Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life (1995) - full transcript
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?
(In German)
(Choral singing)
(Woman inhales)
WOMAN: Stil.
Wiegend.
(In Afrikaans)
(Choral singing continues)
(In Afrikaans)
(Shirt collar creaks)
I wish to enrol.
MAN: To enrol? Certainly?
This way... if you please.
(Hands clap)
Keine Bewegung, bitte.
(Leather of shoes creaks)
(Knock on door)
MAN: Moment, bitte.
(Knock on door)
(Whispers)
(Continues whispering)
Außergewöhnlich...
MAN: Sir? Herr Benjamenta?
I'm here to enrol.
(Continues whispering)
(Clears throat)
These are students I have
hammered into Europe.
Bitte, setzen.
Asseyez-vous!
So... Name. Date of birth.
It's on the concession.
Und so weiter, und so weiter.
Etc, etc...
etc, etc.
Das ist?
Ah...
Von Gunten.
Eintausend, zweitausend,
dreitausend, viertausend,
fünftausend.
Jakob.
A few other details, Herr von Gunten.
Wollen doch mal sehen.
Ja.
Ganz gute Reaktion.
I have sought entrance to
the Institute Benjamenta as a student...
in order to acquire the necessary
knowledge for being a servant...
as I have no high hopes of life.
I hope - no I am quite
certain - that I am fit.
I...
Glitschig.
I hope I am quite certain that in some measure I am fit to be of service to someone in this life.
To someone in this life.
Jakob von Gunten wishes
to affirm that he...
Drei, vier, fünf, sechs.
Wishes to affirm that it is a matter of
indifference to him what he is ordered to.
Sechs, sieben, acht, neun...
as his modesty knows no bounds.
Zwölf.
Ja... ein kapitaler Zwölfender.
Ugh. Agh.
It's good your hair is short.
There's an epidemic of tics...
in the forest here.
You can put aside any idea
of preferential treatment.
You're all one size here.
(Grunts)
You can go now, von Gunten.
The class of life has already started.
Don't I get a receipt?
Go! Raus!
Kapitaler Zwölfender.
Flammenartige...
I refer you to your manuals,
the chapter headed...
- (Knock on door)
- ..The Divine Duty of Servants.
(Coughs)
Danke.
Jakob von Gunten.
Gut.
Herr Jakob, these are your fellow students.
Kraus.
Auclair. Barcelonnette.
Fridolin. Fisoloebede.
Schilinski. Nyepertatikva.
Jorgenson. Aarhus.
Hebling. Fnetenberbel.
Pepino. D'Agrigento.
Inigo. Euskadikoa.
One.
(All talk at once) Service is a
beautiful, gold flower, full of...
(Thinks) We have to learn
the rules by heart.
There is but one lesson here...
endlessly repeated...
over and over again.
One will learn very little here.
And none of us will amount to much.
Later in life, we shall all be something
very small and subordinate.
ALL: Are his ears at the word of command,
and folded and pressed at
all times are his lips.
Except to say, 'Yes, sir, at once, sir.
Of course, sir.'
Next page.
Herr Jakob, will you
please join us next time?
Three.
ALL: The satisfaction of his master
shall be the servant's heaven.
ALL: The woeful opposite
is his annihilating hell.
(Creaking)
(Fork pings)
(Thinks) Can't. Can't. Can't eat this.
It's impossible.
I won't. I won't.
(Knock on door)
I won't stand up until you promise me
a decent room to sleep in.
Fräulein Benjamenta, I beg of you.
You... You won't ever, never, never, never,
have to complain about my behaviour again.
Is that so?
I shall never have to complain?
Such a fuss about where to lay your head.
Hm.
Go up.
Is this more to your liking?
Well, it's small...
and the window scarcely merits the name.
There are no curtains,
but don't be angry, Fräulein, I like it.
Even if the sun never gets a look in.
I like it.
Thank you.
Well...
Well, now my comrades are
sure to feel offended.
And now be quiet, Herr Jakob.
Class commences at eight.
Kraus will collect you.
Good night.
I shall never let myself be rescued...
nor shall I ever rescue anybody.
Why can't there be a light in the light,
instead of just in the dark?
(Sniffs)
Perhaps I shall never put
out roots and branches.
