Original subtitles

The Perspektywa Film Unit presents

Starring

THE PHANTOM

Screenplay Based on the novel by Karol Irzykowski

Co-starring

With

Music

Director of photography

Directed by

My world...

My love...

One and only...

Unique...

Angelica...

Angelica...

Angela...

Here will be created our Book of Love.

Our greatest secret.

You will never... never... know another woman.

You will always hear me singing.

Peter!

My God! What's the matter?

Sandra!

I want you.

I know.

- Now. - Male self-conceit.

Now.

Tonight.

How often have I heard that.

Then come the nightmares.

And loving you has to be my only satisfaction.

I'm waiting for this to pass.

How I'm waiting.

Peter! I've found one at last.

My first ever.

A four-leaf clover.

What idyllic scenes... one finds here.

- You're roving again. - I am.

- You'll run out of meadows. - And flowers.

Needed for your herbarium?

But nature cannot be tamed.

To plants and people her laws only apply.

Love is irrelevant.

- Who's the chit? - The children's governess.

What else?

A very proper young lady for whom I am responsible.

Adieu, cousin.

You ought to speak to him, man to man.

Now even our peasants want to burn him...

...on account of their daughters.

Uncle Marius! You're heavensent!

Give us a hand. It's even beyond Miss Paulina's reach.

Sonny! Come to me!

It's Paul!

- Welcome, reverend. - What a big boy you've become!

He's different. More serious. School does that.

- But home at last. - Do come in.

And back in the family fold.

Excuse me, but I must be getting back.

Thank you for them, for Paul. Thank you for everything.

Mama!

You left your shawl in the garden!

THE BOOK OF LOVE

You're demented!

I'm your wife, not your mistress!

This was her most precious treasure.

This was our great secret.

Look.

Beautiful, isn't she?

And this?

"The book of love".

If I didn't love you, I wouldn't show you this.

Now we have no secrets from each other.

Don't sing.

Please!

Just before she died...

...she began,

possessed by madness, to hum.

As she did, so shall I with your orders I comply.

Stop it!

I shall never again dress up...

...in this nonsense.

Buffoonery!

Buffoon!

Hey, Xenia, angel! Want a potato?

Here!

Mama, Lena and Adam all have fair hair.

So why... ... is mine different?

There was once a woman with hair...

...that was flaming red.

Once...

Only you resemble her.

Only you.

Since we now hunt together come with me.

I have another initiation in store for you.

This was a place of joy and happiness.

Our world...

- An old church? - Grandma's chapel.

I converted it into a studio for my first wife.

She painted, conjuring up another world.

Look at all these marvels and mysteries.

Listen.

The sea.

Peter!

We alone belong to her. You understand?

No one else.

We must never betray her to anyone.

You'll lead him astray.

You're turning your backs on us.

Paul has ceased to confide in me.

And yesterday he asked me if I was his mother.

Just as if you'd... put him up to it.

Sandra!

For me, you had no first wife.

She was never a mother. She couldn't be.

You shut yourself up there.

You've never shown me her pictures or even let me in.

But I'm capable of respecting your secrets.

How funny... different hair.

Remember the family reunion?

That summer, at your grandparents'?

And our subsequent meeting?

One feels a difference here. In you too.

I was once truly afraid of you... The succubus!

Please, father.

Thank God she's dead, I say, though a priest shouldn't.

He certainly shouldn't.

How terrible.

She even went to a watery grave.

As for salvation, you owe it to her. To her and...

I pray for you two. I pray every day.

- What about you? - So do I.

But not in the way that you should. Nor does he.

He is abusing nature's gifts, and he's proud of it.

Your husband seems...

...to have fallen into Father Huk's clutches.

So might you, instead of chasing wenches.

Can it be that you envy me my freedom?

Paul!

Here's a full-length.

You two will take a boat.

We'll come from the bank.

It's superb there, for widgeon especially.

We can't get near enough to flush them.

There's duck there, I agree, but a long way in.

- That's why I'm taking Demon. - He's a good dog,

but on dry ground.

He can flush anything alive!

Maybe, but this is marshland. I wouldn't advise it.

The meadows then.

- The duck there is very ordinary. - At least we can pop away.

- Seen this one? - I prefer'em in the flesh.

You can't beat nature.

Well then, I'll expect you tomorrow, at three.

Our gay bachelor is always in a hurry.

- A beautiful gun. Seen it? - A peerless weapon.

