Passion in the Desert (1997) - full transcript
Young French officer Augustin Robert escorts artist Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis to Egypt during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Napoleon sent de Paradis to record Egypt's great monuments and temples that are destroyed by French soldiers in acts of barbarism. During combat, Augustin and Jean-Michel are separated from their regiment, and they start wandering through the desert fighting for their life. In one of the canyons Augustin meets a leopard he names Simoom and a strange bond between them appears.
Help...
PASSION IN THE DESERT
1978. Napoleon's struggling army pursues
Mameluke warriors deep into the Egyptian desert
Augustin!
Venture!
Courage, citizen.
We're almost there!
We'd be there even sooner
if you got on your horse.
How much further is it?
Just what I said to you.
We made good time too.
- Temle of Bastet.
- No. The real food and wine, Venture.
Good French wine.
Captain Augustin Robert.
- Artillery guide general Clever's division.
- Report, captain.
I have orders from general Bonaparte
to escort the artist,
citizen Venture de P...
Where have you got to now,
you slippery old goat?
We will accompany you as far as Tell Basta.
Four days there...
one day sketching, in about nine days
we should be back in Cairo.
If you don't get lost.
Well you can't get lost in Egypt.
There's the Nile and there is the see.
And...
The nose! Stop.
The nose: seven.
Seven.
Down. Down.
Left.
Left.
Left again!
That's good.
Here is...
between eight and nine.
Eight or nine?
Forty centuries, you donkey!
What are they doing?
No!
Vive la France!
Venture, look out!
No!
What do they have against beauty?
It's old.
Built by slaves for aristocrats.
Like yourself, citizen Venture.
Bonaparte will have your hide
if anything happens to his precious artist.
Nothing will happen to Venture.
We have Allah on our side.
Venture, dresses like our enemy.
He talks like our enemy.
So should he not be with our enemy?
Shall we tell stories...
or sleep?
May I sit down?
What was that?
Hyena.
What is out there?
Jinns.
Jinns?
Spirits that can inhabit in a rock,
a tree, an animal.
Lizards, that blind you with a look.
Chimera, giant birds...
that outrun a horse.
Snakes...
Snakes that fly.
Or Jinns can take a human shape.
The only thing the fearless Bedouin fear.
Birds that can outrun a horse.
Snakes that fly.
Lies and superstitions.
Blinding the people.
That's why we have to kill the priests.
Lies. Superstitions.
No! Taboos!
Bad luck, like shooting that Sphinx!
Ho! Attack!
Attack! Attack!
- Alert! Alert...!
- Attack...!
Wake up! Get up!
Get up! Move!
Wheel it around! Wheel it around!
Wait for me!
Come on! Form the line!
Fire!
Fire!
Get down!
Venture!
What are you doing?
I want my shot back.
No!
He's not dead.
Venture!
Haven't you got it yet?
You soldiers are always in a hurry.
You only arrive at a place,
when you start out for the next one.
Look.
Beautiful.
You think we don't need those soldiers?
Bedouin will be behind us like jackals.
Bedouins say it's good luck
to start a journey
in a sandstorm!
I'm glad to hear it!
Can you see anything?
Tracks are gone.
The wind.
It's Simoom.
Breath of the desert.
Might blow for a day...
Or six.
Totally unpredictable.
Like living in the tempest
of a woman's heart.
Imagine, fifty days of it.
Augustin!
- It says fertile land...
- Open. Close.
...and sweet water of Beni Suef.
We're not lost!
No!
We're not lost.
We are...
...here!
We simply misplaced the French army.
Forty thousand men...
...mesh ma'ool.
["unbelievable"].
Don't move.
Don't move.
Don't move.
What are you doing?
We could have eaten it!
Why didn't you catch it?
A man can go for three days without water.
Have you even had an apricot ice?
Go on!
In the shape of the ripe, round apricot
with frost, that that forms
on the outside of the glass.
Oh, beautiful, beautiful frost.
Take a little slice between your
tongue and your palate, and...
it melts.
Coolly, deliciously...
The last of our water to mix your paints!
We are lost.
We've been here before.
Look, we...
I have never been here before.
I've never been here before.
I've never been...
here...
before.
I've never...
been here...
before.
You can't get lost in Egypt.
There is the Nile, and there is the sea.
Wait here for me.
I'll come back for you.
In the desert...
a man forgets...
...that he even has a name.
I won't forget.
Salam, Augustin.
Salut.
Salam.
This color [...]
Apricot ice.