(Exhales)
(Chuckles) One day, some fragrance
will issue from my being and I will flower.
I will bow my head, and my
arms and legs will sag.
Everything will wither and fade...
and I will be dead.
Not really dead.
Only in a certain sort of way.
Dead.
Then I will go on dying for
perhaps another 60 years.
(Chuckles)
Instead of older, I grew younger.
Whoever thinks this possible will be happy
for the rest of his life.
Once great snowflakes fell
in the castle courtyard.
To live on here until the winter only.
Then when it begins to snow...
Oh...
It can snow upon us so gently...
so intensely...
in such an immense...
silence.
Neither beginning nor end,
everything in a grey-white snowing...
no more sky, no more air.
No more streets.
Rule the world.
(Creaking and thudding)
(Thinks) Sometimes more life lies hidden
in the opening of a door
than in a question.
Past and future circle about us -
now we know more...
now we know less.
(Stair creaks)
To the deer forests.
(Creaking and banging)
(Footsteps approach)
And what was the institute
before it was the institute?
(Footsteps recede)
(Animalistic grunting)
(Snuffles)
(Grunting)
Is life sketching a more
subtle sketch than I?
(Gunshot)
(Clicking of chalk on blackboard)
Here they find the things
Fräulein Benjamenta teaches us...
worth knowing.
It isn't much
and we are always revising.
But perhaps there is some hidden meaning
to all these nothings.
We grasp a thing and it
is as if it possessed us.
Not we possess it, but it us.
(Rattling)
(Rattling stops)
(Hand clap)
Sir, I have rescued the cat
from the tall tree in the garden.
Be careful, Viscount, the
steeple, it is wobbling!
Agh!
Be careful, Viscount, the
church steeple, it is wobbling.
Agh!
- (Hand clap)
- Be careful...
Your Highness, don't eat
the schnitzel. It's...
Agh!
(Melancholy music)
(Music masks speech)
The institute is no place for
your vile fantasies, Duchess.
Please remove your hand from my knee.
Wake up, wake up, Duchess!
There's a fire in the nursery!
Wake up!
Wake up, wake up, Duchess!
There's a fire in the nursery!
I have placed the children in the care
of the chief of the fire brigade.
There is no need to worry.
Look, there are only minor
burns to my left side.
You go to the children. Forget about me.
Yes, I forgive you for you
know not what you do.
I forgive you, Your Highness,
for you know not what you do.
Wake up, wake up, Duchess!
There's a fire in the nursery!
(Music quickens and intensifies)
(Music drowns out speech)
(Discordant notes)
(Music stops abruptly)
(Crickets chirrup)
Kraus?
He behaves as if he plans staying here
for another century.
'Wait for it' is engraved on his skull.
(Laughs)
(Von Gunten laughs inside)
(Laughs)
(Stops laughing abruptly)
How are you, Jakob? Are you all right?
Have you settled in?
Of course, Fräulein. Thank you.
And you get on with the other students?
VON GUNTEN: I respect them
all without exception.
And yet you quarrel with Kraus, no?
Listen to me, Jakob.
God gives a Kraus to this world
in order to entrust it with a
deep and insoluble riddle.
This riddle will never be understood because
there isn't a single person alive...
who will guess that there
is some delicate meaning...
behind this name, this...
monosyllabic, inconspicuous Kraus.
No-one will ever be grateful to Kraus,
nor is gratitude necessary.
Kraus will never go to ruin
because there will always be great
and loveless difficulties confronting him.
I think that I...
I am perhaps the only person
who realises what we have in Kraus.
Or have had in him.
(Wind chimes tinkle)
(Singing)
Slaap soet.
VON GUNTEN: (Thinks) The way they
live here with us students...
Are these the inner chambers?
Will I ever reach them?
(Woman mutters)
VON GUNTEN: (Thinks) Nameless...
monosyllabic...
Kraus.
Tell me, don't you find life here...
sterile?
Sterile, huh?
My mind is dying.
Forgive me for speaking so...
intimately...
for being so weak.
You are probably secretly laughing at me.
But watch out!
See that wall?
I could throw you against it so hard,
you would never see or hear anything again.
But don't be afraid.
I couldn't hurt you.
