Wilde Salomé (2011) - full transcript

(woman) Why "Salomé "? You've done it.

You not only did it once.
You did it twice.

How many productions have you done?

(Pacino) Why "Salomé "?

"Salomé" is something I'm familiar with

and I have an idea for a movie

that intermixes the life of Wilde

and the life of the play

and the life of me
trying to make the play.

This is about a journey I'm gonna take.

Listen, that's important for me
that you say that



because to approach it not as a play
but to approach it as an inspiration.

That's why I'm doing the movie of it,
because I knew, you know,

to approach it just as a play,
or to approach it just as a movie,

no, it doesn't capture
what I feel is in that piece.

You take care of the theatre.
I take care of the movie.

It's gonna look a lot like
I don't know what I'm doing.

(phone rings)
Because I don't.

Yes?

(Pacino) "Salome" is the story
of a young princess

who lived in the time of Christ.

Still a virgin,
she is tantalising, seductive,

and after being insulted by King Herod,
her stepfather, at his birthday party,

she goes up on the moonlit terrace.

There she hears, for the first time,
the voice of John the Baptist,



who is being held prisoner by Herod
in an underground cell.

Instantly, irrationally,
she falls madly in love with him,

asking him to kiss her on the mouth.

A young Syrian soldier
who is in charge of the guard

is himself in love with Salomé,

becomes distraught at what he sees,

so distraught that he kills himself.

John the Baptist, a living
religious icon in communion with God,

has no use for Salomé.

He rejects her and in doing this
he puts his own fate in her hands,

for she seeks her revenge.

Ever since Oscar Wilde wrote this play
a hundred years ago,

there have been many interpretations.

This is one of them.

They walk into the music stands.
We see Yukio over there.

Take that stool back where...
and you're...

You're... That thing you sit on,
they have to be at that end of Yukio.

Alan, I want...
Thank you.

.the reverb is not used,
is when you come down.

(woman) That's Salomé's stool.
We don't wanna see that colour.

If we could help it.
We start off with these muted colours.

Jessica, can you do
the whole first part without a stool?

Alright,

(Pacino) Now with her...

..and Salomé's entrance.

A prophet.
(actor) Oh, OK.

Let's listen to that. OK.
OK.

Can we hear it?
Yet who is he? 383.

How sweet the air is here.

I can breathe here.

It is so good to be rehearsing
the first day in the theatre.

It's just unheard of.

Why a reading?

(Pacino) It was just my idea.

My idea was

let's read Salomé rather than stage it.

I was looking to do it
thinking of what would I do,

what would be appropriate, what way in?

And I said, "Let's just sit at podiums
and read this thing in modern dress."

I have never seen Caesar.

Another that comes from a town
called Cyprus and is yellow like gold.

Somebody told me,
if my history researchers are correct,

that Oscar Wilde indeed wanted it read.

(Pacino) The film set.
(man) The film set. Filming on 35mm.

The actual play.

(Pacino) I need at least five days
to shoot this film.

Yeah. Yeah.

So Monday and Tuesday
being our largest days.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
half days, because we perform at night.

Right.

I'm doing a play,
I'm doing a movie of the play

and I'm doing a documentary
all at the same time.

I'm just trying to save you guys
some money, that's all.

It's called The Apparition,
the French title of this one.

Yeah. That's so cool.
Or even...

From Gustave Moreau's painting.
The moon is quite inspiring.

There it is. Now you're thinking
the way I'm thinking. Yes.

Where is Salomé?

Where is the Princess?

Why did she not return to the banquet
as I commanded her?

Ah!

(Estelle) Now, Roxanne.
There she is.

You must not look at her.

You are always looking at her.

The moon has a strange look tonight,
does she not?

Strange look.

Hey, Robert. How are you doing?

Good. How are you?
Good. Just waiting for Al.

A mad woman
who is seeking everywhere for lovers.

Our guests await us.

Whoa! Ah!

I have slipped.

That was a long time coming.
It was beautiful. Beautiful.

Where is Salomé?

Where is the Princess?

(Pacino) The first time I saw "Salome"

was the Steven Berkoff production
about 15 years ago.

I was astounded.
It was a great production

and at the same time
what really got me

was that it was Oscar Wilde
who wrote this play.

That in itself
was something that intrigued me

and I wanted to know more about it.

Then I started finding out
about Oscar Wilde more.

Of course, I knew of his plays and
his books but didn't go into his life...

..how it affects the play

and how we look at the play when
we know a little bit about his life.

Oscar Wilde came to New York City
over a hundred years ago.

He was this young

who had not written a play yet.

He was a performer, he was a raconteur,
a lecturer, he was a bon vivant.

Mark Twain, people like that,
were all fans of Oscar Wilde

because his wit had such intelligence,
such complexity to it

and yet so simple.

(woman) This is Oscar Wilde Bookshop,

the world's oldest
gay and lesbian bookshop.

(Pacino) Whose idea was it
to have it as Oscar Wilde?

The gentleman that opened the store
was Craig Rodwell

and he wanted to name the store
after Oscar Wilde

because he felt
that the name Oscar Wilde

would be readily identifiable
to people as a gay man.

I wonder what he would think
about the world now

and what's happened to it
and where it's gone

and how... how prominent
he was in all of it.

He was controversial,
even back in 1882.

When he was just a kid, 27 years old,

he was turning heads,
upsetting the status quo.

"Morality is simply
the attitude we adopt

towards people
whom we personally dislike."

"Whenever people agree with me,
I always feel I'm wrong."

"Young men want to be faithful
and are not."

"Old men want to be faithless
and cannot."

"The old believe everything,

the middleaged suspect everything,
the young know everything."

"The critic has to educate the public.
The artist has to educate the critic."

He took New York by storm.
He was the toast of the town.

As a matter of fact,
he became the toast of the world.

I feel like this is the end of the play.
Do you know what I mean?

I understand
what you're talking about with colour,

but at the beginning of the play,
she's determined to be a virgin.

I don't know.
I gotta see it under light, of course.

It's very hard to see this
in the naked, for me.

I know.

But I feel like coming out like this,
I'm coming out to do the dance,

and take off this...

You know what I mean? That's what I...
This is very different.

Can we get any sense of a stage light
up there in any way, shape or manner?

I don't need to look like a virgin,
but I need...

(Estelle) No, but it needs... Yeah.
Like more kind of an innocent...

I think that's how Salomé changes.
(Pacino) You're right.

Did Barry show you the schedule?
They don't have it yet.

What about the costuming?
(French accent) For the desert?

For the desert? For the desert scene
or for all the scenes?

What?
The costumes.

For all the scenes?

(man) No. You want the costume
for the desert scene.

For the... I thought you said "dessert".
I'm sorry. Desert.

When I speak like you do in French,
we can talk.

You see, I thought maybe I could just
try something different, you know,

just rehearse different actors

in the parts of Salome,
Herod, John the Baptist,

just to give it a different flavour,
you know,

as though they were the real characters
that existed thousands of years ago.

Maybe I could use that in the movie.

So what we wanna do, Barry, is we wanna
get everything back over there, OK?

We wanna get it all moving
from left to right.

What I'm trying to do, Barry,
is get everything going, get the period.

After all, this play takes place
thousands of years ago.

We're reading this thing
in modern dress.

We wanna see where it really took place.
We gotta give it some flavour.

