Original subtitles

People knowledgeable in film often talk of the golden age of Swedish film.

It is thought to have started in 1916 and have ended already in 1920.

But there are different opinions as to the time-span...

The concept "golden age"

meant that Sweden was influential in the world of cinematography.

Not only artistically, but also economically.

A few of the films are still well known outside of the inner circles.

I'm thinking of The Phantom Carriage

Sir Arne's Treasure

Erotikon

and The Saga of G�sta Berling

Masterpieces like Ingeborg Holm

Terje Vigen

The Outlaw and His Wife

The Saga of Gunnar Hede (The Blizzard) and many others and gone and forgotten.

The film industry is merciful and cruel at the same time.

It's all shadows anyway...

Three giants carried the Swedish golden age.

Two film artists and one businessman.

All three of them real geniuses

each in their way.

The directors were Viktor Sj�str�m

and Mauritz Stiller

The administrator and visionary businessman was Charles Magnusson.

Their joint efforts resulted in a filmic caliber

without comparison in the world.

Almost all of the work was concentrated to a couple of studios in Stockholm.

First on Liding�, and later in R�sunda

where Magnusson erected the worlds most modern

most well equipped and elegant film studios.

Mauritz Stiller directing

In the shadow of this fervent eruption

ardent film making was in progress in every corner of the country.

Simultaneously, movie theatres were being built.

They grew like mushrooms from the soil

and were of varying appearance and quality.

From imposing palaces holding thousand viewers

to abandoned garages

with 60 wooden chairs

and a sullen linen cloth on the far wall

and a poorly maintained projector in the front

Though most remarkable

was probably the eager activities that took place in Gothenburg.

At first on a back yard at J�rntorget

and a year later in a relatively well equipped film studio

out in Otterh�llan, on the outskirts of the city.

It was the already world famous photographer Hasseblad

who had started up his own operation

This work was so diligent

that it annoyed the giants in Stockholm.

The driving force

in this remarkable activity

was Georg af Klercker.

In his own way an equal to Sj�str�m and Stiller.

During 3 summer half-year periods Calle's New Underwear

from May to the end of October the years 1916-1918

he produced 18 feature films and 10 shorts

He wrote the scripts

directed and acted.

The city's theatres provided him with excellent actors.

And from Hasselblads photo company Death Race Under the Circus Dome

came 3 technically able cameramen.

The work pace was incredibly high.

They went from one recording to the next

without transition and without preparation.

The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter

Reveille

28 recorded film

made on a total of 18 months.

It's almost hard to apprehend.

Many of the films also became big hits.

In the Shackles of Darkness

Between Life and Death

Children of the Night

Love's Victories

The Mystery on the Night Before the 25th

Thus the giant Charles Magnusson was bothered by the competition.

He purchased, and closed down.

The work came to an end.

Georg af Klercker faded away

became silent and kept quiet.

He burnt his notes, drafts and scripts.

The performance we now are about to see

is about af Klercker's humiliating meeting

with the almighty motion picture executive Charles Magnusson.

This meeting is entirely fictive

and probably never took place.

But that which has never taken place

might be true anyway.

The Last Gasp

A slightly tinted morality

- Yes? - Lieutenant af Klercker is waiting.

How does he look?

By all means, fairly presentable.

Although not all sober.

- Would the manager like... - No no, let him in.

How long has he had to wait?

Almost an hour?

Am I to interrupt at some point?

I'll go to lunch after af Klercker and will be back by 2.

That won't be needed, thank you.

- Might I go to the dentist at 4? - Of course Ms. Holm, do so.

By the way, you can copy this account for me.

I need it for the movie theater conference tomorrow.

Very well, Mr. Magnusson.

Charlie Boy?

Howdy, Charlie!

How nice to finally see you again!

Dear bastard!

You old tramp!

Please sit, sit...

May I get you something? Some whisky?

A cigar or shall I get some coffee?

What?

Charlie treats you with strong drinks at 10.30 in the morning'?

Then doom must be near...

But I'm not saying no.

And a cigar heightens the pleasure

If you're born to rejoice you must rejoice

as Peer Gynt so well put it.

