make Hoess trust you.

But how?

He is a man
and you are a woman...

Of course!

Bald, starving,
stinking of germicides.

Very impressive!

You're wrong. You look German.

You speak cultured German.
You'll be working with him alone

and he's an unhappy man.

Then do something for me. What?

You must find my son.

His name is Jan.
He's in the Children's Camp.

What do you want to know?

If... If he is...

If he's alive, right? Yes.

I understand.

Maybe Hoess could arrange
to get him out.

(MAN LAUGHING)

(RUDOLF SPEAKING IN GERMAN)

(IN GERMAN)

(KIDS TALKING IN GERMAN)

I baked Himmler's
favorite cake.

This is the new

secretary from the Camp.

Take her to the office.

Himmler can't stay for dinner.

(FRAU SPEAKING IN GERMAN)

Do you think it's deliberate?

(RUDOLF SPEAKING IN GERMAN)

Why deliberate?

(FRAU SPEAKING)

You said the escapes, the delays
with the building upset him.

(RUDOLF SPEAKING)

Enough!

(FRAU SPEAKING)

Imagine, that idiot guard took the
new girl right into the kitchen

without disinfecting her.
In the kitchen!

I mean, the children...
They are perfectly healthy.

(FRAU SPEAKING)

That's because
they're well fed here.

What happens if we leave?

(RUDOLF SPEAKING)

They will have to sacrifice
like other German children.

(GERMAN MUSIC PLAYING
OVER RADIO)

(BOTH SPEAKING IN GERMAN)

You are looking well.

I hardly drank

after I left here.

Can you imagine?

My father asked me
what kind of medicine

I practice here.

What can I tell him?

I perform God's work.

I select who shall live
and who shall die.

Is that not God's work?

(RUDOLF SPEAKING)

You're too young to recall what
was done to Germany in defeat.

We cannot afford to be kind
if we are to survive.

There is an epidemic
in the Children's Camp.

No matter what we do,
they die like flies.

You cannot afford
to be so sensitive.

(IN GERMAN)

.„andlasUy a trait of character

common to all people
of southern climes,

a certain dullness of mind...

Do I speak too fast?

(IN GERMAN)

No, Commandant.

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

(IN GERMAN)

Excuse me.

I'm sorry to disturb you,

but I thought maybe
if you could go to Berlin

and explain to Himmler
how unfair his order is,

maybe he'd change his mind.

(RUDOLF SPEAKING)

There's no appeal. We're being
transferred and that's that.

(SIGHS)

(MOANING)

My pills, quick!

Shall I call the doctor?
Be quiet.

It's unbearable.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

It's better now.

That ergotamine is a miracle.

I'm glad, Commandant.

Sit down.

How did you come here?

Not many prisoners are lucky
enough to find such work.

I think

it must have been fate.

Fate brought me to you

because I knew
only you would understand.

Understand what?

That a mistake has been made.

(SIGHS DEEPLY)

May I show you something?

This is one of the earliest
Polish documents

suggesting a "final solution"
to the Jewish problem.

I helped my father to write it.

Perhaps you will realize the
injustice of my imprisonment.

So, you claim you are innocent.

Sir, I freely admit my guilt
of the minor charge

which caused me
to be sent here.

I only ask that this misdemeanor
be compared to my record,

not only as a Polish sympathizer
with National Socialism,

but as an active campaigner in
the sacred war against the Jews.

That pamphlet in your hand,
Commandant, will prove my point.

I implore you. You have the power
to give clemency and freedom.

Please...

You forget you are a Pole and,
therefore, an enemy of the Reich,

and that you always will be

even if you are
not guilty of a crime.

You've been flirting
shamelessly with me.

It's hard to believe
you're Polish

with your perfect German
and the way you look,

your fair skin,
the structure of your face.

So typically Aryan.

You are an unusually
attractive woman.

There is something
about certain Aryan women,

(SNIFFLES)

a pure and radiant beauty,

fair of skin

and fair of hair,

that inspires me

to idolize that beauty.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

Wait.