It's so nice to talk with you.
Like we are almost related.
The way you speak...
your gestures...
your mouth...
everything.
It's delightful to behave in that...
rather weak sort of way with you.
Just think...
me...
your master...
confessing to you.
My pathetic little worm...
whom I could utterly crush...
if I chose to.
Give me your hand.
Good.
I have to tell you...
you've gained my respect...
and now...
I have a request.
Would you...?
Will you be my confidante?
Someone to share all of my secrets.
I'm asking you... Jakob.
But you may have time to think it over.
Please. Go.
Go now, Jakob.
(Rumble of tram)
(Footsteps)
FRAULEIN BENJAMENTA: It's time.
Kwart oor drie.
(Slow footsteps)
JAKOB: The same thing.
Over and over again.
HERR BENJAMENTA: Glaub mir, Lisa. Wirklich.
The moment I clapped my
eyes on this figure,
I realised it was Jesus...
as large as life,
standing in front of me.
So... he wasn't dead.
He was right there before me in the snow...
tenderly... beckoning to me.
And with his celestial
but shy eyes all aglow,
full of wondrous...
terrible light.
I threw my entire being
into the apparition.
And I asked myself, 'What's Jesus up to,
here, on the edge of the city?
Is there really anything for
him to do in this world,
to concern himself with?
And if yes, what would be the
most likely way he'd choose to...
make himself known to us?'
And what do you think...
(Creaking)
And a nice, big zero for you.
(Creaking)
Look.
The sun.
Our plant.
How beautiful!
Johannes, it's 1:15.
It always strikes our planet at this time.
- Plant, I said.
- Yes, planet.
LISA: Why are there no longer
any real seasons here?
(Johannes whistling softly)
Johannes, we never speak any more.
Lisa...
People...
who know each other as well as we do...
don't need to make small talk.
LISA: Who know each other as well as we do?
Brother and sister, I mean.
LISA: Snow White...
waiting for life to stir her.
Lisa...
Lisa?
Dead.
To be nothing more than dead and smiling.
How I hurt beneath this sun.
I, who have never known
the hot gusts of life.
JOHANNES: Lisa...
Lisa...
JAKOB: I hadn't heard the Fräulein come in.
She laid her hand on my shoulder,
as if she were weary
and needed support.
I almost felt as though
I belonged to her then.
Come with me, Jakob.
I want to show you something.
Oh, how beautiful it is here, Jakob.
If only you could see it.
But you mustn't.
That is not for you.
But you may feel.
The ice, Jakob.
How it waits.
How patiently it waits and grows.
Kiss it, Jakob.
Kiss the ice.
It is I, your teacher, Lisa Benjamenta,
who asks you.
Don't let it steal your breath away!
That taste is your blood.
Come away.
There is warmth, Jakob.
You can find warmth.
Look for it, Jakob.
Look for it.
LISA: Is your heart on fire? Yes.
It burns.
But can it hold back the ice?
It's still there, Jakob. The ice.
It's still waiting.
I can't feel you, Jakob!
I can't feel you.
JAKOB: Suddenly, I was
back, sitting at my desk.
Fräulein Benjamenta was
still standing behind me.
She stroked my cheeks.
But it was as if she
were comforting herself,
not me.
Am I living in a fairy tale?
(Whispers) Am I living in a fairy tale?
LISA: Yours, so shyly.
So shyly.
Yours...
My young saplings... sap...
if only...
I could be with...
my dwarves.
My young saplings.
Saplings.
If only I could be with... saplings...
Paying attention... you're not...
Saplings... pay attention...
My young saplings.
Saplings.
(Creaking)
(Ragged breathing)
My young saplings...
You're not paying attention.
I refer you to your manual.
The chapter headed The
Divine Duty of Servants.
The section entitled...
Snares and Temptations...
which is...
Can you hear me?
Which is...
Repeat after me.
Sobering, succinct...
salutary advice...
for those about to commit the sin
of thinking themselves above their station.
(Wordless chanting)
This phenomenon is known as...
Pepino!
Hebling...
Inigo...
Inigo! Inigo!
Inigo!
This phenomenon is known as...
(Chanting intensifies)
(Sobs)
(Chanting stops)
(Creaking)
JAKOB: How everything is changing here.
