The English Patient (1996) - full transcript
October 1944 in war torn Italy. Hana, a French-Canadian nurse working in a mobile army medical unit, feels like everything she loves in life dies on her. Because of the difficulty traveling and the dangers, especially as the landscape is still heavily booby-trapped with mines, Hana volunteers to stay behind at a church to care solely for a dying semi-amnesiac patient, who is badly burned and disfigured. She agrees to catch up to the rest of the unit after he dies. All the patient remembers is that he is English and that he is married. Their solitude is disrupted with the arrival at the church of fellow Canadian David Caravaggio, part of the Intelligence Service, who is certain that he knows the patient as a man who cooperated with the Germans. Caravaggio believes that the patient's memory is largely in tact and that he is running away from his past, in part or in its entirety. The patient does open up about his past, all surrounding his work as a cartographer in North Africa, which was interrupted by the war. He may not be running from his work as a spy for the Germans as Caravaggio believes, but rather the memory of an affair he had with married Katherine Clifton, the love of his life, and the memory of a promise not totally fulfilled. Hana may also test her theory of her fates with love and death as she embarks on a relationship of her own with Kip Singh, a Sikh from India, whose unit has camped on the now overgrown lawn of the church. Their work entails sweeping for and diffusing mines, the discovery of one such mine which had earlier saved her life.
[Wind Chimes Jingling]
[Man Speaking Arabic]
[Men Conversing In Arabic]
[Woman Singing
In Hungarian]
[Hungarian Song Ends]
[Woman Vocalizing]
[Shouting In German]
[Shouting]
[Engine Sputtering]
[Train Whistle Blows]
- How are you?
- Okay.
Your leg
will be fine.
A lot of shrapnel came out.
I saved you the pieces.
You are the prettiest girl
I've ever seen.
I don't think so.
Here.
- Would you kiss me?
- No. I'll get you some tea.
- It would mean such a lot to me.
- Would it?
Thank you.
- I can't sleep. Would you kiss me?
- Oh.
- You're so pretty.
- Will you tuck me in, please?
[Laughing] Very funny.
Go to sleep now.
- Where's the doctor?
- Don't ask.
[Conversing In Arabic]
[Conversation Continues]
[Gasping, Groaning]
[Breathing Heavily]
[Camel Grunts]
[Man Breathing Heavily]
[Fly Buzzing]
[Gasping, Gagging]
[Chattering]
[Indistinct Conversations]
God, I hate giving blood.
Can't stand needles.
Is there anybody
from Picton?
Picton?
I don't know.
I'd like to see somebody
from home before I go.
- Do we have anybody from Picton?
- Why Picton?
He's from there. Edge of Lake Ontario,
right, soldier?
That's where your sweetie's from,
isn't it? Around there?
Ask him what company
he's with.
- Third Canadian Fusiliers.
- Third Canadian Fusiliers.
Does he know
Captain McGan?
He bought it yesterday.
Shot to bits.
- What did he say?
- Doesn't know him.
[Shell Whistles, Explodes]
Hana, get down!
[Screaming, Shouting]
[Sobbing]
He's dead. He's dead.
[Shouting]
[Sobbing]
He's dead.
He's dead.
[Explosions]
[Bottles Clinking]
[Conversing In Arabic]
[Arabic]
[Breathing Heavily]
[Chanting]
[Continues]
[Chanting Continues,
Drumbeat]
[Arabic]
[Chanting Continues]
[Breathing Heavily]
[Chattering]
[Man]
Name, rank, serial number?
[Man #2]
No, sorry.
I think I was
a pilot.
I was found in the wreckage of a plane
at the beginning of the war.
Can you remember
where you were born?
Am I being interrogated?
You should be trying to
trick me, make me speak German.
- Which I can, by the way.
- Why?
- Are you German?
- No.
How do you know you're not German
if you don't remember anything?
Might... Might I have
a sip of water?
[Sea Gulls Calling]
[Gulps]
- Thank you.
- It's okay.
I remember
lots of things.
I remember her garden,
plunging down to the sea.
- Nothing between you and France.
- This was your garden?
- Or my wife's.
- You were married then?
I think so. Although I believe that
to be true of a number of Germans.
Look.
[Gasping]
I have this much lung.
The rest of my organs
are packing up.
What could it possibly matter
if I'm a Tutankhamen?
I'm a bit of...
toast, my friend.
Sorry I can't help you.
[Horn Honking]
[Breathing Heavily]
Are you all right?
I know you hate to be moved.
I'm sorry.
- [Honking]
- Hana!
- Jan?
- Hana!
There's meant to be lace in the next
village. The boys are gonna take me.
- You don't have any money, do ya?
- No.
- Just in case there's a sale.
- No.
Hana, I know you do.
Come on.
- No!
- Oh, come on.
I swear to God,
this'll be the last time. I swear.
She's a softie.
She loves me.
- I'll pay you back! I promise!
- [Laughing]
I'm not sewing
anything else for you.
I love you!
Whoa!
Pienza, boys!
[Breathing Heavily]
[Man] Get some water
over here!
Jan!
Oh, no!
Hana, where're
you going?
- Stay back!
- Stop, Hana!
- Stay...
- [Crying]
No!
No!
- Hey! Hey!
- Don't move!
Don't move!
Don't move!
Stand absolutely still!
You're walking in
a mine field!
Good.
That's good.
Just stay still
for me...
and we'll be fine.
What are you doing?
What the bloody hell do
you think you're doing?
[Hana]
It's Jan's.
[Sighs]
[Hana] Are you in pain?
Do you need something?
- Yes.
- Okay.
Are you okay?
- You and Jan were...
- We keep moving him
in and out of the truck.
Why? He's dying.
What's the point?
We can hardly leave him.
Do you mean leave him?
No, no,
I don't mean leave him.
This will help you.
I must be a curse.
Anybody who loves me...
[Sighs]
Anybody who gets
close to me...
Oh, I must be cursed.
Which is it?
[Single Piano Key Plays]
[Grunts]
- When he dies, I'll catch up.
- It's not safe here.
The whole country's crawling with
bandits and Germans and God knows what.
- It's madness! I can't allow it.
- The war is over.
How can it be
desertion?
It's not over everywhere.
I didn't mean literally.
This is normal, a shock,
for all of us, Hana.
I need morphine, a lot.
And a pistol.
If anything ever happened to you,
I'd never forgive myself.
We're heading
for Leghorn.
"Livorno,"
the Italians call it.
We'll expect you.
Fine.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome, ma'am.
- Oh, Hana.
- I'll be okay.
I'll catch up.
Good.
[Sighs]
[Muttering Song Lyrics]
[Continues]
[Engines Droning]
[Grunting]
What... What was
all that banging?
Are you... Are you fighting rats,
or the entire German army?
No. I was repairing
the stairs.
I found a library,
and the books were very useful.
Before you find too many
uses for those books,
you might
read some to me.
I think they're all in Italian,
but I'll look, yes.
- What about your own book?
- My book?
Oh, yes,
the Herodotus.
Yes, you can read him.
Oh. I found plums.
We have plums
in the orchard. There.
We have an orchard.
Herodotus is
the father of history.
- Do you know that?
- I don't know anything.
Hmm.
It's a...
It's a very plum...
plum.
[Thud]
[Man Speaking Arabic]
[Responds In Arabic]
[Arabic]
A mountain the shape
of a woman's back. Good, good.
- Hello, Geoffrey!
- Madox, hello!
- Welcome to the expedition.
- How do you do? Geoffrey Clifton.
Splendid to finally
meet you all.
This is Dante D'Agostino
and Diggy Bermann, our archaeologist.
- Beautiful plane.
- This is Sharif Al Fouad, Egyptologist.
- And this is my wife, Katharine.
- Hello.
We're your
new apprentices.