(IN GERMAN)

Your pardon, sir. A question
from Frau Hoess, sir.

As the child just recovered from
the flu, madam wishes to know

if, in your view, Iphigenie is
well enough to go to a matinee

or should she consult
Dr. Schmidt?

If Frau Hoess thinks she's well
enough to go to a matinee,

then I expect she's well
enough to go to a matinee!

I would risk a great deal
to have relations with you.

If I were not leaving,
I'd take that risk.

But I must go. And so must you.

I'm sending you back to Block 3.
You will go tomorrow.

Commandant, I know
I can't ask much for myself

and that you must
follow the rules.

But I beg you to do one thing
for me before you send me back.

I have a young son in the Camp.
His name is Jan.

Jan Zawistowski.
He is 10 years old.

I am afraid for his health.

I beg you to consider
some way to release him.

He is frail, and so very young.

Please.

If I have impressed you, even
slightly, with my presence,

I beg you to do this for me,

not to release me, just
free my little boy. Please.

You think you could get me
to contravene regulations

because I showed some little affection?
It's disgusting.

There is a legal way! There
is the "Lebensborn" program.

He is
a perfect candidate for it.

You could move my child from the
Camp into the "Lebensborn" program.

Send him to the Reich to be
raised as a good German.

He is blond and looks German

and speaks
perfect German as I do.

Don't you see
how my little boy, Jan,

would be so right
for "Lebensborn"?

I will have your son
brought here tomorrow.

You will see him
and then I will arrange

(GASPS)

for him to be removed
from the Camp.

(PEOPLE LAUGHING IN DISTANCE)

(WOMAN SPEAKING IN GERMAN)

(GASPS) UNGERMAN)

You have no business
in this room.

I'm sorry, miss, I was only...

You came to steal that radio.
You were about to pick it up.

I'll tell my father.

He will have you punished.

I was only going to
look at it. I swear.

I've passed by here so often.
I've never seen a radio,

so small, so cunning.

I couldn't believe
it really worked. I just...

Liar! You wanted to steal it.

I knew by the look
on your face.

You must believe me.
I wouldn't take your radio.

Yes, you would.
It cost 70 marks.

You'd listen to music in the cellar.
You're a dirty Polack!

Mother says Polacks are
worse thieves than Gypsies

and dirtier, too.

You stink!

Wake up.

You fainted.

Breathe deeply,
the cold air will revive you.

Keep your head flat to get
the flow of blood back.

The first-aid manual says
a smack will help.

Sit erect and lean
against the bed.

(SIGHS)

I'll say one thing,
you're very pretty.

My mother said
you must be Swedish.

Tell me, what's that design
on your dress?

My swimming championship badge.

I was class champion.
I was only 8.

Where was that, Emmi?

In Dachau. Dachau was so
much nicer than Auschwitz.

We had a wonderful heated pool
only for officers' children.

I'll show you my album.

This is me as a baby.

This is me receiving the medal.

This is the pool in Dachau.

This is me with my mommy.

This is also me

with my daddy.

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

RUDOLF: Emmi?

I'm getting undressed.

Perhaps we'll go swimming
together tomorrow.

Great, Daddy.

Good night, Emmi.
Good night, Daddy.

(FOOTSTEPS FADING AWAY)

SOPHIE: I had failed with the radio, just
as I had failed so many times in my life.

But that night,
I kept repeating to myself,

"I have saved my son.
I have saved my son."

"Tomorrow I can see him!"

"And I can tell him goodbye."

"And he will have been saved."

Oh, my God, I had such
happiness that night!

Such hope.

But Hoess did not
keep his word.

I never did know what
happened to my little boy.

So, you know,
that's why I didn't want

to live no more.

Till Nathan came

and he made me live for him.

Live for me, Sophie.

Live for me.

Oh, my God!
What have we done to you?

YETTA: Morris, come here!

Süngo!

Nathan, put down the chair!
This is no time...

Put down the chair!

Put down the chair.

(INDISTINCT)

YETTA: Stingo!

Oh, a phone call.

It's Dr. Landau,
Nathan's brother.

