Unizhennye i oskorblyonnye (1991) - full transcript
F. M. Dostoevsky
The Insulted and Injured
Production director : Andrei A. Eshpay
I cannot help continually
recalling all this bitter last year of my life.
It was a gloomy story, one of
those gloomy and distressing dramas,
which are so often played out unseen,
almost mysterious, under the heavy sky of Petersburg
All these impressions of the past excite
me sometimes to the pitch of anguish, of agony.
- Natasha, wait ! Where are you going ?
- Surely you must have seen,
Vanya, that I've gone away for ever,
left them for ever,
and shall never go back,
- Wait !
- You're going to him, Natasha ? Yes ?
- I have gone away from them and I don't know
what will become of them or what will become of me !
Yes.
I'll undertake to arrange it all for you, meetings, and everything.
I will carry your letters ; why not ? Don't leave home.
Can you love him so much ?
- You see, he told me to come, and here I am coming.
- You're a good, honourable man ! I've
deserted you, and you forgive everything,
you think of nothing but my
happiness. You are ready to carry letters for us.
- It would have been
better if I'd never met him ;
I could have lived with
you, with you, dear, kind Vanya.
- And I haven't even asked ! What
about your new novel ? Is it going well ?
- As though we could talk about novels,
as though we could talk about me now, Natasha !
- But tell me, Natasha, did he
insist himself that you should go to him ?"
"No, not only he, it was more I...
They're making a match for him witha very rich girl,
of very high rank and related to very grand people.
His father, the prince, absolutely insists on his marrying her,
and his father, as you know, is an
awful schemer ; he's very anxious to get it over,
and they say she's very pretty ;
Alyosha's attracted by her already,
Do you understand, Natasha,
what you are doing to your father ?
You know his father is your father's enemy.
Why, the prince called your father a thief.
Do you know, that the prince suspected your father and mother
of having thrown you and Alyosha together on purpose ?
Enough, Vanya, stop. I know...
Alyosha !
O, dear Lord...
Alyosha !
My God !
Vanya !
Excuse me, I've been wanting to
embrace you as a brother for ever so long.
He's on our side, he's a
brother to us, he has forgiven us already.
Let us go !
I have taken a flat, come and visit us.
I've decided to
tell my father everything,
and I began speaking and told him everything...
- But what ? What did you tell him exactly ?
Why, that I don't want any other
fiancee, and that I have one already - you.
That is, I didn't tell him that straight out,
but I prepared him for it and I shall tell him soon ;
I explained him right away... That
the mother comes from a merchant family
That I am not
obliged to marry a countess.
Now the most important thing.
I told Katya that though my father wanted to
make a match between us, our marriage was impossible
That's the thing... Tell us then !
Only fancy, she knew nothing at all
about our story, about you and me, Natasha.
At first she was quite
scared. She turned quite white.
I told her our whole story ;
how for my sake you'd abandoned your home ;
how harassed we were now, how afraid of everything,
and that now we were appealing to
her I spoke in your name too, Natasha,
that she would take our side,
and tell her stepmother, the countess straight out that she wouldn't marry me ;
She thanked me for not doubting her,
and promised to do all she could to help us,
asked me to tell you that she
loved you already like a sister.
Ah, if only you knew Katya ! If
only you knew what a tender soul she is !
I noticed she watched me intently.
That roused my
curiosity, I began to watch her too.
Don't imagine anything, Natasha and let me talk about her.
I want to talk to you about her and to her about you.
Do you know what is she like ? She
began at once urging me to go to you.
But she was crying. For
she loves me too, Natasha !
I've been going to
them every evening, you see.
As I went home I kept
thinking of you both, kept comparing you.
- Which of us came off best ?
- Sometimes you and sometimes she.
But you were always the best in the long run.
When I think of her I always feel I
become somehow better, cleverer, and somehow finer.
But everything shall be resolved soon
Tomorrow she should tell her stepmother that she won't have me,
and that tomorrow I should tell my father everything.
And aren't you sorry for her ?
She loves you, you know.
You say you've noticed it yourself.
Yes, I am, Natasha. But we'll all
three love one another, and then...
- And then'good-bye'.
- No.
And that's the story of my
happiness ; so my love was over and ended.
I never loved you like that, Vanya.
I know I've gone out of my mind, and don't love him as I ought to.
I don't love him in the right way...
Do you suppose I'm
going to him to meet joy ?
Do you suppose I don't know beforehand what's in
store for me, or what I shall have to bear from him ?
And yet I'm glad to be
his slave, his willing slave ;
to put up with
anything from him, anything,
so long as he is with me,
so long as I can look at him !
Isn't it abject, Vanya ?
Isn't it abject, such a wish ?
Ever since the autumn I had been trying to
find a lodging, but I had hung on till the spring.
It happened that the old man, whom I
hadn't known before, died in my arms in the street,
and I moved to his empty lodging.
I hadn't expected that owing to this from time to time I
would sink into that condition which I call mysterious horror.
I kept fancying that I
should die at last in Petersburg.
Very often, the thought struck me that when I
turned round I should inevitably see the old man.
He would stand facing me, fix his
lustreless eyes upon me and suddenly laugh in my face,
a long, toothless, noiseless chuckle.
Where's grandfather ?
- Your grandfather ?
Did your grandfather
live here ? But he's dead !
Forgive me, forgive me,
girl ! Forgive me, my child !"
I told you so abruptly. Who is it
you're looking for ? The old man who lived here ?
Yes.
Is Azorka dead, too ?
His dog... Yes, Azorka's dead, too.
So you're his granddaughter ?
Why haven't you been here ?
Where are you going ?
When I ran out into the
street the girl had vanished.
All my efforts were in vain.
- Vanya !
- Nicolay Sergeyitch !Have you no feeling for Anna Andreyevna !
No, I haven't !
I haven't, for no one
feels for me ! No, I haven't !
For in my own house they're all plotting against me
in my dishonour and on the side of my depraved daughter,
who deserves my curse, and a punishment !
Look, Vanya, look, here
are the notes of our case.
It's made out that I'm
a thief, that I'm a cheat,
that I have robbed my benefactor !...
I am discredited, disgraced,
because of her ! There, there, look, look !
It is Natasha's portrait, it is my
locket. I was wondering where could I lose it...
You are keeping it !
My dear, so you love her still !
I curse you ; I
curse you, forever and ever !
It's hard to believe it really happened.
Ihmenyevka village, little
cheerful Natasha, her parents.
And I, an orphan, who has found
refuge and loving-kindness there.
When I was already studying in St. Petersburg
Natasha's father became a steward in the Prince Valkovsky's estate.
It started when the prince's
son, Alyosha, arrived to the estate.
If I only knew, that this is an end of my love.
That's all they gave me for the work
- Thank you.
I must put an end to this life.
It's only been an idea before, Vanya, but now I have quite made up my mind.
I love him beyond everything, and yet
it seems that... I shall ruin his future.
I must set him free.
He can't marry me ; he hasn't
the strength to go against his father.
I don't want to bind him either.
And so I'm really glad he has fallen in
love with the girl they are betrothing him to.
Yes, I am glad indeed.
It will make the parting easier for
him. Help me. Can't you advise something ?
There is only one way, to leave off loving
him altogether and fall in love with someone else.
But I doubt whether even that will
do it ; surely you know his character.
Here he's not been
to see you for five days.
You've only to write that you are
leaving him, and he'd run to you at once.
Why do you dislike him, Vanya ?
You're his enemy, secret and open.
You can't speak of
him without vindictiveness.
I've noticed a while ago that it's your
greatest pleasure to humiliate him and blacken him !
- Enough, Natasha, let's drop this conversation.
- You dislike him.
- Enough, Natasha. And you've
told me so a thousand times already.
Let's drop this conversation.
Well, tell me then where is he now ?
Where is he ?
- Where is he now ?
He's with her.
I don't understand myself.
One thinks one thing, but it's different when it comes to doing it.
Let's go there !
- Don't, Natasha, I'm begging you !
Alyosha has arrived !
I... I just have...
Wait, let me tell you.
Alyosha... Our lord...
Alyosha...
Someone's asking for you.
- The prince is asking for admission.
My calling upon you at such an hour, and
unannounced, is strange, and against all accepted rules.
I'm begging you, only give me ten minutes, and
I trust that you will understand me and justify it.
You are welcome.
- Thank you.
First of all allow me to
say a couple of words to my son.
As soon as you had gone away, my dear,
Katerina Fyodorovna herself suddenly came in
distressed and violently agitated.
She told us, forthwith,
that she could not marry you.
She said, too, that she was going into a nunnery,
that you confessed to her that you loved Natalya Nikolayevna.
I beg you beforehand not to be surprised at a
certain abruptness in my explanation ; it is all so sudden...
Sit down,
- Thank you,
I am relying on your
penetration, Natalya Nikolayevna,
Since you have left your home, your parents, and
moved here, to the lodging rented for you by Alyosha,
I was terror-stricken for him.
But you...
- I... I will tell the truth.
It wasn't the only
thing that revolted me from you.
You have neither wealth nor position.
Our family is going
downhill. We need money and connexions.
Katerina Fyodorovna has
more than enough of both.
That's why I became your ill-wisher, Natalya
Nikolayevna. I became your frank and true enemy.
I wanted to draw him
away from you at any cost.
I deprived him of money, I locked him, and
even beaten him once, but you must have known this...
But I lost.
I lost to you.
You know, I noticed the Alyosha's
strange earnestness, which he never had previously.
I was amazed with his persistence,
with the constancy of his devotion to you.
I have come to believe that I am not his
guide anymore, that you are Alyosha's true guide.
I have come to the conclusion that without
you Alyosha will be lost. Yes, he will be lost.
Natalya Nikoyevna, I came to do my duty to you,
and solemnly, with the deepest respect,
I beg you to make my son happy and to give him your hand.
I know I have no right to be your friend ! You
know about the uneasy relations with your father.
But allow me to earn the right !
Father !
- Alyosha !
What did I tell you,
Natasha ? You wouldn't believe...
Thank you, thank you, father...
Natalya Nikolayevna, will you
allow me to visit you as often as I can ?
Ilya, dress !
I cannot go without shaking hands with you,
though, I cannot take my leave without telling you...
I've been told your novel is
brilliant, yet I haven't read it myself
Your novel is widely discussed...
Allow me to hope that you will let me have the pleasure of
presenting you to some worshippers of your talent, those ladies...
But now I see so few people...
- But give me your address ! Where do you live ?
Certainly, since you insist I shall be
delighted. I live at -- Street, in Klugen's Buildings.
Klugen's Buildings !
- I live at No. 44.
Klugen's Buildings... You are living... alone ?
- Why are you asking ?
Well... I will certainly come and see you,
certainly ! But now I shall take leave of you !
Natalya Nikolayevna... Thank you.
Goodbye !
Natasha, oughtn't I to make haste and go to him ?
- Yes, go, darling, go. You were right to think of it.
Father !
Tell mamma, but don't speak to father.
This awful lawsuit how long will it
last... As if father has stolen ten thousands...
