A Cloud in the Teeth (1974) - full transcript
Malisard is a reporter at "Soir de Paris", his colleague Prévot is a photographer. Together, they roam the streets of Paris.
A CLOUD IN THE TEETH
The most important thing
is to pay attention to the clouds.
- It is?
- Yes.
You need to be able
to tell them apart.
Take your nimbostratus, for example.
Your nimbostratus,
is a kind of opaque veil
which doesn't even look
like a cloud,
and which fills the sky.
It normally contains moisture.
- You mean rain?
- No, not always.
Sometimes, not always.
Below that you have
these tiny things, very low,
black, with sharp edges.
Like spurts?
Yes, spurts.
When they're on several levels...
Like a grid.
Yes, if you like. A grid.
When they're on several levels,
in a grid pattern,
you have a kind of fraying.
Like streaks.
Yes, streaks.
Streaks that are called altocumulus.
Whereas your altostratus is dense.
But the sun still shines through it.
If it's dense, I don't see how.
Not the sun itself.
More of a glow.
Like through frosted glass, you see.
Right.
The altostratus is also
a little striated, sometimes.
Striated?
Fibrous,
like threads,
or irregularly-shaped strips.
Not like cumulonimbus.
Now that...
What?
Cumulonimbus.
The king of clouds.
They're rarely seen.
You're more likely to see
cumulonimbus in the countryside,
or at the seaside.
- It's an anti-urban cloud?
- That's right.
An anti-urban cloud.
Do you know a hotel?
A hotel? What for?
A guy I know
is coming to Paris.
- He's got no hotel?
- No, that's the point.
He's got nothing.
This must be it.
The ground caved in!
Negligence?
We don't know the cause.
The foundations were...
You built on a quarry!
Certainly not!
It's built on very hard limestone.
It was very difficult
to dig the foundations.
Did the building have...
All safety precautions were taken.
I can't tell you any more
for the moment.
How many casual workers?
The normal amount!
Don't move.
Leave us alone.
This isn't the time.
Not now!
I ate too much.
What do you expect?
All that cassoulet...
Gently.
Wait till he's passed the other one!
- Where are they going?
- Saint-Antoine.
- Have you taken many?
- 20!
- Damn!
- Quite!
- Did you see the building collapse?
- You bet.
What happened?
They should be looking
further to the right. The right!
Behind the...
You see the cement mixer?
They're in there.
Really?
- How many were there?
- Look, another bulldozer.
Not there, you idiots!
Look to the right.
I've been telling them!
Arabs? Portuguese? French?
How should I know?
Another ambulance.
- It's the one that left just now.
- Come on.
We're going.
There's nothing here.
What do you mean?
18 months they've been building...
I don't know anything, he says!
Move along! Move along!
Two pastis.
"The death toll is mounting."
Yes. Colon, new line.
"Four dead", comma...
Thanks.
Yes. "Six critically injured", comma.
"And 10 workers buried."
Full stop, new paragraph.
"We are duty-bound", comma,
"to inquire", comma.
"whether compulsory safety measures",
comma.
"Were complied with", full stop.
"When will the construction industry
"enforce them?" Question mark.
Two more.
Got it? All of it? Right.
What? The name of the firm.
They want the name of the firm.
Hold on.
Prévot's finding out.
Yes.
Sure you've got everything? What?
Meyer & Boiveau.
Meyer & Boiveau.
Yes, Boiveau. That's right.
Right. Bye.
I think we've got something.
"Stock exchange".
Same line: "Price of gold is up".
"Japan is by far,
"among all
industrialised countries..."
"Egyptians and Israelis were in talks
when a distant shell exploded."
"Nixon", colon.
"A president unfit..."
"2 tablespoons of kirsch,
"1 tablespoon of maraschino,
"5 tablespoons of apricot jam.
"Embellished with candied fruit."
- I think I've got something.
- From whom?
The cowboys.
"Ill fate strikes again
on another building site.
"4 dead, 10 buried, 6 wounded...
"Safety..."
Which firm is it?
Meyer & Boiveau.
Does Boiveau ring a bell?
- No.
- How about Lucien de Rivère?
- He's the brother-in-law...
- Yes.
Which means
you reduce this to 5 lines
and put it on page 5.
Yes, sir.
The cowboys...
Cute, aren't they?
Yeah.
Tell me, buddy.
I don't get it.
What?
Why did you send your sons
to a girls' school?
Who, me? A girls' school?
Oh, shit!
It's the wrong entrance.
Here there are birds and trees.
It's provincial.
Pastoral, almost. Bucolic.
Where you lived before
was a grown-ups' area,
a real ghetto for adults
with its businesses,
its stations, its banks,
its offices and Métros, its dogs...
You waste no time.
- Daddy?
- Yes?
Yeah, OK.
- Can I go through?
- Yes, go on.
Daddy must be on the other side.
Go on.
That's it.
Off you go.
Oh, shit!
Got any lollipops?
Lemon, strawberry, orange.
- No mint?
- Yes.
2 mints, then.
Coming?
Yes.
Don't you find it odd?
Bronzes, inlayed rosewood furniture?
It's fake Regency.
More like a Restoration copy.
What did I tell you?
That's never 18th century.
What's funny is this thing.
Oh, yes, acanthus, I hadn't noticed.
- That is funny.
- Isn't it, though?
Come on.
- Go with Daddy. Hurry up.
- Come on.
- You bought them lollipops?
- Yes.
Here you go.
All 4 stores, Judge.
At 8:00 am,
I put 2 men on guard duty...
Since this morning,
I've had 2 suicides,
a flasher on the Métro,
3 traffic accidents,
the hold-up in rue Taulard,
a brothel closure,
a bomb scare, rue du Temple.
Also a demo's on the way,
the maritime police
have my deputy at the morgue...
- Commissioner.
- What?
- The press kiosk opposite.
- Yes?
A car just ran into it.
- Loroyer again?
- No doubt.
- You again?
- 3 times this month?
- But...
- This is how far you've got?
Well, well...
At this rate you don't have
much chance of catching him.
Don't tell me my job.
You were saying?
He got in
via the grocer's basement?
The basement.
- He made 3 holes?
- 3 holes.
- Classic.
- Classic.
- Who's that?
- Malisard.
Oh, that's Malisard!
Will that be all?
So, one yogurt, one packet of rice,
a lettuce, some leeks.
That's it.
Are you open Mondays?
Yes, sir. That'll be 14.5 francs.
Good. I'm moving here.
Where I lived before
was a wasteland.
If you're open Mondays,
that's handy for me.
- Got all you need?
- Yes.
Shit! The kids.
That's right, the kids.
Not much. You?
Any clues?
Come on, kids, let's go.
Got a 50-cent piece?
- No, I don't.
- OK, don't get upset.
You can be quite unpleasant
and rude sometimes.
- Here.
- I want that one!
Leave the door open!
- But the kids?
- What about them?
What I have to say
isn't for children.
Stay there.
Here.
"Store robbed..."
"Breach. 3 holes. Lots of blood.
"Blood everywhere."
What the hell is this?
- I thought...
- No, you didn't.
You never think, Jolivet.
Look, son,
by trying to sell me
the murder of your jeweller,
you're insulting
the reader's intelligence.
There's something you need to learn
if you want succeed in journalism,
something primordial
that constitutes the body,
the substance,
the essence of our vocation
- for remember, this job
is a vocation, a calling -
something without which
there could be no good journalism,
and I'll tell you what it is.
It's respect for the reader.
Respect for the reader.
And I'll tell you another thing,
something just as fundamental.
Know who the reader is?
No, you don't.
I'll tell you
and never forget it:
The reader is human.
He's a human being.
Do you hear?
So if you serve him up dead bodies
on page 1 every day,
do you know what that means?
Yes?
I know, they've been bombing
for 2 weeks!
What difference does it make
if it's in the countryside?
This isn't
a public-condolence service!
Young people today!
They have no sense of...
As I was saying...
Do you know what that means?
I'll tell you.
It means you're disrespecting
the reader's humanity.
That's what it means.
Give this to Gilbert.
It might make the front page.
Hey, Jolivet.
Where are the cowboys?
We sent them to a gas explosion.
Oh, right.
Don't push! Don't push!
Don't push.
How old?
4 and 6.
I live on the second floor!
Is that their mother?
No. Their mother's Vietnamese.
She mustn't know yet.
She's still at work.
- Step back.
- Are you nuts?
- I'll take your photo...
- Get back, dammit!
This is no time for chatting!
Have your Vietnamese
ever had any problems?
Problems?
Racial problems, for example.
Racial problems?
What do you mean?
What are you doing?
- No! Stop!
- Let me go!
You idiot! Have you finished?
How many times have I told you
not to do things like that!
- I don't like being pushed around.
- Tragedy, blood, squalor!
- Something's wrong with you!
- I know, I'm not human.
- You...
- At least I...
Shit! The kids.
They're in the car!
Are you nuts?
Look at that!
You crazy bastard!
Roadhog!
Roadhog! Unbelievable!
That's gonna cost me!
These people don't give a damn!
And nor do you!
What are you doing?
It's not difficult, dammit!
Roadhog!
- Shit, the kids!
- You're right.
Have you seen 2 kids?
2 kids? I don't think so.
