La maison assassinée (1988) - full transcript
1896, September the 28th,
Eve of St Michael's day
Hello, everybody.
I'm a journeyman, coming from Jura,
on the road since St John's day.
Board and lodging?
Hey, Monge, can't you
hear something?
I do.
Monge! If you can't hear
anything now, you're deaf.
Lucien! Take him to
the stables and hurry back.
Good night, everybody.
- Who is he?
- Shut up.
- Do you think they'll finally
go to bed? - Finally, yes.
- Did you recognize him?
- Yes.
- What shall we do?
- We can't do anything else.
What if we're caught?
- Their throats cut. - What is it?
- All dead, their throats cut.
Come on, let him pass.
And let no one go inside.
- Their throats cut.
- They're all dead.
- Only the baby lived. - All dead.
- Their throats cut...
I can boast of one thing:
I was the first to see him.
And just after that, it was
the Rose Pujol girl.
That one had time to waste, always
dragging her bottom around.
At that time, I didn't know
his name yet.
And the Monges,
I had all but forgotten them.
- Who wants him?
- Monge. Seraphin Monge.
The Tricanote woman, read fortunes in
herbs,
but failed to predict the return of
Monge.
She wasted no time in correcting
the mistake of the village.
I should have... We should have
reported to you.
There couldn't be a Board of Guardians,
since you didn't have any family left.
So we had to deal with the
most urgent matters first:
provide you with a wet nurse,
then see to your education
and, say what you will, the Sisters
of Mercy are not for the poor.
The estate was sold.
The Burliere, unfortunately...
- The Burliere?
- The house of your family.
- We couldn't sell it.
- Why?
Why? Well...
- Of course you know.
- No.
You don't know but... you did read
your family record book.
Yes, but... I know I'm an orphan.
Well, you know, I was
ten at the time.
And what do you care, after all?
The past is the past.
You weren't raised by the
Sisters of Mercy, were you?
- No.
- I was.
Well. There are 1250 francs
and 50 centimes
left from the sale of the estate
and the cattle.
They're yours, as well as the house
of which here is the key.
- Mr. Notary.
- Yes.
I meant to ask you.
Every month, while I was on the front,
I received a package from here.
- Do you know who sent it?
- A package? Probably my poor father.
- He was so good.
- Your poor father? Did he die?
- Yes, in 1916.
- No, it wasn't him.
I got them until the end, until last
month
in Poland, before I was discharged.
- Was there no return address?
- No, never.
Hello. I'm Rose. Rose Pujol.
Seraphin Monge was back
from the war.
The municipality provided him
with a room in the village
and a job as a road mender. And he
was going to work with me too.
Rose!
Pujol wanted to give
his daughter in marriage.
But he was like a lot of the old ones:
he thought that misery had come back.
I really don't know why
he didn't go inside then.
Well, I'm saying that,
but I understand.
That house... It seemed like everybody
made a detour not to see it.
I followed him to his new home,
but I didn't dare talk to him
on that day.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
During several days,
we worked side by side.
Good morning.
She said hello to me but I'm sure
I'm not the one she's interested in.
She even had to make a big
detour to come this way.
She's Marie Dormeur,
the baker's daughter.
Every morning, she delivers
bread in Peyrolles.
And she never comes this way.
We would be well advised
to go back.
Can you see, kid? When the sky
is this colour over Les Mays,
it means it's going to rain badly.
No, Les Mays are this way.
You've got to learn
to know your country.
A bloke who's from here and doesn't
know how things are called is unseemly.
- Hey! What's the small rock there?
- La Beldonne?
No, I told you twenty times already:
it's Goua's Rock.
Here it comes.
- Wait!
- What?
- Come.
- Where?
Come, I tell you.
- Come in!
- No.
- Do you want to catch your death?
Come in! - No.
Come on.
You can't understand.
Oh, after all, you're right.
I knew two of them
in my bloody life.
Two road-menders, almost
as strong as I am.
After a rain such as this one,
they didn't last eight days.
The stronger you are, the more
transparent are your lungs.
Do you realize, kid?
The wood that we're burning
has been cut 23 years ago.
23 years...
Hey, what are you doing?
Are you listening to me?
I'm looking around.
23 years. And just the
same as it was.
Except for the holes in the roof,
nothing's changed.
And it was clean, mind you.
The Guirard woman.
Everything was shining
in their home.
- The Guirard woman?
- Your mother.
My mother?
Nobody dared to tell you.
When you were taken to the Sisters
of Mercy, you were three weeks old.
You remember that?
- I don't know if I should.
- Why shouldn't you?
Damn! The storm will
get us in the end.
You'll have escaped the war and
the Spanish flu to be killed by
lightning.
Why shouldn't you?
Behind that door, there were
maybe fifty of us.
Riveted. Silent.
And in this room, there were
only two sounds that morning.
The clock and a crying baby. You.
They took the bodies out
then they took you away.
What bodies?
What I remember most
is the smell.
It smelled of blood. Warm blood,
you can't imagine.
- Oh, yes, I can.
- Oh, yes, that's true,
you know the smell.
You were in the war.
But I hadn't been. There was
blood everywhere.
Everywhere you see dust on the floor,
there were bloody footprints.
Their feet had waded in blood.
And here, here where I'm sitting,
there was the grandad.
Your mother's father. His blood
made him a red beard on his shirt.
It looked as if they'd knotted a red
napkin
around his neck to feed him his soup.
And here... was Monge.
Sprawled against the wall.
- "Lightning Bolt" Monge.
- "Lightning Bolt" Monge?
Yes. Your father.
The murdered had skewered him with the
Christmas spit that was hanging there.
And your father, with
the spit in his body,
still had the strength
to drag himself here.
You could see the mark of
his hands near the salt box.
Hey, you can still see it here.
And here were your two brothers,
left at the bottom of the cupboard,
their throat open too.
And here your mother
was lying, her skirts lifted.
- My mother...
- No, don't worry, she wasn't raped.
Her throat was open too. But she
was the only one with closed eyes.
As if someone had taken pity on her.
All the others still looked at you.
Oh, I know what you want to know.
The murderers were found.
They were supposedly three blokes
working on the railway.
They were found dead drunk, with
four bottles of your father's brandy.
They came from over there...
some country... Herzegovina, they said.
It was really hell to find
an interpreter.
So they were guillotined.
Can you understand, now,
why everything stayed as it was?
Why no one came to steal even
a gram of salt in the salt shaker?
Should they have given the Burliere
away, nobody would have wanted it.
In this house, there's the mark
of murder and especially...
especially the mark of the gallows.
I think... it couldn't happen
that way.
There was too much
mystery behind Monge.
It couldn't happen that way.
And maybe you know how it could
have happened, you shapeless scum?
I knew someone would finally
open this fucking door.
- We had to take shelter.
- You, shut up.
- What did you tell him?
- Nothing.
Well, everything...
everything that could be told.
Oh, so you know what can
and can't be told?
You poisoned his life.
That's what you did.
- Who's he?
- He's Zorme. He's got powers.
- What's he saying?
- Nothing.
His mouth is wide open
but he's not talking to us.
- What's your trouble?
- My mother...
Well, your mother... Your mother
died more than 20 years ago.
Five minutes ago to me.
Seraphin!
I know you're here.
- Do you recognize me?
- Yes.
Why didn't you come to
the war memorial?
- Because I'm alive.
- You were wrong. Everybody's there.
They don't like you a lot
around here, so...
That I came back from the war
is no fault of mine.
That's not it. It was my father who
said they had to write your name down.
He's a town councilor.
We had one less dead than
in Peyrolles, so it didn't look right.
- It wasn't to spite you.
- What do you want?
I ? Nothing. Bye.
Seraphin? Won't you come
to the banquet?
- I'm not invited.
- I invite you.
- What are you doing?
- Nothing.
I'm waiting for you.
Do you mind?
They didn't like having to scratch
my name from the memorial.
So, if they see us arriving together...
Good morning, Mr. Dormeur.
- Good morning, Mrs. Dormeur.
- Take a seat. I'll wait on you
directly.
Good morning, Marie.
I hope there's some left for us.
What is she doing with him?
Do you know what my mother
told me about him and his house?
- We all know it.
- I wouldn't be able to do it.
I'd feel all of his dead family
lying beside me.
- What about you? Could you?
- Yes.
So, the guy from Peyrolles answers:
"The railway will pass through our place
because we are a heroic village. "
Heroic village? Heroic village?
As it they were the only ones.
If it goes on like this, soon France
will be nothing but railway stations.
- Hey, Rose, will you dance?
- Not today.
- We danced during the
whole war. Come. - I'm not alone.
Since they came back,
they've got it all.
Hey! You who are just back from it,
will there be another war soon.
Yeah! They'll all go away again
and I'll dance with the girls.
Come.
Seraphin. You must take a bread.
No, not that one.
It's the Zorme's,
just in case...
Here, take this one.
And his father is the ingenior
from the PLM.
He decides where they
build the stations.
Oh, Seraphin, come here:
I kept a chair for you.
I'll say one thing: the railway
is good for business,
true, but you'll see all the
foreigners it will bring to us.
Well, if they're foreigners
who buy things.
Yes, but there are also
foreigners who come back.
Why do you laugh?
Because it's bothering you.
- We are beyond reproach.
- I didn't ask you anything.
You know everything anyway.
The murderers were beheaded.
And quite convenient it was,
wasn't it?
Their footprints were the ones
we found in La Burliere.
Their shoes and trousers legs
were bloody.
They even stole Monge's brandy.
We found them drunk on it.
What more do you want?
At the foot of the gallows, they were
still screaming that they were innocent.
That's what they all scream.
And those screamed
in a foreign language.
- We couldn't understand them.
- How very convenient.
We don't have anything
more to tell you.
You don't have anything to look
for here. Except sadness and pain.
I don't care: I don't have
a penny, so I'm not afraid.
But since they've become rich,
they don't like being bothered.
You mustn't listen to morons.
The culprits were punished,
the case is now forgotten.
Seraphin.
Go and dance. Go.
Let bygones be bygones, and the
young must stay with the young.
I should know. The owner
of the oil mill, Didon Pujol,
almost bought La Burliere for
a song, but his wife told him...
...if you buy it, you'll live
there alone.
I'll never set foot in it. She was
scared of meeting a ghost.
She was right. Every night, the
mother comes back for her kid.
- But I don't know how to dance.
- I'm going to teach you.
One, two, three...
Look at him dancing. He spoiled
our party with his evil eye.
You waited for me? How nice!
You shouldn't have.
My bread. Give me my bread.
Hey: he's not afraid.
That's because he's new here.
Although this is his home, isn't it?
Whatever some people may say.
Thank you, Seraphin, my boy.
Thank you.
No, thank you. I never eat garlic.
They say it's bad...
for people like me.
An excellent bread,
Celestat Dormeur.
Better than last year.
Probably your sweated fear
that fell into the dough:
it enhances the taste.
Mmm... A little on the exotic side.
So, Seraphin Monge, are you happy
to be in your village again?
As you can see, we're having fun,
we're celebrating.
We're so happy to see you.
We're your family now.
Even if some thought it was
smart to tell you things...
To wake up the dead.
You mustn't, you must never
wake up the dead.
It can be hazardous.
Sometimes.
I started being feverish
on the next day...
- Brigue!
- I knew you'd come.
What is it? Are you ill?
I wouldn't be like this if
I hadn't told you anything.
The Spanish flu, they say.
Easy to say, isn't it?
The Devil's flu, I say.
Come what may, I do not
regret telling you.
But remember: it couldn't
have happened that way.
- Why do you say that?
- The attorney said it:
to inflict such wounds,
there's only one tool:
a cobbler's knife.
A well-sharpened cobbler's knife.
And on the three guys from Herzegovina,
they found no cobbler's knife.
Anyway you can find those
tools here, not in Herzegovina.
Tell me about my mother.
What was she like?
I'm talking about the murderers.
Can't you understand?
- They don't exist anymore.
- Don't they?
Since you talked to me,
I have nightmares...
I can see bits and pieces...
the house, my father... a cradle.
But I never see faces.
How was my mother?
Very beautiful.
There was a portrait of her in
La Burliere, but I... well, it
disappeared.
Oh, beware, kid.
The dead always try to cling to you,
to insert themselves in your life,
in order to finish what they
must do. Beware, kid. Beware.
Clorinde. Hey, Clorinde!
Come and see.
Listen for one minute.
Clorinde. Hey, Clorinde!
Don't you scream that way.
Celestat is napping.
I want to see you, Clorinde.
Seraphin Monge is mad:
- he's burning his furniture.
- What are you saying?
He's up there, in La Burliere.
Burning everything.
I saw him: I was picking up
marjoram for Brigue's fever.
And do you know what? He was trying
to break the table with a sledge hammer.
And the dough trough was
burning in the fire.
Marie! What are you doing?
Where are you going?
- Where is she going?
- You know where she's going.
That girl is crazy, I can't
understand her.
No, not that!
Mind your own business.
Go away!
Hey, look now, do you
know who I am?
Yes, you're the baker's daughter.
Get out, I tell you.
- No one ever talked to me like that.
- I'm talking the way I can.
You must never burn a cradle,
it's bad luck.
- And where will your children sleep?
- I'll never have children.
- I want some.
- Who's preventing you?
You. You love another girl.
I'm not here to love anybody.
All my life, I've been looking
for a family.