This is the actual site
of Herod's palace.

This is where the play takes place.

This is what Oscar Wilde had
in his mind when he wrote the play

and it actually existed
thousands of years ago

when Jesus and John the Baptist
roamed the earth.

I was hoping to give the audience
a sense of the period

so when they hear the reading,
they could know from whence it comes.

You see, this is a way of knowing
that the characters we're playing

existed thousands of years ago.

(Pacino) Very good.
(man) No flashes, anybody.

(Pacino) Cut.

Beautiful.
Alright, this is what I want, Chris.

I thought going to LA was a good idea.

My youngest children were there.

I could get a chance to see them
and do the play at the same time.

Come on, let's go this way.
This way.

Let's go this way.

Hi, kids. Hi, Al.

Hi, Barry.
How are you?

OK. How's everything going?

You know, this is the problem...

This is the problem with my whole life.

What the hell does that mean?

How am I gonna live up to that?
(Barry) Saviour of the world.

Why don't you say, "Pacino is front"?
He's back.

(laughter)

How about just shooting me?
It sells tickets. It's what they want.

You're being too modest.

(Salome) There's nothing in the world
so black as thy hair.

Let me touch thy hair.

(Jokanaan)
Back! Daughter of Sodom, touch me not.

Profane not the temple of the Lord God.

(Salome) Thy hair is horrible!
That's great.

That's great.

Itis like a crown of thorns
which they have placed on thy forehead.

Itis like a knot of black serpents
writhing round thy neck.

(Pacino)
Five days to shoot this whole play?

(Barry) We have control.
We are shooting on the sound stage.

In the theatre we don't have control.
You have control.

After the show is over,
you stay and shoot,

or in the morning
you shoot before the show starts.

(Barry) You don't have time.
You're doing the play in the evening.

Here's the sound stage, Al.
I know, Barry.

I've seen these before, you know.

(Pacino) My goal is to take
a theatrical piece like "Salomé"

and make it theatrical as a movie.

And my challenge is to do this
while I'm doing the play at night,

both at the same time.

I know how you feel now, being in the
theatre, being in charge of everything.

But now I'm in charge.
Quiet, please.

And I'm higher than you are.
You ready?

Yeah.
And roll sound.

If you see something, let me know.
And action.

The Son of Man hath come.

(laughs)

(Pacino) The first thing
you see in this play

is the prophet, John the Baptist.

In Hebrew, he's called Jokanaan.
He lived in the time of Jesus.

As a matter of fact, he baptised Jesus
and was his cousin.

John the Baptist is being held hostage
by Herod, also known as the Tetrarch.

Now, "tetrarch” is a name
they called the leader of a province,

which Judaea was, a province of Rome,
at the time.

(Herod) Let them crush her
beneath their shields!

I will not stay. I cannot stay.

Why does the Tetrarch
look at me all the while

with his mole's eyes
under his shaking eyelids?

It is strange that the husband
of my mother looks at me that way.

I know not what it means.

(Pacino) Now, Salomé,
Herod's stepdaughter,

escapes the drunken party he's having
by going up onto the terrace.

There she hears, for the first time,
the voice of John the Baptist.

..shall devour the birds!

The day has come.

How beautiful
is the Princess Salomé tonight.

You are always looking at her.
You look at her too much.

(Jokanaan)
I hear upon the mountains...

I pray you not to look her.

There's something
about what's going on now that's wrong.

Don't do it. Stay away from it.

It's dangerous. It's dangerous.

Don't do it.
This play is full of danger.

The play's a warning...
from the start.

So, as luck would have it,

I was invited to Ireland
before the play started.

What an opportunity
to see what formed Oscar Wilde,

because that's where he was born,
that's where his roots were.

(man) You might like to look. There are
a couple of pictures of his parents.

This is William Wilde,
handsome... handsome young man.

And this is a rather idealised portrait,
I think, of Speranza,

Lady Wilde, his mother.

She was a very fiery nationalist,

Irish nationalist,

and a lot of people think that Oscar

inherited his politics from his mother.

Pleasure to be here.
Welcome to the park.

My pleasure.

She guides us too,
because I bump into things also, so...

So we were at some stage of something.

We were talking about something
that seemed interesting.

Oh, it was Oscar Wilde, wasn't it?
That's...

I think that was the subject,
and here's...

We were at something...
Oh, Oscar, finally!

Finally.

You knew I was in town, so you went
up there on the rock, didn't you?

I'm here doing this movie,
Wilde Salomé.

I just wanted to meet you and thank you.

Well, we love you.

We love you for everything
you've given us and we will continue to.

"I didn't come to Ireland
just to collect this award, of course,

though from what I've found out about it

and about your society,
I think I would have come anyway."

Their beaks are gilded with gold

and the grains that they eat
are gilded with gold also,

and their feet are stained with purple.

When they cry out, the rain comes,

and the moon shows herself in the
heavens when they spread their tails.

(boy) Oh! Pacino!
(boy 2) Al

Mr Pacino.

(mimics machine gun)

I'm the keeper and head of education
of the National Gallery of Ireland.

It's so great to see you.

What a pleasure to welcome you.
What a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

We have a little
John the Baptist corner over here.

This is a beautiful gallery, isn't it?
Oh, lovely.

(Grene) The John the Baptist here
was in the original collection,

so Oscar Wilde would have known it.

And I think
there's a really striking contrast

between a young, quite erotic
John the Baptist that you've got here

and the "about to be beheaded"
we saw around the corner.

(Pacino) So we can assume
that Oscar Wilde

actually came to this museum
and saw these paintings.

(man) This is Salomé.
That's right.

This is Salomé looking at him.
There's Salomé.

John the Baptist. We cast him.

He shall lead the lions by their manes!

Who was that who cried out?

The prophet, Princess.

The prophet?
He of whom the Tetrarch is afraid.

We know nothing of that, Princess. It
was the prophet Jokanaan who cried out.

And are lying beneath the leaves
of the forest!

He says terrible things about my mother,
does he not?

We never understand what he says,
Princess.

Yes, he says terrible things about her.

Princess, the Tetrarch prays you
to retum to the feast.

I will not go back.

Pardon me, Princess, but if you do not
return, some misfortune may happen.

(Jokanaan)
Rejoice not thou, land of Palestine,

because the rod of him
who smote thee is broken.

How black it is down there.

It must be terrible
to be in so black a pit.

(Jokanaan) ..and devour the birds!

..that I will wipe out...

What a strange voice.

I would speak with him.
Oh, what is going to happen?

I am sure that some misfortune
will happen.

I will but look at this strange prophet.
Men have talked so much of him.

Often have I heard the Tetrarch
talk of him.

But the Tetrarch has formally forbidden
that any man

should raise the cover of this well.

You will do this thing for me,
Narabeth, will you not?

You will do this thing for me.

I have always been kind to you.
You will do it for me.

And tomorrow when I pass in my litter
beneath the gateway of the idolbuyers,

1 will look at you
through the muslin veils,

it may be I will smile at you.

Look at me, Narabeth.

Look at me.

You know you will do what I ask of you.
You know it well.

I know you will do this thing.

Let the prophet come forth!

The Princess Salomé desires to see him.

When John the Baptist is out...
Yeah, yeah.

..I would like it to be... shadow.

Yeah.
And hear something.