I haven't really had time!
What do they look like?
One had a red scarf on.
The other a blue one.
Go away!
We have nothing to say!
Go away, please!
Accusing people...
Me, the tenants, the building!
Really!
Please leave, sir.
We refuse to listen to you.
Those kids are unbelievable.
The slap I'll give them...
Shit!
What do they take me for?
They don't know their address.
- Yes, they do!
- Calm down...
- I'm perfectly calm!
- Think instead of getting worked up.
Worked up?
I'm yelling at my kids, that's all!
Well, don't bother me with it!
If my kids are lost,
that's bothering you?
Yes, it is!
- Stop being neurotic.
- Are you mad?
No, I'm not!
I'm trying not to remain calm,
to confine the problem
and solve it!
Watch where you're going!
They say they haven't seen them.
What would they be doing
in a scrap yard?
It's entirely possible!
My kids love scrap yards!
- Last year in La Baule...
- I don't see what La Baule
has to do with it.
- I'm simply trying
to explain that for my kids,
scrap yards, car wrecks... Shit.
A pastis.
What were you saying?
I... Nothing! Shut up!
- You should tell your wife.
- No!
- But...
- Mind your own business!
I'm sick of your...
She's my wife! No!
You want me to say:
"I've lost the kids,
but everything's fine"?
You don't know what a good wife
or mother is.
You never thought
she could be worried, did you?
It never even occurred to you.
You're just a selfish pig.
Both?
4.2 francs.
- How much?
- It's paid for.
Are you nuts?
Look where you're going!
Did you notice anything?
Where?
At the explosion.
No.
What should I have noticed?
Didn't things there
seem a bit odd there?
Odd?
Yes.
The people outside,
the occupants of the building,
the concierge...
Didn't you sense something?
To tell the truth...
And the dead kids,
didn't it strike you?
No, why?
They were the same age as yours!
They were?
What's more, their mother...
What about her?
She's yellow.
So what?
- Your kids are black.
- Black...
Well, they're not white!
The kids in the explosion
were Eurasian!
Eurasian...
- Eurasians are pretty.
- Exactly.
Eurasians are very pretty.
Do you get it?
You mean it was deliberate,
and my kids...
I'll call the paper.
My kids!
It's a scandal!
It's scandalous!
You should've fixed it 3 months ago!
I've not been able to use it.
It's a jungle out there.
No, let me stop you.
You said when I ordered it
that there wasn't a more advanced
lawnmower on the market!
Advanced!
It overheats, it backfires.
Just saying.
And the same to you!
I mean, the price
they charge for them...
Got something?
No. Well, yes.
The cowboys have a problem.
It's about Prévot's kids.
What do Prévot's kids
have to do with us?
- They disappeared.
- Kidnapped?
- No, Malisard didn't say that.
- What?
Kids don't just disappear.
- Still, a kidnapping...
- Nonsense!
With all the hijacked planes,
abducted ambassadors, hostages...
- Dassault's mom.
- Yes. And the Rothschild boy,
weren't they kidnappings?
It's an epidemic!
Maybe so, but Prévot's kids...
It's a classic.
In America, they kidnapped
the daughter of a typographer
who earned a pittance.
The paper shelled out
800,000 dollars to get the kid back.
She was 8.
It wasn't 800,000 dollars.
It was 700,000.
In any case,
it was money well spent.
After 2 weeks of massive headlines,
everyone in the US was riveted
and their circulation quadrupled.
At a newspaper,
everyone's vulnerable.
- Do you have kids, Jolivet?
- No, sir.
Well, when you do,
you'll know what it's like.
Those of you with kids,
don't you ever turn round,
moved by a strange intuition,
and surprise someone following you?
Have your rear-view mirrors
never reflected the image
of a vehicle tailing you,
following you, unshakeable?
How often do people follow you
innocently,
when they clearly aren't?
In the street,
don't you ever feel uneasy,
a latent brutality,
the icy stares of inquisitors
who brush by you
like moths in the night?
A reporter's child is always
at the mercy of an aggressor,
and the lives of his parents,
haunted by the prospect
of a possible kidnapping...
- Do you mind?
- I lost a contact lens.
Where were you when you lost it?
- Here.
- Be careful.
Don't tread on it.
I'll find it.
Garnier, open a file
on the kids' kidnapping,
mother, father, etc.
Are they boys or girls?
- I'll find out.
- Pernet,
we need a front page
with headlines in half an hour.
Has the switchboard been told?
Tell them to put through any calls
to do with the ransom.
Will the bosses pay it?
Yes, well... I'll make the call.
The drugs article
on the property page.
How much?
2½ columns. That'll do.
- Any photos?
- Not yet.
- Is it a kidnapping?
- Yes. 2 kids.
Yes, sir. Yes.
The ransom? No.
We've no idea
what they're going to ask.
Police? In some cases, yes.
They forbid publication
to foil the kidnappers' scheme...
But I think for this evening,
we're in a position to...
Yes. At least
until the Saturday edition.
I will indeed.
You can count on me. My respects.
What idiot put jam on the phone?
The cowboys are back.
It's not a kidnapping.
It's a sadist.
A sadist?
Where are the cowboys?
- Calling police HQ.
- A sadist?
A sadist, for God's sake!
Can you believe it?
This is a rare event.
Get to work, gentlemen.
Garnier, archives.
Bring me a list of possible suspects.
Pernet, photo library.
Cazenave, alert the print room,
and Jolivet, discretion above all.
Tell the cowboys.
We don't want to be scooped.
- Chevignac! You OK?
- Yes.
Right. I'll call the...
I'm getting a headache.
Hello? Moulin Rouge?
Put me through to the boss.
Yes, it's urgent.
Malisard.
Tell him he'd better speak to me.
Yes, I'll hold.
- Prévot's wife...
- Leave his wife out of it.
- I didn't say...
- Enough!
A guy's private life is precious,
it's off-limits.
So how old are these kids?
Whose, mine?
My kids?
4 and 6.
Names?
- Daniel and Michel.
- Hair colour?
Brown.
- Eyes?
- Brown.
- Distinguishing marks?
- Distinguishing...
One has a red scarf on,
the other a blue one.
- Got a photo?
- Yes.
What do you mean, 2?
I said 3 columns!
Then drop
the Common-Market headline!
Look at this.
3 attempted rapes.
He got out of jail 6 months ago.
No, he's still inside.
Hello?
It's Santiago, will you take it?
It can't be the Batignolles ripper,
he's too old.
Did you tell Malisard
to come see me?
He's calling the hospital.
Jolivet will tell him.
Police HQ,
Moulin Rouge, the hospital...
What do you think?
About what?
Discretion, dammit!
Discretion!
We'll get scooped
on tonight's edition!
Malisard won't come.
- He's calling Fresne Prison.
- The prison!
Police HQ,
the Moulin Rouge, the hospital!
Go and get Malisard right now!
The boss wants to see you!
Give me CID. Hello?
Attempted rape.
Put it aside, it could be him.
- Ducan?
- Yes.
This guy,
suspected of abducting
the pastor's kids,
was never found.
Put it aside, it could be useful.
Come in.
- Come in, Malisard!
- I can't get in!
- Malisard's calling CID!
- CID!
It's totally stuck!
Help me, dammit!
- Let me do it.
- CID! The Moulin Rouge!
Police HQ, the jail,
the hospital, CID!
The wood's swollen.
Jolivet! Jolivet!
The idiot's gone!
We could go through your office.
- He's calling the Élysée.
- The Élysée? He's nuts!
Nothing!
What the hell's going on?
- The Élysée?
- They know nothing!
I told you,
no calls without my permission.
It's outrageous!
The guy's calling the President,
for a trifle!
Not to mention the Prime Minister.
It's not "a trifle"!
Come on, son.
Be brave.
I know it's hard,
but let's not over-dramatise.
Really.
They'll find your kids.
- What do you want?
- Is the woman from the 4th floor in?
No, she works till late.
I found these 2 boys.
They were in my car.
What have they done now?
- Come in, children.
- I was across Paris.
I was getting worried.
I look after them.
- You do?
- Yes. Goodbye.
Extension 311, please.
Mrs Prévot.
She did?
Was she planning on coming back?
No, it's her husband.
Do you know where she was going?
Right.
No, no.
Never mind.
Thank you.
Yes, thanks.
Right, well, I...
And then we'll...
Say, are these yours?
- These. Are they yours?
- Yes.
That's what I thought.
You need to get them out of here.
A pastis.
Here, look.
If we can't find your kids
with these...
- Why did you think of them?
- Drink up.
Shit! My kids...
- How much?
- 8.50 francs, with the phone call.
You called your wife?
Come on, we've no time to lose.
Your curtain rails!
After all we've written,
we've made enemies.
- That's true.
- Remember Rabinovic?
He was taken to hospital
less than an hour ago.
- The hospital?
- Yes.
- Strange, isn't it?
- Shit! My kids...
Yes. And Barjon,
the peeping Tom
from the Jussieu school?
- He got out yesterday.
- Oh, damn!
As for him,
he got married last month.
You're right! Bloody hell!
The Ville-d'Avray beast married,
can you imagine?
What? What?
I'm coming!
I'm coming, I'm not deaf!
What the hell is it?
No, it's not him.
