Original subtitles

Still.

Wiegend.

I wish to enrol.

To enrol? Certainly?

This way...if you please.

Keine Bewegung, bitte.

Moment, bitte.

Au�ergew�hnlich...

Sir? Herr Benjamenta?

I'm here to enrol.

These are students I have hammered into Europe.

Bitte, setzen.

Asseyez-vous!

So...Name. Date of birth.

It's on the concession.

Und so weiter, und so weiter.

Etc, etc...

..etc, etc.

Das ist?

Ah...

Von Gunten.

Eintausend, zweitausend, dreitausend, viertausend,

f�nftausend.

Jakob.

A few other details, Herr von Gunten.

Wollen doch mal sehen.

Ja.

Ganz gute Reaktion.

I have sought entrance to the Institute Benjamenta as a student...

..in order to acquire the necessary knowledge for being a servant...

..as I have no high hopes of life.

I hope - no I am quite certain - that I am fit.

I...

Glitschig.

I hope I am quite certain that in some measure I am fit to be of service to someone in this life.

To someone in this life.

Jakob von Gunten wishes to affirm that he...

Drei, vier, f�nf, sechs.

..wishes to affirm that it is a matter of indifference to him what he is ordered to

Sechs, sieben, acht, neun...

..as his modesty knows no bounds.

Zw�lf.

Ja...ein kapitaler Zw�lfender.

Ugh. Agh.

It's good your hair is short.

There's an epidemic of tics...

..in the forest here.

You can put aside any idea of preferential treatment.

You're all one size here.

You can go now, von Gunten.

The class of life has already started.

Don't I get a receipt?

Go! Raus!

Kapitaler Zw�lfender.

Flammenartige...

I refer you to your manuals, the chapter headed...

..The Divine Duty of Servants.

Danke.

Jakob von Gunten.

Gut.

Herr Jakob, these are your fellow students.

Kraus.

Auclair. Barcelonnette.

Fridolin. Fisoloebede.

Schilinski. Nyepertatikva.

Jorgenson. Aarhus.

Hebling. Fnetenberbel.

Pepino. D'Agrigento.

Inigo. Euskadikoa.

One.

Service is a beautiful, gold flower, full of...

We have to learn the rules by heart.

There is but one lesson here...

..endlessly repeated...

..over and over again.

One will learn very little here.

And none of us will amount to much.

Later in life, we shall all be something very small and subordinate.

..are his ears at the word of command,

and folded and pressed at all times are his lips.

Except to say, 'Yes, sir, at once, sir. Of course, sir.'

Next page.

Herr Jakob, will you please join us next time?

Three.

The satisfaction of his master shall be the servant's heaven.

The woeful opposite is his annihilating hell.

Can't. Can't. Can't eat this. It's impossible.

I won't. I won't.

I won't stand up until you promise me a decent room to sleep in.

Fr�ulein Benjamenta, I beg of you.

You... You won't ever, never, never, never, have to complain about my behaviour again.

Is that so?

I shall never have to complain?

Such a fuss about where to lay your head.

Hm.

Go up.

Is this more to your liking?

Well, it's small...

and the window scarcely merits the name.

There are no curtains, but don't be angry, Fr�ulein, I like it.

Even if the sun never gets a look in.

I like it.

Thank you.

Well...

Well, now my comrades are sure to feel offended.

And now be quiet, Herr Jakob.

Class commences at eight. Kraus will collect you.

Good night.

I shall never let myself be rescued...

..nor shall I ever rescue anybody.

Why can't there be a light in the light, instead of just in the dark?

Perhaps I shall never put out roots and branches.

One day, some fragrance will issue from my being and I will flower.

I will bow my head, and my arms and legs will sag.

Everything will wither and fade...

..and I will be dead.

Not really dead.

Only in a certain sort of way.

Dead.

Then I will go on dying for perhaps another 60 years.

Instead of older, I grew younger.

Whoever thinks this possible will be happy for the rest of his life.

Once great snowflakes fell in the castle courtyard.

To live on here until the winter only.

Then when it begins to snow...

Oh...

It can snow upon us so gently...

so intensely...

..in such an immense...

..silence.

Neither beginning nor end, everything in a grey-white snowing...

..no more sky, no more air.

No more streets.

Rule the world.

Sometimes more life lies hidden in the opening of a door

than in a question.

Past and future circle about us -

now we know more...

..now we know less.

To the deer forests.

And what was the institute before it was the institute?

Is life sketching a more subtle sketch than I?

Here they find the things Fr�ulein Benjamenta teaches us...

..worth knowing.

It isn't much

and we are always revising.

But perhaps there is some hidden meaning to all these nothings.

We grasp a thing and it is as if it possessed us.