What?

Is this the liquor cabinet?

Well I got to say, Charlie...

No sit, I'll pour myself.

You want some?

- - That's what I thought...

God almighty, Charlie...

What a place you've gotten, huh?

Persian rugs, eh?

And a Bonnard, I think. That's a Bonnard on the wall?

Well no, how are you supposed to know that...?

But the decor...

It's superb, Charlie!

Huh?

That cost plenty!

Of course it did.

Everything's new and big:

big studios, big movie theaters

a big office...

Big artists, big money!

And that secretary, she's not bad, eh?

She smells of class and exuberance.

Have you gone for her?

C'mon and tell Jojje now...

Yeah...

It's remarkable

to watch you here

in your splendor!

What's so funny?

I can't help remembering our beginnings out on Liding�,

We'll never have that much fun again, Charlie. Eh?

Well, maybe you're right.

Do you remember Death Race Under the Circus Dome?

Eh?

Of course you remember your soul's first little monster.

You stood there with script in hand and tears in your eyes...

No Georg, I didn't cry.

O but you did, you did.

Viktor and Mojje had read it

and said that they wouldn't touch that kind of crap.

Sure, those guys we're cocky already in those days.

I took the script and read it standing up

while you blew your nose in your delicate hankerchief.

And I said:

"This is a great story, Charlie

it is, don't be sad

I'll direct it!" Yeah...

Then I asked Viktor if he wanted to do the lieutenant's father.

Didn't want to.

He was sore because I was to direct. I was only studio manager...

that hypocritical modest bastard thought.

� votre sant�, mon ch�re Victor!

And I did the part myself.

Well, it looked like shit.

But Calle Barklind was good.

And Selma...

Imagine, Selma...

So beautiful...

Seductive.

Merry and kind

even though she was over 40

She was enough for all of us.

Isn't that true, Charlie?

It became...

a nice little film

Got a lot of recognition, especially in Denmark. You remember?

It did...

Victor thought it was shit, though, but that was no surprise.

Yeah...

He became big later...

Incredibly big, with Terje Vigen

Who could've thought, that glistening tart?

No, no, no, I'm not bitter.

Not in the least, no...

But to be honest, I've never seen anything more deplorable than that...

The Outlaw

By all means...

I'm not mad at Victor, I'm not...

But I know it was he who schemed me out of Liding�.

Talking behind my back

and fooling around with Selma.

Gee, Charlie...

How time has run with us and our cinematographies?

And you're at the top, you're the triumphant, Charlie...

The biggest and most powerful.

Now when Ivar Krueger has entered your swell company.

How much is it, five millions? Five millions...

Well...

And here I sit at your place...

With the honor to look at you.

Though I don't know if you're looking back at me.

Your glasses are so awfully thick

it makes you more cross eyed than ever.

Here I am with you, Charles Magnusson...

I guess I'm more of a supplicant. Haven't made a movie since...

The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter that was the summer of... 1917.

And now it's...

Yes, it's a long time ago.

I might have wondered why you haven't...

Stayed in touch.

After all I made 25 movies in 3 summers, most of them an economic success.

Ok, I didn't always get good reviews.

But my God... that's how it is!

I mean, the worst time was probably...

Love's Victories

when the reviews complained over Selma's dresses.

Oh, well...

But she did look terrible, I know...

This is how it was: Selma had gone up to Stockholm

to find dresses for Love's Victories

I was stuck with that damn mother-in-law comedy.

And she runs into Mojje Stiller

He was at Leja's Fashion with his little darling, he was working on...

eeh... what the hell was the title

of that disgusting fag movie... Yes, The Wings!

Sure, were looking for cute ladies underwear for it.

And they meet Selma and there's kisses and hugging

a big reunion, well well...

You know how charming he can be, that horse face.

And Selma told them she was

trying out dresses for Love's Victories

and then Stiller and that crow

got all excited and said that

they would help her with that, sure!

Everything that Selma had chosen was dismissed

and Mojje and the fairy enjoyed themselves like kings

in producing the most ugly, unbecoming, corny

ludicrous things that they could find

for the poor chubby, gullible, and grateful Selma.

