Original subtitles

STARRING

A FILM BY

DAMNATION

Let me in.

What for?

Let me in!

I've been thinking things over.

One has to learn to make one's own decisions.

I'm staying with my family.

I'm going to try to make my daughter

different than us.

She'll have a different life.

We won't have to explain things to her.

Let me in.

Go away.

Why can't you love me?

I love you and you know it.

You've got nothing to lose, Karrer.

All you're risking is your own skin.

Take a look around.

You visit five lousy bars a day.

And collapse into your bed at night.

It's time you moved out of here for a while.

What did you say?

You can't go on endlessly drinking cheap brandy.

All it does is put you in a daze.

It destroys your brain and puffs up your liver.

I knew an old bum whose hands were so shaky

he wrapped a scarf round his wrist to get the glass up to his mouth.

He didn't stay here long.

I've never been abroad.

A change would do me good.

You go to the given address,

pick up the package and bring it here.

You get 20% as traveling expenses.

Make it more tempting for me.

That's all you get.

It's not the money.

I just don't feel like leaving here.

It's up to you. I wanted to help...

What if...

I know someone...

who would collect the package,

for the 20%.

Plus petrol.

Petrol? You can't even drive.

I'm talking about someone else.

I can't trust just anybody.

Neither can I.

Finished

It's finished

It's all over

And there won't be another

It won't be good

Ever again

Never more

Maybe never more

It's like a nightmare

All of it

Maybe

Is there someone new?

Where will he come from... If he comes?

Or won't he come...

Ever again?

Maybe never more

Take it or leave it

What can you do?

You lose your words

Yet you cannot go

It's been over for a long time

It's good that utopia exists

Good to know I won't be here long

Take it or leave it

Say, honey, why?

Is it over?

Is it over now?

And there won't be another

It won't be good

Ever again

Maybe never more

He's got my soul

Things are going his way

Without him this world is barren

With him life is full and happy

How could it be over?

Silly

Never again

Maybe never more

It's over

All over

There's no end

No end now

It can't fade

And it won't fade

Ever again

Never maybe

Maybe never more

Leave my wife alone.

You're misunderstanding things.

All right.

The next time I find you here,

I'll break your neck.

He's completely insane.

Take my advice,

and don't go looking for trouble.

Go home now and go to bed.

All they can do,

is get you into trouble.

That woman is...

a witch.

And her husband has had it.

He'll never get away, with all that debt he's piled up.

It'll happen to anyone who makes a pass at that woman.

That woman's a leech.

She's a bottomless swamp

who sucks you in and swallows you up.

That's the sad end of it all, son.

Button up your coat properly.

You never know in this weather.

The fog gets into the corners, into the lungs.

It settles in your soul.

We'll know what to cling to once this world explodes.

Mouth to mouth, heart to heart, star to star.

But there'll be no shame anymore when the veil comes off.

I'm talking about Maya's veil.

That obscures people's minds.

Besides, Görgey was some strategist.

He told Paskievics:

"Look, if you want to kill Hungarians, do it through an internal war.

"What do you mean?

"All I'm asking is a million.

"To renew your faith and your honor!

"My honor? Who would be witness to that?

"Who would see about it..."

It's true...

I could offer this to someone else, but I thought of you.

The trip's only three days.

You pick up the parcel and bring it home.

- How much? - 20%.

All right.

This way, it's a nice family story.

But it finishes like any other story.

Because stories end badly.

All stories are about disintegration.

The heroes always disintegrate,

and they disintegrate the same way.

If they didn't,

it wouldn't be disintegration, but revival.

And I'm not talking about revival, but disintegration.

Irrevocable disintegration.

So, what's about to happen here

is just one form of ruin amongst the million that exist.

So if they put you in jail because of your debts,

don't count on temporary ruin.

Because this ruin is always final,

as ruin generally is.

At the same time,

there might just be a way to stop this ruin.

Mainly with money, and not by playing the hero.

Needless to say it doesn't help the inevitability of this breakdown.

Perhaps a single crack can be covered over...

I like the rain.

I like to watch the water run down the window.

It always calms me down.

I don't think about anything.

I just watch the rain.

I'm not attached to anything anymore.

I don't depend on anyone.

I'm going to leave.

Because nothing is stable here.

I can't trust anyone.

I know that I'm alone.

I know it well.

But I can't give up... and I won't give up.

Big city audiences will applaud me.

I'll be a winner.

I don't let other people drag me down.

One must return to beauty.

Rediscover life again.

The joy of great things.

The taste of victory and success.

And that's where you've failed.

Because you've given up.

You've killed the love and decency in yourself.

Things will end badly for you.

Because one cannot live without love and decency.

You really might be stronger than me.

You don't know what I can do.

And what I can't do.

On the house.

Do you know the Old Testament, young man?