Dear Lord, the Prince will obtain this
cursed money ; he's got connexions, his got everything.
Good heavens, Vanya, will he really
curse me for this marriage ? No, impossible.
The prince will have to make everything right. They
must be reconciled and then everything will go smoothly.
My God ! If that could
only be ! If that could only be !
Many strange thoughts and
sensations were hovering in my mind.
Both Natasha and I
thought the prince rather strange.
Ah, you again ! Well, I thought
you'd come ! Come in ! Don't be afraid.
Excuse me, it was cold, I just
wanted to warm myself for a while.
What time was that ?
- It must have been half-past ten.
Oh, dear !
Wait !
I won't let you go like that.
What are you afraid of ? Are you late ?
Let me go ! She'll beat me.
Listen, and don't rush away ; I'm late, too. I'm
going to take a cab. Will you come with me ? I'll take you.
You can't come back with me, you can't !
- I won't follow you.
Go ! You can't come back with me, you can't !
- Wait !
Drive away ! I'll come, I'll come !
Ah, here you are ! She was just sent
for some cucumbers and off she slipped.
Her mother's hopped the twig, There, thought I,
I'll put myself out and take the orphan. So I took her.
I've been keeping her these two months, and upon my word
she's been sucking my blood, the obstinate limb of Satan, she won't speak.
You, green monkey ! If it hadn't been
for me you'd have died of hunger in the street.
You monster, you black French poker !
I wanted to put her in a muslin frock, the dirty slut !
I decked her out like a peacock, a sight for a holiday !
And would you believe it, good friends, two
days later she'd torn up the dress, torn it into rags,
I made her scrub the floor for a punishment; and what do you think,
she scrubbed and scrubbed, the jade ! It vexed me to see her scrubbing.
What are you about ? How dare you...
She may choke for me, the damned
slut. That's the third fit this month !
Get off, you. Why are you standing
there, porter ? What do you get your wages for ?
Get along, get along !
Carry her up !
Ah, why it's you, Masloboev !
- It is easy to recognize Ivan Petrovich.
You're a general, a literary one that is, eh !...
- Come, Generals look very different from me.
I've heard about your glorious
success. I've read the criticisms too...
I make enough to jog along :
I take bribes without ruth and yet stand firm for the truth.
My business is chiefly in the
confidential line, you understand.
You're not some
sort of detective, are you ?
No, not exactly a
detective, but I do take up jobs.
Partly professionally,
and partly on my own account.
You also have just watched the drama of
life... It is fine by you, you are a writer, but we...
Listen, few moments ago a girl was
beaten by a woman here. She can beat her to death !
Mme. Bubnova... She's a nasty woman !
She wanted to take advantage of the girl.
What do you suppose ?
- Mme. Bubnova wouldn't have adopted an orphan simply out of compassion.
- Then the girl must be taken away from her !
- Where to ? Who supposed to take her ? You ?
I can do so for the time being, then
it will be possible to arrange something...
Well, then come later.
She has a bride-show today.
Wait !
- Do come...
- Wait, what for a bride-show ?
- Do come !
Vanya, the Prince
was not lying, wasn't he ?
There's no excuse to
be found for such deception.
Of course not, of course not !
And, indeed, am I so abject in his
eyes that he could jeer at me like that ?
And this is my opinion, he is giving
his consent to your marriage.
Has Alyosha been here ?
Yes, he has. He stayed a little while.
I sent him off to Katerina Fyodorovna.
Shouldn't I have, Vanya ?
- Why, didn't he mean to go himself ?
Yes, he did.
Alyosha was very absurd this morning.
He flew in, such a butterfly - such a dandy,
and kept prinking
before the looking-glass.
He's a little too unceremonious now...
He didn't stay long.
Ah, what a pair you are...
Now you've begun watching and spying
on one another, studying each other's faces.
No, Vanya, you see, I fancied that
he was somehow too little affected...
he seemed already such a man,
you know, as though
he'd been married ten years.
He was in a great hurry... If
I spoke to him he didn't listen to me
But there perhaps he'll be
angry for what happened this morning.
Surely you haven't quarrelled already !
I made no sign ! But I was a little sad,
and I fancied he said good-bye coldly.
I'll send for him...
You come, too, today, Vanya.
Yes, I'll be sure to,
unless I'm detained by one thing.
Why, what thing is it ?"
I've brought it on myself ! But I
think I'm sure to come all the same.
Whoa ! Stand still !
Are you with Masloboyev ?
Come in.
Don't you know your honoured
guests ? Who, if not me ? Masloboyev.
Where are you going, Mr. Masloboyev ?
You can't go there.
Mother !
Don't.
Mr. Masloboyev !
Mr. Masloboyev, I'll call the police !
There someone is
waiting for you ! Take him !
Mr. Masloboyev, I'll call the police !
Take him !
Bastard !
Sit down.
- Mother, poor mother...
Calm down...
Where do you mean to
send me ? I don't want to go.
I don't mean to send you
anywhere. You're ill you should recover first.
Well, go then, if you need to.
- But how will you get on alone ?
Suppose I'm ill for a whole year,
you can't stay at home all the time.
- Go !
- I'd be sure to be back soon.
- What happened ?
- I got into a story, I'll tell you later.
Hasn't Alyosha been there ?
Have you sent for him ?
Yes, I have.
Have you been to my people ?
I haven't.
Perhaps, you should return to them ?
No, it is impossible...
Try.
If I were to try I should
only make him more bitter against me.
He would hardly know me now.
He loved me as a
little girl ; a grown-up child.
What's the matter ?
What are you always writing ?
All sorts of things,
Lenotchka. They give me money for it.
Petitions ?
- No, not petitions.
All sorts of stories
about different people.
Is it all true - what you write ?
- No, I make it up.
Why do you write what isn't true ?
- Why, here, read it. You see this book ;
I wrote this book.
I'll read it...
And are you paid much for this ?
It's as it happens.
It's difficult work, Lenotchka.
Then you're not rich ?
- No, not rich.
Then I shall work and help you. I
will do your cooking. I can make soup.
Do you want it ?
- What are you talking about ?
You are the only
person who cares for me...
Calm down, Lenotchka...
- The only one.
Calm down, Lenotchka. Calm down...
- Not Lenotchka, no...
- Not Lenotchka ? What then ?
Nellie.
Nellie...
Why must it be Nellie ?
That's what mother called me.
And no one else ever
called me that, no one but she...
But you call me so. I want you to.
- I'll do.
Is Alyosha here ?
- He has not been.
Oh, dear...
Good heavens ! And you could
leave her alone at this moment !
I don't know what to advise you, Vanya,
Everything shows that she's a very strange little creature.
Perhaps, she has been
dreadfully ill-treated and frightened.
Vanya, come to me tomorrow if you
can. I shall tell you something perhaps...
Only I'm ashamed to trouble you. But
now you'd better be going home to your visitor.
Natasha, what's the
matter ? What has happened ?
Be kind, go away, you worry me.
You'll know all about it
tomorrow, but now I want to be alone.
Vanya. Go away at once. I
can't bear, I can't bear to look at you !
Be kind, go away.
Oh, damn. Here's No. 7,
there's No. 69. Who has made up this ?!
It's impossible !
Ivan Petrovitch...
Did you hear me
swearing ? It's such a shame !
Forgive me for Christ's
sake. I was just thinking...
How could Alyosha let...
- Natalya Nikolayevna ?
Thanks... let Natalya Nikolayevna live in a
hole like this ! That's what I am talking about...
He is a foolish
man, just a foolish man...
Here I am !
What for cold hands !
It's cold outside, isn't it ?
Well, where's my
feather-headed boy ? Isn't he here ?
What time is it ?
I thought you clock
stopped, I was afraid...
I guess he spent here all the time.
And did you really not know that
he has not been near me all these days ?
What ? Not been here once ?
Good heavens, what are you saying !
How it surprises you ! While I thought that, so far
from being surprised, you knew beforehand that it would be so.
Explain yourself !
Why, there's nothing to explain. And now that
he has been given complete liberty he is carried away.
But to be carried away like that is impossible, and as soon as
he comes in I'll make him explain what it is, Natalya Nikolayevna.
That is, you'll manage to
make him begin to feel me a burden.
Surely, with your cleverness, you can't
imagine that that would be any help to me.
Do you mean to hint that I would intentionally try to make
him feel you a burden ?
You insult me, Natalya Nikolayevna. What for ?
You want to prove that you are simple and straightforward with me ?
- Sure, I do.
And that is, not by one word, one hint, to worry Alyosha
about me. No reproof for having forgotten me ; no remonstrance.
- Will you make me such a promise ?
With the greatest pleasure,
and allow me to add with all my heart that I have rarely met
more sensible and clear-sighted attitude in such circumstances...
But I believe this is Alyosha.
Here I am ! I, who ought to have been here before anyone,
but I'll tell you everything directly, everything, everything !
The great thing now is that she's
here. Here she is ! Natasha, my angel !
My dear, God, But where... have you been so many days ?
Of course I've been to blame. Katya told
me that no woman could forgive such negligence.
I argued with her, I maintained that
there is such a woman and her name is Natasha.
But if you had time to be with Katerina
Fyodorovna from morning till night, I think...
I will explain everything, father !
If only you could hear all that she said to me...
some warm words, some
feelings, and we were friends for ever.
She introduced me to her company ; the
people of all sorts, simply extraordinary men.
We became close friends that very evening.
We talked of everything in general that leads up to progress.
To humanity, to love. We
talked about the need of a free press,
of the reforms that are beginning, of
the love of humanity, of the leaders of to-day ;
But better still, Bezmygin has a saying about that.
He is a man of brains and a real leader of genius.
Only yesterday he said in conversation,
'The fool who recognizes that he is a fool is no longer a fool.'
One hears utterances like that from him
every minute. He positively scatters truths.
Katya is in complete sympathy with him.
We're agreeing now upon our convictions in general,
and have resolved to pursue the study of ourselves severally,
and when we meet to
explain ourselves to each other.
Father, why are you laughing at me ?
At what is for me good and holy now ?
Forgive me, I did not mean to grieve you.
I tell you that I tried to hide under a laugh my bitter feeling.
Forgive me. Here you've been talking of love for humanity,
of the noble people f the loftiness of your convictions.
But ask Ivan Petrovitch what I said to him just now
as we climbed up that nasty staircase to the fourth storey,
and were standing at the door,
thanking God that our lives and limbs were safe.
Do you know the feeling that
came into my mind in spite of myself ?
I was surprised that with your love for Natalya Nikolayevna
you could bear to let her live in such a flat.
How is it you haven't realized that,
if you are not in a position to do your duty,
if you are not in a position to do your duty,
you have no right to be a husband, you
have no right to undertake any responsibilities ?
You would say "What about love ?"
Love alone is a small matter; love shows itself in deeds,
but your motto is'live with me if you have to suffer with me'- that's not humane,
Prince, you have promised !
- Don't interrupt me, Natalya Nikolayevna, let me finish.
You've been talked for 20 minutes of love for all humanity;
it is easy to love all humanity, in general. It's easy.