Dresses for 4.800 kronor in the end.

Almost a fifth of our budget!

You can imagine what it felt like when she showed her dress.

I begged her, pleaded and cried

but no

Selma wouldn't budge.

Stiller was a real artist, a true aesthete

He knew women...

He'd taken his time to help look for

the most beautiful dresses

for little stupid Selma, and I ought to be grateful for it, and shut up!

I guess that's where it snapped between Selma and I.

Sure, we had messed it up a bit

but we had a damn fine friendship.

We cared for each other, we did...

Oh, not at all...

I'm not bitter, no no...

No I'm not bitter in the least.

But it got a bit lonely.

Yeah, Selma ran off...

Sure, heck yeah, that was OK...

That worked out...

I mean, everything works out...

Sure...

"Alles redet sich", as Germans say.

The sands of time heals all wounds

Sure, everything's fine as long as you make an effort.

You, my Caesar, if anyone, knows that...

And then there was that awkward incident during the shooting of...

Eh...

The Decline

The Decline, yeah, I wrote the script and directed.

It was, let's see... autumn in Gothenburg, cold as hell

Snow in October in Gothenburg. Can you believe it?

Snow on the roof of the studio.

Well, the film is about morphine...

I had tried it some, had an understanding doctor.

Sure...

A tooth root here and...

insomnia too...

It was exhausting, that summer of 1916.

Had to edit the films.

The private life had its way...

So...

So there we are, in the studio...

Gabriel... Sibyl...

You know, Smolova?

That was a woman, Charlie...

But she had her fianc� in the studio all day

so you couldn't intervene with a piece of paper, even.

So beautiful...

Sweet and funny...

And then Gabriel is supposed to say something in the middle of a shoot.

"Look at that", he's supposed to say.

But he gets it wrong, he says it: "at look that".

And he stares at me with his bulging fish-eyes...

"At look"!

"At look"!

"At look"!

It was incredibly hilarious, you see.

Gabriel is a great comic talent, he is.

So we all started laughing

and I just can't stop laughing...

I just keep on laughing

and loaf out into the snow there outside of the studio...

And stand there laughing until...

I pee myself...

Then without knowing it

how the hell it happens I...

start crying uncontrollably, become dizzy and have to vomit...

I lay down in the snow...

To cool down perhaps...

Because I'm boiling, you see.

the whole cadaver is shaking and boiling, you see, Charlie...

And then...

Sibyl comes out and...

holds me in her arms and...

and the others carry me inside to the studio again...

And there was no more shooting that day.

The following two days Manne G�thson takes over.

But soon I'm on my feet again

and everything is back to normal.

More or less...

But after the shooting and editing of The Decline

I check in to a resting home for a month.

There I worked on the scripts for the following summer.

Mainly with Night Music which was a great comfort in my solitude.

Well, I didn't want anyone to visit me.

Yes?

Yes...

I'm a bit busy...

No.

84?

84 thousand?

That's good.

By all means.

I am a bit busy now...

Some thought I'd gone completely crazy

and thought that the resting home was a mental hospital...

But the work on Night Music became a comfort and a savior.

- You've seen it, haven't you, Charlie? - What?

Night Music.

Night Music?

You've seen it, haven't you Charlie? Night Music?

Yes...

It was something of a...

favorite child, or how you say.

He who loves poetry, but cannot write

steals the true poem from the true poet, and pretends it to be his own.

But he is punished:

He falls down the theatre trap-door and plunges to death.

I make my movies, Charlie my set lights

my camera work, and I tell the actors

do this, go there, here you cry, here you rage

and we keep doing it and doing it

and we don't give up!

Then one night...

you sit there...

and if we're lucky, you laugh

where we've decided you will

and cry where we've decided you will.

But you're familiar with that, Charlie.

That's the enigma.

Nowadays there's such nagging about

Art and Literature and higher standards

and all that badger.

Sure, sure, I've read your views in the magazines

Be my guest, sniveling Sj�str�m.

Fucking do it, faggot Stiller!

Be my guest, emperor Charlie! Set higher standards

Sail with Art, worship artistry!

