Original subtitles

[scribbling]

[phone ringing]

[ringing continues]

[scribbling continues]

Hello?

-[seabirds calling] -Yes, this is he.

[ship horn sounding]

[phone hangs up]

[siren wailing]

THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE

-[somber music playing] -[siren continues]

Oh my God…

Oh my…

Oh God.

[panting]

[indistinct dialog]

-[man 1] I have a crowbar in my trunk! -man 2] Go get it! Hurry! Hurry!

[man 3] Hey! One of them is alive!

He's alive!

-One of them is alive! -[Nesibe gasping and crying out]

Move! Get out of the way!

[music continues]

Get out of the way!

[gasping]

Oh god, my baby! My baby! My…

[heavy breathing]

[screams]

[screaming and sobbing]

[crying]

[anguished screaming continues]

[gasping]

[crying continues]

[siren wailing]

[siren fades out]

[machine beeping]

[breathing]

[old Kemal] I was in a coma.

I'd survived because I had instinctively thrown my arm out the car's open window.

[distant siren blaring]

For the first month, I lay there unable to speak.

[beeping continues]

No words entered my head.

The world had frozen.

[beeping continues]

[Berrin] Mom, he's waking up. [gasps]

Can you hear us, Kemal?

[Berrin crying]

[soft groan]

[beeping continues]

[soft moan]

[mechanical inhaling through tube]

[melancholy music playing]

[mechanical inhaling continues]

[city street noises]

[melancholy music continues]

[old Kemal] I went back to Nişantaşı after months of rehabilitation.

I refused to answer the phone.

[phone ringing]

Kemal, dear.

-[ringing continues] -Come on, son, take your pills.

You wanted to see the accident report.

Çetin brought it this morning.

ACCIDENT REPORT

[melancholy music continues]

[children playing outside]

[dog barking]

[barking]

[wind whistling]

[old Kemal] About six or seven seconds after the crash, Füsun died,

after the car had crumpled like a tin can and the steering column pierced her chest.

Her skull was fractured.

Her brain, whose wonders had astonished me, was crushed.

But her beautiful body, her sorrowful eyes,

her exquisite full lips, her velvety cheeks,

and long legs,

her slender arms the color of honey,

her feet which always made me smile,

and her soul which I always wanted to be near…

remained intact.

[dog barking in distance]

[barking]

[door buzzer sounding]

[exhales]

[Nesibe crying]

[emotional music playing]

Kemal, my son.

You know you can always come here to visit.

[bird chirping]

-[music continues] -chirping continues]

[bird tweeting]

[music intensifies]

[inhales deeply]

[inhaling]

[Kemal] I'm sorry. I didn't mean you any harm.

I was drunk and left your earring next to your toothbrush.

[both breathing heavily]

I'd meant to return it to you properly.

[Füsun] The earring wasn't anywhere close to my toothbrush.

[dramatic music playing]

[box rattles]

[music ends]

[breathing heavily]

Aunt Nesibe!

[bird chirping]

Aunt Nesibe!

-What's wrong? -These earrings.

What about the earrings?

Someone put these earrings back into her jewelry box.

Kemal, dear.

[Nesibe sighs]

[lighter clicks]

She was wearing both earrings that day, wasn't she?

Yes. She was wearing both of them.

That night at the hotel, before she went to your room,

she came into our room.

[dramatic music playing]

I thought she was going to bed.

I pretended to be asleep.

But then she pulled those earrings out, and she put them on.

I didn't move. I said nothing.

Nothing.

I wanted her to be happy at last.

[knocking]

I guess Mom locked me out.

[bird chirping]

[Nesibe] She was going to wear them in Paris…

She wanted to surprise you.

She'd said something like that.

Füsun wanted to see Paris so badly.

[bird chirping]

[brakes squealing]

[dog barks]

[dramatic music playing]

[dog barks]

[Kemal] You had that dog figurine on the TV

that looked just like him, remember?

[Füsun] The one you stole from us?

I just wanted to be a movie star.

[Kemal] You will.

[Füsun] Kemal, don't give me that. I know you don't believe it.

It makes me crazy how you lie to everyone around you like it's nothing.

[Kemal] Hey… if you really want it, it'll happen.

[Füsun] It's been what I really wanted and all I really wanted for years now.

Don't lie, Kemal.

Last night you tricked me.

You took me without marrying me, you took possession of me.

And now you won't marry me. That's not who you are.

[Kemal] True.

I would murder you if I could.

[Kemal] You know you're the only one I love in this world, Fusun!

[Füsun] I couldn't do anything because you stopped me, Kemal.

I wanted to act, but you stood in my way.

-I'm sorry. Sorry, Füsun! -What do you mean, "Sorry, Füsun"?

You and Feridun did everything you could

to stop me from having a shot in the movies! You know it!

[tragic music playing]

[Füsun] You didn't even notice my earring.

[Kemal] What earring, my love?

[Füsun] On my ear.

[heartbeat thumping]

[Kemal] Füsun, please slow down.

Füsun, please slow down a bit… What are you doing? You need to slow down.

Honk the horn. Hit the brakes!

-Watch out! -[Füsun screams]

[heartbeat continues]

[crashing]

[tragic music continues]

[dog barking]

[barking continues]

[tragic music continues]

[Kemal] All right, earlier when…

When you hugged me and you closed your eyes tight?