You know, I'll be doing something
with sound and then we can just...

and then he goes into light.

(chains jangle)

Where is she who hath given herself
to the young men of Egypt,

who are clothed
in fine linen and purple,

whose shields are of gold,
whose helmets are of silver,

whose bodies are mighty?

Bid her rise up
from the bed of her abominations,

from the bed of her incestuousness,

that she may hear the words of him
who prepareth the way of the Lord,

that she may repent her
of her iniquities!

Though she will never repent
but will stick fast in her abominations;

bid her come!

Do you think he will speak again?

Do not stay here, Princess.
I pray you, do not stay here.

Who is this woman who is looking at me?

I will not have her look at me.

I am Salomé, daughter of Herodias,
Princess of Judaea.

(flapping wings)

Get thee behind me.

I hear in the palace the beating
of the wings of the angel of death.

Princess, I beseech thee to go within.

Angel of the Lord God,
what dost thou here with thy sword?

The day of him who shall die
in a robe of silver has not yet come.

Jokanaan.
Who speaketh?

Jokanaan, I am amorous of thy body.

Thy body's white

like the lilies of a field
that the mower hath never mowed.

Thy body's white like the snows
on the mountains of Judaea

that come down into the valleys.

Thy hair is like the cedars of Lebanon,

like the great cedars of Lebanon
that give their shade to the lions

and to the robbers
who would hide themselves by day.

No! Princess...

Thy mouth is like a branch of coral

that the fishers have found
in the twilight of the sea,

the coral that they keep for the kings.

There's nothing in the world
so red as thy mouth.

Let me kiss thy mouth.

Never.

Daughter of Babylon.

Daughter of Sodom.

Never.

I will kiss thy mouth, Jokanaan.

Princess, thou art
like a garden of myrrh.

Thou art the dove of all doves.

Look not at this man. Look not at him.

Do not speak such words to him.
I cannot suffer them, Princess.

Go back. Go back. That's very good,
but you gotta get closer, Benoit.

Get closer on his face. Say, "No, no,
no," Joe, and then go right into it.

No!
Back off. Back the camera off.

Forget the cues, Joe.

Just say, "No, no!" when you feel like
going into your line, OK? Let's go.

No!
No, Princess.

No, Princess.
I will kiss thy mouth, Jokanaan.

(chuckles)

(sword slashes)

(Pacino) Let the shoulders go.

Down.

Bang.

Dead.

The young Syrian has slain himself.

He has slain himself
who was my friend.

Princess, the young captain
has just killed himself.

Let me kiss thy mouth, Jokanaan.

Are thou not afraid,
daughter of Herodias?

Did I not tell thee
that I heard in the palace

the beating of the wings
of the angel of death?

And hath he not come,
the angel of death?

Let me kiss thy mouth.
I will not look at thee.

Thou art accursed, Salomé.
Thou art accursed.

(Pacino) You see,
"Salomé" was so important

for Oscar Wilde to write at the time

because he too,
like the character of Salomé,

was undergoing this transformation.

He was becoming another person.

His life was opening up.

He was awakening
to his own sexuality and spirituality.

Cut. Good. Good, guys.

So we went to London
in search of the man

who wrote something
so personal as "Salomé”,

so different from the work
he was known for.

Oscar Wilde's house. Here we are, Al.

We knock on the door
and see who's in there?

You can try.

I know they've seen us.
(man) Barry, we got the wrong house.

Uhhuh. I'd better not...
(laughter)

OK, let's go this way.

We came all the way here to London,

..and you had the wrong address.

"Oscar Wilde, wit and dramatist,
lived here."

Thank you, Freddy.
Can I get a signature for my wife?

Yeah, sure, yeah.
Sorry to be a pain in the arse.

We're here doing a filming
of Oscar Wilde, see?

Oh, right, yeah.
Did you know he lived here?

I didn't. I only live round the corner.

Isn't that something?
He lived here about 100 years ago.

Strange, innit?

Do you know who Oscar Wilde is?
Of course he does.

Areal drinker.
A drinker?

And your name is?
Neil.

(Pacino) This is the house
Oscar Wilde lived in

with his wife and his two boys.

(man) I've never doubted the fact
that when he got married to Constance,

my grandma,
that he was in love with her.

People have said it was
just a smokescreen, but, in a sense,

how could it have been a smokescreen?

They got married
before the law was changed

which made "indecency between two men"

as they called it,
rather quaintly, illegal.

So he didn't need, at that stage,
to have a smokescreen.

And why then have two children
on top of it all?

(Pacino) Oscar Wilde
was devoted to his children

and he wrote children's stories.

"The Happy Prince", "Nightingale
and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant"

became very famous
children's stories.

His children forever haunted him, the
fact that he missed them so terribly.

Not only did they take
his children from him

but they changed their name to Holland.

I think that was part
of what killed him.

I love these wipes you get on the bus.

But I think we have to go that way.

There we go.

This is it. So, Robert, Robert...
So why was he arrested here?

Because this is where he was staying.
He knew he was going to be arrested.

He was waiting for them
to come and arrest him.

So they came in here...

The police came in here.

(man) Chances are that tonight you
will spend your first night in prison.

This is a prospect
I do not believe you have faced.

The Victorians
were very disturbed by this man

who presented
a totally new sort of literature.

It was the literature, I suppose, if one
could call it that, of the Decadents.

It's not just gay people,
it's anyone who feels

that their part in society
is being marginalised.

I think that's...
that's his universal appeal.

He was also one of the early socialists
and a very good political thinker.

(Pacino) Oscar Wilde moved easily
in Victorian high society,

fascinating them
with his brilliance, his wit,

charming them with his conversation.

But beneath this Irishman's
veneer of conformity

lay a radical
who believed in social reform,

who wrote about socialism,
communism, even anarchism,

and who lifted the lid on things

the Victorians would have preferred
to keep secret.

And that's how he got into Reading Gaol.

The government feared him not for sex,
they feared him for ideas.

(Pacino) "Dear Bosie, you must read
this letter right through,

though each word may become to you
as the fire or knife of the surgeon

that makes the delicate flesh
burn or bleed.”

"It was not your father but you
who had me put into prison.”

It was a letter to his lover Bosie,
Lord Alfred Douglas,

a letter written in prison
out of anger and despair.

I'm sorry. I've kept you too long.

So how did Oscar Wilde get in all this
trouble? What led to this arrest?

That's where Bosie's father comes in.

Bosie's father, Marquis of Queensberry,
who made all the boxing rules,

hated Oscar Wilde and what he stood for

and hated the fact that his son Bosie
was having an affair with him.

(man) Queensberry writes this card,
Oscar Wilde posing as a sodomite,

or sodomist,

and Wilde could laugh,
forget it, throw it away or sue.

Bosie seemed to be the person
who said, you know, "Get the bastard."

(Pacino) Oscar Wilde didn't want
to take Bosie's father to court,

but Bosie convinced him
and in the end he relented.

What could he do? He was in love,
Of course, the case was dismissed.

However, it did encourage
Bosie's father

to go ahead with a counter suit.

His father knew of Wilde's reputation

and his poor relationship
with the upperclass society.

Oscar Wilde was being made a scapegoat.

He needed to be thought a lesson

and the Marquis of Queensberry
took advantage of this,

took him to court a second time.

However, things came out in that trial.