The trouble is that, now, I found it.
And I don't want to talk about it.
I can't believe it. There are no more
men here, they've all gone.
And the only one who comes back
thinks only of the dead.
Didn't you see enough dead
during the war?
Leave me alone.
If I were a man, I would forbid
you to do all this.
You have no right.
You have no right!
What do you know about
what right I have or don't have?
Do you know the sight I've got
before my eyes?
Do you know why I'm burning it all?
Do you know that my mother crawls
to my cradle every night,
without ever reaching it?
Do you know that?
You're hurting me.
If only Brigue didn't tell me anything.
If only I could believe that
she died like anybody.
And I can't even avenge her:
someone did it for me.
You're hurting me.
- What...?
- Shhh.
I thought somebody
was spying on us.
- I didn't hear anything.
- It's because I'm always alert.
War gives you the habit.
That was the day Old Brigue
died of the Spanish flu.
The Spanish flu.
Easy to say, isn't it?
Then one day, there was no more
fire nor smoke in La Burliere.
Is it over?
- No.
- It is: you burned everything.
No. The house agrees with me.
It knows it must disappear.
- This is not your place.
- Let me pass.
I tell you this is not your place.
Leave him alone, he's too miserable.
And he'll never love anybody anyway.
You didn't know how to manage him.
Now it's my turn to try.
You didn't understand, did you?
He doesn't have to choose between
you and me but between the house and us.
I'm going.
Rose. I've been told you've been seen
again stopping to talk to the
road-mender.
- He's got a name.
- I don't want to hear his name.
He's been here for as long
as we have.
If his parents hadn't been killed,
he would be as good as we are.
Let this be clear, Rose:
I don't want the road-mender
to hang around you.
He doesn't hang. I do.
And I really wonder why you don?t
want me to talk to Seraphin.
Would you think it immoral
if I married a handsome man?
This Seraphin certainly
won't want to marry you.
- What do you know about that?
- I saw him talking to Marie Dormeur.
You've seen Marie Dormeur talking
to him, that's not the same.
No, he was talking to her,
I tell you.
- And he was telling her a lot,
believe me. - Enough.
We don't know anything
about the boy anyway.
Except that he was born
in the blood of his family
then went through the war in
the blood of others, without a scratch.
I say a black star is protecting him.
I've got nothing against him
but I don't want him in my home.
That's why you put his name on the
war memorial. It suited you, didn't it?
It didn't suit me at all.
And now shut up.
Marie. You were seen talking to
the road-mender. That is not proper.
- Why?
- Because.
Oh, fine: there are no more men
because of the war,
why don't you forbid her
to see those who are left?
- A road-mender.
- So what?
If there were no road-menders
there wouldn't be any roads,
and I couldn't go and sell
your bread.
Don't you raise your voice
in front of me.
He's a good kid, he works hard
and he's beautiful as a star.
What do you know of what
is beautiful or not?
True: we're too old.
Seraphin Monge is not beautiful.
He's miserable.
That's just it: one shouldn't
consort with misery.
Misery is catching.
Just like the scabies.
And if you say again the name of the
road-mender, you can leave the table.
My father didn't say
another word that evening.
He worried so much it killed his
appetite. I'd never seen him like that.
And very early one morning, as I
got up from bed, I saw them talking.
That was a strange sight:
the baker and the miller.
That was the first time I saw them
exchanging more than three words.
Now Seraphin was
demolishing his house.
Go.
All the idlers in the village
came to see the madman.
Hey! Hey, Crazy!
Since you're so comfortable up
there, you might just stay there.
Come on, guys.
Come on, come on.
He's going to see what will
happen to him.
- Yeah!
- All right, guys.
Now let's show him, OK?
Let's aim for his head.
Take this, Crazy.
Here, take this.
Put the ladder back up immediately
or I behead you with this whip.
OK, guys, let's split.
Yes. There's a painter doing this kind
of thing now. His name is Picasso.
I could model for him.
Fortunately, I kept my buttocks,
so with a piece of them,
they made me a shoulder and...
Thank you. Without you,
I would have slept up there.
At least you would have
looked ridiculous.
And I didn't want you
to look ridiculous.
My name is Patrice Dupin.
- I'm Sera...
- Yeah, I know, yeah.
- Apparently you got out of it all
right.
- Apparently.
- Do you still think of it?
- Of the war? Never.
Yeah. You've got other things
on your mind.
Funny. You're the first person who
doesn't ask me why I'm doing this.
Doing what?
To each his broken mug.
They've shattered yours inside.
Why are you so formal with me?
I've been familiar with
enough men during the war.
It didn't do them any good.
I don't have friends
anymore either.
Come and see me. It's on the
Courcelles way. It's called Pontradieu.
My father bought a house there.
Well... a castle rather.
He's playing the aristocrat.
You'll see, it's funny enough.
Madam! Good morning.
Tell me: there was a farm called
La Burliere around here, wasn't it?
There was.
In the old days, it was an inn,
a coaching inn?
Am I right?
Can you show me the way?
There's no more way.
There's no more house.
My name is Margoulite.
Joseph.
I came here about 25 years ago.
I can remember it as if it
were yesterday.
I came from Jura.
I was a journeyman.
That was the time of
my journey around France.
Yes. I went far since then.
But I'll tell you one thing:
money doesn't replace the road.
I can still see the house.
We must not talk about it anymore.
There was a crime in La Burliere.
It's a cursed place.
I can well imagine that.
Especially since they've
guillotined three innocent men.
- Why do you say that?
- I was there on the night of the crime.
To think that I walked
all these miles then.
- Why do you come here?
- I'm a builder.
I built a house on the other bank
of the Gouard, for Parisians.
I've been told that...
Well, I learnt that...
- that he was back?
- Seraphin?
He won't stay long.
Is it true that he's wrecking
his house?
What do you want of him?
If he's doing such a thing, it means
it's still eating him. Just like me.
I was right to come.
But one shouldn't avenge himself
on houses but on men.
I'm going to tell him the truth.
- The truth? What truth?
The truth is known. - No!
- Hey!
- Yes?
Now, what a mess!
It feels funny.
I'm saying this because I'm in the
trade.
You're wrecking, I'm building.
If you want stones,
just help yourself.
Oh! To think it was such
a beautiful house 25 years ago.
- 25 years ago?
- Indeed.
I never could forget that night.
I never could talk about it.
I was eighteen.
I was covered in blood and I thought
the police would accuse me.
That's why I ran away.
I hid for ten days in the
mountains. With fear.
And the three men?
Did you see them?
I saw the three men, yes.
Before I got here.
I had been walking for two days.
On the bend, just after Les Mays,
there's a spring.
A spring level with the ground.
I drank from it, then I fell asleep.
I don't know what woke me up.
The noise. The voices maybe.
- How shall we make him tell.
- There are many ways.
- Monge has a stone for a heart.
- If we're seen...
We won't be. The three of us
will cover for each other.
Can you see this stone? My grandfather
already sharpened his knife on it.
- Do you think we'll need it?
- If we do, it will be sharp enough.
And when you arrived here,
didn't you tell my father?
- Didn't you warn him?
- How could I?
I didn't make the connection.
And I was hungry, that's all.
And I came from Jura.
Monge, I didn't know who that was.
Wait. How could you understand
what the three men said?
- They were foreigners.
- Not at all.
They were speaking just like
you and I, people from here.
But that's not important.
On the contrary,
it's very important.
What about the other?
The one who wasn't masked.
What did he look like?
How tall? How old?
Truth is not that simple to tell.
When I came to La Burliere,
I could see I was
interrupting something.
That there was
a storm inside too.
As soon as I finished my soup, one
of your brothers took me to my bed.
He lifted a trapdoor and
I found myself in the stables.
I fell asleep like a log... Not for
long:
some noises woke me up.
I was thirsty. I told myself:
you're going to bother them but,
what the hell, you've got
to drink, haven't you?
So I lifted the trapdoor...
and I saw.
It was blood.
But at the same time, I saw a mass
of skirts, blouse and hair, and an arm
reaching for your cradle. It almost
made it
but, just before it did, fell down
again.
- And then she died.
- I know. She was my mother.
Yeah.
- Seraphin! Watch out!
- Mind the stones
Leave me alone.
Don't listen to what he said.
Forget him.
You must live. You'll be happy.
Zorme... The killers.
He said they were from here.
What did he know about it?
- What about you?
- He came to throw poison into your
life.
The house killed him to protect you.
Can you hear me?
If you believe what
he said, you're lost.
- Lost!
- Wait!
Forget everything. It's the demon
wanting to take you back.
Don't let him.
Forget!
What a fate, by God.
To end like that.
A man whose job was
building houses.
I saw one he built in Peyrolles.
A monstrosity. It looked like
a soup tureen.
- What did he tell Seraphin?
- Nothing.
He came to buy the stones
of La Burliere.
- The house didn't want it.
- The house, easy to say.
I've got to see if the other one
didn't say a word.
As for Seraphin, he lost his head.
He's the violent kind.
He's not normal.
No, Celestat, no. I was there.
I saw it all.
He didn't tell Seraphin anything.
He didn't have the time.
My mother. My family.
Three guillotined innocent men.
And that man who didn't do
anything to you.
You bitch! Bitch! Bitch!
But I'll get you. I'll go to the end.
Nothing will remain.
Nothing! Nothing, nothing
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
- Seraphin!
- We brought you gifts.
- Olives from my father's mill.
- And choux buns baked this morning.
Thank you, but don't stay here.
It's dangerous.
And I've got to work. To take advantage
of my Sunday. I don't have much time.
I told you we shouldn't have
come together.
He can be so nice when you
see him alone.
Why didn't you come alone,
as you did the other day?
I don't have to justify
myself to you.
- Patrice...
- Shhh. I'm dreaming.
She looked right at my face,
and she didn't lower her eyes.
She... She smiled at me.
- Which one?
- Well, the Persian one.
Well... the one who
looks like she's Persian.
- Persian? Are you sure?
- I don't know.
That's how I picture them.
- Are you weeping?
- Yes.
That's one thing I can do.
Weeping.
Here, take the olives.
She brought them to me.
I'll put them under
a glass globe.
At least eat the choux buns
of the other one.
- What about you?
- What could I do with these?
You eat choux buns
when you're happy.
If I only could rub out my face
the way you wreck your house.
I'm not just going to raze
the house to the ground.
I'm going to find the killers.
The real ones.
25 years later? Who knows
what became of them?
What with the war,
are they even alive?
If they were dead, I'd know it.
I'd know it.
How could my father
earn all of this?
1892, June 1th. Gaspard Dupin,
Didon Pujol, Celestat Dormeur
hereby declare owing to
Mr. Felicien Monge
1500... 1000... 1200...
With 1000 francs, then,
you could buy 10 hectares here.
An interest of 23% will be collected...
23%. 1000 F at 23%. That was
enough to want a man dead.
To be paid back to Mr. Felicien Monge
on St Michael's day, in the year 1896.
The night of the crime...
it was the eve of St Michael's day.
Three debts. Three men from here.
Dupin, Pujol, Dormeur...
Good morning, Mr. Dormeur.
Good morning, Mr. Dormeur.
- Mr. Dormeur.
- The owner of the oil mill,
Didon Pujol...
Didon Pujol... Pujol...
I don't want you to be ridiculous.
My name is Patrice Dupin.
My name is Patrice Dupin.
Patrice Dupin.
Dupin the rich man, Pujol the miller,
Dormeur the baker.
Hello, sir.
Good morning.
Do you want bread?
No, I just wanted to thank
your father for the choux buns.
They were delicious.
Good morning, Mr. Dormeur.
See you soon, Marie.
- Good morning.
- What's happening to you?
This is the first time you've
come to the mill.
Yes. I come to thank
your father for the olives.
- They were delicious.
- Somebody changed him! He talks!
We'd better go. My father
doesn't like you much.
- Doesn't he? Why?
- You're bad luck.
Since you've been here,
he says his oil is brown.
You'll see: there are charming
things in Pontradieu.
- I'm sure of it.
- I'm counting on you then?
Agreed. On Sunday for lunch.
Thank your father for me.
If it's all the same to you,
I'd rather surprise him.
- That's it. We'll surprise him.
- Bye!
Seraphin, what are you doing?
Where were you? I almost thought
you would let me down.
- I was looking at the pond.
- Did you see it?
My father's pride and joy.
Every day, he takes his
ritual walk here,
even when he comes back home late.
He's got to walk round his pond.
Come. Here, we eat at noon.
My mother is already seated
at the table.
Oh, so you're Seraphin Monge.
So it's you?
If I had thought, my God.
If they'd told me that, one day...
- She's as deaf as a post.
- Yes, but she's alive.
She never heard me
laugh nor cry.
My father married her because
she was an heiress.
- Isn't your father here?
- No, he's in Marseille.
That's him, yes.
Don't you think I look like him?
Sit down.
- Is he rich?
- Very.
First my mother's money.
Although he had a long wait.
- How long?
- The inheritance?
It was around 1900.
I was about ten.
- So I was four.
- Well, yes.
- It seems to trouble you.
- No, no.
- So, when I was born, he was poor?
- He couldn't know.
Then there was the war.
A good thing when you're
a blacksmith. A very very good thing.
First horseshoes, then shells.
He made as many as were
raining on us.
It was profitable.
As many millions as I have pieces
instead of a face.