My father gave me one after my first hunt.

It could do with a clean, don't you think?

"O, forest to which for the last time a hunting

"Came the last monarch to fly Vitold's bunting,

"of the Jagiellos the last whose victories we sing,

"And Lithuania and Poland's last sporting king. "

We're going on a duck shoot, not a bear hunt.

Why not quote us some lines from Count Fredro instead?

You're beautiful...

Incomparable...

Come on! What are we waiting for?

Marius prefers other sport. For which he is never late.

Go on ahead. I'll fetch him.

Setting a mad dog on me...

All right! I looked at another woman.

I know you!

You'll want to get your own back. With interest!

But I owe you nothing now!

- We'll take good care of him. - I know.

But a stroke caused by a gun going off?

Incredible!

Your husband's in no danger. He did just the right thing.

I mean rabies... it's no joke. A serious matter.

At any rate all will be well.

Oh my God!

Paul! Wait for us! We've almost finished.

Paul's changed.

Darling, head up, please.

He's grown up. Look at him. A broth of a boy!

Tilt your chin.

He's under some evil spell. And you indulge him.

He's become secretive.

Do you even know where he gets to after dark?

A great improvement.

And all thanks to you.

Would you believe it? Marius wants to talk to me.

Though I wonder how? He can barely stammer, poor man.

But clearly his soul longs to return to the fold.

We grew up together.

He served at mass on Sundays.

You'd never believe what he used to be like.

It was life that made him a cynic.

Duty calls, I'm afraid. Please, excuse me.

She's faded from my mind.

I can't even draw her.

You've now found true happiness.

When I see you here on the porch...

Happiness you say?

Of course!

The other was madness, possession!

She practiced some kind of magic on you.

Unburden yourself at last of your sins.

Oh, come now!

Your wife keeps seeing me.

- Yet her sins are venial. - Unlike mine?

- Some remain unconfessed. - They excite you, I see.

You must bare your soul.

The things that went on!

Those nocturnal escapades... on horseback!

Stark naked!

- The succubus! - You spied?

Even at school I thought you a Peeping Tom.

Don't scoff.

My succubus makes your maid look a hag.

A body like that you've never seen.

You'll pay for that, don't think you won't.

At your service, Father. Always at your service.

I couldn't visit you. My mother kept me in.

Is there anything you need?

Any order you wish to give me?

Please, at least speak to me.

- Are you my mother? - Oh my God!

Paul!

Purple... red...

- Black. - Liar! There are no blacks!

Paul!

Your lesson.

Why are your hands shaking?

Daddy!

What have you brought me?

That's that. I've seen the doctor.

I can stop worrying about that rabies business.

I ran into Nawlocki. He was with Jelonek.

You know, that fellow who lives in Gorczyca.

They want to photograph the neighborhood tomorrow.

There's a lady with them. An actress.

On the stage.

Her name is...

... Berestajko.

My head...

I've a dreadful headache.

All day in town... it's difficult to bear an hour there...

I've got a terrible headache.

Let me pass, dearie. I've got a terrible headache.

Something awful's happened. I was... you know where...

Whose in the end I am?

You're...

you're...

No, not here! A bit too far!

But it's all right! We're practicing!

Some sports are undignified.

I've given up cycling.

It's an unhealthy...

...and ignoble invention, evidence of a stunted soul.

I'd like to see those sights by the river.

Would you care to show me them?

There's also a story about the rocks strewn...

...around the neighborhood.

The devil was playing the organ...

...in our local church when the lightning struck.

The devil? Yes...

Who knows? Maybe a demon? And what he did was...

...steal the organ and drop it as he fled.

The falling pieces turned into rocks.

Personally I prefer the explanation...

...given by the geologists.

How beautiful nature is, how alive!

My husband gave me... these roses this morning.

He picked them at dawn.

May I take one as a memento?

For shame! How unfair to our hostess!

Perhaps... You'd care to choose one too?

Let us now capture everything around us!

The wood, the moment, us!

This magic box has an ancestor. The camera obscura.

The sun rays pass through a little aperture...

...and reflect the image upside down on a plate.

I want to keep this rose.

We will go... and pick another one for you.

You may kiss me, no more.

Attention, dear neighbors!

The camera sees your souls!

Would the crown prince move over here?

The parents nearer, please.

Now, concentrate. Our picture will present a family.

In this artistic moment we shall experience...