"They have blown the trumpet

"and made everything ready,

"no one will go into battle, for my wrath is on the whole crowd.

"Outside is the sword, inside are plague and famine.

"Those in the country shall die by the sword,

"those in the city are devoured by famine and plague.

"The fugitives who escape shall flee to the mountains,

"moaning like the doves of the valleys,

"each for his own sins.

"Hands shall go limp, knees shall become weak as water.

"Horror shall descend upon them.

"They shall throw their silver into the streets,

"their gold shall be unclean.

"Their silver and gold cannot save them on the day of the Lord's wrath.

"It will not satisfy their hunger, or fill their stomachs,

"for it has caused them stumble into sin.

"I turn my face away from them,

"as they desecrate my treasured place.

"The land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of violence.

"I will bring the most wicked of the nations

"to take possession of their houses.

"When terror comes,

"they shall seek peace, but there shall be none.

"They shall seek in vain a vision from the prophet,

"they will receive no teaching from the priests,

"and no counsel from the elders.

"The hands of the people of the land shall tremble.

"I shall deal with them according to their conduct...

"and by their own standards I shall judge them.

"Then they shall know...

"that I am the Lord."

I see you have to go. I won't keep you any longer.

- Let's go out for dinner. - Our business is finished.

There's nothing for you here.

I don't understand.

What don't you understand?

I still don't understand.

You will one day.

But I want to understand now.

- Then understand now! - But I don't understand.

You will one day.

Let's go out for dinner.

Let go of me!

Dirty little snooper.

Calm down!

You won't get away with it. No way.

You'll rot like a rat!

- You're totally crazy. - Leave me alone!

Let me go!

Leave me alone!

- Take it easy! - Get out of here!

- Leave me alone! - Stop it!

Leave me alone! Get out of here!

...they all fell, and were swept away

by the cold winter winds.

There was a message from

my baby on one of the leaves:

Goodbye my love, my darling,

we can't live our lives together.

Autumn and the grim winter passed,

springtime came again,

there was a message

from my baby on one of the leaves...

Goodbye my love, my darling,

we can't live our lives...

The leaves from the silver birch have fallen,

they all fell and were swept away

by the cold winter winds.

There was a message from my baby on one of the leaves:

Goodbye my love, my darling,

we can't live our lives together.

...springtime came again.

There was a message from

my baby on the leaves:

Goodbye my love, my darling...

- Leave me alone. - Listen to me.

- I'm sorry... - I've had enough of you.

I didn't mean to hurt you. Stop, or I'll kill you.

Leave me alone.

I didn't mean to hurt you. You know I didn't.

Get away from me.

You're right about everything.

I admit you're right about everything.

You know that I love you.

I couldn't lie to you now. I will change.

I promise I'll change, but you have to help me.

Hit me if you want to...

When you looked at me yesterday,

I realized something.

I realized that, between you and a world forever out of reach,

there is a strange and empty tunnel.

I don't know anyone else who knows that road.

You're standing alone at the entrance to the tunnel,

because you know something I can't even find a name for,

something deeper and more ruthless

than I can ever understand.

I realize that I can never get closer to that world.

I can only long for it, because it's hidden by a light and warmth

that I cannot bear.

I've neither been able to believe in it nor to renounce it.

Yesterday I realized I had made a fatal mistake.

If I were to lose you,

it would be the unforgivable end of me,

because I know nothing of that unnameable world.

Since you are part of it,

you mean the world to me. That can never change.

Please don't repudiate me.

Let me see you and I'll do anything for you.

Kick me, spit on me and I'll return again and again

for you to kick and spit on.

Because you are right,

you are ruthlessly right.

And I really do love you.

Are you just going to stand there?

I sit by the window and look out completely in vain.

For years and years I've been sitting there,

and something always tells me that in the next minute I'll go mad.

But I don't go mad the next minute,

and I have no fear of going mad...

because fear of madness would mean

that I'd have to cling to something.

Yet I don't cling to anything.

I cling to nothing, but everything clings to me.

They want me to look at them.

To look at the hopelessness of things.

To watch as a scruffy dog outside my window

walks up to a puddle and has a drink,

under the pewter sky in the torrential rain.

They want me to watch the pitiful effort

everyone makes when trying to speak

before they drop into the grave.

But there's no time, for they're already falling.

And they want this irreversibility of things to drive me mad,

but the next second they want me not to go mad.

Once, I almost talked about it with a woman.

I told her that I hated her, that I'd never loved her.

Yet I didn't hate her, just like I'd never loved her.

I wanted to know if it made sense to speak at all.

I told her that I hated her tenderness, her faithfulness,

her being so neat and precise.

I was revolted by the blind trust with which she clung to me.

She looked at me disapprovingly

and went off to heat up my supper.

I just stood there and yelled.

For three days, we stayed inside. She kept walking behind me.