No new students are
enrolling at the institute.
Everything has become so...
fragile.
Often the Fräulein stares out of the window,
as if she were already living somewhere else.
Yet the lessons continue.
We're still caught in the grip of the rules
and indulge in monotonous repetitions.
(Repetitive percussion)
(Tapping)
JAKOB: I've finally been
inside the inner chambers...
and I have to say...
they don't exist.
Instead of a mystery,
there's only a goldfish.
And Kraus has taught me
how to clean out its bowl...
change its water...
and feed it.
Fräulein Lisa said something
very strange to me.
'Jakob, ' she said...
Jakob...
This must be for your ears only.
Something is gnawing at me.
Like this.
See how I am breathing on you?
(Softly) That is how he's breathing
his cold breath on me...
from behind.
I'm sinking...
My breath is being crushed from me.
I am dying from...
those who could have seen and held me.
I'm dying from...
the emptiness of
cautious and clever people.
Enough.
Now you must forget about all of this.
No-one must know.
Especially not my brother.
JAKOB: To be allowed to obey her...
As long as I obey her, she will live.
JOHANNES: Whatever is forbidden lives...
a hundred times over.
(Knock at door)
JAKOB: Herr Benjamenta...
Jakob von Gunten here.
You summoned me?
(Reads)
or something very...
delicate.
(Chuckles)
You see, Jakob...
how I know the words by heart?
Because...
it is my heart that speaks them.
Jakob...
Couldn't we...
Could we try, you and l...
The low and the mighty.
Could we just try to stand
up to life together?
Shoulder to shoulder.
Side by side.
But Herr Benjamenta...
You are my principal.
(Chuckles) This place is finished.
Don't you understand?
I'm not accepting any more students.
You were the last one.
(Both chuckle)
You thought...
the... Institut Benjamenta...
was one of those places here today...
and gone tomorrow?
It's you.
You are the one.
It's... all happened since you came.
Who are you?
Oh, Jesus...
(Gasps)
Goodbye, Jakob.
Kiss me, Jakob.
Just once.
Be soft.
(Breathing raggedly) Shhh-shhh.
Enough.
No despair.
Everything is good just the way it is.
It's beautiful, isn't it...
not to want anything any more?
(Door opens)
JAKOB: From now on, it can
only be evening in this world.
And all about me.
(Rattling)
(Tram rattles by in distance)
(Gasps)
(Rumble of tram)
(Chuckles)
(Laughs hysterically)
lmagine me... coming for you.
Surely...
the King is dead.
Twice over.
Jakob...
Jakob, I'm so... lonely.
(Knock at door)
Herr Benjamenta...
Sleep. Rest sweetly, dear Fräulein.
JAKOB: The Fräulein lay there lifeless,
just as she told me she would.
Her eyes were still open. Not very wide...
but as if she was still smiling.
And it seemed to me that she
must live for eternity...
only to be for eternity no living being.
The sound of thy voice shall live on.
JAKOB: We withdrew, leaving
the brother with the sister.
The Principal with the Principaless.
The lonely man with the lonely woman.
The living person with the dead one.
(Mournful singing)
LISA: I shall surely go on living,
but what will become of you?
(Chattering voices)
Do something.
JOHANNES: Look behind the curtain... Jakob.
(Johannes chuckling)
Look behind the curtain.
She may be hiding here.
(Chuckles)
(Banging and rattling)
Once...
I was crowned with success.
The world smiled on me.
But I hated the world.
Hated existing.
Hated those I taught to take orders.
Hated myself for loving to give orders.
Everything.
I hated it all.
But no longer.
Now...
that I'm not a king...
Now...
I want to live.
I'm hungry for life!
Jakob...
Everyone has gone. Even Kraus.
(Chuckles)
I've pronounced the institute dead.
We are free.
Jakob...
Come with me.
Follow me...
out of this world...
for ever.
JAKOB: And it will snow
upon us so intensely...
in such immense silence.
Neither beginning nor end.
Everything in a grey, white... snowing.
No more sky.
No more air.
(In German)
(In Spanish)
(In Afrikaans)
In us the sound of thy voice shall live on.