- Welcome to the International Sand Club.
- [Laughing]
- To the International Sand Club.
- I'll get cups.
- Marvellous plane. Did you look?
- Yes.
Isn't it? A wedding present
from Katharine's parents.
We're calling it
Rupert Bear.
- Hello. Geoffrey Clifton.
- Almasy.
We can finally consign my old bird
to the scrap heap.
Mrs Clifton,
I'd like to present...
- Count Almasy.
- Hello.
Geoffrey gave me your monograph
and I was reading up in the desert.
- Very impressive.
- Thank you.
I wanted to meet the man who could write
a long paper with so few adjectives.
Well, a thing is still a thing,
no matter what you place in front of it.
Big car, slow car,
chauffeur-driven car.
- [Madox] Broken car.
- It's still a car.
- Not much use, though.
- [Katharine] Love?
Romantic love,
plutonic love, filial love.
- Quite different things, surely.
- Uxoriousness.
That's my favourite kind of love.
Excessive love of one's wife.
- Now there you have me.
- [Men Laughing]
- They're tourists.
- Absolute rot.
They're highly recommended
by the Royal Geographic Society.
She's charming and
has read everything.
- He's meant to be a ruddy good flier.
- We don't need another pilot.
He can make aerial maps
of the whole route.
You can't explore
from the air, Madox.
If you could explore from the air,
life would be very simple.
Contact.
Contact.
I should try
and move the bed.
I want you to be able
to see the view.
It's good. It's a view
from a monastery.
- I can already see.
- How?
- How can you see anything?
- No, no, not the window.
I can't bear
the light anyway.
I can see all the way
to the desert.
I'm turning you.
Exploring before the war,
making maps.
Is there sand in my eyes?
Are you cleaning sand from my ears?
No sand.
That's your morphine speaking.
I can see my wife
in that view.
Are you
remembering more?
- Could I have a cigarette?
- Are you crazy?
[Coughing]
Why... Why are you so determined
to keep me alive?
[Sighs]
Because I'm a nurse.
[Sound Of Hana's Feet
Hopping]
[Drumbeats, Chanting]
[Continues]
[Arabic]
Bravo.
We have an
old-fashioned tomato
A Long Island potato
But yes
We have no bananas
We have no bananas today
[Arabic]
[German]
[Italian]
[Arabic]
- Next!
- Katharine!
[Hana] "The King insisted that
he would find some way...
"to prove beyond dispute...
"that his wife
was fairest of all women.
"'I will hide you in your room
where we sleep,' said Candaules...
- said Candaules."
- Candaules.
"Candaules."
Candaules.
Candaules tells Gyges that the Queen has
the same practise every night.
She takes off
her clothes...
and puts them on the chair
by the door to her room.
"'And from where you stand,
you will be able to gaze
on her at your leisure."'
And that evening, it's exactly as
the King has told him.
She goes
to the chair,
removes her clothes
one by one,
until she's standing naked
in full view of Gyges.
And indeed, she was more lovely
than he could have imagined.
But then,
the Queen looked up...
and saw Gyges concealed
in the shadows.
And although she said
nothing, she shuddered.
And the next day,
she sends for, for Gyges
and challenged him.
- And hearing his story,
this is what she said.
- Off with his head!
[Laughing]
She said, "Either you
must submit to death...
"for gazing on that
which you should not,
"or else kill my husband
who has shamed me...
and become King
in his place."
So Gyges kills the King,
marries the Queen and becomes ruler
of Lydia for 28 years.
The end.
Shall I spin
the bottle?
[Madox] So, Geoffrey,
let that be a lesson to you.
- [Katharine] D'Agostino!
- D'Agostino!
Are you asleep?
Yes.
No. I'm dropping off.
[Cawing]
Go away!
Go! Go!
[Grunts]
Buon giorno.
- Hana?
- What do you want?
I met your
friend Mary.
She said I should stop and see
if you were all right.
Apparently we're neighbours. My house
is two blocks from yours in Montreal.
Cabot,
north of Laurier.
- Bonjour.
- Bonjour.
For you.
I'd like to take credit for it,
but it's from Mary.
My name is David Caravaggio,
but nobody ever called me David.
Caravaggio they find
too absurd to miss out on.
Oh!
[Snickers]
Oh!
Oh, shit.
Stupid hands.
Let me do that.
They're fresh.
I haven't had
an egg in...
Have you noticed
there are chickens?
In Italy, you get chickens
but no eggs.
In Africa, they're always eggs
but never chickens.
- Who's separating them?
- You were in Africa?
Yes, I was.
So was my patient.
Look, I'd like to
stay for a while.
I have to do
some work here.
I speak the language.
There are partisans to be disarmed.
We embrace them and see
if we can relieve them of their weapons,
you know,
while we hide.
I was a thief, so the army
thought I'd be good at it.
- So you can shoot a pistol?
- No.
Do you have a problem
with those?
No.
- I should look at them before you go.
- Look.
It's a big place.
We needn't disturb each other.
I'll sleep
in the stable.
It doesn't matter where I sleep.
I don't sleep.
I don't know what Mary told you
about me, but I don't need company.
I don't need
to be looked after.
There is a man
downstairs.
He brought us eggs.
He might stay.
Why?
Can he lay eggs?
He's Canadian.
Why are people always so happy when they
collide with one from the same place?
What happened in Montreal
when you passed a man in the street?
Did you invite him
to live with you?
He needn't
disturb you.
He can't.
I'm already disturbed.
[Sighs]
There's a war. Where you come from
becomes important.
[Patient]
Why? I hate that idea.
Ah!
It's gonna work.
Gently.
[Knocking]
Can I help?
It's finished.
So, you're our
Canadian pickpocket?
Thief I think
is more accurate.
I understand you were in Africa.
Whereabouts?
Oh, all over.
All over?
I kept trying to cover
a very modest portion and still failed.
- Are you leaving us?
- Yes.
Now's our opportunity
to swap war wounds.
[Laughs]
Then I'm definitely going.
Does she have
war wounds?
I think anybody
she ever loves...
tends to die on her.
- Are you planning to be the exception?
- Me?
[Laughs]
I think you've got...
the wrong end
of the stick, old boy.
So...
Caravaggio.
Hana thinks
you invented your name.
And you've
forgotten yours.
I said that no one would ever invent
such a preposterous name.
And I said you can
forget everything,
but you never forget
your name.
Count Almasy.
That name mean
anything to you?
Or Katharine Clifton?
[People Chattering]
Oh, I'm sorry.
- How much did you pay?
- Oh, hello.
They don't see foreign women
in this market. How much did you pay?
Um, 7, 8 pounds,
I suppose.
- Which store?
- Why?
You've been cheated.
Oh, don't worry, we'll take it back.
I don't want
to take it back.
- This is not worth 8 pounds.
- It is to me.
- Did you bargain?
- I don't care to bargain.
That insults them.
I don't believe that. I think
that you're insulted by me somehow.
I'd be very happy to obtain
the correct price for this.
I apologize
if I appear abrupt.
I'm rusty at social graces.
How do you find Cairo?
- Did you visit the pyramids?
- Excuse me.
Or the Sphinx?
[Almasy] Latitude, 25, 33.
Longitude, 25, 16.
We attempt to drive northeast of Kofer,
we'll leave our bones in the desert.
- I disagree.
- You're Hungarian. You always disagree.
- Good evening, gentlemen.
- Good evening.
- How is your charming wife?
- Marvellous.
She's in love
with the hotel plumbing.
She's either in the swimming pool.
She swims for hours.
She's a fish. It's quite incredible.
Or she's in the bath.
- [Laughing]
- Actually, she's just outside.
Chaps only
in the Long Bar.
Mrs Clifton.
You'll have to forgive us. We're not
accustomed to the company of women.