Not we possess it, but it us.

Sir, I have rescued the cat from the tall tree in the garden.

Be careful, Viscount, the steeple, it is wobbling!

Agh!

Be careful, Viscount, the church steeple, it is wobbling.

Agh!

Be careful...

Your Highness, don't eat the schnitzel. It's...

Agh!

The institute is no place for your vile fantasies, Duchess.

Please remove your hand from my knee.

Wake up, wake up, Duchess!

There's a fire in the nursery!

Wake up!

Wake up, wake up, Duchess! There's a fire in the nursery!

I have placed the children in the care of the chief of the fire brigade.

There is no need to worry.

Look, there are only minor burns to my left side.

You go to the children. Forget about me.

Yes, I forgive you for you know not what you do.

I forgive you, Your Highness, for you know not what you do.

Wake up, wake up, Duchess! There's a fire in the nursery!

Kraus?

He behaves as if he plans staying here for another century.

'Wait for it' is engraved on his skull.

How are you, Jakob? Are you all right? Have you settled in?

Of course, Fr�ulein. Thank you.

And you get on with the other students?

I respect them all without exception.

And yet you quarrel with Kraus, no?

Listen to me, Jakob.

God gives a Kraus to this world

in order to entrust it with a deep and insoluble riddle.

This riddle will never be understood because there isn't a single person alive...

..who will guess that there is some delicate meaning...

..behind this name, this...

..monosyllabic, inconspicuous Kraus.

No-one will ever be grateful to Kraus, nor is gratitude necessary.

Kraus will never go to ruin because there will always be great

and loveless difficulties confronting him.

I think that I...

I am perhaps the only person who realises what we have in Kraus.

Or have had in him.

Slaap soet.

The way they live here with us students...

Are these the inner chambers?

Will I ever reach them?

Nameless...

..monosyllabic...

..inconspicuous...

..Kraus.

Tell me, don't you find life here...

..sterile?

Sterile, huh?

My mind is dying.

Forgive me for speaking so...

..intimately...

..for being so weak.

You are probably secretly laughing at me.

But watch out!

See that wall?

I could throw you against it so hard, you would never see or hear anything again.

But don't be afraid.

I couldn't hurt you.

It's so nice to talk with you.

Like we are almost related.

The way you speak...

your gestures...

..your mouth...

..everything.

It's delightful to behave in that... rather weak sort of way with you.

Just think...

me...

your master...

..confessing to you.

My pathetic little worm...

..whom I could utterly crush...

if I chose to.

Give me your hand.

Good.

I have to tell you...

you've gained my respect...

..and now...

..I have a request.

Would you...?

Will you be my confidante?

Someone to share all of my secrets.

I'm asking you...Jakob.

But you may have time to think it over.

Please. Go.

Go now, Jakob.

It's time.

Kwart oor drie.

The same thing.

Over and over again.

Glaub mir, Lisa. Wirklich.

The moment I clapped my eyes on this figure,

I realised it was Jesus...

..as large as life, standing in front of me.

So...he wasn't dead.

He was right there before me in the snow...

..tenderly...beckoning to me.

And with his celestial but shy eyes all aglow,

full of wondrous...

..terrible light.

I threw my entire being into the apparition.

And I asked myself, 'What's Jesus up to, here, on the edge of the city?

Is there really anything for him to do in this world,

to concern himself with?

And if yes, what would be the most likely way he'd choose to...

..make himself known to us?'

And what do you think...

And a nice, big zero for you.

Look.

The sun.

Our plant.

How beautiful!

Johannes, it's 1:15.

It always strikes our planet at this time.

- Plant, I said. - Yes, planet.

Why are there no longer any real seasons here?

Johannes, we never speak any more.

Lisa...

People...

who know each other as well as we do...

..don't need to make small talk.

Who know each other as well as we do?

Brother and sister, I mean.

Snow White...

..waiting for life to stir her.

Lisa...

Lisa?

Dead.

To be nothing more than dead and smiling.

How I hurt beneath this sun.

I, who have never known the hot gusts of life.

Lisa...

Lisa...

I hadn't heard the Fr�ulein come in.

She laid her hand on my shoulder,

as if she were weary

and needed support.

I almost felt as though I belonged to her then.

Come with me, Jakob.

I want to show you something.

Oh, how beautiful it is here, Jakob.

lf only you could see it.

But you mustn't.

That is not for you.

But you may feel.

The ice, Jakob.

How it waits.

How patiently it waits and grows.

Kiss it, Jakob.

Kiss the ice.

It is I, your teacher, Lisa Benjamenta, who asks you.

Don't let it steal your breath away!

That taste is your blood.

Come away.

There is warmth, Jakob.