...love, conjugal harmony, and filial devotion.

Gaze into eternity. Look posterity in the eye.

Eyes on the camera, dear neighbors!

You will forever remain young and beautiful.

Such a charming manor house!

Yes, my friends! As simple as that!

Behold this invention of genius!

Nature here is banal and commonplace.

Have you ever seen a submarine landscape?

I have a picture gallery which I show no one.

You carry on while I show her the chapel.

As nostalgic a sight as in the organ legend.

You can't! The park there's run wild.

Can't? Why ever not? In that case I insist.

The worthy spouse feeling amorous?

But with a reach longer his arm!

I invite you to a tennis lesson.

I'll come over as soon as the photographs are ready.

I've left you a present.

- Stop it! It's me! - I'll get rid of you!

It's me!

Calm down now. It was just a dream.

You're not hurt, are you? Say you're not!

Water...

Right away, dearest. Right away

Does it still hurt?

Only here... a kind of dread.

Do you love me?

Who else could I love?

Is there anyone better than you?

But why can't you be frank with me?

What's going on?

Those secrets with Paul...

Other secrets...

Very well.

I'll tell you. I've wanted to tell you for a long time.

Even show you the chapel.

But I was afraid. No, afraid is the wrong word.

I cannot tell you. I am bound by a secret oath.

You showed it to a stranger. Paul goes there.

Very well. Unseal my lips with a kiss.

Did she love me?

No! It was not love!

It was lust!

But an even stronger force was jealousy.

And her death came about in peculiar circumstances.

Before she died she found a way...

...of making the image of her body haunt me forever.

Have you seen it?

She hypnotized me.

If I die, she said,

I will live on inside you to the end of your days.

Tell me how to get rid of that curse.

Alone, I'm afraid. Though no, it's not fear.

It's a kind of paganism,

a belief in spirits.

We have it in our blood.

You too are prey to mysterious terrors.

Will you come with me?

- There? - Yes.

Let her see.

Let her watch us.

Sever it! Sever our love!

Know what I used to do?

Kneel before her. Like this!

She made the world vanish.

I was blinded! Bewitched!

If you love me...

Don't smile!

Don't smile I said!

It doesn't become you!

Look at the picture! What were you thinking?

"To the picture he prayed"? "But of stone it was made".

What are you doing?

Are you mad?

No, it's not my blood! It's her blood!

- I'm ashamed. Don't. - Let her watch.

Come, dearest.

Once and for all let the spell be broken.

I'm afraid of you!

Good! Be frightened!

Because you don't yet know me!

Stop making fun of me with this madman act!

How did this get here?

Look at it! I suppose it belongs to your Angelica!

She came down from there and left it here, did she?

You're home. Everything will be all right.

Fancy a big boy like you falling in...

But bed...

...will make you well in no time.

You're a man now...

she is beautiful.

I saw her from the window. She's beautiful.

An angel...

An angel in a meadow...

You're mine.

You understand me.

Angela! You again?

Go away!

You know how long I've endured Her in silence.

But that is past. He seems to have driven her out.

Obliteration...

Total obliteration...

He must exorcise her, not tear down walls.

He has promised to build a side-chapel for the church.

But then he has much to atone for.

Go now, my child.

I am glad that you have at last...

...got rid of that burden.

Sandra was...

is the person...

- ... I love most in the whole world. - I guessed as much.

Once, a bastard, always a bastard.

- Referring to Strumienski? - Who else?

Just who is he anyway?

A yokel who set his cap at a girl of breeding.

Lusted after her. And bought her.

It was she who made him a gentleman...

- my Sandra. - How can you say such things?

- Trash, not worthy of her. - Who are you to talk?

A man so inflamed by gross desire...

...that he dared to enter into an incestuous union...

...with his own cousin?

Paul, come here child.

Help me with this herbarium.

Fifteen years...

It seemed unlikely you would marry.

But look at you now.

A pleasure to observe.

And Paul...

he's what I envy you most.

I shall miss him. He's going away to school.

I remember your theory:

people are like plants.

There's no love among them, only the laws of nature.

Do you still believe that?

I go home tomorrow.

Thank you for everything. Nature is calling me.

Don't brood too much.

Haymaking... harvesting...

Ploughing...

That too is nature.

Angela...

Paulina...

No one has seen him for several days now.

I found him lying by the gate. Dead.

Bury him out of the dog's way.

Sweet Jesus! Stop!

THE END