Not at all. I was thoroughly
enjoying my book.
- The team is in mourning, darling.
- Oh, really?
I'm afraid we're not having much luck
obtaining funds for the expedition.
Oh. Well, what'll you do?
More modest expedition,
or even wait a year.
- It's a disaster.
- Remind our families we still exist.
Good heavens,
are you married, Madox?
Very much so.
We all are.
- Save my friend Almasy here.
- I feel much better.
Don't you, darling?
We were feeling rather self-conscious.
Let's toast, then.
Absent wives.
- [All] Absent wives.
- And present ones.
And future ones.
[Jazz]
[Song Ends]
Thank you.
Excuse me.
May I?
[Slow]
- Why did you follow me yesterday?
- I'm sorry. What?
After the market,
you followed me to the hotel.
I was concerned. A woman
in that part of Cairo, a European woman.
- I felt obliged to.
- You felt obliged to?
As the wife of
one of our party.
So why follow me?
Escort me, by all means.
But following me
is predatory, isn't it?
[Snoring]
Could I ask you
to move?
I'm sorry,
but l...
I'm sorry.
Of course.
- It's just when you move.
- It was too rude of me.
- I can't really bear the pressure...
- Are you all right?
I was dreaming.
Awful.
[Crying]
[Sobbing]
Hana.
Hana, are you
all right?
Leave me alone.
[Sobs]
You're in love with him,
aren't you?
Your poor patient.
You think he's a saint
because of the way he looks.
I don't think he is.
I'm not so
in love with him.
I'm in love with ghosts.
So is he.
He's in love with ghosts.
What if I told you
he did this to me?
How could he have?
When?
I'm one of his ghosts,
and he wouldn't even know it.
- I don't know what that means.
- Ask your saint who he is.
Ask him
who he's killed.
[Sobbing] Please, don't creep
around this house.
See, I don't think
he's forgotten anything!
I think he wants to forget!
[Clifton]
Gentlemen, to mapmaking.
[All]
To mapmaking!
And a special thank you
to Geoffrey and Katharine,
without whose fund-raising heroics,
we'd still be kicking our heels.
- To arm-twisting.
- [All] Arm-twisting.
Did Katharine say Geoffrey
has to fly back to Cairo?
Return the favour.
Take a few photographs for the army.
Oh, um, what kind
of photographs?
Portraits.
The brigadier,
the brigadier's wife,
the brigadier's dog, brigadier
by the pyramids, brigadier breathing.
And I shall,
of course, be bereft.
I'll finally be able to
explore the Cairo nightlife.
I shall produce an authoritative guide
to the zinc bars and...
I want to say hareems. Are we
in the right country for hareems?
[Madox]
Harems.
- Bye, my love.
- Travel safe.
Catch up
in a week.
Clifton,
safe journey.
You too. Good luck.
Glad the funds have turned up.
Clifton.
This is probably
none of my business.
Your wife.
- Think it's appropriate to leave her?
- Appropriate?
Well, the desert is, it's, uh...
for a woman, it's very tough.
I wonder if it's
not too much for her.
Are you mad? Katharine loves it here.
She told me yesterday.
- All the same, were I you...
- I've known Katharine
since she was three.
We were practically brother and sister
before we were man and wife.
I think I'd know what is and what isn't
too much for her.
I think
she'd know herself.
Very well.
Why are you people
so threatened by a woman?
[Piano]
[Tapping]
I have come to love...
that little tap of the
fingernail against the syringe.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
[Continues]
- [Gunshot]
- Stop playing! Please, stop playing.
I don't have the key
to that door. You...
The Germans were here.
The Germans were all over this area.
They left mines
everywhere.
The pianos were their
favourite hiding places.
I see.
Sorry.
Then maybe you're safe
as long as you only play Bach.
He's German.
Is something funny?
No. I'm sorry.
I've met you before.
I don't think so.
Look. See?
Move that,
and no more Bach.
Lieutenant!
Are you all right, Sir?
Fine, Sergeant.
So you're working
with the Italians.
Yeah, trying to get them
to give up their weapons.
I was a thief, so the army
thought I'd be good at it.
I like the Italians.
[Hana]
He wants us to move out.
He says there could be
50 more mines in the building.
[Hana] He thinks I'm mad
because I laugh at him.
He's Indian.
- He wears a turban.
- No, he's Sikh.
If he wears a turban,
he's Sikh.
I'll probably marry him.
Really?
That's sudden.
My mother
always told me...
I would summon my husband
by playing the piano.
[Breathing Heavily]
- I liked it better when
there were just the two of us.
- Why? Is he staying?
With his sergeant,
a Mr Hardy.
We should charge.
Doesn't anyone have a job to do?
They have to clear all the roads
of mines. That's a big job.
In that case, l...
I suppose we can't charge.
No, we can't.
Thank you.
[Engines Drone]
[Muttering Song Lyrics]
Flat foot floogee
with the floy floy
[Humming]
Flat foot floogee
with the floy floy
Flat foot floogee
with the floy floy
I've been thinking. How does someone
like you decide to come to the desert?
What is it? You...
You're doing whatever you're doing in
your castle, or wherever it is you live,
and one day you say,
"I have to get to the desert," or what?
I once travelled with a guide
who was taking me to Faya.
He didn't speak
for nine hours.
At the end of it, he pointed
at the horizon and said, "Faya."
That was a good day.
Actually, you sing.
- What?
- You sing.
All the time.
- I do not.
- Ask Al Auf.
Al Auf!
- [Arabic]
- [Al Auf Laughs]
[Arabic]
[Al Auf Singing]
[Katharine] You'd better be ready
about half past 8:00
Remember, honey
Don't be late
'Cause I'll be there
when the band starts playing
Gonna dance off
both my shoes
When they play
the jelly roll blues
Tomorrow night at the
dark-town strutter's ball
[Al Auf Singing]
[Chanting In Arabic]
[Chanting Continues]
Give me your hand.
Thanks.
[Chanting Continues]
[Chanting Response]
[Chanting Continues]
Madox!
Madox!
Madox!
- Come quickly! I've found something!
- What is it?
D'Ag! Bermann!
Quick!
My God.
They're swimming.
[Madox]
They're swimming.
[Man Talking: Indistinct]
[Men Speaking Arabic]
Ow!
- You okay?
- Yeah.
[Giggling]
How do you explain...
to someone who has
never been here,
feelings which seem
quite normal?
I don't know,
my friend.
I don't know.
- Aaah!
- Kamal!
Bermann,
what are you doing?
Bermann!
Watch out!
Watch out!
[Men Shouting In Arabic]
- Get them out of the car!
- Let me help!
Almasy,
are you all right?
Yes, yes,
I'm fine.
My wrist!
Ah!
[Men Speaking Arabic]
I'll be back as quick as I can,
36 hours at the outside.
Try to get
an additional radiator.
We can store it between here
and Pottery Hill. And a better jack.
- We planned badly.
- Bermann?
[Engine Starts]
[Arabic]
Safe journey.
Now what?
[Madox] Let's get all
this stuff off.
- I'll stay behind, of course.
- Certainly not.
- I caused the problem. I shall stay.
- You can't. None of you can.
No, I insist. There clearly
isn't room for all of us.
I'm the least able to dig, and I'm not
one of the walking wounded.
It's only one night.
If I remain, it's the most effective
method of persuading my husband...
to abandon whatever he's doing
and come and rescue us.
- All right.
- Come on, let's get going.
[Engine Starts]
I thought you might like to
paste them into your book.
Well, we...
We took
photographs.
There's no need.
No, really.
I'd like you to have them.
Well, there's really no need.
This is, um...
This is just a scrapbook.
They are too good.
I should feel obliged.
Thank you.
And that would be unconscionable,
I suppose, wouldn't it?
To feel any obligation.