- Shut the door.
- You?
Shut the door!
- Where were you earlier?
- Working.
In Suresnes.
You found me.
- Prévot, anything?
- Nothing.
My wife'll be back any time.
Please, I told your colleagues
last time,
I've nothing to say.
My wife'll be back.
What do I care?
You abducted kids.
- 10 years ago!
- And since?
- 2 kids, ring any bells?
- Never, never!
Not even 10 years ago!
- What time do you leave work?
- It's not him. Let's go.
My wife! Please!
It's me, Georges!
Did you lay the table?
I'm famished.
What a day!
Georges has made me dinner!
- Yes, darling, but...
- Cousin Evelyne's pâté!
Is that all the wine?
Well...
Georges,
aren't your friends joining us?
Hello, gentlemen.
You must try this.
Cousin Evelyne's pâté.
You won't find this in the shops.
Strictly homemade... Here...
- Sorry, I...
- Just try it.
Tell me what you think.
My cousin raises ducks on corn,
real Périgord corn.
Try it. Here.
What are you waiting for?
We're dying of thirst.
But you wouldn't have tried it
unless you'd lived in the Périgord.
Do you know the Dordogne?
No, but my friend does.
You're from the Dordogne?
Then you must know it!
Yes, of course!
Do I know it?
Are you kidding?
Duck pâté, goose confit,
mushrooms under chestnut trees...
Goose confit, mushrooms...
After the harvest,
they'd kill the pig.
My mother would spend a week
making sausages,
pâtés, hams...
Oh, ham...
Then it was walnut season.
We'd shell them by the fire at night.
The old folk told us stories.
The evening seemed to last forever,
then it was time for bed,
where we slept like logs,
on enormous feather eiderdowns!
The neighbour's kids...
- My kids.
- Shit! You're right. Your kids.
- Can you play with us, Mum?
- Put your pyjamas on.
I'll make dinner.
Michel, leave your brother alone.
Put your pyjamas on.
Still no answer.
Think about it!
What moves people?
What makes them cry?
The mother, obviously!
Pity Prévot's not divorced.
We could've done something
on childcare,
infantile trauma.
- Maybe.
What the hell
are those police doing?
It's unbelievable!
"Aged 21, Mr Prévot
went to fight in Algeria,
"under General Dupuis at Ghardaïa.
"Promoted to the rank of sergeant..."
What then?
His patrol were fired on.
That's true.
Inspector Grasset?
Yes, I'm looking for an update.
I have a pencil. I'm listening.
2 suicides, yes.
A hold-up at...
The murder of...
Is that all?
Nothing else?
No missing children, no abductions,
anything like that?
No, no reason.
We're always after something!
What about the police stations?
Nothing yet.
No space today!
We'll run his piece tomorrow!
Tomorrow!
- What do you want?
- A communiqué.
"An elephant escaped from a circus."
Do I look like I have time
to care about an elephant?
No, darling...
Darling, listen to me.
Take a taxi
and meet me at their place.
Yes, I'm coming.
This is the newspaper.
Please call 748-1925 urgently.
Thank you.
What?
You've been alerted to the presence
of a shady individual
near the school?
2? There were 2 of them?
Some mothers told the police station
about 2 shady individuals
by a school.
And it gets even better:
the school is the one
that Prévot's kids attend.
2 little boys ring any bells?
Why should it?
- 2 little Eurasians?
- What is this?
- Were you present at the explosion?
- What?
Don't play games.
Where were you?
- In Intensive Care, probably.
- Sure!
- I had my accident at 11:00 am.
- Think we'll believe that?
- Where were you?
- Ask him.
- Who?
- The guy who ran into me
on the ring road.
Out the way.
Recognise this?
2 little boys of 4 and 6?
Drop the accident alibi!
Where were you this afternoon?
Stop monkeying around.
Answer me.
Where were you this afternoon?
What is it?
A woman about to jump.
- Did she jump?
- Yes.
My wife.
What about her?
You again?
You're nuts!
If my wife finds out...
Tell her it's an emergency.
What if she reacts
like the woman just now?
You're crazy!
Not really.
My wife is emotional.
- If she finds out...
- You don't get it.
She's intelligent.
She's incapable of that.
They're the ones
who were bothering the patients!
Don't let them catch us!
Incapable?
How would you know?
I just know! You can tell!
I'm telling you, right now she's...
You and your feminine psychology!
- You know nothing!
- OK, I know nothing!
She's sensitive,
capable of anything!
- If she dies...
- She's not going to die!
She may already be dead!
Oh, come on!
I have to call my wife!
I have to call my wife!
- We're closed.
- I need the phone.
- We're closed.
- The phone!
It's urgent!
Unbelievable!
- I said we're closed.
- I want to use the phone!
But...
Son of a bitch!
You blocked our car in,
for 2 hours!
- You could apologise.
- Fuck off.
I'm warning you,
you're gonna get it in the neck!
No, no.
No...
No, no.
It's difficult.
We might recognise them,
but describing them...
They were eating sweets.
Write that down,
it may be important.
Were they tall, short?
Where are you going?
You live in Aubervilliers.
Wait here.
Is that better?
I think so.
Take your time.
Is it better like this, or like this?
Better before.
There. I can't do any better.
The cowboys.
What? Are they back?
No, I meant the portraits
look like the cowboys.
Put them in the middle of page 1.
- What about the political...
- No politics!
Want some?
No, later.
We're not there yet.
Yes, yes.
They're your kids, not mine.
Yes, OK. They're my kids.
Did you call your wife?
My wife.
She hasn't even turned off
the answerphone. Here.
- Keep hold of it.
- Yes, I will.
Let's go!
Barjon, here we come!
Off we go!
We scooped everyone!
I'd like to see their faces!
These guys look like the cowboys!
We have the scoop.
Now we can alert the police.
- Me hearties!
- What's up?
Were we meant to turn off
at Aubervilliers?
Aubervilliers, indeed!
Sailors in peril on the sea!
We're set fair for the west!
Yes, me hearties!
Oh, that's good!
It's the best!
It's the optimum direction!
The wind is up!
We must survive!
Hold fast the tiller!
Our future is uncertain,
but oh, how voluptuous.
To the voluptuousness of uncertainty!
Like a rough sea in turmoil!
A sea? No, an ocean!
There's no doubt,
we're heading for the sea!
Sailor on the river,
don't you hear
the ocean's roar?
Waves on the hail!
Can't you hear it?
It's really dark!
Darkness, the absence of light!
Joking aside, are you sure?
- We've passed the forest!
- Continue! Yes!
As I speak to you,
I feel like a carrier pigeon!
I can drift along
the scrubby pathways
of this nocturnal countryside.
The mountainous passes,
the hills in bloom
saw me gamboling
through their entangled roots,
to the depths
of the cavernous gorges!
- There's a hunt on.
- What?
We're not out of the woods yet.
I also know the steep paths
of a far-off childhood.
Dear solitary oceanic journeys,
where the birds
were my most loyal companions,
the birds...
- I think...
- Who...
- I'm gonna be sick.
That's better.
Wow...
Got any chewing gum?
No, I don't.
Your yogurts are back there.
Never mind.
There's nothing like a...
Feeling better?
Much better.
I feel great.
Wow!
That was good!
Shall we go?
- Barjon might...
- Barjon... My kids!
This is the newspaper.
Please call 748-1925 urgently.
Thank you.
Call the newspaper
Look at your face!
What's wrong?
Why are you looking at me like that?
For once I manage to escape...
I should have stayed at work.
Commissioner Peyrol here.
What's that you say?
What?
2 children?
OK, I'm on my way.
No, no! Not that way.
I don't like this.
Don't like it.
A nice surprise, isn't it?
What is it now?
Nothing.
Something about a sadist.
I'll check the bathroom.
Good heavens, darling!
Where's my dressing gown?
Not finishing your ice cream?
Stop it.
- You can't force the door!
- Shut up.
He's not in, he's somewhere else.
- What use is it?
- He's in this apartment,
nowhere else!
Be sensible.
You'll hurt yourself.
What do you expect?
If we'd been less sensible,
we'd have had him by now.
You see?
- Be careful. You're nuts!
- Shut up!
With kids like mine...
Do you realise? My wife!
Speak louder.
Louder, yes.
Ma'am?
You're the concierge
at 24, passage...
2 men are breaking
into an apartment.
They're breaking the door down.
I see.
Yes.
We'll send someone
as soon as we can, ma'am.
I can't.
All our men just left.
What?
Speak louder.
Yes?
Impossible, ma'am.
I'd like nothing more,
but I have no-one, ma'am.
Would you please describe them.
Yes, ma'am.
Yes.
Don't be stupid!
Prévot!
Leave me alone!
You're gonna fall!
Come down!
It's dangerous, for God's sake!
- But my kids...
- Your kids!
- That's no reason.
- My wife?
Your wife, OK! But...
Are they foreigners?
No, the father works for the paper.
What else?
We've posted descriptions
of the kids and the sadists.
Newspaper Identikit pictures
are always rubbish.
Their descriptions came
from the mothers who saw them
outside the school.
Right.
Have you contacted the mother?
No. What for?
It could be a lead.
Right, Orlandy...
Commissioner Peyrol here.
What?
24, passage...