Augustin...
Augustin!
What are these names?
From the sea.
Come on.
Come on, that's a girl.
Just one foot in front of the other.
Lazy... good for nothing.
March!
One... two... three... four...
five... six...
Wait!
Help!
Don't curse me.
I'm French.
Faranzi. Faranzi.
Not your enemy.
Your friend.
Your friend.
Yes, look.
Blue eyes.
Like the sky.
Night is coming.
Let the Jinn destroy him.
Jinn, the nigh is yours.
But in the morning the Frenchman is mine.
Cowards!
Come out.
Fight!
Apricot ice.
Good bye, good riddance.
Drink.
Move! Move!
Move!
In the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost.
Wait!
One... two... three... four...
About face!
Hey!
What are you doing?
Give me back my coat.
Hey!
Give me back my coat.
Give it to me.
Come here.
It's about time
you had the name, kitty-cat.
Cleopatra.
Queen of the South.
No. She had a sad ending.
Janette?
Definitely not Janette.
Louise Colette?
Prettiest wet.
Come back! I was playing!
Come here.
Hey!
Emme... Estelle...
Marie...
She sang in the dark for me.
How about an Arab name?
Aisha!
She danced the sword for me in Cairo.
Sultana.
Salome.
My head...
on a tray.
Nefretete.
Isessa.
Sheba.
Abushal.
Shakira.
Josephine.
You wanna dance, hm?
Ah, you have a beauty spot.
Right here.
A few.
What shall I call you?
Soul of the wind.
Simoom.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Hey, Simoom...
Come here.
It's your move.
All right. I'll move.
And... your move.
Hey, what's got into you?
Simoom?
Simoom?
Jinn, my goats are thirsty.
Drink, so that we may drink.
Who knows we are here?
He thinks we are Jinns.
Simoom.
We marched all day with dreams
of golden isles.
Simoom?
Simoom!
What?
Simoom?
Wait!
Please.
Simoom!
Simoom!
Sweet Jesus provide for me.
Jesus!
Where have you been?
I won't forget you.
I'll be back.
Simoom...
I want you to wait for me here.
I will come back.
If I don't go to them...
I will be a deserter and they'll
shoot me. Do you understand?
A deserter!
A deserter!
No. No!
Stop!
No!
"She was white like the sands,
tawny like the sands,
solitary and burning like the sands"
/Honore de Balzac
From the novella "A PASSION IN THE DESERT"
by Honore de Balzac
Dedicated to all wild animals
PASSION IN THE DESERT
1978. Napoleon's struggling army pursues
Mameluke warriors deep into the Egyptian desert
Augustin!
Venture!
Courage, citizen.
We're almost there!
We'd be there even sooner
if you got on your horse.
How much further is it?
Just what I said to you.
We made good time too.
- Temle of Bastet.
- No. The real food and wine, Venture.
Good French wine.
Captain Augustin Robert.
- Artillery guide general Clever's division.
- Report, captain.
I have orders from general Bonaparte
to escort the artist,
citizen Venture de P...
Where have you got to now,
you slippery old goat?
We will accompany you as far as Tell Basta.
Four days there...
one day sketching, in about nine days
we should be back in Cairo.
If you don't get lost.
Well you can't get lost in Egypt.
There's the Nile and there is the see.
And...
The nose! Stop.
The nose: seven.
Seven.
Down. Down.
Left.
Left.
Left again!
That's good.
Here is...
between eight and nine.
Eight or nine?
Forty centuries, you donkey!
What are they doing?
No!
Vive la France!
Venture, look out!
No!
What do they have against beauty?
It's old.
Built by slaves for aristocrats.
Like yourself, citizen Venture.
Bonaparte will have your hide
if anything happens to his precious artist.
Nothing will happen to Venture.
We have Allah on our side.
Venture, dresses like our enemy.
He talks like our enemy.
So should he not be with our enemy?
Shall we tell stories...
or sleep?
May I sit down?
What was that?
Hyena.
What is out there?
Jinns.
Jinns?
Spirits that can inhabit in a rock,
a tree, an animal.
Lizards, that blind you with a look.
Chimera, giant birds...
that outrun a horse.
Snakes...
Snakes that fly.
Or Jinns can take a human shape.
The only thing the fearless Bedouin fear.
Birds that can outrun a horse.
Snakes that fly.
Lies and superstitions.
Blinding the people.
That's why we have to kill the priests.
Lies. Superstitions.
No! Taboos!
Bad luck, like shooting that Sphinx!