All right. Thank you.

Yeah, hello.

Hello, this is Larry,
Nathan's brother.

Yes, Larry!

Nathan's talked about you a good deal.
/know you're good friends.

He's talked about
you a great deal.

And I wonder if it would be possible
for us to arrange a meeting.

Sure, yeah. Just tell
me when and where.

My brother thinks
the world of you.

I've never met anybody
more brilliant than Nathan.

Such a breadth of knowledge.

You're right.

He is convinced you're
going to be a major writer,

something he once
dreamed of being.

Now, please, sit down.

Seems to me, he's got the
talent of anything he chooses.

He's told you and Sophie that
he's a research biologist.

At Pfizer.

(CLEARS TH ROAT)

This biologist business
is my brother's masquerade.

He has no degree of any kind. All
that is a simple fabrication.

The truth is he's quite mad.

Christ.

One of those conditions where

weeks, months, even years go by
without manifestations and then pow.

Oh! He has a job at Pfizer
in the company library.

An undemanding
sinecure I got for him

where he can do a lot of reading
without bothering anyone,

and occasionally
he does a little research

for one of the legitimate
biologists on the staff.

I'm not sure Nathan would forgive
me if he knew that I told you.

He made me swear never to tell Sophie.
She knows nothing.

The cruelestjoke is that he
was born the perfect child.

He excelled in everything.

Even Nathan's teachers would speculate
on what Nathan would achieve.

See, he was the kind of child

everyone prepares to
take the credit for.

When he was 10,

we were told that the child genius
was a paranoid schizophrenic.

From then on, the only
schools he attended were

expensive funny farms.

What can I do?

If he could stay off the
drugs, he might have a chance.

(STUTTERING) Drugs?
What is he on?

Benzedrine, cocaine.

You didn't know?

No, I did not.

I don't want it to sound
like I'm asking you to spy,

but if you could
simply keep tabs on him

and report back to me
by phone from time to time,

letting me know
how he's getting on.

I'm sorry to have to
involve you in this way.

I don't think you understand.

I love them both.

They're friends of mine.

(INDISTINCT TALKING)

(PEOPLE CACKLING)

NATHAN: (MIMICKING)
Good morning, Mr. Stingo.

We were afraid something
terrible might have befallen you

on your way back to
the pink plantation.

Miss Sophie was all for
having me institute a search.

Ah! Miss Sophie,
you indeed look ravishing.

Thank you very much.

So, how are you all,
you are doing this evening?

Come, darling.

This was Nathan's idea to surprise
you with a Southern evening.

Your book has really whet my
appetite to know about the South.

Tell him about the trip, too.

Yes, Miss Sophie and I have
been discussing the possibility

of taking a tour of your
beloved Dixie in October.

And I've been thinking... Yeah.

If it's all right
with Miss Sophie...

Sure.

I was thinking maybe we could
make it a wedding trip

and have you join us
not just as our best friend,

but as my best man.

I have the honor

to request your
hand in marriage.

To have and to hold,

from this day forth,

till death us do part.

With this ring,

I betroth myself to you.

I believe it's traditional for the
groom to give a gift to the best man.

I told Nathan that
you would have to

put that book away for
a while to make money,

and that made him very sad.

Mmm-mmm.

Nathan, I can't
possibly accept this.

NATHAN: Stingo,
don't reject it.

Don't waste your talent.

(CLASSICAL MUSIC
PLAYING IN DISTANCE)

I don't know how to thank you.

Would the future Mrs. Landau care
to give me the honor of this dance?

(SOPHIE LAUGHING EXCITEDLY)

Isn't it thrilling
about Nathan?

What do you mean?

You don't know?

It's supposed to be a secret.

He confided in me
that he and his team

discovered a cure for polio

in my house.

If only my Saul could have
lived to see the day.

The car is ready,
Mrs. Zimmerman.

Yeah. I'll be down.

What did Nathan
say when he saw you?

I haven't seen him.

Huh! Well, he and Sophie
left here a couple hours ago.