[Füsun] What about it?

[Kemal] Did you see anything, like a movie in your head?

I was seeing a field of sunflowers.

[gentle piano playing]

[old Kemal] I felt Füsun's death as deeply as my father's.

Vaporous raki glasses figured prominently in the aftermath of both.

As did the sense of a secret other world harboring within.

I couldn't stay there.

But how could I have known then

that what I was trying to escape was the rest of my life?

[quiet, suspenseful music playing]

[clock ticking]

[old Kemal] I realized that, in Istanbul,

I had always seen Füsun and our love through the lens of my obsession.

But when I got to Paris,

I began to see my obsession, and Füsun, from the outside.

Wandering in museums gave me a deep sense of consolation.

I'm not talking about the grand museums like the Louvre,

but the small ones that no one ever visits.

In the Edith Piaf Museum, which had been founded by a fan,

I saw teddy bears and combs.

MAURICE RAVEL MUSEUM

In the house of composer Maurice Ravel,

I saw an iron nightingale singing in an iron cage,

which reminded me of Lemon.

ALL KINDS OF TOOLS, PENDULUMS

After visiting the Gustave Moreau Museum,

I was no longer ashamed of my collection at the Merhamet building.

LONDON

All of these salt shakers, dog figurines, thimbles, and hairpins

were like flocks of birds,

quietly migrating around the world.

At flea markets in Beirut and Athens,

I saw lighters identical to the one I bought Füsun.

I came across this salt shaker that had been on the Keskin table for years

in a Muslim restaurant in New Delhi, and in a kitchen supply store in Rome.

Somebody somewhere had manufactured millions of copies of this salt shaker,

and it had become part of millions of people's daily lives.

That was when I realized that I could tell my story through the objects.

[intense, dramatic music playing]

I wanted to tell everyone about this secret world I carried inside me.

[music ends]

[city street noises]

[Çetin] Good morning.

Good morning, Çetin.

I have a surprise for you, Mr. Kemal.

[door opens]

-[door closes] -[Çetin grunts]

It wasn't easy, but we finally found it, Mr. Kemal.

Some parts of the car are still as they were.

But many of the parts that survived the accident

were used in other 56 Chevrolets, mostly cabs.

What are we gonna do with the ones that we've found?

Those parts and I will live under one roof until I die.

I've been storing things in the Merhamet building.

Now I'll gather these things in one place and stay there with them.

And… do you know where you'd like that place to be?

[laughs quietly]

[bird chirping]

[Kemal] Aunt Nesibe.

You know I've been taking things from this house for years.

Now I want to take the house.

I want to buy this building from you.

Oh…

[distant thunder rumbling]

What are you saying?

Sell me this house.

Your home, along with everything in it.

What is this about? I'm sorry, I'm confused.

[distant seabirds calling]

My dream in life is to ensure her memory will keep living on.

[inhales]

Oh…

But where would I live then?

I found a nice apartment for you in a new building on Kuyulu Bostan Street,

right where you used to live.

I will buy it for you today. Just say the word.

Kemal, my son, I can't leave this house and all its memories of her.

No.

[breathes shakily]

I'm sorry, I can't.

Then this apartment will simply become

a sanctuary for us, and for remembering her.

We can do what you want, my dear boy.

Ah.

[bird chirping]

[Nesibe laughs]

[quiet, emotional music playing]

[bird twittering]

[music continues]

People will walk through these little rooms as they look at all the objects.

They will comprehend what I felt, gazing at Füsun over the dinner table…

Observing her thick hair, awaiting her slightest smile,

collecting her cigarette butts, and how I adored each thing about her.

They will be reminded that love is deep consideration and tenderness.

[takes deep breath]

I have told you the story of my life with the utmost sincerity, Mr. Orhan.

You could be Kemal Basmacı now.

You may write my life as though it were yours,

or your life as though it were mine.

But please write it, sir.

I'll tell you what.

Now all these objects remind me of the same thing as they do you.

[Kemal laughs]

I visit the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan every chance I get.

It must be one of the most important in my life.

I head to Milan tomorrow. I'd like to read what you have when I return.

And I'll be happy to share what I've written so far with you. Take care.

[footsteps receding]

[emotional music playing]

MILAN

[church bells ringing]

[city street noises]

Follow me.

This nice building on the corner belonged to the Visconti family.

-[shutter clicking] -[people chattering]

[music continues]

[shutter clicking]

Sibel?

[woman] Gül! Honey!

[girl] Yes, Mom?

[emotional music continues]

Sis, come on! Let's go! What are you doing?

[phone ringing]

[seabirds calling]

[ringing continues]

[distant siren, helicopter]

[scribbling]

[ringing continues]

[scribbling stops]

Hello?

Yes, this is he.

[ship horn sounding]

["Addio del passato" from Verdi's La Traviata playing]

[phone hangs up]

[Orhan] The hero of our story,

the founder of the Museum of Innocence, Kemal Basmacı,

had a heart attack and died in his sleep on April 12th, 2007.

Füsun's 50th birthday.

He was in his usual room at the Grand Hotel in Milan,

the one looking out on Casa Manzoni.

He was 62 years old.

[woman singing in Italian]

[singing continues]

[old Kemal] Here's the last thing I'd like to say, Mr. Orhan.

Remember this.

Let it be known

that I lived a very happy life.

["Addio del passato" continues]

[music ends]