(In Afrikaans)
(Trumpet)
(Cricket chirping)
(Choral singing)
(Woman inhales)
WOMAN: Stil.
Wiegend.
(In Afrikaans)
(Choral singing continues)
(In Afrikaans)
(Shirt collar creaks)
I wish to enrol.
MAN: To enrol? Certainly?
This way... if you please.
(Hands clap)
Keine Bewegung, bitte.
(Leather of shoes creaks)
(Knock on door)
MAN: Moment, bitte.
(Knock on door)
(Whispers)
(Continues whispering)
Außergewöhnlich...
MAN: Sir? Herr Benjamenta?
I'm here to enrol.
(Continues whispering)
(Clears throat)
These are students I have
hammered into Europe.
Bitte, setzen.
Asseyez-vous!
So... Name. Date of birth.
It's on the concession.
Und so weiter, und so weiter.
Etc, etc...
etc, etc.
Das ist?
Ah...
Von Gunten.
Eintausend, zweitausend,
dreitausend, viertausend,
fünftausend.
Jakob.
A few other details, Herr von Gunten.
Wollen doch mal sehen.
Ja.
Ganz gute Reaktion.
I have sought entrance to
the Institute Benjamenta as a student...
in order to acquire the necessary
knowledge for being a servant...
as I have no high hopes of life.
I hope - no I am quite
certain - that I am fit.
I...
Glitschig.
I hope I am quite certain that in some measure I am fit to be of service to someone in this life.
To someone in this life.
Jakob von Gunten wishes
to affirm that he...
Drei, vier, fünf, sechs.
Wishes to affirm that it is a matter of
indifference to him what he is ordered to.
Sechs, sieben, acht, neun...
as his modesty knows no bounds.
Zwölf.
Ja... ein kapitaler Zwölfender.
Ugh. Agh.
It's good your hair is short.
There's an epidemic of tics...
in the forest here.
You can put aside any idea
of preferential treatment.
You're all one size here.
(Grunts)
You can go now, von Gunten.
The class of life has already started.
Don't I get a receipt?
Go! Raus!
Kapitaler Zwölfender.
Flammenartige...
I refer you to your manuals,
the chapter headed...
- (Knock on door)
- ..The Divine Duty of Servants.
(Coughs)
Danke.
Jakob von Gunten.
Gut.
Herr Jakob, these are your fellow students.
Kraus.
Auclair. Barcelonnette.
Fridolin. Fisoloebede.
Schilinski. Nyepertatikva.
Jorgenson. Aarhus.
Hebling. Fnetenberbel.
Pepino. D'Agrigento.
Inigo. Euskadikoa.
One.
(All talk at once) Service is a
beautiful, gold flower, full of...
(Thinks) We have to learn
the rules by heart.
There is but one lesson here...
endlessly repeated...
over and over again.
One will learn very little here.
And none of us will amount to much.
Later in life, we shall all be something
very small and subordinate.
ALL: Are his ears at the word of command,
and folded and pressed at
all times are his lips.
Except to say, 'Yes, sir, at once, sir.
Of course, sir.'
Next page.
Herr Jakob, will you
please join us next time?
Three.
ALL: The satisfaction of his master
shall be the servant's heaven.
ALL: The woeful opposite
is his annihilating hell.
(Creaking)
(Fork pings)
(Thinks) Can't. Can't. Can't eat this.
It's impossible.
I won't. I won't.
(Knock on door)
I won't stand up until you promise me
a decent room to sleep in.
Fräulein Benjamenta, I beg of you.
You... You won't ever, never, never, never,
have to complain about my behaviour again.
Is that so?
I shall never have to complain?
Such a fuss about where to lay your head.
Hm.
Go up.
Is this more to your liking?
Well, it's small...
and the window scarcely merits the name.
There are no curtains,
but don't be angry, Fräulein, I like it.
Even if the sun never gets a look in.
I like it.
Thank you.
Well...
Well, now my comrades are
sure to feel offended.
And now be quiet, Herr Jakob.
Class commences at eight.
Kraus will collect you.
Good night.
I shall never let myself be rescued...
nor shall I ever rescue anybody.
Why can't there be a light in the light,
instead of just in the dark?
(Sniffs)
Perhaps I shall never put
out roots and branches.
