Original subtitles

[Music]

[Music] gemma must we have this durge well with her groaning and the candles burning it's like a

chapel of rest in here it's funny how you never liked opera father did he used to say "Young

lady used to say to me one day you too will be old enough and wise enough to appreciate the

misery of this." You know when your father died I worried terribly about the the empty space that

that weightless joyless void one floats in well of course I needn't have worried at all that space

was soon filled by an endless stream of problems one daughter unhappily living with someone another

unhappily not living with someone you've gone completely eccentric and all three of you looking

like extreme cases of anorexia well there's no need to worry about food and me i have one rule

that's all no rubbish can remember when you used to love rubbish you didn't care whether it was in

tuned in batter or topped with ointment down it went i've changed haven't I i I've become aware

of my body its complexity its miracle i've become attuned you've become a crank i mean look at this

tea it's not real tea real tea is bad for you turns everything brown your stomach will just lie

there like an old seller you've been reading those health books again they're written by Cranks too

they're all on jinseng i'm telling you mother food has become one of life's hazards man is preserving

his food and killing himself i'm acutely aware that it's a toss up who goes first me or my long

life milk but you young ones you're too concerned with dying you're all charging through life as if

you were running for the last bus well so we are even breathing is dangerous it used to be a happy

useful thing now we all go around with lungs like Hoover bags well they'll soon put that right won't

they you must give man credit for something he tries very hard to replace the things he ruins

oh you mean new hearts and kidneys and arms and legs we won't go limping through old age anymore

you know we're going to go cavorting through it on a skateboard oh I look forward to that not me

when I go I don't want anyone else's bits and pieces coming with me there aren't they lovely

well they're only wax only wax that's like looking at the Mona Lisa and saying "It's only paint." I

don't know what they go on about her for either she looks stupid to me enigmatic the experts say

people look like that when they're on pot looking like that is easy it's painting someone looking

like that that's hard i think I'll put this one here reuben's there's another one oh what's he

done then well all his bodies are wrong horrendous feet great rib cages seething muscles and yet the

real man is completely obliterated by a fig leaf how's Danny i have no idea nice boy i think I'll

put this one in the bedroom reminds me of your father have some more tea same build mother Danny

is not in the least bit like my father not in any single way no no what I meant was he smiles like

your father when father smiled it came from in here all Danny does is show his teeth nice teeth

is that all you've got to say i didn't say anything not with your mouth but your face did

all right i can't wear it can I what this dress I can't wear it on Friday looks great what about

this is it a bit too low well put it this way he'll know what he's getting he knew it and he

hates that cleavage he hates it why did he say he said he likes subtlety well wear your black

one then oh no it doesn't suit my skin i look like I've just risen it makes you look thinner

why am I fat where oh god he hates the hat oh look i don't know why you worry you're you aren't you

you've got a cleavage funny skin and a bit of fat and deoned all three of them every night

last week mother it is no good sitting there trying to mesmerize me with your maternal gaze

i am not marrying Danny i'm not seeing Danny i'm not aware Danny exists who is Danny and

don't tell me that I'm 30 every day you come to drink tea and tell me that I'm 30 i know I'm 30

i look at my watch to see how early it is i look at my face to see how late it is well

I think you're being a little dramatic i mean 30 is not the end of everything it's only the

beginning of the end of everything mother do you know I keep seeing things that unnerve me things

that make me sure I'm right married ladies in cafes with red fingernails and blue eyeshadow

the only relationship their husbands have is with their briefcases so there they sit demolishing

chocolate gate and gossiping to the great clang of their gold charm bracelets people who sit in

cafes clanging their bracelets are often happy i clang mine relentlessly i know is this a case of

young child looking at old parent and thinking "Oh god is that where I'm going?" No it's a case of

old child looking at young parent what nonsense just because you've been let down by a man you

think you've got a degree on life not being let down by them is the hard bit when they love you

and marry you and buy you houses and give you children come on you loved all that you loved

it of course I didn't love it i loved your father it came with him do you know something mother do

you realize we're free you and I untethered here we are grazing in a little field and somebody's

left the gate open yes well I'm too old and too wise to bolt now well I'm not i'm going

to go tearing through those buttercups i'm going to go up the hill and into the wind i'm going to

stretch my legs and stretch my eyes and get a job he said I was beautiful but it wasn't him

talking it was Lust it talks a lot lust i was wearing me pink with the black chameleia all

chameleas are white this one was black he said I was his sanctuary and you don't have to be a

bird hey you know that one downstairs how old do you think her mother is it's a funny color green

you can get away with it if you're a bush her husband was a surgeon well that's not right i

