1
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THE MARQUISE DE SADE

2
00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:27,320
AUTUMN 1772

3
00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:25,280
What a strange way
of receiving one's guests!

4
00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,520
She sent for me
and then keeps me waiting like this!

5
00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:35,720
No doubt Mme de Montreuil is beside
herself with worry for her son-in-law.

6
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,520
I can't imagine
that time has healed her wounds.

7
00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:44,840
But I haven't seen her
since... what happened.

8
00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:51,280
Always, everywhere, we gloss over
the matter saying ''what happened''--

9
00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:57,600
--exchanging looks and knowing
smiles. Surely you are well informed?

10
00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:01,600
No. Alphonse and I are childhood
friends.

11
00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:05,800
I'm content to remember him
as a child, with his lovely fair hair.

12
00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,080
As you wish, Madame.

13
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For my part, I shall disclose
the precise and detailed information--

14
00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:19,760
--which I have collected
with every means at my disposal.

15
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Three months ago,
on the 27th of June--

16
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--Donatien-Alphonse-Fran�ois, Marquis
de Sade, journeyed to Marseilles--

17
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--with Latour, his servant.
There, one morning, he assembled--

18
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--four young women in a house
belonging to a certain Mariette Borelly.

19
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All four were of course whores.

20
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He took a handful of gold coins
out of his pocket and said--

21
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--that he would favour the girl who
could guess how many coins he had.

22
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Marianne won. He sent the other
women out, but the servant stayed.

23
00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:09,760
Then he ordered the two of them
to lie on the bed--

24
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--whipped the girl with one hand and
aroused the servant with the other.

25
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All the while Alphonse addressed his
servant as ''Monsieur le Marquis''--

26
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--and made the man
call his master Latour.

27
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After that he dismissed the servant,
took out a crystal box set in gold--

28
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--that contained aniseed pastilles
and told the girl to help herself.

29
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A remedy for flatulence, he said.
In fact they were an aphrodisiac--

30
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--made of dried tiger beetle
and Spanish fly.

31
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You know about that, don't you?
You should try it some time.

32
00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:04,920
Marianne ate seven or eight
of the pastilles.

33
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When she finished, the Marquis...

34
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...promised her a <i>louis d'or</i>
if she let him do a certain thing.

35
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The thing <i>you're</i> said to be so fond
of. When the morning sun...

36
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...lights the front of a statue of
Venus that stands in a park--

37
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--the dazzling light penetrates right
inside a vulva of snow-white marble.

38
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But when the sun, having circled
the garden for half a day--

39
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--sinks beneath the trees, which part
of Venus do the sun's rays penetrate?

40
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Only a devil would do
something like that!

41
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Then Alphonse took out
a bloodstained, barbed whip--

42
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--apparently often used.

43
00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:03,520
He made her undress and kneel
at the foot of the bed.

44
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When he had castigated her, he
ordered her to do the same to him.

45
00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:13,440
Alphonse carved the number of blows
on the chimney-piece with a knife...

46
00:05:13,620 --> 00:05:19,160
The figures were 215, 179--

47
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--225 and 240...

48
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- ...or a total of...
- 859 lashes!

49
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He has always
been fascinated by figures--

50
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--since only figures
are truly irrefutable.

51
00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,880
If numbers are at an inconceivable
level, vice itself becomes a miracle.

52
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- Watch out, you too may go to hell!
- Thank you for the warning.

53
00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:53,400
Then it was Rose's turn. The whip,
the servant, a new combination--

54
00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:59,000
--as in a game of cards. Then came
Marianette, the whip, the servant...

55
00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:04,200
So the morning's performance ended
with wailing and screaming.

56
00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:08,800
The Marquis gave the girls six gold
coins each and sent them packing.

57
00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:14,000
He lowered the Venetian blinds
on the windows facing the sea--

58
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--and sank into a slumber, as deep
and untroubled as a child's...

59
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An innocent, dreamless sleep. It was
as if he had been buried in the sand--

60
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--of a beach where all the d�bris
had been washed away--

61
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--where the shells had been ground
to dust, the seaweed had dried--

62
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--and the dead fish turned to reeds...

63
00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:53,760
Next morning at cockcrow he left
Marseilles in a three-horse carriage--

64
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--and drove home to La Coste.
Needless to say, he had no idea--

65
00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:04,000
--that two days later the girls
testified before the public prosecutor.

66
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Madame de Montreuil
will be with you shortly.

67
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Charlotte! Don't run away!

68
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You worked for me, before you rushed
off and became engaged in this house.

69
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You know all
about my private life.

70
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You know people whisper behind my
back that I am the Devil incarnate--

71
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--that I've harvested all the weeds
that grow on the Isle of Love.

72
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It is unforgivable of me
to keep you waiting so long.

73
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Madame la Comtesse de Saint-Fond...

74
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Madame la Baronne de Simiane...
how kind of you to come!

75
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Tell us whatever you wish, without
reticence. It may console you--

76
00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:12,800
--to have someone to listen.
We shall not repeat a word.

77
00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:20,040
Perhaps this is not the right
occasion for revealing it--

78
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--but when Ren�e married Alphonse,
I was impressed with his character.

79
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He had a slightly foolish air,
but he was witty and charming--

80
00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:34,120
--and so obviously in love
with my daughter.

81
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And through their bond you became
related to the house of Bourbon.

82
00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:45,240
At first, my son-in-law showed
his most lovable side.

83
00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:49,680
While the newly-weds ere honey--
mooning at the Chateau Echauffour--

84
00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:54,600
--Alphonse wrote small plays with
parts for both my daughter and me.

85
00:08:54,760 --> 00:09:00,480
Alphonse was an adorable child. We
were playing in the rosegarden once--

86
00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:06,680
--when I pricked myself on a thorn.
Alphonse not only pulled it out...

87
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- ...but sucked the wound clean.
- Even then he had a taste for blood.

88
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- You talk as if he were a vampire!
- No doubt vampires can be lovable.

89
00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:24,200
Ladies! Whatever is said
about Alphonse today--

90
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--nothing can favourably influence
my view of his character.

91
00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:32,800
As these agreeable theatrical
performances were going on--

92
00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:38,320
--Alphonse travelled frequently to
Paris, claiming important business.

93
00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:45,040
When, only five months after the
wedding, he was thrown into prison--

94
00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:49,120
--I learnt the truth.
It was a dreadful shock.

95
00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:54,200
In the ensuing nine years,
I have waged a hopeless battle--

96
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--to protect the family's good name
and my daughter's honour.

97
00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:05,160
Ren�e has refused to be crushed by
what has happened. But this time...

98
00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:10,320
Oh, I know it's hopeless.
Still, for my daughter's sake...

99
00:10:10,560 --> 00:10:17,760
I must do my best to save Alphonse.
But today... Alphonse is ill!

100
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How can one convince a patient
that he needs curing from an illness--

101
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--which evidently gives him
so much pleasure?

102
00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:35,200
However repulsive to outsiders, it is
a sickness with a scent of roses.

103
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Since I'm considered
an authority on immorality--

104
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--I beg you to listen carefully.

105
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Depravity is a preserve unto itself,
in which nothing is lacking.

106
00:10:56,520 --> 00:11:02,320
It has its shepherds' huts and
windmills, its streams and lakes.

107
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But the whole landscape is not
so tranquil: there are wastelands--

108
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--valleys belching sulphorous fumes,
predators, dried-up springs...

109
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May I continue?

110
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This ample domain
was designed by God.

111
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However strange the phenomena
that occur there, they are intrinsic.

112
00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:37,440
The child, and I'm spealing
from personal experience--

113
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--tales the telescope provided, and
looks through it from the wrong end.

114
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A telescope, used in the way
prescribed by morality and convention--

115
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--shows only how small the lawn and
flowers surrounding one's home are.

116
00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:05,400
The child feels secure and is content
with the beauty of its small domain.

117
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It starts hoping that once grown up,
it can enlarge lawns and flowerbeds.

118
00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:19,600
But one day, something happens that
strikes the child without premonition:

119
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you discover that the telescope
has been the wrong way round.

120
00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:33,600
And then you suddenly perceive
what you've never seen before:

121
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the flames of sulphorous fire
in remote valleys--

122
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--the savage animals in the
wilderness with their fangs bared.

123
00:12:47,720 --> 00:12:54,080
You know then that your world
is an endless one--

124
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--of infinite variety.

125
00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:05,080
I have no idea what you're talking
about. I have kept on struggling--

126
00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:11,600
--rushing to and fro, unbelieving...
All I understand is honour and glory.

127
00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:18,800
All in vain. The High Court in
Provence condemned Alphonse to death.

128
00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:23,880
Since the accused was not present
and his whereabouts unknown--

129
00:13:23,950 --> 00:13:26,880
--his portrait was burnt...

130
00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:35,000
...at the stake. I can well imagine
flames licking at the friendly smile--

131
00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:41,640
--and fair hair of my son-in-law's
portrait, while the mob cheered...

132
00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:48,560
Perhaps that was the first glimpse
of the inferno in our world.

133
00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:55,600
The masses must have been yelling
''More wood!'' and ''Make it burn!''--

134
00:13:56,320 --> 00:14:02,560
--expressing envy for the depravity
they themselves were incapable of.

135
00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:09,280
''More wood!'' What would we do if
the shouts reached all the way here?

136
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:16,080
Some in the crowd are said to have
shouted Ren�e's name, even mine!

137
00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:22,960
''More wood on the fire!"
It must have been a purifying fire.

138
00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:27,680
When the Marquis' portrait went up
in flames, it atoned for his sins.

139
00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:31,560
''More wood on the fire!"

140
00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:36,800
The lashing flames struck his pale
cheeks and fair hair mercilessly.

141
00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:42,280
215...179...

142
00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:46,080
I'm sure the portrait was smiling.

143
00:14:56,800 --> 00:15:02,000
Madame, please consider my plight.
I'm alone, I have no one to turn to.

144
00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:07,920
All my plans have misfired. My voice
is hoarse from all my lamenting.

145
00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:13,800
Tale heart, Madame! I shall hasten
to pay a visit to Cardinal Philippe--

146
00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:19,000
--and ask him to secure absolution
from the Vatican.

147
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:23,600
I have no wish to compete with
Madame de Simiane in magnanimity--

148
00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,840
--nor do I usually strive for
justice, honour or virtue.

149
00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:35,000
But I shall do what I can, not for
your sake, but for the Marquis.

150
00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:44,280
I shall coax the steadfast Chancellor
to annul the high court's decision.

151
00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:49,600
Surely you asked me here
to induce me to use my body?

152
00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:53,680
- I would never dream of such a...
- You needn't dissemble.

153
00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:59,680
Making use of evil for a virtuous
purpose, is a respectable thing to do.

154
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:05,600
- So I can count on your help?
- Yes, you can, Madame.

155
00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:10,280
I would have been prepared to beg
on my knees. How can I thank you?