I tip my hat, I bow down to the dust

Although both you and I know

that all that it's really about

and that's the laughter and the tears.

Oh do tell me of the alternatives, you master of all success.

I talk and talk and you just stare at me with your squinting fish eyes...

I wonder how many you've scared stiff with that gaze?

Or anti-gaze...

But you don't scare me.

I'm just kidding, Charlie!

You'll allow your old clown to be a bit cheeky about your greatness?

So you're quiet and I talk

it's very kind of you to listen to me

but maybe we should talk business now instead of this rubbish?

Do you still have your big Packard, Charlie?

I heard you ran over some poor fellow last summer?

Can't be good driving a car with such bad eyesight, huh?

Then it's much safer to be at sea

in your magnificent cruiser.

There you're powerful, huh?

Standing there, master over the rage of the 4 elements, like a real Prospero!

You're a Gothenburg Prospero, aren't you Charlie?

We'll see if you let go of your wand one day.

Or maybe some fucking Caliban snatches it from your hand?

Yes you see, Prospero is a very powerful and noble

damn noble

magician who's the lead tempest...

Lead tempest? He's the lead part

in William Shakespeare's The Tempest.

If William Shakespeare is familiar?

Ah well, now to serious matters.

Now when you for once have summoned me.

Your... letter touched me, Charlie, I can't deny to that.

It...

sent a ray of warmth through my heart, especially that part about

"Let us have an open-ended discussion about the future."

Yes, I thought we'd talk a bit about the future.

We celebrated with a bottle of champagne at dinner, my wife and I...

She sends her unfamiliar regards, by the way.

You should bring your sweet and dear Emma Wilhelmina

to our home some evening to have dinner...

Is she...

still as beautiful, Charlie...?

You're really lucky, considering how awfully ugly you are...

But success has balls as they say over there...

I'm just kidding, Charlie.

You're a nice person, a great person, a good person.

You deserve every ounce of your great success

Old love never wears out.

I fucking revere you like my own brother.

So you didn't get mad, huh?

You are and will remain my idol.

I think...

I think I need a refill.

You won't mind?

Believe it or not, but I'm a bit...

scared.

You've... become so incredibly big Charles Magnusson.

Listen here.

Here's a project that's been

carefully thought-out

and that I think will...

I'm certain is going to be a cinematic sensation, Charlie.

You know how it was...

I left the Liding� studio.

I figure you wanted me for studio manager?

Well, it didn't work out between me and Victor...

That cheap, mean, imperious, modest hypocrite...

So I went to Paris and worked with Louis Feuillade.

You know, him with Fantomas and all that?

One day he gave me this book and said that...

This is something for you, Mr. Georg.

I had shown him my movies

and he was very appreciative and considerate.

I must say.

This novel, Justine

is about two sisters

both very beautiful and very noble.

Juliette is sinful as hell, you see

and allows herself all kinds of debauchery

while her younger sister, Justine

is a miracle of virtue and decency.

Now the funny thing happens, Charlie

that the tawdry sister

lives a grand life, becomes very wealthy

and is comfortable in every way.

And the younger sister, how about it...

the one so fucking virtuous, noble and good

suffers the most bestial tribulations

gets her pinky toes cut off, and so on

until she finally dies. Incredibly moving, it is...

Here, here's an illustration, Charlie.

That's what Juliette does for fun on Christmas Eve.

Pretty advanced, huh?

But turn the book around so you'll see better. There...

Not what we're used to, huh Charlie?

Four gentlemen on one lady...

Maybe it's five?

Maybe that's a she?

You can't see...

It's covered.

I'm not saying we'll do smut, Charlie

That's completely foreign to me.

And what's more, it's impossible with our twaty censorship.

No no.

This is how I see it:

we build the set like a stage

the curtains rise...

and there's the marquis de Sade with his book in his hand

telling the tragic and sad story of the two sisters...

while the scenes are performed on our small stage.

All the locations are painted on beautiful backdrops

that can be shifted rapidly.

And we've got the best actors in the world, Charlie.

Imagine, Mary Johnson

as the innocent sister.

No one would be more perfect than she.