Yes, of course it would.
[Men Speaking Arabic]
You should come
into the shelter.
I'm quite all right,
thank you.
- Look over there.
- What am I looking at?
Do you see what's happening to them,
the stars?
- They're so untidy.
I was trying to rearrange them.
- No, no.
Over there.
In a few minutes,
there'll be no stars.
The air
is filling with sand.
[Wind Howling]
[Shouting]
[Panting]
[Coughing]
- This is not very good, is it?
- No.
[Coughing]
- We will be all right?
- Yes.
Yes.
Absolutely.
"Yes" is a comfort.
"Absolutely" is not.
Let me tell you
about winds.
There is a, a whirlwind
from southern Morocco,
the Aajej,
against which the Fellahin
defend themselves with knives.
And there is a,
a Ghibli from Tunis.
- A Ghibli?
- A Ghibli.
Which rolls and rolls
and rolls and produces a...
- a rather strange nervous condition.
- [Laughing]
And then there is the,
the Harmatten,
a red wind, which mariners called
"a sea of darkness."
And red sand
from this wind...
has flown as far as
the south coast of England,
apparently
producing...
showers so dense that they were
mistaken for blood.
Fiction!
We have a house on that coast
and it has never, never rained blood.
No, it's all true.
Herodotus, your friend.
- My friend.
- Your fri...
He writes about it...
and he writes about...
a, a wind, the Simoon,
which a nation thought
was so evil,
they declared war on it
and marched out against it.
In full battle dress.
Their swords raised.
[Engine Running,
Horn Honking]
Katharine, Katharine, I need
to get out your side, quickly.
A car!
Let me out!
Of course.
I'm sorry.
Ridiculous
to fall asleep!
Unforgivable!
Damn!
The flare!
Stop!
Over here!
- [Honking]
- Here!
- Stop!
- [Honking]
- Madox!
- [Flare Gun Fires]
Madox! Madox!
Our tracks
have disappeared.
Madox will calculate how many miles.
He'll soon turn around.
Could I ask you,
please, to...
paste your paintings
into my book.
L... I should like
to have them.
I should be honoured.
- [Muffled Honking]
- The others!
- Oh, God.
- Quick!
[Honking Continues]
Oh, how awful!
Are we going to get them out?
Quick!
Get the other shovel!
[Honking Continues]
Am I a terrible coward
to ask how much water we have left?
A little in our can. We have, uh, water
in the radiator, which can be drunk.
And, uh, that's not cowardly at all.
It's extremely practical.
We, uh... Oh, come on!
Come on!
- [Honking Continues]
- There's also a plant.
I've never seen it,
but I believe you can cut a piece
the size of a heart from this plant,
and the next morning it'll be filled
with a delicious liquid.
Find that plant,
cut out its heart.
[Honking Continues]
Here.
[Men Shouting]
Here's the window.
Clear the glass. I'll clear the door.
Mind your hands.
- [Shouting]
- It's okay. We're here.
Come on,
clear it quickly.
[Shouting]
Hang on.
Coming.
[Shouting In Arabic]
- I've got it. I've got it.
- Help them out. Here.
[Arabic]
Katharine.
Water.
[Flare Fires, Explodes]
[Katharine]
Geoffrey's not in Cairo.
He's not actually
a buffoon.
The plane wasn't
a wedding present.
It belongs to the
British government.
They want aerial maps
of the whole of North Africa.
So I think
he's in Ethiopia.
In case you're counting
on his sudden appearance.
And the marriage.
Is that a fiction?
No, the marriage
isn't a fiction.
[Men Shouting In Arabic]
- Oh, thank God.
- [Shouting Continues]
Thank God.
Madox.
It's Madox.
[Shouting]
Am I K. In your book?
I think I must be.
[Man]
Chapter one.
"He sat in defiance of municipal orders
astride the gun Zamzammah..."
I can't read these words. I can't
read them. They stick in my throat.
[Almasy] Because you're
reading it too fast.
- Not at all.
- You have to read Kipling slowly.
The eye is too impatient.
Think about the speed of his pen.
What is it?
"He sat, comma,
"in defiance of
municipal orders, comma,
"astride the gun
Zamzammah...
on her brick..."
What is it?
"Brick platform, opposite the old
Ajaib-Gher."
"The wonder house, comma,
as the natives called
the Lahore Museum."
It's still there, the cannon,
outside the museum.
Made of metal cups and bowls taken
from every household in the city as tax,
then melted down.
Then later, they fired
the cannon at my people,
comma,
the natives.
Full stop.
[Slurping]
What exactly
is it you object to?
The writer,
or what he's writing about?
What I really
object to, Uncle,
is your finishing
all my condensed milk.
And the message everywhere in your book,
however slowly I read it,
that the best thing for India
is to be ruled by the British.
Hana, we have discovered
a shared pleasure, the boy and I.
- Arguing about books?
- Condensed milk.
One of the truly
great inventions.
I'll get
another tin.
I didn't like that book either.
It's all about men.
Too many men.
Just like this house.
You like him, don't you?
Your voice changes.
No, I don't
think it does.
Anyway,
he's indifferent to me.
I don't think
it's indifference.
- Hana was just telling me,
you're indifferent...
- Hey!
To her cooking.
Well, I'm indifferent
to cooking.
Not Hana's cooking
in particular.
Have either of you tried
condensed milk sandwiches?
[Coughing]
They're very good
with salt.
[Horns Honking]
[People Chattering]
[Honking]
Welcome back,
Madam.
Will you not come in?
No.
- I should go home.
- Will you please come in?
Mrs Clifton.
Don't.
I believe
you still have my book.
Thank you.
[Chanting In Distance]
[Knocking]
[Knocking]
[Hinges Creak]
You still have
sand in your hair.
It wouldn't be
make believe
If you believe in me
Without your love
I'm impressed
you can sew.
Good.
You sew very badly.
Well, you don't
sew at all.
A woman should
never learn to sew,
and if she can,
she shouldn't admit to it.
[Snickers]
Close your eyes.
It makes it harder still.
Hmm.
When were you
most happy?
Now.
And when were you
least happy?
Now.
- What do you love?
- What do I love?
- Say "everything."
- Let's see.
- Water.
- Mm-hmm.
[Water Splashing]
- Fish in it.
- [Chuckles]
And hedgehogs.
I love hedgehogs.
And what else?
Marmite.
I'm addicted.
And baths.
But not with other people.
[Laughing]
Islands.
And your handwriting.
- Mmm.
- I could go on all day.
Go on all day.
My husband.
And what do you
hate most?
A lie.
What do you
hate most?
Ownership.
Being owned.
When you leave,
you should forget me.
- [Hana] Who is this?
- [Almasy] Don't you recognize me?
[Laughing]
Is it you? So fat.
[Chuckles]
- Hmm.
- That's a Christmas cracker.
Firecracker.
- This isn't your handwriting, is it?
- Yes, it is.
"December 22nd.
"Betrayals in war
are childlike...
"compared with our
betrayals during peace.
"New lovers are nervous
and tender...
"but smash everything.
For the heart
is an organ of fire."
"For the heart
is an organ of fire."
I love that.
I believe that.
K?
- Who is K?
- K...
is for Katharine.
[People Chattering]
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
- Say you're sick.
- What? No.
Say you're feeling faint.
The heat.
- No.
- I can't work.
- I can't sleep.
- Katharine.
Coming.
I can't sleep. I wake up shouting
in the middle of the night.
- Geoffrey thinks it's the
thing in the desert, trauma.
- I can still taste you.
- Fill up this. It's empty.
- Oh.
I try to write,
with your taste in my mouth.
Swoon.
I'll catch you.
- Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!
- [Child Yelling]
[Santa Shouting]
[Santa Laughing]
- Come along with me now!
- Merry Christmas, everyone!
