Nuit #1 (2011) - full transcript

I have to ask.

I promise it won't happen again
the rest of the night.

What?

What's your name?

It's Clara.

Clara.

Mine's Nikolai.

I know.

I?m happy you're here.

Yeah?

I want you to fuck me.



- What?
- Fuck me.

- Do you have condoms?
- Yeah.

Hang on...

Wait...

I have to go to the bathroom.

That's all right.
I?ll show you where it is.

Hurry.

Did you come?

No. But it's all right.

No, it's not all right.

NIGHT #1

Clara?

- What are you doing?
- Going home.

OK...



I couldn?t sleep.

Come back up, OK?

I don't understand.

Please, come in.

I would've woken up at noon...

the sun burning bright.

I?d have opened my eyes

and remembered the night before.

I would've looked for you,
but never found you.

You'd disappear, just like that?

You're a stranger.

Leave, if that's what you want.

Your hair is wet.

You?ll catch a cold
but I don't care.

I don't know you.

You're nothing to me.

Go ahead.

Go freeze to death
if that's what you want.

That's not what I want.

Obviously.

Modern life makes me sick.
Modern love makes me sick.

Modern women make me sick.
It's like they're men.

Did you forget anything here...

on purpose?

Earrings?

Just as proof,
as incriminating evidence.

I would?ve woken up,
alone and confused.

I would?ve seen two shiny things,
new and unknown to me.

I would?ve said to myself?
''All right.

''That night really did happen ?

It was nothing,
nothing at all, of course.

We both know it.

But it happened.

This kind of situation
makes me sick to my stomach.

It burns...

as though acid
were spreading through my body.

We're better off alone.

I?ve got to piss.

It?ll give you a chance to take off,
if that's what you want.

There should be a law.

Two people
who have seen each other naked

owe each other a proper goodbye
at the very least.

Seriously.

I?ve seen you naked.

I bit your neck
and your breasts.

I put my tongue in your mouth.

I tasted your pussy.

I know exactly what you taste like.

I think I saw you come.

I know that you shave your pussy,

and that you get
little red dots from it.

I know you have beauty marks
on your back.

I don't remember how many
or where they are.

I?m sure some asshole has told, you
it looks like a constellation

or something like that.

I know that you don't get very wet.

I don't know if it was my fault
or if it's always that way.

I know how you give a blowjob.

You're good at it.
Well, not bad.

I imagine you'd eventually want
to put a finger in my ass.

I think you'd want
to have anal sex, at some point.

I know that you fuck well.

I like the way you breathe.

You breathe with your whole body.

I like the way you move.

There you have it.

That's what I know
about you, Clara.

Clara who? I don't know.

I don't know your last name.

It's Clara...

I?ve seen you in every position.

I?ve seen all that
but I?ve never seen you! eat...

just eating something simple...

like a piece of bread.

I?ve never seen you cry...

never seen you ride a bike.

I?ve never seen you swim.

I don't know if you're good
or if you suck.

I?ve never seen you
in a public space...

during office hours...

on a workday.

''I?ve never seen you
on a workday ?

What an odd thing to say!

You'll be young forever
in my mind.

We'll never age.

We'll never speak softly
in a funeral home.

I?ll never discover
your biggest faults.

You'll never hate me
for my lies and slip-ups.

We'll never get a phone call
with bad news

that wakes us up
in the middle of the night.

I?ll never pat your back
as you throw up, crying,

when you've had too much to drink.

See? It's very sad.

I?ve started getting to know
how you smell, how you feel,

and vice versa.

The secrets we share
are purely physical.

To be honest, I would've wanted you
to beg me to stay...

to ask me to stay in bed here,
next to you, forever.

I would've wanted you to say...

''Clara, I don't know you,
but I know enough.

''You're magical.

''I don't want you to ever disappear
from my life.

''I?ve been...

''waiting for you for 29 years.

''You're finally here.
Please stay.

I?m 31.