156
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,440
I have no desire to be thanked.

157
00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:19,920
- Excuse me, Madame...
- What is it? Speak up.

158
00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:25,880
In this house there is no longer
anything to keep secret.

159
00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:33,960
- The Marquise de Sade is here.
- My daughter? What brings her here?

160
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:39,840
Without a word of advance notice...
Very well... Show her in.

161
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:51,000
Ren�e! I'm so pleased to see you.
I've missed you.

162
00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:58,120
I was so eager to see you, Mother,
that I just packed and left.

163
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:07,080
It has been raining every day
at La Coste. Outside the chateau--

164
00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:11,520
--I kept meeting the stares and
surreptitious whispering of the villagers.

165
00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:17,320
I was alone all day. At night
the torchlight flickered on the walls--

166
00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:22,440
--the bats flew around
and the owls screeched...

167
00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:30,520
I've come to Paris, because
I longed to see you, albeit briefly--

168
00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:34,480
--and to confide in you,
if only a few words.

169
00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:41,280
It was good of you to come.
I've sat here all on my own too--

170
00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:45,960
--almost losing my head with worry
about my poor daughter.

171
00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:50,200
Have you met
the Comtesse de Saint-Fond?

172
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,840
My daughter, the Marquise de Sade.

173
00:17:55,560 --> 00:18:01,600
- Madame de Simiane, it's been long.
- You've been through an ordeal.

174
00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:05,400
These ladies
have promised to help us.

175
00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:11,320
Two allied friends like this mean as
much as a band a thousand strong!

176
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:17,080
- You should thank them too, Ren�e.
- My humble thanks.

177
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:21,680
It's a pleasure to be of help.
I shall act promptly in the morning.

178
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:27,520
- It's time we left.
- Our fate is in your hands.

179
00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:32,040
I greatly appreciate
anything you can do for us.

180
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:36,000
Before we go, I'd like
to ask the Marquise...

181
00:18:36,180 --> 00:18:42,360
Perhaps it is not quite appropriate,
but such is my nature.

182
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:48,400
We've heard a fair amount
about the Marquis from your mother.

183
00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:54,160
I myself have collected more precise
information than the gossip entails.

184
00:18:54,480 --> 00:19:01,880
You and the family walk about without
a trace of protective disguise.

185
00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:08,440
I don't suppose any question
can surprise you now.

186
00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:17,040
This might make you willing to
answer some indiscreet questions.

187
00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:23,320
- Am I right?
- Of course.

188
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:29,440
I am convinced the Marquis cannot
express affection except indirectly--

189
00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:34,240
--through the cruelty that is
the inverse of tenderness.

190
00:19:34,420 --> 00:19:37,880
How does this apply in your case?

191
00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:44,800
- That's enough, Mme de Saint-Fond!
- I mean, how does he treat you?

192
00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:49,880
If I reply that he is sweet and
considerate, you'll think him cruel.

193
00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:55,800
- And if I say that he is brutal...
- How astute you are!

194
00:19:56,040 --> 00:20:02,800
He is my husband, and he loves me
as a husband loves his wife.

195
00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:08,000
Even if you should see us in bed,
I would not need to be ashamed.

196
00:20:08,220 --> 00:20:14,200
How strange! Perhaps such a refined
couple do not even need tenderness?

197
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:19,320
- No, and not cruelty either.
- We really must leave now.

198
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:24,080
And please forgive the intrusion.

199
00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:29,640
I am truly grateful for your visit.
How can I thank you...

200
00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:36,280
What a snake! And I have to ask
that woman for a favour!

201
00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:41,960
You handled it admirably.
That was a truly dignified reply.

202
00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:49,080
I was prepared for unpleasantness.
The ladies will help us free Alphonse.

203
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:53,400
- So they have promised.
- Poor Alphonse!

204
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:57,960
It was worth coming to Paris
just to hear such welcome news.

205
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:02,360
I thought you said you'd come
to Paris to see me.

206
00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:08,280
- Where is Alphonse now?
- I wonder.

207
00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:14,240
Did he leave without telling even
his wife where he was heading?

208
00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:19,600
If I'd known, I would have found
it difficult to pretend ignorance.

209
00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:26,160
It is best for me to know nothing.
His safety is my paramount wish.

210
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:32,600
What a loyal wife you are!
My ideals really have borne fruit!

211
00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,760
And then
you get a husband like that!

212
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:41,320
The value of a wife's chastity is
independent of her husband's character.

213
00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:44,440
Yes, but there are limits.

214
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:50,080
If my husband's debauchery exceeds
the limits, so must my obligations.

215
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:56,080
It breaks my heart to see how
patiently you endure all your troubles.

216
00:21:56,360 --> 00:22:01,240
Your blessed father was, after all,
honorary president of the Tax Court.

217
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:06,120
We always lived an honourable life,
far from wicked gossip.

218
00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:11,640
What curse has heaped such
misfortunes on our beloved daughter?

219
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:15,200
I loathe that word, ''misfortunes''!

220
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:21,400
I've always had to adapt to you.
Your wishes have been my commands.

221
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:27,560
To save your husband, I've swallowed
my pride, begged outsiders for help!

222
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:33,880
But now that you've turned up
unexpectedly like this--

223
00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:38,880
--I shall speak my mind.
I don't care what happens--

224
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:43,840
--to our royal connections.
You must divorce Alphonse!

225
00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:49,600
- God doesn't allow divorce.
- But leave him then, at least!

226
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:54,480
The formalities don't matter,
so long as you cut all ties.

227
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:59,560
If God does not allow the form of
divorce, it's because separation--

228
00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:06,400
--will remedy your misfortunes,
without severing our royal connections.

229
00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:12,320
- No, I won't leave Alphonse.
- Why not, Ren�e?

230
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:18,760
Is it just obduracy, or is it a matter
of etiquette and good form?

231
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:23,040
I refuse to believe it is love.

232
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:29,000
I don't know if love is the right
word. During my sleepless nights--

233
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:34,320
--I have pondered on everything
that has happened since we married.

234
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:38,040
It has all become clear.

235
00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:43,760
Fragments that lay scattered in my
memory have fallen into place--

236
00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:49,920
--and become strung together like
a necklace - a necklace of rubies...

237
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:53,920
...of precious stones as red as blood.

238
00:23:55,440 --> 00:24:01,160
I remember how on our honeymoon
Alphonse stopped our carriage--

239
00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:06,720
--in a lily field. He wanted to
intoxicate the flowers--

240
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:11,440
--and he had a cask of red wine
emptied over their white heads.

241
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:17,480
Then he watched in delight as
the red wine dripped from the petals.

242
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:25,880
Another time we came home from
a hunt, and with his bare hands--

243
00:24:26,120 --> 00:24:31,240
--he removed the heart from the
bloodstained breast of a white hare.

244
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:39,400
He smiled contentedly and said
that all loving hearts look the same.

245
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:48,120
Things that I took for whims
have become part of a pattern--

246
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:52,080
--with their own signifiance.

247
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,920
I was gripped by a feeling
beyond all logic.

248
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:06,080
If all the rubies that whirled in my
mind had been joined to a necklace--

249
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:11,880
--it was my duty to take good care
of it and make it my own.

250
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:17,000
It was not you but Alphonse
who lost those rubies.

251
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:23,080
- Now he has entrusted them to me.
- Your pride will be the ruin of you.

252
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:28,600
However I express myself, I don't
think you can understand. Once more:

253
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:36,520
Now I know what the truth is.
My loyalty is based on that truth.

254
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:41,360
Do you understand what Alphonse's
wife is trying to say?

255
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:47,360
The truth is the whip and the
pastilles... shame and dishonour.

256
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:51,720
You and everyone else
look only to facts.

257
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:56,800
It's easy to dismiss him as a monster,
when one is a normal person.

258
00:25:56,880 --> 00:26:00,040
But Alphonse really is a monster.

259
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:05,920
Then I can hardly be sane myself,
and no one can rely on me.

260
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:10,080
- Ren�e, you don't mean that you...
- Don't worry.

261
00:26:10,300 --> 00:26:14,720
You give your imagination just as
free a rein as Madame de Saint-Fond.

262
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:20,760
Alphonse is like music with a single
theme. I vowed to be faithful to it.

263
00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:27,280
The theme may be tender,
or resound with lashes of a whip.

264
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:32,960
But Alphonse has never
made me hear the lashes.

265
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:37,880
Whether it's a sign of his respect
or his contempt, I don't know.

266
00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:44,200
- You've been deceived, like me.
- No man has ever deceived a woman.

267
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:49,520
- But if he were a normal man...
- Alphonse is a man!

268
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:55,920
Of course when we married I had no
idea that he was a man <i>like this</i>.

269
00:26:56,160 --> 00:27:00,560
But still, I think
I have always known him.

270
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:05,080
Perhaps I have loved the shadows--

271
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:13,040
--that may be glimpsed behind
his radiant brow and shining gaze.

272
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:21,960
What's the difference between loving
roses and loving the scent of roses?

273
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:28,560
What a stupid question! The rose
has the scent suitable for a rose.

274
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:35,280
I beg you, save Alphonse.
If he is pardoned--

275
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:40,480
--I shall do my utmost to move his
heart, to soothe the fury in his soul--

276
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:46,000
--to make sure he is never again the
subject of evil gossip. This time...

277
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:52,280
You're exhausted. Rest awhile.
You're bound to find some way out.

278
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:55,960
I'll accompany you to your room.

279
00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:34,840
Why don't you wish to see
your sister, mademoiselle?

280
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:40,720
Unpleasant words might be uttered.
I've returned to see my mother--

281
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:47,040
--and find my sister. What bad luck!
The look in her eyes frightens me.

282
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:51,720
How can you say that
about your own sister?

283
00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:56,240
You can go, Charlotte.
I shall wait for Mother here.

284
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:30,280
- Anne! What a surprise!
- It's a long time since we last met.

285
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:40,160
- To have both my daughters home!
- Charlotte just said. Where is Ren�e?

286
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:45,960
In her room, resting. But how was
your journey? Where did you go?

287
00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:51,720
- To Italy. I was mainly in Venice.
- Then you really did go a long way.

288
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:58,360
- I didn't want to be known.
- An innocent lady of noble descent?

289
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:02,320
It was my travelling companion
who wished not to be recognized.

290
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:06,240
- A lady friend?
- No, my brother-in-law.

291
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:09,560
Alphonse.

292
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:15,240
Surely you don't mean that you
travelled with Alphonse?

293
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:21,400
- Yes, we were together all the time.
- But how could you?

294
00:30:21,580 --> 00:30:26,040
I was invited to La Coste.

295
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:31,040
On the very first night
Alphonse came to my bedroom.

296
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:35,480
He didn't ask
whether I wanted it or not.

297
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:41,280
When he was sought by the police
he asked me to flee with him.

298
00:30:54,040 --> 00:31:00,440
How dreadful! He's an evil spirit
in human guise.

