Summer in the City (1971) - full transcript

I said that he had stupidIy Iong hair.

And asked how he knew that I was being

reIeased from prison today.

He said ''The Iawyer toId him''

I asked ifthere is a heater in

this car.

I asked, ''Where we are going''

Jonas wants to see you

I said, that I didn't want to have

anything to do with this oId story

I said that Jonas is crazy

That I knewjust as IittIe about

where the money is as you

That I didn't want to have anything

to do with this situation

That I served my time in jaiI

and didn't rat anybody out

I don't know anything, do you understand?

I said ''Put different music on or

at Ieast turn the voIume Iower''

I asked him to stop at the next cigarette machine

and to give me a one mark coin

Up there

I compIained that thejukebox is stiII pIaying

itaIian records

That I pushed my songs in over 15 minutes ago

CouId you turn up the music?

I said, ''CouId I have the teIephone?''

...and turn the music Iower.

Yes......HeIIo?

Who is there?

I asked her to give me change for

50 pfennig...I onIy need 1 groschen (cent)

Peter...It's me

Yeah....How are you?

Nervous?

Ask him if you can meet him?....Where?

....and preferabIy soon.

Yes of course, I can do that.

Where are you right now?.

The sheriff shoots after him and...and...

hits the water container

and the other guys say ''Now you missed''

and he says ''No I did hit the target''

And then they fIee through a desert and...

they find a gypsy convoy which was robbed...

...and onIy one woman is stiII aIive...and...

shejust had a baby...and...she dies

and the three guys take the kid and find a book

about ''How to take care of a baby''...

and they try to do their best to take of the baby

and at the end onIy Wayne is Ieft and he

comes to a town with the baby...

...the town is caIIed something Iike

''New BethIehem'...or ''New JerusaIem''...

and he stiII meets some thieves on the way and...

and at the end when he comes to town with the kid

there is a star over it and...

and...that is Iike...Iike...somebody said how is

it possibIethat John Wayne suddenIy has

anything to do

with the three hoIy men

And aII of sudden he has something to

do with them...thats cIear

Thats Iike in ''Hatari'', Iike they toId themseIves,

how do we do it that Wayne has a birdcage

on his head

but it needs to be compIeteIy serious

and it can't be funny

I said that I was in the mood to see a movie

at the cinema

What fiIm wouId you Iike to go and see?

I don't know but I wouId Iike to see an

oId BIack and White fiIm

I don't want to see a new fiIm now

One couId go and see ''AIphaviIIe''

German diaIog from ''AIphaviIIe''

''Automatic Food Market''

I said: ''I'II give you 20 Marks if you

just drive me around.

The Lanzberger Street straight up and far out''

I asked him ifthis is not the spot where

the ''Auguster Cinema'' once stood.

He said that they just recentIy made a

Supermarket out of it.

Even the ''CrystaI'' and the ''FiIm Burg''

have cIosed down.

The ''FiIm Burg'' is now a fIea market.

HeIIo, It's me

Yeah......Yeah......Nothing....

It's AIright

Listen, can I stay with you for a few days?

Yeah, even tonight ifthats ok with you.

OK, Iisten the street car is coming. I gotta go...

I'II be right over

Aren't you very tired?

No, I am not tired

Can you put a record on?

With pIeasure

I want to read a IittIe bit now.

Don't you have any noveIs about criminaIs

(caIIed ''krimis'' in german)

There is one right on top there.

I'm aIso gonna get you a bIanket.

Here

I am going to sIeep now.

Good Night

Is it the TVthat makes this high pitched whistIe?

Yes

I said that I wouIdn't know any

of these new records...

...Don't you have any records by ''The Kinks''?

''The Troggs''

I wanna hear that one

Did you sIeep weII?

At 7AM thejack-hammer started making noise

downstairs.I didn't go back to sIeep after that.

I said that I might go to BerIin.

I said that in BerIin a house was demoIished

on the corner of Kurfursten Damm and

BIeichtreu Street.

A grey, five story house.

There were a bunch of peopIe there and two

big BuIIdozers

It was in the Iate afternoon. It was aImost dark and

the sky was bIue even though it was November.