''I?ve been waiting for you
for 31 years.

''You're here tonight,
and I refuse to let you leave.

That's what
I would've wanted you to say,

but you fell asleep.

I would've wanted you to admit
that this had never happened to you,

that you felt connected to me
by some strange force,

by something electrifying...

that letting this pass you by

would be like
letting your life pass you by.

Clara or death.

I would've wanted you
to see things in me

that I can't see myself.

I would've wanted
an incredible story

to begin for us tonight.

But you fell asleep,
and I didn't.

Insomnia's a problem for me.

If I slept eight hours a night,

I?d have a lot less time
to do stupid things, but...

instead, I had time to think.

I realized
that you would've woken up

next to a stranger
with no clothes on.

You would've searched your mind
for my name.

I?d see it written
all over your face.

The fuzzy morning after.

You'd ask yourself..

''Should I fuck her again or not?

You might have asked me
for my phone number.

You'd say..
''I?ll call you, Clara.

''We can get together again
if you want.

And then we would've
slept together again because...

why not?

Why not sleep together
in the light of day?

I would've
walked back home at dawn

and passed by joggers,
saying to myself..

''I?m not like you.

''I fucked a stranger last night

''in his crappy little apartment.

''I?m obviously not living life
the way you are.

''I just go with it.

''I live with intensity.

''For years,
I?ve lived flattened with fury.

''I?ve accustomed my friends
to an intolerable voltage,

''to a waste of sparks
and short circuits.

''To spit fire, to cheat death,
to be resurrected a hundred times

''to run a mile
in less than four minutes

''to introduce a flamethrower
into the dialectic

''and suicidal behaviour
into politics

''that's how I?ve
established my style.

You bring novels to after-parties?

He's the greatest Quebecois writer
of all time.

- Who?
- Hubert Aquin.

Never heard of him.

All my secrets are in this book.

''Entwined, dazzled
in a tormented country,

''we've tumbled
united inside a single! kiss,

''from one end to the other
of our snowy bed.

- ''Tormented country?
- Yes.

It's beautiful.

If you like, I?ll read you
all my favourite passages.

I?ll even read you the whole book.

It would take a few hours
what's left of the night.

You'd lie down
and listen to the sound of my voice.

You'd close your eyes.

Then you'd read me
your favourite book.

You'd show me pictures
from your childhood,

from a foreign country.

Afterward
we'd go for breakfast.

If you like,

we can get married in the Ukraine
and start a new life.

Ask me to leave everything behind
and we'll leave together.

You're a little crazy.

It's not uninteresting, mind you.

But I?m kind of tired now.

No...

Stop.

- Why aren't you getting hard?
- I don't know.

I?m sorry.
It's too fast, stop.

I?m sorry.

I?ll go.

If that's what you want.

It's Clara.

Are you sleeping?

No.

Come in.

I don't have any women's clothing,
but this should do.

Thanks.

Do you want to be alone?

Now I?m hard.

Because of you.

I don't have a clothes dryer.

Do you have one at your place?

Yeah!

I have nothing.

I?m 31.

I studied fine arts
but I didn't graduate.

Well, I graduated,
but I don't have a degree.

Why not?

I still owe the library $100.

I lost a book...

a glossy edition with shiny paper.

Why don't you pay them back?

I don't have $100!

I don't really need
a fine-arts degree anyway.

Which book was it?

The Art of Francis Bacon.

Pathetic.

Painting pieces of meat
when your name is Bacon, pathetic.

I don't know
I feel like it's in bad! taste.

I lost the book.

I was angry.
I think I threw it away.

Who were you angry at?

I don't know.

I?ve got this frustration
inside me.

You know what I mean?

Not exactly.

If you were a guy,
I?d try and get you to fight me.

I?d want us to be brutal.

I?d want us to throw stuff
at the walls

and yell out insane things.

But I?ll stay calm.

Have you ever hit a girl?

No.

But I?ve fucked girls carelessly.

Violently.

