Original subtitles

All alone, little one?

We're waiting.

Who's we?

She is...

She's Papere II. I'm Papere I.

Nicknames?

They mix us up otherwise. My real name is Mescalina.

That's your name?

My Mama made me under a mushroom.

Where's your Mama?

Boh...!?

BY NIGHTFALL

"Dear Papere..."

"You will receive this letter when you're 18."

"Imagine how you will be by then"

"and how this year spent together with me."

"And Stella, your mother, will have influenced you."

"Nothing will be the same again, starting with me."

"Neither Italy, nor the whole world."

"For that reason I must tell you"

"why 1977 was both, the happiest"

"and saddest year of my life."

Papa...

Where've you been?

In the shit!

Stella and the baby?

We split up.

Too bad...

What'll Papere do?

We analyzed that a whole lot with the psychologist...

Andrea Canguro.

He dropped out before finishing his exams.

So what? Either you're...

A psychologist or not

And naturally, he is...

He's selling

used jackets right now.

He advised a neutral ground,

for inducing withdrawal from the mother/father

syndrome in order to regenerate

the original mode.

Stella's gone

with someone.

Take hold!

Maybe it's a blessing.

You never understood Stella.

The cliche of your generation!

Admit it, there's something

great about Stella.

You're absolutely right. I've never understood her.

Papere is a whole lot mature.

"Are" mature, seeing as

she has a double.

It's a game!

For you also: You give her 2 dishes, 2 chairs.

...even 2 pillows at night.

Ganguro says not to repress her.

God help us!

Listen, I was thinking

that maybe... for 2 days

at most a week.

...let's say 5 nights...

Calm down.

I don't stutter with others.

I'll b-bring her...?

B-bring her in?

Where?

Hi, Velia. She's my granddaughter.

I was worried.

Your granddaughter's deaf?

Only out of one ear.

Hear about Megalotti?

He's dead?

He's gone soft?

He married his Filipino maid. She's pregnant.

By whom?

Don't laugh or I'll lose my place. Where were we?

I'll learn you how to cook, huh?

Why does grandpa say "sir" to his friends?

He don't like familiarity.

You make a ball

and squatch!

The word is "squash".

You can read what's written in stores?

Lucky you!

That lady's got rosy hair.

She paints them.

Her husband, the conductor, has gone batty.

He hollers and throws pillows around.

Especially when she arrives.

Where?

At Villa Bianca. Your grandpa's friends end up there

when they get moldy.

The zackereen!

The zackereen their their coffee, and then eat cake!

Has grandpa gone...?

Moldy?

He's got no mold.

He never once said: I don't know.

You won, thanks to our superficial upper-class.

"It's such fun to vote Communist!"

Aren't you curious to see what'll happen?

It'll undermine the value of private property.

...so essential to our country.

No, essential for building

a swimming pool.

1 or 2?

3, with this crowd!

You have another guest?

My niece.

Oliviero is "wifeless", and so...

Let's see her.

Papere!

The girl with the invisible twin?

I've become a recluse lately.

Hello. What's your name?

I don't see two of you.

The conductor throws pillows

at you.

You're edgy today, Professor.

What are you doing?

100 liras, please.

You mustn't beg!

Mama does.

Your mother is deranged.

Like you, Sir!

"Sir" to you... so we don't get familiar!

Papere II, don't eat nothing?

Garbage and shoe polish. She's the daughter

of a stray cat,

and an old shoe.

Where did they meet?

Under a car.

That's enough!

You and I, Miss, must get organized.

Only your mother and father seem to ignore

the need for planning one's day.

Mine starts at Galliano's, for a close shave.

I work from 9:00 to 1:00. Monday, the quartet.

Wednesday, the theater. Cinema every Sunday.

Now your week will be planned too.

And today...

Thursday, you do what you like?

Elvira has the afternoon off. You'll both visit

her sister.

And you, "Sir"?

Don't look at me now!

What's wrong?

Don't worry about it.

It's not important. Really.

Try again?

Don't rub it in.

I was thinking...

I'm reading "Onegin".

Good...

Whose translation?

They translate

in verse thinking they can improve on Pushkin.

Ignoramusees... Philistines.