But to live the one and
only, that's hard ; that's a deed...
How could you...
neglect for four whole days the woman
who, must be more precious to you than anything on earth. How could you ?
Forgive me, Natalya
Nikolayevna, for breaking my word.
But the present position is more important than
any promise, you will realize that yourself...
Never mind, Alyosha, don't be
unhappy. Others are more to blame than you.
Sit down and listen to what I have to say
to your father. It's time to make an end of it !
It is indeed ! Explain
yourself, Natalya Nikolayevna !
For the last two hours I have been listening to
these mysterious hints. It is becoming intolerable.
What is there to explain to you ?
Your first desire is to separate us.
Think what you have just told...
You are jealous of Katerina Fyodorovna,
and so you're ready to find fault with everyone and me especially...
And, allow me to say, you give
one a strange idea of your character.
For six whole months you had been doing
your utmost to draw him away from me.
- Natasha !
The three millions
would slip through your fingers.
Only one course was left you, to make
Alyosha love the girl you destined for him ;
Novels, novels...
solitude, brooding, and novel-reading.
Yes, on this new
love you rested everything,
His old love was not in distress now,
her future was secured, his whole life was to be given up to her,
But there's the girl, who suddenly displayed such
nobility of character, such sympathy for him and for her rival
They vow eternal friendship and brotherhood;
They vow eternal friendship and brotherhood;
they wish never to be parted. The victory is yours !
Alyosha ! Don't blame me, my dear !
But what am I to do, understanding all this,
and loving you more and more... simply madly !
Natasha, it's all my fault ! Don't blame him.
- No, Alyosha.
It's wicked and horrible...
- Do you hear, Vanya ? He is already against me !
Enough ! We must put an end to this painful scene.
We have been in too great a hurry.
We certainly have
been in too great a hurry.
My word ought to be sacred of course, but...
I am a father, and I desire the happiness of my son...
You go back from your word ! You are glad of the opportunity.
- Don't, Natasha !
But let me tell you that I give him up !
Ivan Petrovitch ! You see, she hit me !
Explain to her that I hope we
may not break off all relations.
I shall come and see you if you will allow me.
- I will !
He was irritated when he said he was'in too great a hurry.'You will see tomorrow.
Natasha, let me go straight to
my father. And I'll settle everything.
Don't be angry with me for being so
anxious to get to him and ready to leave you.
It's not that at all. I am sorry for him ;
he will justify himself to you, you will see.
Tomorrow I'll be with you as soon as it's
light, and I'll spend the whole day with you.
I won't go to Katya's.
Tomorrow...
Natasha... don't let us ever quarrel.
Ach, Vanya, you are my only hope now !
The Prince wants for some reason
to approach you, to get to know you.
Don't oppose this, I
want to know what is he up to...
Vanya, show me this once more
what a true friend you are to me !
Soon I reached Masloboev's.
To my intense amazement the first
person I met when I went in was the prince.
He didn't show he recognised me.
What for a business did he have here ?
Masloboyev, do you know the Prince ?
I undertake all sorts of private
jobs, you know, and I know some queer people !
You come and see me, and I shall tell you fine tales;
people will never believe in if you write about them...
Here is my Alexandra Semenovna.
Have you got a party this evening ?
No, it was Alexandra
Semyonovna's pleasure to get it all up.
I knew that's how it would be;
no one ever comes to see us. But we've got everything.
Come, let's have a drink.
Why did you give my Elena sweetmeats
and ?dance? for her for an hour and a half !
Weren't you bribing her to
try and find something out from her ?
Look, how she flushed up when she heard
I had taken sweets to an unknown girl.
If I hadn't explained that it
was a child she'd have pulled my hair !
So there ! So there ! Don't dare to say .
that I'm jealous before a visitor ! You are talking of shameful things.
Listen, Masloboyev, why won't you tell me
anything about your secret affairs with the prince ?
But what am I to say about him ? I only
wanted, Vanya, to warn you against that swindler.
The villain's a villain...
Well, for example, I'll
tell you one little story.
After his wife, the mother of... Aleksey, died,
he seduced the daughter of a certain father...
The father was some sort of a manufacturer,
or was a partner in some enterprise of that sort.
She fell madly in love with him
and he and carried her off with him abroad.
So, the girl laid hands on the documents
relating to the money and took them with her.
The old father
cursed her and went bankrupt.
Once, the prince became suspicious
that she had an intrigue with. one...
what's-his-name... one Pfefferkuchen.
Do you mean to say
Pfefferkuchen was his surname ?
Hang the man, he doesn't matter. Dear, simple
souls ! The prince brought things to this pass on purpose.
Well, he turned them both out of the
house. She was just on the eve of her confinement ;
She gave birth to a daughter, that is, not a
daughter but a son, or... to be sure, a little daughter.
And everything went right for the prince, only one thing was wrong,
he hadn't succeeded in getting back the promise of marriage.
What happened to her ?
- Well, she went back home...
Her father wouldn't
receive her... She died.
The prince crossed himself for joy.
Only I can't
understand what you can do in it.
I can do a lot of things...
One can find out quite a lot...
About her child, about the prince and some other things...
And so on, to infinity... But Masloboyev knows...
Though I am a scoundrel...
- You are not !
Don't speak ! A scoundrel...
But I'm not your enemy.
Well, now, will you have a drink ?
- No.
Something to eat ?
- No, brother, excuse me.
Well then, get along with you.
He's been drinking till he's
drunk and now he sends away a guest.
Ivan Petrovitch !
A man on foot's poor
company for a man on horseback.
Forgive me, Vanya, don't judge me...
I have noticed this girl's capricious.
She much dislikes taking her powders regularly.
I suspect that you did it on purpose ;
But... we can set that
right and prepare another powder.
Again ? We can do it one more time.
Well, here you are.
Wonderful !
A good-hearted, grateful child !
Ivan Petrovitch, follow my advice, lead
a quiet life, it is better than any medicine.
A grateful child !
She'll get well this time,
but afterwards she will soon die.
Die ! But why ?
- The patient has an organic defect of the heart.
I've told about it to Nicolay
Sergeyevitch, and he had an idea to take Nelly to his home.
I had a daughter...
I loved her more than myself,
but now she is not
with me. She is dead.
Would you like to take her
place in my house and... in my heart ?
No, I shouldn't.
- Why not ?
Ivan cannot keep you with him forever,
and with me you'd be as in your own home.
I won't, because you're wicked.
Because you won't forgive your daughter.
You want to forget her altogether.
How can you forget your own child ?
Whenever you look at me you'll remember
I'm a stranger and that you had a daughter of your own,
whom you'd
forgotten, for you're a cruel man.
I'd better go and beg in the street.
My mother begged in the street
too, and when she was dying she said to me
'Better be poor and beg in the
street than...'It's not shameful to beg.
I beg of all, and that's
not the same as begging from one.
I won't live here anymore ! I'm
wicked, I'm wickeder than anyone.
There, now it's broken,
I'll break the other... and
then how will you drink your tea ?
You can't behave
like this ! You need peace.
You had no pity on the old man, Nellie !
She is ill, Vanya, or I
just can't understand it...
They say that the well-fed
cannot understand the hungry,
but I would add that the hungry
do not always understand the hungry,
Do you know what, I believe she's in love with you.
- How can that be ? She's a child !
- Yes, it's the beginning
of love, real grown-up love.
This exasperation is at your not understanding her
love ; and probably she doesn't understand it herself.
Above all she's jealous of me. You run off
to me, and even when she was ill left her alone.
Yes, she'll be ill
tomorrow because of it.
Go back to her at once...
I will, but of course I
don't believe a word of it.
Do you now that Alyosha's
accompanying Katya into the country ?
They say it won't be
long, but you never know...
Who told you ?
Alyosha !
Do you believe it ?
- Yes, I do.
I have made up my
mind about everything, Vanya.
Now our love, is over. Half a
year of life ! And it's my whole life.
Tomorrow I shall see
him for the last time...
Don't agitate yourself.
I loved forgiving him, Vanya, and do you
know, I always picture him as a little boy.
That was the problem...
Katya, Alyosha... Katya
talks as though she were grown up.
And all the while
she's a perfect child herself !
They are alike.
I wish that they stay together.
Nellie, what is it ? What's the matter ? -
There, upstairs... he's in our... rooms.
Who is it ? Come along, come with me.
I won't, I won't. I'll
wait till he's gone away...
Ivan Petrovitch, I'm so
glad you've come back at last.
When I arrived your
servant told me you were not at home.
That's a queer servant of yours.
How do you manage to get on with her ? I'm sure she's mad.
Only fancy, at first she answered me
civilly, but afterwards when she'd looked at me
she rushed at me, screaming
and trembling, clung to me...
I must say I was scared.
I wanted to escape from her,
but thank God she ran away
herself. How do you manage to get on with her ?
She's ill. She has epileptic fits.
Ah, so that's it ! Well, it's
no wonder then... if she has fits.
I opened your novel and forgot the
time, reading it. Ivan Petrovitch !
- Really ?
It's good. It's very
good.
- You really liked it ?
I enjoyed it very much. What
if we were to go to supper now ?
Begging your pardon, prince...
Besides, I do so want to talk to you about a matter of interest for both of us.
- That's settled, then.
Great Morskaya ?
- A restaurant ?
Surely you won't refuse to
be my guest ?
Well, wait, then.
Here ?
- Here, please.
Here.
The dwelling of the poet !
Why won't you come in, Nellie ? What did he
do ?
- I don't want to, I won't... I'm afraid.
As soon as I go out you
should return and lock yourself in.
But are you going with him ?
Yes.
Ivan Petrovitch, I would
like to ask for your advice.
Be my guest.
I made up my mind some time ago to
forgo what I have won from my lawsuit
and to give up the disputed
ten thousand to old Ichmenyev.
What is the matter ?
- How am I to do this, my dear ?
You know him well. The old
man's proud and obstinate like...
So what ?
- Very likely he'll insult me for
my good-nature, and throw the money in my face.
Don't you know him ? He'll
simply throw the money in my face.
But excuse me. How do you look
upon that money ? As your own or as his ?
My dear, I won the
lawsuit, so the money's mine.
But in your
conscience ?
- What do you mean ?
But in your
conscience ? As in the sight of God ?
- Mine. I don't accuse him of anything.
He was to blame for carelessness, for not
looking more sharply after business entrusted to him.
I... What was really at the bottom of it
was our quarrelling...
- Quarrelling ?
Quarrelling. Our mutual recriminations at
the time, in fact, wounded vanity on both sides.
And if so, why shouldn't you go to him
tell him straight out that you consider your claim as unjustified.
Ichmenyev would not find it
difficult then to accept his money.
Hm ! To tell everyone I
consider my claim illegal. Let me...
'Why did you make it then,
if you considered it illegal ?'
You got me wrong. You
are involved in this matter.
Ivan Petrovitch, Not we are involved in the matter...
But Natalya Nikolayevna.
Natalya Nikolayevna and her
whole future are involved in the matter,
and all this, depends to
some extent on what we decide.