I probably hurt them,
but not physically.

Tell me about it.

No.

I?ll imagine the worst.

You'd be right.

But I don't fuck
that often anymore.

How long had it been
before tonight?

Six months.

Sex is overrated.

Then why tonight?

Some of my friends dragged me out.

Literally.

They came up here.
I was reading.

They threw some clean clothes at me

and used some
pretty convincing arguments..

''our youth, ''overindulging,
''living for the moment,

''the call of the night
and ''the fire within.

I bought into it.

I spotted you pretty quickly
on the dance floor.

Why's that?

You looked free and pure.

- And you were dancing badly.
- Thanks.

Well, not necessarily badly,
just off-beat.

Yeah, I think that's what it was.

When the crowd's feet
were on the ground,

your entire body was up in the air.

You were doing the exact opposite
of everyone else,

as though you weren't listening
to the same music they were.

I?ll notice a pretty girl
dancing badly,

or an ugly girl dancing really well.

I don't give a shit
if a pretty girl dances well.

So unoriginal.

You...

You're a rather pretty girl
who dances rather badly.

That works for me.

All that beauty
must make your life easier.

Your sunny face...

I was hesitant
about approaching you.

I always end up
breaking pretty things.

I feel like I?m
a destructive person, in general.

It's as though I?m always sinking

and bringing good people
down with me.

It really bothers me.

''Cuba is sinking in flames
in the middle of lac ljman

''while I descend
to the bottom of things.

That's the first sentence
of the book I didn't read you.

I?m interested in getting
to the bottom of things.

I don't see the connection at all.

Sinking and getting
to the bottom of things

have nothing to do with each other.

I need a cigarette.

I have trouble paying the rent
every month.

I should find a cheaper place,
but I?m not sure there is one.

Or get roommates, but I can't
bring myself to do that...

to live with other people.

To live with anyone else.

I never have money.

I owe all my friends.

Money, smokes,

drugs, alcohol,

restaurants...

I owe all that to all my friends.

I wonder why they still like me.

I read a lot.

The major works.

But a lot of the time
I don't finish the books I 'start.

Right when I?m about to
finish something, I lose interest.

I get drunk in the afternoon
pretty often.

One time, I threw up
next to the toilet.

I didn't clean it up for a few days.

I don't eat.
I almost never eat.

There's no way I?m in good health.

I?ll probably die young.

Are you hungry?

No.

I don't have a phone anymore.

Last winter, they cut off
the electricity for two weeks,

and I was cold.

It's been at least five years
since I?ve gone to the dentist.

I have a broken tooth.

It's like I?m not able
to take care of myself.

Just the bare minimum.

It gets annoying after a while.

The worst part is

l have no one to blame
but myself.

I can't fault society,

or my adoptive country.

Things are pretty good here.

I?m unable to work.

Not in the same place
for very long, anyway.

I get fired very quickly.

I show up late.

I show up drunk.

I show up dirty.

I stink, literally.

I suspect that I?ve been fired
because I stank.

You smell fine tonight.

I worked at an old-folks home
for a few months.

People usually go there to die.

I liked it well enough.

I was a sous-chef.

I made the soup.

Old people eat a lot of soup,
every day.

They liked me
because my soup was thick.

Why didn't you stay there?

They have a thing there called

an unjustified-absence policy.

After my third unjustified absence,

the manager
called me into her office.

She asked me what was wrong
with an understanding look.

Then asked how we could
understand each other

and come to an agreement.

I got angry.

That's me..
absent and unjustified.

There's always that morning
when the alarm goes off

and I wake up and say..
''No, not today.

''I?m too intelligent for this.
I?m not going. I deserve better.

I tell myself
that this can't be my life.

I feel inspired,

alive, full of energy.

I tell myself that I won't
go to work because I have big plans.

I tell myself
that I?ll spend the day drawing,

writing, making music.

Creating masterpieces
that will change the world.

On those days, I call in sick.

When they ask what I?ve got...