Can't retired professors frequent their University?

What for?

My texts have all been replaced.

How can you live alone like this?

I'm no longer alone, and I'm worse off.

You avoid people.

No, I'm socially close

to my follow man.

Name me one.

You...

Not counting women.

Let's hear one.

See, none come to mind.

Only the dead.

To your room!

"You didn't fret or carry on when you were little."

"You'd study me. Had I done likewise..."

"You wouldn't have been sleeping in your father's old room."

"You concealed your sorrow for your mother"

"lost in that segment of world..."

"So in vogue then."

Papere!

"Soapwort."

Good! I only showed it to you once.

I'm not dumb.

Well?

Mama says I stare like you do.

Perhaps. Strange though, you mother's always wrong.

No, and her armpits don't stink!

Wait...

Where're you going?

I never said that!

I didn't!

Elvira says it, and you think it.

Look, "lychnis"

with exactly the same...?

Leaves.

Excellent! Lanceolate. Same family: Caryophyllaceae.

Tell me now, am I so unbearable?

Not to me, to her.

For that cello.

Oh, to Papere II.

What should I have done?

Hit me, and cry.

Hit you?

First Mama hits me, and then she cries.

She had you too soon... while still at school.

We'll fix up your room.

Without those ugly posters!

How about wallpaper with little rosebuds?

When's she coming back?

In a month.

Is that after tomorrow?

Who is she, grandpa?

Who is she? Who is she? Who is she?

The lady in the store?

During that unhappy period in Italy

those violent men in black uniforms

worried the Premier, who said to my father:

Come and help me be Minister of Justice...

I have need of friends.

Did he go?

Yes, but then we all fled to France.

We'll continue tomorrow.

You're going out?

You know I'm going out.

What about the Communists who limp?

One was "Piero", and the other "the Sardinian".

You're so bright that I forget

how little you are.

You're not going out then?

I'll change

my cinema schedule.

So... there was Gramsci

the Communist leader who limped,

and Piero Limper who was anything but crippled.

A strong, athletic man...

Professor...

Professor!

He's half deaf.

And he covers his ears!

- You don't know who it is? - No.

You're in!

I thought everybody died.

I've come

for Papere.

Is she here?

No! I ain't seen her.

She's having a snack.

She eats at regular hours, and takes lessons

in dancing

and French.

Dancing?

With her naturastic tendencies

20 years from now she'll achieve...

What's twenty years from now got to do with you?

What's that mean?

Listen

she's not staying.

I'm guiding her.

Guiding how?

Papere's like me. She's gotta live

her life.

Takes it as it comes.

Please, Stella.

How sweet! What's come over you?

Don't take her away.

Christ! She hooked you...

...but I'm her mother.

Who swats her!

That's not true.

She told me.

You said that?

...to them?

My God... you've changed.

You haven't.

How much do you need?

It's a small farm, but the goats cost

20 a head.

It's just a loan. You have my word.

By spring, we'll be selling the cheese

if things go good.

"Well", Oliviero, "go well"

Thanks to Elvira and Montessori... you're a catastrophe!

Stella is right.

Let's hear it. Right about what?

You're a violent person!

Nice seeing you, Papa.

Papere!

She's not going to any goat farm!

I'm saying good-bye.

Yes, I'm living with goats.

Mama always said...

I was close to Nature a whole lot.

Ever since she was gone

you keep running, and I...

...don't know what to do.

We can buy the farm.

At best...

"The locomotive runs, it runs runs runs."

Elvira, have it run into a station.

Elvira!

They're writing on your wall again!

No! He doesn't like that. Go away!

A croquette?

No, they're from yesterday.

Who says so?

You were up all night.

Papere!

Coming! I'm getting dressed.

She skipped dancing yesterday.

We visited a friend in Florence.

I had left everything there, even my panties.

We've shops here.

No, consumerism is something I can't take.

You didn't call.

You keep hours fit for prisons.

Fit for rational people.

Time and Space are philosophical conventions.

Socially evolved rules,

for greater communicability.

Go on, I'm listening.

For instance, today's Tuesday.

All good men abide by this simple convention

as does the piano teacher: Every Tuesday at 3:00 pm.

It's simple. Try learning. Don't let Elvira catch you!