Aubervilliers. On our way.
- We've got them.
- What?
They were seen in Aubervillers.
Let's go!
- No-one's here.
- This isn't Barjon's place!
It belongs to his friend,
Bobby Pilon!
Let's not waste any time!
What now?
- What d'you expect to find?
- I don't know! An address!
- What for?
- I don't know! Just look!
Just look at that!
Really...
I get it.
It's too dangerous.
The last time I took the ring road
was with my wife,
on a weekend break.
Take this exit,
Porte d'Aubervilliers.
Come on, we haven't finished.
I have. It's over...
What about your kids?
Your wife?
Shit. My wife.
My wife.
Shit!
Shit!
My wife...
Right.
Comma.
Barjon, comma.
The Jussieu-school peeping Tom,
comma,
has lived here since leaving jail.
Full stop.
He lives with him.
Full stop.
Given that neither one is here,
comma,
it's obvious that...
Shit. Look.
Bobby Pilon
Cabaret and Variety Show
See that?
Yes.
If you're not cops,
you're inspectors, if not,
you're informers.
If you're not informers, you're...
- Hello.
- Hello, beautiful.
You're going to ask me
for tip-offs, names,
addresses, places, dates, places.
Hello, beautiful.
Lechers, perverts,
masochists, sadists,
fetishists who like to be whipped,
who like to whip...
Bastard! Barjon!
Where is Barjon?
Tell me!
2 little coloured boys!
D'you hear me?
- Prévot, for God's sake!
- My kids!
Let him go, dammit!
Leave him to me!
Listen to me!
Listen to me, do you hear?
We're looking
for 2 little coloured boys.
Got it? Answer me!
- Understand?
- Yes, I understand...
- Bastard!
- Let him go, Prévot!
Let him go, dammit!
Leave him for 5 minutes.
Go and get dressed.
- I got you some veal's liver.
- Good idea, thanks.
- What do I owe you?
- 8.5 francs.
- Bye, Bobby.
- Bye, beautiful.
What the hell are they doing?
It's not that difficult!
Something's just about to happen,
then nothing!
No-one says anything!
They don't understand!
The cowboys? Vanished!
The sadists? Disappeared!
Yes, darling.
No, I can't, darling.
No!
Start the meal without me.
I told you, I can't!
Just apologise for me.
Tell them...
I know they're my friends.
What?
Is this about your elephant again?
No, sir, below that.
Earthquake in San Francisco.
200 dead.
Put it on Gilbert's desk.
He'll deal with it tomorrow.
They've got them!
- Who? The cowboys?
- No, the sadists!
- Bring me something worth printing!
- Yes, sir!
We're nearly there.
Where are you going?
- For a drink.
- Don't start. Drive us there.
- I'm thirsty!
- Later!
Come on. Come on!
- They've kidnapped another one!
- What? How?
The cabaret star.
Tell them to print
an extra 300,000 copies!
Hold the first 2 pages!
What's the star's name?
- Bobby Pilon.
- Bobby Pilon.
What makes you think
they kidnapped him?
He was supposed to meet him.
Where does Bobby Pilon live?
I dunno.
- How old are you?
- 17 and a half.
And you?
Don't you know either?
Where's he from?
Paris?
France?
Abroad?
It's funny,
you've no problem with the other 2.
They're French.
They match
the paper's description exactly.
But when it comes to Bobby Pilon...
Nothing.
Nothing!
I just saw an elephant.
What are you on about?
I just saw an elephant,
behind us, in the road.
I don't believe it!
An elephant. My God...
He's beautiful.
Can we go now?
The sadists are magic
Some go click
Some go clack
They're never afraid
The sadists
Masochists aren't nice
None of them are normal
None of them are funny
They're all bastards
Masochists
- Queers
- Queers!
- They're not gay
- They're not gay!
Shit! A roadblock.
- Turn round. I'm illegal.
- OK!
Why don't you shut up?
Lechers are no better
They all wet the bed
And other wicked things
It's a real scandal
Lechers...
- Shit!
This Bobby Pilon,
can we do something with him?
- I don't know.
He had some problems in 1965.
He's putting up Barjon,
the guy caught
outside Jussieu school.
- He's out of jail, isn't he?
- Yes.
- They... Where's the boss?
- He won't be long.
- What is it?
- They killed a woman.
- What?
- A woman!
Someone called the police.
He saw them with the body.
A woman? How about that?
- Guess what!
- I don't know.
- Is it about San Francisco?
- No.
Is it good news?
Come on, tell me.
The sadists just killed a woman.
We'll have to print
500,000 extra copies!
Are the cowboys on it?
We'll have to call the police!
I can't help it if the door's locked!
- You shouldn't have let them in.
-They slammed the door on me!
If you're not going
to call the police, I'm off!
- He's been drinking all day.
- He's drunk as hell.
How can you tell if it's cirrhosis?
Depends if it's atrophic
or hypertrophic cirrhosis.
- Really?
- In the first case,
the liver is small and granular.
In the second, it's big and hard.
- Do you have to drink a lot?
- Not really.
The worst is that you only notice it
after 40 or 45 years.
There. You see?
His is more atrophic.
There.
- There, you see?
- Open up!
What's odd is that normally,
at this stage of cirrhosis,
his abdomen should be swollen,
you see?
His is still reasonably firm.
He must be in the early stages.
What happens then?
Then there's an effusion
in the abdomen.
It swells and swells,
because the liver is atrophied
and the blood can't circulate,
so it's hard.
So it swells and swells...
It swells.
"...in hot pursuit".
Full stop, new line.
"The fugitives' daring
has proved futile". Full stop.
"Faced with police
deployed in all major cities,
"their flight was doomed to failure."
Full stop.
"The composure, courage
and quick thinking
"of the forces of law and order..."
No. "Proved remarkably effective."
Full stop, new line.
That's it!
They got them.
In an Arab hotel.
Boulevard Lejeune, rue Deltour.
Riot squad, police. 2 busloads.
Area surrounded.
Roadblocks everywhere.
Chase.
They can't get away.
Damn! Analysis. Justice.
Unrelenting revenge,
merciless.
Evil maniacs, obsessive,
depraved perverts.
Lecherous speech.
He's a pervert.
A real pervert.
Perverts...
Here, drink this.
Come on, it'll do you good.
Where was I?
This is a real Who's Who
of all the nutters in Paris.
- Hurry up, dammit!
- Calm down!
So... "B". That's it.
"Bertrand, Bézin, Bailly..."
- I can't find it.
- Check the date!
What is the date?
The 15th! Hurry up!
13, 14, 15! Ah, here it is!
Oh, look!
"Meet Barjon
at 2:30 am, Place Clichy".
I hope it's not too late.
What's up?
It's him!
The way he laughs!
I don't know...
Ah, did you win?
You won!
Are you sure?
15 million!
He won!
He won 15 million.
What will you do with it?
Go home!
What's your name?
I'll buy a house, a big house!
And then what?
I'll fill it with my wife, my kids,
my father, my mother,
my grandmother, my aunt!
- Police!
- No, get off me!
Malisard!
Malisard!
You over there!
My ticket! My ticket!
My ticket!
Right!
Print 550,000 more copies than usual.
Really?
OK!
They arrested the sadists!
Right. Good! OK.
Jolivet! Tell Mrs Prévot it's OK!
Mrs Prévot?
Right away, sir.
Hello?
- Where are they?
- They're at the café.
Shit!
Hello, sir!
- The kids...
- Want a drink?
The Prévot kids went home.
They did? Good. Drink?
No.
Mrs Prévot said
they went home by themselves.
- Yesterday!
- So much the better.
I'm glad for...
Goodbye, boss.
- Goodbye, boss.
- Goodbye.
You don't understand!
They went home!
They were never kidnapped!
We'll talk about it tonight, Jolivet.
- Taking the Métro?
- No, I have my car.
- Can I have a lift?
- Sure.
- Goodbye.
- See you tonight.
Bye, Jolivet.
- Commissioner!
- Not now!
- What do they look like?
- Not now!
- Commissioner.
- I have no comment,
no comment at all.
Sir, please...
Get lost!
- Will it take much longer?
- Your kids are at home!
They're safe and sound!
Quit hassling me.
Who was it who lost them?
Am I supposed to take care of them?
Want me to do your housework,
do the hoovering?
You lost them!
He messes up
everything he touches!
- You should've called your wife!
- I don't need your advice!
Listen here, sonny!
Don't talk to me like that!
Just look at him, the little bastard!
A simpleton
trying to express himself!
He tries to speak, but only spits!
He's nothing but a swamp dweller!
That's it, spew it all out!
Open the floodgates!
That's all you can do!
It's all just words! Bullshit!
Now look here, sonny!
- You little shit!
- Arsehole!
- You fat scribbler!
- You pathetic snapper!
Scritch, scratch!
Stirring the shit!
Your eyes are full of it!
Wipe some out!
- Poking your nose in!
- The great reporter!
Click, click, goes the blind man!
You momma's boy.
You clumsy oaf!
You moron!
Open your eyes, twinkletoes!
Go back to your whores!
Go to sleep, Colas my brother
Go to sleep, suck on the tit!
Drag your fat arse
to the rue Saint-Denis!
Go fuck yourself, you queer!