I can't say
what everyone else would say..

a cold, indigestion.

No, instead, I say...

''I feel a dire need to live
and it's now or never.

That perplexes them.

Then I hang up the phone.

And most of the time
I close my eyes,

just for a few seconds,
and I fall back asleep.

I end up waking up at noon

and don't follow through
with my plans.

I read bits of articles
on Wikipedia...

about nanorobots
artificial intelligence! ,

all kinds of topics.

I whack off to porn
of debatable quality.

It's like everything
loses its meaning,

mysteriously,
at some point in the morning.

I don't really remember
the important message

that I?d first set out to convey
through my art that day.

Do you read the paper?

Sometimes.

I don't anymore. I stopped.

It made me feel weak
powerless and paralyzed.

I prefer not knowing
what's going on.

But it's awful

because my indifference isn't aimed
at anything in particular.

What do you mean?

I know nothing, for instance,
about Canadian politics.

But you know a bit about

Quebec's relationship
with the rest of Canada?

Yeah, vaguely,
but I don't have an opinion.

I don't know anything
about Ukrainian politics.

The world doesn't interest me
in general.

I don't speak Ukrainian.
I barely speak Russian.

What language do you speak
with your parents?

Russian.

Say something in Russian.

Why?

To hear what it sounds like.

It sounds nice, doesn't it?

Whatever.

It's a bad line
from a bad love song.

There's no love song.

I?m just asking you
to say a sentence.

Say that the television
is on the ground.

I?m not really Ukrainian.

I don't know
what it's like over there.

That country's not a part of me.

- That's sad.
- It really doesn't matter.

Sometimes
I get an uncontrollable craving

for varenyky.

- What's that?
- They're like big ravioli.

Meat and potatoes. It's heavy.

You can get sweet ones, too.

There's a tradition
when you eat varenyky.

You always have to leave one
on your plate.

- Why?
- For the vultures.

But when I can afford to buy myself
varenyky, I eat them all.

Too bad for the vultures!

Vultures are fascinating animals.

They're scavengers.

They eat carcasses

after the predators
have taken all the good stuff.

They can't hunt their prey.

But they're not lazy.
It's physiological.

What's wrong with them?

Their beaks are too soft
or too long, I can't remember.

But they aren't able

to tear through mammals' skin.

They can't fight
other birds of prey, either.

Humiliating.

Maybe.

But they still have
a life expectancy of 35 years.

That's a long time for a bird.

In fact, you look
a little like a vulture.

Whatever.

The sunken cheeks, your dark eyes
with dark circles under them...

You've got it all.

I got a girl pregnant once.

It was a girl I met one night,

just like you.

I acted like a real bastard.

She came here
to tell me she was pregnant.

Fortunately,
she didn't want it.

I promised I?d help, but I didn't
let her in the door again.

I was harsh.

She cried nonstop.

She was fragile.

She came here one day

and asked me
to look her in the eye...

and say..

''It's a sad situation
but we're doing the right thing.

''One day,
a man will give you a child

''because you're a good woman.

''You'll be a good mother.

''But not us
not now, that's all.

Did you tell her that?

No.

I said I?d go to the clinic
with her, but then I disappeared.

I didn't see her again after that.

You should've gone with her.

The same kind of thing...

happened to me once.

You really are easy, aren't you?

What?

What?

You don't like
getting to the bottom of things?

You don't know what it means
to get to the bottom of things.

You quote passages
you don't even understand.

Your tormented country!

What tormented country?

What are you doing
for your tormented country?

You dance at after-parties
to music with no lyrics

written specifically
for robots who speak no language.

Androgynous guys
who all look a bit faggy,

girls with boyish figure, s
and heads like dolls

looking strung out, and proud of it.

Proud to be on drugs,

lost, aimless...

even proud to be an aborter,
in your case.

We have nothing in common anyway!

Nothing!

Clara, please don't go.

Fuck you!

Fuck you!

Fucking coward!