Life is short. One must be a part,

and contribute

to our social structure...

Yeah, otherwise

the whole world crumbles!

...through entropy.

What's that?

No Physics?

It was optional. I took "Primitive Looms".

It's the 2nd law of Thermodynamics: Dispersion of energy.

Such as?

Going all the way to Florence only to fetch

your parents.

I'd have lent...

Then lend me something now.

When will you be back?

By nightfall.

Meaning at eight, eleven or what?

By nightfall!

There's a protest march in town. Don't get caught.

Call me, and I'll pick you up.

Bye, grandpa!

She's right, awright!

Our armpits will stink 20 years from now

but we won't be here to wash them.

Sleeping?

I wish...

That's Ophelia?

Any hope

that they'll start talking normally?

That's Polonius?

Let's go.

Let me check if Pempere is back.

All this nudity!

Next time you can take Elvira.

When'll they return?

Good question.

Stella's so stupid...

This way?

Where else?!

How polite!

There's a girl there too.

I miss teaching all those kids.

You kept flunking them.

Because I loved them.

Park...

Stella just doesn't make sense.

She theorizes on non-reasoning, mind you. Theorizes!

Why do you take her so seriously?

Why so heated?

Why're you so heated?

I'm deaf, but I'm not dumb. What're you

getting at?

That's how you park?

They'll arrest us?

No, we're not their genre.

A waiter can move it.

Yeah, because I've gone soft.

She's heavy!

Smells like an ashtray.

There are other realities.

We've the same reality here, only a little dirtier.

Then we'll each do as we please.

You can't do as you please. Not on our account.

...nor your children's, nor your own.

I'm drunk.

Stop busting me with words like my father.

Me like him?

The perfect democrat!

It's easy, with a maid slaving over you.

Sorry, not "maid", housekeeper... but always

alone like a dog, in the kitchen!

You deplore the ignorant, not the capitalists.

That's not true.

Are you sure?

Who is he?

A friend.

Your new companion?

You're so archaic when you talk!

We're friends, no cheating.

You're all irresponsible

with no base, and no goals.

Our base: Murales Bar. Our goal: Piazza Santa Maria.

Don't look.

How shocking!

Mama said you've seen lots of nude women.

She says that about me?

...and how you two-timed grandma.

Tell her to leave grandma alone.

When people die, where do they go?

Underground.

Can they come out?

Aren't they bored?

No, they're delighted, inside people's heads.

If others think of you, they take you

with them when they go to restaurants and concerts.

It's important that one thinks of you

without going to stupid places.

Should I wash her too?

Good girl, Papere II! Lift your arms now...

I'll take you for walks every day in my head.

Thank you.

But not the Murales Bar or Piazza Santa Maria.

You said to feel out our friendship.

So you screw Francesco?

He started it...

He said you did.

That's not true!

How squalid!

Yet all that screwing made me

fond of him.

- No swimming? - Grandpa said no.

I'll tell your mother that you keep siding

with grandpa Ludovico.

- It's not true, don't say that. - It's true. I'll tell her.

If you want I'll split.

I'm not hurting for places.

Don't listen to Papere II. She's strange.

Who should we listen to?

Grandpa.

Not to me?

Does Papere II take after you?

Probably. Where has she gone now?

She's swimming.

"They too longed for a better world"

"but their search only made them more confused."

"...more vulnerable."

"We who had the opportunity of starting from scratch"

"erroneously set forth from ourselves as adults"

"and not from our childhood."

"Our children didn't resemble us."

Your essay on Pushkin?

Not finished yet.

After twenty-five years?

I'm ashamed, but I...

...started over again.

I know why I've come to nothing as an intellectual.

I never expressed a definitive word on any novel, event

or person.

Look, I don't need any help.

You do!

Is your life-style the only answer?

What's yours?

The life I lead.

You're really satisfied?

Are you?

Look, fuck your kind!

Let's establish: What's "my" kind and what's "your" kind?

When did you overtake us?

After the '68 uprising?

You're what I hate most: The heavy left, Russia.

The gloom. The dictates.

Your kind's a debate every evening.

Substitute "debate" with dialectics.

I dislike philosophy. It's distant from life.