Merry Christmas!
- Katharine! Oh, my goodness!
- Oh.
[Woman]
Fetch a chair.
No, I'm fine.
- It's this heat. It's terrible.
- Is she all right?
- She's quite all right.
- Oh, good.
- Are you pregnant?
- Oh, I don't think so, no.
[Laughing]
How romantic.
With Fiona, I fell over
every five minutes.
Ronnie christened me
"Lady Downfall."
Do you know, I think I might go inside
and sit down for a few minutes.
- I'll come with you.
- No, I'll be all right. You stay here.
Are you sure?
[Bagpipes]
Silent night
Holy night
All is calm
All is bright
Round yon virgin
[Man Speaking Arabic]
[Men Conversing In Arabic]
[Woman Singing
In Hungarian]
[Hungarian Song Ends]
[Woman Vocalizing]
[Shouting In German]
[Shouting]
[Engine Sputtering]
[Train Whistle Blows]
- How are you?
- Okay.
Your leg
will be fine.
A lot of shrapnel came out.
I saved you the pieces.
You are the prettiest girl
I've ever seen.
I don't think so.
Here.
- Would you kiss me?
- No. I'll get you some tea.
- It would mean such a lot to me.
- Would it?
Thank you.
- I can't sleep. Would you kiss me?
- Oh.
- You're so pretty.
- Will you tuck me in, please?
[Laughing] Very funny.
Go to sleep now.
- Where's the doctor?
- Don't ask.
[Conversing In Arabic]
[Conversation Continues]
[Gasping, Groaning]
[Breathing Heavily]
[Camel Grunts]
[Man Breathing Heavily]
[Fly Buzzing]
[Gasping, Gagging]
[Chattering]
[Indistinct Conversations]
God, I hate giving blood.
Can't stand needles.
Is there anybody
from Picton?
Picton?
I don't know.
I'd like to see somebody
from home before I go.
- Do we have anybody from Picton?
- Why Picton?
He's from there. Edge of Lake Ontario,
right, soldier?
That's where your sweetie's from,
isn't it? Around there?
Ask him what company
he's with.
- Third Canadian Fusiliers.
- Third Canadian Fusiliers.
Does he know
Captain McGan?
He bought it yesterday.
Shot to bits.
- What did he say?
- Doesn't know him.
[Shell Whistles, Explodes]
Hana, get down!
[Screaming, Shouting]
[Sobbing]
He's dead. He's dead.
[Shouting]
[Sobbing]
He's dead.
He's dead.
[Explosions]
[Bottles Clinking]
[Conversing In Arabic]
[Arabic]
[Breathing Heavily]
[Chanting]
[Continues]
[Chanting Continues,
Drumbeat]
[Arabic]
[Chanting Continues]
[Breathing Heavily]
[Chattering]
[Man]
Name, rank, serial number?
[Man #2]
No, sorry.
I think I was
a pilot.
I was found in the wreckage of a plane
at the beginning of the war.
Can you remember
where you were born?
Am I being interrogated?
You should be trying to
trick me, make me speak German.
- Which I can, by the way.
- Why?
- Are you German?
- No.
How do you know you're not German
if you don't remember anything?
Might... Might I have
a sip of water?
[Sea Gulls Calling]
[Gulps]
- Thank you.
- It's okay.
I remember
lots of things.
I remember her garden,
plunging down to the sea.
- Nothing between you and France.
- This was your garden?
- Or my wife's.
- You were married then?
I think so. Although I believe that
to be true of a number of Germans.
Look.
[Gasping]
I have this much lung.
The rest of my organs
are packing up.
What could it possibly matter
if I'm a Tutankhamen?
I'm a bit of...
toast, my friend.
Sorry I can't help you.
[Horn Honking]
[Breathing Heavily]
Are you all right?
I know you hate to be moved.
I'm sorry.
- [Honking]
- Hana!
- Jan?
- Hana!
There's meant to be lace in the next
village. The boys are gonna take me.
- You don't have any money, do ya?
- No.
- Just in case there's a sale.
- No.
Hana, I know you do.
Come on.
- No!
- Oh, come on.
I swear to God,
this'll be the last time. I swear.
She's a softie.
She loves me.
- I'll pay you back! I promise!
- [Laughing]
I'm not sewing
anything else for you.
I love you!
Whoa!
Pienza, boys!
[Breathing Heavily]
[Man] Get some water
over here!
Jan!
Oh, no!
Hana, where're
you going?
- Stay back!
- Stop, Hana!
- Stay...
- [Crying]
No!
No!
- Hey! Hey!
- Don't move!
Don't move!
Don't move!
Stand absolutely still!
You're walking in
a mine field!
Good.
That's good.
Just stay still
for me...
and we'll be fine.
What are you doing?
What the bloody hell do
you think you're doing?
[Hana]
It's Jan's.
[Sighs]
[Hana] Are you in pain?
Do you need something?
- Yes.
- Okay.
Are you okay?
- You and Jan were...
- We keep moving him
in and out of the truck.
Why? He's dying.
What's the point?
We can hardly leave him.
Do you mean leave him?
No, no,
I don't mean leave him.
This will help you.
I must be a curse.
Anybody who loves me...
[Sighs]
Anybody who gets
close to me...
Oh, I must be cursed.
Which is it?
[Single Piano Key Plays]
[Grunts]
- When he dies, I'll catch up.
- It's not safe here.
The whole country's crawling with
bandits and Germans and God knows what.
- It's madness! I can't allow it.
- The war is over.
How can it be
desertion?
It's not over everywhere.
I didn't mean literally.
This is normal, a shock,
for all of us, Hana.
I need morphine, a lot.
And a pistol.
If anything ever happened to you,
I'd never forgive myself.
We're heading
for Leghorn.
"Livorno,"
the Italians call it.
We'll expect you.
Fine.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome, ma'am.
- Oh, Hana.
- I'll be okay.
I'll catch up.
Good.
[Sighs]
[Muttering Song Lyrics]
[Continues]
[Engines Droning]
[Grunting]
What... What was
all that banging?
Are you... Are you fighting rats,
or the entire German army?
No. I was repairing
the stairs.
I found a library,
and the books were very useful.
Before you find too many
uses for those books,
you might
read some to me.
I think they're all in Italian,
but I'll look, yes.
- What about your own book?
- My book?
Oh, yes,
the Herodotus.
Yes, you can read him.
Oh. I found plums.
We have plums
in the orchard. There.
We have an orchard.
Herodotus is
the father of history.
- Do you know that?
- I don't know anything.
Hmm.
It's a...
It's a very plum...
plum.
[Thud]
[Man Speaking Arabic]
[Responds In Arabic]
[Arabic]
A mountain the shape
of a woman's back. Good, good.
- Hello, Geoffrey!
- Madox, hello!
- Welcome to the expedition.
- How do you do? Geoffrey Clifton.
Splendid to finally
meet you all.
This is Dante D'Agostino
and Diggy Bermann, our archaeologist.
- Beautiful plane.
- This is Sharif Al Fouad, Egyptologist.
- And this is my wife, Katharine.
- Hello.
We're your
new apprentices.
- Welcome to the International Sand Club.
- [Laughing]
- To the International Sand Club.
- I'll get cups.
- Marvellous plane. Did you look?
- Yes.
Isn't it? A wedding present
from Katharine's parents.
We're calling it
Rupert Bear.
- Hello. Geoffrey Clifton.
- Almasy.
We can finally consign my old bird
to the scrap heap.
Mrs Clifton,
I'd like to present...
- Count Almasy.
- Hello.
Geoffrey gave me your monograph
and I was reading up in the desert.
- Very impressive.
- Thank you.
I wanted to meet the man who could write
a long paper with so few adjectives.
Well, a thing is still a thing,
no matter what you place in front of it.
