Damnation (1988) - full transcript

Starring

a film by

DAMNATION

Let me in!

What for?

Let me in!

I've been thinking things over.

One's got to learn to make

one's own decisions.

I'm staying with my family.

I want my daughter to be

different from us.

She'll have a different life.

We won't have to explain to her.

Let me in!

Go away!

Why can't you love me?

I love you and you know it.

You've got nothing to lose, Karrer.

All you're risking is your own skin.

Take a look around.

You visit five rotten bars a day.

You collapse into your bunk

in the evening.

It's time you moved out

of here for a while...

What do you say?

You can't go on drinking

cheap brandy all the time.

It just stupifies you.

It destroys your brain

and puffs up your liver.

I knew an old bum with hands so shaky

that he wrapped a scarf

around his wrist

to get his glass up to his mouth.

He didn't last long.

I've never been abroad.

A change would do me good.

You go to the given address,

pick up the package, bring it here.

You get twenty per cent

as travelling expenses.

Make it more attractive.

That's all you get.

It's not the money.

I just don't feel like leaving here.

It's up to you. I wanted to help...

What if...

I know someone

who would collect the package,

for the twenty per cent.

Plus petrol.

Petrol? You can't even drive.

I'm talking about someone else.

I can't trust just anybody.

Neither can I.

It's finished,

it's all over...

over

and there won't be another.

It won't be good

ever again...

maybe never more.

It's like a nightmare.

Where is somebody new?

Where will he come from if he comes?

Or won't he come

ever again?

Maybe never more.

Take it or leave it.

What can you do?

You lose your words

yet, you cannot go.

It's been over long ago.

It's good there's Shangri-la,

good to know I won't be here long.

Take it or leave it.

Say, honey, why?

Why must it be over... over now?

And there won't be

another, it won't be good

ever again...

maybe never more.

He's got my soul,

things are going his way,

without him this world is barren...

with him life is full and happy.

How could it be over?

Silly

never again

maybe never more.

It's over...

there's no end...

no end now

it can't fade

and it won't fade...

ever again

never maybe

maybe never more.

Leave my wife alone!

- You misunderstand something.

- What?

All right.

The next time I find you here

I'll break your neck.

He's completely insane.

Take my advice,

and don't go looking for trouble.

Go home now and go to bed.

You're not like them anyway.

All they can do is

get you into trouble.

That woman

is a witch.

And her husband has had it...

He'll never get away with

the debt he's piled up.

Anyone chatting her up

gets the same treatment.

That woman's a leech.

She's a bottomless swamp.

She'll swallow you up.

That's the sad end of it all, son.

Button up your coat properly.

You never know in this foul weather.

The fog gets into the comers,

into the lungs...

It settles in your soul...

...we'll know what to cling to

once this world explodes...

Mouth to mouth, heart to heart,

star to star...

but there'll be no shame

and the veil will fall...

I'm talking about Maya's veil...

that covers men's brain and eyes.

Besides Görgey was a good strategist...

He told Paskievics:

if you want to kill 300,000 Hungarians

do it in an internal war...

What do you mean?

All I'm asking is a million...

To renew your faith and your honour!

My honour?

- Who would be witness to that...

- It's true.

I could offer this to anyone,

but I thought of you.

The trip's only three days.

You pick up the parcel

and bring it home.

- How much?

- Twenty per cent.

All right.

This way it's a nice family story.

But it finishes like any other story.

And all stories end badly,

because they are always

stories of disintegration.

The heroes always disintegrate

and they disintegrate

in exactly the same way.

Because if they didn't disintegrate,

it would be resurrection

not disintegration.

And I'm talking about disintegration.

Eternal and irrevocable

disintegration by the way.

What is about to happen here

is just one of the million

forms of ruin,

and a rather petty form at that.

So if they put you in jail

because of your debts,

you can't count on temporary ruin.

Because this kind of ruin is final,

as ruin generally is.

At the same time

there might just be a way to

arrest this inevitable ruin.

Mainly with money

and not by playing the hero.

Needless to say it doesn't help the

inevitability of this breakdown.

It can merely cover over

a crack for a moment.

I like rain.

I like watching the raindrops

pour down the window.

That always calms me.

I don't think about anything.

I just watch the rain.

I don't think any more of anything,

or anyone...

I'm getting away from here.

Everything is so uncertain here,

I can't trust anyone.

I don't kid myself:

I am alone.

Giving up is something

I can't and I won't do.

Audiences in big cities

are gonna applaud me.

I'm going to win...

and I won't tolerate others

trying to drag me down.

We must return to beauty...

discover life once again...

the joy of important things.

The taste of victory and success.

And this is what you can't do.

Because you've already given up.

You've killed the love

and honour in you.

You're going to come to a bad end.

Because one can't live

without love and honour.

You may really be stronger than I am.

You don't know what I'm capable of.