Except that when he saw me
coming back like this,
he wanted to give them back,
of course. His millions.
But he didn't know to whom.
Oh: Charmaine, my sister.
Her husband was killed
in October 1917.
Isn't it a sin: such an arse,
only used for sitting on it.
Stop it, Patrice.
I'm warning you: if you don't like her,
we won't stay friends.
Sit down. I wouldn't like you
to get taller.
- Oh, father is not here?
- No. He won't be back till tonight.
Conchita changed her day.
And how much will she take
from him today?
As long as he doesn't
get her pregnant.
Someone could do it for him.
You don't mind us revealing
our dirty family secrets, do you?
It's always a good start
for a conversation.
The guest is terribly embarrassed,
so he quickly changes subjects.
You'll have to get used to it:
he's not the talking type.
I wouldn't mind if he'd
at least agree to see me.
The armchair you seem to admire
is genuine Louis the Xlllth.
We've got another one
in my bedroom.
I'll show it to you later if you
express the desire to see it.
Tell me, you know the girl I saw
one Sunday in La Burliere...
- Which one?
- On, you know.
The one who smiled at me
and said hello.
- Oh, the Persian?
- The Persian.
- She's Rose Pujol.
- Oh, Rose.
- Do you see her sometimes?
- I meet her.
If you see her, can you tell her,
er... nothing.
- You see? You don't tell her anything.
- I won't fail to do it.
- Well... I've got to go.
- I'll walk him to the gate.
Come and see us again.
Seeing you make me feel good.
I have no friends and...
I don't want any.
Going out, cruising around,
laughing...
when I laugh, people
are frightened.
Well.. with you, I know I don't have
to fear anything on that account.
No, with me, you don't have
to fear anything.
And what do I have to fear?
- So there's a Rose in your life?
- No, there's no one in my life.
How long will you keep on
not seeing me?
- I'm a road-mender, I...
- So what?
Does it prevent you from living?
Or are you looking for an excuse?
Take this.
It opens the small gate near
the pond, and the back door
which opens on the big corridor.
My bedroom is the first door
on the right.
I'll wait for you as long
as I have to.
Let's not disappoint my brother:
he wanted us to meet.
I wouldn't hurt him for the world.
Neither would you.
And don't you forget:
feed them yourself.
Every night, because if you don't...
they won't recognize even you.
Goodbye, Mr. Dupin.
You're looking for trouble.
Those animals are more dangerous
than a loaded rifle.
That's the point. I want them to be
dangerous, and I want people to know it.
I've been thinking of this,
wanting this for a long time.
Conchita's father is raising them.
I knew them as pups.
They obey my slightest command.
These dogs can kill a man
in utter silence.
To kill... Do you even know
what it is to kill?
- He came here.
- Who?
The road-mender.
If you mean Seraphin Monge,
that's true: he came here.
- I can smell him.
- You never saw him.
I don't need to see him.
I know where he's been.
He came for lunch. And he
talked to Miss Charmaine.
I don't want your sister
to talk to him.
How can you judge a man
that you don't know?
He's a Bolshevik.
A house, a possession...
You don't destroy that.
You must respect memory,
property. The work of others.
He... He does... he does...
He sets a bad example,
that's what he does.
Because you think that you
set a good one?
I don't set anything.
I want to be left alone.
What now? What do you
hold against me?
I hold against you
your lack of suffering.
What do you know about that?
Every man suffers inside,
and the way he can.
You're quite happy to own a car,
aren't you? English suits.
I had to work in spite of my moods
in order to feed my family,
so I forbid you to judge me.
Because all I did was because of you.
So you would be comfortable,
and warm in winter.
So if your road-mender comes back
here, I'll turn the dogs loose on him.
You could show a little respect.
He's miserable.
God didn't make miserable people.
Some are of their own doing.
- Can you hear?
- Yes, I can hear
the voice of stupidity. The only one
that can still reach you.
Are you happy? You hurt her.
The meal will be overcooked again.
I'm sincerely sorry that I offended
the Lady of the castle.
- Don't call her that, Patrice.
- Hurry-up and join her.
You may have a chance
to save our meal.
She loves me.
If I wanted her to, she would
throw herself in fire for me.
She'd rather throw
everybody else in.
Pujol. Dupin. Dormeur.
The three I.O.U.s are not in
the same order anymore.
The order in which
I decided to off them.
Someone came. Someone
read these papers.
Someone who's not interested
in the gold coins either.
Pujol, Dupin, Dormeur.
In order to kill them,
first I must know them.
Learn their ways.
Choose the time.
Seraphin!
What are you doing here?
Well, I.. I was looking for you.
Patrice wanted me to tell you something.
- What?
- Well, he didn't really know.
He just wanted me to talk to you.
- You know he's a very good chap?
- Yes.
He's serious...
Well... His face is broken, all right,
but inside, he's like this.
I know.
And... he's got some ideas,
well, he likes you.
Would you like me to give him
a message, or...?
- What should I tell him?
- The same thing.
Oh? Well, OK.
Well... have a nice day.
There, easy... There... Easy...
Come on.
What is it, dogs?
Is there someone here?
No, there's nothing.
Come on.
Will he come everyday
to buy his bread?
- Maybe he comes for Marie.
- Maybe he doesn't come for Marie.
And, at this time,
Marie is sleeping.
Good morning, Seraphin.
You're an early riser.
What weather, isn't it?
Have you seen the wind?
- Is it the Mistral?
- No, it's Lou Peou,
the wind from the mountains.
It's here for at least two days.
The air is so dry that
the bread won't rise.
It's frightening the birds, animals
are hiding and don't eat anymore.
- Even dogs.
- Dogs?
Yes. They're like wet blankets. They
don't even have a sense of smell left.
- So, what will you have? A fougasse?
- No. A choux bun.
I've made my decision.
Tonight, I'll kill Gaspard Dupin.
Why didn't you dare come in?
I've been looking for you everywhere.
What do you mean, you're
looking for me everywhere?
Yes, in the whole park.
I saw you passing by earlier.
I called you.
It wasn't me. It was probably
your father or... or your brother.
My brother is not home and
my father is playing billiards.
But who cares since you
came to see me?
To see you?
Would you rather have me
take my clothes off,
or do it yourself?
- Shall I go there?
- Well... There.
You're not going to take
advantage of it and run, are you?
No, why? No.
You must look this way.
Look at me.
Look at what I'm doing
when you're not here.
I close my eyes,
and I imagine you.
And I touch myself,
waiting for you.
I can see you.
You're in front of the house.
You can't find the key.
You're trying dozens of them.
You have a whole bunch.
But never the right one.
Say it, that it's never
the right one.
No, it's never the right one.
Your brow is burning.
Your fingers are trembling.
And the wind...
the wind is arousing you.
It's Lou Peou, the wind
from the mountains.
Come. Come, I beseech you.
No. Not yet. You're not here.
You're at the door, downstairs.
You're trying the keys.
- Should I go downstairs?
- Oh, no, Seraphin. Come.
I've been waiting so long for you.
Do you like me? Tell me you
like me. Tell me I'm alive.
Kiss me. Kiss me!
No, you're not here,
you're downstairs.
I got impatient:
I broke the door open.
At last, you make up your mind.
Easy, now. Easy.
Yes. You're making love to me on
the plaza, in front of everybody.
They're all here, all those who
wanted to bury us.
But we're stronger.
They're watching us.
It's killing them.
Patrice!
Patrice... Oh, my God.
It can't be. He killed himself.
- Oh, my God!
- Patrice! Patrice!
Oh, thank you, God.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, God.
It's his fault. If only you
didn't bring him here,
nothing would have happened.
He carries death.
- He killed your father.
- Shut up, you poor madwoman.
At least shut up.
- What happened?
- He slipped, I guess.
I killed the dogs but it
was too late.
Then the other one
came out with her rifle.
She thought she saw a figure
in the park.
- You, probably.
- I don't know. Maybe.
I was just coming back from
a date with the Persian.
Rose.
Thanks to you.
I was happy.
I regret to see him dead
but I just can't be unhappy.
- Where are you going?
- Home.
You must stay. I need you.
The doctor and the gendarmes
will be here soon.
It's an accident but they'll
have questions to ask.
You were on the scene. Don't worry:
I'll say why you were here.
I'm not afraid.
Not for me anyway.
But I'll be delighted to tell them
we were making love.
Hey. Gaspard Dupin won't
be buried whole.
What are you saying?
He'll be cut open like
a butchered animal.
What's that horrible story?
Dr Romand was finishing his report,
writing "natural causes",
and suddenly a gendarme arrived,
all drenched and his teeth chattering.
- It didn't rain, did it?
- No,
but he fell in the pond at the
same spot as Dupin.
So the captain went to see why.
And, when he came back, he said:
the brink has been made
slippery for three yards,
anybody who'd walk on it
was sure to fall in the water.
- So what?
- The brink had been soaped.
- A regular ice rink.
- What does it mean?
- It means it's a crime.
- A crime. And who?
What do you mean, who? It's him!
The man who's demolishing his house.
He's got blood in his head.
is whole family was murdered: do you
think it's normal that he escaped alive?
- He was three weeks old.
- He drags death behind him.
He brings it with him
everywhere he goes.
- Just consider the war.
- Shut up, you're crazy.
Anyway, somebody
put soap on the brink.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
Do you want to tell me something?
You must have had a good alibi
since they released you.
- I never believed it was you,
you know. - Thank you.
They arrested the Dupin boy.
A matter of inheritance, they say.
They always think people
do things for money.
I don't care.
Is it true what they say
about you and that widow?
I'm not interested in
what they say.
I can't sleep anymore. I forget
the bread, I fumble my deliveries.
Marie. I can't see clearly.
Come on: to break one's house, to mend
the road, there are other things in
life.
Yes, there are. But I'm
not able to love.
- Even the widow?
- Even the widow.
In that case, I'll wait.
- Patrice Dupin is the killer.
- It is not true. You're making it up.
- He might be.
- No. I know he isn't.
It can't be anybody else,
do you hear me?
- Who else could it be?
- Nobody asked you anything.
- I'm going there anyway.
- Where?
To court. He mustn't believe that
everybody is letting him down.
Either you stay here
or I'll lock you up in your room.
Don't say anything to her.
He's the Dupin boy, regardless...
I would go even if he weren't
a rich man.
- As long as it's a man, she goes,
anyway. - Do you want a slap?
Two months ago, you talked only about
Seraphin Monge. Say it isn't so.
It is so. But I can't do anything
about Seraphin. He's not a man.
Did you hear what the kid said?
He's not a man.
- And no man killed Dupin.
- What are you making up now?
A rifle, a knife, anything like that we
can
understand. Those are a man's weapons.
- But soap...
- So what?
What if the kid was right?
What if Patrice Dupin was innocent?
Somebody killed Gaspard.
A woman's fancy ideas.
Why would Monge do it? No reason.
I'm not like others who fear him.
He wouldn't hurt anybody.
He's just a jinx.
He didn't do a thing.
These are morphotheseus
from South America.
These species are worth
thousands of francs.
I'm very interested in butterflies.
Before the war, it was old coins but...
on a wall, these are
more beautiful.
- Why were those things in your car?
- The butterflies are not mine.
I'm talking about the wax
and black soap.
Who says mechanics says failure,
and who says failure says repairs.
I've got a passion for it.
I like to repair.
And I like to wash
my hands afterwards.
And the wax?
- For the brass parts.
- Of course.
As for the revolver...
I don't think my father was
murdered with a firearm.
Indeed... but the problem is...
there's a two hours gap
in your schedule.
- True.
- Where were you?
I do not wish to answer
that question.
Between 8 and 10 pm,
you had ample time
to put soap on the brink
of the pond,
so I want to know
where you were.
What about you? Where
were you during the war?
- I did my duty.
- Behind the lines.
Arresting the poor chaps
who didn't join their unit.
- You refuse to answer?
- Yes.
In that case, I'm forced
to keep you here.
Let's be clear: I'm not charging you
directly with the murder of your
father. No,
but I'm charging you with illegal
carrying of a weapon.
Mementos from the war
are all very fine,
but you don't have a right
to take them out of your home.
It's not a memento from the war.
I've got other ones.
- Oh, look, I...
- No.
I had a pal with a face
such as mine,
maybe a little more stitched,
and one day, since he fought
a lost battle...
I can say that again, can't I?
He blew it off.
With this.
Then he bequeathed it to me
in his will,
as an ironic joke.
- The law.
- The law is the law.
That's a comfort.
I of course allow you
to hire a lawyer.
We'll examine within 48 hours
your provisional release but,
until then, I'm really sorry...
Seraphin Monge! The village
is going to try to get you.
You must leave. For ever.
Crime poisons everything.
Assassins and victims.
And it's catching.
Worse than the plague.
Zorme. Old Brigue said
you had powers.
Everybody here fears you.
But not me.
So if you've got something to say,
say it now or shut up.
Don't challenge Zorme,
Seraphin, ever!
If you don't want fate
to catch up with you.
It's here, your fate.
I hold it.
I hold it back.
But if you challenge me...
Go to bed, go, you've
drunk too much, go.
Yes, I have drunk.
Yes, I drink,
because I've got the power...
but I can't change a thing.
Flee... Forget it all.
Now that you murdered your house,
you've got nothing more to do here.
You don't have any roots.
You'll always be a stranger,
because they'll always be cowards.