They'd encouraged the Marquis
of Queensberry to go after him again,

and he found enough witnesses,
Queensberry did,

that would testify
to being with Wilde physically,

and they caught him up.

And in the third trial
he was found guilty

of this lewd behaviour,
according to their interpretation.

Once he is found to have broken the law
against relationships between men,

it's an enormous relief.

It's given to the government on a plate
to put him away.

I'm afraid his news is not helpful.
He has failed.

He says that you will be arrested.

You must leave now, Oscar.

He says, however, there's
one further thing you should know.

They're deliberately choosing to delay.

How long?
Until this evening.

It would suit them better
if you would flee.

This brief opening is offered.
The last boat is at six o'clock.

(Pacino) And there are his friends
telling him, "You must go, Oscar."

But he chose to stay.

I think maybe he had too much pride
to be a fugitive for life.

The point is that, just at this moment,
just at this moment itself,

George is saying
that when they come to arrest you,

it's in nobody's interest
that I myself should be here.

(Pacino) He stayed in that room

because he couldn't believe
it was happening to him.

How could he, Oscar Wilde,
the pet of society,

the premier playwright of his time,
be put in prison?

(Stoppard) It's also possible
that he might have seen

a bit further into the future

and thought,
"Somebody's got to do it. I'l do it."

The person who becomes the martyr.

Me as Oscar Wilde. Can you imagine?

Somebody's gotta do it.

Finally the police came
and they actually took him to prison,

where he served two years
of hard labour.

(man) There are certain similarities
between the judge in Wilde's case

and the Rosenberg judge,
in that you have, suddenly,

this sort of thin veneer
of judicial impartiality falls

and at the sentencing you realise
the judge has just been waiting

to pass sentence
and really get this guy.

As far as I can remember,
the judge made a comment of regret

that he couldn't send him to prison
for longer than two years.

It was Victorian hypocrisy, I suppose,
in a way, at its worst.

They were going to eradicate
every trace of Oscar Wilde.

(Pacino) The irony here is that prison
informed two of his greatest works,

"De Profundis"
and "The Ballad of Reading Gaol".

"The Ballad of Reading Gaol"
is an epic poem

which describes a man who is going
to be hung for killing his wife.

"He did not wear his scarlet coat
For blood and wine are red

And blood and wine were on his hands
When they found him with the dead

The poor dead woman whom he loved,
And murdered in her bed.

I walked, with other souls in pain,
Within another ring,

And was wondering if the man had done
A great or little thing

When a voice behind me whispered low,
"That fellow's got to swing."

The man had killed the thing he loved
And so he had to die."

(Estelle) You're too much
to the right side. Make your entrance.

(Estelle) You're too much
to the right side. Make your entrance.

What are you talking about?
Can't let her do that?

Make an entrance.
What are you talking about?

I'm talking about Roxanne.
I know.

But we have to talk about
what we're doing, darling.

OK.
We're all coming out into a terrace

because I said,
"Let's go to the terrace.”

So she's following me wondering
what's going on on the terrace?

What's been happening before this
at the banquet?

What have we been doing?
Right.

We're coming from a banquet.

I thought I was coming as Jessica.
What are we doing? What is this?

I thought this was
just like a dinner party.

I know.
But now it's like this weird thing.

I know.
What's going on?

Well, it's a party, it's a film,
it's a mix of everything.

But I don't understand.
You don't need to understand tonight.

(Barry) Well, Al is doing
his method thing,

you know, with these actors here,
and kind of experimenting.

He's kind of trying to give them
the feeling of the banquet.

(Pacino) Salomé is here
at this banquet, at this party,

given by Herod and his group.

She's a young girl who's transitioning.

And here is Herod
lusting after his stepdaughter.

Of course,
Herodias sees what's going on.

Her husband is actually
eyeballing her daughter.

You see, I think
that's what it's about.

I think that's what we come
to the terrace with.

We're carrying these feelings with us.

And that's Herod's entrance.

(guard 2) We must hide the body.
The Tetrarch must not see it.

The Tetrarch will not come
to this place.

He never comes on the terrace.

He is too much afraid of the prophet.

(Herod) Salomé!

Where is Salomé?

Where is the princess?

Why did she not return to the banquet
as I commanded her?

Ah!

There she is.

You must not look at her.
You are always looking at her.

The moon has a strange look tonight,
does she not?

She is like a mad woman
who is seeking everywhere for lovers.

She is naked too.

No. The moon is like the moon,
that is all.

Let us go within.
You have nothing to do here.

I will stay here.

Manasseh, lay carpets there.

Light torches.

Bring forth the ivory tables
and the tables of jasper.

The air here is delicious.

I will drink more wine with my guests.

(sighs)

Itis cold here.

There is a wind blowing, is there not?

No, there is no wind.

I say there is a wind that blows

and I hear in the air
something like the beating of wings.

Like the beating of vast wings.
Do you not hear it?

Itis the Lord!
(flapping wings)

I hear nothing.

I hear it no longer.

But I heard it.

(flapping wings)
No, I hear it again.

Do you not hear it?
Just like the beating of wings.

I tell you, there is nothing.
You are ill.

I am not ill.

It is your daughter who is sick.

Never have I seen her so pale.

(Jokanaan) Harlot!

You must not look at her,
I have already said so.

(Jokanaan)
..a multitude of men.

Let the people take stones and stone her

and then all women shall learn

not to imitate her abominations!

Do you hear what he says against me?
You allow him to revile your wife?

He has said nothing against you.

Besides, he is a very great prophet.

I do not believe in prophets.

Can a man tell what will come to pass?
No man knows it.

But I think you are afraid of him.
I am not afraid of him.

I am afraid of no man.
I tell you, you are afraid of him.

If you are not afraid of him,
why do you not deliver him to the Jews

who for these six months past
have been clamouring for him?

Truly, my Lord, it were better
to deliver him into our hands.

Yes, my lord.
Enough on this subject.

I've already given you my answer.
I will not deliver him into your hands.

He is a holy man.
He is a man who has seen God.

(Pacino) You see,
Herodias and Herod are living in sin.

He actually murdered his own brother
to marry Herodias,

and the prophet John the Baptist
knows this and he rails about it.

Of course, Herodias wants him gone,
wants him dead,

but Herod has this infatuation
with John the Baptist.

He's enamoured with him.
He believes in his spirituality.

He knows he's a holy man
and he fears him.

He fears him to such a point

that he keeps him locked up in a pit
so he can control him.

We have to have more time with Al
for the play,

because the reason that we can do this
at all is because the play's being done.

If we don't have the rehearsal
to do the play

and if all the energy's going to go
on the film, we're fucked.

We're doing the play purely because
Al wants to make the movie.

That's the reason, Robert.

Well, Barry,
that may be what you think it is,

but, I promise you,
that's not my understanding.

Al, do you wanna look at this? This is
what Jill will do for the announcement.

Like we did at the Barrymore.

(Pacino)
Welcome to the Wadsworth Theater.

I love my announcement.

Ladies and gentlemen, you don't
have to turn off your cellphones

because we realise
that all of you are doctors,

because you're the only people
who could afford to come to the show.

So you can keep 'em on

because we know that doctors
get calls, emergency calls.

(laughter)

Doctors and dentists are coming
because they can afford the prices.

Did you hear about the price of
these fucking tickets? Are you crazy?

I'm in the union.