You can find warmth.

Look for it, Jakob.

Look for it.

Is your heart on fire? Yes.

It burns.

But can it hold back the ice?

It's still there, Jakob. The ice.

It's still waiting.

I can't feel you, Jakob!

I can't feel you.

Suddenly, I was back, sitting at my desk.

Fr�ulein Benjamenta was still standing behind me.

She stroked my cheeks.

But it was as if she were comforting herself,

not me.

Am I living in a fairy tale?

Am I living in a fairy tale?

Yours, so shyly.

So shyly.

Yours...

My young saplings...sap...

lf only...

I could be with...

..my dwarves.

My young saplings.

Saplings.

If only I could be with...saplings...

Paying attention...you're not...

Saplings...pay attention...

My young saplings.

Saplings.

My young saplings...

You're not paying attention.

I refer you to your manual.

The chapter headed The Divine Duty of Servants.

The section entitled...

Snares and Temptations...

..which is...

Can you hear me?

..which is...

Repeat after me.

Sobering, succinct...

..salutary advice...

..for those about to commit the sin of thinking themselves above their station.

This phenomenon is known as...

Pepino!

Hebling...

Inigo...

Inigo! Inigo!

Inigo!

This phenomenon is known as...

How everything is changing here.

No new students are enrolling at the institute.

Everything has become so...

..fragile.

Often the Fr�ulein stares out of the window, as if she were already living somewhere else.

Yet the lessons continue.

We're still caught in the grip of the rules and indulge in monotonous repetitions.

I've finally been inside the inner chambers...

..and I have to say...

..they don't exist.

Instead of a mystery, there's only a goldfish.

And Kraus has taught me how to clean out its bowl...

..change its water...

..and feed it.

Fr�ulein Lisa said something very strange to me.

'Jakob,' she said...

Jakob...

This must be for your ears only.

Something is gnawing at me.

Like this.

See how I am breathing on you?

That is how he's breathing his cold breath on me...

..from behind.

I'm sinking...

My breath is being crushed from me.

I am dying from...

..those who could have seen and held me.

I'm dying from...

..the emptiness of cautious and clever people.

Enough.

Now you must forget about all of this.

No-one must know.

Especially not my brother.

To be allowed to obey her...

As long as I obey her, she will live.

Whatever is forbidden lives...

..a hundred times over.

Herr Benjamenta...

Jakob von Gunten here.

You summoned me?

..or something very...

delicate.

You see, Jakob...

how I know the words by heart?

Because...

it is my heart that speaks them.

Jakob...

Couldn't we...

Could we try, you and l...

The low and the mighty.

Could we just try to stand up to life together?

Shoulder to shoulder.

Side by side.

But Herr Benjamenta...

You are my principal.

This place is finished. Don't you understand?

I'm not accepting any more students. You were the last one.

You thought...

..the...Institut Benjamenta...

..was one of those places here today...

and gone tomorrow?

It's you.

You are the one.

It's...all happened since you came.

Who are you?

Oh, Jesus...

Goodbye, Jakob.

Kiss me, Jakob.

Just once.

Be soft.

Shhh-shhh.

Enough.

No despair.

Everything is good just the way it is.

It's beautiful, isn't it...

..not to want anything any more?

From now on, it can only be evening in this world.

And all about me.

lmagine me...coming for you.

Surely...

the King is dead.

Twice over.

Jakob...

Jakob, I'm so...lonely.

Herr Benjamenta...

Sleep. Rest sweetly, dear Fr�ulein.

The Fr�ulein lay there lifeless,

just as she told me she would.

Her eyes were still open. Not very wide...

..but as if she was still smiling.

And it seemed to me that she must live for eternity...

..only to be for eternity no living being.

The sound of thy voice shall live on.

We withdrew, leaving the brother with the sister.

The Principal with the Principaless.

The lonely man with the lonely woman.

The living person with the dead one.

I shall surely go on living,

but what will become of you?

Do something.

Look behind the curtain...Jakob.

Look behind the curtain.

She may be hiding here.

Once...

..I was crowned with success.

The world smiled on me.

But I hated the world.

Hated existing.

Hated those I taught to take orders.

Hated myself for loving to give orders.

Everything.

I hated it all.

But no longer.

Now...

..that I'm not a king...

Now...

..I want to live.

I'm hungry for life!

Jakob...

Everyone has gone. Even Kraus.

I've pronounced the institute dead.

We are free.

Jakob...

Come with me.

Follow me...

..out of this world...

..for ever.

And it will snow upon us so intensely...

..in such immense silence.

Neither beginning nor end.

Everything in a grey, white...snowing.

No more sky.

No more air.

In us the sound of thy voice shall live on.