They'll always reject you.
They'll choke you like remorse.
They'll take revenge.
If you marry a woman here,
you'll bring her misery
and your children will bear
the mark of blood.
Scram. You're the one
who must go.
This is my home. Even if
there's nothing left.
Seraphin. On the night
they died...
You must flee!
I say flee all this!
Them! And especially
yourself...
especially yourself. If you don't...
Fate, Seraphin, fate...
- What are you doing. - Can't you
see I'm going to knead the dough.
You're kneading with a rifle, now?
Gustave Dupin, in spite of all
the precautions he took,
managed to slip on black soap.
People almost believed it was natural
death, so I, from now on, take the
rifle.
- He's afraid.
- Who?
- Celestat?
- Yes.
Every night, he goes kneading
with his rifle.
He's afraid of being alone
in the night.
Rich Dupin's daughter:
the death of her father
doesn't prevent her
from chasing men.
They say she makes merry
with Seraphin.
The widow and the orphan.
They do make a nice pair.
Hand in hand, their feet in blood
and the prospective inheritance...
It's not true.
You're talking nonsense.
- Marie, where are you going?
- Ask her: she knows everything.
- Marie!
- What's with her?
I don't want to hurt the kid.
I'm almost her grandmother.
Seraphin had better not
take her from me, or else...
- The poor boy is only asking for peace.
- Is he?
Some accuse him of the crime.
They would be ready to hunt him.
So he'd better not hurt Marie.
I won't tell on you.
I didn't love my father.
I now know what he did to you.
- Was he the murderer of La Burliere?
- There were three of them.
So that was your secret.
- Do you enjoy punishing?
- But I didn't.
The idea crossed me, true,
but I didn't tell anyone.
It's as if someone read
my thoughts.
That did us a great favour. He was
about to ruin us with his Conchita.
Put your clothes back on.
Go away.
It doesn't matter.
Now there's something even
stronger between us.
I didn't throw myself at you
because I needed a man, Seraphin,
but because they took everything
from you. They ruined our lives.
- But we're alike and we'll make
them pay. - No, we're not alike.
They got your husband, they got
your brother, but it was the war.
- It was nobody's fault. - It was. It's
always the same people who make it.
The bastards, the cowards, with
their secrets and their righteousness,
who build memorials to the dead to
prove to themselves that they're alive.
The only thing that can
unite us is revenge.
Which one do you want now?
Pujol? Dormeur?
And now, for everybody,
it will be an accident.
Charmaine!
Charmaine!
Seraphin!
No.
- Did you love her?
- No.
My God, don't say that. At least,
let her have had something.
- Of course you loved her.
- No.
Why was she in your home then?
And why are you here?
Zorme is right:
I bring death. Go away.
Go away!
Seraphin Monge killed my master
because he wanted to marry
his daughter for the inheritance
and my master was
squandering his fortune.
And right he was not to want
to leave anything to those ravens.
But Charmaine fought back
when her brother was accused.
She told Monge that she would
confess everything to you.
So Monge used the dogs
to kill her.
Why didn't the dogs do
anything to him?
Because they can feel
he's the Devil.
Miss de Pontratieu. What are
the grounds for your accusation?
The castle belonged to my family.
I grew up with Mr. Dupin.
He was our game-keeper's son.
When he bought the castle
from me, after the war,
he kept me near him as
his housekeeper.
He... I think he always felt
something for me.
So, since they didn't let me
kill the damn Devil,
let him be locked up!
Or it will go on!
Marie Dormeur? Come.
I'm going to file a complaint.
That girl broke my rifle.
Marie Dormeur...
Have you seen Seraphin Monge
open the gate of the kennel?
What? Are you mad?
Did she tell you that?
She's a nasty piece of work
and she can't see a thing.
But, you know, I saw a man,
another one, who went out of the
park on a bicycle with no lights.
And you failed to identify him?
Yes... I couldn't look at him, I had
just heard the... the noise of the...
Are you quite sure?
Do you know the penalty
for bearing false witness?
Why do you want to clear
Seraphin Monge at all cost?
Because he didn't do it.
They were in his home,
Charmaine and he.
Then she took her car, then he
followed her on his bike,
and I followed in turn.
He couldn't possibly arrive there
before her and let the dogs loose.
And what were they doing
together in Monge's place.
She came to make love to him.
What about Monge? Why did
you follow him to the castle?
Because I love him.
Wait. Let me.
Thank you for what you did.
What you told the judge.
- It was the truth.
- It's not easy to say.
Are you very very sad?
She was much more
than my sister.
- You can't understand.
- I can.
Because, now,
there are two of us.
Look at Seraphin:
he's alone, truly alone,
because he hasn't got
anything to give.
But I need you.
- I love you.
- I'll never leave you.
Seraphin, you're not going
to believe this,
but I'm sure I left my ring on
the stone, here, and it disappeared.
- Did you find something?
- No, but someone was here.
Do you think they've
taken my ring?
It was a present, but it's
not worth much.
No. That presence... I know it.
He's always with me...
watching me... following me...
- Why the ring, then?
- Why Charmaine?
Marie! Marie!
What has she got? My God...
- I don't know. She...
- She's got a fever. I'll help her
inside.
- Wait. I'll help you.
- No, no. Her father, you know...
He doesn't like me, I know.
- What does the doctor say?
- He says it's got to run its course.
He says he doesn't know
what it is.
- I know.
- You don't know a thing
- Did she eat?
- Almost nothing.
- Sometimes, she speaks.
- What does she say?
- Nonsense. What would you
want her to say? - What nonsense?
That she saw someone
at the castle.
That she saw him again in a dream
and knew whom it was, or something.
What must we do in order
to expel the illness?
Try to make her drink some
St-John's wort in goat milk.
I had her drink it all already.
Hyssopus and hyoscyamus,
comfrey and smilax aspera,
bermudagrass and sea queen
and everything you told me.
You must trust in God
when herbs are useless.
Marie! Who did you see at the castle,
Marie, my little girl? Answer!
So it was really you?
I was trying not to believe it,
to tell myself... but,
come to think of it,
I knew you'd come.
I've been waiting for so long.
- You killed Dupin, didn't you?
- No.
Although I swore to kill him,
just like you.
But I'm going to kill you.
Do you know why?
Put the rifle away, Seraphin.
I can explain.
We can reach an agreement:
I've got money.
I know. I found the IOU.
So what? It just means that
I owed some money to your father.
- I can give it back to you.
- No, you can't give me anything back.
For one thing, your father was as much
a thief as we were. And even more.
Ask anybody in the village:
they all know he was.
And he really asked for what
happened to him.
But we didn't do it.
I swear we didn't.
When we came in La Burliere,
nothing happened as we wanted.
I never could forget that night...
Go on! Throw it!
Can't you do it?
Why don't you guys help him?
You can't be cowards, since
there are many of you.
I'm a murderer. You must
prevent me from going on.
Except... except if it
suits someone:
Dupin's death, Pujol's death...
You charge me with the accounts
you settle among you
and I end up on the Guillotine?
Like the foreigners did.
I'm the ideal culprit.
I really wanted to avenge
my family.
But there's someone here
killing for me.
So who is he?
You? Him?
Some cousin? Some neighbour?
A notary? Maybe a baker?
I don't care about your quarrels.
I came here because this is my home.
My home, can you hear me?
My home... let's talk about it.
I have a house, I demolish it. I sleep
with a girl and someone kills her.
I've got a vengeance,
someone steals it from me.
I'm alone. I always was alone.
They parked me for ten years with nuns,
for seven years with lumberjacks,
then they threw me in
the middle of a war,
I had no one for whom to survive,
but I'm not dead.
I'm not dead! I'm not dead!
I'm not dead.
Now, I'm going back to my place
and if you set it on fire,
you can sleep soundly:
I've got no child to come
and avenge me.
Go and see him.
Maybe he can cure her.
What if he were the bastard?
I didn't dare to say it,
so afraid am I of him.
- But why? We never hurt him, did we?
- I don't know, Celestat.
When you look at him,
I don't know you anymore.
As if there were
something else between you.
- You must tell the truth, Celestat.
- Dupin, Pujol. I'm next.
My daughter will stay alone with
her illness. Don't leave her.
Celestat, I was like you,
like the others.
We let them make an assassin
in order to forget that we're guilty.
But now we must save him from
the villagers. Do you understand?
Because only he can still
do something for Marie.
- Seraphin Monge?
- Yes.
Zorme is strong enough to make
people die without touching them,
so maybe he also has powers.
Seraphin.
- Seraphin.
- What?
Don't think about death anymore
or you'll kill them all.
I keep repeating I didn't do it.
The man who came to see you.
The journeyman.
When you're house fell down on him,
he was about to tell you something...
Yes, he saw the three of them:
Dupin, Pujol and Dormeur.
Indeed he saw them. But near
the spring, not in La Burliere.
In La Burliere, he saw
something else.
When thirst woke him up,
he lifted up the trapdoor.
He saw two men fighting.
One was your father
He held something red
in his hand.
The other one held
a shining weapon.
Then he lost his balance.
He grabbed the spit while he fell,
just when your father jumped him.
And your father skewered
himself on it.
But Monge didn't fall at once:
he walked three more steps
with the spit inside his belly,
and he leaned on the wall.
So the other man approached,
yanked his head backwards
and slit his throat.
- Just one man?
- Yes.
- Just one man and dead bodies.
- Who was he?
When everything was over
and he'd fled,
the journeyman saw the
man again, near the well.
He saw him throw something
down in it.
He told me... He told me
that he heard him cry.
But why did he tell you all this?
Why you?
It was the first time in 25 years
that he told it to anybody.
To you, he shouldn't
have spoken.
Your house didn't kill him
without a reason.
What about the others?
The three men.
- Just one man, Seraphin.
- Why didn't you say so before?
I didn't want
to wake misery up.
Why now then?
It's too late.
If you discover the real culprit,
misery will stop.
Seraphin you're not cursed.
We are.
Because we knew everything, we
knew everything right from the start.
We didn't want to face
the truth.
We chose to live with the secret,
with fear, but live anyway.
We didn't talk, so people
wouldn't gossip,
wouldn't look at us askance
in Peyrolles and the other villages,
well, to keep the same life,
the one we know.
The weight of days
is heavier than hate.
And now we must save Marie.
She wants to die because of us.
Go, Seraphin. Go and see
what's in the well.
Zorme... Monge...
So you found it, at last.
Are you happy?
They told you in the end.
And now you think you know,
because the name Zorme
is written on a knife.
But why would I have killed your family?
I was the only one who had no reason to.
The murderers are the Monges.
From father to son, for many
generations, they've killed travelers.
Their treasure belonged to the
skeletons on which you're now walking.
Zorme!
From father to son, Monge:
a family of murderers.
- It took you some time.
- What is this?
- Can't you see?
- Of course but why? Why Marie?
She saw me on the night Charmaine
died. She mustn't remember.
We should have killed you
25 years ago.
But you lacked courage. You were
sure you had a hold on me.
But finally, I prevailed.
Dupin, Pujol, and now... your
daughter, who's going to die.
You should have killed me
25 years ago.
Save Marie.
She's guilty of nothing.
You're going to suffer as I suffered.
And I'll enjoy it!
Save Marie.
Come on, shoot!
Your daughter is going
to die by my will.
- Come on: shoot.
- No!
Shoot!
I didn't do it.
It fired on its own accord.
Zorme: what did you try to
have me believe, earlier? Talk.
Leave him be. He's wounded.
You're going to kill him.
Shut up, you poor larva!
Do you think a baker's bullet
can stop Zorme?
On the night of the crime,
when I left the well,
I saw the three of them
in the barn.
They recognized me, but they
never said a word about it.
How could they have explained
their being there too?
If they didn't kill Monge
that night,
it's because I did it first.
But why did you do it?
For money, you too?
Seraphin, when I came in
La Burliere,
Monge had already massacred
all the others.
He had just slit
your mother's throat.
She was still moving.
Crawling toward you.
Because Monge had already lifted
your head to be sure to get you.
I jumped him. We fought.
And when I stabbed him with
the spit, he was still insulting me.
You killed him in order
to save me?
I was mad with jealousy.
Your mother...
We loved each other.
I never looked at
another woman again.
But then...
- the parcels during the war,
that was you? - Yes.
I didn't want you to become
a murderer.
When I discovered in your home
the papers you had found,
I understood what you
were going to do.
So I killed them for you.
I wanted you, at least,
to escape fate.
But why Charmaine?
She was not responsible.
You were at her mercy.
I don't have anything to tell men,
but I can talk to beasts.
To dogs. And even to the stones
in your house, to shut up foreigners.
For 25 years I've been living
here alone. Do you understand?
Everything stopped when
your mother died.
Seraphin: you're the only
important thing in my life.
You forced me
to shoot, Zorme.
I'm going to be arrested, I'm done
for, so your vengeance is over.
Marie's death is useless now.
Save her.
I'm too weak now.
Everybody here knew
you were Zorme's son.
Marie, my little one.
My child. You're saved.
It's over.
If you marry a woman here,
you'll bring her misery.
I don't have anything
to do here anymore.
You'll always be a stranger
because they'll always be cowards.
They'll choke you like a remorse.
Go, Seraphin. I didn't want you
to become a murderer.
I wanted you, at least,
to escape fate.
Seraphin. Seraphin,
wait for me.