(both) One, two, three.

I feel like working on the technical...
some of the dance.

I'm not ready for that.
(Estelle) You have to.

I'm not, because, I mean,
what can I say? There's nothing to say.

When the words are coming out of you...

We've got that other one
where you're going around him

and it's seductive and all that.

I wanna one that's not seductive.

OK. That it's just like...
It's just... It's just a little girl.

OK.

My vision was the camera
was a bit simpler. It was here.

(Benoit) That's better.

I know. Oh, yeah?
Oh, you can do it with that thing?

That's a beautiful thing.
Little bit to this way.

Salomé, come,
drink a little wine with me.

I'm not thirsty, Tetrarch.
I have here a wine that is exquisite.

Caesar himself sent it me.

Dip into it thy little red lips
that I may drain the cup.

I play Herod because crazy emperors
sort of work for me.

Oscar Wilde creates this unstable king

who really is not in control of himself
and his emotions.

He's living
on the third rail of passion.

This guy's warped and jaded,

but he's also childish
and witty and sophisticated,

like Oscar Wilde.

How did you develop
the voice you're using for Herod?

I don't know.
Where did it come from?

I don't know.
Is he fay at all?

Does he have a...
a certain bisexuality to him?

Does he have that kind of power?
Of course.

Of course. Well, why of course?

Oh, Salomé.

Salomé, dance for me.

If you dance for me, you may ask of me
what you will and I will give it you.

Should I look at him? Shouldn't 1?

You can even give a little look
and then look back. OK?

OK, yeah. One more?
Alright.

If you dance for me, you may ask of me
what you will and I will give it you.

Will you indeed give me
whatsoever I shall ask, Tetrarch?

I swear, Salomé.

By what do you swear, Tetrarch?

By your great acting.

Cut. OK, fantastic.

We only got two days left?

You cannot expect me
to shoot this movie in two days.

Look how long it's taken to do this.
This is huge.

Well, I think once this is set up
in the next hour or so,

I think it's gonna move much faster.

Just the first day, everybody's...
No, it's...

It's really just
you can't do the impossible.

I'm later than shit.

(man) He's here. He's arrived.

Hi. Welcome.
Thank you.

Hi.

Opening night.

(man) Just a nice actor talk.
Salomé is really method.

No, that's Herodias.
Salomé is a virgin.

I put my costume on in the order...
(man) 15 minutes. 15 minutes, please.

The same order every night.

I won't elaborate on what more I do
because I do more things that are odd.

This is very private.

..shit about this for a month. This is
called the Jewish cistern down here.

This is a method actor.
Look at all these notes.

This guy has about five lines
in the whole play.

I played Hamlet once,
I didn't have that many notes.

(laughter)

(sings sustained note)

(man) One, two, one two...
Actually we do. I think it's...

Wait, wait. Slipping out.
It's gonna be fun when these suckers...

Once I played Richard Ill and somebody
had done something to my hair

and by the third act,
when I put the crown on,

my hair started to rise
because I had a ridiculous hairstyle,

where they curled it,
because I was doing a movie,

and so they made my hair very curly,

s0 when it dried,
it just started popping up.

People thought it was acting.

It was in a way. Everything's acting.

Look right this way.
I'm going blind here.

(man) One, two.
Ritual.

(man) You're hearing something
in the dressing rooms?

One, two...
My heart.

It's my heart you're hearing.

(announcer) We thank you
for your cooperation. Enjoy the show.

(dramatic music)

How beautiful
is the Princess Salomé tonight.

Look at the moon.
How strange the moon seems.

(Pacino) Well, here we are in LA,

presenting this avantgarde
piece of work to an audience,

and I guess we're presenting it
in an unusual way.

I mean, this is a staged reading,

and one just wonders,
how is this gonna come off,

how is it gonna be received?

I mean, Richard Strauss
wrote this great opera

based on Wilde's play "Salomé".

And he too was obsessed with Wilde,
so much so he had to write this opera.

He used Wilde's original text
for his libretto.

Now, I don't think there's a time

this opera isn't being performed
somewhere in the world.

Now here we are staging a reading.

We don't have the opera.

We have no music,
only podiums and words.

But, you know, I think for an audience,
it is a wonderful thing to hear words,

especially in verse
and especially Oscar Wilde's words.

It's like you can close your eyes,

like when you're at a concert
you become mesmerised with the music.

Well, here you can become entranced
by the words.

You see, it's the magic of the words
that eventually get you to the feeling.

You were wonderful.

I love Oscar Wilde.
I feel as though I know him.

I would've loved him. I love him.

Because of the civility in him,

his civility, his... his fragile power.

(Pacino) "I had given you my life,

and to gratify the lowest and most
contemptible of all human passions,

hatred and vanity and greed,
you had thrown it away."

This is the letter
"De Profundis” is about,

those feelings he had
about being so betrayed by Bosie,

who never visited him in prison.

So after serving two years in prison,
he comes out and what does he do?

He visits Bosie, of all people,
in Italy, the guy who never visited him

and who was responsible
for his incarceration.

Oscar writes Robbie, Robbie Ross,
a letter and says,

and I quote just from memory,
"My going back to Bosie was inevitable."

and I quote just from memory,
"My going back to Bosie was inevitable."

"I need to be loved,
live in an atmosphere of love."

"He offered me love,
so I went back to him."

"How could I not love him?
He's ruined my life."

This mysterious adoration

This mysterious adoration

for this, you know,
completely worthless human being.

I don't think Bosie's behaviour
is difficult to explain.

I think it's very easy to explain.
He was a shit.

I think it's very easy to explain.
He was a shit.

It's not that complicated.
The guy was a shit.

But the passion for this little shit,
you know, is... ignoble.

(Pacino) Bosie left Oscar in Italy

and Oscar travelled to Paris alone.

So here is Oscar Wilde's
last resting place.

So here is Oscar Wilde's
last resting place.

This is the room he died in

and it's almost preserved
exactly the way it was.

He said to the hotel, he said,

He said to the hotel, he said,

"Either I or the wallpaper
will have to go."

(Pacino) He spent the last eight months
of his life here.

He was totally without money,

He was totally without money,

dying from an ear infection

which he contracted
while he was in prison

because of a lack of treatment there.

He developed complications.

He developed complications.

So, in a way,
it's prison that killed him.

He was 46 years old.

It took a while for him to, you know,

until he was sure
that he could trust people,

until he was sure
that he could trust people,

letting them know who he was
and who he had been.

You know, I mean, it's...

You know, obviously just sort of waiting
to go, I mean, waiting to die.

Because his income
had just stopped overnight.

Because his income
had just stopped overnight.

I mean, the two plays which were smash
hits the day before he was arrested

were just taken off, of course.

He was the invisible man
from that moment.

He had no income whatsoever.

(Pacino) Certainly at the time
he was writing,

(Pacino) Certainly at the time
he was writing,

he was the most prestigious writer
of his times

and was promoted
as the next Shakespeare.

Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare.

And, you know,
who can take on Shakespeare?

And, you know,
who can take on Shakespeare?

The Importance of Being Earnest
is the funniest play ever written

and what you could do with nothing.

He prided himself.
It is about nothing, you know.

Why must you have a subject?

Why must you have a subject?

The world takes everybody
and breaks them in the end,

but afterwards many are stronger
at the broken places.