A coming world celebrity, Charlie.

Just a matter of time before the Americans buy her.

She's got such soulful beauty...

such a gleam in her eyes, so small and tender.

And yet, she's so womanly...

The mean sister

can be played by Maja Cassel.

Maja Cassel...

Look here...

Her upper arms

her shoulders, Charlie.

Her skin's...

luster.

Her smile.

Here there's hidden sin, I tell you.

Secret debauchery.

The crudest indecencies below the shiny surface.

I'd walk through fire for Maja Cassel.

No no, I haven't been there...

Not laid a finger on her, or anything else either, no no.

She's leading a wholesome life with her boring husband.

She's so faithful...

Isn't it those girls who are the most interesting, Charlie?

Fire under the ice!

See what I mean?

Yeah...

And who would be more magnificent as the marquis...

than Calle Barklind?

Surely you know that women are like crazy for Calle?

Huh? They eat his picture on the morning sandwich.

He's radiating a grieving virility.

He walks as if he...

had something heavy between his legs.

Well he has! I've been in the sauna with him, and I'll tell you...

Women can sense that, Charlie.

Who the hell knows how it works...

No...

Calle Berglind will give women the right animal scent by the ticket counter...

Here's the most important thing:

I understand that you don't want me trashing about

in your new and beautiful studios in R�sunda.

It would only cause trouble with Victor and Mojje

Sure, they want their territory for them selves.

No no, I can respect that and I accept it.

But listen to this:

The Hasselblad studio at Otterh�llan in Gothenburg is still there.

I've had a look at it myself.

Sure, it's a bit unpolished after being empty for more than a year.

But it's easy restore

We'll do that in no time

and I can get all the technical staff I need.

That's good people

After all, we made 27 films in three summers!

We know the work...

Hasselblads don't mind leasing their premises to Svensk Filmindustri.

Otherwise they'll only rot away.

Come on, Charlie, damn it?

This is something marvelous

and I'll give you the full credit if you'll lend me a hand...

Here...

Here's a calculation

on what this venture will cost you.

All in all...

it's 24.000 gold coins.

And you'll get all the profits.

Well, Hasseblads reserves the right to a small sum

for possible administration and maintenance of the studio property.

But that can't be much...

Now you know, Charlie.

Now you know...

Why Jojje has looked upon you with such nervous eyes.

I become like an old dying dog.

Now you know why my mouth has jabbered like a runny stool...

I'm no genius, Charlie.

I'm not.

I'm not like those presumed geniuses Victor and Mojje

who fuddles it with their fancy manners and their loose talk of Art, Art...

I'm no genius, Charlie.

I'm a craftsman.

A damn experienced and good craftsman

I make good everyday commodities, necessary commodities...

The kind that common people need in their everyday

to feel a little better, to forget the bustle

to laugh some, cry some

maybe shiver a little...

But I've made 27 movies, Charlie.

I'm good.

And I can be even better

if only I'm allowed to keep doing it!

I'm only 40 years old.

Well, 42 to be precise.

But I've got lots of drafts, plans and ideas.

You won't have to pay me a salary

just give me a small sum per film so I can muddle along.

You won't be troubled by your small business down in Otterh�llan.

But we'll give you movies, Charlie. Nice and well made movies...

For your much too numerous and too large cinemas.

You simply can't do without us, Charlie...

I am...

I'm strong again.

My weakness... and aridity is gone.

I am...

prepared to deal with the big stuff.

You and your nice boys say...

"We have to call on literature."

"There we find what people of today need and crave for."

I say: sure, sure, sure!

But hell, do we have to constantly cling to the skirt

that old twat Ms. Lagerlard?

There are other things, Charlie! Have you read Heidenstam?

Have you read Hans Alienus?

No, no..

You've had other things to do, I can tell from your...

attractive office.

And your appealing secretary...

Hans Alienus is the big thing, Charlie

of importance to all of Europe, to the whole world!

Hans Alienus, on the humanity within the human.

The searcher, the dreamer, the adventurer...

A modern Faust!

"I've recounted centuries in a twinkle."

"I know no exuberance with words fitting."

"I come elated, dazzled, baffled, burning."