Translation: Goupil66
Oct/Nov 2011
Eve of St Michael's day
Hello, everybody.
I'm a journeyman, coming from Jura,
on the road since St John's day.
Board and lodging?
Hey, Monge, can't you
hear something?
I do.
Monge! If you can't hear
anything now, you're deaf.
Lucien! Take him to
the stables and hurry back.
Good night, everybody.
- Who is he?
- Shut up.
- Do you think they'll finally
go to bed? - Finally, yes.
- Did you recognize him?
- Yes.
- What shall we do?
- We can't do anything else.
What if we're caught?
- Their throats cut. - What is it?
- All dead, their throats cut.
Come on, let him pass.
And let no one go inside.
- Their throats cut.
- They're all dead.
- Only the baby lived. - All dead.
- Their throats cut...
I can boast of one thing:
I was the first to see him.
And just after that, it was
the Rose Pujol girl.
That one had time to waste, always
dragging her bottom around.
At that time, I didn't know
his name yet.
And the Monges,
I had all but forgotten them.
- Who wants him?
- Monge. Seraphin Monge.
The Tricanote woman, read fortunes in
herbs,
but failed to predict the return of
Monge.
She wasted no time in correcting
the mistake of the village.
I should have... We should have
reported to you.
There couldn't be a Board of Guardians,
since you didn't have any family left.
So we had to deal with the
most urgent matters first:
provide you with a wet nurse,
then see to your education
and, say what you will, the Sisters
of Mercy are not for the poor.
The estate was sold.
The Burliere, unfortunately...
- The Burliere?
- The house of your family.
- We couldn't sell it.
- Why?
Why? Well...
- Of course you know.
- No.
You don't know but... you did read
your family record book.
Yes, but... I know I'm an orphan.
Well, you know, I was
ten at the time.
And what do you care, after all?
The past is the past.
You weren't raised by the
Sisters of Mercy, were you?
- No.
- I was.
Well. There are 1250 francs
and 50 centimes
left from the sale of the estate
and the cattle.
They're yours, as well as the house
of which here is the key.
- Mr. Notary.
- Yes.
I meant to ask you.
Every month, while I was on the front,
I received a package from here.
- Do you know who sent it?
- A package? Probably my poor father.
- He was so good.
- Your poor father? Did he die?
- Yes, in 1916.
- No, it wasn't him.
I got them until the end, until last
month
in Poland, before I was discharged.
- Was there no return address?
- No, never.
Hello. I'm Rose. Rose Pujol.
Seraphin Monge was back
from the war.
The municipality provided him
with a room in the village
and a job as a road mender. And he
was going to work with me too.
Rose!
Pujol wanted to give
his daughter in marriage.
But he was like a lot of the old ones:
he thought that misery had come back.
I really don't know why
he didn't go inside then.
Well, I'm saying that,
but I understand.
That house... It seemed like everybody
made a detour not to see it.
I followed him to his new home,
but I didn't dare talk to him
on that day.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
During several days,
we worked side by side.
Good morning.
She said hello to me but I'm sure
I'm not the one she's interested in.
She even had to make a big
detour to come this way.
She's Marie Dormeur,
the baker's daughter.
Every morning, she delivers
bread in Peyrolles.
And she never comes this way.
We would be well advised
to go back.
Can you see, kid? When the sky
is this colour over Les Mays,
it means it's going to rain badly.
No, Les Mays are this way.
You've got to learn
to know your country.
A bloke who's from here and doesn't
know how things are called is unseemly.
- Hey! What's the small rock there?
- La Beldonne?
No, I told you twenty times already:
it's Goua's Rock.
Here it comes.
- Wait!
- What?
- Come.
- Where?
Come, I tell you.
- Come in!
- No.
- Do you want to catch your death?
Come in! - No.
Come on.
You can't understand.
Oh, after all, you're right.
I knew two of them
in my bloody life.
Two road-menders, almost
as strong as I am.
After a rain such as this one,
they didn't last eight days.
The stronger you are, the more
transparent are your lungs.
Do you realize, kid?
The wood that we're burning
has been cut 23 years ago.
23 years...
Hey, what are you doing?
Are you listening to me?
I'm looking around.
23 years. And just the
same as it was.
Except for the holes in the roof,
nothing's changed.
And it was clean, mind you.
The Guirard woman.
Everything was shining
in their home.
- The Guirard woman?
- Your mother.
My mother?
Nobody dared to tell you.
When you were taken to the Sisters
of Mercy, you were three weeks old.
You remember that?
- I don't know if I should.
- Why shouldn't you?
Damn! The storm will
get us in the end.
You'll have escaped the war and
the Spanish flu to be killed by
lightning.
Why shouldn't you?
Behind that door, there were
maybe fifty of us.
Riveted. Silent.
And in this room, there were
only two sounds that morning.
The clock and a crying baby. You.
They took the bodies out
then they took you away.
What bodies?
What I remember most
is the smell.
It smelled of blood. Warm blood,
you can't imagine.
- Oh, yes, I can.
- Oh, yes, that's true,
you know the smell.
You were in the war.
But I hadn't been. There was
blood everywhere.
Everywhere you see dust on the floor,
there were bloody footprints.
Their feet had waded in blood.
And here, here where I'm sitting,
there was the grandad.
Your mother's father. His blood
made him a red beard on his shirt.
It looked as if they'd knotted a red
napkin
around his neck to feed him his soup.
And here... was Monge.
Sprawled against the wall.
- "Lightning Bolt" Monge.
- "Lightning Bolt" Monge?
Yes. Your father.
The murdered had skewered him with the
Christmas spit that was hanging there.
And your father, with
the spit in his body,
still had the strength
to drag himself here.
You could see the mark of
his hands near the salt box.
Hey, you can still see it here.
And here were your two brothers,
left at the bottom of the cupboard,
their throat open too.
And here your mother
was lying, her skirts lifted.
- My mother...
- No, don't worry, she wasn't raped.
Her throat was open too. But she
was the only one with closed eyes.
As if someone had taken pity on her.
All the others still looked at you.
Oh, I know what you want to know.
The murderers were found.
They were supposedly three blokes
working on the railway.
They were found dead drunk, with
four bottles of your father's brandy.
They came from over there...
some country... Herzegovina, they said.
It was really hell to find
an interpreter.
So they were guillotined.
Can you understand, now,
why everything stayed as it was?
Why no one came to steal even
a gram of salt in the salt shaker?
Should they have given the Burliere
away, nobody would have wanted it.
In this house, there's the mark
of murder and especially...
especially the mark of the gallows.
I think... it couldn't happen
that way.
There was too much
mystery behind Monge.
It couldn't happen that way.
And maybe you know how it could
have happened, you shapeless scum?
I knew someone would finally
open this fucking door.
- We had to take shelter.
- You, shut up.
- What did you tell him?
- Nothing.
Well, everything...
everything that could be told.
Oh, so you know what can
and can't be told?
You poisoned his life.
That's what you did.
- Who's he?
- He's Zorme. He's got powers.
- What's he saying?
- Nothing.
His mouth is wide open
but he's not talking to us.
- What's your trouble?
- My mother...
Well, your mother... Your mother
died more than 20 years ago.
Five minutes ago to me.
Seraphin!
I know you're here.
- Do you recognize me?
- Yes.
Why didn't you come to
the war memorial?
- Because I'm alive.
- You were wrong. Everybody's there.
They don't like you a lot
around here, so...
That I came back from the war
is no fault of mine.
That's not it. It was my father who
said they had to write your name down.
He's a town councilor.
We had one less dead than
in Peyrolles, so it didn't look right.
- It wasn't to spite you.
- What do you want?
I ? Nothing. Bye.
Seraphin? Won't you come
to the banquet?
- I'm not invited.
- I invite you.
- What are you doing?
- Nothing.
I'm waiting for you.
Do you mind?
They didn't like having to scratch
my name from the memorial.
So, if they see us arriving together...
Good morning, Mr. Dormeur.
- Good morning, Mrs. Dormeur.
- Take a seat. I'll wait on you
directly.
Good morning, Marie.
I hope there's some left for us.
What is she doing with him?
Do you know what my mother
told me about him and his house?
- We all know it.
- I wouldn't be able to do it.
I'd feel all of his dead family
lying beside me.
- What about you? Could you?
- Yes.
So, the guy from Peyrolles answers:
"The railway will pass through our place
because we are a heroic village. "
Heroic village? Heroic village?
As it they were the only ones.
If it goes on like this, soon France
will be nothing but railway stations.
- Hey, Rose, will you dance?
- Not today.
- We danced during the
whole war. Come. - I'm not alone.
Since they came back,
they've got it all.
Hey! You who are just back from it,
will there be another war soon.
Yeah! They'll all go away again
and I'll dance with the girls.
Come.
Seraphin. You must take a bread.
No, not that one.
It's the Zorme's,
just in case...
Here, take this one.
And his father is the ingenior
from the PLM.
He decides where they
build the stations.
Oh, Seraphin, come here:
I kept a chair for you.
I'll say one thing: the railway
is good for business,
true, but you'll see all the
foreigners it will bring to us.
Well, if they're foreigners
who buy things.
Yes, but there are also
foreigners who come back.
Why do you laugh?
Because it's bothering you.
- We are beyond reproach.
- I didn't ask you anything.
You know everything anyway.
The murderers were beheaded.
And quite convenient it was,
wasn't it?
Their footprints were the ones
we found in La Burliere.
Their shoes and trousers legs
were bloody.
They even stole Monge's brandy.
We found them drunk on it.
What more do you want?
At the foot of the gallows, they were
still screaming that they were innocent.
That's what they all scream.
And those screamed
in a foreign language.
- We couldn't understand them.
- How very convenient.
We don't have anything
more to tell you.
You don't have anything to look
for here. Except sadness and pain.
I don't care: I don't have
a penny, so I'm not afraid.
But since they've become rich,
they don't like being bothered.
You mustn't listen to morons.
The culprits were punished,
the case is now forgotten.
Seraphin.
Go and dance. Go.
Let bygones be bygones, and the
young must stay with the young.
I should know. The owner
of the oil mill, Didon Pujol,
almost bought La Burliere for
a song, but his wife told him...
...if you buy it, you'll live
there alone.
I'll never set foot in it. She was
scared of meeting a ghost.
She was right. Every night, the
mother comes back for her kid.
- But I don't know how to dance.
- I'm going to teach you.
One, two, three...
Look at him dancing. He spoiled
our party with his evil eye.
You waited for me? How nice!
You shouldn't have.
My bread. Give me my bread.
Hey: he's not afraid.
That's because he's new here.
Although this is his home, isn't it?
Whatever some people may say.
Thank you, Seraphin, my boy.
Thank you.
No, thank you. I never eat garlic.
They say it's bad...
for people like me.
An excellent bread,
Celestat Dormeur.
Better than last year.
Probably your sweated fear
that fell into the dough:
it enhances the taste.
Mmm... A little on the exotic side.
So, Seraphin Monge, are you happy
to be in your village again?
As you can see, we're having fun,
we're celebrating.
We're so happy to see you.
We're your family now.
Even if some thought it was
smart to tell you things...
To wake up the dead.
You mustn't, you must never
wake up the dead.
It can be hazardous.
Sometimes.
I started being feverish
on the next day...
- Brigue!
- I knew you'd come.
What is it? Are you ill?
I wouldn't be like this if
I hadn't told you anything.
The Spanish flu, they say.
Easy to say, isn't it?
The Devil's flu, I say.
Come what may, I do not
regret telling you.
But remember: it couldn't
have happened that way.
- Why do you say that?
- The attorney said it:
to inflict such wounds,
there's only one tool:
a cobbler's knife.
A well-sharpened cobbler's knife.
And on the three guys from Herzegovina,
they found no cobbler's knife.
Anyway you can find those
tools here, not in Herzegovina.
Tell me about my mother.
What was she like?
I'm talking about the murderers.
Can't you understand?
- They don't exist anymore.
- Don't they?
Since you talked to me,
I have nightmares...
I can see bits and pieces...
the house, my father... a cradle.
But I never see faces.
How was my mother?
Very beautiful.
There was a portrait of her in
La Burliere, but I... well, it
disappeared.
Oh, beware, kid.
The dead always try to cling to you,
to insert themselves in your life,
in order to finish what they
must do. Beware, kid. Beware.
Clorinde. Hey, Clorinde!
Come and see.
Listen for one minute.
Clorinde. Hey, Clorinde!
Don't you scream that way.
Celestat is napping.
I want to see you, Clorinde.
Seraphin Monge is mad:
- he's burning his furniture.
- What are you saying?
He's up there, in La Burliere.
Burning everything.
I saw him: I was picking up
marjoram for Brigue's fever.
And do you know what? He was trying
to break the table with a sledge hammer.
And the dough trough was
burning in the fire.
Marie! What are you doing?
Where are you going?
- Where is she going?
- You know where she's going.
That girl is crazy, I can't
understand her.
No, not that!
Mind your own business.
Go away!
Hey, look now, do you
know who I am?
Yes, you're the baker's daughter.
Get out, I tell you.
- No one ever talked to me like that.
- I'm talking the way I can.
You must never burn a cradle,
it's bad luck.
- And where will your children sleep?
- I'll never have children.
- I want some.
- Who's preventing you?
You. You love another girl.
I'm not here to love anybody.
All my life, I've been looking
for a family.
The trouble is that, now, I found it.