Go to sleep, Colas my brother
Go to sleep, suck on the tit!
Subtitles: ECLAIR
The most important thing
is to pay attention to the clouds.
- It is?
- Yes.
You need to be able
to tell them apart.
Take your nimbostratus, for example.
Your nimbostratus,
is a kind of opaque veil
which doesn't even look
like a cloud,
and which fills the sky.
It normally contains moisture.
- You mean rain?
- No, not always.
Sometimes, not always.
Below that you have
these tiny things, very low,
black, with sharp edges.
Like spurts?
Yes, spurts.
When they're on several levels...
Like a grid.
Yes, if you like. A grid.
When they're on several levels,
in a grid pattern,
you have a kind of fraying.
Like streaks.
Yes, streaks.
Streaks that are called altocumulus.
Whereas your altostratus is dense.
But the sun still shines through it.
If it's dense, I don't see how.
Not the sun itself.
More of a glow.
Like through frosted glass, you see.
Right.
The altostratus is also
a little striated, sometimes.
Striated?
Fibrous,
like threads,
or irregularly-shaped strips.
Not like cumulonimbus.
Now that...
What?
Cumulonimbus.
The king of clouds.
They're rarely seen.
You're more likely to see
cumulonimbus in the countryside,
or at the seaside.
- It's an anti-urban cloud?
- That's right.
An anti-urban cloud.
Do you know a hotel?
A hotel? What for?
A guy I know
is coming to Paris.
- He's got no hotel?
- No, that's the point.
He's got nothing.
This must be it.
The ground caved in!
Negligence?
We don't know the cause.
The foundations were...
You built on a quarry!
Certainly not!
It's built on very hard limestone.
It was very difficult
to dig the foundations.
Did the building have...
All safety precautions were taken.
I can't tell you any more
for the moment.
How many casual workers?
The normal amount!
Don't move.
Leave us alone.
This isn't the time.
Not now!
I ate too much.
What do you expect?
All that cassoulet...
Gently.
Wait till he's passed the other one!
- Where are they going?
- Saint-Antoine.
- Have you taken many?
- 20!
- Damn!
- Quite!
- Did you see the building collapse?
- You bet.
What happened?
They should be looking
further to the right. The right!
Behind the...
You see the cement mixer?
They're in there.
Really?
- How many were there?
- Look, another bulldozer.
Not there, you idiots!
Look to the right.
I've been telling them!
Arabs? Portuguese? French?
How should I know?
Another ambulance.
- It's the one that left just now.
- Come on.
We're going.
There's nothing here.
What do you mean?
18 months they've been building...
I don't know anything, he says!
Move along! Move along!
Two pastis.
"The death toll is mounting."
Yes. Colon, new line.
"Four dead", comma...
Thanks.
Yes. "Six critically injured", comma.
"And 10 workers buried."
Full stop, new paragraph.
"We are duty-bound", comma,
"to inquire", comma.
"whether compulsory safety measures",
comma.
"Were complied with", full stop.
"When will the construction industry
"enforce them?" Question mark.
Two more.
Got it? All of it? Right.
What? The name of the firm.
They want the name of the firm.
Hold on.
Prévot's finding out.
Yes.
Sure you've got everything? What?
Meyer & Boiveau.
Meyer & Boiveau.
Yes, Boiveau. That's right.
Right. Bye.
I think we've got something.
"Stock exchange".
Same line: "Price of gold is up".
"Japan is by far,
"among all
industrialised countries..."
"Egyptians and Israelis were in talks
when a distant shell exploded."
"Nixon", colon.
"A president unfit..."
"2 tablespoons of kirsch,
"1 tablespoon of maraschino,
"5 tablespoons of apricot jam.
"Embellished with candied fruit."
- I think I've got something.
- From whom?
The cowboys.
"Ill fate strikes again
on another building site.
"4 dead, 10 buried, 6 wounded...
"Safety..."
Which firm is it?
Meyer & Boiveau.
Does Boiveau ring a bell?
- No.
- How about Lucien de Rivère?
- He's the brother-in-law...
- Yes.
Which means
you reduce this to 5 lines
and put it on page 5.
Yes, sir.
The cowboys...
Cute, aren't they?
Yeah.
Tell me, buddy.
I don't get it.
What?
Why did you send your sons
to a girls' school?
Who, me? A girls' school?
Oh, shit!
It's the wrong entrance.
Here there are birds and trees.
It's provincial.
Pastoral, almost. Bucolic.
Where you lived before
was a grown-ups' area,
a real ghetto for adults
with its businesses,
its stations, its banks,
its offices and Métros, its dogs...
You waste no time.
- Daddy?
- Yes?
Yeah, OK.
- Can I go through?
- Yes, go on.
Daddy must be on the other side.
Go on.
That's it.
Off you go.
Oh, shit!
Got any lollipops?
Lemon, strawberry, orange.
- No mint?
- Yes.
2 mints, then.
Coming?
Yes.
Don't you find it odd?
Bronzes, inlayed rosewood furniture?
It's fake Regency.
More like a Restoration copy.
What did I tell you?
That's never 18th century.
What's funny is this thing.
Oh, yes, acanthus, I hadn't noticed.
- That is funny.
- Isn't it, though?
Come on.
- Go with Daddy. Hurry up.
- Come on.
- You bought them lollipops?
- Yes.
Here you go.
All 4 stores, Judge.
At 8:00 am,
I put 2 men on guard duty...
Since this morning,
I've had 2 suicides,
a flasher on the Métro,
3 traffic accidents,
the hold-up in rue Taulard,
a brothel closure,
a bomb scare, rue du Temple.
Also a demo's on the way,
the maritime police
have my deputy at the morgue...
- Commissioner.
- What?
- The press kiosk opposite.
- Yes?
A car just ran into it.
- Loroyer again?
- No doubt.
- You again?
- 3 times this month?
- But...
- This is how far you've got?
Well, well...
At this rate you don't have
much chance of catching him.
Don't tell me my job.
You were saying?
He got in
via the grocer's basement?
The basement.
- He made 3 holes?
- 3 holes.
- Classic.
- Classic.
- Who's that?
- Malisard.
Oh, that's Malisard!
Will that be all?
So, one yogurt, one packet of rice,
a lettuce, some leeks.
That's it.
Are you open Mondays?
Yes, sir. That'll be 14.5 francs.
Good. I'm moving here.
Where I lived before
was a wasteland.
If you're open Mondays,
that's handy for me.
- Got all you need?
- Yes.
Shit! The kids.
That's right, the kids.
Not much. You?
Any clues?
Come on, kids, let's go.
Got a 50-cent piece?
- No, I don't.
- OK, don't get upset.
You can be quite unpleasant
and rude sometimes.
- Here.
- I want that one!
Leave the door open!
- But the kids?
- What about them?
What I have to say
isn't for children.
Stay there.
Here.
"Store robbed..."
"Breach. 3 holes. Lots of blood.
"Blood everywhere."
What the hell is this?
- I thought...
- No, you didn't.
You never think, Jolivet.
Look, son,
by trying to sell me
the murder of your jeweller,
you're insulting
the reader's intelligence.
There's something you need to learn
if you want succeed in journalism,
something primordial
that constitutes the body,
the substance,
the essence of our vocation
- for remember, this job
is a vocation, a calling -
something without which
there could be no good journalism,
and I'll tell you what it is.
It's respect for the reader.
Respect for the reader.
And I'll tell you another thing,
something just as fundamental.
Know who the reader is?
No, you don't.
I'll tell you
and never forget it:
The reader is human.
He's a human being.
Do you hear?
So if you serve him up dead bodies
on page 1 every day,
do you know what that means?
Yes?
I know, they've been bombing
for 2 weeks!
What difference does it make
if it's in the countryside?
This isn't
a public-condolence service!
Young people today!
They have no sense of...
As I was saying...
Do you know what that means?
I'll tell you.
It means you're disrespecting
the reader's humanity.
That's what it means.
Give this to Gilbert.
It might make the front page.
Hey, Jolivet.
Where are the cowboys?
We sent them to a gas explosion.
Oh, right.
Don't push! Don't push!
Don't push.
How old?
4 and 6.
I live on the second floor!
Is that their mother?
No. Their mother's Vietnamese.
She mustn't know yet.
She's still at work.
- Step back.
- Are you nuts?
- I'll take your photo...
- Get back, dammit!
This is no time for chatting!
Have your Vietnamese
ever had any problems?
Problems?
Racial problems, for example.
Racial problems?
What do you mean?
What are you doing?
- No! Stop!
- Let me go!
You idiot! Have you finished?
How many times have I told you
not to do things like that!
- I don't like being pushed around.
- Tragedy, blood, squalor!
- Something's wrong with you!
- I know, I'm not human.
- You...
- At least I...
Shit! The kids.
They're in the car!
Are you nuts?
Look at that!
You crazy bastard!
Roadhog!
Roadhog! Unbelievable!
That's gonna cost me!
These people don't give a damn!
And nor do you!
What are you doing?
It's not difficult, dammit!
Roadhog!
- Shit, the kids!
- You're right.
Have you seen 2 kids?
2 kids? I don't think so.
I haven't really had time!
What do they look like?
One had a red scarf on.
The other a blue one.
Go away!