"Have played with joyful youth on meadows."

"Have cried myself to sleep in bliss."

"Hear..."

"rumbling sounds, a dance..."

"Hear..."

"the daughters of Hades, they sing."

Oh, well...

I always shed tears when I reach Hans Alienus' words on his deathbed.

I don't know...

Some sort of sense of home I think...

Do you see what great cinematography it could end up being, Charlie?

Hans Alienus in Hellas, on the Venice carnival, in the underworld...

With his friend Gabriel Alv!

Here... Here's the book.

Read it and be enraptured.

You're a man of big thoughts and wide horizons.

You're no average Joe, you're a phenomenon, Charlie.

Don't think of it as just flattery...

But let me...

for once compete with your eaglets.

Just for once!

If I fail you're welcome to make me a flunky again.

Then I'll humbly return to the small farces with mothers-in-laws

loony fox terriers and underpants...

It's a deal!

It's a deal, Charlie!

Then we ratify our deal with a magnificent dinner

like in the good old days.

We'll bring the sweetest girls.

This'll be fun, Charlie!

You might need some social contact as a change

instead of your soulful giants...

Those bank managers...

And that icy...

dragon Ivar Kreuger.

How the hell can you align with such a nasty one, Charlie?

Before you know it, he'll devour you.

One gulp and you'll end up being nothing but a heap of trash.

Excuse me for talking...

Take me...

Use me... Try me...

It'll cost you peanuts and you'll get plenty in return.

I beg you, Charlie...

I'll get down on my knees.

The gesture might look a bit artificial, I presume.

But it fully equals my despair and my hopes.

Brother Charlie, use your wisdom

show your rumored generosity

show your heart like I know you can

and reach me your hand, help me up and give me my life back!

You're the only one who can help me.

All others are gone dead, eaten, you've squashed everyone around you.

You're the champion and the only one who can give me my life back.

Sure I've said that already, but it can be repeated.

This'll have to do...

I've taken enough of your time.

This'll have to do...

Now you know where I stand, Charlie.

And now you know that my life since The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter

isn't much of a life.

I've humiliated myself beyond the limits of decency.

And I'm rather pleased with having humiliated myself.

Did you know that I've got three brothers?

All big shots in Swedish society.

Professors, Justices of the Supreme Court, generals...

If they see me, they cross the street.

Empty...

and tanked up, my dear Movitz.

The bells of death are tolling...

By the way, Charlie, do you remember Emma?

No.

Emma Andersson, out on Liding�?

Who was always around to assist us, kind and big and clumsy and cheerful.

She was cute too

with her tiny upturned nose

small elegant breasts and...

an ass that...

You don't remember Emma, Charlie?

No, I do not remember Emma.

No, Emma she...

she always talked about her...

underwater boat.

No one understood what she meant.

She always laughed when she spoke of that underwater boat.

And then she came to us at...

Hasselblads in Gothenburg.

She was a bit frayed, but still cheerful

helpful...

shrewd...

One day I...

asked her about her underwater boat.

If she still had it and if she was going to use it here in the Western Sea.

She smiled gently and said...

Yes, she would go for a ride on Saturday, all by herself.

And Emma did. She went to S�r� and rented a small rowboat.

A beautiful, cold day in the fall.

The sea was completely calm...

Only light swells...

Emma rowed out a bit

looked into the sun

Sat there for a long while, looking into the sun...

and let herself be blinded.

Then she chained her right arm to the thwart...

threw the oars overboard...

and pulled out the drain plug.

And Emma sank.

And the sun...

in the darkening sea

That was Emma's underwater boat.

Well, now I'll examine your cabinet one last time and...

see if there's something soothing.

Soothing for a thirsty devil...

What fine cognac.

I didn't know...

You remember?

The gunpowder magazine on Liding�...

The four holes in the ladies room

where you and I, from beneath,

practiced studies in comparative anatomy...

Cheers for Selma's sweet rosy ass.

The???

you might say...

Well...

Now I'll leave.

You can keep the book about the two sisters.

I imagine your French is... shall we say, a bit insufficient.