One doesn't feel that about Wilde.

One doesn't feel that about Wilde.

The world did indeed take him
and break him,

but afterwards he was not stronger
at the broken places.

(Pacino) "The gods had given me
almost everything,

but I let myself be lured into long
spells of senseless and sensual ease.”

but I let myself be lured into long
spells of senseless and sensual ease.”

"Tired of being on the heights,

I deliberately went to the depths
in search for new sensation.”

I deliberately went to the depths
in search for new sensation.”

"What the paradox was to me
in the sphere of thought,

perversity became to me
in the sphere of passion.”

"Desire, at the end,
was a malady or a madness or both."

"Desire, at the end,
was a malady or a madness or both."

"I grew careless
of the lives of others."

"I took pleasure where it pleased me
and passed on.”

"I forgot that every little action
of the common day

makes or unmakes character

makes or unmakes character

and that therefore
what one has done in a secret chamber,

one has someday
to cry aloud on the housetop.”

"I allowed pleasure to dominate me."

"I ended in horrible disgrace.”

"I ended in horrible disgrace.”

You know, you feel a debt

to the writers of the world,

you feel a debt especially if you are...
anybody, of course,

you feel a debt especially if you are...
anybody, of course,

but an actor and a playwright...

Oh, man, that is a marriage,
that is a relationship

that is so spectacular and special.

that is so spectacular and special.

I know Shakespeare had it
with his actors.

You sort of lock souls
and you communicate in this way.

You are... You are...

..half of each other.

What is it about Oscar Wilde that makes
us want to know more about him?

He just wasn't around long enough.

He just wasn't around long enough.

That candle went out
and it was put out.

(Barry) So, Robert,
how were the reviews?

(Barry) So, Robert,
how were the reviews?

(Robert) The reviews are good.
"LA Times "?

(Robert) The reviews are good.
"LA Times "?

(Robert) The "LA Times" wasn't great,

but there's a fabulous review today
in the "Hollywood Reporter”.

There was a great review
in the Daily News.

Yeah, the Times was mean.

Yeah, the Times was mean.

But he obviously just wants
to make a name for himself.

What you get,
what you don't get, it's fine.

OK. Good, OK.

Mike, they didn't bring me
the right shoes that I wear in the play,

Mike, they didn't bring me
the right shoes that I wear in the play,

so I'm wearing different shoes.
That's OK.

The red things, the red roses,
I have the black... cover of them,

so the red doesn't show through these.

so the red doesn't show through these.

OK, so we should find that?
Is that something we have?

I just took what they gave me.
Rose petals, black rose.

Call Mike, Mike Quinn, get it done.

(Estelle) We have a play to do here
and you were supposed to be here

(Estelle) We have a play to do here
and you were supposed to be here

to work with people,
to inspire them, to excite them.

But you call the rehearsal
indiscriminately, my darling.

You can't just do that.

You should have scheduled the movie
after the run of the play.

You should have scheduled the movie
after the run of the play.

Oh, Estelle, for God's sakes.

We're gonna have to cancel a performance
because I'm thinking

that this is a lot of work here,
and we're getting started late

that this is a lot of work here,
and we're getting started late

and it's gonna be a lot of work.

I gotta talk to Robert
because it wasn't...

I don't think it's a wise thing
to just shortchange the movie.

(man) I think some of your audience
members are gonna have a problem

(man) I think some of your audience
members are gonna have a problem

with this stagereading aspect,

and I heard some of this feedback,
so, for me, was I put off at first?

Yes. Why? Because the perception
is you expect more, you expect better.

Why aren't you off book? And then you
see that you pretty much are off book.

Why aren't you off book? And then you
see that you pretty much are off book.

So what's the deal?

Then you understand it's a creative
choice on the part of you and Estelle.

But why?
It's an interpretation. It's a style.

It's our captain, sire.

It's our captain, sire.

He is the young Syrian whom
you made captain only three days ago.

I gave no order
that he should be slayed.

(Robert) The public are furious.

Estelle's been attacked
by members of the public yesterday.

(Pacino) Why?

(Pacino) Why?

A couple going out of the theatre.
Because it wasn't a production.

They said I should be ashamed of myself
for putting it on.

It wasn't clear to me whether
they were really upset about the play

or about the fact that it was a reading,
I couldn't really tell.

or about the fact that it was a reading,
I couldn't really tell.

(Pacino) Reading.
They don't understand that.

No, they didn't get it.

(man) Are you getting that feeling
from the audience?

(Barry) What, that they feel like
they're being ripped off?

Yeah.

Yeah.

(Pacino) Sometimes
it just stops for me, you know,

and I just don't know what I'm doing,
I don't know why I'm doing it.

I think, more importantly,
I don't know why.

I think, more importantly,
I don't know why.

Something is pushing me forward
and... and... and I'm saying,

"Well, they're gonna get the movie."

And you say, "Well,
what are they gonna get in the movie...

..that they're not getting
in the play?"

How is the movie
going to make the play...

Because it's not a movie
about a play.

It's a movie about... inspiration.

It's a movie about... inspiration.

There's something about my struggle
that's not clear.

Something happened to me
when I saw this play.

I felt as though I had found a friend,
someone I wanted to know,

I felt as though I had found a friend,
someone I wanted to know,

someone that was prophetic,

because he was expressing
his own destiny in this play.

because he was expressing
his own destiny in this play.

It was as though he knew
what was gonna happen to him.

(bell rings)
Mark, please.

Mark.

OK, we're set.
Set.

OK, we're set.
Set.

Action.

Salomé, come.

Come, eat a little fruit with me.

I love to see in a fruit
the mark of thy little teeth.

I love to see in a fruit
the mark of thy little teeth.

I am not hungry, Tetrarch.

You see how you have brought up
this daughter of yours?

My daughter and I come of a royal race.

As for thee,
thy father was a camel driver!

He was also a robber!

He was also a robber!

Thou liest.
Thou knowest well it is true.

Salomé, come. Sit next to me.

I will give thee
the throne of thy mother.

(laughter)

I am not tired, Tetrarch.

(Herodias)
You see what she thinks of you?

Salomé.

Why did you wanna use the stage?
It's just too many words.

Why did you wanna use the stage?
It's just too many words.

Alright, just keep going.

I mean, I don't know what to...
I mean, I wish I could just say...

Thou speakest at random.
I will not stay here. Let us go within.

Dance for me, Salomé.

I will not have her dance.

I have no desire to dance, Tetrarch.

I have no desire to dance, Tetrarch.

If you dance for me,

you may ask of me what you will

and I will give it you,

even unto the half of my kingdom.

even unto the half of my kingdom.

You swear it, Tetrarch?

I swear it, Salomé.

I swear it, Salomé.

Do not dance, my daughter.

By what will you swear, Tetrarch?

By my life, by my crown, by my gods.

By my life, by my crown, by my gods.

You have sworn, Tetrarch.

I have sworn, Salomé.

(Bono) The subject matter of "Salomé",

which is really the destructive power
of sexuality, you know,

which is really the destructive power
of sexuality, you know,

the personification of desire
that can destroy you,

really turned out to be deeply prophetic
to his own life.

I mean, he thought
that he could write away

I mean, he thought
that he could write away

the destructive power of sexuality
in this play,

and he failed in the play
and he failed in his life.

(woman) Je suis Salomé...