299
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,160
Poor Ren�e!

300
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:10,120
This must stay between you and me.

301
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:14,960
You must on no account say anything
to Ren�e. It would kill her.

302
00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:20,920
My sister already knows everything.
What happened at La Coste...

303
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:26,360
..that we travelled to Italy. She
also knows where Alphonse is hiding.

304
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:30,400
Does Ren�e know?

305
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:39,360
Where is Alphonse hiding now?
I suppose you know that too?

306
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:43,280
- Of course I know.
- Where, then?

307
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:50,120
At Chamb�ry, in Sardinia. He's
hiding at a farm outside the town.

308
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:55,800
- In Sardinia, did you say?
- At Chamb�ry.

309
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:58,880
Charlotte!

310
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:07,520
I'm going to write three letters.
I want them delivered straight away.

311
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,080
Stay here!

312
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:23,120
- How was the summer in Venice?
- Wonderful!

313
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:31,600
Mortal danger, love, death,
turbid canals...

314
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:38,200
And the square that one couldn't
cross when the water rose...

315
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:44,480
- I'd like to go somewhere like that
- Every night you could hear a duel.

316
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:49,080
There were bloodstains on the
bridges in the morning mist.

317
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:54,080
And the whole sky was
full of pigeons!

318
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:59,320
When nothing disturbs them, they
strut around St. Mark's Square--

319
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:04,480
--but when frightened they all rise
at once, with rustling wings...

320
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:11,440
The peals of the campanile bells,
resounding over the still water...

321
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:19,960
All the bridges, as countless as
the pigeons. And the moon...

322
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:25,400
You must have enjoyed the gondolas,
and the gondoliers' singing!

323
00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:31,640
Gondolas? Singing? I suppose that is
what Venice means to other people.

324
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:34,800
Charlotte!

325
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:40,360
One to the Comtesse de Saint-Fond,
the other to the Baronne de Simiane.

326
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:46,400
Make sure they understand that I
retract something I requested earlier.

327
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:53,600
The third letter is a petition
to His Majesty the King.

328
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:59,200
I shall deliver this one
to the Palace personally.

329
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:58,700
SECOND ACT
SEPTEMBER 1778

330
00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:28,560
- I have good news.
- What's it all about, so suddenly?

331
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:34,480
You can have it...
if you can take it!

332
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:42,480
- Don't tease, Anne.
- Look, here it is!

333
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:58,000
How childish you are!

334
00:36:05,140 --> 00:36:08,960
"Decision of the High Court
in Provence:

335
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:13,960
The accused, Donatien-Alphonse-
Fran�ois de Sade is reprimanded--

336
00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:19,000
--for the crimes of sodomy and
indecency committed by him.

337
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:23,960
Furthermore, the said Marquis is
required to pay fines of 50 <i>louis d'or</i>--

338
00:36:24,240 --> 00:36:28,360
--and prohibited, for the ensuing
three years, to reside in Marseilles.

339
00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:34,400
On payment of fines, his name
will be deleted from the records."

340
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:39,040
- That was good news, wasn't it?
- It's like a dream.

341
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:44,360
- More like waking from a nightmare.
- This means Alphonse is free...

342
00:36:44,720 --> 00:36:49,960
...and so am I... after six long years.

343
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:57,160
Six years ago we concocted those
plans to save Alphonse, remember?

344
00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:03,840
You'd just come back from Italy,
where you had consoled Alphonse.

345
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:09,800
''Consoled Alphonse''! Isn't it time
to stop using such euphemisms?

346
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:15,960
- After all, it's past history.
- Yes, of course it's the past - gone.

347
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:23,760
For six years I hammered on a door
of stone. My nails were torn off--

348
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:29,440
--my fists became bloody, but it was
beyond my power to open that door.

349
00:37:29,720 --> 00:37:34,520
- You did your best.
- But my best wasn't good enough.

350
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:38,960
If it was our mother's strength
that make that door close--

351
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:44,240
--it's also her strength that has
made it open, quite unexpectedly.

352
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:50,840
So now mother and daughters are
reconciled, and the daughters too.

353
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:55,800
Of course. You've grown up...

354
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:58,720
...and I've grown old.

355
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:05,760
No, your radiant face is younger and
more beautiful than six years ago.

356
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:13,760
Happiness... In the world's eyes
I'm the unhappiest of people.

357
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:18,760
Last winter at La Coste,
there was such a shortage of wood--

358
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:23,560
--that all I could do to get some
warmth was crawl into bed.

359
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:29,160
I've never felt such joy
about the spring.

360
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:36,560
When the grass turned green and the
sun filtered down on the icy floors--

361
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:42,640
--through the round windows high up,
like great shining brass trumpets--

362
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:49,320
--my hope was reawakened that
Alphonse would regain his freedom.

363
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:57,800
It was as if Alphonse's debauchery
and my own distress had merged.

364
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:05,120
In these six years, my unhappiness
has finally caught up--

365
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:11,880
--with Alphonse's obsession -
or so it seems.

366
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:17,680
I have felt his
terrible loneliness in prison--

367
00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:22,000
--as strongly as if
myself had experienced it.

368
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:27,600
I have realized that whatever
depraved actions he has carried out--

369
00:39:27,860 --> 00:39:32,080
--he has always striven
for the unattainable.

370
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:39,480
That is why Alphonse
has never loved anyone...

371
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:42,920
...not even you.

372
00:39:43,240 --> 00:39:46,840
Nor you, sister?

373
00:39:48,620 --> 00:39:53,720
Perhaps that is why you and I have
managed to become friends again.

374
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:57,400
And the happiness you mentioned?

375
00:39:57,720 --> 00:40:01,760
How shall I describe the happiness?

376
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:08,440
It is like a piece of handiwork
that makes one's neck stiff--

377
00:40:08,720 --> 00:40:12,040
--like a kind of needlework.

378
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:18,240
Stitch by stitch, the embroiderer
sews in loneliness, weariness--

379
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:23,800
--anxiety, sadness, nights of terror--

380
00:40:23,980 --> 00:40:27,960
--and sunrises of dismay--

381
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:33,200
--and she sighs with relief when she
has completed a small tapestry...

382
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:36,760
...with conventional roses.

383
00:40:38,720 --> 00:40:42,120
A woman's hands
and a woman's patience--

384
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:46,480
--can even transform
the torments of hell into roses.

385
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:51,160
Ren�e, isn't it wonderful?
Congratulations!

386
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:56,160
- I owe everything to you, mother.
- Don't overdo the gratitude.

387
00:40:56,400 --> 00:41:02,200
- You've felt very bitter towards me.
- I blush to hear you say that.

388
00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:08,280
Alphonse should be home at La Coste
already. I must prepare to leave.

389
00:41:08,720 --> 00:41:15,440
- You needn't be in such a hurry.
- No, you can very well let him wait.

390
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:21,480
Today I think we should be together
all three like we used to--

391
00:41:21,720 --> 00:41:25,920
--and tell one another about
the hardships we've gone through.

392
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:31,440
Like that time when Alphonse
managed to escape from prison.

393
00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:37,760
I can't stop hating him for treating
my daughters so disgracefully.

394
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:41,840
- He hasn't treated med disgracefully.
- Nor me.

395
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:45,920
What you say is ridiculous
and incomprehensible!

396
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,480
His desire flares up like a sacriledge--

397
00:41:49,720 --> 00:41:53,880
--like when a horse is excited by
trampling the frozen grass...

398
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:57,960
That's why he always follows
a fixed pattern:

399
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:03,560
he lets the muddy water of a cold
morning crystallize into sacred ice--

400
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:09,520
--that he crushes underfoot. Whores
are momentarily turned into saints--

401
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:14,920
--so that he can whip them. The next
moment the dream is torn to shreds.

402
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,600
Then he gets rid of the whores
and beggars--

403
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:24,440
--and has no one to feed the honey
of tenderness he has collected inside--

404
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:28,760
--after these moments of rapture.

405
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:32,480
Then he returns to me--

406
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:36,480
--and lets all his love flow over me.

407
00:42:36,720 --> 00:42:42,600
Under the dazzling sun, he toils
to collect the honey of tenderness--

408
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:50,800
--and bestows it on me where I'm
waiting in the cool, dark hive.

409
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:57,400
How you end up adorning Alphonse
with your understanding, your poetry!

410
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:06,680
I never thought of understanding him.
With me, he let himself go.

411
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:13,240
He loves me like a man.
And I responded like a woman.

412
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:19,160
Since you venture to be so open,
I have something to add:

413
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,680
I used you as a tool.

414
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:29,320
Alphonse could never behave
like a normal man with me--

415
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:36,120
--since I knew he wasn't a normal
man. That's why I chose you.

416
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:45,960
You don't have my memories of
Venice. I'm sorry for you.

417
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:52,000
The moon, red as blood,
rising out of a canal in the mist...

418
00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:58,680
An umade bed, redolent of seaweed
washed up on a white beach--

419
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:03,000
--full of the dampness
and odour of the sea.

420
00:44:03,240 --> 00:44:07,320
The bloodstained recollections
that sometimes showed in his eyes...

421
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:12,760
- ...were the source of our tenderness.
- What a revolting topic of discussion!

422
00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:20,000
The Comtesse de Saint-Fond asks
to be admitted for a brief word.

423
00:44:20,240 --> 00:44:25,840
Well, she's heard most of it.
Ask her to come in.

424
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:04,120
I took the liberty of arriving
like this. I trust you don't mind.

425
00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:08,600
At least I'm not flying in
on a broomhandle.

426
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:12,720
I have something to tell you.

427
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:18,480
Last night I acted like Mme de
Montespan in the days of Louis XIV.

428
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:23,880
A private audience with the King?
But they say our present monarch...

429
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:30,560
I shall tell you everything.
I need a good listener like you--

430
00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:34,880
--not an easily scared creature
like Madame de Simiane.

431
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:39,640
A lady with courage and presence of
mind, who defends virtue at all times.

432
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:43,400
Thank you for the compliment.

433
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:52,840
When people feel a need to spice
their pleasures, they call to mind--

434
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:59,480
--how as children they enjoyed being
punished, and regret this loss.

435
00:45:59,920 --> 00:46:04,920
Then they begin to scorn
the invisible Master--

436
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:11,800
--challenging him, arousing his wrath.
But divinity is a lazy dog:

437
00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:18,160
while it is dozing in the sun, you can
pull its tail without it flinching.

438
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:24,040
- You say that God is a lazy dog?
- Yes, and a degenerate one too.

439
00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:29,480
I misjudged the Marquis when I
considered that master of chastisement--

440
00:46:29,720 --> 00:46:35,920
--that provost-marshal with his whip,
that hooligan, as one chosen by God.

441
00:46:36,160 --> 00:46:43,000
No, the Marquis is a simple fellow,
we are members of the same coterie.