Who knows where we'd be

without Hegel.

Wherever we'd be... we'd be better off.

Maybe that's why I flunked Hegel.

...a sixth sense...

The fact is that your opinions

are yours alone.

Call me arrogant, but I'd never express an idea

not contemplated by the great thinkers.

My claim to Hegelianism

obliges me

to acquire that knowledge whereby I can affirm

that I've an opinion.

I would

feel shame where I not sustained by such knowledge.

The revolutionaries didn't have that knowledge.

Others had it for them.

I don't like the elite thinking for me.

That's reasonable, but you refuse to discuss...

I'd much rather

fall in love.

Let's not compare ideologies. Can I help you find

a job? What would you

like to do?

Express myself.

That's not a job.

What're you doing?

Getting dressed.

I thought you wanted to sew your...

...underwear?

You're through?

Follow your daughter's example.

Her dedication makes everything worthwhile.

Even an arpeggio in C major.

You're putting her against me.

I would never do that.

Because unlike your generation she has suffered enough.

Come off it! You know nothing

of those who surround you.

I've suffered plenty. So has your son

who stammers whenever you're around.

He's so tense he can't even get it up anymore.

Get up what?

You're sick, mad!

...and too stubborn to ask

for help.

Mind your fucking business!

I will when you're gone!

I'm going, but with Papere.

I don't have to ask her, she's mine!

I made her!

"Your mother vanished, and you forgot her."

"Whereas I kept waiting for her to lean on the doorbell"

"thinking of the long speeches I'd make to her."

"They were stab-in-heart days, to quote Elvira."

"But you committed the cruelest cut of all."

HERE LIES PAPERE II

But she wasn't real. It was a game.

Stella was very upset.

...she really admires you.

Admires me?

Very much.

She vanished...

Poor Mescalina.

We call her Papere.

Sounds awful.

Mescalina's no better.

Isn't it the name of a Roman queen?

No, of a poisonous mushroom.

Stella never tells me anything.

Except accusing me of...

...making her

paranoid.

Me too... I hardly know her.

She's self-centered. When she was little, I'd say:

"When you go to Papa's house, ask him for a coat."

And what would she do?

Nothing. She wouldn't ask

out of pride.

Her stepbrother

instead had coats to spare

while she outgrew all hers.

Stella's no easy person.

Stella lived here?

Yes, the two of us

for 12 years. Yet she's like a stranger.

Why did you call me?

For a loan. To get her out of here,

and into a private hospital.

What? Why, where is she?

In a clinic.

I didn't know.

She had a car accident.

Let's go.

Elvira made country-style roast peppers

as she does every blessed Tuesday.

He's nice! Is he your father?

The latest model!

You can have my room, I'll sleep in the study.

Relax. I've had worse scrapes before.

You were beaten?

No questions.

The stairs are a problem.

Can you manage with the crutches?

I had to when I phoned.

Phoned who?

Don't be a ballbreaker!

If we talk, we only argue.

All right, but answer me this:

Did your girl friend fall asleep at the wheel

because of drugs?

Stop analyzing.

Yeah, she'd shoot up.

I'll miss her. We grew up together.

Any other questions?

Yes... Forgive me?

Forgiven.

The other ear.

Hermeneutics? It's not my bag.

Then start with Moral Philosophy.

It's an easier text, but just as beautiful.

I bet!

A biennal course, like Spectulative Philosophy.

I told you I'm doing that play!

What for?

The experience.

Being a syphilitic?

Interpreting one, not being...

The director!

A director?

...that fellow?

Pippo!

Hi, sweetheart. How's it goin'?

Nowhere!

Your honor...

No, you were misinformed.

Sorry, thought you was...

Zappo! You really swamped them here!

Isn't he a Communist?

Yeah, so he claims.

Well, like I said, you won here in Rome.

You contributed?

Actually, I put a slice of baloney in my ballot.

A few notes, ideas

to get the gist of things. They're... hints

like gesticulations. The evolution of another body

a voice. A shout!

A splitting! An interior violence

creative lacerations...

In the nude?

That's heavy intuition.

Are you going to enroll?

Don't start. I want to get out.

And last night?

We got together

to organize the trip.

Where to?