Big car, slow car,
chauffeur-driven car.
- [Madox] Broken car.
- It's still a car.
- Not much use, though.
- [Katharine] Love?
Romantic love,
plutonic love, filial love.
- Quite different things, surely.
- Uxoriousness.
That's my favourite kind of love.
Excessive love of one's wife.
- Now there you have me.
- [Men Laughing]
- They're tourists.
- Absolute rot.
They're highly recommended
by the Royal Geographic Society.
She's charming and
has read everything.
- He's meant to be a ruddy good flier.
- We don't need another pilot.
He can make aerial maps
of the whole route.
You can't explore
from the air, Madox.
If you could explore from the air,
life would be very simple.
Contact.
Contact.
I should try
and move the bed.
I want you to be able
to see the view.
It's good. It's a view
from a monastery.
- I can already see.
- How?
- How can you see anything?
- No, no, not the window.
I can't bear
the light anyway.
I can see all the way
to the desert.
I'm turning you.
Exploring before the war,
making maps.
Is there sand in my eyes?
Are you cleaning sand from my ears?
No sand.
That's your morphine speaking.
I can see my wife
in that view.
Are you
remembering more?
- Could I have a cigarette?
- Are you crazy?
[Coughing]
Why... Why are you so determined
to keep me alive?
[Sighs]
Because I'm a nurse.
[Sound Of Hana's Feet
Hopping]
[Drumbeats, Chanting]
[Continues]
[Arabic]
Bravo.
We have an
old-fashioned tomato
A Long Island potato
But yes
We have no bananas
We have no bananas today
[Arabic]
[German]
[Italian]
[Arabic]
- Next!
- Katharine!
[Hana] "The King insisted that
he would find some way...
"to prove beyond dispute...
"that his wife
was fairest of all women.
"'I will hide you in your room
where we sleep,' said Candaules...
- said Candaules."
- Candaules.
"Candaules."
Candaules.
Candaules tells Gyges that the Queen has
the same practise every night.
She takes off
her clothes...
and puts them on the chair
by the door to her room.
"'And from where you stand,
you will be able to gaze
on her at your leisure."'
And that evening, it's exactly as
the King has told him.
She goes
to the chair,
removes her clothes
one by one,
until she's standing naked
in full view of Gyges.
And indeed, she was more lovely
than he could have imagined.
But then,
the Queen looked up...
and saw Gyges concealed
in the shadows.
And although she said
nothing, she shuddered.
And the next day,
she sends for, for Gyges
and challenged him.
- And hearing his story,
this is what she said.
- Off with his head!
[Laughing]
She said, "Either you
must submit to death...
"for gazing on that
which you should not,
"or else kill my husband
who has shamed me...
and become King
in his place."
So Gyges kills the King,
marries the Queen and becomes ruler
of Lydia for 28 years.
The end.
Shall I spin
the bottle?
[Madox] So, Geoffrey,
let that be a lesson to you.
- [Katharine] D'Agostino!
- D'Agostino!
Are you asleep?
Yes.
No. I'm dropping off.
[Cawing]
Go away!
Go! Go!
[Grunts]
Buon giorno.
- Hana?
- What do you want?
I met your
friend Mary.
She said I should stop and see
if you were all right.
Apparently we're neighbours. My house
is two blocks from yours in Montreal.
Cabot,
north of Laurier.
- Bonjour.
- Bonjour.
For you.
I'd like to take credit for it,
but it's from Mary.
My name is David Caravaggio,
but nobody ever called me David.
Caravaggio they find
too absurd to miss out on.
Oh!
[Snickers]
Oh!
Oh, shit.
Stupid hands.
Let me do that.
They're fresh.
I haven't had
an egg in...
Have you noticed
there are chickens?
In Italy, you get chickens
but no eggs.
In Africa, they're always eggs
but never chickens.
- Who's separating them?
- You were in Africa?
Yes, I was.
So was my patient.
Look, I'd like to
stay for a while.
I have to do
some work here.
I speak the language.
There are partisans to be disarmed.
We embrace them and see
if we can relieve them of their weapons,
you know,
while we hide.
I was a thief, so the army
thought I'd be good at it.
- So you can shoot a pistol?
- No.
Do you have a problem
with those?
No.
- I should look at them before you go.
- Look.
It's a big place.
We needn't disturb each other.
I'll sleep
in the stable.
It doesn't matter where I sleep.
I don't sleep.
I don't know what Mary told you
about me, but I don't need company.
I don't need
to be looked after.
There is a man
downstairs.
He brought us eggs.
He might stay.
Why?
Can he lay eggs?
He's Canadian.
Why are people always so happy when they
collide with one from the same place?
What happened in Montreal
when you passed a man in the street?
Did you invite him
to live with you?
He needn't
disturb you.
He can't.
I'm already disturbed.
[Sighs]
There's a war. Where you come from
becomes important.
[Patient]
Why? I hate that idea.
Ah!
It's gonna work.
Gently.
[Knocking]
Can I help?
It's finished.
So, you're our
Canadian pickpocket?
Thief I think
is more accurate.
I understand you were in Africa.
Whereabouts?
Oh, all over.
All over?
I kept trying to cover
a very modest portion and still failed.
- Are you leaving us?
- Yes.
Now's our opportunity
to swap war wounds.
[Laughs]
Then I'm definitely going.
Does she have
war wounds?
I think anybody
she ever loves...
tends to die on her.
- Are you planning to be the exception?
- Me?
[Laughs]
I think you've got...
the wrong end
of the stick, old boy.
So...
Caravaggio.
Hana thinks
you invented your name.
And you've
forgotten yours.
I said that no one would ever invent
such a preposterous name.
And I said you can
forget everything,
but you never forget
your name.
Count Almasy.
That name mean
anything to you?
Or Katharine Clifton?
[People Chattering]
Oh, I'm sorry.
- How much did you pay?
- Oh, hello.
They don't see foreign women
in this market. How much did you pay?
Um, 7, 8 pounds,
I suppose.
- Which store?
- Why?
You've been cheated.
Oh, don't worry, we'll take it back.
I don't want
to take it back.
- This is not worth 8 pounds.
- It is to me.
- Did you bargain?
- I don't care to bargain.
That insults them.
I don't believe that. I think
that you're insulted by me somehow.
I'd be very happy to obtain
the correct price for this.
I apologize
if I appear abrupt.
I'm rusty at social graces.
How do you find Cairo?
- Did you visit the pyramids?
- Excuse me.
Or the Sphinx?
[Almasy] Latitude, 25, 33.
Longitude, 25, 16.
We attempt to drive northeast of Kofer,
we'll leave our bones in the desert.
- I disagree.
- You're Hungarian. You always disagree.
- Good evening, gentlemen.
- Good evening.
- How is your charming wife?
- Marvellous.
She's in love
with the hotel plumbing.
She's either in the swimming pool.
She swims for hours.
She's a fish. It's quite incredible.
Or she's in the bath.
- [Laughing]
- Actually, she's just outside.
Chaps only
in the Long Bar.
Mrs Clifton.
You'll have to forgive us. We're not
accustomed to the company of women.
Not at all. I was thoroughly
enjoying my book.
- The team is in mourning, darling.
- Oh, really?
I'm afraid we're not having much luck
obtaining funds for the expedition.
Oh. Well, what'll you do?
More modest expedition,
or even wait a year.
- It's a disaster.
- Remind our families we still exist.
Good heavens,
are you married, Madox?
Very much so.
We all are.
- Save my friend Almasy here.
- I feel much better.
Don't you, darling?
We were feeling rather self-conscious.
Let's toast, then.
Absent wives.
- [All] Absent wives.
- And present ones.
And future ones.
[Jazz]
[Song Ends]
Thank you.
Excuse me.
May I?