442
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:48,560
The clique surrounding the lazy dog
are both scourgers and scourged--

443
00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:55,120
--both castigators and castigated,
trouble-makers of the same hue.

444
00:46:55,360 --> 00:47:00,480
One challenges the dog
by flagellating--

445
00:47:00,700 --> 00:47:05,120
--another by being flagellated...

446
00:47:05,300 --> 00:47:12,120
One by shedding blood,
the other by letting blood flow...

447
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:18,560
And still the dog
does not deign to awaken.

448
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:23,080
The Marquis de Sade and I
are accomplices.

449
00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:27,560
- How did you discover that?
- Not discover... I felt it.

450
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:32,960
- When did that happen?
- When I was serving as a table.

451
00:47:33,240 --> 00:47:38,120
Nothing strange about that, is there?
To go straight to the point--

452
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:42,960
--I was stripped naked so that my
body could be used as an altar.

453
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:46,840
I was turned on my back
on a black shroud.

454
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:52,360
Between my breasts,
a small silver crucifix was laid.

455
00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:57,680
The silver chalice placed
between my thighs--

456
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:01,320
--felt just as cold as a chamber-pot
of S�vres porcelain...

457
00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:07,320
But none of this made me tremble
with pleasure at the blasphemy itself.

458
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:15,240
The moment for celebrating
the mass approached--

459
00:48:15,460 --> 00:48:20,160
--and they gave me burning candles
to hold in my hands.

460
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:27,720
The flames were far away,
the boiling wax seemed distant...

461
00:48:28,720 --> 00:48:34,440
In the Sun King's day, they
sacrificed babies at their black masses...

462
00:48:34,720 --> 00:48:39,240
In these degenerate days,
the baby was replaced by a lamb.

463
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:42,960
The officiating priest invoked
Jesus Christ--

464
00:48:43,360 --> 00:48:47,920
--and suddenly the anxious bleating
above my head gave way to a shriek.

465
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:53,600
And then the animal's blood
flowed over my breasts--

466
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:58,280
--over my stomach and down...

467
00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:03,960
...into the holy chalice
between my thighs.

468
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:12,320
Until then I had found the whole
business half comic, half eccentric--

469
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:16,640
--but at that moment...

470
00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:23,800
...joy flared up in my impassive heart.

471
00:49:27,240 --> 00:49:32,600
While the hot wax dripped
on my outspread arms--

472
00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:37,600
--which formed a cross of
wickedness, I understood--

473
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:43,440
--that the fire in my hands was
equivalent to the Crucifixion nails.

474
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:54,920
I'm telling you this not from
vanity or self-satisfaction.

475
00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:59,640
I want you to understand that I've
made Alphonse's ecstacy my own.

476
00:49:59,880 --> 00:50:05,200
Alphonse wants to see, I want to be
seen. Our experience is different.

477
00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:10,040
But when the lamb's blood poured
like rain over my naked body--

478
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:15,320
--I realized who Alphonse really is.

479
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:22,720
- And who is he?
- Alphonse is myself.

480
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:27,400
He is me.

481
00:50:28,280 --> 00:50:32,960
He is the bloodstained table
of human flesh--

482
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:39,440
--a quivering foetus with blind eyes,
ingrowing limbs; a divine miscarriage.

483
00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:47,240
Yes, I realized that the Marquis de
Sade is the foetus aborted by God--

484
00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:52,360
--who can be himself
only when he flees from himself--

485
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:56,200
--and that those surrounding Alphonse
- the women he tormented--

486
00:50:56,440 --> 00:51:01,600
--and the women who tormented
him - were also Alphonse.

487
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:12,280
The man you call Alphonse
is a mere shadow.

488
00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:17,800
If I understand you correctly,
you mean that Alphonse is blameless.

489
00:51:18,080 --> 00:51:22,520
Presumably that is the term
in your vocabulary.

490
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:29,120
So you and the High Court judges
have come to the same conclusion.

491
00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:34,440
Be glad, Madame. Thanks to my
mother Alphonse is free at last.

492
00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:40,400
- Read it yourself.
- Strange... What date does it say?

493
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:46,800
- When was the court decision issued?
- I didn't think of that.

494
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:53,440
Here it is, in small lettering...
not surprising that I didn't notice it.

495
00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:58,000
''14th July, 1778...''

496
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:04,440
The fourteenth of July!
Today is the first of September.

497
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:09,760
The decision was announced
one and a half months ago!

498
00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:14,760
I've been in Paris all summer
without hearing about it.

499
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:20,560
Anne! What does this mean? Why
wasn't I told anything before now?

500
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:29,200
Why has my mother done this? Why
keep quiet about such happy news?

501
00:52:30,520 --> 00:52:37,600
Alphonse must be waiting for me!
Yet I haven't heard a word from him.

502
00:52:38,200 --> 00:52:42,600
- I'm going straight home to La Coste.
- There's no point.

503
00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:48,080
The Marquis de Sade is safely
incarcerated again, in another prison.

504
00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:53,160
It can't be true!
Alphonse has been pardoned.

505
00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:57,720
- Mother, say it isn't true!
- The Comtesse teases you.

506
00:52:57,960 --> 00:53:02,800
Today you'll regret that
an irreproachable lady like you--

507
00:53:03,120 --> 00:53:10,520
--got involved with a woman like me.
Six years ago, you tried to use me.

508
00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:15,680
Immediately afterwards, you changed
your mind and declined my assistance.

509
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:21,000
I can forgive your wanting to use
me, but not your rejecting my help.

510
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:27,920
I was denied the opportunity of
carrying out a virtuous deed--

511
00:53:28,200 --> 00:53:33,560
--and that compels me once more
to play a part contrary to my nature.

512
00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:39,200
I find myself in the unusual position
of revealing the true situation.

513
00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:43,440
Your mother set a trap for Alphonse.

514
00:53:43,720 --> 00:53:49,160
The retrial at the High Court was
a means of ensnaring him again.

515
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:53,840
You know my information is always
correct, don't you?

516
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:58,840
Not until yesterday did I myself find
out the details of what happened.

517
00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:04,840
Last autumn your mother requested
an arrest warrant from His Majesty.

518
00:54:05,160 --> 00:54:09,800
As soon as Alphonse had been
released by the court order of July 14--

519
00:54:10,120 --> 00:54:16,640
--he was surrounded by the King's
guard and taken back to Vincennes.

520
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:21,800
This time he was moved to
an isolation cell--

521
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:26,920
--that was infinitely darker, colder
and damper than the first one.

522
00:54:27,200 --> 00:54:32,160
On the way there he succeeded
in escaping, it is true--

523
00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:36,840
--but don't worry, Madame!
Your son-in-law is in safe custody--

524
00:54:37,080 --> 00:54:43,160
--in a dungeon fortified with double
iron doors, even the skylight has bars.

525
00:54:47,640 --> 00:54:51,800
This time you can be sure
that he won't get out so easily.

526
00:55:00,840 --> 00:55:06,840
I believe you said that you dropped
in while you were out on a walk?

527
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:11,320
I would like to accompany you
as you continue your walk.

528
00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:16,760
I shall consider myself lucky to have
the company of such a charming tool.

529
00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:23,160
First you were your sister's tool--

530
00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:26,360
--then your mother's.

531
00:55:26,560 --> 00:55:31,160
Next time
you can be mine, can't you?

532
00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:37,080
By all means, use me as a table,
a chest of drawers or whatever!

533
00:55:37,360 --> 00:55:41,840
You're a wise young woman.
You have two folding wings--

534
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:46,840
--that allow you to fly away from
every troublesome situation.

535
00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:53,720
Those wings are undoubtedly
your own.

536
00:56:07,040 --> 00:56:09,800
There we are, then, Madame.

537
00:56:10,680 --> 00:56:16,560
Charlotte! Look closely at my face.
I shan't visit this house again.

538
00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:23,320
You'll probably only see the faces
of impeccable people in the future--

539
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:28,960
--so you'd better memorize what
a dissolute woman looks like.

540
00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:11,640
Why did you deceive me
in that despicable way?

541
00:57:11,880 --> 00:57:19,280
We're both guilty of keeping secrets.
We stand opposed to each other:

542
00:57:19,600 --> 00:57:26,480
I wish to keep Alphonse in prison,
you're determined to get him free.

543
00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:32,160
Throughout, we've tried to thwart
each other's plans. Ren�e...

544
00:57:32,560 --> 00:57:38,040
I've become old and tired, I don't
wish to quarrel with you any more.

545
00:57:38,280 --> 00:57:42,880
But it's true that Alphonse is in
prison, and that it's your doing?

546
00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:47,800
- I'm not the King.
- That was a wicked thing to do.

547
00:57:48,040 --> 00:57:51,960
I thought a certain brutality was
required to bring you to your senses.

548
00:57:52,200 --> 00:57:56,360
Once your eyes were opened,
you would break with Alphonse.

549
00:57:56,560 --> 00:57:59,720
- I can't.
- Why not?

550
00:58:00,040 --> 00:58:04,800
How long are you going to regard
that monster as your husband?

551
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:08,200
Has he been faithful to you?

552
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:13,760
Oh yes, when he's alone in his cell,
he weeps and wails in his letters.

553
00:58:14,040 --> 00:58:19,480
Then he casts out sickly words of
love and promises eternal faithfulness.

554
00:58:19,760 --> 00:58:25,040
But that is reserved for his letters.
Divorce him!

555
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:29,160
That is your only chance
of finding happiness.

556
00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:34,400
My happiness...
I can't break with him.

557
00:58:34,680 --> 00:58:39,920
So you mean it's love that prevents
you from leaving him?

558
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:43,800
That's beyond understanding.

559
00:58:46,120 --> 00:58:52,720
Think, Ren�e!
Your husband is not a human being.

560
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:59,720
He is still my husband! I mean
to follow him as far as I can.

561
00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:05,200
If your intention was to separate us,
it was an error to put him in prison.

562
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:09,880
I shall write to him and take every
opportunity to visit him.

563
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:15,200
As long as he is imprisoned, I am
the only person he has in the world.

564
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:21,600
I get the impression that you too,
deep down--

565
00:59:21,840 --> 00:59:26,160
--want to have Alphonse
like a bird in a cage.

566
00:59:26,440 --> 00:59:31,640
When he is deprived of his freedom,
you needn't feel any jealousy.

567
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:35,360
Then it's his turn to be jealous.

568
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:41,040
Didn't he write an awful letter when
he thought you'd been unfaithful?

569
00:59:41,320 --> 00:59:47,640
You and I have the same interest
in keeping him locked up.

570
00:59:47,840 --> 00:59:50,760
It's not true.

571
00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:56,960
You want him released, although you
know he will cause you suffering.

572
00:59:57,160 --> 01:00:01,320
Do you enjoy suffering so much?

573
01:00:01,560 --> 01:00:05,480
There's no worse suffering
than I'm going through at present.

574
01:00:05,720 --> 01:00:11,040
If he is released,
will you be glad then? Happy?