Let us go. Are you ready ?
- Yes, I am.
Let us go, then.
Olives and glass of Lafitte.
You won't sup with me !
Why, this is positively ridiculous !
This is... It's the paltriest vanity.
There's almost a
suspicion of class feeling about this.
No, no !
The big one.
I'm not feeling offended by you. I quite understand
that to force one's friendship upon anyone is bad manners.
Won't you drink some wine ?
I quite understand that you are
not sitting here from affection for me,
but simply because I promised
to talk to you. That's so, isn't it ?
You are not mistaken,
I'm not offended ! I feel very
lively tonight ! And I really don't know why.
I wanted to talk about you.
About me ?
I love you.
That's interesting.
There's nothing interesting about that.
I love you and I have feeling of friendliness or even a tender affection for you.
Prince, wouldn't it be better to keep
to the point ?
- You mean talk of our affair.
But you don't know how closely we are
touching on the point if we speak of you.
To live as you're living...
is simply self-destruction.
Excuse me... for
touching on this delicate subject ;
I speak as a friend.
You are poor, you pay your trivial debts,
with what's left you live for six months on tea,
and shiver in your garret while you wait for
your novel to be written. That's so, isn't it ?
If it is so, anyway it's better than...
More creditable than stealing,
cringing... taking bribes and so on, and so on.
I know what you want to say,
all that's been printed long ago.
And so there's no need for you to talk about my
affairs. Surely, prince, I needn't give you a lesson in delicacy !
Well, certainly you needn't.
But what surprises me is that
you, Ivan Petrovitch should be...
How to say... That you, you should
be so set on playing a secondary part.
Alyosha has carried off
your fiancee. I know that.
And after all you are
ready to go to the stake for them,
you are almost at
their beck and call...
Ivan Petrovitch, my
dear fellow...
- Prince !
It's really shameful !
You seem to have brought
me here on purpose to insult me !
Oh no, not at all. At this moment
I am simply a matter-of-fact person.
and wish for nothing but
your happiness. As your friend.
Because I love you.
Ivan Petrovitch what do you think,
how would it be for you to get married ?
Why do you look at
me in such astonishment ?
I'm waiting for you to finish.
But there's no need to enlarge.
I simply wanted to know what you'd say if any one of your friends,
were to offer you a girl. Young, smart and pretty, but...
of some little experience ; I
speak allegorically but you'll understand,
after the style of Natalya Nikolayevna,
say, of course with
a suitable compensation,
I say you're... mad.
It's all right. Go !
Why, you're almost ready to beat me !
Please, don't stare at me like
that, Ivan Petrovitch or I'll have to escape...
Don't bother
yourself, they'll clean it up.
But tell me what would be if it were only possible (which,
however, from the laws of human nature never can be possible)
if it were possible for every one
of us to describe all his secret thoughts,
what, indeed, he is even afraid to confess to himself.
Haven't you at times the thoughts
which you were afraid to confess to yourself ?
Tell me what would it
be like ? Don't you know ?
The world would be filled with such a
stench that we should all be suffocated.
That's why, I may observe in parenthesis, our
social proprieties and conventions are so good.
They have a profound value, I won't
say for morality, but simply for comfort,
which, of course, is even more,
since morality is really that same comfort,
that is, it's invented
simply for the sake of comfort.
Prince, listen, prince...
- Well, all right...
Let us drink ! Won't you ?
- No.
I'm out for a spree ; I'm out for a spree ! My poet !
You charge me with
vice, immorality, sins...
but perhaps I'm only to blame for
being more open than other people, that's all ;
Yes, I'm frank, I'm telling truth.
You, of course, can't
look at things like that,
You know why ? Your legs are in
fetters, and your taste is morbid.
You all are morbid.
You dream of the ideal, of virtue,
but what am I to do if I know for a fact
that at the root of all human virtues lies the completest egoism ?
Egoism... What am I to do ? Am I
supposed to lie or pretend to be someone else ?
What about you ? Do you
believe these ideals yourself ?
Goodbye.
Where are you off to ? I'm going
home, and it's time for you to go.
Nonsense, nonsense ! I've, so to
speak, opened my whole heart to you.
My young hopeful, you will
allow me to call you by that sweet name ?
who knows, maybe my precepts may
come in useful one day for your trade.
I should like to tell
you a very pretty story.
When I was young I loved a young girl,
and loved her almost genuinely.
She even sacrificed a great deal for me.
Is that the one you robbed ?
Pardon ?
The one you robbed.
You're a Talleyrand,
there's no other word for you.
Why, I really stood before her dumbfounded
when she sprang it upon me that I had robbed her !
She just she sprang it
upon in front of everyone.
She was a violent woman, violent indeed.
With no self control.
In the first place I hadn't
robbed her as you expressed it just now.
She gave me her money, yes she did, it was mine.
I judged as follows :
giving her back the money I'd have deprived her
of the enjoyment of being miserable entirely owing to me,
Right. I'd deprived her of
an ecstasy in her own unhappiness.
There are certain people who enjoy their
unhappiness, they live in it, they are surrounded by it.
If one takes it away they
become even unhappier, believe me.
If one takes it away they
become even unhappier, believe me.
Haven't it occurred to you that...
- Yes, perhaps she may have had nothing to eat,
but she enjoyed her unhappiness. There are millions of such morbid people,
who are nourished by their grief.
You must have known that, you
are a writer. You wanted to catch me,
Come, confess you
were trying to catch me...
Good-bye.
- One minute.
Two words in conclusion ! Sit down.
I'm fond of money and I do need it.
Katerina Fyodorovna has plenty.
Alyosha and Katya are a perfect match for one another:
they are both utter fools ; you know that.
I desire and intend their marriage to take
place as soon as possible... as soon as possible.
In a fortnight or three weeks
the countess and Katya are going to the country. Alyosha must escort them.
Warn Natalya Nikolayevna that
there had better be no idyllic nonsense,
that they had better not oppose me. I'm
revengeful and malicious ; I shall stand up for myself.
You love Natalya Nikolayevna and so I hope now
that you will use all your influence to save her from certain unpleasantness.
One more thing, Ivan Petrovitch, you must have guessed
why I brought you here, you are a writer.
I really did want to spit upon the whole business
and to spit upon it before your eyes, too !
Farewell, my poet.
Mind what I have told you.
I'm a low, abject
creature, Vanya, save me from myself.
Vanya, my dear, tell me, decide for me,
which of them do I love most, Natasha or Katya ?
That I can't decide, You
ought to know better than I.
It seems the thing's settled, all
misunderstandings are over.
I fell at Natasha's feet ;
Then I told her straight out
that I loved Katya more than I love her.
What did she say ?
She said nothing, she only caressed me and comforted me.
Then I understood that I never could exist
without Natasha, that I should die without her.
And so we made up our
minds to be married at once.
It shall be when I come
back, and that will be the in June.
My father will allow it,
there can be no doubt of that.
We'll be married, and go
off there at once to Katya's...
See me off, Vanya.
Farewell, Vanya !
Write to me, Vanya ! Write
about everything in details.
That's you ! You !
Now you are left alone !
You always hated him !
You never could forgive
him for my loving to him...
You've come to persuade me to go
back to my father, who flung me off,
cursed me...
I won't,
I won't.
I curse them, too... Go
away ! I can't bear the sight of you !
Vanya, Vanya ! You are here !
Vanya, Vanya !
- Natasha !
Natasha.
Don't leave her alone, Mavra.
I'll go to get some the medicine.
My dear, Natalya
Nikolayevna, I understand your grief ;
I know how hard it must
be for you at this moment,
and so I felt it my duty to come to you.
Be comforted, if you can, if
only that by renouncing Alyosha
you have secured his happiness, for
you resolved on your noble action...
I am most grateful to you. If
you only knew how Alyosha begged me
not to leave you but to be a friend to you to
visit you as often as possible, Natalya Nikolayevna.
You will allow me in any case to leave with you this
proof of my sympathy,
there are ten thousand in this roll...
Leave me, leave me at once ! Go away !
Wait a moment, my
dear, listen patiently...
You know your father lost a
lawsuit against me. He lost it by law.
This money will serve
as compensation which...
Go away ! Take your money away !
My father will take nothing from you.
Natasha.
That's not the right thing at all,
my dear, for you to lose your temper,
You are offered protection
and you turn up your little nose...
Don't you realize that
you ought to be grateful to me ?
I might have put you in a penitentiary long ago,
as the father of the young man you have led astray,
But I haven't done it !
What ?
- Ah, Ivan Petrovitch, what are you doing here ?
What's the matter with you ?
You...
- Are you going to beat me, Ivan Petrovitch ?
Calm down. Sit down !
You all are morbid people. Goodbye.
You are morbid !
Mavra, don't leave
her alone even for a second.
I'll be back soon.
Nellie, Nellie, let
us go to Natasha's father.
I know, you don't like him ; you didn't
want to go to him, but now let us go together.
Tell them, Nellie, everything, just as you
told it to me. About your mother and Bubnova.
Tell them about your
grandfather, how your mother died,
And when you tell them all that, the old
man will feel it all, in his heart, too. Then...
Nellie, Nellie, tell him that he
haven't forgiven her before she died.
Nellie, save Natasha !
That day mother called me to her, took me by the hand and said:
"'I shall die today, Nellie.'"
She tried to say
something more, but she couldn't.
I ran out of the house, and
ran all the way to grandfather's.
When he saw me he jumped up from his
chair and was so frightened that he trembled.
I seized his hand and I hurried him
and told him to take a sledge because mother was just dying,
but grandfather only had seven kopecks, that was all he had.
He stopped cabs and began to bargain,
but they only laughed at him
and laughed at his dog, Azorka ;
Azorka was running with
us, and we all ran on and on.
Grandfather was tired and breathing
hard, but he still hurried on, running.
Suddenly he fell
down, and his hat fell off.
I helped him up and put
his hat on, and we ran on.
We ran on and on.
and only...
towards night we got home.
But mother...
But mother...
mother...
mother...
I'll be a mother to you now,
Nellie, and you shall be my child.
Yes, Nellie, let us
go, let us give up him,
Let him mock at people ;
Where are you off to, Ivan
Sergeyevitch ?
- I am getting dressed.
I am going to Natasha.
He has forgiven !
Vanya !
Nellie had been ill from the
day when I took her to the old man,
She had been obliged to stay in bed.
And, strange to say, the more the disease gained upon her,
the softer, sweeter and more open she became with us.
Vanya.
I shall die soon.
Very soon.
Vanya, I would like to leave you this as a keepsake.
So when you read what's written in it,
go to the prince and tell him that his daughter dead,
and that I haven't forgiven him.
Nelly gave me the little bag in
which was her mother's letter to the prince.
I read it on the day of Nellie's death.
?She is your daughter,? she wrote. ?I have told her to go to you when I am dead
and to give you this letter. If you do not repulse Nellie,
perhaps then I shall forgive you there...?
All these impressions of the past excite
me sometimes to the pitch of anguish, of agony.
If only I could to write it all down...
If only I could...