(Pacino) Oscar Wilde
wrote "Salomé" in French.

He actually wrote it
for Sarah Bernhardt,

the great French actress of the time.

(woman speaks French)

I think it's so interesting that he
wrote it in French, I mean, that it's...

There was something about that language
and maybe even just the sound of it.

Very daring of him. Write in French?

His French wasn't that good, you know.

(woman speaks French)

Wow.

Looking at these sketches,
they were all naked.

All the Salomés were naked. See?

I'm OK doing nudity. I'm confused.

I feel like it's working right now
and I'm confused with the whole reading,

if that's just gonna
completely turn the audience off,

if they see like this dance

and then all of a sudden
I'm completely naked.

(Jokanaan)
Rejoice not thou, land of Palestine,

because the rod of him
who smote thee is broken.

For from the seed of the serpent
shall come forth a basilisk

and that which is born of it
shall devour the birds!

Let us go within!

The voice of that man maddens me.

I will not have my daughter dance
while he is continually crying out.

I will not have her dance
while you look at her in such a fashion.

In a word, I will not have her dance!

Do not rise, my wife, my queen.

It will avail thee nothing. I will not
go within till she hath danced.

Dance, Salomé.

Dance for me.

I am ready, Tetrarch.

(plays slow tune)

(music quickens)

(sighs)

Wonderful.

You see?
She has danced for me, your daughter.

Come near, Salomé.

Come near
that I may give you your reward.

I pay the dancers well.

I shall pay thee royally.

I shall give thee
whatsoever thy soul desireth.

Speak.

I would that they presently bring me
in a silver charger...

In a silver charger?

Surely, yes, in a silver charger.
She is charming, is she not?

But what would you have them bring you
in a silver charger? Tell me the thing.

Whatsoever it may be,
my treasures belong to thee.

What is it, Salomé?

The head of Jokanaan.

(thunder / Herodias gasps)

That is well said, my daughter.

No, no, Salomé, you do not ask me that.

Don't listen to your mother's voice.
(phone rings)

Yeah?

Now what?

What do you mean? Well, what happened?

I'm gonna go mad.
Yes.

I'm gonna go mad.
Yes.

And I want two cameras.
Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.

What we said, yeah.
Getting everybody, that's what I want.

This is what we are waiting to do.
Well, we're gonna do it now.

Because I only have these people
till five o'clock.

So we've got to do it now.

We were ready to do that before.
We're just ready.

OK.

Do you want to rehearse now or not?
These people don't need rehearsal.

Do you now want to
rehearse with a sound check?

This is crazy. I got four days
to shoot a 90minute play.

Money issues.

In order to have the time that you need,

it would make sense to shoot out

the soldiers, the Jews...

Everything, everything, everything
is money. Everything is money.

No matter what you say or do or ask,
it's all about money.

It's driving me crazy.

I have been on this earth now,
what, 48 years...

It's money, baby. Everything's money.

(Robert) It would make sense
to shoot out the soldiers...

These guys, I don't know what they want.
They expect me to do this in five days.

I don't understand it,
how they can be so... filmicly ignorant.

(Barry) A lot of the stuff
was on Al at the beginning.

Yeah, but that doesn't make
any difference.

Because it's not about that.
It's about when I'm ready to function.

When you first started, I'm cold.
Don't you understand?

What about my acting?

"Oh, we got him. He is on camera."
It doesn't mean a fuck... thing to me.

It's what I'm doing on camera
that means something.

Please, please, it's crazy.

I am a slave to my word
and my word is the word of...

Cut.
What's going on?

Sorry, guys. Can we cut?

I'm mad at the producers,
that's who I'm mad at, not you people.

It's the producers. Fuck 'em.

I have to function two ways.

One as a director,
one as dealing with the camera,

and the other as an actor.

I'm not ready in the first take
todoit.

"Oh, we got Al, so let's get
everybody else." You didn't get me.

You got me, my face.

You didn't get my soul.

That's what we're doing here and that's
what's gotta light up, let me tell you.

Because if it doesn't,
we don't have a movie.

Let us go within. You are sick.

They will say at Rome that you are mad.

Let us go within, I tell you.

Ah! It is cold here.

There is an icy wind,
and I hear in the air...

Wherefore do I hear in the air
this beating of wings?

One might fancy a bird,

a huge black bird
that hovers over the terrace.

Why can I not see it?

We're not gonna shoot the whole play.
Of course we're not.

We're not gonna cut
the whole play together.

(yells)

I am choking.

Pour water on my hands.

Give me snow to eat.

But... But... Nay, leave it.

The flowers are like fire.
They burn my forehead!

(Pacino) We just need more time.
We need more time.

(Barry) Al, I've got you an extra
two days. I've talked to the agents.

(man) It's all set to go.

(Barry) We've got the studio
longer than four days.

Six days, eight days, in fact,
in case we need to do some pickups.

We can have it after the play wraps too.

(man) Basically we can shoot on the
Wednesday, the Thursday or the Friday,

depending on your schedule
and what you wanna do.

But what we did was just try to
pack everything into those four days

and if you need
to stretch it out further...

Can I have some napkins?

(bell rings)

Pictures up.
Yeah.

Pictures up.
Yeah.

(Salome) I do not heed my mother.

It is for my own pleasure

that I ask for the head of Jokanaan
on a silver charger.

You've sworn, Tetrarch.
Forget not you hath sworn an oath.

I know. I know it well.

But I pray you, Salomé,
ask of me something else.

I ask of you the head of Jokanaan.

No, no, I do not wish it.

You have sworn, Herod.

Yes, you have sworn.
Everybody heard you. You swore it.

Be silent. Speak not to me.

Salomé, this is a terrible thing.

This is an awful thing to ask of me.

Surely I think that you are jesting.

The head of a man
that is cut from his body...

(groans)

..is ill to look upon, is it not?

It is not meet that the eyes of a virgin
should look upon such a thing.

What pleasure could you have in it?
None.

No, no. Itis not what you desire.

I demand the head of Jokanaan.

Salomé, come, let us be friends.

You know my white peacocks?

My beautiful white peacocks
that walk in the garden

between the myrtles
and the tall cypress trees?

Their beaks are gilded with gold

and the grains that they eat
are gilded with gold also,

and their feet are stained with purple.

When they cry out, the rain comes,

and the moon shows herself in the
heavens when they spread their tails.

Two by two they walk in the garden

and each has a slave to tend it.

They will follow you
whithersoever you go.

And in the midst of them

you will be like the moon
in the midst of a great white cloud.

I will give them all to you.
I have but a hundred.

And there is no king in all the world

who possesses peacocks
like unto my peacocks.

But I will give them all to you.

Only you must loose me from my oath.

You must not ask of me
that which you have asked of me.

Give me the head of Jokanaan.
That is well said, my daughter.

As for you, you are ridiculous
with your peacocks.

Be silent!

You cry out always!

You cry out. You must...
Give me the head of Jokanaan!

(thunder)

Be calm. Be calm.

I am calm.

Listen.

I have jewels hidden in this place.

Jewels that your mother even
has never seen.

Jewels that are marvellous.

I have a collar of pearls
set in four rows

that are like unto moons
chained with rays of silver.

I have opals, I have onyxes,

and moonstones
that change when the moon changes

and are wan when they see the sun.

I have sapphires big like eggs
and blue as blue flowers.