575
01:00:11,320 --> 01:00:18,400
- I can't dream of a greater happiness!
- What kind of happiness?

576
01:00:18,840 --> 01:00:23,480
The happiness of being abandoned
by my husband night after night...

577
01:00:23,640 --> 01:00:27,880
...of lying curled up in bed
at La Coste shivering with cold--

578
01:00:28,120 --> 01:00:32,600
--and seeing in my mind's eye
Alphonse in a warm room somewhere--

579
01:00:32,840 --> 01:00:37,400
--holding a flaming brand to the
naked back of a bound woman.

580
01:00:37,640 --> 01:00:42,000
The happiness of knowing that
bloody scandals are spreading out--

581
01:00:42,280 --> 01:00:46,480
--like the scarlet train
of a coronation robe...

582
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:51,360
...of walking through the village as
the chatelaine, with downcast eyes.

583
01:00:51,640 --> 01:00:58,760
The happiness of poverty, dishonour,
is due to me if Alphonse is released.

584
01:00:59,000 --> 01:01:04,040
You're lying, lying! You still
keep secrets from me, I know!

585
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:10,680
My hired investigator saw you at
La Coste at Christmas four years ago!

586
01:01:10,920 --> 01:01:16,600
You've forgotten it, of course. Or
you can't keep the occasions apart.

587
01:01:16,880 --> 01:01:23,560
Four years ago Alphonse
had managed to escape from prison--

588
01:01:23,840 --> 01:01:28,160
--and secretly returned to La Coste.
It was a severe winter--

589
01:01:28,440 --> 01:01:34,400
--and I had to pawn the family silver
to pay for firewood.

590
01:01:34,720 --> 01:01:39,320
- It was hardly a Christmas at all.
- Not what you were engaged in, no!

591
01:01:39,560 --> 01:01:45,400
Despite your poverty you could afford
to hire five young girls as ''maids''--

592
01:01:45,680 --> 01:01:52,480
--and a young man as a ''secretary''.
My investigator hid on a balcony--

593
01:01:52,720 --> 01:01:58,640
--and saw through the window your
peculiar way of celebrating Christmas.

594
01:01:58,880 --> 01:02:05,440
The firelight was bright enough to
illuminate the bare treetrunks outside.

595
01:02:05,640 --> 01:02:09,000
- Say no more!
- Don't interrupt!

596
01:02:09,280 --> 01:02:14,120
Alphonse wore a black velvet cape,
his bare chest showed underneath.

597
01:02:14,440 --> 01:02:20,000
The five girls ran naked to and fro
to avoid his whip, begging for mercy.

598
01:02:20,280 --> 01:02:26,280
You hung from a ceiling beam, your
hands tied together, naked as well.

599
01:02:26,520 --> 01:02:30,960
You were half-unconscious from pain,
drops of blood shone in the firelight.

600
01:02:31,240 --> 01:02:37,560
The Marquis ordered the young man
the cleanse the Marquise's body.

601
01:02:37,800 --> 01:02:43,840
The youth stood on a chair and
took hold of your hanging body...

602
01:02:44,120 --> 01:02:49,280
And then he licked you... And it
wasn't only blood he licked...

603
01:02:49,520 --> 01:02:55,800
Ren�e... there's no point getting
you to show your scars.

604
01:02:56,040 --> 01:02:59,960
Your pallor tells me everything
that needs to be said.

605
01:03:00,280 --> 01:03:06,040
- It was the only time. I was forced.
- Can Alphonse turn you into a dog?

606
01:03:06,320 --> 01:03:12,400
A worm?
Where is your womanly pride?

607
01:03:12,640 --> 01:03:18,800
I didn't bring you up for that. You
are poisoned by Alphonse's lechery.

608
01:03:19,080 --> 01:03:23,120
At the depths of shame and
dishonour, there's no sympathy.

609
01:03:23,400 --> 01:03:27,520
A woman who has resolved to live in
fidelity is prepared to take any step.

610
01:03:27,800 --> 01:03:32,560
She will trample on both society's
laws and her own reputation.

611
01:03:32,800 --> 01:03:37,840
- All women who love rogues say so.
- Alphonse is no rogue.

612
01:03:38,080 --> 01:03:42,480
He's a threshold between me and
the impossible. Between me and God.

613
01:03:42,720 --> 01:03:48,840
- Your embellishing descriptions!
- You need metaphors to describe him.

614
01:03:49,080 --> 01:03:54,240
He's a dove, not a lion. He's a
white flower, not a poisonous plant.

615
01:03:54,520 --> 01:04:01,680
That Christmas I realized that
understanding and protecting don't suffice.

616
01:04:01,960 --> 01:04:08,240
I had to rid myself of the illusion
that I was the most decent of wives.

617
01:04:08,520 --> 01:04:14,560
The arrogance that is yoked to decency
vanished on that dreadful night.

618
01:04:14,760 --> 01:04:18,440
You mean you became
his accomplice?

619
01:04:18,680 --> 01:04:23,480
Yes, I became the accomplice
of a dove, of a white flower.

620
01:04:23,760 --> 01:04:28,200
The unruly wild beast called woman
discovered--

621
01:04:28,560 --> 01:04:33,040
--that hers had been none other
than voracious decency...

622
01:04:33,360 --> 01:04:39,920
- You are still a wild beast like that.
- No one has said such things to me!

623
01:04:40,200 --> 01:04:45,040
You shall hear it often! With your
teeth, you've torn Alphonse to shreds.

624
01:04:45,280 --> 01:04:49,040
I'm the one who has been torn to
shreds by that monster's fangs.

625
01:04:49,280 --> 01:04:53,480
He has nothing resembling fangs.
He has a knife, a whip and a rope:

626
01:04:53,720 --> 01:04:57,720
oldfashioned instruments of torture
and human inventions.

627
01:04:58,000 --> 01:05:04,240
But you've had fangs from the start.
Your white breasts are fangs.

628
01:05:04,520 --> 01:05:08,960
Your thighs, which haven't lost
their suppleness and lustre, are fangs.

629
01:05:09,200 --> 01:05:16,000
Your body is clad in armour,
glittering with the thorns of hypocrisy.

630
01:05:16,240 --> 01:05:21,600
- My breasts bore and nurtured you!
- My breasts are not like yours...

631
01:05:21,840 --> 01:05:27,200
..moulded in the shape of hypocrisy to
tally with accepted rules of morality.

632
01:05:27,440 --> 01:05:33,880
No doubt my father loved them, since
you both put store by conventions.

633
01:05:34,080 --> 01:05:36,800
I forbid you to denigrate your father!

634
01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:40,680
You complied
with the rules even in bed.

635
01:05:40,920 --> 01:05:46,280
Even your whispered pillowtalk
expressed a shared admiration--

636
01:05:46,520 --> 01:05:47,320
-for conventional morallty You two
were a ready-made ley and leyhole.

637
01:05:47,320 --> 01:05:51,840
--for conventional morality. You two
were a ready-made key and keyhole.

638
01:05:52,120 --> 01:05:56,800
If the key was inserted in the lock
the door of happiness always opened.

639
01:05:57,040 --> 01:06:00,880
You talked about keys and keyholes
that didn't fit together, and laughed.

640
01:06:01,120 --> 01:06:06,680
No one wants to be a rusty key
or a keyhole that whines with pain!

641
01:06:07,000 --> 01:06:14,560
Your breasts and thighs clinged
like leeches to social conventions.

642
01:06:14,800 --> 01:06:20,640
You slept with morality and banality
and moaned with pleasure.

643
01:06:20,880 --> 01:06:25,880
That's monstrous! Three times a day
you sated yourselves with contempt--

644
01:06:26,120 --> 01:06:32,040
--for those who flouted etiquette,
just as you ate three meals.

645
01:06:36,280 --> 01:06:41,440
If you turned the key and opened
the door, the bedroom was there...

646
01:06:41,680 --> 01:06:46,360
...the drawingroom there, the bathroom
over there, and the kitchen...

647
01:06:46,680 --> 01:06:54,200
You strolled around as you pleased,
discussing honour and reputation.

648
01:06:57,400 --> 01:07:00,840
Not even in your wildest dreams
did you imagine--

649
01:07:01,160 --> 01:07:06,600
--what it would be like
to unlock the wonderful door--

650
01:07:06,960 --> 01:07:12,240
--that opened on a sky full of stars.

651
01:07:18,600 --> 01:07:22,720
We didn't try to open
the gates of hell either.

652
01:07:23,360 --> 01:07:28,720
Hatred of what one cannot imagine
is spreading in the world.

653
01:07:30,080 --> 01:07:36,000
It is a kind of hammock in which
people enjoy their afternoon nap.

654
01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:48,880
But soon enough you have acquired
brass breasts and a stomach of brass.

655
01:07:49,440 --> 01:07:53,160
They shine when you polish them.

656
01:07:54,080 --> 01:07:59,320
You and your kind call a rose
beautiful and a snake nasty.

657
01:07:59,640 --> 01:08:05,440
You don't know that they are friends
and exchange guises in the night.

658
01:08:06,400 --> 01:08:12,440
The snake turns red
and the rose gets gleaming scales.

659
01:08:15,560 --> 01:08:19,680
A roe deer you think is pretty,
a lion is frightening.

660
01:08:19,920 --> 01:08:24,440
You have no idea how their blood
flows when they make love.

661
01:08:24,840 --> 01:08:30,880
You know nothing of the nights when
sanctity and shame switch places--

662
01:08:31,120 --> 01:08:35,000
--and therefore you
want to exterminate such nights--

663
01:08:35,240 --> 01:08:39,080
--after you have ridiculed them
with your brains of brass.

664
01:08:39,320 --> 01:08:44,680
So the sweet roe, the ugly toad, the
frightening lion och the cunning fox--

665
01:08:44,920 --> 01:08:49,440
--are one and the same and merge
together in thunderstorms at night?

666
01:08:49,640 --> 01:08:53,480
What's so remarkable about that?

667
01:08:53,720 --> 01:08:58,080
Women used to be burnt
at the stake for such ideas.

668
01:09:02,040 --> 01:09:06,560
You have merely opened the door
to that sky full of stars--

669
01:09:06,880 --> 01:09:10,400
--and stumbled out through it.

670
01:09:11,280 --> 01:09:15,520
People divide everyone
into compartments--

671
01:09:15,800 --> 01:09:20,000
--just as they lay handkerchiefs
and gloves in different drawers--

672
01:09:20,280 --> 01:09:24,840
--or say that roe deers are pretty
and toads ugly.

673
01:09:25,120 --> 01:09:28,720
You are kept
in the drawer for propriety--

674
01:09:28,960 --> 01:09:33,200
--and Alphonse is consigned
to the drawer for perversity.

675
01:09:33,480 --> 01:09:37,520
But an earthquake may turn
the drawers upside down.

676
01:09:37,800 --> 01:09:42,400
You may land among the depraved,
Alphonse among the well behaved.