Yemen. Southern Yemen, naturally.

Naturally.

In September we start the workshop.

You gotta shape up, you know what I mean?

Let's hope. There's no telling with bone calcification.

Well, I'll leave you to your piece...?

Provisional title: EXOTIC TURMOIL

Good?

Apropos!

Your Honor... you wouldn't

know somebody at the State Theatre Society, huh?

We're settin' up a co-op, and I thought...

Great, nice guy!

...very sensitive vibes...

I think. How 'bout you?

He's trying to condition me

as long as this lasts.

You mulched the roses with Mama?

I did...

Listen, but...

You could've paid me a visit.

Go on, go, follow the crowd!

You wouldn't've moved your ass otherwise.

I don't give a shit, I'm fine by myself.

Go, go! Fuck you, jerk!

You finished eating...

Give her those clothes.

Madame's? To her?

You could

change your life very profitably

by not frequenting certain people.

Eavesdropping?

You're deaf.

But she's always shouting

words ending in "uck" and "erk".

Does Pippo

merit so much despair?

It was somebody else.

I have difficulty keeping track.

You fell asleep with the light...

Don't go away.

My leg's so heavy.

What's the time?

4 o'clock.

Don't you ever sleep?

Very little actually.

I work.

Beddy-bye now.

That's for kids.

Would you screw me?

Screw, screw...

That's all you think of!

Not a daughter-in-law.

One shouldn't?

One shouldn't!

I'm sorry.

Don't go.

My leg's boiling.

That's not a nightgown.

Looks like one. It's light.

She wore it to an Ojstrach concert.

It bothers you to see it on me?

Do you often think of grandma Elena?

She wasn't born a grandmother.

Your ideal woman?

I look for...

...for a kind of bearing. Very difficult

to find.

Yeah, in your days...

These are my days!

...which I have contributed bringing about.

Where did you go wrong?

We went wrong with you, youngsters like you...

...left on their own.

We taught you nothing.

And so you picked up the things we ignored.

Since our pedantry led us

to believe we knew everything, you were left with

the Orient, sheep, screwing, science fiction

whodunits. 2nd class stuff.

Why did you leave us alone?

To earn more money, to grow longer sideburns.

Go to nightclubs.

Some left their wives.

We were being "modern".

And instead?

We were deaf... in both ears.

We didn't perceive that being modern meant helping you.

Then one day, you came back from school,

but your mother wasn't home. She was working.

We left you there every afternoon

to turn on the TV by yourselves.

And you grew up estranged.

You consider yourself strong, but you're only hard.

We're all in need of love.

At times... during our life

someone reaches out to us...

...and for a spell... we're restored.

You needn't worry anymore.

I must tell you something.

...something beautiful...

Let me imagine it.

...sleep now...

I'll stay by you.

He seen you?

Elvira, why do you speak the way

you do?

Nobody ever learned me.

Not even my mother understood my father.

I'll teach you.

What could've happened to him?

Yesterday he came at 8 o'clock sharp.

Like every morning... since after the war.

Out of town...

I doubt it.

...it's not a good sign...

Somethin' happened awright.

Worser than being in the hospital.

For me he's like dead.

Professor Bruschi... has left us!

There ain't no peace anymore.

"Isn't".

Isn't.

You're mad at me?

She comes first. And then me

after 47 years.

What've I done?

I need some kisses and sweet words too.

This squirt here learned me to say "saccharine".

...instead of me always sayin' Zacchareen.

He learned lots of people,

but me nothing. And never a compliment.

...a kind word.

"How nice you look with that apron!"

I was Elvira, the beast.

...to laugh at 'cause I don't talk good.

After 47 years I shoulda been talkin' like youse!

You're right.

Yes, you are!

What a mess!

I never realized that you were so sad.

...and you thought I never washed.

And yet we live together.

Let's start discussing our problems as of today!

What'll my problem be?

What's this with you and grandpa?

We only slept together.

One doesn't become pregnant unless there's intercourse.

I wouldn't know, I'm still natural.

However I reject penetration as the sole factor.

That's violence.

What?

Boh! She rejects penetration

We're practicing self-analysis.

It's insanity!

Professor! Look...

What is it?