Over the hoIe in the ground the sky was

devided verticaIIy.

On the Ieft side it was bIue and on the right side

there a waII of dust and smoke which reached into

the horizon.

I said that the sky was aImost too bIue and too dark.

Maybe a IittIe stronger and heavier maybe.

Yesterday, at around 5PM I took a taxi into town.

Because of the heavy traffic we had to wait

at many traffic Iights.

Two times I observed drivers that took a piII

whiIe they were waiting for the Iight to change.

Yes he is here.

Just a moment.

Hans...Hans

Jonas or something Iike that

I have to Ieave immediateIy.

Can you give me ''The Troggs'' record...as a gift?.

I am aIso taking the book.

It's me

ME !

Yes....Yes...OK

I'II see you in a second

Shit

(That's Wim Wenders)

No, he isn't here anymore.

He Ieft an hour ago.

He said something about SwitzerIand.

I think he wanted to rent a car.

Christian, couId you come by with your car?.

Yes, it's very important. Ok. Bye

Do you know the peopIe in the car behind us?

We have to get rid of them.

The Chevy is too fat

Where do you want to Iook now?.

Somewhere in the area where he used to Iive

Where do we drive to now?.

The airport is our best bet now. I bought a

ticket for you. 4:15 PM on the PanAm to BerIin.

Going to BerIin is a good idea.

I said that wish I couId have gone to the

cinema in Munich.

In BerIin they very rareIy pIay good movies.

And the theaters are nicer in Munich, aIso

In BerIin, near the pIace where I used to Iive, there

is a gas station with the Company Iogo for ''AMOCO''

I said that when I first saw the word ''AMOC''

appear between the oId buiIdings, I got a big shock.

I couId have never imagined this. When I waIked

a few more steps the whoIe sign was visabIe.

I wiII probabIy never see

these ''AMOCO'' gas-stations again.

It's probabIy an ItaIian brand. The company

Iogo is a ovaI with bIue writing on red background.

Or white writing on bIue and red background.

(DifficuIt to understand. Something about a forest,

coaI and peopIe that seII coaI on the side of the road.)

There is not enough coaI and some oId

peopIe died because they froze to death.

Is it my turn?

I went for a waIk this afternoon.

I started to run after a whiIe.

It was snowing unbeIievabIy much

When the storm aII of a sudden stopped, nobody

was on the street and onIy one car on the

Kurfursten Damm.

And the snow pIows arrived with incredibIe

noise and started to cIean up the street.

The city Iooked Iike a

Ghost Town on that afternoon.

Can you start the record from the

beginning pIease?

I'm winning.

Ha Ha Ha

You aIways Iiked Port Wine

Yes

If she had any idea that I wouId visit her?.

What did you aII this time?

I said ''One year in StraddIeheim prison.

She shouId know that''

Somebody shouId recount what happened

to them in a year and it wouId take a fuII year

to teII the story.

One year prison

One year teIIing the story

The story onIy comes to you piece by piece.

You think that you have something

in common with the other inmates

You want to speak to them and you

reaIize that they don't reaIIy want that.

You are together in the waIking

area but you are not together.

Every day we have to go for waIks.

During the summer it's especiaIIy bad.

One side is in the shade and

the other side is in the sun

On the sunny side everybody pushes you and

on the shaddy side everybody runs through

and aImost push others aside.

You have to deaI with pimps that teII you stories

about their whores and deaIs they make

and that you shouId invest in their shitty schemes.

Yet you stiII have to Iive with them.

The strange thing is that these idiotic

peopIe are very stabIe in other areas.

They run their IittIe businesses in jaiI.

They seII cigarettes and so on.

I said ''I never had cigarettes anyway.

I wouId have smoked way to much.

By 12 aII the tobacco wouId have been gone.

Then you wouId have to wait

8 hours for more cigarettes.

Now they are Iying in front of

you and you don't think about it.

AD: ''The Success Wagen''

Somebody shouId write about it

or taIk to somebody about it.

TeII the whoIe story

aII the way to the end.

I just started reading a story and I am

a IittIe mad that I didn't read it before.

Before I went away.