We have nothing to say!
Go away, please!
Accusing people...
Me, the tenants, the building!
Really!
Please leave, sir.
We refuse to listen to you.
Those kids are unbelievable.
The slap I'll give them...
Shit!
What do they take me for?
They don't know their address.
- Yes, they do!
- Calm down...
- I'm perfectly calm!
- Think instead of getting worked up.
Worked up?
I'm yelling at my kids, that's all!
Well, don't bother me with it!
If my kids are lost,
that's bothering you?
Yes, it is!
- Stop being neurotic.
- Are you mad?
No, I'm not!
I'm trying not to remain calm,
to confine the problem
and solve it!
Watch where you're going!
They say they haven't seen them.
What would they be doing
in a scrap yard?
It's entirely possible!
My kids love scrap yards!
- Last year in La Baule...
- I don't see what La Baule
has to do with it.
- I'm simply trying
to explain that for my kids,
scrap yards, car wrecks... Shit.
A pastis.
What were you saying?
I... Nothing! Shut up!
- You should tell your wife.
- No!
- But...
- Mind your own business!
I'm sick of your...
She's my wife! No!
You want me to say:
"I've lost the kids,
but everything's fine"?
You don't know what a good wife
or mother is.
You never thought
she could be worried, did you?
It never even occurred to you.
You're just a selfish pig.
Both?
4.2 francs.
- How much?
- It's paid for.
Are you nuts?
Look where you're going!
Did you notice anything?
Where?
At the explosion.
No.
What should I have noticed?
Didn't things there
seem a bit odd there?
Odd?
Yes.
The people outside,
the occupants of the building,
the concierge...
Didn't you sense something?
To tell the truth...
And the dead kids,
didn't it strike you?
No, why?
They were the same age as yours!
They were?
What's more, their mother...
What about her?
She's yellow.
So what?
- Your kids are black.
- Black...
Well, they're not white!
The kids in the explosion
were Eurasian!
Eurasian...
- Eurasians are pretty.
- Exactly.
Eurasians are very pretty.
Do you get it?
You mean it was deliberate,
and my kids...
I'll call the paper.
My kids!
It's a scandal!
It's scandalous!
You should've fixed it 3 months ago!
I've not been able to use it.
It's a jungle out there.
No, let me stop you.
You said when I ordered it
that there wasn't a more advanced
lawnmower on the market!
Advanced!
It overheats, it backfires.
Just saying.
And the same to you!
I mean, the price
they charge for them...
Got something?
No. Well, yes.
The cowboys have a problem.
It's about Prévot's kids.
What do Prévot's kids
have to do with us?
- They disappeared.
- Kidnapped?
- No, Malisard didn't say that.
- What?
Kids don't just disappear.
- Still, a kidnapping...
- Nonsense!
With all the hijacked planes,
abducted ambassadors, hostages...
- Dassault's mom.
- Yes. And the Rothschild boy,
weren't they kidnappings?
It's an epidemic!
Maybe so, but Prévot's kids...
It's a classic.
In America, they kidnapped
the daughter of a typographer
who earned a pittance.
The paper shelled out
800,000 dollars to get the kid back.
She was 8.
It wasn't 800,000 dollars.
It was 700,000.
In any case,
it was money well spent.
After 2 weeks of massive headlines,
everyone in the US was riveted
and their circulation quadrupled.
At a newspaper,
everyone's vulnerable.
- Do you have kids, Jolivet?
- No, sir.
Well, when you do,
you'll know what it's like.
Those of you with kids,
don't you ever turn round,
moved by a strange intuition,
and surprise someone following you?
Have your rear-view mirrors
never reflected the image
of a vehicle tailing you,
following you, unshakeable?
How often do people follow you
innocently,
when they clearly aren't?
In the street,
don't you ever feel uneasy,
a latent brutality,
the icy stares of inquisitors
who brush by you
like moths in the night?
A reporter's child is always
at the mercy of an aggressor,
and the lives of his parents,
haunted by the prospect
of a possible kidnapping...
- Do you mind?
- I lost a contact lens.
Where were you when you lost it?
- Here.
- Be careful.
Don't tread on it.
I'll find it.
Garnier, open a file
on the kids' kidnapping,
mother, father, etc.
Are they boys or girls?
- I'll find out.
- Pernet,
we need a front page
with headlines in half an hour.
Has the switchboard been told?
Tell them to put through any calls
to do with the ransom.
Will the bosses pay it?
Yes, well... I'll make the call.
The drugs article
on the property page.
How much?
2½ columns. That'll do.
- Any photos?
- Not yet.
- Is it a kidnapping?
- Yes. 2 kids.
Yes, sir. Yes.
The ransom? No.
We've no idea
what they're going to ask.
Police? In some cases, yes.
They forbid publication
to foil the kidnappers' scheme...
But I think for this evening,
we're in a position to...
Yes. At least
until the Saturday edition.
I will indeed.
You can count on me. My respects.
What idiot put jam on the phone?
The cowboys are back.
It's not a kidnapping.
It's a sadist.
A sadist?
Where are the cowboys?
- Calling police HQ.
- A sadist?
A sadist, for God's sake!
Can you believe it?
This is a rare event.
Get to work, gentlemen.
Garnier, archives.
Bring me a list of possible suspects.
Pernet, photo library.
Cazenave, alert the print room,
and Jolivet, discretion above all.
Tell the cowboys.
We don't want to be scooped.
- Chevignac! You OK?
- Yes.
Right. I'll call the...
I'm getting a headache.
Hello? Moulin Rouge?
Put me through to the boss.
Yes, it's urgent.
Malisard.
Tell him he'd better speak to me.
Yes, I'll hold.
- Prévot's wife...
- Leave his wife out of it.
- I didn't say...
- Enough!
A guy's private life is precious,
it's off-limits.
So how old are these kids?
Whose, mine?
My kids?
4 and 6.
Names?
- Daniel and Michel.
- Hair colour?
Brown.
- Eyes?
- Brown.
- Distinguishing marks?
- Distinguishing...
One has a red scarf on,
the other a blue one.
- Got a photo?
- Yes.
What do you mean, 2?
I said 3 columns!
Then drop
the Common-Market headline!
Look at this.
3 attempted rapes.
He got out of jail 6 months ago.
No, he's still inside.
Hello?
It's Santiago, will you take it?
It can't be the Batignolles ripper,
he's too old.
Did you tell Malisard
to come see me?
He's calling the hospital.
Jolivet will tell him.
Police HQ,
Moulin Rouge, the hospital...
What do you think?
About what?
Discretion, dammit!
Discretion!
We'll get scooped
on tonight's edition!
Malisard won't come.
- He's calling Fresne Prison.
- The prison!
Police HQ,
the Moulin Rouge, the hospital!
Go and get Malisard right now!
The boss wants to see you!
Give me CID. Hello?
Attempted rape.
Put it aside, it could be him.
- Ducan?
- Yes.
This guy,
suspected of abducting
the pastor's kids,
was never found.
Put it aside, it could be useful.
Come in.
- Come in, Malisard!
- I can't get in!
- Malisard's calling CID!
- CID!
It's totally stuck!
Help me, dammit!
- Let me do it.
- CID! The Moulin Rouge!
Police HQ, the jail,
the hospital, CID!
The wood's swollen.
Jolivet! Jolivet!
The idiot's gone!
We could go through your office.
- He's calling the Élysée.
- The Élysée? He's nuts!
Nothing!
What the hell's going on?
- The Élysée?
- They know nothing!
I told you,
no calls without my permission.
It's outrageous!
The guy's calling the President,
for a trifle!
Not to mention the Prime Minister.
It's not "a trifle"!
Come on, son.
Be brave.
I know it's hard,
but let's not over-dramatise.
Really.
They'll find your kids.
- What do you want?
- Is the woman from the 4th floor in?
No, she works till late.
I found these 2 boys.
They were in my car.
What have they done now?
- Come in, children.
- I was across Paris.
I was getting worried.
I look after them.
- You do?
- Yes. Goodbye.
Extension 311, please.
Mrs Prévot.
She did?
Was she planning on coming back?
No, it's her husband.
Do you know where she was going?
Right.
No, no.
Never mind.
Thank you.
Yes, thanks.
Right, well, I...
And then we'll...
Say, are these yours?
- These. Are they yours?
- Yes.
That's what I thought.
You need to get them out of here.
A pastis.
Here, look.
If we can't find your kids
with these...
- Why did you think of them?
- Drink up.
Shit! My kids...
- How much?
- 8.50 francs, with the phone call.
You called your wife?
Come on, we've no time to lose.
Your curtain rails!
After all we've written,
we've made enemies.
- That's true.
- Remember Rabinovic?
He was taken to hospital
less than an hour ago.
- The hospital?
- Yes.
- Strange, isn't it?
- Shit! My kids...
Yes. And Barjon,
the peeping Tom
from the Jussieu school?
- He got out yesterday.
- Oh, damn!
As for him,
he got married last month.
You're right! Bloody hell!
The Ville-d'Avray beast married,
can you imagine?
What? What?
I'm coming!
I'm coming, I'm not deaf!
What the hell is it?
No, it's not him.
- Shut the door.
- You?
Shut the door!
- Where were you earlier?
- Working.
In Suresnes.