The subtitles prepared by Ulisses
for KG 2009
The Insulted and Injured
Production director : Andrei A. Eshpay
I cannot help continually
recalling all this bitter last year of my life.
It was a gloomy story, one of
those gloomy and distressing dramas,
which are so often played out unseen,
almost mysterious, under the heavy sky of Petersburg
All these impressions of the past excite
me sometimes to the pitch of anguish, of agony.
- Natasha, wait ! Where are you going ?
- Surely you must have seen,
Vanya, that I've gone away for ever,
left them for ever,
and shall never go back,
- Wait !
- You're going to him, Natasha ? Yes ?
- I have gone away from them and I don't know
what will become of them or what will become of me !
Yes.
I'll undertake to arrange it all for you, meetings, and everything.
I will carry your letters ; why not ? Don't leave home.
Can you love him so much ?
- You see, he told me to come, and here I am coming.
- You're a good, honourable man ! I've
deserted you, and you forgive everything,
you think of nothing but my
happiness. You are ready to carry letters for us.
- It would have been
better if I'd never met him ;
I could have lived with
you, with you, dear, kind Vanya.
- And I haven't even asked ! What
about your new novel ? Is it going well ?
- As though we could talk about novels,
as though we could talk about me now, Natasha !
- But tell me, Natasha, did he
insist himself that you should go to him ?"
"No, not only he, it was more I...
They're making a match for him witha very rich girl,
of very high rank and related to very grand people.
His father, the prince, absolutely insists on his marrying her,
and his father, as you know, is an
awful schemer ; he's very anxious to get it over,
and they say she's very pretty ;
Alyosha's attracted by her already,
Do you understand, Natasha,
what you are doing to your father ?
You know his father is your father's enemy.
Why, the prince called your father a thief.
Do you know, that the prince suspected your father and mother
of having thrown you and Alyosha together on purpose ?
Enough, Vanya, stop. I know...
Alyosha !
O, dear Lord...
Alyosha !
My God !
Vanya !
Excuse me, I've been wanting to
embrace you as a brother for ever so long.
He's on our side, he's a
brother to us, he has forgiven us already.
Let us go !
I have taken a flat, come and visit us.
I've decided to
tell my father everything,
and I began speaking and told him everything...
- But what ? What did you tell him exactly ?
Why, that I don't want any other
fiancee, and that I have one already - you.
That is, I didn't tell him that straight out,
but I prepared him for it and I shall tell him soon ;
I explained him right away... That
the mother comes from a merchant family
That I am not
obliged to marry a countess.
Now the most important thing.
I told Katya that though my father wanted to
make a match between us, our marriage was impossible
That's the thing... Tell us then !
Only fancy, she knew nothing at all
about our story, about you and me, Natasha.
At first she was quite
scared. She turned quite white.
I told her our whole story ;
how for my sake you'd abandoned your home ;
how harassed we were now, how afraid of everything,
and that now we were appealing to
her I spoke in your name too, Natasha,
that she would take our side,
and tell her stepmother, the countess straight out that she wouldn't marry me ;
She thanked me for not doubting her,
and promised to do all she could to help us,
asked me to tell you that she
loved you already like a sister.
Ah, if only you knew Katya ! If
only you knew what a tender soul she is !
I noticed she watched me intently.
That roused my
curiosity, I began to watch her too.
Don't imagine anything, Natasha and let me talk about her.
I want to talk to you about her and to her about you.
Do you know what is she like ? She
began at once urging me to go to you.
But she was crying. For
she loves me too, Natasha !
I've been going to
them every evening, you see.
As I went home I kept
thinking of you both, kept comparing you.
- Which of us came off best ?
- Sometimes you and sometimes she.
But you were always the best in the long run.
When I think of her I always feel I
become somehow better, cleverer, and somehow finer.
But everything shall be resolved soon
Tomorrow she should tell her stepmother that she won't have me,
and that tomorrow I should tell my father everything.
And aren't you sorry for her ?
She loves you, you know.
You say you've noticed it yourself.
Yes, I am, Natasha. But we'll all
three love one another, and then...
- And then'good-bye'.
- No.
And that's the story of my
happiness ; so my love was over and ended.
I never loved you like that, Vanya.
I know I've gone out of my mind, and don't love him as I ought to.
I don't love him in the right way...
Do you suppose I'm
going to him to meet joy ?
Do you suppose I don't know beforehand what's in
store for me, or what I shall have to bear from him ?
And yet I'm glad to be
his slave, his willing slave ;
to put up with
anything from him, anything,
so long as he is with me,
so long as I can look at him !
Isn't it abject, Vanya ?
Isn't it abject, such a wish ?
Ever since the autumn I had been trying to
find a lodging, but I had hung on till the spring.
It happened that the old man, whom I
hadn't known before, died in my arms in the street,
and I moved to his empty lodging.
I hadn't expected that owing to this from time to time I
would sink into that condition which I call mysterious horror.
I kept fancying that I
should die at last in Petersburg.
Very often, the thought struck me that when I
turned round I should inevitably see the old man.
He would stand facing me, fix his
lustreless eyes upon me and suddenly laugh in my face,
a long, toothless, noiseless chuckle.
Where's grandfather ?
- Your grandfather ?
Did your grandfather
live here ? But he's dead !
Forgive me, forgive me,
girl ! Forgive me, my child !"
I told you so abruptly. Who is it
you're looking for ? The old man who lived here ?
Yes.
Is Azorka dead, too ?
His dog... Yes, Azorka's dead, too.
So you're his granddaughter ?
Why haven't you been here ?
Where are you going ?
When I ran out into the
street the girl had vanished.
All my efforts were in vain.
- Vanya !
- Nicolay Sergeyitch !Have you no feeling for Anna Andreyevna !
No, I haven't !
I haven't, for no one
feels for me ! No, I haven't !
For in my own house they're all plotting against me
in my dishonour and on the side of my depraved daughter,
who deserves my curse, and a punishment !
Look, Vanya, look, here
are the notes of our case.
It's made out that I'm
a thief, that I'm a cheat,
that I have robbed my benefactor !...
I am discredited, disgraced,
because of her ! There, there, look, look !
It is Natasha's portrait, it is my
locket. I was wondering where could I lose it...
You are keeping it !
My dear, so you love her still !
I curse you ; I
curse you, forever and ever !
It's hard to believe it really happened.
Ihmenyevka village, little
cheerful Natasha, her parents.
And I, an orphan, who has found
refuge and loving-kindness there.
When I was already studying in St. Petersburg
Natasha's father became a steward in the Prince Valkovsky's estate.
It started when the prince's
son, Alyosha, arrived to the estate.
If I only knew, that this is an end of my love.
That's all they gave me for the work
- Thank you.
I must put an end to this life.
It's only been an idea before, Vanya, but now I have quite made up my mind.
I love him beyond everything, and yet
it seems that... I shall ruin his future.
I must set him free.
He can't marry me ; he hasn't
the strength to go against his father.
I don't want to bind him either.
And so I'm really glad he has fallen in
love with the girl they are betrothing him to.
Yes, I am glad indeed.
It will make the parting easier for
him. Help me. Can't you advise something ?
There is only one way, to leave off loving
him altogether and fall in love with someone else.
But I doubt whether even that will
do it ; surely you know his character.
Here he's not been
to see you for five days.
You've only to write that you are
leaving him, and he'd run to you at once.
Why do you dislike him, Vanya ?
You're his enemy, secret and open.
You can't speak of
him without vindictiveness.
I've noticed a while ago that it's your
greatest pleasure to humiliate him and blacken him !
- Enough, Natasha, let's drop this conversation.
- You dislike him.
- Enough, Natasha. And you've
told me so a thousand times already.
Let's drop this conversation.
Well, tell me then where is he now ?
Where is he ?
- Where is he now ?
He's with her.
I don't understand myself.
One thinks one thing, but it's different when it comes to doing it.
Let's go there !
- Don't, Natasha, I'm begging you !
Alyosha has arrived !
I... I just have...
Wait, let me tell you.
Alyosha... Our lord...
Alyosha...
Someone's asking for you.
- The prince is asking for admission.
My calling upon you at such an hour, and
unannounced, is strange, and against all accepted rules.
I'm begging you, only give me ten minutes, and
I trust that you will understand me and justify it.
You are welcome.
- Thank you.
First of all allow me to
say a couple of words to my son.
As soon as you had gone away, my dear,
Katerina Fyodorovna herself suddenly came in
distressed and violently agitated.
She told us, forthwith,
that she could not marry you.
She said, too, that she was going into a nunnery,
that you confessed to her that you loved Natalya Nikolayevna.
I beg you beforehand not to be surprised at a
certain abruptness in my explanation ; it is all so sudden...
Sit down,
- Thank you,
I am relying on your
penetration, Natalya Nikolayevna,
Since you have left your home, your parents, and
moved here, to the lodging rented for you by Alyosha,
I was terror-stricken for him.
But you...
- I... I will tell the truth.
It wasn't the only
thing that revolted me from you.
You have neither wealth nor position.
Our family is going
downhill. We need money and connexions.
Katerina Fyodorovna has
more than enough of both.
That's why I became your ill-wisher, Natalya
Nikolayevna. I became your frank and true enemy.
I wanted to draw him
away from you at any cost.
I deprived him of money, I locked him, and
even beaten him once, but you must have known this...
But I lost.
I lost to you.
You know, I noticed the Alyosha's
strange earnestness, which he never had previously.
I was amazed with his persistence,
with the constancy of his devotion to you.
I have come to believe that I am not his
guide anymore, that you are Alyosha's true guide.
I have come to the conclusion that without
you Alyosha will be lost. Yes, he will be lost.
Natalya Nikoyevna, I came to do my duty to you,
and solemnly, with the deepest respect,
I beg you to make my son happy and to give him your hand.
I know I have no right to be your friend ! You
know about the uneasy relations with your father.
But allow me to earn the right !
Father !
- Alyosha !
What did I tell you,
Natasha ? You wouldn't believe...
Thank you, thank you, father...
Natalya Nikolayevna, will you
allow me to visit you as often as I can ?
Ilya, dress !
I cannot go without shaking hands with you,
though, I cannot take my leave without telling you...
I've been told your novel is
brilliant, yet I haven't read it myself
Your novel is widely discussed...
Allow me to hope that you will let me have the pleasure of
presenting you to some worshippers of your talent, those ladies...
But now I see so few people...
- But give me your address ! Where do you live ?
Certainly, since you insist I shall be
delighted. I live at -- Street, in Klugen's Buildings.
Klugen's Buildings !
- I live at No. 44.
Klugen's Buildings... You are living... alone ?
- Why are you asking ?
Well... I will certainly come and see you,
certainly ! But now I shall take leave of you !
Natalya Nikolayevna... Thank you.
Goodbye !
Natasha, oughtn't I to make haste and go to him ?
- Yes, go, darling, go. You were right to think of it.
Father !
Tell mamma, but don't speak to father.
This awful lawsuit how long will it
last... As if father has stolen ten thousands...
Dear Lord, the Prince will obtain this
cursed money ; he's got connexions, his got everything.
