La nuit d'avant (2020) - full transcript
THE NIGHT BEFORE
Yes, it's me.
Did I wake you up?
What were you doing?
Working?
I couldn't sleep,
so I watched a movie on TV.
And it was very beautiful.
Should I tell it to you?
Are you sure?
It takes place in New York
in the 1940s.
And there's a guy called Joe.
Joe is an ordinary guy,
but there's something about him.
It's just that it's him,
and not anyone else.
Yes, he is handsome.
Like all the actors.
Like the whole world.
He wears a uniform.
He's a soldier, he's on leave.
It's during World War 2.
We know he's probably
going to the front.
But he doesn't think about it.
He's in New York, in a huge station.
And he hallucinates a little,
and he's kind of lost, because...
...he's a country boy,
from a small town.
So he discovers it,
and we discover it with him.
We discover that
a city isn't normal, it's huge.
Don't you agree that a city
is not something normal?
Me neither. We have to forget about it,
or we wouldn't live in them.
They are not normal,
they are huge, inhumane.
And yet...
You can still have encounters.
There might be a girl at the station
who walks around distracted...
And of course she trips, at Joe's foot,
who's sitting at the stairs.
And her heel breaks.
But it's luck, because otherwise
there would be no meeting.
She would have just tripped, and...
she'd get a bit irritated...
And would continue walking
alone through New York.
Her name is Alice.
Yes, like in Wonderland.
But it's not Wonderland,
it's a huge station.
And also, her heel is broken.
Fortunately, Joe is kind.
We don't know yet if he's wonderful,
but he's kind.
He wants to help Alice.
He doesn't know how to fix heels,
but he can annoy shoemakers.
And there's a shoemaker
right there at the station,
who's closing his shop because
his shift is over, and he is hungry.
But Joe insists.
Joe is from the countryside,
where there are no shifts.
He insists so hard
for the cobbler to reopen,
just to fix Alice's heel,
and so, Alice can walk again.
Yes, you could say
he was a little annoying.
But watching it, you think
that sometimes it's good to be annoying.
Sometimes it's good to be insistent.
Because when we insist,
we give others a chance to
be generous.
We see the shoemaker coming home,
and he will tell what happened.
"I helped a girl,
I had no reason to do it, but I did."
And he'll be happy.
He got himself a little memory.
Stop it.
How strange, it's misty.
Not the bedroom, the window.
Inside the window, that's weird.
In the movie no,
the weather is always beautiful.
So Alice can go for a walk,
now with Joe.
Joe wants to do several things,
and Alice at first says no,
but in the end she goes with him...
Because he insists...
Because he's annoying.
But also because they are
nice, fun things.
They go to the park,
to the museum, they talk...
Simple things.
As tourists?
Not really. It's more like another
pleasant Sunday afternoon among friends.
And then?
Then they split up.
Each goes their own way,
But Joe says,
"No, damn it! I must see her again."
So he runs after her bus,
and he screams, and she screams too,
to hear each other,
And there they decide
to meet at night, screaming.
Have you ever ran after a bus,
screaming to call someone?
Me neither.
And neither Alice, I think.
She is reasonable.
Like you, like me...
But Joe is not reasonable, and thanks
to him they meet again at night.
I don't think so.
No but, well, he doesn't know it yet.
But look: even at night,
when they meet again, he doesn't know.
He doesn't know it's love,
he doesn't think about it.
She neither.
He even flirts,
buys her a flower for her hair,
but just because he saw
another soldier do it,
so he thinks he should do the same,
like a child.
He watches the others, adults,
to know how to do it in real life.
But I don't know if he realizes that.
I don't know if...
if we know when love arrives.
Often it's the others
who notice it, right?
I don't think so.
I don't think the others are wrong,
I think...
That when you see it, you see it.
Even if it doesn't work at first.
Well, the movie shows that.
That the others see it first.
Look: In the evening,
Alice and Joe go to a restaurant.