And I don't want to talk about it.
I can't believe it. There are no more
men here, they've all gone.
And the only one who comes back
thinks only of the dead.
Didn't you see enough dead
during the war?
Leave me alone.
If I were a man, I would forbid
you to do all this.
You have no right.
You have no right!
What do you know about
what right I have or don't have?
Do you know the sight I've got
before my eyes?
Do you know why I'm burning it all?
Do you know that my mother crawls
to my cradle every night,
without ever reaching it?
Do you know that?
You're hurting me.
If only Brigue didn't tell me anything.
If only I could believe that
she died like anybody.
And I can't even avenge her:
someone did it for me.
You're hurting me.
- What...?
- Shhh.
I thought somebody
was spying on us.
- I didn't hear anything.
- It's because I'm always alert.
War gives you the habit.
That was the day Old Brigue
died of the Spanish flu.
The Spanish flu.
Easy to say, isn't it?
Then one day, there was no more
fire nor smoke in La Burliere.
Is it over?
- No.
- It is: you burned everything.
No. The house agrees with me.
It knows it must disappear.
- This is not your place.
- Let me pass.
I tell you this is not your place.
Leave him alone, he's too miserable.
And he'll never love anybody anyway.
You didn't know how to manage him.
Now it's my turn to try.
You didn't understand, did you?
He doesn't have to choose between
you and me but between the house and us.
I'm going.
Rose. I've been told you've been seen
again stopping to talk to the
road-mender.
- He's got a name.
- I don't want to hear his name.
He's been here for as long
as we have.
If his parents hadn't been killed,
he would be as good as we are.
Let this be clear, Rose:
I don't want the road-mender
to hang around you.
He doesn't hang. I do.
And I really wonder why you don?t
want me to talk to Seraphin.
Would you think it immoral
if I married a handsome man?
This Seraphin certainly
won't want to marry you.
- What do you know about that?
- I saw him talking to Marie Dormeur.
You've seen Marie Dormeur talking
to him, that's not the same.
No, he was talking to her,
I tell you.
- And he was telling her a lot,
believe me. - Enough.
We don't know anything
about the boy anyway.
Except that he was born
in the blood of his family
then went through the war in
the blood of others, without a scratch.
I say a black star is protecting him.
I've got nothing against him
but I don't want him in my home.
That's why you put his name on the
war memorial. It suited you, didn't it?
It didn't suit me at all.
And now shut up.
Marie. You were seen talking to
the road-mender. That is not proper.
- Why?
- Because.
Oh, fine: there are no more men
because of the war,
why don't you forbid her
to see those who are left?
- A road-mender.
- So what?
If there were no road-menders
there wouldn't be any roads,
and I couldn't go and sell
your bread.
Don't you raise your voice
in front of me.
He's a good kid, he works hard
and he's beautiful as a star.
What do you know of what
is beautiful or not?
True: we're too old.
Seraphin Monge is not beautiful.
He's miserable.
That's just it: one shouldn't
consort with misery.
Misery is catching.
Just like the scabies.
And if you say again the name of the
road-mender, you can leave the table.
My father didn't say
another word that evening.
He worried so much it killed his
appetite. I'd never seen him like that.
And very early one morning, as I
got up from bed, I saw them talking.
That was a strange sight:
the baker and the miller.
That was the first time I saw them
exchanging more than three words.
Now Seraphin was
demolishing his house.
Go.
All the idlers in the village
came to see the madman.
Hey! Hey, Crazy!
Since you're so comfortable up
there, you might just stay there.
Come on, guys.
Come on, come on.
He's going to see what will
happen to him.
- Yeah!
- All right, guys.
Now let's show him, OK?
Let's aim for his head.
Take this, Crazy.
Here, take this.
Put the ladder back up immediately
or I behead you with this whip.
OK, guys, let's split.
Yes. There's a painter doing this kind
of thing now. His name is Picasso.
I could model for him.
Fortunately, I kept my buttocks,
so with a piece of them,
they made me a shoulder and...
Thank you. Without you,
I would have slept up there.
At least you would have
looked ridiculous.
And I didn't want you
to look ridiculous.
My name is Patrice Dupin.
- I'm Sera...
- Yeah, I know, yeah.
- Apparently you got out of it all
right.
- Apparently.
- Do you still think of it?
- Of the war? Never.
Yeah. You've got other things
on your mind.
Funny. You're the first person who
doesn't ask me why I'm doing this.
Doing what?
To each his broken mug.
They've shattered yours inside.
Why are you so formal with me?
I've been familiar with
enough men during the war.
It didn't do them any good.
I don't have friends
anymore either.
Come and see me. It's on the
Courcelles way. It's called Pontradieu.
My father bought a house there.
Well... a castle rather.
He's playing the aristocrat.
You'll see, it's funny enough.
Madam! Good morning.
Tell me: there was a farm called
La Burliere around here, wasn't it?
There was.
In the old days, it was an inn,
a coaching inn?
Am I right?
Can you show me the way?
There's no more way.
There's no more house.
My name is Margoulite.
Joseph.
I came here about 25 years ago.
I can remember it as if it
were yesterday.
I came from Jura.
I was a journeyman.
That was the time of
my journey around France.
Yes. I went far since then.
But I'll tell you one thing:
money doesn't replace the road.
I can still see the house.
We must not talk about it anymore.
There was a crime in La Burliere.
It's a cursed place.
I can well imagine that.
Especially since they've
guillotined three innocent men.
- Why do you say that?
- I was there on the night of the crime.
To think that I walked
all these miles then.
- Why do you come here?
- I'm a builder.
I built a house on the other bank
of the Gouard, for Parisians.
I've been told that...
Well, I learnt that...
- that he was back?
- Seraphin?
He won't stay long.
Is it true that he's wrecking
his house?
What do you want of him?
If he's doing such a thing, it means
it's still eating him. Just like me.
I was right to come.
But one shouldn't avenge himself
on houses but on men.
I'm going to tell him the truth.
- The truth? What truth?
The truth is known. - No!
- Hey!
- Yes?
Now, what a mess!
It feels funny.
I'm saying this because I'm in the
trade.
You're wrecking, I'm building.
If you want stones,
just help yourself.
Oh! To think it was such
a beautiful house 25 years ago.
- 25 years ago?
- Indeed.
I never could forget that night.
I never could talk about it.
I was eighteen.
I was covered in blood and I thought
the police would accuse me.
That's why I ran away.
I hid for ten days in the
mountains. With fear.
And the three men?
Did you see them?
I saw the three men, yes.
Before I got here.
I had been walking for two days.
On the bend, just after Les Mays,
there's a spring.
A spring level with the ground.
I drank from it, then I fell asleep.
I don't know what woke me up.
The noise. The voices maybe.
- How shall we make him tell.
- There are many ways.
- Monge has a stone for a heart.
- If we're seen...
We won't be. The three of us
will cover for each other.
Can you see this stone? My grandfather
already sharpened his knife on it.
- Do you think we'll need it?
- If we do, it will be sharp enough.
And when you arrived here,
didn't you tell my father?
- Didn't you warn him?
- How could I?
I didn't make the connection.
And I was hungry, that's all.
And I came from Jura.
Monge, I didn't know who that was.
Wait. How could you understand
what the three men said?
- They were foreigners.
- Not at all.
They were speaking just like
you and I, people from here.
But that's not important.
On the contrary,
it's very important.
What about the other?
The one who wasn't masked.
What did he look like?
How tall? How old?
Truth is not that simple to tell.
When I came to La Burliere,
I could see I was
interrupting something.
That there was
a storm inside too.
As soon as I finished my soup, one
of your brothers took me to my bed.
He lifted a trapdoor and
I found myself in the stables.
I fell asleep like a log... Not for
long:
some noises woke me up.
I was thirsty. I told myself:
you're going to bother them but,
what the hell, you've got
to drink, haven't you?
So I lifted the trapdoor...
and I saw.
It was blood.
But at the same time, I saw a mass
of skirts, blouse and hair, and an arm
reaching for your cradle. It almost
made it
but, just before it did, fell down
again.
- And then she died.
- I know. She was my mother.
Yeah.
- Seraphin! Watch out!
- Mind the stones
Leave me alone.
Don't listen to what he said.
Forget him.
You must live. You'll be happy.
Zorme... The killers.
He said they were from here.
What did he know about it?
- What about you?
- He came to throw poison into your
life.
The house killed him to protect you.
Can you hear me?
If you believe what
he said, you're lost.
- Lost!
- Wait!
Forget everything. It's the demon
wanting to take you back.
Don't let him.
Forget!
What a fate, by God.
To end like that.
A man whose job was
building houses.
I saw one he built in Peyrolles.
A monstrosity. It looked like
a soup tureen.
- What did he tell Seraphin?
- Nothing.
He came to buy the stones
of La Burliere.
- The house didn't want it.
- The house, easy to say.
I've got to see if the other one
didn't say a word.
As for Seraphin, he lost his head.
He's the violent kind.
He's not normal.
No, Celestat, no. I was there.
I saw it all.
He didn't tell Seraphin anything.
He didn't have the time.
My mother. My family.
Three guillotined innocent men.
And that man who didn't do
anything to you.
You bitch! Bitch! Bitch!
But I'll get you. I'll go to the end.
Nothing will remain.
Nothing! Nothing, nothing
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
- Seraphin!
- We brought you gifts.
- Olives from my father's mill.
- And choux buns baked this morning.
Thank you, but don't stay here.
It's dangerous.
And I've got to work. To take advantage
of my Sunday. I don't have much time.
I told you we shouldn't have
come together.
He can be so nice when you
see him alone.
Why didn't you come alone,
as you did the other day?
I don't have to justify
myself to you.
- Patrice...
- Shhh. I'm dreaming.
She looked right at my face,
and she didn't lower her eyes.
She... She smiled at me.
- Which one?
- Well, the Persian one.
Well... the one who
looks like she's Persian.
- Persian? Are you sure?
- I don't know.
That's how I picture them.
- Are you weeping?
- Yes.
That's one thing I can do.
Weeping.
Here, take the olives.
She brought them to me.
I'll put them under
a glass globe.
At least eat the choux buns
of the other one.
- What about you?
- What could I do with these?
You eat choux buns
when you're happy.
If I only could rub out my face
the way you wreck your house.
I'm not just going to raze
the house to the ground.
I'm going to find the killers.
The real ones.
25 years later? Who knows
what became of them?
What with the war,
are they even alive?
If they were dead, I'd know it.
I'd know it.
How could my father
earn all of this?
1892, June 1th. Gaspard Dupin,
Didon Pujol, Celestat Dormeur
hereby declare owing to
Mr. Felicien Monge
1500... 1000... 1200...
With 1000 francs, then,
you could buy 10 hectares here.
An interest of 23% will be collected...
23%. 1000 F at 23%. That was
enough to want a man dead.
To be paid back to Mr. Felicien Monge
on St Michael's day, in the year 1896.
The night of the crime...
it was the eve of St Michael's day.
Three debts. Three men from here.
Dupin, Pujol, Dormeur...
Good morning, Mr. Dormeur.
Good morning, Mr. Dormeur.
- Mr. Dormeur.
- The owner of the oil mill,
Didon Pujol...
Didon Pujol... Pujol...
I don't want you to be ridiculous.
My name is Patrice Dupin.
My name is Patrice Dupin.
Patrice Dupin.
Dupin the rich man, Pujol the miller,
Dormeur the baker.
Hello, sir.
Good morning.
Do you want bread?
No, I just wanted to thank
your father for the choux buns.
They were delicious.
Good morning, Mr. Dormeur.
See you soon, Marie.
- Good morning.
- What's happening to you?
This is the first time you've
come to the mill.
Yes. I come to thank
your father for the olives.
- They were delicious.
- Somebody changed him! He talks!
We'd better go. My father
doesn't like you much.
- Doesn't he? Why?
- You're bad luck.
Since you've been here,
he says his oil is brown.
You'll see: there are charming
things in Pontradieu.
- I'm sure of it.
- I'm counting on you then?
Agreed. On Sunday for lunch.
Thank your father for me.
If it's all the same to you,
I'd rather surprise him.
- That's it. We'll surprise him.
- Bye!
Seraphin, what are you doing?
Where were you? I almost thought
you would let me down.
- I was looking at the pond.
- Did you see it?
My father's pride and joy.
Every day, he takes his
ritual walk here,
even when he comes back home late.
He's got to walk round his pond.
Come. Here, we eat at noon.
My mother is already seated
at the table.
Oh, so you're Seraphin Monge.
So it's you?
If I had thought, my God.
If they'd told me that, one day...
- She's as deaf as a post.
- Yes, but she's alive.
She never heard me
laugh nor cry.
My father married her because
she was an heiress.
- Isn't your father here?
- No, he's in Marseille.
That's him, yes.
Don't you think I look like him?
Sit down.
- Is he rich?
- Very.
First my mother's money.
Although he had a long wait.
- How long?
- The inheritance?
It was around 1900.
I was about ten.
- So I was four.
- Well, yes.
- It seems to trouble you.
- No, no.
- So, when I was born, he was poor?
- He couldn't know.
Then there was the war.
A good thing when you're
a blacksmith. A very very good thing.
First horseshoes, then shells.
He made as many as were
raining on us.
It was profitable.
As many millions as I have pieces
instead of a face.