The sea wanders within them

and the moon comes never to trouble
the blue of their waves.

I have chrysolites and beryls
and chrysoprases and rubies.

I have sardonyx and hyacinth stone
and stone of chalcedony,

and I will give them all to you, all.

And other things will I add to them.

The King of the Indies
has but even now sent me four fans

fashioned from the feathers of parrots.

In an ebony coffer
I have two cups of amber

that are like apples of gold.

If an enemy pour poison into these cups,
they become like an apple of silver.

These are great treasures, Salomé.

These are treasures above all price.

They are treasures without price!

But this is not all.

In a coffer encrusted with amber,

I have sandals encrusted with glass.

I have mantles that have been brought
here from the land of the Seres,

bracelets decked about
with carbuncles and with jade

that come from the city of Euphrates.

What desirest thou
more than this, Salomé?

Please tell me the thing
that thou desirest. I will give it thee.

All that thou asked, I will give thee,
save one thing.

I will give thee all that is mine...

..save one life.

1 will give thee
the mantle of the high priest.

I will give thee
the veil of the sanctuary.

Give me the head of Jokanaan.

Let her be given what she asks.

For of a truth,
she is her mother's child.

(laughs)

"And every human heart that breaks
in prison cell or yard

"And every human heart that breaks
in prison cell or yard

is as that broken box
that gave its treasure to the Lord."

This is what he actually said
in the play,

"Each man kills the thing he loves",
from the poem Reading Gaol.

"How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from sin?

He walked amongst the Trial Men
In a suit of shabby grey;

A cricket cap was on his head,
And his step seemed light and gay;

But I never saw a man
Who looked so wistfully at the day,

The man had killed the thing he loved,
And so he had to die

Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,

Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,

The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!"

Kings ought never to pledge their word,

for if they keep it not, it is terrible.

If they keep it, it is terrible also.

Strike, Naaman! Strike, I tell you!

He has let his sword fall.

He is afraid, this slave.

He is a coward, this slave!
Let soldiers be sent!

Come hither, thou wert the friend
of him who is dead, is it not so?

Well, I tell thee
there are not dead men enough.

Get ye to the soldiers, bid them go
down and bring me the thing that I ask,

the thing that Tetrarch has promised me,
the thing that is mine.

Hither, ye soldiers.

Get ye into the cistern
and bring me the head of this man.

Tetrarch, Tetrarch!

Command your soldiers
that they bring me the head of Jokanaan!

(sword slashes)

(flapping wings)

(Herod) Wherefore did I give my oath?

I am sure a misfortune will happen.

Thou wouldst not suffer me
to kiss thy mouth, Jokanaan.

Well, I will kiss it now.

I will bite it with my teeth
as one bites a ripe fruit.

Yes, I will kiss thy mouth, Jokanaan.

I said it. Did I not say it?

(laughs)

I will kiss it now.

But wherefore dost thou
not look at me, Jokanaan?

Thine eyes that were so terrible,
so full of rage and scorn, are shut now.

Wherefore are they shut?

Open thine eyelids.
Lift up thine eyes, Jokanaan.

Thou wouldst have not of me, Jokanaan.
Thou didst reject me.

Thou didst speak evil words against me.

Thou didst treat me as a harlot,
as a wanton.

Me,...

..Salomég,

daughter of Herodias,
Princess of Judaea.

Well, Jokanaan, I still live.
But thou, thou art dead.

And thy head belongs to me.
I can do with it what I will.

I can throw it to the dogs
and to the birds of the air.

That which the dogs leave behind,
the birds of the air shall devour.

Oh, Jokanaan.

Jokanaan, thou wert the only man
that I have loved.

All other men were hateful to me
but thou.

Thou art beautiful.

Thy voice was a censer
that scattered strange perfumes.

And when I looked on thee...
I heard a strange music.

Wherefore does thou
not look at me, Jokanaan?

Behind thy hands and thy curses,
thou didst hide thy face.

If thou hadst looked at me,
thou hadst loved me.

Well I know
that thou wouldst have loved me,

and the mystery of love
is greater than the mystery of death.

Love only should one consider.

I saw thee, Jokanaan,
and I loved thee.

Oh, how I loved thee.

I love thee yet, Jokanaan.

(sobs) I love thee only.

(Herod) She is monstrous, thy daughter.

She is altogether monstrous.

In truth what she has done
was a great crime.

I am sure that it was a crime

against an unknown god.

I approve of what my daughter has done

and I will stay here now.

Ah!

There speaks the incestuous wife.

(Herod) Come.

I will not stay here.

Come, I tell thee.

Surely some evil will befall.

Manasseh, Issachar, Ozias!

Put out the torches!

I will not look at things.

I will not suffer things to look at me.

Put out the torches!

Hide the moon.

Hide the stars.

Come, Herodias,

let us hide ourselves in our palace.

I begin to be afraid.

I have kissed thy mouth, Jokanaan.

I have kissed thy mouth.

There was a bitter taste on thy lips.

Was it the taste of blood?

But perchance it is the taste of love.

For they say that love
hath a bitter taste.

But what of that?

What of that?

I have kissed thy mouth, Jokanaan.

Kill that woman!

(thunder)

(sword slashes)

(Pacino) We gotta go back
to the desert.

We're not finished.

We've gotta go.

(Pacino) "All trials
are trials for one's life,

just as all sentences
are sentences of death,

and three times have I been tried.”

"The first time I left the box
to be arrested,

the second time to be led back
to the house of detention,

the third time to pass into a prison
for two years."

"Society as we have constituted it
will have no place for me,

has none to offer,

but nature, whose sweet rains
fall on unjust and just alike,

will have clefts in the rocks
where I may hide,

secret valleys in whose silence
I may weep undisturbed.”

"She will hang the night with stars

so that I may walk abroad
in the darkness without stumbling,

send the wind over my footprints
so that none may track me to my hurt."

"She will cleanse me in great waters

and with bitter herbs make me whole."

("Salomé " by U2)

♪ Baby, please

♪ Baby, please don't go

♪ 1 got lies to feed

♪ They want skin and seed

♪ Now don't make me craw!

♪ Baby, please

♪ Baby, don't bite your lip

♪ Give you half what I got
if you untie the knot

♪ It's a promise

♪ Salomé

♪ Salomé

♪ Salomé

♪ Salomé

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah

♪ Baby, please

♪ Baby, what's that tune?

♪ Well, I heard it before
when I crawled from your door

♪ And my blood turned blue

♪ Baby, please

♪ Baby, please slow down

♪ Baby, I feel sick

♪ Don't make me stick to my promise

♪ Salomé

♪ Salomé

♪ Salomé

♪ Salomé

♪ Salomé

♪ Salomé

♪ Baby, please

♪ Baby, don't say no

♪ Won't you dance for me
under the cherry tree?

♪ Won't you swing down low?

♪ Please

♪ Baby, please say yes

♪ Baby, don't go away

♪ You're spilling me
and your precious love

♪ Shake it, shake it, shake it, Salomé

♪ Shake it, shake it, shake it, Salomé

♪ Shake it, shake it, shake it, Salomé

♪ Shake it, shake it, shake it, Salomé

♪ Shake it, shake it, shake it, Salomé

♪ Shake it, shake it, shake it, Salomé

♪ Shake it, shake it, shake it, Salomé

♪ Salomé