677
01:09:42,680 --> 01:09:47,440
One has to watch out for
earthquakes and lock the drawers.

678
01:10:01,240 --> 01:10:06,280
If you could see how repellent you
look, you'd find it hard to decide--

679
01:10:06,560 --> 01:10:09,560
--which drawer to place yourself in.

680
01:10:10,000 --> 01:10:14,320
Dazzled by the de Sade family name,
you gave your daughter to Alphonse--

681
01:10:14,560 --> 01:10:18,800
--but when your house is threatened
by fire, you want to buy her back.

682
01:10:19,000 --> 01:10:23,040
I've already spent all available funds.

683
01:10:23,320 --> 01:10:26,600
You're as pleased to buy
your daughter back--

684
01:10:26,920 --> 01:10:30,920
--as a prostitute to redeem
the wardrobe she has pawned.

685
01:10:31,240 --> 01:10:35,960
You have fantasies
of an enjoyable, happy life.

686
01:10:36,240 --> 01:10:39,640
Without ever exploring
what lies at the end of the world--

687
01:10:39,920 --> 01:10:45,360
--you cover your windows with pink
curtains - and then you die.

688
01:10:45,640 --> 01:10:51,440
You're proud never to have let yourself
be harmed by those you despise--

689
01:10:51,720 --> 01:10:58,680
--but no base of human pride could
be more petty and contemptible.

690
01:10:58,880 --> 01:11:05,800
- You'll die too one day.
- Yes, but not like you.

691
01:11:06,040 --> 01:11:10,000
Of course not. I've no intention
of being burnt at the stake.

692
01:11:10,240 --> 01:11:15,520
I don't intend to die like a genteel
whore with a nest-egg put aside.

693
01:11:15,720 --> 01:11:19,320
Ren�e - I could hit you!

694
01:11:31,480 --> 01:11:37,080
Do that! But what will you do, if I
curl up with pleasure at being hit?

695
01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:47,360
- Your face, when you say that...
- What about my face?

696
01:11:47,640 --> 01:11:52,680
You've become
so like Alphonse that it scares me.

697
01:12:06,960 --> 01:12:11,680
What was it that Madame de Saint-
Fond said? ''Alphonse is myself!''

698
01:12:26,480 --> 01:12:28,920
''Alphonse is myself!''

699
01:12:32,840 --> 01:12:35,800
''Alphonse is myself!''

700
01:12:38,840 --> 01:12:42,400
THIRD ACT

701
01:12:54,520 --> 01:13:00,440
Nine months after the outbreak
of the French Revolution

702
01:13:21,240 --> 01:13:24,120
- Ren�e?
- Yes?

703
01:13:25,520 --> 01:13:25,840
- Aren't you tired of it?
- No.

704
01:13:37,040 --> 01:13:40,600
THIRD ACT

705
01:13:52,800 --> 01:13:58,720
Nine months after the outbreak
of the French Revolution

706
01:14:19,600 --> 01:14:22,360
- Ren�e?
- Yes?

707
01:14:23,800 --> 01:14:27,400
- Aren't you tired of it?
- No.

708
01:14:27,640 --> 01:14:31,760
For twelve years I've seen you
visiting Alphonse in prison.

709
01:14:32,040 --> 01:14:37,880
Never have I seen you tired of it.
You had hardly returned from a visit--

710
01:14:38,160 --> 01:14:43,200
--when you started preparing for the
next, wondering what to bring him.

711
01:14:44,320 --> 01:14:49,400
That's true. I didn't want my
husband to think I had aged.

712
01:14:49,760 --> 01:14:54,720
If he saw me often enough, I thought
he wouldn't notice I was growing old.

713
01:14:55,000 --> 01:15:02,120
But any day now, all the criminals
and lunatics will be let out.

714
01:15:04,120 --> 01:15:08,000
The justice I always believed in
was eliminated--

715
01:15:08,280 --> 01:15:13,840
--when the National Assembly
declared all royal arrests to be invalid.

716
01:15:15,440 --> 01:15:19,960
Since that day, you've stopped
visiting Alphonse.

717
01:15:20,240 --> 01:15:25,320
There's no need any more.
Sooner or later, he'll come home.

718
01:15:25,560 --> 01:15:30,240
That's true.
At the same time, you've changed.

719
01:15:30,440 --> 01:15:34,000
I've become old and tired too.

720
01:15:34,280 --> 01:15:40,200
When the whole society is changing,
people can't avoid changing as well.

721
01:15:40,440 --> 01:15:46,280
Charlotte didn't come to the door.
Is she joining the rest of the mob?

722
01:15:46,460 --> 01:15:48,680
Anne!

723
01:15:49,120 --> 01:15:53,680
I'm here to say farewell. Or rather,
to ask you to come with us, Mother.

724
01:15:53,960 --> 01:15:59,080
Without the slightest warning?
Where are you planning to go?

725
01:15:59,320 --> 01:16:02,920
- To Venice, with my husband.
- Venice...

726
01:16:03,280 --> 01:16:08,000
No, sister. This has nothing to do
with the Venice you remember.

727
01:16:08,360 --> 01:16:13,360
My husband has bought a palace
and decided we should move there.

728
01:16:13,600 --> 01:16:18,200
Why should you leave your beautiful
home and your position at court?

729
01:16:18,440 --> 01:16:24,000
My husband says it is already
dangerous to fraternize with the court.

730
01:16:24,240 --> 01:16:30,240
The Comte de Mirabeau has urged
the King to go into exile--

731
01:16:30,480 --> 01:16:37,280
--but others are against it. My husband
also thinks it would be wise.

732
01:16:37,600 --> 01:16:44,160
- And yet the King remains?
- He always was a great vacillator.

733
01:16:44,440 --> 01:16:48,960
As long as the King remains,
I shall stay in Paris.

734
01:16:49,280 --> 01:16:54,080
Have you become such a royalist,
Mother? Joking apart--

735
01:16:54,400 --> 01:16:59,000
--things look peaceful on the surface,
but we don't know what may happen.

736
01:16:59,240 --> 01:17:04,120
The best thing is to remain calm
and look both left and right.

737
01:17:04,400 --> 01:17:08,400
I think I shall be able to live here
in peace and quiet.

738
01:17:08,640 --> 01:17:13,920
However indiscriminately the mob acts,
they won't attack an old woman.

739
01:17:14,240 --> 01:17:20,360
These days, the wisest course
is not to take sides.

740
01:17:21,040 --> 01:17:26,880
Keep that up, and you may end up
like the Comtesse de Saint-Fond.

741
01:17:27,200 --> 01:17:33,240
A poor comparison. Do you think
I can die such an honourable death?

742
01:17:33,520 --> 01:17:38,640
Madame de Saint-Fond was said
to have tired of Paris--

743
01:17:38,920 --> 01:17:43,200
--and gone to Marseilles where, at
night, she dressed up as prostitute--

744
01:17:43,480 --> 01:17:49,040
--and sold herself to the sailors
she accosted in the street.

745
01:17:49,360 --> 01:17:55,640
She spent her days in her villa,
caressing her cheeks with her earnings.

746
01:17:55,960 --> 01:18:01,360
She had a jeweller set precious
stones in the coins.

747
01:18:01,640 --> 01:18:06,320
She planned to have a dress sewn
from them, and show it off in Paris.

748
01:18:06,560 --> 01:18:11,600
She would have had to earn a
fortune to cover enough of that body.

749
01:18:11,840 --> 01:18:15,880
She had aged considerably,
you know.

750
01:18:16,160 --> 01:18:19,960
One evening a riot broke out.

751
01:18:20,200 --> 01:18:24,720
Since she was standing on a dark
street corner in her harlot's guise--

752
01:18:24,960 --> 01:18:30,400
--she was dragged along with the mob
and sang that song with the others...

753
01:18:30,760 --> 01:18:37,480
Ta-ta-ta-ta! The refrain is ''Hang the
aristocrats from the lamp-posts!''

754
01:18:38,400 --> 01:18:43,440
She sang ''Hang the aristocrats!''
at the top of her voice.

755
01:18:43,760 --> 01:18:48,440
But the rioters were attacked by
guards and fell like dominoes--

756
01:18:48,720 --> 01:18:53,040
--and Madame de Saint-Fond
was trampled to death.

757
01:18:53,320 --> 01:19:00,080
When morning came, the crowd found
her body and placed it on a shutter.

758
01:19:00,360 --> 01:19:06,720
They carried it round the streets and
mourned her as a sublime victim.

759
01:19:07,000 --> 01:19:12,800
Impromptu poets wrote ballads
about the ''pathetic harlot''--

760
01:19:13,040 --> 01:19:18,960
--that everyone sang.
No one knew who she was.

761
01:19:20,240 --> 01:19:26,280
In the morning light her body
looked like a slaughtered hen.

762
01:19:26,560 --> 01:19:31,200
It took on the same colours
as the <i>tricolore:</i>

763
01:19:31,480 --> 01:19:37,080
the red blood, the white flesh
and all the bruises.

764
01:19:37,360 --> 01:19:42,560
But the morning sun shone mercilessly
through the thick layer of powder--

765
01:19:42,840 --> 01:19:48,080
--and revealed her withered skin.
People were dismayed--

766
01:19:48,360 --> 01:19:53,880
--when they saw that she
had metamorphosed into an old hag.

767
01:19:54,160 --> 01:19:58,880
But it didn't detract
from the tribute given to her.

768
01:19:59,160 --> 01:20:03,680
Deprived of her feathers,
the wrinkled thighs laid bare--

769
01:20:03,960 --> 01:20:08,400
--her corpse continued its triumphal
procession through the city.

770
01:20:08,720 --> 01:20:13,080
That, as you know, was the
beginning of the Revolution.

771
01:20:31,360 --> 01:20:36,240
Now you're off to the Mediterranean,
the sea of old age and death.

772
01:20:36,520 --> 01:20:41,040
What an unpleasant way to put it!
We're going there to stay alive.

773
01:20:41,280 --> 01:20:47,000
You've always been busy living. But
other people have kept you alive.

774
01:20:48,880 --> 01:20:55,080
I agree that Venice today has little in
common with your Venice of the past.

775
01:20:55,320 --> 01:20:59,760
You're escaping quite simply
by not keeping any memories.

776
01:20:59,960 --> 01:21:03,600
So you think
I should hold on to memories?

777
01:21:03,840 --> 01:21:09,320
When reminiscences become necessary,
I shall show them with pleasure.

778
01:21:10,000 --> 01:21:14,440
It's just that I don't let myself
be weighed down by them.

779
01:21:15,440 --> 01:21:19,400
Aren't you the one
without memories?

780
01:21:19,640 --> 01:21:24,760
All your life, you'll stand with your
face turned towards a white wall.

781
01:21:25,000 --> 01:21:31,120
One can discern traces of congealed
blood and drops resembling tears...