[Slow]
- Why did you follow me yesterday?
- I'm sorry. What?
After the market,
you followed me to the hotel.
I was concerned. A woman
in that part of Cairo, a European woman.
- I felt obliged to.
- You felt obliged to?
As the wife of
one of our party.
So why follow me?
Escort me, by all means.
But following me
is predatory, isn't it?
[Snoring]
Could I ask you
to move?
I'm sorry,
but l...
I'm sorry.
Of course.
- It's just when you move.
- It was too rude of me.
- I can't really bear the pressure...
- Are you all right?
I was dreaming.
Awful.
[Crying]
[Sobbing]
Hana.
Hana, are you
all right?
Leave me alone.
[Sobs]
You're in love with him,
aren't you?
Your poor patient.
You think he's a saint
because of the way he looks.
I don't think he is.
I'm not so
in love with him.
I'm in love with ghosts.
So is he.
He's in love with ghosts.
What if I told you
he did this to me?
How could he have?
When?
I'm one of his ghosts,
and he wouldn't even know it.
- I don't know what that means.
- Ask your saint who he is.
Ask him
who he's killed.
[Sobbing] Please, don't creep
around this house.
See, I don't think
he's forgotten anything!
I think he wants to forget!
[Clifton]
Gentlemen, to mapmaking.
[All]
To mapmaking!
And a special thank you
to Geoffrey and Katharine,
without whose fund-raising heroics,
we'd still be kicking our heels.
- To arm-twisting.
- [All] Arm-twisting.
Did Katharine say Geoffrey
has to fly back to Cairo?
Return the favour.
Take a few photographs for the army.
Oh, um, what kind
of photographs?
Portraits.
The brigadier,
the brigadier's wife,
the brigadier's dog, brigadier
by the pyramids, brigadier breathing.
And I shall,
of course, be bereft.
I'll finally be able to
explore the Cairo nightlife.
I shall produce an authoritative guide
to the zinc bars and...
I want to say hareems. Are we
in the right country for hareems?
[Madox]
Harems.
- Bye, my love.
- Travel safe.
Catch up
in a week.
Clifton,
safe journey.
You too. Good luck.
Glad the funds have turned up.
Clifton.
This is probably
none of my business.
Your wife.
- Think it's appropriate to leave her?
- Appropriate?
Well, the desert is, it's, uh...
for a woman, it's very tough.
I wonder if it's
not too much for her.
Are you mad? Katharine loves it here.
She told me yesterday.
- All the same, were I you...
- I've known Katharine
since she was three.
We were practically brother and sister
before we were man and wife.
I think I'd know what is and what isn't
too much for her.
I think
she'd know herself.
Very well.
Why are you people
so threatened by a woman?
[Piano]
[Tapping]
I have come to love...
that little tap of the
fingernail against the syringe.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
[Continues]
- [Gunshot]
- Stop playing! Please, stop playing.
I don't have the key
to that door. You...
The Germans were here.
The Germans were all over this area.
They left mines
everywhere.
The pianos were their
favourite hiding places.
I see.
Sorry.
Then maybe you're safe
as long as you only play Bach.
He's German.
Is something funny?
No. I'm sorry.
I've met you before.
I don't think so.
Look. See?
Move that,
and no more Bach.
Lieutenant!
Are you all right, Sir?
Fine, Sergeant.
So you're working
with the Italians.
Yeah, trying to get them
to give up their weapons.
I was a thief, so the army
thought I'd be good at it.
I like the Italians.
[Hana]
He wants us to move out.
He says there could be
50 more mines in the building.
[Hana] He thinks I'm mad
because I laugh at him.
He's Indian.
- He wears a turban.
- No, he's Sikh.
If he wears a turban,
he's Sikh.
I'll probably marry him.
Really?
That's sudden.
My mother
always told me...
I would summon my husband
by playing the piano.
[Breathing Heavily]
- I liked it better when
there were just the two of us.
- Why? Is he staying?
With his sergeant,
a Mr Hardy.
We should charge.
Doesn't anyone have a job to do?
They have to clear all the roads
of mines. That's a big job.
In that case, l...
I suppose we can't charge.
No, we can't.
Thank you.
[Engines Drone]
[Muttering Song Lyrics]
Flat foot floogee
with the floy floy
[Humming]
Flat foot floogee
with the floy floy
Flat foot floogee
with the floy floy
I've been thinking. How does someone
like you decide to come to the desert?
What is it? You...
You're doing whatever you're doing in
your castle, or wherever it is you live,
and one day you say,
"I have to get to the desert," or what?
I once travelled with a guide
who was taking me to Faya.
He didn't speak
for nine hours.
At the end of it, he pointed
at the horizon and said, "Faya."
That was a good day.
Actually, you sing.
- What?
- You sing.
All the time.
- I do not.
- Ask Al Auf.
Al Auf!
- [Arabic]
- [Al Auf Laughs]
[Arabic]
[Al Auf Singing]
[Katharine] You'd better be ready
about half past 8:00
Remember, honey
Don't be late
'Cause I'll be there
when the band starts playing
Gonna dance off
both my shoes
When they play
the jelly roll blues
Tomorrow night at the
dark-town strutter's ball
[Al Auf Singing]
[Chanting In Arabic]
[Chanting Continues]
Give me your hand.
Thanks.
[Chanting Continues]
[Chanting Response]
[Chanting Continues]
Madox!
Madox!
Madox!
- Come quickly! I've found something!
- What is it?
D'Ag! Bermann!
Quick!
My God.
They're swimming.
[Madox]
They're swimming.
[Man Talking: Indistinct]
[Men Speaking Arabic]
Ow!
- You okay?
- Yeah.
[Giggling]
How do you explain...
to someone who has
never been here,
feelings which seem
quite normal?
I don't know,
my friend.
I don't know.
- Aaah!
- Kamal!
Bermann,
what are you doing?
Bermann!
Watch out!
Watch out!
[Men Shouting In Arabic]
- Get them out of the car!
- Let me help!
Almasy,
are you all right?
Yes, yes,
I'm fine.
My wrist!
Ah!
[Men Speaking Arabic]
I'll be back as quick as I can,
36 hours at the outside.
Try to get
an additional radiator.
We can store it between here
and Pottery Hill. And a better jack.
- We planned badly.
- Bermann?
[Engine Starts]
[Arabic]
Safe journey.
Now what?
[Madox] Let's get all
this stuff off.
- I'll stay behind, of course.
- Certainly not.
- I caused the problem. I shall stay.
- You can't. None of you can.
No, I insist. There clearly
isn't room for all of us.
I'm the least able to dig, and I'm not
one of the walking wounded.
It's only one night.
If I remain, it's the most effective
method of persuading my husband...
to abandon whatever he's doing
and come and rescue us.
- All right.
- Come on, let's get going.
[Engine Starts]
I thought you might like to
paste them into your book.
Well, we...
We took
photographs.
There's no need.
No, really.
I'd like you to have them.
Well, there's really no need.
This is, um...
This is just a scrapbook.
They are too good.
I should feel obliged.
Thank you.
And that would be unconscionable,
I suppose, wouldn't it?
To feel any obligation.
Yes, of course it would.
[Men Speaking Arabic]
You should come
into the shelter.
I'm quite all right,
thank you.
- Look over there.
- What am I looking at?
Do you see what's happening to them,
the stars?
- They're so untidy.
I was trying to rearrange them.
- No, no.
Over there.
In a few minutes,
there'll be no stars.
The air
is filling with sand.
[Wind Howling]
[Shouting]
[Panting]
[Coughing]
- This is not very good, is it?
- No.
[Coughing]
- We will be all right?
- Yes.
Yes.
Absolutely.
"Yes" is a comfort.
"Absolutely" is not.
Let me tell you
about winds.