fancy surgeons i could understand if you were going out with a surgeon i look like a bloody

labernum tree and he hates labernum trees oh how'd you know he hates labernum trees you've

only been out with him once did he shake your hand and say "Hello my name's Steven and by the

way I hate Leurnham trees." No that's all the way we do why don't you wear your red one with

the splits he's seen that well he can't expect you to wear something different every time can he

who does he think you are shirley Bassy why don't you wear your Indian then with the jingly belt oh

no i sound like the cat coming home well it says in here that your lucky color is tangerine where

your tangerine i wore that the very first time I spoke to him so what it was on the phone wasn't it

dear Miss Palmer I am pleased to inform you that a possible vacancy has occurred

i would like to hold a preliminary interview in my office at 11:30 on Tuesday next [Music]

[Music] hey uh your back wheels going around did you know [Music]

Nice bum you've got there [Music]

[Music]

ah hello hello

sit down

miss Palmer isn't it yes i am he and I am a social training officer now why do you want to do the

job it's not pleasant you know problems are not pleasant squalor is not pleasant and sometimes

people are not pleasant are you a good listener are you tolerant sympathetic understanding can

you keep your tempo when confronted with non-stop agitation and are you cool calm and collective yes

do you prefer working with adults or children i don't mind now let me see you're you're not

married are you no I'm not married yes okay now some of the situations one finds oneself in this

sort of work are somewhat intimate now by that I mean we are dealing with people who need help and

they come to rely on you as their direct link with hope would you describe yourself as an

emotional person yes sensitive yes vulnerable yes do you suffer from anxiety yes permanent mixture

of neurosis and hysteria supposing I were to tell you I had just been made redundant had

lost my entire family had nowhere to live and was bankrupt how would you respond i'd kill myself

you do want the job don't you yes yes yes it would be very easy for me to say

that I'm a rock of mental strength but the fact is I don't know just lately someone

uh people friends someone let me down i'd like to get back with the human

race i can't guarantee however that me and whoever I'm supposed

to be helping won't end up holding hands and jumping off a roof together

i suggest you apply for the vacancy fill in the form and send it to the address at the top the

panel of which I am part will decide there will be a training period of course in the meantime

any voluntary social work you can do will stand in your favor when it comes to making the decision

good morning madam welcome to my outdoor cafe

sorry about the draft uh perhaps if I close the sky

how have you been i've got a job i've thought about you well I've almost got a job i found

your ankle chain in my bed social worker still there if you want it I have to go

to the Citizens Advice Bureau every Tuesday afternoon oh Johnny how could you how could

you after not having seen me for weeks invite me to your bed in the third sentence four how

could you because that's where we'll find each other again what about my face it's okay and

in here what about in here oh that oh Jesus i never worked that out you haven't changed

have you no no still make love like a volcano so Gloria must be pleased about that gloria

gloria who the hell is Gloria my ex friend the one that you see you but my flat there's

something missing it It's a sort of smell yes yes i think it's that stuff you used to spray

all over your body and my walls and my mirror i didn't use it anymore oh just for me was it

everything I did was for you Danny once

you look silly on a bike did you know that

well I don't know why you bought it if you don't like it i bought

it for Friday didn't I i thought you said you didn't suit maroon

well I did in the shop why don't you wear your pink see-through he hates

pink the funny things nails it was this question mark that drew the way

I feel about life keep on growing after you're dead an exclamation

mark would have been even better that's growing after you're dead

you're in love with this one aren't you i suppose I could wear the green without the yellow spray i

can tell you've got that stunned look our parrot used to get it when you slam the door of its cage

does he like parrots so I start voluntary work tomorrow 2 and a half days a week at a citizen's

advice bureau you won't like it it's full of people with problems to help me get the job i

had this friend who was a social worker she had to feed this group of underprivileged children

they used to rush all over the table sticking hot chips up each other's noses i'd rather do that

than incubate in an office she had this need to comfort the human race they almost eliminated her

from it i don't need to comfort the human race i need to comfort me if after careful consideration

of life and its events there is only me left then I must pamper me mustn't I oh you should be at

home pampering a husband being pregnant being sick these are the things I recognize that they

might not sound very attractive but they are the root of life which in the end produces the flower

sitting there eating yogurt staring at life like some anti-uclear device you're becoming a crank

excuse me i I couldn't help hearing you're right to be free you know to to to eat good things and

and and have good thoughts this world this this sadly polluted universe in which we live it's it's

like a great round light you know and and and we the people are mau this drawn and caught by this

thing everything is dying the fish are dying the birds are dying all things green are We are dying

slowly positively dying young man at the moment I am dying and mine is a particularly unfortunate

kind of death because it is of boredom mother he's talking to me yes well of course he's talking to

you he senses things like wheat German musli now he's probably on jinseng what you mean judge re