Except that when he saw me
coming back like this,
he wanted to give them back,
of course. His millions.
But he didn't know to whom.
Oh: Charmaine, my sister.
Her husband was killed
in October 1917.
Isn't it a sin: such an arse,
only used for sitting on it.
Stop it, Patrice.
I'm warning you: if you don't like her,
we won't stay friends.
Sit down. I wouldn't like you
to get taller.
- Oh, father is not here?
- No. He won't be back till tonight.
Conchita changed her day.
And how much will she take
from him today?
As long as he doesn't
get her pregnant.
Someone could do it for him.
You don't mind us revealing
our dirty family secrets, do you?
It's always a good start
for a conversation.
The guest is terribly embarrassed,
so he quickly changes subjects.
You'll have to get used to it:
he's not the talking type.
I wouldn't mind if he'd
at least agree to see me.
The armchair you seem to admire
is genuine Louis the Xlllth.
We've got another one
in my bedroom.
I'll show it to you later if you
express the desire to see it.
Tell me, you know the girl I saw
one Sunday in La Burliere...
- Which one?
- On, you know.
The one who smiled at me
and said hello.
- Oh, the Persian?
- The Persian.
- She's Rose Pujol.
- Oh, Rose.
- Do you see her sometimes?
- I meet her.
If you see her, can you tell her,
er... nothing.
- You see? You don't tell her anything.
- I won't fail to do it.
- Well... I've got to go.
- I'll walk him to the gate.
Come and see us again.
Seeing you make me feel good.
I have no friends and...
I don't want any.
Going out, cruising around,
laughing...
when I laugh, people
are frightened.
Well.. with you, I know I don't have
to fear anything on that account.
No, with me, you don't have
to fear anything.
And what do I have to fear?
- So there's a Rose in your life?
- No, there's no one in my life.
How long will you keep on
not seeing me?
- I'm a road-mender, I...
- So what?
Does it prevent you from living?
Or are you looking for an excuse?
Take this.
It opens the small gate near
the pond, and the back door
which opens on the big corridor.
My bedroom is the first door
on the right.
I'll wait for you as long
as I have to.
Let's not disappoint my brother:
he wanted us to meet.
I wouldn't hurt him for the world.
Neither would you.
And don't you forget:
feed them yourself.
Every night, because if you don't...
they won't recognize even you.
Goodbye, Mr. Dupin.
You're looking for trouble.
Those animals are more dangerous
than a loaded rifle.
That's the point. I want them to be
dangerous, and I want people to know it.
I've been thinking of this,
wanting this for a long time.
Conchita's father is raising them.
I knew them as pups.
They obey my slightest command.
These dogs can kill a man
in utter silence.
To kill... Do you even know
what it is to kill?
- He came here.
- Who?
The road-mender.
If you mean Seraphin Monge,
that's true: he came here.
- I can smell him.
- You never saw him.
I don't need to see him.
I know where he's been.
He came for lunch. And he
talked to Miss Charmaine.
I don't want your sister
to talk to him.
How can you judge a man
that you don't know?
He's a Bolshevik.
A house, a possession...
You don't destroy that.
You must respect memory,
property. The work of others.
He... He does... he does...
He sets a bad example,
that's what he does.
Because you think that you
set a good one?
I don't set anything.
I want to be left alone.
What now? What do you
hold against me?
I hold against you
your lack of suffering.
What do you know about that?
Every man suffers inside,
and the way he can.
You're quite happy to own a car,
aren't you? English suits.
I had to work in spite of my moods
in order to feed my family,
so I forbid you to judge me.
Because all I did was because of you.
So you would be comfortable,
and warm in winter.
So if your road-mender comes back
here, I'll turn the dogs loose on him.
You could show a little respect.
He's miserable.
God didn't make miserable people.
Some are of their own doing.
- Can you hear?
- Yes, I can hear
the voice of stupidity. The only one
that can still reach you.
Are you happy? You hurt her.
The meal will be overcooked again.
I'm sincerely sorry that I offended
the Lady of the castle.
- Don't call her that, Patrice.
- Hurry-up and join her.
You may have a chance
to save our meal.
She loves me.
If I wanted her to, she would
throw herself in fire for me.
She'd rather throw
everybody else in.
Pujol. Dupin. Dormeur.
The three I.O.U.s are not in
the same order anymore.
The order in which
I decided to off them.
Someone came. Someone
read these papers.
Someone who's not interested
in the gold coins either.
Pujol, Dupin, Dormeur.
In order to kill them,
first I must know them.
Learn their ways.
Choose the time.
Seraphin!
What are you doing here?
Well, I.. I was looking for you.
Patrice wanted me to tell you something.
- What?
- Well, he didn't really know.
He just wanted me to talk to you.
- You know he's a very good chap?
- Yes.
He's serious...
Well... His face is broken, all right,
but inside, he's like this.
I know.
And... he's got some ideas,
well, he likes you.
Would you like me to give him
a message, or...?
- What should I tell him?
- The same thing.
Oh? Well, OK.
Well... have a nice day.
There, easy... There... Easy...
Come on.
What is it, dogs?
Is there someone here?
No, there's nothing.
Come on.
Will he come everyday
to buy his bread?
- Maybe he comes for Marie.
- Maybe he doesn't come for Marie.
And, at this time,
Marie is sleeping.
Good morning, Seraphin.
You're an early riser.
What weather, isn't it?
Have you seen the wind?
- Is it the Mistral?
- No, it's Lou Peou,
the wind from the mountains.
It's here for at least two days.
The air is so dry that
the bread won't rise.
It's frightening the birds, animals
are hiding and don't eat anymore.
- Even dogs.
- Dogs?
Yes. They're like wet blankets. They
don't even have a sense of smell left.
- So, what will you have? A fougasse?
- No. A choux bun.
I've made my decision.
Tonight, I'll kill Gaspard Dupin.
Why didn't you dare come in?
I've been looking for you everywhere.
What do you mean, you're
looking for me everywhere?
Yes, in the whole park.
I saw you passing by earlier.
I called you.
It wasn't me. It was probably
your father or... or your brother.
My brother is not home and
my father is playing billiards.
But who cares since you
came to see me?
To see you?
Would you rather have me
take my clothes off,
or do it yourself?
- Shall I go there?
- Well... There.
You're not going to take
advantage of it and run, are you?
No, why? No.
You must look this way.
Look at me.
Look at what I'm doing
when you're not here.
I close my eyes,
and I imagine you.
And I touch myself,
waiting for you.
I can see you.
You're in front of the house.
You can't find the key.
You're trying dozens of them.
You have a whole bunch.
But never the right one.
Say it, that it's never
the right one.
No, it's never the right one.
Your brow is burning.
Your fingers are trembling.
And the wind...
the wind is arousing you.
It's Lou Peou, the wind
from the mountains.
Come. Come, I beseech you.
No. Not yet. You're not here.
You're at the door, downstairs.
You're trying the keys.
- Should I go downstairs?
- Oh, no, Seraphin. Come.
I've been waiting so long for you.
Do you like me? Tell me you
like me. Tell me I'm alive.
Kiss me. Kiss me!
No, you're not here,
you're downstairs.
I got impatient:
I broke the door open.
At last, you make up your mind.
Easy, now. Easy.
Yes. You're making love to me on
the plaza, in front of everybody.
They're all here, all those who
wanted to bury us.
But we're stronger.
They're watching us.
It's killing them.
Patrice!
Patrice... Oh, my God.
It can't be. He killed himself.
- Oh, my God!
- Patrice! Patrice!
Oh, thank you, God.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, God.
It's his fault. If only you
didn't bring him here,
nothing would have happened.
He carries death.
- He killed your father.
- Shut up, you poor madwoman.
At least shut up.
- What happened?
- He slipped, I guess.
I killed the dogs but it
was too late.
Then the other one
came out with her rifle.
She thought she saw a figure
in the park.
- You, probably.
- I don't know. Maybe.
I was just coming back from
a date with the Persian.
Rose.
Thanks to you.
I was happy.
I regret to see him dead
but I just can't be unhappy.
- Where are you going?
- Home.
You must stay. I need you.
The doctor and the gendarmes
will be here soon.
It's an accident but they'll
have questions to ask.
You were on the scene. Don't worry:
I'll say why you were here.
I'm not afraid.
Not for me anyway.
But I'll be delighted to tell them
we were making love.
Hey. Gaspard Dupin won't
be buried whole.
What are you saying?
He'll be cut open like
a butchered animal.
What's that horrible story?
Dr Romand was finishing his report,
writing "natural causes",
and suddenly a gendarme arrived,
all drenched and his teeth chattering.
- It didn't rain, did it?
- No,
but he fell in the pond at the
same spot as Dupin.
So the captain went to see why.
And, when he came back, he said:
the brink has been made
slippery for three yards,
anybody who'd walk on it
was sure to fall in the water.
- So what?
- The brink had been soaped.
- A regular ice rink.
- What does it mean?
- It means it's a crime.
- A crime. And who?
What do you mean, who? It's him!
The man who's demolishing his house.
He's got blood in his head.
is whole family was murdered: do you
think it's normal that he escaped alive?
- He was three weeks old.
- He drags death behind him.
He brings it with him
everywhere he goes.
- Just consider the war.
- Shut up, you're crazy.
Anyway, somebody
put soap on the brink.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
Do you want to tell me something?
You must have had a good alibi
since they released you.
- I never believed it was you,
you know. - Thank you.
They arrested the Dupin boy.
A matter of inheritance, they say.
They always think people
do things for money.
I don't care.
Is it true what they say
about you and that widow?
I'm not interested in
what they say.
I can't sleep anymore. I forget
the bread, I fumble my deliveries.
Marie. I can't see clearly.
Come on: to break one's house, to mend
the road, there are other things in
life.
Yes, there are. But I'm
not able to love.
- Even the widow?
- Even the widow.
In that case, I'll wait.
- Patrice Dupin is the killer.
- It is not true. You're making it up.
- He might be.
- No. I know he isn't.
It can't be anybody else,
do you hear me?
- Who else could it be?
- Nobody asked you anything.
- I'm going there anyway.
- Where?
To court. He mustn't believe that
everybody is letting him down.
Either you stay here
or I'll lock you up in your room.
Don't say anything to her.
He's the Dupin boy, regardless...
I would go even if he weren't
a rich man.
- As long as it's a man, she goes,
anyway. - Do you want a slap?
Two months ago, you talked only about
Seraphin Monge. Say it isn't so.
It is so. But I can't do anything
about Seraphin. He's not a man.
Did you hear what the kid said?
He's not a man.
- And no man killed Dupin.
- What are you making up now?
A rifle, a knife, anything like that we
can
understand. Those are a man's weapons.
- But soap...
- So what?
What if the kid was right?
What if Patrice Dupin was innocent?
Somebody killed Gaspard.
A woman's fancy ideas.
Why would Monge do it? No reason.
I'm not like others who fear him.
He wouldn't hurt anybody.
He's just a jinx.
He didn't do a thing.
These are morphotheseus
from South America.
These species are worth
thousands of francs.
I'm very interested in butterflies.
Before the war, it was old coins but...
on a wall, these are
more beautiful.
- Why were those things in your car?
- The butterflies are not mine.
I'm talking about the wax
and black soap.
Who says mechanics says failure,
and who says failure says repairs.
I've got a passion for it.
I like to repair.
And I like to wash
my hands afterwards.
And the wax?
- For the brass parts.
- Of course.
As for the revolver...
I don't think my father was
murdered with a firearm.
Indeed... but the problem is...
there's a two hours gap
in your schedule.
- True.
- Where were you?
I do not wish to answer
that question.
Between 8 and 10 pm,
you had ample time
to put soap on the brink
of the pond,
so I want to know
where you were.
What about you? Where
were you during the war?
- I did my duty.
- Behind the lines.
Arresting the poor chaps
who didn't join their unit.
- You refuse to answer?
- Yes.
In that case, I'm forced
to keep you here.
Let's be clear: I'm not charging you
directly with the murder of your
father. No,
but I'm charging you with illegal
carrying of a weapon.
Mementos from the war
are all very fine,
but you don't have a right
to take them out of your home.
It's not a memento from the war.
I've got other ones.
- Oh, look, I...
- No.
I had a pal with a face
such as mine,
maybe a little more stitched,
and one day, since he fought
a lost battle...
I can say that again, can't I?
He blew it off.
With this.
Then he bequeathed it to me
in his will,
as an ironic joke.
- The law.
- The law is the law.
That's a comfort.
I of course allow you
to hire a lawyer.
We'll examine within 48 hours
your provisional release but,
until then, I'm really sorry...
Seraphin Monge! The village
is going to try to get you.
You must leave. For ever.
Crime poisons everything.
Assassins and victims.
And it's catching.
Worse than the plague.
Zorme. Old Brigue said
you had powers.
Everybody here fears you.
But not me.
So if you've got something to say,
say it now or shut up.
Don't challenge Zorme,
Seraphin, ever!
If you don't want fate
to catch up with you.
It's here, your fate.
I hold it.
I hold it back.
But if you challenge me...
Go to bed, go, you've
drunk too much, go.
Yes, I have drunk.
Yes, I drink,
because I've got the power...
but I can't change a thing.
Flee... Forget it all.
Now that you murdered your house,
you've got nothing more to do here.
You don't have any roots.
You'll always be a stranger,
because they'll always be cowards.
They'll always reject you.