(Exhales)
(Chuckles) One day, some fragrance
will issue from my being and I will flower.
I will bow my head, and my
arms and legs will sag.
Everything will wither and fade...
and I will be dead.
Not really dead.
Only in a certain sort of way.
Dead.
Then I will go on dying for
perhaps another 60 years.
(Chuckles)
Instead of older, I grew younger.
Whoever thinks this possible will be happy
for the rest of his life.
Once great snowflakes fell
in the castle courtyard.
To live on here until the winter only.
Then when it begins to snow...
Oh...
It can snow upon us so gently...
so intensely...
in such an immense...
silence.
Neither beginning nor end,
everything in a grey-white snowing...
no more sky, no more air.
No more streets.
Rule the world.
(Creaking and thudding)
(Thinks) Sometimes more life lies hidden
in the opening of a door
than in a question.
Past and future circle about us -
now we know more...
now we know less.
(Stair creaks)
To the deer forests.
(Creaking and banging)
(Footsteps approach)
And what was the institute
before it was the institute?
(Footsteps recede)
(Animalistic grunting)
(Snuffles)
(Grunting)
Is life sketching a more
subtle sketch than I?
(Gunshot)
(Clicking of chalk on blackboard)
Here they find the things
Fräulein Benjamenta teaches us...
worth knowing.
It isn't much
and we are always revising.
But perhaps there is some hidden meaning
to all these nothings.
We grasp a thing and it
is as if it possessed us.
Not we possess it, but it us.
(Rattling)
(Rattling stops)
(Hand clap)
Sir, I have rescued the cat
from the tall tree in the garden.
Be careful, Viscount, the
steeple, it is wobbling!
Agh!
Be careful, Viscount, the
church steeple, it is wobbling.
Agh!
- (Hand clap)
- Be careful...
Your Highness, don't eat
the schnitzel. It's...
Agh!
(Melancholy music)
(Music masks speech)
The institute is no place for
your vile fantasies, Duchess.
Please remove your hand from my knee.
Wake up, wake up, Duchess!
There's a fire in the nursery!
Wake up!
Wake up, wake up, Duchess!
There's a fire in the nursery!
I have placed the children in the care
of the chief of the fire brigade.
There is no need to worry.
Look, there are only minor
burns to my left side.
You go to the children. Forget about me.
Yes, I forgive you for you
know not what you do.
I forgive you, Your Highness,
for you know not what you do.
Wake up, wake up, Duchess!
There's a fire in the nursery!
(Music quickens and intensifies)
(Music drowns out speech)
(Discordant notes)
(Music stops abruptly)
(Crickets chirrup)
Kraus?
He behaves as if he plans staying here
for another century.
'Wait for it' is engraved on his skull.
(Laughs)
(Von Gunten laughs inside)
(Laughs)
(Stops laughing abruptly)
How are you, Jakob? Are you all right?
Have you settled in?
Of course, Fräulein. Thank you.
And you get on with the other students?
VON GUNTEN: I respect them
all without exception.
And yet you quarrel with Kraus, no?
Listen to me, Jakob.
God gives a Kraus to this world
in order to entrust it with a
deep and insoluble riddle.
This riddle will never be understood because
there isn't a single person alive...
who will guess that there
is some delicate meaning...
behind this name, this...
monosyllabic, inconspicuous Kraus.
No-one will ever be grateful to Kraus,
nor is gratitude necessary.
Kraus will never go to ruin
because there will always be great
and loveless difficulties confronting him.
I think that I...
I am perhaps the only person
who realises what we have in Kraus.
Or have had in him.
(Wind chimes tinkle)
(Singing)
Slaap soet.
VON GUNTEN: (Thinks) The way they
live here with us students...
Are these the inner chambers?
Will I ever reach them?
(Woman mutters)
VON GUNTEN: (Thinks) Nameless...
monosyllabic...
Kraus.
Tell me, don't you find life here...
sterile?
Sterile, huh?
My mind is dying.
Forgive me for speaking so...
intimately...
for being so weak.
You are probably secretly laughing at me.
But watch out!
See that wall?
I could throw you against it so hard,
you would never see or hear anything again.
But don't be afraid.
I couldn't hurt you.