Good heavens, Vanya, will he really
curse me for this marriage ? No, impossible.
The prince will have to make everything right. They
must be reconciled and then everything will go smoothly.
My God ! If that could
only be ! If that could only be !
Many strange thoughts and
sensations were hovering in my mind.
Both Natasha and I
thought the prince rather strange.
Ah, you again ! Well, I thought
you'd come ! Come in ! Don't be afraid.
Excuse me, it was cold, I just
wanted to warm myself for a while.
What time was that ?
- It must have been half-past ten.
Oh, dear !
Wait !
I won't let you go like that.
What are you afraid of ? Are you late ?
Let me go ! She'll beat me.
Listen, and don't rush away ; I'm late, too. I'm
going to take a cab. Will you come with me ? I'll take you.
You can't come back with me, you can't !
- I won't follow you.
Go ! You can't come back with me, you can't !
- Wait !
Drive away ! I'll come, I'll come !
Ah, here you are ! She was just sent
for some cucumbers and off she slipped.
Her mother's hopped the twig, There, thought I,
I'll put myself out and take the orphan. So I took her.
I've been keeping her these two months, and upon my word
she's been sucking my blood, the obstinate limb of Satan, she won't speak.
You, green monkey ! If it hadn't been
for me you'd have died of hunger in the street.
You monster, you black French poker !
I wanted to put her in a muslin frock, the dirty slut !
I decked her out like a peacock, a sight for a holiday !
And would you believe it, good friends, two
days later she'd torn up the dress, torn it into rags,
I made her scrub the floor for a punishment; and what do you think,
she scrubbed and scrubbed, the jade ! It vexed me to see her scrubbing.
What are you about ? How dare you...
She may choke for me, the damned
slut. That's the third fit this month !
Get off, you. Why are you standing
there, porter ? What do you get your wages for ?
Get along, get along !
Carry her up !
Ah, why it's you, Masloboev !
- It is easy to recognize Ivan Petrovich.
You're a general, a literary one that is, eh !...
- Come, Generals look very different from me.
I've heard about your glorious
success. I've read the criticisms too...
I make enough to jog along :
I take bribes without ruth and yet stand firm for the truth.
My business is chiefly in the
confidential line, you understand.
You're not some
sort of detective, are you ?
No, not exactly a
detective, but I do take up jobs.
Partly professionally,
and partly on my own account.
You also have just watched the drama of
life... It is fine by you, you are a writer, but we...
Listen, few moments ago a girl was
beaten by a woman here. She can beat her to death !
Mme. Bubnova... She's a nasty woman !
She wanted to take advantage of the girl.
What do you suppose ?
- Mme. Bubnova wouldn't have adopted an orphan simply out of compassion.
- Then the girl must be taken away from her !
- Where to ? Who supposed to take her ? You ?
I can do so for the time being, then
it will be possible to arrange something...
Well, then come later.
She has a bride-show today.
Wait !
- Do come...
- Wait, what for a bride-show ?
- Do come !
Vanya, the Prince
was not lying, wasn't he ?
There's no excuse to
be found for such deception.
Of course not, of course not !
And, indeed, am I so abject in his
eyes that he could jeer at me like that ?
And this is my opinion, he is giving
his consent to your marriage.
Has Alyosha been here ?
Yes, he has. He stayed a little while.
I sent him off to Katerina Fyodorovna.
Shouldn't I have, Vanya ?
- Why, didn't he mean to go himself ?
Yes, he did.
Alyosha was very absurd this morning.
He flew in, such a butterfly - such a dandy,
and kept prinking
before the looking-glass.
He's a little too unceremonious now...
He didn't stay long.
Ah, what a pair you are...
Now you've begun watching and spying
on one another, studying each other's faces.
No, Vanya, you see, I fancied that
he was somehow too little affected...
he seemed already such a man,
you know, as though
he'd been married ten years.
He was in a great hurry... If
I spoke to him he didn't listen to me
But there perhaps he'll be
angry for what happened this morning.
Surely you haven't quarrelled already !
I made no sign ! But I was a little sad,
and I fancied he said good-bye coldly.
I'll send for him...
You come, too, today, Vanya.
Yes, I'll be sure to,
unless I'm detained by one thing.
Why, what thing is it ?"
I've brought it on myself ! But I
think I'm sure to come all the same.
Whoa ! Stand still !
Are you with Masloboyev ?
Come in.
Don't you know your honoured
guests ? Who, if not me ? Masloboyev.
Where are you going, Mr. Masloboyev ?
You can't go there.
Mother !
Don't.
Mr. Masloboyev !
Mr. Masloboyev, I'll call the police !
There someone is
waiting for you ! Take him !
Mr. Masloboyev, I'll call the police !
Take him !
Bastard !
Sit down.
- Mother, poor mother...
Calm down...
Where do you mean to
send me ? I don't want to go.
I don't mean to send you
anywhere. You're ill you should recover first.
Well, go then, if you need to.
- But how will you get on alone ?
Suppose I'm ill for a whole year,
you can't stay at home all the time.
- Go !
- I'd be sure to be back soon.
- What happened ?
- I got into a story, I'll tell you later.
Hasn't Alyosha been there ?
Have you sent for him ?
Yes, I have.
Have you been to my people ?
I haven't.
Perhaps, you should return to them ?
No, it is impossible...
Try.
If I were to try I should
only make him more bitter against me.
He would hardly know me now.
He loved me as a
little girl ; a grown-up child.
What's the matter ?
What are you always writing ?
All sorts of things,
Lenotchka. They give me money for it.
Petitions ?
- No, not petitions.
All sorts of stories
about different people.
Is it all true - what you write ?
- No, I make it up.
Why do you write what isn't true ?
- Why, here, read it. You see this book ;
I wrote this book.
I'll read it...
And are you paid much for this ?
It's as it happens.
It's difficult work, Lenotchka.
Then you're not rich ?
- No, not rich.
Then I shall work and help you. I
will do your cooking. I can make soup.
Do you want it ?
- What are you talking about ?
You are the only
person who cares for me...
Calm down, Lenotchka...
- The only one.
Calm down, Lenotchka. Calm down...
- Not Lenotchka, no...
- Not Lenotchka ? What then ?
Nellie.
Nellie...
Why must it be Nellie ?
That's what mother called me.
And no one else ever
called me that, no one but she...
But you call me so. I want you to.
- I'll do.
Is Alyosha here ?
- He has not been.
Oh, dear...
Good heavens ! And you could
leave her alone at this moment !
I don't know what to advise you, Vanya,
Everything shows that she's a very strange little creature.
Perhaps, she has been
dreadfully ill-treated and frightened.
Vanya, come to me tomorrow if you
can. I shall tell you something perhaps...
Only I'm ashamed to trouble you. But
now you'd better be going home to your visitor.
Natasha, what's the
matter ? What has happened ?
Be kind, go away, you worry me.
You'll know all about it
tomorrow, but now I want to be alone.
Vanya. Go away at once. I
can't bear, I can't bear to look at you !
Be kind, go away.
Oh, damn. Here's No. 7,
there's No. 69. Who has made up this ?!
It's impossible !
Ivan Petrovitch...
Did you hear me
swearing ? It's such a shame !
Forgive me for Christ's
sake. I was just thinking...
How could Alyosha let...
- Natalya Nikolayevna ?
Thanks... let Natalya Nikolayevna live in a
hole like this ! That's what I am talking about...
He is a foolish
man, just a foolish man...
Here I am !
What for cold hands !
It's cold outside, isn't it ?
Well, where's my
feather-headed boy ? Isn't he here ?
What time is it ?
I thought you clock
stopped, I was afraid...
I guess he spent here all the time.
And did you really not know that
he has not been near me all these days ?
What ? Not been here once ?
Good heavens, what are you saying !
How it surprises you ! While I thought that, so far
from being surprised, you knew beforehand that it would be so.
Explain yourself !
Why, there's nothing to explain. And now that
he has been given complete liberty he is carried away.
But to be carried away like that is impossible, and as soon as
he comes in I'll make him explain what it is, Natalya Nikolayevna.
That is, you'll manage to
make him begin to feel me a burden.
Surely, with your cleverness, you can't
imagine that that would be any help to me.
Do you mean to hint that I would intentionally try to make
him feel you a burden ?
You insult me, Natalya Nikolayevna. What for ?
You want to prove that you are simple and straightforward with me ?
- Sure, I do.
And that is, not by one word, one hint, to worry Alyosha
about me. No reproof for having forgotten me ; no remonstrance.
- Will you make me such a promise ?
With the greatest pleasure,
and allow me to add with all my heart that I have rarely met
more sensible and clear-sighted attitude in such circumstances...
But I believe this is Alyosha.
Here I am ! I, who ought to have been here before anyone,
but I'll tell you everything directly, everything, everything !
The great thing now is that she's
here. Here she is ! Natasha, my angel !
My dear, God, But where... have you been so many days ?
Of course I've been to blame. Katya told
me that no woman could forgive such negligence.
I argued with her, I maintained that
there is such a woman and her name is Natasha.
But if you had time to be with Katerina
Fyodorovna from morning till night, I think...
I will explain everything, father !
If only you could hear all that she said to me...
some warm words, some
feelings, and we were friends for ever.
She introduced me to her company ; the
people of all sorts, simply extraordinary men.
We became close friends that very evening.
We talked of everything in general that leads up to progress.
To humanity, to love. We
talked about the need of a free press,
of the reforms that are beginning, of
the love of humanity, of the leaders of to-day ;
But better still, Bezmygin has a saying about that.
He is a man of brains and a real leader of genius.
Only yesterday he said in conversation,
'The fool who recognizes that he is a fool is no longer a fool.'
One hears utterances like that from him
every minute. He positively scatters truths.
Katya is in complete sympathy with him.
We're agreeing now upon our convictions in general,
and have resolved to pursue the study of ourselves severally,
and when we meet to
explain ourselves to each other.
Father, why are you laughing at me ?
At what is for me good and holy now ?
Forgive me, I did not mean to grieve you.
I tell you that I tried to hide under a laugh my bitter feeling.
Forgive me. Here you've been talking of love for humanity,
of the noble people f the loftiness of your convictions.
But ask Ivan Petrovitch what I said to him just now
as we climbed up that nasty staircase to the fourth storey,
and were standing at the door,
thanking God that our lives and limbs were safe.
Do you know the feeling that
came into my mind in spite of myself ?
I was surprised that with your love for Natalya Nikolayevna
you could bear to let her live in such a flat.
How is it you haven't realized that,
if you are not in a position to do your duty,
if you are not in a position to do your duty,
you have no right to be a husband, you
have no right to undertake any responsibilities ?
You would say "What about love ?"
Love alone is a small matter; love shows itself in deeds,
but your motto is'live with me if you have to suffer with me'- that's not humane,
Prince, you have promised !
- Don't interrupt me, Natalya Nikolayevna, let me finish.
You've been talked for 20 minutes of love for all humanity;
it is easy to love all humanity, in general. It's easy.