He said something
about looking for you

and straightening out things
with you once and for all.

Wait, what?

I guess you just missed them.

Sophie kept telling him
he was imagining things,

trying to soothe him the way she
does when he gets like that.

God knows what mashugana idea was
going through his mind this time.

I told you to watch out.

Next time you'll listen to Morris Fink?
(INDISTINCT)

My God, it's like I'm the dog
catcher for the whole thing.

Morris, do you know
where he is now?

No, I don't know.

(PHONE RINGING)

Hello.

NATHAN ON PHONE: God damn
you to hell forever.

Nathan? (LINE CLICKS)

Are you all right?

Oh, yes. I'm all right.

What's wrong with your arm?

He was breaking my arm.

I got frightened
and I ran away.

He has a gun, Stingo.
I think he's going to use it.

(PHONE RINGING)

I shouldn't have
left him there.

We should go find...

Nathan? NATHAN: Stingo.

Now, you listen. Listen to me.

Is it Nathan? Nathan!

Oh, God!

Nathan! My darling,
you forgive me?

(SHOUTING) Get off the
phone, you Whore!

You know that I love you.

I don't want to speak
to you again!

Nathan, we love you
very much, all right?

We would do nothing
to hurt you.

Now, you tell us where you are.

God damn you to hell forever for
betra ying me behind my back.

You, whom I trust like
the best friend I ever had

and that shit-eating grin
of yours day after day.

Butter wouldn't melt
in your mouth, would it,

when you gave me a piece
of your manuscript to read?

"Gee, Nathan.
Thank you so much."

When not 15 minutes earlier,

you'd been humping away in bed with
the woman I was going to marry.

Marry! (SHOUTING) Marry!

I say "was going to,"
past tense,

because I'd burn in hell before
I 'd marry a two-timing Polack

who'd spread her legs for a sneaky
Southern shithead, betraying me like that.

Nathan, we're gonna come get you.
Where are you? All right?

Come and get me? No. You stay right where you are.
I'm going to come and get you.

Both of you.

Jesus, Nathan!

Don't go away.

You know what I'm going to do to you
two deceitful, unspeakable pigs?

Listen! (GU NSHOT)

Now I'm coming to get you.

Oh, God!

I called his brother's office.

Larry is in Toronto, but they're
going to try and reach him.

I should've stayed there.

Maybe I could've helped him.

He's never been
this bad before.

I think he could've killed us.

I think he could've
killed us both.

I don't care that I would die.

I am afraid that he
will die without me.

Oh!

Thank you.

(WATER RUNNING)

SOPHIE: Stingo?

Mmm-hmm?

Where are we going?

Well, I want to take you
to see the Washington sights.

Mmm-hmm? In the White House.

Maybe get a peek
at Harry Truman.

Yeah.

I mean,

where are we going?

Where are we really going?

Well, I'm going to take
you down to that farm

that I told you about,
in southern Virginia.

Hmm.

(SIGHS)

I think once we get
settled in there,

we can drive over to Richmond,

get a good phonograph,
maybe buy some records.

What do you mean,
"Get settled in there"?

Well, I love you
very much, Sophie.

And I want to marry you.

I want you to live down
there on that farm with me.

When I write my books there,
I want you to help me

and I want you to
help me raise a family

because I love you
very, very much.

Is it too much to hope

that you might love me, too?

Listen, Stingo, I'm beyond
30 years now, you know.

What are you going to do with
an old Polish lady like me?

Manage. (CHUCKLES) I'll manage.

"Old woman."

Don't talk that Way.

You're always going to be

my number one.

Well, then, yes, okay. We
could go down there. Sure.

We could live there
for a while and then...

We're not getting married because we
could decide that later, you know.

Sophie, the kind of
little country place

I'm talking about
that we'd be living in,

we'd have to be married.

Jesus, Sophie, these are
Christians down there, you know.

Well, I don't know, I mean,

getting married soon, I've
loved you a very long time.

I know you're fond of me.

Give us time.
Just give us time.

We'll be fine.