There is a, a whirlwind
from southern Morocco,
the Aajej,
against which the Fellahin
defend themselves with knives.
And there is a,
a Ghibli from Tunis.
- A Ghibli?
- A Ghibli.
Which rolls and rolls
and rolls and produces a...
- a rather strange nervous condition.
- [Laughing]
And then there is the,
the Harmatten,
a red wind, which mariners called
"a sea of darkness."
And red sand
from this wind...
has flown as far as
the south coast of England,
apparently
producing...
showers so dense that they were
mistaken for blood.
Fiction!
We have a house on that coast
and it has never, never rained blood.
No, it's all true.
Herodotus, your friend.
- My friend.
- Your fri...
He writes about it...
and he writes about...
a, a wind, the Simoon,
which a nation thought
was so evil,
they declared war on it
and marched out against it.
In full battle dress.
Their swords raised.
[Engine Running,
Horn Honking]
Katharine, Katharine, I need
to get out your side, quickly.
A car!
Let me out!
Of course.
I'm sorry.
Ridiculous
to fall asleep!
Unforgivable!
Damn!
The flare!
Stop!
Over here!
- [Honking]
- Here!
- Stop!
- [Honking]
- Madox!
- [Flare Gun Fires]
Madox! Madox!
Our tracks
have disappeared.
Madox will calculate how many miles.
He'll soon turn around.
Could I ask you,
please, to...
paste your paintings
into my book.
L... I should like
to have them.
I should be honoured.
- [Muffled Honking]
- The others!
- Oh, God.
- Quick!
[Honking Continues]
Oh, how awful!
Are we going to get them out?
Quick!
Get the other shovel!
[Honking Continues]
Am I a terrible coward
to ask how much water we have left?
A little in our can. We have, uh, water
in the radiator, which can be drunk.
And, uh, that's not cowardly at all.
It's extremely practical.
We, uh... Oh, come on!
Come on!
- [Honking Continues]
- There's also a plant.
I've never seen it,
but I believe you can cut a piece
the size of a heart from this plant,
and the next morning it'll be filled
with a delicious liquid.
Find that plant,
cut out its heart.
[Honking Continues]
Here.
[Men Shouting]
Here's the window.
Clear the glass. I'll clear the door.
Mind your hands.
- [Shouting]
- It's okay. We're here.
Come on,
clear it quickly.
[Shouting]
Hang on.
Coming.
[Shouting In Arabic]
- I've got it. I've got it.
- Help them out. Here.
[Arabic]
Katharine.
Water.
[Flare Fires, Explodes]
[Katharine]
Geoffrey's not in Cairo.
He's not actually
a buffoon.
The plane wasn't
a wedding present.
It belongs to the
British government.
They want aerial maps
of the whole of North Africa.
So I think
he's in Ethiopia.
In case you're counting
on his sudden appearance.
And the marriage.
Is that a fiction?
No, the marriage
isn't a fiction.
[Men Shouting In Arabic]
- Oh, thank God.
- [Shouting Continues]
Thank God.
Madox.
It's Madox.
[Shouting]
Am I K. In your book?
I think I must be.
[Man]
Chapter one.
"He sat in defiance of municipal orders
astride the gun Zamzammah..."
I can't read these words. I can't
read them. They stick in my throat.
[Almasy] Because you're
reading it too fast.
- Not at all.
- You have to read Kipling slowly.
The eye is too impatient.
Think about the speed of his pen.
What is it?
"He sat, comma,
"in defiance of
municipal orders, comma,
"astride the gun
Zamzammah...
on her brick..."
What is it?
"Brick platform, opposite the old
Ajaib-Gher."
"The wonder house, comma,
as the natives called
the Lahore Museum."
It's still there, the cannon,
outside the museum.
Made of metal cups and bowls taken
from every household in the city as tax,
then melted down.
Then later, they fired
the cannon at my people,
comma,
the natives.
Full stop.
[Slurping]
What exactly
is it you object to?
The writer,
or what he's writing about?
What I really
object to, Uncle,
is your finishing
all my condensed milk.
And the message everywhere in your book,
however slowly I read it,
that the best thing for India
is to be ruled by the British.
Hana, we have discovered
a shared pleasure, the boy and I.
- Arguing about books?
- Condensed milk.
One of the truly
great inventions.
I'll get
another tin.
I didn't like that book either.
It's all about men.
Too many men.
Just like this house.
You like him, don't you?
Your voice changes.
No, I don't
think it does.
Anyway,
he's indifferent to me.
I don't think
it's indifference.
- Hana was just telling me,
you're indifferent...
- Hey!
To her cooking.
Well, I'm indifferent
to cooking.
Not Hana's cooking
in particular.
Have either of you tried
condensed milk sandwiches?
[Coughing]
They're very good
with salt.
[Horns Honking]
[People Chattering]
[Honking]
Welcome back,
Madam.
Will you not come in?
No.
- I should go home.
- Will you please come in?
Mrs Clifton.
Don't.
I believe
you still have my book.
Thank you.
[Chanting In Distance]
[Knocking]
[Knocking]
[Hinges Creak]
You still have
sand in your hair.
It wouldn't be
make believe
If you believe in me
Without your love
I'm impressed
you can sew.
Good.
You sew very badly.
Well, you don't
sew at all.
A woman should
never learn to sew,
and if she can,
she shouldn't admit to it.
[Snickers]
Close your eyes.
It makes it harder still.
Hmm.
When were you
most happy?
Now.
And when were you
least happy?
Now.
- What do you love?
- What do I love?
- Say "everything."
- Let's see.
- Water.
- Mm-hmm.
[Water Splashing]
- Fish in it.
- [Chuckles]
And hedgehogs.
I love hedgehogs.
And what else?
Marmite.
I'm addicted.
And baths.
But not with other people.
[Laughing]
Islands.
And your handwriting.
- Mmm.
- I could go on all day.
Go on all day.
My husband.
And what do you
hate most?
A lie.
What do you
hate most?
Ownership.
Being owned.
When you leave,
you should forget me.
- [Hana] Who is this?
- [Almasy] Don't you recognize me?
[Laughing]
Is it you? So fat.
[Chuckles]
- Hmm.
- That's a Christmas cracker.
Firecracker.
- This isn't your handwriting, is it?
- Yes, it is.
"December 22nd.
"Betrayals in war
are childlike...
"compared with our
betrayals during peace.
"New lovers are nervous
and tender...
"but smash everything.
For the heart
is an organ of fire."
"For the heart
is an organ of fire."
I love that.
I believe that.
K?
- Who is K?
- K...
is for Katharine.
[People Chattering]
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
- Say you're sick.
- What? No.
Say you're feeling faint.
The heat.
- No.
- I can't work.
- I can't sleep.
- Katharine.
Coming.
I can't sleep. I wake up shouting
in the middle of the night.
- Geoffrey thinks it's the
thing in the desert, trauma.
- I can still taste you.
- Fill up this. It's empty.
- Oh.
I try to write,
with your taste in my mouth.
Swoon.
I'll catch you.
- Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!
- [Child Yelling]
[Santa Shouting]
[Santa Laughing]
- Come along with me now!
- Merry Christmas, everyone!
Merry Christmas!
- Katharine! Oh, my goodness!
- Oh.
[Woman]
Fetch a chair.
No, I'm fine.
- It's this heat. It's terrible.
- Is she all right?
- She's quite all right.
- Oh, good.
- Are you pregnant?
- Oh, I don't think so, no.
[Laughing]
How romantic.
With Fiona, I fell over
every five minutes.
Ronnie christened me
"Lady Downfall."
Do you know, I think I might go inside
and sit down for a few minutes.
- I'll come with you.
- No, I'll be all right. You stay here.
Are you sure?
[Bagpipes]
Silent night
Holy night
All is calm
All is bright
Round yon virgin