782
01:21:31,400 --> 01:21:35,640
- But otherwise it is simply a wall.
- That's true.

783
01:21:35,920 --> 01:21:40,560
I've always turned my face towards
the motionless sediment.

784
01:21:40,800 --> 01:21:44,080
My memories are insects in amber--

785
01:21:44,360 --> 01:21:49,120
--not like yours, shadows
fluttering over the water.

786
01:21:49,440 --> 01:21:54,480
You're right about one thing: my
memories have always been a burden.

787
01:21:54,800 --> 01:22:02,600
Yes, and a source of jealousy. In my
face you can read two memories--

788
01:22:02,840 --> 01:22:08,760
--and you hate me for them -
Venice and happiness.

789
01:22:09,000 --> 01:22:13,920
- I've never wished for them.
- You won't admit defeat, will you?

790
01:22:15,000 --> 01:22:21,000
When I was young, I thought
I wished for those same recollections.

791
01:22:21,240 --> 01:22:27,320
But what remained in my memory,
the insects that stuck in my amber--

792
01:22:27,680 --> 01:22:34,960
--was neither Venice nor happiness
but something frightening...

793
01:22:35,280 --> 01:22:39,480
Something that cannot
be expressed in words--

794
01:22:39,800 --> 01:22:44,960
--something I neither wished for
nor even dreamed of in my youth.

795
01:22:45,200 --> 01:22:49,840
When something happens that you
think is the last thing you wanted--

796
01:22:50,120 --> 01:22:55,360
--it often proves to be what has
unconsciously been your supreme desire

797
01:22:55,600 --> 01:22:59,080
Only that deserves to be a memory--

798
01:22:59,320 --> 01:23:04,320
--only that can be enclosed in amber.

799
01:23:05,720 --> 01:23:10,520
That alone is the kernel that can
ripen into the fruit of memory--

800
01:23:10,840 --> 01:23:15,840
--of which you never tire, no matter
how many times you taste it.

801
01:23:16,600 --> 01:23:21,560
That letter! That letter!

802
01:23:22,880 --> 01:23:28,160
When I read the letter from Alphonse
a few days ago, I was really touched.

803
01:23:28,400 --> 01:23:34,880
When freedom is near, he forgives
everything, even what I did to him.

804
01:23:35,200 --> 01:23:41,560
Among the revolutionaries, there
are several he has known in prison.

805
01:23:41,840 --> 01:23:46,720
He says that if ever
I get in difficulties--

806
01:23:47,000 --> 01:23:52,920
--he'll speak to his friends.
That's quite a reversal of fortunes!

807
01:23:53,160 --> 01:23:58,480
You choose not to trust me then?
I don't ask you to decide today--

808
01:23:58,720 --> 01:24:02,440
--but my husband and I leave
the day after tomorrow.

809
01:24:02,680 --> 01:24:06,800
It's kind of you, but old people
like to think things over.

810
01:24:07,040 --> 01:24:10,960
You must give me a bit more time
to make up my mind.

811
01:24:12,880 --> 01:24:16,960
For the time being
it's good-bye then.

812
01:24:22,000 --> 01:24:24,520
Farewell, Mother.

813
01:24:27,000 --> 01:24:30,760
- Farewell, sister.
- Farewell, Anne.

814
01:24:34,240 --> 01:24:39,120
- Give my regards to the Comte.
- Thank you, I shall.

815
01:24:40,840 --> 01:24:44,040
- Charlotte!
- Yes, Madame.

816
01:24:49,760 --> 01:24:55,360
There hasn't been a death in our
family. Why are you dressed in black?

817
01:24:55,800 --> 01:25:01,840
Ah, you want to honour Madame
de Saint-Fond, your former employer.

818
01:25:02,240 --> 01:25:05,240
I respect that fine thought.

819
01:25:05,520 --> 01:25:11,320
But why the sudden loyalty to a lady
you disliked so much that you left her?

820
01:25:11,560 --> 01:25:17,240
- Oh, Madame...
- That's no reply! Don't be so silly!

821
01:25:17,600 --> 01:25:21,720
It's nine months
since the fall of the Bastille.

822
01:25:22,000 --> 01:25:26,120
The more unsettled conditions are,
the more impudent you become.

823
01:25:26,440 --> 01:25:32,240
Since the mob marched on Versailles
you've become positively rude.

824
01:25:32,640 --> 01:25:36,920
You've been in our home for
more than twenty years--

825
01:25:37,280 --> 01:25:41,080
--and acquired a taste for luxury
by looking at us.

826
01:25:42,440 --> 01:25:46,880
You've managed to save
a little money...

827
01:25:47,240 --> 01:25:52,600
Surely you can't join the mob that
jostles and clamours in the streets?

828
01:25:52,840 --> 01:25:59,680
Like Mme de Saint-Fond, you too,
pretending to be one of the people--

829
01:25:59,960 --> 01:26:03,840
--would be a hypocrite and die...

830
01:26:04,160 --> 01:26:10,600
You identify with her, of course,
and mourn the death of an impostor!

831
01:26:10,880 --> 01:26:15,280
Yes, Madame! I mourn her death.

832
01:26:15,520 --> 01:26:21,320
In that case, wear mourning garb
or whatever you like.

833
01:26:21,560 --> 01:26:26,840
- Did you like Mme de Saint-Fond?
- Yes, Madame.

834
01:26:27,160 --> 01:26:31,600
- More than your present mistress?
- Yes, Madame.

835
01:26:31,880 --> 01:26:37,040
One certainly never heard
such answers before the Revolution!

836
01:26:37,280 --> 01:26:41,880
People have become ever more
unpolished...

837
01:27:00,840 --> 01:27:03,240
Madame de Montreuil.

838
01:27:04,600 --> 01:27:11,440
My goodness! Isn't it the Baronne
de Simiane? An unexpected visit.

839
01:27:12,200 --> 01:27:16,440
- It really has been a long time.
- What brings you here?

840
01:27:17,000 --> 01:27:22,840
- I came at Ren�e's invitation.
- Thank you for taking the trouble.

841
01:27:23,560 --> 01:27:28,320
- I'm glad you've come to a decision.
- What decision?

842
01:27:28,600 --> 01:27:33,320
I asked Madame de Simiane
for a favour.

843
01:27:33,920 --> 01:27:37,960
I've been granted admission
to the Baronne's convent.

844
01:27:38,280 --> 01:27:44,240
- Are you going to become a nun?
- What help did Ren�e ask you for?

845
01:27:44,440 --> 01:27:48,080
Ren�e has visited me several times.

846
01:27:48,440 --> 01:27:53,240
I promised we would look after her
if she decided to enter a convent.

847
01:27:53,600 --> 01:27:57,480
When you stopped visiting Alphonse
- was that when you decided?

848
01:27:57,760 --> 01:28:02,320
The plans I have harboured for years
have taken on a more definite shape.

849
01:28:02,520 --> 01:28:06,520
Just when Alphonse is about
to be freed?

850
01:28:06,800 --> 01:28:11,160
Every time I visited him, I decided
that the next time would be the last.

851
01:28:11,400 --> 01:28:17,320
But when that the came,
my resolution came to nothing...

852
01:28:27,640 --> 01:28:33,680
You are a small fish that caught
on the line of the Fisher of Men.

853
01:28:34,080 --> 01:28:40,000
However often you've spat out the
hook, you've known, deep down--

854
01:28:40,480 --> 01:28:46,960
--that one day you would be caught.
You have longed for the moment--

855
01:28:47,360 --> 01:28:53,080
--when you'd lie wriggling in the
bright evening light from God's eye--

856
01:28:53,440 --> 01:28:59,120
--and your scales would glitter
with the water of this worldly life.

857
01:28:59,520 --> 01:29:04,400
Oh, Ren�e, God's countless eye--

858
01:29:05,040 --> 01:29:09,800
--send us myriads of scouts, who--

859
01:29:10,080 --> 01:29:15,040
--with infinitely greater thoroughness
than the royal security forces--

860
01:29:15,360 --> 01:29:20,720
--search our souls, and then,
with immeasurable patience--

861
01:29:21,040 --> 01:29:26,160
--wait until they fasten
in the nets of their own accord.

862
01:29:26,400 --> 01:29:31,080
They take in their hands the souls
they have so skilfully captured--

863
01:29:31,280 --> 01:29:36,200
--and take them to a prison of light.

864
01:29:40,720 --> 01:29:46,200
I'm ashamed to say it,
but it is only now that I'm old--

865
01:29:46,520 --> 01:29:51,520
--that I understand at least
something of God's will.

866
01:29:51,880 --> 01:29:57,360
I have always played the role
of a pious woman.

867
01:29:57,720 --> 01:30:03,040
My conviction that I possessed
all virtues made me narrowminded.

868
01:30:03,240 --> 01:30:07,640
I blush to think back
on that time.

869
01:30:09,480 --> 01:30:15,480
That's right - an autumn day
eighteen years ago--

870
01:30:16,320 --> 01:30:19,560
--here in his room--

871
01:30:19,840 --> 01:30:24,760
--I heard Madame de Saint-Fond
talking about the Marquis de Sade.

872
01:30:25,040 --> 01:30:30,840
Since then eighteen long years
have passed.

873
01:30:33,000 --> 01:30:37,480
I remember how you, Madame de
Montreuil, came rushing in--

874
01:30:37,920 --> 01:30:42,680
--more beautiful than ever,
despite all you had gone through.

875
01:30:43,000 --> 01:30:47,880
You, Ren�e, returned that same day
to live with your mother.

876
01:30:48,120 --> 01:30:55,120
You looked so young and pure of
heart, as if transfigured with sorrow.

877
01:30:55,600 --> 01:30:59,400
It's like yesterday.

878
01:31:00,360 --> 01:31:08,760
I wonder if time has not slipped
through this room with trailing skirts--

879
01:31:09,320 --> 01:31:14,480
--although our ears have not detected
the rustling of silk...

880
01:31:14,680 --> 01:31:18,960
Your views are no doubt valuable--

881
01:31:19,200 --> 01:31:23,600
--but now I hope Ren�e will also
listen to a mother's words.

882
01:31:23,840 --> 01:31:28,200
I think Ren�e should fulfil
her duties in this mundane world--

883
01:31:28,480 --> 01:31:32,040
--before entering a convent.
There is no reason to hurry.

884
01:31:32,280 --> 01:31:36,920
- Madame de Montreuil!
- Will you let me finish speaking?

885
01:31:37,360 --> 01:31:41,520
Alphonse will soon be released
from prison. Don't you think--

886
01:31:41,800 --> 01:31:47,000
--that you ought to live with him
until death do you part?

887
01:31:47,760 --> 01:31:53,680
For eighteen years I've begged you
to leave him--

888
01:31:53,960 --> 01:31:58,640
--but you've always said
that you will never do so.

889
01:31:58,920 --> 01:32:04,480
Why is the situation reversed? I'm
not trying to influence you any more.