Because well, that's the thing to do.
They are there,
they eat, they talk,
even argue a little,
and there's an old man eating alone
looking at them.
And he must think it's cute,
the two of them together.
He sees there's something nice
between the two.
Then he offers them
a bottle of wine.
An expensive bottle,
too expensive for them.
Why?
Not at all.
Believe me, the old man is not cynical.
There's nothing cynical
about this story.
Yes, we could think that in real life,
but not in a movie, at that moment.
Because at that moment,
the gaze of the old man...
is a bit like the gaze of the city.
And this is what's beautiful
about the film.
The city, always around Alice and Joe.
And after the restaurant,
they go to the park.
They think they're alone,
and we think so too.
But no, there are
the sounds of the city.
And Joe and Alice notice it,
and they listen.
And they get closer together.
Listening to the sounds,
amazed, as if it were magic,
they get closer,
and they kiss.
They kiss because of the sounds,
because they are not alone.
If there hadn't been the sounds,
they wouldn't have kissed.
So, it's that New York watches them...
It's as if the city took care of them.
As if it protected them.
Yes, New York protects them.
This too isn't very realistic.
But it's true.
It says something fair about the city,
about the world.
Only later we understand it.
After the park.
Because they look
for a taxi to go home.
Because it's too late,
she wants to go home.
And there are no taxis,
no cars, no buses, nothing.
There's only a guy with a truck,
he's the milk delivery guy.
A nice, old man...
who offers to drive them.
But he can't take them directly,
he has to make deliveries first.
And Alice and Joe think "Why not?",
and go with him.
And they end up doing the deliveries
for him, because the milkman...
he takes a hit.
Because of some nonsense,
a drunkard who gesticulates a lot.
And because of that, he no longer
can drive and deliver the milk.
And someone has to do
the deliveries for him, it's important.
The town needs milk,
the town needs Alice and Joe.
Basically...
It's their night. Their love's night.
But they are never alone.
They are by no means
"the lovers alone in the world".
On the contrary,
there is always the city around them.
And if it all goes well between them,
it is precisely because they
give themselves to the world together.
They help the milkman,
distribute milk around town,
and that night,
the city is the whole world.
in the movies,
love is often against the world,
they are two displaced beings,
separated from everything,
Who love each other against the world.
And here they love each other
because they are in the world together.
No, not yet.
Yes, there's the morning after.
Do you really want to know?
Yes, in the end they get married.
True.
No, this I don't want to tell.
Yes, but I don't want to tell it.
Of course it goes on, as in life,
but in life too,
sometimes we want to stop...
let a moment linger.
I want to stop there,
before the next morning.
In the middle of the night.
When Alice and Joe have delivered
all the milk, and they're tired.
And Alice falls asleep,
next to Joe, who drives.
And Joe caresses her hand,
but not too much,
as to not wake her up.
And they continue like this,
through New York, the two of them.
Together. In the world.
Can you imagine this?
Yes, imagine it.
Yes, I'm still here.
Did you imagine it?
It's beautiful, isn't it?
The war?
True, I forgot it.
There's the war.
You really think so?
That it's because they may die soon
that they love each other so much?
Not because of the milk?
Isn't it more beautiful
if it's because of the milk?
Yes.
They could run away, yes.
If everyone ran away,
maybe there would be no more war.
Looking at it that way,
lovers are a little stupid.
On the contrary, it's because
it is so strong that it needs the world.
That it needs to give itself to others.
And if the world is the war, fine,
but that's not what matters.
So you don't believe me?
No, I'm not sad.
Precisely. We don't just talk
for the sake of talking, do we?
I don't know.
I don't know what I want.
If you want to.
Tell it.
Tell it to me.
Right, to make me laugh.
Yes, I'm feeling better.
Yes, we perform tomorrow afternoon
at a theater in Bordeaux.
Then in the Théâtre de la Cité,
in Toulouse.
Yes.
Are you going to sleep too?
Good night.