She only started crying the second day.

She stood crying in her nightie.

She didn't sob, she just whimpered. Just wailing without moving.

Then she crawled into the corner and wouldn't move.

I was looking at her nightie.

All I saw was the nightie, that lacy nylon nightie.

Then I jumped on her.

I pulled it and tore it, I ripped it.

But she still didn't understand,

she just kept clinging to me and repeating something to me.

Then she went into the bathroom and locked the door.

I just watched the buckets of coal in the air...

and counted them.

Then I started all over and counted them again.

I don't know how long it lasted.

It was dawn by the time I broke the door down.

It was what I'd expected,

but even so it shocked me.

I couldn't believe

that frail body had so much blood in it.

Just as I'd never have believed

there'd be somebody I could trust the way I trust you,

somebody who could make me believe it's worth speaking.

I know you understand that I love you and that it's not over.

And that you're able to step out of this story like any other.

And I don't want anything...

only that we should get out of this pigsty forever

and never lose each other again.

So now, it's me you want to look at?

I'd do the basest things to make you choose me.

Maybe.

But my husband returns tomorrow evening.

The problem is, I'm afraid of children.

Because those innocent bright blue eyes,

those blond braids,

those tinkling voices,

hide a stealthy and ruthless power,

and its purpose is to maintain

the madness of hopelessness.

To give a new incentive

to the reality beating on our eardrums,

to ridicule all resistance

without the tiniest chance of salvation.

Yet they proclaim a minute chance of salvation,

resurrection itself,

and in such a way that we cannot escape its elemental continuity.

Perhaps it just means that I've given up,

that I'm a coward, a godawful coward.

I don't even dare hope my fate will change for the better.

All I do is make excuses for my cowardice through nausea.

How about thinking of something other than yourself for once?

Can't you understand?

I've grown old.

I'm a wreck who doesn't dare to do anything.

That's the surest sign of getting old.

Even before your teeth fall out,

before you go bald,

before you destroy your liver,

your courage departs and you haven't the guts

to do what you would have done before

to try for the slightest chance of success.

Your problem is that you see things from your perspective.

You think how you feel about yourself or others

makes a difference?

You should realize that things have an order in the world

and you can't do anything to upset that.

Other people get old, too.

Do you think we're all cowards?

No.

I know that you yourself are just cautious.

All right. Drink up. I'm closing.

Give me another one.

This is the last.

I wish I knew

what makes you think you'll survive anything and anyone?

Why don't things have an effect on you?

I don't understand that.

There are lots of things you don't understand, Karrer.

Doesn't matter.

Drink!

You, too!

There's always a chance to escape.

There may be cracks in the fabric of things.

But there's always a chance.

Only you won't get away with it.

If I don't break your neck, someone else will.

Things will end badly for you, I'm sure.

I'll drink to that.

And to you!

I can't put up with your friend.

What's wrong with him?

I don't like people

who try to cheat you from the start.

He has a lot to learn before he takes me on.

He shouldn't try it at my expense.

He cheated you?

The package has been opened.

- Things are missing. - Why not ask?

He'd say it was damaged on the journey.

Is there a lot of damage?

I have my safety margins.

But my reliability's at stake.

You know me,

people can talk to me,

discuss things.

I've got a good heart.

He should be glad I pulled him out of trouble.

I'll never understand his kind.

I'm just sitting here mourning for you, darling.

Counting the time until I'm seventy.

We never had a son,

and others had more to lose.

But I won't see you after death, love.

Because I didn't believe in it.

And you had your doubts.

It's just around twilight when I think of you.

I see your tired forehead in the dust.

What a lovely colorful crowd. A party.

Dance.

Arms and legs, waists and shoulders,

working in perfect harmony.

The way they speak...

movements,

glances that raise the dancer over earthly troubles.

The young are so lovely.

Believe me,

there is nothing like finding one another,

when there is music that warms the heart.

Two hands clasped together,

one foot senses where the other will step.

And follows, no matter where the other steps.

Because it believes they'll be flying from now on.

From every swing and turn.

Who knows? Perhaps...

it is flying.

Go on, young man,

before it's too late.

Believe me, there is nothing worse in a man's life

then when he realizes that those he loves,

those he feels are friends...

well, when suddenly it turns out

that they're on a fatal path

and cannot find the proper way.

Because their sins prevent them

from ever becoming honest citizens again,

because they've lost the chance forever

to live freely with a clear conscience

under the protection of the law, enjoying their days.

So... it was this awful inner tension that brought me here,

setting the affectionate friend in me aside,

to fulfill my duties,

because of my deep respect for order.

Please do not consider my report a confidential case.

Not cheap tattling.

And I authorize you, if necessary,

to mention my name.

Since I've told you everything,

aware of my responsibilities,

and facing all the consequences...

POLICE

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