They'll choke you like remorse.
They'll take revenge.
If you marry a woman here,
you'll bring her misery
and your children will bear
the mark of blood.
Scram. You're the one
who must go.
This is my home. Even if
there's nothing left.
Seraphin. On the night
they died...
You must flee!
I say flee all this!
Them! And especially
yourself...
especially yourself. If you don't...
Fate, Seraphin, fate...
- What are you doing. - Can't you
see I'm going to knead the dough.
You're kneading with a rifle, now?
Gustave Dupin, in spite of all
the precautions he took,
managed to slip on black soap.
People almost believed it was natural
death, so I, from now on, take the
rifle.
- He's afraid.
- Who?
- Celestat?
- Yes.
Every night, he goes kneading
with his rifle.
He's afraid of being alone
in the night.
Rich Dupin's daughter:
the death of her father
doesn't prevent her
from chasing men.
They say she makes merry
with Seraphin.
The widow and the orphan.
They do make a nice pair.
Hand in hand, their feet in blood
and the prospective inheritance...
It's not true.
You're talking nonsense.
- Marie, where are you going?
- Ask her: she knows everything.
- Marie!
- What's with her?
I don't want to hurt the kid.
I'm almost her grandmother.
Seraphin had better not
take her from me, or else...
- The poor boy is only asking for peace.
- Is he?
Some accuse him of the crime.
They would be ready to hunt him.
So he'd better not hurt Marie.
I won't tell on you.
I didn't love my father.
I now know what he did to you.
- Was he the murderer of La Burliere?
- There were three of them.
So that was your secret.
- Do you enjoy punishing?
- But I didn't.
The idea crossed me, true,
but I didn't tell anyone.
It's as if someone read
my thoughts.
That did us a great favour. He was
about to ruin us with his Conchita.
Put your clothes back on.
Go away.
It doesn't matter.
Now there's something even
stronger between us.
I didn't throw myself at you
because I needed a man, Seraphin,
but because they took everything
from you. They ruined our lives.
- But we're alike and we'll make
them pay. - No, we're not alike.
They got your husband, they got
your brother, but it was the war.
- It was nobody's fault. - It was. It's
always the same people who make it.
The bastards, the cowards, with
their secrets and their righteousness,
who build memorials to the dead to
prove to themselves that they're alive.
The only thing that can
unite us is revenge.
Which one do you want now?
Pujol? Dormeur?
And now, for everybody,
it will be an accident.
Charmaine!
Charmaine!
Seraphin!
No.
- Did you love her?
- No.
My God, don't say that. At least,
let her have had something.
- Of course you loved her.
- No.
Why was she in your home then?
And why are you here?
Zorme is right:
I bring death. Go away.
Go away!
Seraphin Monge killed my master
because he wanted to marry
his daughter for the inheritance
and my master was
squandering his fortune.
And right he was not to want
to leave anything to those ravens.
But Charmaine fought back
when her brother was accused.
She told Monge that she would
confess everything to you.
So Monge used the dogs
to kill her.
Why didn't the dogs do
anything to him?
Because they can feel
he's the Devil.
Miss de Pontratieu. What are
the grounds for your accusation?
The castle belonged to my family.
I grew up with Mr. Dupin.
He was our game-keeper's son.
When he bought the castle
from me, after the war,
he kept me near him as
his housekeeper.
He... I think he always felt
something for me.
So, since they didn't let me
kill the damn Devil,
let him be locked up!
Or it will go on!
Marie Dormeur? Come.
I'm going to file a complaint.
That girl broke my rifle.
Marie Dormeur...
Have you seen Seraphin Monge
open the gate of the kennel?
What? Are you mad?
Did she tell you that?
She's a nasty piece of work
and she can't see a thing.
But, you know, I saw a man,
another one, who went out of the
park on a bicycle with no lights.
And you failed to identify him?
Yes... I couldn't look at him, I had
just heard the... the noise of the...
Are you quite sure?
Do you know the penalty
for bearing false witness?
Why do you want to clear
Seraphin Monge at all cost?
Because he didn't do it.
They were in his home,
Charmaine and he.
Then she took her car, then he
followed her on his bike,
and I followed in turn.
He couldn't possibly arrive there
before her and let the dogs loose.
And what were they doing
together in Monge's place.
She came to make love to him.
What about Monge? Why did
you follow him to the castle?
Because I love him.
Wait. Let me.
Thank you for what you did.
What you told the judge.
- It was the truth.
- It's not easy to say.
Are you very very sad?
She was much more
than my sister.
- You can't understand.
- I can.
Because, now,
there are two of us.
Look at Seraphin:
he's alone, truly alone,
because he hasn't got
anything to give.
But I need you.
- I love you.
- I'll never leave you.
Seraphin, you're not going
to believe this,
but I'm sure I left my ring on
the stone, here, and it disappeared.
- Did you find something?
- No, but someone was here.
Do you think they've
taken my ring?
It was a present, but it's
not worth much.
No. That presence... I know it.
He's always with me...
watching me... following me...
- Why the ring, then?
- Why Charmaine?
Marie! Marie!
What has she got? My God...
- I don't know. She...
- She's got a fever. I'll help her
inside.
- Wait. I'll help you.
- No, no. Her father, you know...
He doesn't like me, I know.
- What does the doctor say?
- He says it's got to run its course.
He says he doesn't know
what it is.
- I know.
- You don't know a thing
- Did she eat?
- Almost nothing.
- Sometimes, she speaks.
- What does she say?
- Nonsense. What would you
want her to say? - What nonsense?
That she saw someone
at the castle.
That she saw him again in a dream
and knew whom it was, or something.
What must we do in order
to expel the illness?
Try to make her drink some
St-John's wort in goat milk.
I had her drink it all already.
Hyssopus and hyoscyamus,
comfrey and smilax aspera,
bermudagrass and sea queen
and everything you told me.
You must trust in God
when herbs are useless.
Marie! Who did you see at the castle,
Marie, my little girl? Answer!
So it was really you?
I was trying not to believe it,
to tell myself... but,
come to think of it,
I knew you'd come.
I've been waiting for so long.
- You killed Dupin, didn't you?
- No.
Although I swore to kill him,
just like you.
But I'm going to kill you.
Do you know why?
Put the rifle away, Seraphin.
I can explain.
We can reach an agreement:
I've got money.
I know. I found the IOU.
So what? It just means that
I owed some money to your father.
- I can give it back to you.
- No, you can't give me anything back.
For one thing, your father was as much
a thief as we were. And even more.
Ask anybody in the village:
they all know he was.
And he really asked for what
happened to him.
But we didn't do it.
I swear we didn't.
When we came in La Burliere,
nothing happened as we wanted.
I never could forget that night...
Go on! Throw it!
Can't you do it?
Why don't you guys help him?
You can't be cowards, since
there are many of you.
I'm a murderer. You must
prevent me from going on.
Except... except if it
suits someone:
Dupin's death, Pujol's death...
You charge me with the accounts
you settle among you
and I end up on the Guillotine?
Like the foreigners did.
I'm the ideal culprit.
I really wanted to avenge
my family.
But there's someone here
killing for me.
So who is he?
You? Him?
Some cousin? Some neighbour?
A notary? Maybe a baker?
I don't care about your quarrels.
I came here because this is my home.
My home, can you hear me?
My home... let's talk about it.
I have a house, I demolish it. I sleep
with a girl and someone kills her.
I've got a vengeance,
someone steals it from me.
I'm alone. I always was alone.
They parked me for ten years with nuns,
for seven years with lumberjacks,
then they threw me in
the middle of a war,
I had no one for whom to survive,
but I'm not dead.
I'm not dead! I'm not dead!
I'm not dead.
Now, I'm going back to my place
and if you set it on fire,
you can sleep soundly:
I've got no child to come
and avenge me.
Go and see him.
Maybe he can cure her.
What if he were the bastard?
I didn't dare to say it,
so afraid am I of him.
- But why? We never hurt him, did we?
- I don't know, Celestat.
When you look at him,
I don't know you anymore.
As if there were
something else between you.
- You must tell the truth, Celestat.
- Dupin, Pujol. I'm next.
My daughter will stay alone with
her illness. Don't leave her.
Celestat, I was like you,
like the others.
We let them make an assassin
in order to forget that we're guilty.
But now we must save him from
the villagers. Do you understand?
Because only he can still
do something for Marie.
- Seraphin Monge?
- Yes.
Zorme is strong enough to make
people die without touching them,
so maybe he also has powers.
Seraphin.
- Seraphin.
- What?
Don't think about death anymore
or you'll kill them all.
I keep repeating I didn't do it.
The man who came to see you.
The journeyman.
When you're house fell down on him,
he was about to tell you something...
Yes, he saw the three of them:
Dupin, Pujol and Dormeur.
Indeed he saw them. But near
the spring, not in La Burliere.
In La Burliere, he saw
something else.
When thirst woke him up,
he lifted up the trapdoor.
He saw two men fighting.
One was your father
He held something red
in his hand.
The other one held
a shining weapon.
Then he lost his balance.
He grabbed the spit while he fell,
just when your father jumped him.
And your father skewered
himself on it.
But Monge didn't fall at once:
he walked three more steps
with the spit inside his belly,
and he leaned on the wall.
So the other man approached,
yanked his head backwards
and slit his throat.
- Just one man?
- Yes.
- Just one man and dead bodies.
- Who was he?
When everything was over
and he'd fled,
the journeyman saw the
man again, near the well.
He saw him throw something
down in it.
He told me... He told me
that he heard him cry.
But why did he tell you all this?
Why you?
It was the first time in 25 years
that he told it to anybody.
To you, he shouldn't
have spoken.
Your house didn't kill him
without a reason.
What about the others?
The three men.
- Just one man, Seraphin.
- Why didn't you say so before?
I didn't want
to wake misery up.
Why now then?
It's too late.
If you discover the real culprit,
misery will stop.
Seraphin you're not cursed.
We are.
Because we knew everything, we
knew everything right from the start.
We didn't want to face
the truth.
We chose to live with the secret,
with fear, but live anyway.
We didn't talk, so people
wouldn't gossip,
wouldn't look at us askance
in Peyrolles and the other villages,
well, to keep the same life,
the one we know.
The weight of days
is heavier than hate.
And now we must save Marie.
She wants to die because of us.
Go, Seraphin. Go and see
what's in the well.
Zorme... Monge...
So you found it, at last.
Are you happy?
They told you in the end.
And now you think you know,
because the name Zorme
is written on a knife.
But why would I have killed your family?
I was the only one who had no reason to.
The murderers are the Monges.
From father to son, for many
generations, they've killed travelers.
Their treasure belonged to the
skeletons on which you're now walking.
Zorme!
From father to son, Monge:
a family of murderers.
- It took you some time.
- What is this?
- Can't you see?
- Of course but why? Why Marie?
She saw me on the night Charmaine
died. She mustn't remember.
We should have killed you
25 years ago.
But you lacked courage. You were
sure you had a hold on me.
But finally, I prevailed.
Dupin, Pujol, and now... your
daughter, who's going to die.
You should have killed me
25 years ago.
Save Marie.
She's guilty of nothing.
You're going to suffer as I suffered.
And I'll enjoy it!
Save Marie.
Come on, shoot!
Your daughter is going
to die by my will.
- Come on: shoot.
- No!
Shoot!
I didn't do it.
It fired on its own accord.
Zorme: what did you try to
have me believe, earlier? Talk.
Leave him be. He's wounded.
You're going to kill him.
Shut up, you poor larva!
Do you think a baker's bullet
can stop Zorme?
On the night of the crime,
when I left the well,
I saw the three of them
in the barn.
They recognized me, but they
never said a word about it.
How could they have explained
their being there too?
If they didn't kill Monge
that night,
it's because I did it first.
But why did you do it?
For money, you too?
Seraphin, when I came in
La Burliere,
Monge had already massacred
all the others.
He had just slit
your mother's throat.
She was still moving.
Crawling toward you.
Because Monge had already lifted
your head to be sure to get you.
I jumped him. We fought.
And when I stabbed him with
the spit, he was still insulting me.
You killed him in order
to save me?
I was mad with jealousy.
Your mother...
We loved each other.
I never looked at
another woman again.
But then...
- the parcels during the war,
that was you? - Yes.
I didn't want you to become
a murderer.
When I discovered in your home
the papers you had found,
I understood what you
were going to do.
So I killed them for you.
I wanted you, at least,
to escape fate.
But why Charmaine?
She was not responsible.
You were at her mercy.
I don't have anything to tell men,
but I can talk to beasts.
To dogs. And even to the stones
in your house, to shut up foreigners.
For 25 years I've been living
here alone. Do you understand?
Everything stopped when
your mother died.
Seraphin: you're the only
important thing in my life.
You forced me
to shoot, Zorme.
I'm going to be arrested, I'm done
for, so your vengeance is over.
Marie's death is useless now.
Save her.
I'm too weak now.
Everybody here knew
you were Zorme's son.
Marie, my little one.
My child. You're saved.
It's over.
If you marry a woman here,
you'll bring her misery.
I don't have anything
to do here anymore.
You'll always be a stranger
because they'll always be cowards.
They'll choke you like a remorse.
Go, Seraphin. I didn't want you
to become a murderer.
I wanted you, at least,
to escape fate.
Seraphin. Seraphin,
wait for me.
Translation: Goupil66
Oct/Nov 2011