Subtitles by gfcarvalho
Yes, it's me.
Did I wake you up?
What were you doing?
Working?
I couldn't sleep,
so I watched a movie on TV.
And it was very beautiful.
Should I tell it to you?
Are you sure?
It takes place in New York
in the 1940s.
And there's a guy called Joe.
Joe is an ordinary guy,
but there's something about him.
It's just that it's him,
and not anyone else.
Yes, he is handsome.
Like all the actors.
Like the whole world.
He wears a uniform.
He's a soldier, he's on leave.
It's during World War 2.
We know he's probably
going to the front.
But he doesn't think about it.
He's in New York, in a huge station.
And he hallucinates a little,
and he's kind of lost, because...
...he's a country boy,
from a small town.
So he discovers it,
and we discover it with him.
We discover that
a city isn't normal, it's huge.
Don't you agree that a city
is not something normal?
Me neither. We have to forget about it,
or we wouldn't live in them.
They are not normal,
they are huge, inhumane.
And yet...
You can still have encounters.
There might be a girl at the station
who walks around distracted...
And of course she trips, at Joe's foot,
who's sitting at the stairs.
And her heel breaks.
But it's luck, because otherwise
there would be no meeting.
She would have just tripped, and...
she'd get a bit irritated...
And would continue walking
alone through New York.
Her name is Alice.
Yes, like in Wonderland.
But it's not Wonderland,
it's a huge station.
And also, her heel is broken.
Fortunately, Joe is kind.
We don't know yet if he's wonderful,
but he's kind.
He wants to help Alice.
He doesn't know how to fix heels,
but he can annoy shoemakers.
And there's a shoemaker
right there at the station,
who's closing his shop because
his shift is over, and he is hungry.
But Joe insists.
Joe is from the countryside,
where there are no shifts.
He insists so hard
for the cobbler to reopen,
just to fix Alice's heel,
and so, Alice can walk again.
Yes, you could say
he was a little annoying.
But watching it, you think
that sometimes it's good to be annoying.
Sometimes it's good to be insistent.
Because when we insist,
we give others a chance to
be generous.
We see the shoemaker coming home,
and he will tell what happened.
"I helped a girl,
I had no reason to do it, but I did."
And he'll be happy.
He got himself a little memory.
Stop it.
How strange, it's misty.
Not the bedroom, the window.
Inside the window, that's weird.
In the movie no,
the weather is always beautiful.
So Alice can go for a walk,
now with Joe.
Joe wants to do several things,
and Alice at first says no,
but in the end she goes with him...
Because he insists...
Because he's annoying.
But also because they are
nice, fun things.
They go to the park,
to the museum, they talk...
Simple things.
As tourists?
Not really. It's more like another
pleasant Sunday afternoon among friends.
And then?
Then they split up.
Each goes their own way,
But Joe says,
"No, damn it! I must see her again."
So he runs after her bus,
and he screams, and she screams too,
to hear each other,
And there they decide
to meet at night, screaming.
Have you ever ran after a bus,
screaming to call someone?
Me neither.
And neither Alice, I think.
She is reasonable.
Like you, like me...
But Joe is not reasonable, and thanks
to him they meet again at night.
I don't think so.
No but, well, he doesn't know it yet.
But look: even at night,
when they meet again, he doesn't know.
He doesn't know it's love,
he doesn't think about it.
She neither.
He even flirts,
buys her a flower for her hair,
but just because he saw
another soldier do it,
so he thinks he should do the same,
like a child.
He watches the others, adults,
to know how to do it in real life.
But I don't know if he realizes that.
I don't know if...
if we know when love arrives.
Often it's the others
who notice it, right?
I don't think so.
I don't think the others are wrong,
I think...
That when you see it, you see it.
Even if it doesn't work at first.
Well, the movie shows that.
That the others see it first.
Look: In the evening,
Alice and Joe go to a restaurant.
Because well, that's the thing to do.