It's so nice to talk with you.
Like we are almost related.
The way you speak...
your gestures...
your mouth...
everything.
It's delightful to behave in that...
rather weak sort of way with you.
Just think...
me...
your master...
confessing to you.
My pathetic little worm...
whom I could utterly crush...
if I chose to.
Give me your hand.
Good.
I have to tell you...
you've gained my respect...
and now...
I have a request.
Would you...?
Will you be my confidante?
Someone to share all of my secrets.
I'm asking you... Jakob.
But you may have time to think it over.
Please. Go.
Go now, Jakob.
(Rumble of tram)
(Footsteps)
FRAULEIN BENJAMENTA: It's time.
Kwart oor drie.
(Slow footsteps)
JAKOB: The same thing.
Over and over again.
HERR BENJAMENTA: Glaub mir, Lisa. Wirklich.
The moment I clapped my
eyes on this figure,
I realised it was Jesus...
as large as life,
standing in front of me.
So... he wasn't dead.
He was right there before me in the snow...
tenderly... beckoning to me.
And with his celestial
but shy eyes all aglow,
full of wondrous...
terrible light.
I threw my entire being
into the apparition.
And I asked myself, 'What's Jesus up to,
here, on the edge of the city?
Is there really anything for
him to do in this world,
to concern himself with?
And if yes, what would be the
most likely way he'd choose to...
make himself known to us?'
And what do you think...
(Creaking)
And a nice, big zero for you.
(Creaking)
Look.
The sun.
Our plant.
How beautiful!
Johannes, it's 1:15.
It always strikes our planet at this time.
- Plant, I said.
- Yes, planet.
LISA: Why are there no longer
any real seasons here?
(Johannes whistling softly)
Johannes, we never speak any more.
Lisa...
People...
who know each other as well as we do...
don't need to make small talk.
LISA: Who know each other as well as we do?
Brother and sister, I mean.
LISA: Snow White...
waiting for life to stir her.
Lisa...
Lisa?
Dead.
To be nothing more than dead and smiling.
How I hurt beneath this sun.
I, who have never known
the hot gusts of life.
JOHANNES: Lisa...
Lisa...
JAKOB: I hadn't heard the Fräulein come in.
She laid her hand on my shoulder,
as if she were weary
and needed support.
I almost felt as though
I belonged to her then.
Come with me, Jakob.
I want to show you something.
Oh, how beautiful it is here, Jakob.
If only you could see it.
But you mustn't.
That is not for you.
But you may feel.
The ice, Jakob.
How it waits.
How patiently it waits and grows.
Kiss it, Jakob.
Kiss the ice.
It is I, your teacher, Lisa Benjamenta,
who asks you.
Don't let it steal your breath away!
That taste is your blood.
Come away.
There is warmth, Jakob.
You can find warmth.
Look for it, Jakob.
Look for it.
LISA: Is your heart on fire? Yes.
It burns.
But can it hold back the ice?
It's still there, Jakob. The ice.
It's still waiting.
I can't feel you, Jakob!
I can't feel you.
JAKOB: Suddenly, I was
back, sitting at my desk.
Fräulein Benjamenta was
still standing behind me.
She stroked my cheeks.
But it was as if she
were comforting herself,
not me.
Am I living in a fairy tale?
(Whispers) Am I living in a fairy tale?
LISA: Yours, so shyly.
So shyly.
Yours...
My young saplings... sap...
if only...
I could be with...
my dwarves.
My young saplings.
Saplings.
If only I could be with... saplings...
Paying attention... you're not...
Saplings... pay attention...
My young saplings.
Saplings.
(Creaking)
(Ragged breathing)
My young saplings...
You're not paying attention.
I refer you to your manual.
The chapter headed The
Divine Duty of Servants.
The section entitled...
Snares and Temptations...
which is...
Can you hear me?
Which is...
Repeat after me.
Sobering, succinct...
salutary advice...
for those about to commit the sin
of thinking themselves above their station.
(Wordless chanting)
This phenomenon is known as...
Pepino!
Hebling...
Inigo...
Inigo! Inigo!
Inigo!
This phenomenon is known as...
(Chanting intensifies)
(Sobs)
(Chanting stops)
(Creaking)
JAKOB: How everything is changing here.