You found me.
- Prévot, anything?
- Nothing.
My wife'll be back any time.
Please, I told your colleagues
last time,
I've nothing to say.
My wife'll be back.
What do I care?
You abducted kids.
- 10 years ago!
- And since?
- 2 kids, ring any bells?
- Never, never!
Not even 10 years ago!
- What time do you leave work?
- It's not him. Let's go.
My wife! Please!
It's me, Georges!
Did you lay the table?
I'm famished.
What a day!
Georges has made me dinner!
- Yes, darling, but...
- Cousin Evelyne's pâté!
Is that all the wine?
Well...
Georges,
aren't your friends joining us?
Hello, gentlemen.
You must try this.
Cousin Evelyne's pâté.
You won't find this in the shops.
Strictly homemade... Here...
- Sorry, I...
- Just try it.
Tell me what you think.
My cousin raises ducks on corn,
real Périgord corn.
Try it. Here.
What are you waiting for?
We're dying of thirst.
But you wouldn't have tried it
unless you'd lived in the Périgord.
Do you know the Dordogne?
No, but my friend does.
You're from the Dordogne?
Then you must know it!
Yes, of course!
Do I know it?
Are you kidding?
Duck pâté, goose confit,
mushrooms under chestnut trees...
Goose confit, mushrooms...
After the harvest,
they'd kill the pig.
My mother would spend a week
making sausages,
pâtés, hams...
Oh, ham...
Then it was walnut season.
We'd shell them by the fire at night.
The old folk told us stories.
The evening seemed to last forever,
then it was time for bed,
where we slept like logs,
on enormous feather eiderdowns!
The neighbour's kids...
- My kids.
- Shit! You're right. Your kids.
- Can you play with us, Mum?
- Put your pyjamas on.
I'll make dinner.
Michel, leave your brother alone.
Put your pyjamas on.
Still no answer.
Think about it!
What moves people?
What makes them cry?
The mother, obviously!
Pity Prévot's not divorced.
We could've done something
on childcare,
infantile trauma.
- Maybe.
What the hell
are those police doing?
It's unbelievable!
"Aged 21, Mr Prévot
went to fight in Algeria,
"under General Dupuis at Ghardaïa.
"Promoted to the rank of sergeant..."
What then?
His patrol were fired on.
That's true.
Inspector Grasset?
Yes, I'm looking for an update.
I have a pencil. I'm listening.
2 suicides, yes.
A hold-up at...
The murder of...
Is that all?
Nothing else?
No missing children, no abductions,
anything like that?
No, no reason.
We're always after something!
What about the police stations?
Nothing yet.
No space today!
We'll run his piece tomorrow!
Tomorrow!
- What do you want?
- A communiqué.
"An elephant escaped from a circus."
Do I look like I have time
to care about an elephant?
No, darling...
Darling, listen to me.
Take a taxi
and meet me at their place.
Yes, I'm coming.
This is the newspaper.
Please call 748-1925 urgently.
Thank you.
What?
You've been alerted to the presence
of a shady individual
near the school?
2? There were 2 of them?
Some mothers told the police station
about 2 shady individuals
by a school.
And it gets even better:
the school is the one
that Prévot's kids attend.
2 little boys ring any bells?
Why should it?
- 2 little Eurasians?
- What is this?
- Were you present at the explosion?
- What?
Don't play games.
Where were you?
- In Intensive Care, probably.
- Sure!
- I had my accident at 11:00 am.
- Think we'll believe that?
- Where were you?
- Ask him.
- Who?
- The guy who ran into me
on the ring road.
Out the way.
Recognise this?
2 little boys of 4 and 6?
Drop the accident alibi!
Where were you this afternoon?
Stop monkeying around.
Answer me.
Where were you this afternoon?
What is it?
A woman about to jump.
- Did she jump?
- Yes.
My wife.
What about her?
You again?
You're nuts!
If my wife finds out...
Tell her it's an emergency.
What if she reacts
like the woman just now?
You're crazy!
Not really.
My wife is emotional.
- If she finds out...
- You don't get it.
She's intelligent.
She's incapable of that.
They're the ones
who were bothering the patients!
Don't let them catch us!
Incapable?
How would you know?
I just know! You can tell!
I'm telling you, right now she's...
You and your feminine psychology!
- You know nothing!
- OK, I know nothing!
She's sensitive,
capable of anything!
- If she dies...
- She's not going to die!
She may already be dead!
Oh, come on!
I have to call my wife!
I have to call my wife!
- We're closed.
- I need the phone.
- We're closed.
- The phone!
It's urgent!
Unbelievable!
- I said we're closed.
- I want to use the phone!
But...
Son of a bitch!
You blocked our car in,
for 2 hours!
- You could apologise.
- Fuck off.
I'm warning you,
you're gonna get it in the neck!
No, no.
No...
No, no.
It's difficult.
We might recognise them,
but describing them...
They were eating sweets.
Write that down,
it may be important.
Were they tall, short?
Where are you going?
You live in Aubervilliers.
Wait here.
Is that better?
I think so.
Take your time.
Is it better like this, or like this?
Better before.
There. I can't do any better.
The cowboys.
What? Are they back?
No, I meant the portraits
look like the cowboys.
Put them in the middle of page 1.
- What about the political...
- No politics!
Want some?
No, later.
We're not there yet.
Yes, yes.
They're your kids, not mine.
Yes, OK. They're my kids.
Did you call your wife?
My wife.
She hasn't even turned off
the answerphone. Here.
- Keep hold of it.
- Yes, I will.
Let's go!
Barjon, here we come!
Off we go!
We scooped everyone!
I'd like to see their faces!
These guys look like the cowboys!
We have the scoop.
Now we can alert the police.
- Me hearties!
- What's up?
Were we meant to turn off
at Aubervilliers?
Aubervilliers, indeed!
Sailors in peril on the sea!
We're set fair for the west!
Yes, me hearties!
Oh, that's good!
It's the best!
It's the optimum direction!
The wind is up!
We must survive!
Hold fast the tiller!
Our future is uncertain,
but oh, how voluptuous.
To the voluptuousness of uncertainty!
Like a rough sea in turmoil!
A sea? No, an ocean!
There's no doubt,
we're heading for the sea!
Sailor on the river,
don't you hear
the ocean's roar?
Waves on the hail!
Can't you hear it?
It's really dark!
Darkness, the absence of light!
Joking aside, are you sure?
- We've passed the forest!
- Continue! Yes!
As I speak to you,
I feel like a carrier pigeon!
I can drift along
the scrubby pathways
of this nocturnal countryside.
The mountainous passes,
the hills in bloom
saw me gamboling
through their entangled roots,
to the depths
of the cavernous gorges!
- There's a hunt on.
- What?
We're not out of the woods yet.
I also know the steep paths
of a far-off childhood.
Dear solitary oceanic journeys,
where the birds
were my most loyal companions,
the birds...
- I think...
- Who...
- I'm gonna be sick.
That's better.
Wow...
Got any chewing gum?
No, I don't.
Your yogurts are back there.
Never mind.
There's nothing like a...
Feeling better?
Much better.
I feel great.
Wow!
That was good!
Shall we go?
- Barjon might...
- Barjon... My kids!
This is the newspaper.
Please call 748-1925 urgently.
Thank you.
Call the newspaper
Look at your face!
What's wrong?
Why are you looking at me like that?
For once I manage to escape...
I should have stayed at work.
Commissioner Peyrol here.
What's that you say?
What?
2 children?
OK, I'm on my way.
No, no! Not that way.
I don't like this.
Don't like it.
A nice surprise, isn't it?
What is it now?
Nothing.
Something about a sadist.
I'll check the bathroom.
Good heavens, darling!
Where's my dressing gown?
Not finishing your ice cream?
Stop it.
- You can't force the door!
- Shut up.
He's not in, he's somewhere else.
- What use is it?
- He's in this apartment,
nowhere else!
Be sensible.
You'll hurt yourself.
What do you expect?
If we'd been less sensible,
we'd have had him by now.
You see?
- Be careful. You're nuts!
- Shut up!
With kids like mine...
Do you realise? My wife!
Speak louder.
Louder, yes.
Ma'am?
You're the concierge
at 24, passage...
2 men are breaking
into an apartment.
They're breaking the door down.
I see.
Yes.
We'll send someone
as soon as we can, ma'am.
I can't.
All our men just left.
What?
Speak louder.
Yes?
Impossible, ma'am.
I'd like nothing more,
but I have no-one, ma'am.
Would you please describe them.
Yes, ma'am.
Yes.
Don't be stupid!
Prévot!
Leave me alone!
You're gonna fall!
Come down!
It's dangerous, for God's sake!
- But my kids...
- Your kids!
- That's no reason.
- My wife?
Your wife, OK! But...
Are they foreigners?
No, the father works for the paper.
What else?
We've posted descriptions
of the kids and the sadists.
Newspaper Identikit pictures
are always rubbish.
Their descriptions came
from the mothers who saw them
outside the school.
Right.
Have you contacted the mother?
No. What for?
It could be a lead.
Right, Orlandy...
Commissioner Peyrol here.
What?
24, passage...
Aubervilliers. On our way.
- We've got them.
- What?
They were seen in Aubervillers.
Let's go!