They are there,
they eat, they talk,
even argue a little,
and there's an old man eating alone
looking at them.
And he must think it's cute,
the two of them together.
He sees there's something nice
between the two.
Then he offers them
a bottle of wine.
An expensive bottle,
too expensive for them.
Why?
Not at all.
Believe me, the old man is not cynical.
There's nothing cynical
about this story.
Yes, we could think that in real life,
but not in a movie, at that moment.
Because at that moment,
the gaze of the old man...
is a bit like the gaze of the city.
And this is what's beautiful
about the film.
The city, always around Alice and Joe.
And after the restaurant,
they go to the park.
They think they're alone,
and we think so too.
But no, there are
the sounds of the city.
And Joe and Alice notice it,
and they listen.
And they get closer together.
Listening to the sounds,
amazed, as if it were magic,
they get closer,
and they kiss.
They kiss because of the sounds,
because they are not alone.
If there hadn't been the sounds,
they wouldn't have kissed.
So, it's that New York watches them...
It's as if the city took care of them.
As if it protected them.
Yes, New York protects them.
This too isn't very realistic.
But it's true.
It says something fair about the city,
about the world.
Only later we understand it.
After the park.
Because they look
for a taxi to go home.
Because it's too late,
she wants to go home.
And there are no taxis,
no cars, no buses, nothing.
There's only a guy with a truck,
he's the milk delivery guy.
A nice, old man...
who offers to drive them.
But he can't take them directly,
he has to make deliveries first.
And Alice and Joe think "Why not?",
and go with him.
And they end up doing the deliveries
for him, because the milkman...
he takes a hit.
Because of some nonsense,
a drunkard who gesticulates a lot.
And because of that, he no longer
can drive and deliver the milk.
And someone has to do
the deliveries for him, it's important.
The town needs milk,
the town needs Alice and Joe.
Basically...
It's their night. Their love's night.
But they are never alone.
They are by no means
"the lovers alone in the world".
On the contrary,
there is always the city around them.
And if it all goes well between them,
it is precisely because they
give themselves to the world together.
They help the milkman,
distribute milk around town,
and that night,
the city is the whole world.
in the movies,
love is often against the world,
they are two displaced beings,
separated from everything,
Who love each other against the world.
And here they love each other
because they are in the world together.
No, not yet.
Yes, there's the morning after.
Do you really want to know?
Yes, in the end they get married.
True.
No, this I don't want to tell.
Yes, but I don't want to tell it.
Of course it goes on, as in life,
but in life too,
sometimes we want to stop...
let a moment linger.
I want to stop there,
before the next morning.
In the middle of the night.
When Alice and Joe have delivered
all the milk, and they're tired.
And Alice falls asleep,
next to Joe, who drives.
And Joe caresses her hand,
but not too much,
as to not wake her up.
And they continue like this,
through New York, the two of them.
Together. In the world.
Can you imagine this?
Yes, imagine it.
Yes, I'm still here.
Did you imagine it?
It's beautiful, isn't it?
The war?
True, I forgot it.
There's the war.
You really think so?
That it's because they may die soon
that they love each other so much?
Not because of the milk?
Isn't it more beautiful
if it's because of the milk?
Yes.
They could run away, yes.
If everyone ran away,
maybe there would be no more war.
Looking at it that way,
lovers are a little stupid.
On the contrary, it's because
it is so strong that it needs the world.
That it needs to give itself to others.
And if the world is the war, fine,
but that's not what matters.
So you don't believe me?
No, I'm not sad.
Precisely. We don't just talk
for the sake of talking, do we?
I don't know.
I don't know what I want.
If you want to.
Tell it.
Tell it to me.
Right, to make me laugh.
Yes, I'm feeling better.
Yes, we perform tomorrow afternoon
at a theater in Bordeaux.
Then in the Théâtre de la Cité,
in Toulouse.
Yes.
Are you going to sleep too?
Good night.
Subtitles by gfcarvalho