But to live the one and
only, that's hard ; that's a deed...
How could you...
neglect for four whole days the woman
who, must be more precious to you than anything on earth. How could you ?
Forgive me, Natalya
Nikolayevna, for breaking my word.
But the present position is more important than
any promise, you will realize that yourself...
Never mind, Alyosha, don't be
unhappy. Others are more to blame than you.
Sit down and listen to what I have to say
to your father. It's time to make an end of it !
It is indeed ! Explain
yourself, Natalya Nikolayevna !
For the last two hours I have been listening to
these mysterious hints. It is becoming intolerable.
What is there to explain to you ?
Your first desire is to separate us.
Think what you have just told...
You are jealous of Katerina Fyodorovna,
and so you're ready to find fault with everyone and me especially...
And, allow me to say, you give
one a strange idea of your character.
For six whole months you had been doing
your utmost to draw him away from me.
- Natasha !
The three millions
would slip through your fingers.
Only one course was left you, to make
Alyosha love the girl you destined for him ;
Novels, novels...
solitude, brooding, and novel-reading.
Yes, on this new
love you rested everything,
His old love was not in distress now,
her future was secured, his whole life was to be given up to her,
But there's the girl, who suddenly displayed such
nobility of character, such sympathy for him and for her rival
They vow eternal friendship and brotherhood;
They vow eternal friendship and brotherhood;
they wish never to be parted. The victory is yours !
Alyosha ! Don't blame me, my dear !
But what am I to do, understanding all this,
and loving you more and more... simply madly !
Natasha, it's all my fault ! Don't blame him.
- No, Alyosha.
It's wicked and horrible...
- Do you hear, Vanya ? He is already against me !
Enough ! We must put an end to this painful scene.
We have been in too great a hurry.
We certainly have
been in too great a hurry.
My word ought to be sacred of course, but...
I am a father, and I desire the happiness of my son...
You go back from your word ! You are glad of the opportunity.
- Don't, Natasha !
But let me tell you that I give him up !
Ivan Petrovitch ! You see, she hit me !
Explain to her that I hope we
may not break off all relations.
I shall come and see you if you will allow me.
- I will !
He was irritated when he said he was'in too great a hurry.'You will see tomorrow.
Natasha, let me go straight to
my father. And I'll settle everything.
Don't be angry with me for being so
anxious to get to him and ready to leave you.
It's not that at all. I am sorry for him ;
he will justify himself to you, you will see.
Tomorrow I'll be with you as soon as it's
light, and I'll spend the whole day with you.
I won't go to Katya's.
Tomorrow...
Natasha... don't let us ever quarrel.
Ach, Vanya, you are my only hope now !
The Prince wants for some reason
to approach you, to get to know you.
Don't oppose this, I
want to know what is he up to...
Vanya, show me this once more
what a true friend you are to me !
Soon I reached Masloboev's.
To my intense amazement the first
person I met when I went in was the prince.
He didn't show he recognised me.
What for a business did he have here ?
Masloboyev, do you know the Prince ?
I undertake all sorts of private
jobs, you know, and I know some queer people !
You come and see me, and I shall tell you fine tales;
people will never believe in if you write about them...
Here is my Alexandra Semenovna.
Have you got a party this evening ?
No, it was Alexandra
Semyonovna's pleasure to get it all up.
I knew that's how it would be;
no one ever comes to see us. But we've got everything.
Come, let's have a drink.
Why did you give my Elena sweetmeats
and ?dance? for her for an hour and a half !
Weren't you bribing her to
try and find something out from her ?
Look, how she flushed up when she heard
I had taken sweets to an unknown girl.
If I hadn't explained that it
was a child she'd have pulled my hair !
So there ! So there ! Don't dare to say .
that I'm jealous before a visitor ! You are talking of shameful things.
Listen, Masloboyev, why won't you tell me
anything about your secret affairs with the prince ?
But what am I to say about him ? I only
wanted, Vanya, to warn you against that swindler.
The villain's a villain...
Well, for example, I'll
tell you one little story.
After his wife, the mother of... Aleksey, died,
he seduced the daughter of a certain father...
The father was some sort of a manufacturer,
or was a partner in some enterprise of that sort.
She fell madly in love with him
and he and carried her off with him abroad.
So, the girl laid hands on the documents
relating to the money and took them with her.
The old father
cursed her and went bankrupt.
Once, the prince became suspicious
that she had an intrigue with. one...
what's-his-name... one Pfefferkuchen.
Do you mean to say
Pfefferkuchen was his surname ?
Hang the man, he doesn't matter. Dear, simple
souls ! The prince brought things to this pass on purpose.
Well, he turned them both out of the
house. She was just on the eve of her confinement ;
She gave birth to a daughter, that is, not a
daughter but a son, or... to be sure, a little daughter.
And everything went right for the prince, only one thing was wrong,
he hadn't succeeded in getting back the promise of marriage.
What happened to her ?
- Well, she went back home...
Her father wouldn't
receive her... She died.
The prince crossed himself for joy.
Only I can't
understand what you can do in it.
I can do a lot of things...
One can find out quite a lot...
About her child, about the prince and some other things...
And so on, to infinity... But Masloboyev knows...
Though I am a scoundrel...
- You are not !
Don't speak ! A scoundrel...
But I'm not your enemy.
Well, now, will you have a drink ?
- No.
Something to eat ?
- No, brother, excuse me.
Well then, get along with you.
He's been drinking till he's
drunk and now he sends away a guest.
Ivan Petrovitch !
A man on foot's poor
company for a man on horseback.
Forgive me, Vanya, don't judge me...
I have noticed this girl's capricious.
She much dislikes taking her powders regularly.
I suspect that you did it on purpose ;
But... we can set that
right and prepare another powder.
Again ? We can do it one more time.
Well, here you are.
Wonderful !
A good-hearted, grateful child !
Ivan Petrovitch, follow my advice, lead
a quiet life, it is better than any medicine.
A grateful child !
She'll get well this time,
but afterwards she will soon die.
Die ! But why ?
- The patient has an organic defect of the heart.
I've told about it to Nicolay
Sergeyevitch, and he had an idea to take Nelly to his home.
I had a daughter...
I loved her more than myself,
but now she is not
with me. She is dead.
Would you like to take her
place in my house and... in my heart ?
No, I shouldn't.
- Why not ?
Ivan cannot keep you with him forever,
and with me you'd be as in your own home.
I won't, because you're wicked.
Because you won't forgive your daughter.
You want to forget her altogether.
How can you forget your own child ?
Whenever you look at me you'll remember
I'm a stranger and that you had a daughter of your own,
whom you'd
forgotten, for you're a cruel man.
I'd better go and beg in the street.
My mother begged in the street
too, and when she was dying she said to me
'Better be poor and beg in the
street than...'It's not shameful to beg.
I beg of all, and that's
not the same as begging from one.
I won't live here anymore ! I'm
wicked, I'm wickeder than anyone.
There, now it's broken,
I'll break the other... and
then how will you drink your tea ?
You can't behave
like this ! You need peace.
You had no pity on the old man, Nellie !
She is ill, Vanya, or I
just can't understand it...
They say that the well-fed
cannot understand the hungry,
but I would add that the hungry
do not always understand the hungry,
Do you know what, I believe she's in love with you.
- How can that be ? She's a child !
- Yes, it's the beginning
of love, real grown-up love.
This exasperation is at your not understanding her
love ; and probably she doesn't understand it herself.
Above all she's jealous of me. You run off
to me, and even when she was ill left her alone.
Yes, she'll be ill
tomorrow because of it.
Go back to her at once...
I will, but of course I
don't believe a word of it.
Do you now that Alyosha's
accompanying Katya into the country ?
They say it won't be
long, but you never know...
Who told you ?
Alyosha !
Do you believe it ?
- Yes, I do.
I have made up my
mind about everything, Vanya.
Now our love, is over. Half a
year of life ! And it's my whole life.
Tomorrow I shall see
him for the last time...
Don't agitate yourself.
I loved forgiving him, Vanya, and do you
know, I always picture him as a little boy.
That was the problem...
Katya, Alyosha... Katya
talks as though she were grown up.
And all the while
she's a perfect child herself !
They are alike.
I wish that they stay together.
Nellie, what is it ? What's the matter ? -
There, upstairs... he's in our... rooms.
Who is it ? Come along, come with me.
I won't, I won't. I'll
wait till he's gone away...
Ivan Petrovitch, I'm so
glad you've come back at last.
When I arrived your
servant told me you were not at home.
That's a queer servant of yours.
How do you manage to get on with her ? I'm sure she's mad.
Only fancy, at first she answered me
civilly, but afterwards when she'd looked at me
she rushed at me, screaming
and trembling, clung to me...
I must say I was scared.
I wanted to escape from her,
but thank God she ran away
herself. How do you manage to get on with her ?
She's ill. She has epileptic fits.
Ah, so that's it ! Well, it's
no wonder then... if she has fits.
I opened your novel and forgot the
time, reading it. Ivan Petrovitch !
- Really ?
It's good. It's very
good.
- You really liked it ?
I enjoyed it very much. What
if we were to go to supper now ?
Begging your pardon, prince...
Besides, I do so want to talk to you about a matter of interest for both of us.
- That's settled, then.
Great Morskaya ?
- A restaurant ?
Surely you won't refuse to
be my guest ?
Well, wait, then.
Here ?
- Here, please.
Here.
The dwelling of the poet !
Why won't you come in, Nellie ? What did he
do ?
- I don't want to, I won't... I'm afraid.
As soon as I go out you
should return and lock yourself in.
But are you going with him ?
Yes.
Ivan Petrovitch, I would
like to ask for your advice.
Be my guest.
I made up my mind some time ago to
forgo what I have won from my lawsuit
and to give up the disputed
ten thousand to old Ichmenyev.
What is the matter ?
- How am I to do this, my dear ?
You know him well. The old
man's proud and obstinate like...
So what ?
- Very likely he'll insult me for
my good-nature, and throw the money in my face.
Don't you know him ? He'll
simply throw the money in my face.
But excuse me. How do you look
upon that money ? As your own or as his ?
My dear, I won the
lawsuit, so the money's mine.
But in your
conscience ?
- What do you mean ?
But in your
conscience ? As in the sight of God ?
- Mine. I don't accuse him of anything.
He was to blame for carelessness, for not
looking more sharply after business entrusted to him.
I... What was really at the bottom of it
was our quarrelling...
- Quarrelling ?
Quarrelling. Our mutual recriminations at
the time, in fact, wounded vanity on both sides.
And if so, why shouldn't you go to him
tell him straight out that you consider your claim as unjustified.
Ichmenyev would not find it
difficult then to accept his money.
Hm ! To tell everyone I
consider my claim illegal. Let me...
'Why did you make it then,
if you considered it illegal ?'
You got me wrong. You
are involved in this matter.
Ivan Petrovitch, Not we are involved in the matter...
But Natalya Nikolayevna.
Natalya Nikolayevna and her
whole future are involved in the matter,
and all this, depends to
some extent on what we decide.
Let us go. Are you ready ?