But you can always look at the pictures with your sweet Emma Wilhelmina.

Here's also a script

properly typed in 38 scenes.

Then you can call me some day, I'll be waiting by the phone.

The number is at the bottom of the last page.

I hope the phone won't be shut down.

That's happened now and then in recent times...

Farewell then, my brother.

May God be with you.

Hey Magnusson... I worry about your future, you know.

If you hadn't been so charmingly illiterate

I could have referred to Greek tragedy

where the gods are angered by persons who believe themselves to be gods

It was called hubris

if that word might be familiar...

Farewell! Farewell!

Farewell! Farewell!

We'll never...

meet again, Charlie.

I know that.

You've flushed me down the cinematographic crapper for eternity.

For you I'm just a broken old ghost out of the past.

Isn't it so, my former brother?

So that's what you look like nowadays?

My poor traitor.

My poor Judas.

Do you understand that I feel sorry for you?

For you've got nothing left. You've sold your good soul for power.

Look at me.

Look at me.

You look at me.

You think:

He's gone crazy, that damn lunatic Klercker.

It's buzzing inside that well cut head of yours.

I better stay completely still.

And you keep distance.

Distance...

Distance...

Even when you're humping, Charlie.

That's confirmed by our mutual friend Adelina Gredelina.

You do remember Adelina?

She's told me that you've invented a humping technique

where you only touch each other with your genitals.

And when the act is over you run to the bathroom and was and wash

because you're so damn afraid of germs.

Good afternoon, good afternoon!

Good afternoon, manager Magnusson.

You poor little wretch, with all your flower plants with names you don't know

your lamentable piano playing and all shelves with unread books.

And your sailing boat that keeps on hitting ground

What sort of part was it that you wanted to have?

You silver haired upstart.

Can you tell me?

I read a statement by you in the newspaper

where you said that your father was an architect.

What a story, Charlie.

Your father was a petty drawer of the most simple class

named Salomon Magnusson, half Jew I'd guess

and you occupied two small rooms up in Majorna!

So you're rabble, Magnusson.

Not for being from below

but because you deny your descent

and that's cheap, Magnusson. That's the cheapest there is!

But that'll hit back on you.

For when the hard times come, and the will come, be so sure

when the hard times come

you will blow away, because then you're a nobody!

Yes.

It's completely true.

Completely real.

It is death looking at you through this small machine.

Equipped with two shots

One for you, and one for me.

This is neither a contemptible melodrama by Hasselblads

or a brilliant piecemeal by Svenska Bio

but a well planned scene out of cruel life.

A poetic and notable scene, Charles Magnusson.

You've taken my life...

Now, I'll take your life.

I promise there won't be any stains on the expensive Persian rug.

Or the elegant Bonnard.

Maybe some brain splatter on the desk pad

in front of you, manager Magnusson.

It'll all go quick and easy, I can assure you.

But raising your hands won't help.

Try to act with calm and dignity instead.

After all, you've accomplished great things, be grateful for that.

You should also be grateful that I end your life at its peak.

All that remains now is the decline and the disasters of life.

Don't keep on shaking like that, Magnusson

Don't try to hide under the table.

I can't deny

that this is an utterly satisfying moment

in my poor lost life.

Even if it has to be the last.

I beg you, Charlie!

I beg you!

Be merciful, we were friends!

Be merciful, I beg you, Charlie!

I beg you!

Beg you!

Ms. Holm!

Send in janitor Lindblad!

At once!

No, the janitor!

No, no...

Not that humiliation.

Not the janitor, God damn it!

I'll be fine, don't you worry Charlie.

Don't you worry, Magnusson. I'll walk myself out.

Ms. Holm?

No, no need for the janitor.

Yes, I understand that he's on lunch, it's another matter.

Who's the head of the free ticket committee this year, I can't remember?

Yes, that's right, Hedberg...

Can Ms. Holm call Hedberg and give a message from me

that af Klercker's free pass

at Swedish movie theatres is to be revoked from the 1st of January.

Yes, Hedberg can write...

"Owing to the circumstances", that's enough.

Yes, I'm off to lunch now and will be back at 14. Good day, Ms. Holm.