- No-one's here.
- This isn't Barjon's place!
It belongs to his friend,
Bobby Pilon!
Let's not waste any time!
What now?
- What d'you expect to find?
- I don't know! An address!
- What for?
- I don't know! Just look!
Just look at that!
Really...
I get it.
It's too dangerous.
The last time I took the ring road
was with my wife,
on a weekend break.
Take this exit,
Porte d'Aubervilliers.
Come on, we haven't finished.
I have. It's over...
What about your kids?
Your wife?
Shit. My wife.
My wife.
Shit!
Shit!
My wife...
Right.
Comma.
Barjon, comma.
The Jussieu-school peeping Tom,
comma,
has lived here since leaving jail.
Full stop.
He lives with him.
Full stop.
Given that neither one is here,
comma,
it's obvious that...
Shit. Look.
Bobby Pilon
Cabaret and Variety Show
See that?
Yes.
If you're not cops,
you're inspectors, if not,
you're informers.
If you're not informers, you're...
- Hello.
- Hello, beautiful.
You're going to ask me
for tip-offs, names,
addresses, places, dates, places.
Hello, beautiful.
Lechers, perverts,
masochists, sadists,
fetishists who like to be whipped,
who like to whip...
Bastard! Barjon!
Where is Barjon?
Tell me!
2 little coloured boys!
D'you hear me?
- Prévot, for God's sake!
- My kids!
Let him go, dammit!
Leave him to me!
Listen to me!
Listen to me, do you hear?
We're looking
for 2 little coloured boys.
Got it? Answer me!
- Understand?
- Yes, I understand...
- Bastard!
- Let him go, Prévot!
Let him go, dammit!
Leave him for 5 minutes.
Go and get dressed.
- I got you some veal's liver.
- Good idea, thanks.
- What do I owe you?
- 8.5 francs.
- Bye, Bobby.
- Bye, beautiful.
What the hell are they doing?
It's not that difficult!
Something's just about to happen,
then nothing!
No-one says anything!
They don't understand!
The cowboys? Vanished!
The sadists? Disappeared!
Yes, darling.
No, I can't, darling.
No!
Start the meal without me.
I told you, I can't!
Just apologise for me.
Tell them...
I know they're my friends.
What?
Is this about your elephant again?
No, sir, below that.
Earthquake in San Francisco.
200 dead.
Put it on Gilbert's desk.
He'll deal with it tomorrow.
They've got them!
- Who? The cowboys?
- No, the sadists!
- Bring me something worth printing!
- Yes, sir!
We're nearly there.
Where are you going?
- For a drink.
- Don't start. Drive us there.
- I'm thirsty!
- Later!
Come on. Come on!
- They've kidnapped another one!
- What? How?
The cabaret star.
Tell them to print
an extra 300,000 copies!
Hold the first 2 pages!
What's the star's name?
- Bobby Pilon.
- Bobby Pilon.
What makes you think
they kidnapped him?
He was supposed to meet him.
Where does Bobby Pilon live?
I dunno.
- How old are you?
- 17 and a half.
And you?
Don't you know either?
Where's he from?
Paris?
France?
Abroad?
It's funny,
you've no problem with the other 2.
They're French.
They match
the paper's description exactly.
But when it comes to Bobby Pilon...
Nothing.
Nothing!
I just saw an elephant.
What are you on about?
I just saw an elephant,
behind us, in the road.
I don't believe it!
An elephant. My God...
He's beautiful.
Can we go now?
The sadists are magic
Some go click
Some go clack
They're never afraid
The sadists
Masochists aren't nice
None of them are normal
None of them are funny
They're all bastards
Masochists
- Queers
- Queers!
- They're not gay
- They're not gay!
Shit! A roadblock.
- Turn round. I'm illegal.
- OK!
Why don't you shut up?
Lechers are no better
They all wet the bed
And other wicked things
It's a real scandal
Lechers...
- Shit!
This Bobby Pilon,
can we do something with him?
- I don't know.
He had some problems in 1965.
He's putting up Barjon,
the guy caught
outside Jussieu school.
- He's out of jail, isn't he?
- Yes.
- They... Where's the boss?
- He won't be long.
- What is it?
- They killed a woman.
- What?
- A woman!
Someone called the police.
He saw them with the body.
A woman? How about that?
- Guess what!
- I don't know.
- Is it about San Francisco?
- No.
Is it good news?
Come on, tell me.
The sadists just killed a woman.
We'll have to print
500,000 extra copies!
Are the cowboys on it?
We'll have to call the police!
I can't help it if the door's locked!
- You shouldn't have let them in.
-They slammed the door on me!
If you're not going
to call the police, I'm off!
- He's been drinking all day.
- He's drunk as hell.
How can you tell if it's cirrhosis?
Depends if it's atrophic
or hypertrophic cirrhosis.
- Really?
- In the first case,
the liver is small and granular.
In the second, it's big and hard.
- Do you have to drink a lot?
- Not really.
The worst is that you only notice it
after 40 or 45 years.
There. You see?
His is more atrophic.
There.
- There, you see?
- Open up!
What's odd is that normally,
at this stage of cirrhosis,
his abdomen should be swollen,
you see?
His is still reasonably firm.
He must be in the early stages.
What happens then?
Then there's an effusion
in the abdomen.
It swells and swells,
because the liver is atrophied
and the blood can't circulate,
so it's hard.
So it swells and swells...
It swells.
"...in hot pursuit".
Full stop, new line.
"The fugitives' daring
has proved futile". Full stop.
"Faced with police
deployed in all major cities,
"their flight was doomed to failure."
Full stop.
"The composure, courage
and quick thinking
"of the forces of law and order..."
No. "Proved remarkably effective."
Full stop, new line.
That's it!
They got them.
In an Arab hotel.
Boulevard Lejeune, rue Deltour.
Riot squad, police. 2 busloads.
Area surrounded.
Roadblocks everywhere.
Chase.
They can't get away.
Damn! Analysis. Justice.
Unrelenting revenge,
merciless.
Evil maniacs, obsessive,
depraved perverts.
Lecherous speech.
He's a pervert.
A real pervert.
Perverts...
Here, drink this.
Come on, it'll do you good.
Where was I?
This is a real Who's Who
of all the nutters in Paris.
- Hurry up, dammit!
- Calm down!
So... "B". That's it.
"Bertrand, Bézin, Bailly..."
- I can't find it.
- Check the date!
What is the date?
The 15th! Hurry up!
13, 14, 15! Ah, here it is!
Oh, look!
"Meet Barjon
at 2:30 am, Place Clichy".
I hope it's not too late.
What's up?
It's him!
The way he laughs!
I don't know...
Ah, did you win?
You won!
Are you sure?
15 million!
He won!
He won 15 million.
What will you do with it?
Go home!
What's your name?
I'll buy a house, a big house!
And then what?
I'll fill it with my wife, my kids,
my father, my mother,
my grandmother, my aunt!
- Police!
- No, get off me!
Malisard!
Malisard!
You over there!
My ticket! My ticket!
My ticket!
Right!
Print 550,000 more copies than usual.
Really?
OK!
They arrested the sadists!
Right. Good! OK.
Jolivet! Tell Mrs Prévot it's OK!
Mrs Prévot?
Right away, sir.
Hello?
- Where are they?
- They're at the café.
Shit!
Hello, sir!
- The kids...
- Want a drink?
The Prévot kids went home.
They did? Good. Drink?
No.
Mrs Prévot said
they went home by themselves.
- Yesterday!
- So much the better.
I'm glad for...
Goodbye, boss.
- Goodbye, boss.
- Goodbye.
You don't understand!
They went home!
They were never kidnapped!
We'll talk about it tonight, Jolivet.
- Taking the Métro?
- No, I have my car.
- Can I have a lift?
- Sure.
- Goodbye.
- See you tonight.
Bye, Jolivet.
- Commissioner!
- Not now!
- What do they look like?
- Not now!
- Commissioner.
- I have no comment,
no comment at all.
Sir, please...
Get lost!
- Will it take much longer?
- Your kids are at home!
They're safe and sound!
Quit hassling me.
Who was it who lost them?
Am I supposed to take care of them?
Want me to do your housework,
do the hoovering?
You lost them!
He messes up
everything he touches!
- You should've called your wife!
- I don't need your advice!
Listen here, sonny!
Don't talk to me like that!
Just look at him, the little bastard!
A simpleton
trying to express himself!
He tries to speak, but only spits!
He's nothing but a swamp dweller!
That's it, spew it all out!
Open the floodgates!
That's all you can do!
It's all just words! Bullshit!
Now look here, sonny!
- You little shit!
- Arsehole!
- You fat scribbler!
- You pathetic snapper!
Scritch, scratch!
Stirring the shit!
Your eyes are full of it!
Wipe some out!
- Poking your nose in!
- The great reporter!
Click, click, goes the blind man!
You momma's boy.
You clumsy oaf!
You moron!
Open your eyes, twinkletoes!
Go back to your whores!
Go to sleep, Colas my brother
Go to sleep, suck on the tit!
Drag your fat arse
to the rue Saint-Denis!
Go fuck yourself, you queer!
Go to sleep, Colas my brother
Go to sleep, suck on the tit!
Subtitles: ECLAIR