I fucked a loser!

You'll never do anything
with your life!

You could die
and it wouldn't change a thing!

You're useless!

You think you're the only one
who gets that this shit sucks?

I hate it as much as you do!

You poor pathetic idiot!

You fucking pathetic idiot!

let go of me!

Why do you know so much
about vultures?

One of my students
did his term project on vultures.

It was a lot of work.

You're a teacher?

Yes.

Third grade.

How old are they
in the third grade?

8, 9.

You aren't the typical
third-grade teacher.

I know.

I don't think I?m very good, either.

If we weren't unionized
I?d have been fired a long time ago.

I?ve gotten warnings, just like
you did at the old-folks home.

How come?

Well, I?m absent a lot.

I don't respect the dress code.

I sometimes tell the kids the truth.

The administration
doesn't like that.

The truth?

Nothing too serious.

I censor myself a lot.

That's better, I would think.

Yeah.

I have a job...
and a dryer.

But none of that means a thing.

Weekends start on Thursday
and end Sunday night.

I never miss one.

I get drunk.

I drink vodka shots at the bar
till I have to go and puke.

I do a lot of drugs, too.

Coke, MDMA, ecstasy, speed.

Just stuff that gives you energy,

or makes you want to fuck.

I combine them all.

It's always the same.

When the sun
starts to come up, I panic.

Real life catches up to me.

I feel completely empty.

I?m nothing at all...

nothing but a body.

A body that dances, has sex,
reflects the light.

I?m nothing but sweat,

mine and other people's
mixed on my skin,

nothing but hair
flying all over the place

every time I jump in the air
on the dance floor.

You know?

I have a body, but there's nothing
living inside it.

I?m a surface
an empty shell.

I don't know if you understand.

I get scared when the sun comes up.

I can't let the euphoria end.

I want to cry,
but there are no tears in me.

I don't want anything at all.

I can't eat anything,
not even fresh fruit.

There's nowhere in the world
I want to be.

And there's no music
for moments like that.

Being alone is unbearable,

but there's no one
I want to be with either.

I?m far from everything,
far from everyone.

Sometimes, I take another pill
at around 6:OO in the morning.

It wakes me up
for eight more hours,

and I go find another after-party.

At this point, normal people
have been home for ages.

They're right.

The ones out right now haven't found
what they're looking for,

or don't even know
what they're looking for anymore.

I have a lot of sex, too.

I fuck strangers I?ve just met.

I go home with them.

I know a lot of apartments
like yours,

all over the city.

I?ve lost track of
how many guys I?ve slept with.

I have sex in alleys,
in parking lots.

I make up a name sometimes.

I let men fuck me in the ass.

A lot of the time
I ask them to.

I like feeling pain.

I like seeing in their eyes
that they think I?m a slut.

I want to be desired.

I like entering a room

and feeling as though
all the men desire me

want me
are driven crazy' by me.

Where were you
at this time last night?

Here, asleep.

I was in an apartment in Saint-Henri
with two other guys and a girl.

The four of us slept together.

Who were they?

A couple I met at a bar

and one of their friends.

Nice people.

The girl?s clit was pierced.

I didn't really know
what to do with that.

I dive headlong
into situations like that.

Sometimes, I snap out of it
and have a moment of clarity.

Last night, I started thinking.

I was holding
both of the guys' penises,

one in each hand.

More than enough...

I wasn't really there.

But I wasn't really
somewhere else, either.

I was watching myself from above,
from a distance.

I was nowhere.

I feel ashamed Monday morning
at school.

I can't look my students
in the eye.

Then, as the week goes on,

the images
from the weekend disappear.

I become a good person again.

It really is a double life.

If my colleagues knew,
they'd find it pretty disturbing.

Most of them are girls my age.

They have no idea.

Nor does my mother.

Well...

do we have AIDS or something now?

No.

I just got tested.

I got chlamydia six months ago,
but it's been gone for a long time.

Don't worry.