(SIGHS DEEPLY)

It is not just the age
difference, you know,

between you and me, Stingo.

You should have another
mother for your children.

Only you.

Itwould not be fair to your children
to have me as their mother.

Sophie, they would be the
luckiest children in the world.

I'm going to
tell you something.

I'm going to tell you something
now I have never told anybody.

Never, but I need a drink, so
would you get me that first?

On the day that we went

to Auschwitz, it was
spring, you know,

(SIGHS) and we
arrived there at night.

It was a warm night,
it was a beautiful night.

(IN POLISH)

Mommy, you're hurting me!

(SHUSHING)

(TRAIN BRAKES SCREECHING)

(MAN 1 SHOUTING IN GERMAN)

(MAN 2 TALKING OVER
MEGAPHONE IN GERMAN)

(IN GERMAN)

(IN GERMAN)

You're so beautiful.

I'd like to get you in bed.

Are you a Polack?

You!

Are you also one of those
filthy communists?

(IN GERMAN)

I am a Pole!

I was born in Krakow! I am not a Jew!
Neither are my children!

They're not Jews.
They are racially pure.

I'm a Christian.

I'm a devout Catholic.

You're not a communist?

You're a believer.

Yes, sir. I believe in Christ.

So you believe in Christ,
the Redeemer?

Yes!

Did he not say,

"Suffer the little children"

"to come unto me?"

You may keep
one of your children.

I beg your pardon?

You may keep
one of your children.

The other one must go.

You mean, I have to choose?

You're a Polack not a Yid.

That gives you
a privilege, a choice.

I can't choose! I can't choose!

Be quiet. I can't choose!

Choose! Or I'll send
them both over there!

Make a choice!

Don't make me choose! I can't!

I'll send them both over there.

Shut up! Enough!

I told you to shut up!
Make a choice!

Don't make me choose! I can't!

I'll send them both over there!
I can't choose!

Take both children away!

Move!

(GIRL WAILING)

Take my little girl!

Take my baby!

Take my little girl!

So.

We will go to that
farm tomorrow, yeah.

But please, Stingo,

don't talk about marriage

(SIGHS)

and children.

It's enough that

we go down there

and live

for a while.

STINGO: /was 22 and a virgin

and was clasping
in my arms at last

the goddess of my
unending fantasies.

My lust was inexhaustible.

Sophie's lust was both
a plunge into carnal oblivion

and a flight from
memory and grief.

More than that, I now see,

it was a frantic attempt
to beat back death.

"SOPHIE: " My dearest Stingo.

"You are such a beautiful lover.
I had to leave,

"and forgive me for not saying
goodbye, but I must go back to Nathan."

"Believe me, you will find
some wonderful woman"

"to make you
happy on that farm."

"But when I woke,
I was feeling so terrible"

"and in despair about Nathan."

"By that, I mean so filled
with guilt, thoughts of death."

"It was like ice
flowing in my blood."

"So I must be with Nathan
again, for whatever that means."

"I may not see you again,

"but do believe me how much
knowing you has meant to me.

"You are a great lover, Stingo.

"Sophie. ".

MORRIS: Landau. L-A-N-D-A-U.

He worked in
a pharmaceutical lab.

I think that's how he got ahold
of the cyanide, you see.

They found it next
to the bed, you know.

DETECTIVE:
What lab, do you know?

I'm not sure where it was.

(INDISTINCT)

"Ample make this bed."

"Make this bed with awe."

"In it,"

"wait till judgment break,"

"excellent and fair."

"Be its mattress straight."

"Be its pillow round."

"Let no sunrise yellow noise"

"interrupt this ground."

STINGO: And so ended
my voyage of discovery

in a place as strange
as Brooklyn.

I let go of the rage and
sorrow for Sophie and Nathan

and for the many others
who were but a few

of the butchered and betrayed and
martyred children of the Earth.

When I could finally see again,

I saw the first rays of da ylight
reflected in the murky river.

This was not judgment day.

Only morning.

Morning, excellent and fair.

© anoXmous
@ http://thepiratebay.sx/user/Zen_Bud