- Yes, I am.
Let us go, then.
Olives and glass of Lafitte.
You won't sup with me !
Why, this is positively ridiculous !
This is... It's the paltriest vanity.
There's almost a
suspicion of class feeling about this.
No, no !
The big one.
I'm not feeling offended by you. I quite understand
that to force one's friendship upon anyone is bad manners.
Won't you drink some wine ?
I quite understand that you are
not sitting here from affection for me,
but simply because I promised
to talk to you. That's so, isn't it ?
You are not mistaken,
I'm not offended ! I feel very
lively tonight ! And I really don't know why.
I wanted to talk about you.
About me ?
I love you.
That's interesting.
There's nothing interesting about that.
I love you and I have feeling of friendliness or even a tender affection for you.
Prince, wouldn't it be better to keep
to the point ?
- You mean talk of our affair.
But you don't know how closely we are
touching on the point if we speak of you.
To live as you're living...
is simply self-destruction.
Excuse me... for
touching on this delicate subject ;
I speak as a friend.
You are poor, you pay your trivial debts,
with what's left you live for six months on tea,
and shiver in your garret while you wait for
your novel to be written. That's so, isn't it ?
If it is so, anyway it's better than...
More creditable than stealing,
cringing... taking bribes and so on, and so on.
I know what you want to say,
all that's been printed long ago.
And so there's no need for you to talk about my
affairs. Surely, prince, I needn't give you a lesson in delicacy !
Well, certainly you needn't.
But what surprises me is that
you, Ivan Petrovitch should be...
How to say... That you, you should
be so set on playing a secondary part.
Alyosha has carried off
your fiancee. I know that.
And after all you are
ready to go to the stake for them,
you are almost at
their beck and call...
Ivan Petrovitch, my
dear fellow...
- Prince !
It's really shameful !
You seem to have brought
me here on purpose to insult me !
Oh no, not at all. At this moment
I am simply a matter-of-fact person.
and wish for nothing but
your happiness. As your friend.
Because I love you.
Ivan Petrovitch what do you think,
how would it be for you to get married ?
Why do you look at
me in such astonishment ?
I'm waiting for you to finish.
But there's no need to enlarge.
I simply wanted to know what you'd say if any one of your friends,
were to offer you a girl. Young, smart and pretty, but...
of some little experience ; I
speak allegorically but you'll understand,
after the style of Natalya Nikolayevna,
say, of course with
a suitable compensation,
I say you're... mad.
It's all right. Go !
Why, you're almost ready to beat me !
Please, don't stare at me like
that, Ivan Petrovitch or I'll have to escape...
Don't bother
yourself, they'll clean it up.
But tell me what would be if it were only possible (which,
however, from the laws of human nature never can be possible)
if it were possible for every one
of us to describe all his secret thoughts,
what, indeed, he is even afraid to confess to himself.
Haven't you at times the thoughts
which you were afraid to confess to yourself ?
Tell me what would it
be like ? Don't you know ?
The world would be filled with such a
stench that we should all be suffocated.
That's why, I may observe in parenthesis, our
social proprieties and conventions are so good.
They have a profound value, I won't
say for morality, but simply for comfort,
which, of course, is even more,
since morality is really that same comfort,
that is, it's invented
simply for the sake of comfort.
Prince, listen, prince...
- Well, all right...
Let us drink ! Won't you ?
- No.
I'm out for a spree ; I'm out for a spree ! My poet !
You charge me with
vice, immorality, sins...
but perhaps I'm only to blame for
being more open than other people, that's all ;
Yes, I'm frank, I'm telling truth.
You, of course, can't
look at things like that,
You know why ? Your legs are in
fetters, and your taste is morbid.
You all are morbid.
You dream of the ideal, of virtue,
but what am I to do if I know for a fact
that at the root of all human virtues lies the completest egoism ?
Egoism... What am I to do ? Am I
supposed to lie or pretend to be someone else ?
What about you ? Do you
believe these ideals yourself ?
Goodbye.
Where are you off to ? I'm going
home, and it's time for you to go.
Nonsense, nonsense ! I've, so to
speak, opened my whole heart to you.
My young hopeful, you will
allow me to call you by that sweet name ?
who knows, maybe my precepts may
come in useful one day for your trade.
I should like to tell
you a very pretty story.
When I was young I loved a young girl,
and loved her almost genuinely.
She even sacrificed a great deal for me.
Is that the one you robbed ?
Pardon ?
The one you robbed.
You're a Talleyrand,
there's no other word for you.
Why, I really stood before her dumbfounded
when she sprang it upon me that I had robbed her !
She just she sprang it
upon in front of everyone.
She was a violent woman, violent indeed.
With no self control.
In the first place I hadn't
robbed her as you expressed it just now.
She gave me her money, yes she did, it was mine.
I judged as follows :
giving her back the money I'd have deprived her
of the enjoyment of being miserable entirely owing to me,
Right. I'd deprived her of
an ecstasy in her own unhappiness.
There are certain people who enjoy their
unhappiness, they live in it, they are surrounded by it.
If one takes it away they
become even unhappier, believe me.
If one takes it away they
become even unhappier, believe me.
Haven't it occurred to you that...
- Yes, perhaps she may have had nothing to eat,
but she enjoyed her unhappiness. There are millions of such morbid people,
who are nourished by their grief.
You must have known that, you
are a writer. You wanted to catch me,
Come, confess you
were trying to catch me...
Good-bye.
- One minute.
Two words in conclusion ! Sit down.
I'm fond of money and I do need it.
Katerina Fyodorovna has plenty.
Alyosha and Katya are a perfect match for one another:
they are both utter fools ; you know that.
I desire and intend their marriage to take
place as soon as possible... as soon as possible.
In a fortnight or three weeks
the countess and Katya are going to the country. Alyosha must escort them.
Warn Natalya Nikolayevna that
there had better be no idyllic nonsense,
that they had better not oppose me. I'm
revengeful and malicious ; I shall stand up for myself.
You love Natalya Nikolayevna and so I hope now
that you will use all your influence to save her from certain unpleasantness.
One more thing, Ivan Petrovitch, you must have guessed
why I brought you here, you are a writer.
I really did want to spit upon the whole business
and to spit upon it before your eyes, too !
Farewell, my poet.
Mind what I have told you.
I'm a low, abject
creature, Vanya, save me from myself.
Vanya, my dear, tell me, decide for me,
which of them do I love most, Natasha or Katya ?
That I can't decide, You
ought to know better than I.
It seems the thing's settled, all
misunderstandings are over.
I fell at Natasha's feet ;
Then I told her straight out
that I loved Katya more than I love her.
What did she say ?
She said nothing, she only caressed me and comforted me.
Then I understood that I never could exist
without Natasha, that I should die without her.
And so we made up our
minds to be married at once.
It shall be when I come
back, and that will be the in June.
My father will allow it,
there can be no doubt of that.
We'll be married, and go
off there at once to Katya's...
See me off, Vanya.
Farewell, Vanya !
Write to me, Vanya ! Write
about everything in details.
That's you ! You !
Now you are left alone !
You always hated him !
You never could forgive
him for my loving to him...
You've come to persuade me to go
back to my father, who flung me off,
cursed me...
I won't,
I won't.
I curse them, too... Go
away ! I can't bear the sight of you !
Vanya, Vanya ! You are here !
Vanya, Vanya !
- Natasha !
Natasha.
Don't leave her alone, Mavra.
I'll go to get some the medicine.
My dear, Natalya
Nikolayevna, I understand your grief ;
I know how hard it must
be for you at this moment,
and so I felt it my duty to come to you.
Be comforted, if you can, if
only that by renouncing Alyosha
you have secured his happiness, for
you resolved on your noble action...
I am most grateful to you. If
you only knew how Alyosha begged me
not to leave you but to be a friend to you to
visit you as often as possible, Natalya Nikolayevna.
You will allow me in any case to leave with you this
proof of my sympathy,
there are ten thousand in this roll...
Leave me, leave me at once ! Go away !
Wait a moment, my
dear, listen patiently...
You know your father lost a
lawsuit against me. He lost it by law.
This money will serve
as compensation which...
Go away ! Take your money away !
My father will take nothing from you.
Natasha.
That's not the right thing at all,
my dear, for you to lose your temper,
You are offered protection
and you turn up your little nose...
Don't you realize that
you ought to be grateful to me ?
I might have put you in a penitentiary long ago,
as the father of the young man you have led astray,
But I haven't done it !
What ?
- Ah, Ivan Petrovitch, what are you doing here ?
What's the matter with you ?
You...
- Are you going to beat me, Ivan Petrovitch ?
Calm down. Sit down !
You all are morbid people. Goodbye.
You are morbid !
Mavra, don't leave
her alone even for a second.
I'll be back soon.
Nellie, Nellie, let
us go to Natasha's father.
I know, you don't like him ; you didn't
want to go to him, but now let us go together.
Tell them, Nellie, everything, just as you
told it to me. About your mother and Bubnova.
Tell them about your
grandfather, how your mother died,
And when you tell them all that, the old
man will feel it all, in his heart, too. Then...
Nellie, Nellie, tell him that he
haven't forgiven her before she died.
Nellie, save Natasha !
That day mother called me to her, took me by the hand and said:
"'I shall die today, Nellie.'"
She tried to say
something more, but she couldn't.
I ran out of the house, and
ran all the way to grandfather's.
When he saw me he jumped up from his
chair and was so frightened that he trembled.
I seized his hand and I hurried him
and told him to take a sledge because mother was just dying,
but grandfather only had seven kopecks, that was all he had.
He stopped cabs and began to bargain,
but they only laughed at him
and laughed at his dog, Azorka ;
Azorka was running with
us, and we all ran on and on.
Grandfather was tired and breathing
hard, but he still hurried on, running.
Suddenly he fell
down, and his hat fell off.
I helped him up and put
his hat on, and we ran on.
We ran on and on.
and only...
towards night we got home.
But mother...
But mother...
mother...
mother...
I'll be a mother to you now,
Nellie, and you shall be my child.
Yes, Nellie, let us
go, let us give up him,
Let him mock at people ;
Where are you off to, Ivan
Sergeyevitch ?
- I am getting dressed.
I am going to Natasha.
He has forgiven !
Vanya !
Nellie had been ill from the
day when I took her to the old man,
She had been obliged to stay in bed.
And, strange to say, the more the disease gained upon her,
the softer, sweeter and more open she became with us.
Vanya.
I shall die soon.
Very soon.
Vanya, I would like to leave you this as a keepsake.
So when you read what's written in it,
go to the prince and tell him that his daughter dead,
and that I haven't forgiven him.
Nelly gave me the little bag in
which was her mother's letter to the prince.
I read it on the day of Nellie's death.
?She is your daughter,? she wrote. ?I have told her to go to you when I am dead
and to give you this letter. If you do not repulse Nellie,
perhaps then I shall forgive you there...?
All these impressions of the past excite
me sometimes to the pitch of anguish, of agony.
If only I could to write it all down...
If only I could...
The subtitles prepared by Ulisses
for KG 2009