I don't.

On the house.

Do you know the Good Book, young man?

"Blow the horns, get

everything in readiness...

No one shall go to battle,

my seething anger shall

reach all the riches.

Weapons take their toll outside

inside there is hunger and plague...

And if there be those who survive

they shall be

like the pigeons in the hills

moaning under their sins.

All hands shall lose their

power, all knees shall tremble.

People will be enveloped by fear.

Their gold and silver shall

not save them...

on the day of the Lord's anger.

It won't quench their hunger,

or fill their bellies.

It just led them into sin.

I shall turn my face from them,

those who befouled my sacred place.

The country is full

of bloodshed made legal

and the city with violence.

I shall bring here evil people

who will take possession of the houses.

There will be times of fear.

They shall look for peace in vain,

seeking visions from the prophet.

Priests and elders will

have no advice to give.

The people of the land

shall be paralyzed.

I shall treat them as they deserve.

Judge them by their judgements.

Then they shall know

that I am the Lord."

I see you're in a hurry.

I don't want to keep you.

- Let's go out for supper.

- Our accounts are settled.

There's nothing for you here.

I don't understand.

What don't you understand?

I still don't understand.

You will one day.

But I want to understand now.

- Then understand now!

- But I don't understand.

You will one day.

Let's go out for supper.

Let go of me!

Dirty little snooper!

Calm down!

You're not going to get

away with it! No way!

You'll rot like a rat!

- You're totally crazy!

- Leave me be!

- Let me go!

- Easy!

Lei go!

- Stop it!

- Get out of here!

- Leave me be!

- Stop it!

...they all fell, and were swept away

by the cold winter winds.

There was a message from

my baby on one of the leaves:

Goodbye my love, my darling,

we can't live our lives together.

Autumn and the grim winter passed,

springtime came again,

there was a message

from my baby on one of the leaves...

Goodbye my love, my darling,

we can't live our lives...

The leaves from the

silver birch have fallen

they all fell and were swept away

by the cold winter winds.

There was a message from

my baby on one of the leaves:

Goodbye my love, my darling,

we can't live our lives together.

Autumn and the grim winter passed...

springtime came again.

There was a message from

my baby on the leaves:

Goodbye my love, my darling...

BUTCHER

Let go of me!

Listen to me!

- I'm sorry...

- I've had enough of you.

I didn't want to hurt you.

Stop or I'll kill you!

Leave me alone!

I didn't mean to hurt you.

- You know I didn't.

- Get away from me.

You're right about everything.

I admit you're right about everything.

You know that I love you.

I couldn't lie to you now, I'll change.

I promise to change

but you have to help me.

Hit me if you want to...

When you looked at me yesterday

I realized something.

I realized that

there's an enticing tunnel

from you to a world

eternally out of reach.

I don't know anyone else

who knows that road.

You're standing alone at

the entrance to the tunnel

because you know something

I can't even put a name to.

Something deeper and more ruthless

than I can ever understand.

I could never get closer to that world,

only long for it

because it is hidden

by a light and warmth

I am unable to bear.

I was never able to

believe in it or renounce it.

Now I realize I made a fatal mistake.

If I were to lose you it would be

the irremissable end of me,

because I know nothing about

that unnameable world.

Since you are part of it,

you mean that world to me

entirely... irrevocably.

Don't reject me.

Let me see you, and I'll

do anything for you.

Kick me, spit on me

and I'll return over and over

for you to kick and spit on

because you are right,

you are ruthlessly right.

And I really do love you.

Are you just going to stand there?

I sit by the window and

look out totally in vain.

For years and years

I've been sitting there,

and something always tells me

that the next moment I'll go mad.

But I don't go mad the next moment,

and I have no fear of going mad

because fear of madness would mean that

I'd have to cling to something

yet I don't cling to anything.

I cling to nothing, but everything

seems to cling to me,

wanting me to take notice.

To see the hopelessness of things.

Watch as a mangy dog outside my window

walks up to a puddle and has a drink

in the torrential rain.

I have to watch the pitiful effort

people make trying to speak

before they drop into the grave.

But there's no time

because they're already falling.

I'm expected to go mad because

of the irreversibility of life.

On the other hand

I'm not supposed to go mad.

Once I talked about this to a woman

but she was incapable of understanding.

I told her I hated her,

I'd never loved her.

Yet I didn't hate her

just as I'd never loved her.

I wanted to know if talking

made sense at all.

I told her I hated the way

she painted her nails.

I hated her tenderness and loyalty...

I loathed her fastidious movements,

the way she did everything

so meticulously.

I was revolted by the blind trust

with which she clung to me.

She looked at me disapprovingly

and went off to heat up my supper.

I just stood there and yelled at her.

For three days we stayed indoors.

For three days she shuffled

around behind me.

She only started crying the third day.

She stood there crying in her nightie.