Ho! Attack!
Attack! Attack!
- Alert! Alert...!
- Attack...!
Wake up! Get up!
Get up! Move!
Wheel it around! Wheel it around!
Wait for me!
Come on! Form the line!
Fire!
Fire!
Get down!
Venture!
What are you doing?
I want my shot back.
No!
He's not dead.
Venture!
Haven't you got it yet?
You soldiers are always in a hurry.
You only arrive at a place,
when you start out for the next one.
Look.
Beautiful.
You think we don't need those soldiers?
Bedouin will be behind us like jackals.
Bedouins say it's good luck
to start a journey
in a sandstorm!
I'm glad to hear it!
Can you see anything?
Tracks are gone.
The wind.
It's Simoom.
Breath of the desert.
Might blow for a day...
Or six.
Totally unpredictable.
Like living in the tempest
of a woman's heart.
Imagine, fifty days of it.
Augustin!
- It says fertile land...
- Open. Close.
...and sweet water of Beni Suef.
We're not lost!
No!
We're not lost.
We are...
...here!
We simply misplaced the French army.
Forty thousand men...
...mesh ma'ool.
["unbelievable"].
Don't move.
Don't move.
Don't move.
What are you doing?
We could have eaten it!
Why didn't you catch it?
A man can go for three days without water.
Have you even had an apricot ice?
Go on!
In the shape of the ripe, round apricot
with frost, that that forms
on the outside of the glass.
Oh, beautiful, beautiful frost.
Take a little slice between your
tongue and your palate, and...
it melts.
Coolly, deliciously...
The last of our water to mix your paints!
We are lost.
We've been here before.
Look, we...
I have never been here before.
I've never been here before.
I've never been...
here...
before.
I've never...
been here...
before.
You can't get lost in Egypt.
There is the Nile, and there is the sea.
Wait here for me.
I'll come back for you.
In the desert...
a man forgets...
...that he even has a name.
I won't forget.
Salam, Augustin.
Salut.
Salam.
This color [...]
Apricot ice.
Augustin...
Augustin!
What are these names?
From the sea.
Come on.
Come on, that's a girl.
Just one foot in front of the other.
Lazy... good for nothing.
March!
One... two... three... four...
five... six...
Wait!
Help!
Don't curse me.
I'm French.
Faranzi. Faranzi.
Not your enemy.
Your friend.
Your friend.
Yes, look.
Blue eyes.
Like the sky.
Night is coming.
Let the Jinn destroy him.
Jinn, the nigh is yours.
But in the morning the Frenchman is mine.
Cowards!
Come out.
Fight!
Apricot ice.
Good bye, good riddance.
Drink.
Move! Move!
Move!
In the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost.
Wait!
One... two... three... four...
About face!
Hey!
What are you doing?
Give me back my coat.
Hey!
Give me back my coat.
Give it to me.
Come here.
It's about time
you had the name, kitty-cat.
Cleopatra.
Queen of the South.
No. She had a sad ending.
Janette?
Definitely not Janette.
Louise Colette?
Prettiest wet.
Come back! I was playing!
Come here.
Hey!
Emme... Estelle...
Marie...
She sang in the dark for me.
How about an Arab name?
Aisha!
She danced the sword for me in Cairo.
Sultana.
Salome.
My head...
on a tray.
Nefretete.
Isessa.
Sheba.
Abushal.
Shakira.
Josephine.
You wanna dance, hm?
Ah, you have a beauty spot.
Right here.
A few.
What shall I call you?
Soul of the wind.
Simoom.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Hey, Simoom...
Come here.
It's your move.
All right. I'll move.
And... your move.
Hey, what's got into you?
Simoom?
Simoom?
Jinn, my goats are thirsty.
Drink, so that we may drink.
Who knows we are here?
He thinks we are Jinns.
Simoom.
We marched all day with dreams
of golden isles.
Simoom?
Simoom!
What?
Simoom?
Wait!
Please.
Simoom!
Simoom!
Sweet Jesus provide for me.
Jesus!
Where have you been?
I won't forget you.
I'll be back.
Simoom...
I want you to wait for me here.
I will come back.
If I don't go to them...
I will be a deserter and they'll
shoot me. Do you understand?
A deserter!
A deserter!
No. No!
Stop!
No!
"She was white like the sands,
tawny like the sands,
solitary and burning like the sands"
/Honore de Balzac
From the novella "A PASSION IN THE DESERT"
by Honore de Balzac
Dedicated to all wild animals