890
01:32:04,840 --> 01:32:09,680
If you want to go on living with
Alphonse, I have no objections.

891
01:32:09,960 --> 01:32:14,360
What is it that makes you want
to be a nun?

892
01:32:16,280 --> 01:32:23,200
In all honesty, I still consider
him an incorrigible scoundrel.

893
01:32:23,760 --> 01:32:28,520
But now criminals, lunatics and
paupers are the ones in power.

894
01:32:28,800 --> 01:32:32,840
Alphonse belongs to
all these categories.

895
01:32:33,200 --> 01:32:38,920
- He may become the family's saviour.
- So you're planning to use him?

896
01:32:39,200 --> 01:32:45,840
Indeed! And you must help me. In
the labour pains of the Revolution--

897
01:32:46,120 --> 01:32:52,000
--Alphonse's shameless behaviour
may well be applauded.

898
01:32:52,360 --> 01:32:58,400
Society's condemnation of his acts
may be seen as proof of his integrity.

899
01:32:58,680 --> 01:33:03,120
An honourable person wouldn't solicit
help from one she has persecuted.

900
01:34:16,800 --> 01:34:23,640
I think it was a different kind of
light from that you refer to.

901
01:34:23,840 --> 01:34:27,520
It was as if it came from
another source...

902
01:34:27,720 --> 01:34:32,200
There's only one
source of the holy light.

903
01:34:32,520 --> 01:34:37,480
...as if the light had been refracted
and came from another direction...

904
01:34:38,800 --> 01:34:42,720
Another direction?

905
01:34:44,320 --> 01:34:49,520
I'm not sure, but I became aware
that it came from another direction--

906
01:34:49,840 --> 01:34:54,440
--when I read this frightful novel
Alphonse wrote in prison--

907
01:34:54,680 --> 01:34:58,480
--called <i>Justine</i>.

908
01:34:58,880 --> 01:35:04,720
It's a novel about two sisters,
Juliette, the elder, and Justine.

909
01:35:05,200 --> 01:35:09,240
They lose their parents
and are cast out into the world.

910
01:35:09,600 --> 01:35:16,520
Justine who seeks to defend her
virtue incurs all possible misfortunes--

911
01:35:16,880 --> 01:35:22,800
--while the elder sister who has
indulged in vice flourishes.

912
01:35:23,200 --> 01:35:29,320
However, it is not Juliette who is
struck by God's wrath, but Justine--

913
01:35:29,680 --> 01:35:36,240
--who ends her days in misery. She is
constantly humiliated and tortured.

914
01:35:36,600 --> 01:35:40,600
Her toes are amputated
and her teeth pulled out--

915
01:35:40,820 --> 01:35:44,760
--she is branded, flogged and robbed.

916
01:35:45,000 --> 01:35:49,520
When she is about to be executed,
her sister turns up and saves her.

917
01:35:49,760 --> 01:35:55,120
But her happiness does not last long:
she has an accident and dies.

918
01:35:58,800 --> 01:36:02,920
Alphonse toiled night and day
with this novel.

919
01:36:03,320 --> 01:36:06,600
What made him do it?

920
01:36:10,280 --> 01:36:15,680
Don't you think it is spiritual treason
to write such a disgusting story?

921
01:36:19,680 --> 01:36:25,480
Undoubtedly. Contaminating one's
own mind and others' is indefensible.

922
01:36:25,800 --> 01:36:29,840
While Alphonse sat in his prison
cell, brooding and writing--

923
01:36:30,120 --> 01:36:34,120
--he shut me up in his novel.

924
01:36:34,480 --> 01:36:39,280
We on the outside were also
locked up in that prison.

925
01:36:39,760 --> 01:36:45,400
When I read his novel I realized
what he was doing in prison.

926
01:36:45,680 --> 01:36:51,840
The mob stormed the Bastille, but
he tore down the walls from within--

927
01:36:52,120 --> 01:36:56,280
--and remained in prison
of his own free will.

928
01:36:56,600 --> 01:37:01,360
He wanted to create
an imperishable cathedral of vice.

929
01:37:02,200 --> 01:37:07,520
Instead of committing evil deeds,
he wanted to develop a code of evil.

930
01:37:08,100 --> 01:37:11,960
Not so much actions as principles.

931
01:37:12,320 --> 01:37:18,200
Not so much nocturnal pleasure
as a single, everlasting night.

932
01:37:18,600 --> 01:37:24,240
Not so much slaves of the whip
as the rule of the whip.

933
01:37:24,640 --> 01:37:30,600
Obsessed with destruction,
he created something instead.

934
01:37:31,240 --> 01:37:35,240
Something inexplicable,
congenital in him--

935
01:37:35,560 --> 01:37:40,600
--that produced
transparent forms of evil.

936
01:37:43,120 --> 01:37:48,600
The world we are living in now is
a creation of the Marquis de Sade.

937
01:37:56,320 --> 01:38:00,800
His heart and his body were
what I wanted to follow!

938
01:38:01,040 --> 01:38:04,240
I believed we'd never part.

939
01:38:04,560 --> 01:38:08,760
Suddenly, his hands turned to iron
and knocked me down.

940
01:38:10,880 --> 01:38:14,280
He no longer has a heart.

941
01:38:14,680 --> 01:38:19,440
A mind that can think up and write
something like that is not human.

942
01:38:30,360 --> 01:38:34,560
How radiant he looks,
standing there outside my prison!

943
01:38:35,680 --> 01:38:39,440
He is the freest human being
in the world.

944
01:38:40,040 --> 01:38:45,560
He stretches out his arms to the
end of time, the end of the world.

945
01:38:47,440 --> 01:38:51,920
He piles evil on evil,
and mounts the crest of evil.

946
01:38:52,480 --> 01:38:56,280
Soon he will touch eternity.

947
01:38:57,480 --> 01:39:02,000
Alphonse has built
a back stairway to salvation.

948
01:39:02,320 --> 01:39:06,640
God will destroy that back stairway.

949
01:39:07,320 --> 01:39:12,760
No - perhaps God gave him
the task of building it.

950
01:39:15,360 --> 01:39:20,120
I plan to spend the remainder of
my life asking God that question.

951
01:39:21,640 --> 01:39:25,400
So you've made up your mind.

952
01:39:25,720 --> 01:39:29,360
Yes, I've made up my mind.

953
01:39:37,360 --> 01:39:41,640
Even if Alphonse were
on his way here--

954
01:39:41,960 --> 01:39:46,400
--and returned home as the free man
you've waited eighteen years for?

955
01:39:46,640 --> 01:39:50,760
It wouldn't alter my decision.

956
01:40:07,840 --> 01:40:12,080
Alphonse has spun a thread of light
from evil--

957
01:40:12,440 --> 01:40:17,680
--created something sacred from the
corruption he has gathered round him.

958
01:40:18,280 --> 01:40:23,920
His armour gleams faintly with the
light he spreads across the world.

959
01:40:24,240 --> 01:40:30,160
The pattern on the armour, beaten
in a metal that is rusty from blood--

960
01:40:30,440 --> 01:40:35,400
--represents not garlands of flowers
but whips.

961
01:40:37,640 --> 01:40:41,320
Instead of a shield
he carries a branding-iron--

962
01:40:41,600 --> 01:40:47,160
--that reflects the reddened skin
of the women he has branded.

963
01:40:47,480 --> 01:40:50,800
Human anguish...

964
01:40:52,600 --> 01:40:55,400
...human suffering...

965
01:40:56,960 --> 01:41:01,680
...human lamentation rise--

966
01:41:02,400 --> 01:41:06,720
--like horns on his silver helmet,
reaching for the sky.

967
01:41:06,860 --> 01:41:11,160
He presses a sword sated with blood
to his lips--

968
01:41:11,400 --> 01:41:15,560
--and swears the solemn oath.

969
01:41:16,320 --> 01:41:21,320
His fair hair frames his pale face
like a halo--

970
01:41:21,560 --> 01:41:27,320
--and his cuirass shines like a mirror,
clouded by the sighs of the dying.

971
01:41:27,560 --> 01:41:32,520
His hands touch people's heads--

972
01:41:32,840 --> 01:41:38,000
--and then even the most despised,
the most rejected take courage--

973
01:41:38,280 --> 01:41:43,560
--and follow him to the battlefield
in the first light of dawn.

974
01:41:43,920 --> 01:41:49,760
His chest surges when he sees
the bloody slaughter--

975
01:41:50,440 --> 01:41:56,400
--the banquet attended
by millions of corpses--

976
01:41:56,680 --> 01:42:02,280
--the most silent of feasts.

977
01:42:02,680 --> 01:42:08,840
His white horse, spattered with
blood, braces its breast--

978
01:42:09,160 --> 01:42:15,040
--like the prow of a ship,
and stretches out to a morning sky--

979
01:42:15,400 --> 01:42:19,640
--in which the flashes of lightning
cross one another.

980
01:42:19,920 --> 01:42:23,480
At the same moment,
the sky is rent--

981
01:42:24,120 --> 01:42:28,520
--and a cascade of light plunges
down--

982
01:42:29,040 --> 01:42:34,720
--a holy light that blinds
all who behold it.

983
01:42:36,760 --> 01:42:41,200
And Alphonse, perhaps,
is the very essence of that light.

984
01:43:25,280 --> 01:43:29,320
The Marquis de Sade is at the door.
Shall I show him in?

985
01:43:36,960 --> 01:43:42,040
- Shall I show him in?
- How does the Marquis look?

986
01:43:42,520 --> 01:43:47,720
- He's waiting. Shall I show him in?
- I'm asking you how he looks.

987
01:43:48,080 --> 01:43:52,680
He's so changed that I hardly
recognized him.

988
01:43:52,880 --> 01:43:56,680
His black coat is pathmed
at the elbows.

989
01:43:56,960 --> 01:44:01,040
His shirtcollar is so dirty
that I took him for a beggar.

990
01:44:01,360 --> 01:44:07,720
And he's become so plump!
His face is puffy and deathly pale.

991
01:44:08,040 --> 01:44:12,960
His clothes are too tight, I even
wonder if he'll get through the door.

992
01:44:13,280 --> 01:44:18,360
His gaze shifts as if in fright,
his chin trembles slightly--

993
01:44:18,680 --> 01:44:23,600
--and when he talks you see that
only a few yellow teeth are left.

994
01:44:23,880 --> 01:44:30,160
But he said his name with dignity
''Have you forgotten me?'' he asked.

995
01:44:30,440 --> 01:44:36,400
And then, stressing each syllable:
''I'm Donatien-Alphonse-Fran�ois...''

996
01:44:36,720 --> 01:44:41,640
- ''...Marquis de Sade.''
- Tell him to go away.

997
01:44:46,960 --> 01:44:53,480
And say this: ''The Marquise
wishes never to see him again.''

998
01:44:56,360 --> 01:44:58,380
english subtitles extracted by
.: Norway (norgen@centrum.cz) :.