"The barber, Galliano, mourns..."

"The death of his client and valorous comrade"

"Prof. Ludovico Bruschi."

"And donates 10000 liras to the Party."

Galliano's gone mad!

Elvira!

You know what happened?

You know!

We're full of condolences.

There's even a Soviet one.

These are mine.

I only got one.

Even Pippo mourns me!

I'll get it.

She knew it weren't true, but just from reading it

she fainted like she was dead.

It's the Party: Can they bring the red flag

to the funeral?

He wants the peels...

Out of my dish? Go on, scat!

No! You hurt his feelings.

You'll be going to the mountains?

How can she climb up those paths

with that leg?

No, I meant you.

Well, I can't leave her alone.

Papa.

Which papa?

You're a farmer and you don't know the family tree?

I meant you.

Talks like you!

Stereo ballbreakers!

Can I stay here for a while?

Ask your Mama.

Grandpa, can I stay here?

Can you show me where she'll sleep?

The step!

He speaks Russian, plays the cello

and is the world's expert

on calcification.

You'd make a lovely cripple.

Didn't you die?

How's it going?

It's tough!

You have to get up early?

Fairly... around 11 o'clock.

...even 10:30, sometimes!

Ever since Paolo arrived...

He's Paolo.

Very strong personality.

...the nannies became transgressive.

Everything's shit for you

until you have appropriated it.

We were discussing goats, not people.

One is often wrong about people.

Chr-christ, Papa!

It really gets heavy when you're around.

With this free-breeding method, the goats

give more milk. A friend put us onto it.

Andrea Canguro.

I knew it!

Sorry, but wasn't he selling used jackets?

Now it's Zen goat cheese.

Where will Oliviero sleep?

With us.

Three of you together?

Leave it

I'll do it.

That was my mother's dress, I remember it.

What a mess!

Will we survive?

If Papere does...

Be careful, I beg you.

Me?.What mess are you talking about?

You three.

You're much worse off.

Me? How's that?

"While pondering over you, your mother, your father"

"and myself."

"It hit me that there existed only one reality..."

"It was the one which..."

"None of us was prepared to face."

Silly, why're you crying?

Who the hell knows?!

Come. It stopped.

It's always like this every year.

You think it's the usual shower storm

instead it's summer coming to an end.

It's a sadness I can't shake off.

...another winter ahead...

I wanted my sons in college.

But they kept flunking.

My husband's glad, because they're like him.

In the store, and ignorant.

I've changed... ever since I met you.

You prefer your daughter-in-law?

What're you saying?

Come, everyone knows it.

Everyone who? What do they know?

Today, off it goes!

Do it at the hospital.

There's a 10-day strike.

Don't use those.

Let's try.

It's hard.

You can't walk immediately.

You have to reactivate the muscles.

It's been 90 days.

You thought that women didn't grow hairs?

...didn't piss or vomit?

That when they blow you

they do it out of

sheer love? You believed that?

I knew it wasn't so

but I wanted to believe it.

...and they allowed me to do so.

Even your grand wife had hair on her legs!

Pass me the razor.

Perhaps you're right.

But my wife, Elena

played out her role

according to convention.

...she kept me waiting under the rain

...played hard to get

...had me fight her suitors.

And then, when my father

was nominated Minister

I was finally held worthy enough to ask,

for her hand.

Was she that pretty?

No... she was a snob.

But I was happy anyway.

Then, suddenly, I stopped loving her.

I don't remember when, or why.

Time changes not only our expression

but the very structure of our being.

I know...

I changed a lot through experience.

Once, with Oliviero...

Here. Experiences

can also be read. They needn't be personal.

I doubt you ever loved anybody.

Doubt, if you like...

You forced them into make-believe

into your convention, your code.

Perhaps.

You're hairy,

and that's fine. I discovered it late, but...

I'm glad I did.

Why're you drying my leg?

Because it's wet.

I want to walk.

Don't worry, only up to the dresser.

And roses?

By scion.

What if they're hybrids?

By grafting.

Do grandpa and mama talk about these things?

About other things.

Only stupid things.

And the roses are covered with lice.

Mama doesn't know about plants.

So make peace, it's not her fault. Understand?