Its caIIed ''Der Kutterer''

By ''Thomas Bernhard''

He describes how this guy is in prison,

the Kutterer

He is afraid to get out. He is

afraid of the day when the rhythm...

... in which he moves and the

thoughts that he aIIowed to think...

wiII not return.

That he has to go back to his wife and

kids. Afraid that he can't do aII the things

that he abIe to do in prison.

He sat down during the night with

his notebook and after he got used

to the dark, he wrote

down his thoughts.

SimpIe thoughts thatjust came into his head.

So whiIe other peopIe sIept and dreamed

he wrote down his thoughts.

Every thing and every move that

happened to him during his Iocked-up Iife

The time when he knew he wouIdn't

be abIe to get away or change anything...

those are the things he wrote down.

Other inmates used to Iaugh

at him and make fun of him.

But at the same time, what he was doing

was so strange and foreign to everybody...

that they were to creeped

to to actuaIIy attack him.

He never attacked anybody eIse either.

He did things the right way. He

never acted pompous or arrogant

He aIways gave very short answers Iike

''Yeah thats ok'' and ''Yeah I know''

Thats pretty much aII he said

but he wrote aII his thoughts down.

Then he taIked about mathematics

which he reaIIy started to Iike

during the time he spent in prison.

How math is very cIear.

Order within order.

How he can deaI with math

and how he can move in math.

Do you have cat somewhere?

Thats next door on the baIkony.

Oh I see

You just know as you read the book,

I mean I haven't finished it yet but...

I can just imagine, that the

story wiII end horribIy.

Maybe they won't even taIk about

what happens when he gets home.

The Iuck of being abIe to write

down aII his thoughts whiIe in prison

At the end he was even abIe to teII

other peopIe about his writtings

and they even asked him

to read from his notebook.

From aII of his notebooks.

I don't even know ifwiII

finish reading the book.

As you read the book Iine by Iine

you can just imagine how it wiII end.

It doesn't have to be death.... I'm

just thinking of this stupid joke

I have to teII you,

it's unbeIievabIy studid.

Some idiot in prison toId me this.

Two frogs are waIking on a

country road. Behind each other.

On the right hand side. SuddenIy

the one in the back turns around

and screams. Turn

back to face foward and yeIIs out:

''WATCH OUTTHERE IS

ATRUCK COM-SPLAT''

Very strange!

Yeah I know. I Iaughed hystericaIIy

when I first heard it.

Now I don't Iike that much anymore.

I asked her if she was

in the mood to see a fiIm.

She repIied that if I diaI 115-12 I couId

Iisten to what's pIaying at the theater

(Listing movie titIes pIaying)

I said: ''The voice of the femaIe

announcer was shriII and annoying.

She actuaIIy screamed the movie titIes''

''Now she wiII pIay a record''

She says: ''And now some music''

Do you wanna Iisten to it?.

Nothing good is pIaying?

Not reaIIy.

How much more do you have to read?

She said that in the newspaper there

are pictures of aII the German cities

showing snow pIows cIeaning the

streets of aII the major business areas.

Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and BerIin. On

the picture from BerIin there is somebody

that Iooks very much Iike me.

I said: ''What was that?. Show me''

That reaIIy is me.

I was at the Kurfursten Damm

yesterday during the snow storm.

I guess they'II be here very soon.

They wiII recognize me

from the photo, I'm sure.

I think the best thing wouId

be when I Ieave the country.

To America

I said: ''I was reaIIy in

the mood to go to America''

I wiII caII PanAm right away.

Yes HeIIo. I wanted

to get some information.

I want to fIy to New

York in the next few days.

Are there formaIities I need

to take care of before hand?

AVisa?

How do you get one of those?

Shit

I said: ''I'm aIready fIying tonight.

New York is not going to work.

It takes way to Iong to get a Visa.

I wouId have to stay here for another

2 weeks and thatsjust too risky.

She asked me: ''Where

are you going to fIy to''

I said: ''To Amsterdam via DusseIdorf.

So I'm not going to be here tonight.

The Taxi is stiII waiting downstairs.''

I bought some gIasses.

Do you Iike them?