Gemma Palmer this is my mother Mrs palmer well you're a nice lady you got a nice daughter it's

a nice day do you live over here yeah yeah i've been kind of looking for myself for a long time

now all these all these hang-ups you know i mean the air we breathe the food we eat the

nuclear scene i got to thinking that if I left America and found a pure organic

place to live this would be okay well it's a whole lot worse over here but

I guess I'll stick around and instead of worrying about dying I'll just concentrate

on getting together a relationship with the environment say uh do you like eating dead

animals i was married once you know boy was that the end it was it was like I'd built this cage

around myself you know nothing came in nothing went out just me in my cage or and the occasional

visiting thought did you ever get married no no i used to dream about it but I always woke

up in time that's real clever you have a nice face everything in its right place you know what I mean

thank you i often wondered about that of course I don't know about inside your head but comes out of

your mouth real good i'm glad you stayed free look young man I have spent 30 careful years preparing

my daughter for that cage as you call it now yesterday she was going to go running up a hill

through buttercups and into the wind fantastic now you come along trailing your beard in your

orange juice pinning her with a lot of verbal garbage about freedom freedom my spotty friend

is loneliness and loneliness is why you are trying to chat up my daughter now I suggest that you go

and concentrate on your pure organic relationship with the environment and it'll save you breathing

germs all over our lunch she's some mother i'm glad she's yours it was nice talking to you i

wish you peace we'll get that when you've gone mr palmer you practice cannibalism with real dignity

you're so rude now that is how you get when you live alone you'll be like that soon how's Danny

still making love like a volcano you've seen him very briefly i was sitting in the park eating a

sandwich oh my god you're like a tourist dropped from the sky said a few words and do you know the

entire time we together we were together Danny never mentioned my face he sort of avoided it

when you get to my age you'll be grateful for that if the world went dark and stayed that way

it wouldn't matter to Danny he could conduct a whole relationship by braille perhaps he's

frightened of your face they're curious things faces they sit on top of our bodies like little

barometers forecasting the weather whether we're pleased or whether we're not whether

we care or whether we don't yes with Danny was whether we will or whether we won't

josie it's half 1 have you run work oh god this is my lunch hour i wish you never met this fella ever

since he asked you to the do tonight I've been jeopardized no sleep no peace no lunch i'm not

going what do you mean you're not going you've got to go you bought three new dresses you'll

hate all of them look let's be psychological you try them on we'll pick the best you go

have a fantastic time tonight then tomorrow we take them all back and say they're all too small

oh come on Chelsea what's a fella anyway there are millions of them falling off the edge of

the world not like him they're all like him fellas they're like garden peas the pods are

all different but the peas are all the bloody same i'm not going my hair's all wrong me face is all

wrong and I broke a nail if that's him tell him I'm not going hello is Josie there just say she's

not going she's not going oh I see you've got a nice sexy voice what are you doing tonight then

what did he say he was all choked up yeah he's like that

[Laughter] do come in sit down mrs dean won't be a moment she's just gone to get some information

i was born in this country this precious stone set in the Silver Sea now what's left of it you

tell me she won't be a minute when I go wandering lonely as a cloud it's not the golden daffodils

I see it's o to foreign tourists no room for the likes of me it's my first day here and did those

fe in ancient time walk upon England's plastic rubbish bags did they did they

not on your sticky little price tickets they did she won't be a minute

here I'll tell you something the green and pleasant land has been raped raped

by progress oh to be in England land of microchips and redundant persons yeah

we got strontium at the bottom of our garden right Mr williams off you go we'll see you tomorrow

land of dope and toy [Music]

we get a lot of cranks they come to air their hang-ups what we do is give them

the floor for a few moments and then point them towards the door okay ready

for our first session ready right come in please all you have to do

is listen and learn some people only want general information others need much more

danny danny Sl oh come in Danny i'm Mrs dean and this is Miss Palmer miss Palmer is training and

if you have any objection to her presence you can say so uh no uh no objection no sit down

now how can we help just talk well I um I had um I had this uh relationship with a girl well

well she wasn't a girl she was 30 uh I uh I I liked her a lot you know a lot of a lot not

because she was beautiful or or anything like that in fact no well she looked funny in the

morning i'd throw back the bed clothes and and well there she'd be like sort of like a little

pile of ironing with legs and arms and and making yawning noises well she had this uh

funny walk and this this way of gritting her teeth anyway she let me down in what way in the worst

possible way you mean she went with someone else no no no no no it's much worse than that

what then she failed to understand when I went with somebody else

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