"I suddenly sensed your resemblance to that mother"

"whom you never really knew."

"Or was it because I fell short with you..."

"As I had done with her."

"We had almost become a family."

Shouldn't I call Papere? It's getting late.

"I still wonder if the two of you were happy."

"Perhaps only I was."

Is that the famous professor?

Yes, with my daughter.

They look bored.

Grandpa, listen...

Instead of the piano can I study the guitar?

Keep walking!

Did I complain?

Why didn't you?

You wanted a new life

being in contact with people

new experiences, exchanges, inter-communication.

Yes, exactly!

Then go ahead, waste time.

A night spent like this is worse

than looking at a blank wall.

Why is he like that?

He was ashamed: He's to big to be in here.

But why?

Because I'm ashamed: I'm too small.

Papere, your jacket!

Shall I answer?

It ain't her. It's the police.

We found this on her.

But we'll straighten it out.

Straighten out?

Tomorrow

we'll have a chat.

A nice chat tomorrow, right?

What happened?

I was pushed and I fell.

You fought back?

Yeah, sure, against four cops?

Did they rough you up? You had that thing.

What thing?

I had nothing!

It's absurd.

They're out to get

the owner of the Folkstudio.

Clean up, Elvira and Papere are looking.

Tired?

Yes, I was very worried.

If you're not afraid, sleep here.

First, the barber.

Can't you go later?

Don't upset my routine. Thanks

to you. I already died once.

Don't expect me to follow routines.

Not yet.

Your consciousness is forming

but I'd want you formed.

The truth is I'm not easy to fathom.

...I'm still trying...

Listen...

It's my good ear, but it won't listen.

How can you live with plugged ears?

There's still perception.

But it's an inner one, much deeper.

What'll I do now...?

History of the Russian Theatre, it's biennial.

Two years!

Stella, you can't just breeze through it.

We'll study together.

Ah, I see.

One can't live without Chekov.

Hey, Stella!

Canguro!

I'm studying again.

Come to the collective.

We're organizing some study groups.

How about a seminar?

We picked up our first notions on "Das Kapital"

from him.

Things have changed since. You're the teacher now.

You faculty?

I don't teach.

I coordinate.

Coordinate?

What exactly?

Seminars within the Movement.

...very stimulating.

Like Zen cheese?

You're wrong to be so scornful.

When we're too lofty we lose sight of things.

...misinterpret them.

Ideas are important. They help us

grow.

Don't they?

I'm going, and you?

I'll be back by nightfall.

"By nightfall... this time meant"

"one week later."

"She joined a student sit-in of my very faculty."

"A violent protest"

"which you and I followed with apprehension on TV."

"Diverse apprehensions... that hardly soothed each other."

Did they write?

Yes...!

What're you doing here?

Want to erase?

I don't know.

What did he say? What?

"I don't know."

You're going?

Yes, but I'll be back on Sunday.

The gathering will last one week.

The Mayor practically handed the city over to us.

You're friends, right?

Young philosophers are arriving from France.

Aren't the national imbeciles sufficient?

You're always on the attack!

Don't go.

I told Mama I'd go too.

The poor man.

He'll worry hisself thinkin' of you.

I'm not in his thoughts like before.

Were I asking it of a daughter...

I wouldn't insist.

But I ask it of a woman now.

Come on

that's not true. You've never listened to me.

Never once!

Am I nothing for you? Not all things

have a name.

You make concessions only within these walls.

...I need greater recognition.

My life can't be your living room.

You were born in here. You worked and studied here.

And you married someone who could've been your sister.

Could it be that you lack courage?

...it'll only be for a few days...

Not even an hour!

Or else you can forget this house, and me!

But why?

...I haven't the time...

"You were only 5 then."

"Loosing you caused me great sorrow."

"But I didn't go back on my decision."

"I bought a new apartment on the edge of town."

"When you came for your things, I was at the zoo"

"with an old giraffe."

"I sensed that I was already a memory."

"And Memory"

"is the only thing one can't transmit."

"I also sensed that the giraffe and I..."

"Would have died very soon."

"I tell you this story..."

"Hoping that you'll understand..."

"What I've never understood."

"Who was right, someone like your mother"

"or someone like me?"