No new students are
enrolling at the institute.
Everything has become so...
fragile.
Often the Fräulein stares out of the window,
as if she were already living somewhere else.
Yet the lessons continue.
We're still caught in the grip of the rules
and indulge in monotonous repetitions.
(Repetitive percussion)
(Tapping)
JAKOB: I've finally been
inside the inner chambers...
and I have to say...
they don't exist.
Instead of a mystery,
there's only a goldfish.
And Kraus has taught me
how to clean out its bowl...
change its water...
and feed it.
Fräulein Lisa said something
very strange to me.
'Jakob, ' she said...
Jakob...
This must be for your ears only.
Something is gnawing at me.
Like this.
See how I am breathing on you?
(Softly) That is how he's breathing
his cold breath on me...
from behind.
I'm sinking...
My breath is being crushed from me.
I am dying from...
those who could have seen and held me.
I'm dying from...
the emptiness of
cautious and clever people.
Enough.
Now you must forget about all of this.
No-one must know.
Especially not my brother.
JAKOB: To be allowed to obey her...
As long as I obey her, she will live.
JOHANNES: Whatever is forbidden lives...
a hundred times over.
(Knock at door)
JAKOB: Herr Benjamenta...
Jakob von Gunten here.
You summoned me?
(Reads)
or something very...
delicate.
(Chuckles)
You see, Jakob...
how I know the words by heart?
Because...
it is my heart that speaks them.
Jakob...
Couldn't we...
Could we try, you and l...
The low and the mighty.
Could we just try to stand
up to life together?
Shoulder to shoulder.
Side by side.
But Herr Benjamenta...
You are my principal.
(Chuckles) This place is finished.
Don't you understand?
I'm not accepting any more students.
You were the last one.
(Both chuckle)
You thought...
the... Institut Benjamenta...
was one of those places here today...
and gone tomorrow?
It's you.
You are the one.
It's... all happened since you came.
Who are you?
Oh, Jesus...
(Gasps)
Goodbye, Jakob.
Kiss me, Jakob.
Just once.
Be soft.
(Breathing raggedly) Shhh-shhh.
Enough.
No despair.
Everything is good just the way it is.
It's beautiful, isn't it...
not to want anything any more?
(Door opens)
JAKOB: From now on, it can
only be evening in this world.
And all about me.
(Rattling)
(Tram rattles by in distance)
(Gasps)
(Rumble of tram)
(Chuckles)
(Laughs hysterically)
lmagine me... coming for you.
Surely...
the King is dead.
Twice over.
Jakob...
Jakob, I'm so... lonely.
(Knock at door)
Herr Benjamenta...
Sleep. Rest sweetly, dear Fräulein.
JAKOB: The Fräulein lay there lifeless,
just as she told me she would.
Her eyes were still open. Not very wide...
but as if she was still smiling.
And it seemed to me that she
must live for eternity...
only to be for eternity no living being.
The sound of thy voice shall live on.
JAKOB: We withdrew, leaving
the brother with the sister.
The Principal with the Principaless.
The lonely man with the lonely woman.
The living person with the dead one.
(Mournful singing)
LISA: I shall surely go on living,
but what will become of you?
(Chattering voices)
Do something.
JOHANNES: Look behind the curtain... Jakob.
(Johannes chuckling)
Look behind the curtain.
She may be hiding here.
(Chuckles)
(Banging and rattling)
Once...
I was crowned with success.
The world smiled on me.
But I hated the world.
Hated existing.
Hated those I taught to take orders.
Hated myself for loving to give orders.
Everything.
I hated it all.
But no longer.
Now...
that I'm not a king...
Now...
I want to live.
I'm hungry for life!
Jakob...
Everyone has gone. Even Kraus.
(Chuckles)
I've pronounced the institute dead.
We are free.
Jakob...
Come with me.
Follow me...
out of this world...
for ever.
JAKOB: And it will snow
upon us so intensely...
in such immense silence.
Neither beginning nor end.
Everything in a grey, white... snowing.
No more sky.
No more air.
(In German)
(In Spanish)
(In Afrikaans)
In us the sound of thy voice shall live on.
(In Afrikaans)
(Trumpet)
(Cricket chirping)