Do you know who gave it to you?

No.

It's disgusting, huh?

A little.

I don't really care about anything.

There's always this fog
between me and the world.

It's like nothing is real.

It's a game.

I?m giving a performance...

a long show.

When I started sleeping around,

I?d have a new heartache
every weekend,

a new disappointment.

I thought I?d been close...

to someone or something,

but it always disappeared.

It hardened me.

After a while, I understood.

I sleep with all these men,
but I don't belong to any of them.

I take advantage of them as much as
they take advantage of me.

I?m a feminist.

Fucking is so simple.

Women have vaginas,
and men have penises.

We're designed for it.

That's all that unites us
you and I,

you, and a thousand versions of you,

me, and a thousand versions of me.

Random couples

based on the simple geometry
of internal and external organs.

I?m restless all the time

in every way.

I never feel like
things are in order.

The older I get,
the less insight I have

into what life is.

I don't believe in anything.

I honestly think I have no ideals.

It's asking for
too much of a commitment.

If I believe in something,
I?m scared I?ll change my mind,

or stop believing.

It's as though I?m unable
to exist in the world

to really be a part of it.

It's true that I quote passages
from a book that I don't understand.

I have no idea what needs to be done
for my tormented country.

I don't think I even give a shit,
when it comes down to it.

The people I really like
seem to be part of another world.

They don't really have a goal
as individuals or as a group.

They go through life
like little white ghosts.

They leave no footprints
on the ground.

And they don't make a sound.

They're almost invisible.

If they disappeared altogether,
it would hardly change a thing.

Odds are that no one
would even notice.

I?m like them.

I just want things to unfold more
or less the way they're supposed to.

Birth, life, death.

Maybe find one or two truths
to hold on to...

some force that would keep me
with the living

in the here and now...

that would stop me from flying
towards darkness all the time.

It feels like I?m struggling
with everything, all the time.

I?m a little tired.

I don't mind fighting.
I have the stamina.

It's just that...

It's such an absurd fight.

It's a constant battle.

It's like treading water.

I?m doing what it takes
to stay on the surface,

just enough not to drown.

But fuck, I?m swallowing water...

big mouthfuls.

It's brutal.

It hurts.

I think I?m really tired.

I don't think I?d mind dying.

That's what I really think.

Someone needs to take care of me.

Someone strong,

who can pick me up and carry me...

to I don't know where.

Wherever I have to be.

Then put me down....

And everything would get calm.

And I could breathe easy...

just breathe easy.

''This lovely language
with its beautiful words

''Carries its history
through its many accents

''Filled with music
and the scent of herbs

''Goat cheese and fresh bread

''From Mont Saint-Michel
to the Contrescarpe

''listening to the people
of this country speak

''Is like a warm breeze
caught in a harp

''Where the harmonies
resonate forever

''The colours of this lovely language
are of Provence

''And its heartbeat is found
within the words

''Conversation
gives birth to a celebration

''And words flow
as freely as a river

''You'll get up early
Put on your cap

''Go outside

''The tree down the street
The fellow at the docks

''The young girls' eyes
The sleeping baby

''All of this is yours

''You'll touch the ground,
the sea and its islands

''You'll see the ships,
the gate and the friar

''The castle and the bridge
and all the oat fields

''This is your country

''You'll return home heavy
after taking in all that is yours

''And you'll tell your mother
that the horizon is clear

''And she will be proud
to be from that country

''For a moment
I forgot my name

''It allowed me
to write this song

Well done, Mika.

Juliette, it's your turn.

''Tomorrow I will vanquish

''The night and the rain

''For death...

''For death is no more...

''No more than a cold little thing

''Tomorrow I will vanquish

''The night and the rain

''For death is no more
than a cold little thing

''Of no importance at all

''I will reach out to it tomorrow

''But only tomorrow

''Tomorrow

''I will reach out my hands
with great sweetness

Translation by Joshua Beitel

Subtitles by Vision Globale