She didn't sob, she just whimpered,

in a high-pitched tone,

and didn't move.

Then she squatted in the comer

and she didn't move from there.

I just looked at her nightie.

All I saw was that nightie,

that lacy nylon nightie.

Then I fell on her.

I pulled it and ripped it,

then stamped on it.

She still didn't understand,

she just clung to me,

trying to clasp me to her,

and repeating something over and over.

Then she went into the

bathroom and locked the door.

I just watched the buckets passing by

and counted them.

Then I counted them all over again.

It was dawn by the time

I broke the door down.

It was what I expected

but even so it shocked me.

I never thought

there'd be so much blood

in that frail body.

Just as I never thought

there'd be anyone

I'd be as sure of as I am of you.

Someone to make me feel

it's worth talking.

I know you understand if I say

I love you and it's not the end...

I know you can step out of this story.

Just as you can step out of any story.

And I want nothing more

than that we leave

this pigsty for ever...

and never lose each other again.

So now it's me you want to look at?

I'd do even the basest things

to make you choose me.

Maybe.

But my husband comes home

tomorrow evening.

The problem is I'm afraid of children.

Because those innocent blue eyes,

those blonde plaits,

cheery, ringing voices hide

a stealthy and ruthless power

whose purpose is to keep up

the madness of hopelessness,

to give a new incentive

to the reality drumming

on our eardrums,

to ridicule all resistance

without the tiniest chance

of salvation.

Yet they proclaim a minute

chance of salvation

- resurrection itself-

in such a way

that we cannot escape

its elemental continuity.

Perhaps it just means

that I've given up,

that I'm a coward, a god-awful coward.

I daren't even hope my fate

will change for the better.

All I do is make excuses for

my cowardice through nausea.

How about thinking of something

but yourself for once?

Can't you understand?

I've got old.

I'm a wreck who doesn't

dare do anything.

That's the surest sign of old age.

Even before your teeth fall out,

before you go bald

or destroy your liver

your courage departs

and you haven't the guts to do

what you'd have done earlier

without even a chance of success.

The trouble with you is

you see things from your angle.

Do you think it makes a difference

what you think about yourself

or others?

You should realize

there's order in the world

and you can't do anything to upset it.

Others get old too.

What makes you think

that we're all cowards?

No.

I know that you yourself

are just cautious.

All right. Drink up. I'm closing.

Give me another one.

This is the last.

I wish I knew

what makes you think you'll

survive anything and anyone?

Why don't things have an effect on you?

That's something I don't understand.

There are a lot of things

you don't understand.

So what...

Drink!

You too!

There's always a chance to escape.

There can be cracks

in the fabric of things.

Always a chance things won't go wrong.

But you won't get away with it!

If I don't break your neck

someone else will.

You're sure to come to a bad end.

I'll drink to that...

and to you.

I can put up with your friend

less and less...

What's wrong with him?

I don't like people

who try to cheat me from the start.

He has a lot to learn

before he takes me on.

He shouldn't try it at my expense.

He cheated you?

The package was opened.

- Things seem to be missing.

- Why not ask?

No point.

He'd say it was damaged en route.

A lot of damage?

I work with safety margins.

But my reliability's at stake.

You know me,

people can talk to me, discuss things.

I'm a good-hearted man.

He should be glad

I got him out of trouble.

I'll never understand his kind.

"I'm just sitting here

mourning for you, darling

counting the time till I'm seventy.

We never had a son

but others had more to lose.

I won't see you after death, love,

because I don't believe in it,

and you had your doubts.

It's just around twilight

when I think of you,

I see your tired forehead in the dust."

What a lovely colourful crowd. A party.

Dance!

Arms, legs and hips

working in perfect harmony!

The way movements speak...

glances that lift the dancer

above his daily worries.

The young are so lovely!

Believe me, there is nothing

like finding one another -

when there is music

that warms the heart.

Two hands clasped together

one foot senses where

the other will step.

And follows, no matter

where the other leads.

Because one believes

that every turn and swing

will be like flying from now on.

Who knows - perhaps

it is flying.

Go on, young man...

before its too late.

Believe me, there is nothing

worse in a man's life

than when he realizes that

those he loves,

those who belong to him,

those he feels are his friends,

well, when it suddenly turns out

that these friends are on a fatal track

and their sins prevent them

from finding the right path again.

Because they have lost

the chance for ever

to straighten themselves out

like good citizens,

and live freely under

the protection of the law,

enjoying the peace of an honest life.

So it was this awful inner

tension that brought me here,

setting the affectionate

friend in me aside

to fulfill the duty

my deep respect for order

imposes on me.

Please do not consider my report

as some kind of cheap gossip.

I authorize you to mention my name

if you think fit,

since I have told you everything

with head held high,

aware of my responsibilities...

and accepting all the consequences...

POLICE