Veronica (2017) - full transcript

Hello? Yes.

Yes.

No, look, before you go on, I don't take any more patients.

Yes. It sure must be a very special case, but...

No, no. It's not an economics matter.

Yes, I get it, but listen, it's not about money.

Dr. Van Rocie? Yes, yes, he was my teacher some years ago.

What is the patient's name?

Her phone number?

Alright, we'll be in touch.

Good night. I was looking for Dr. Van Rocie.

About one of his patients,

name Verónica de la Serna, she was remited to me.

Please return the call to the number in the call ID.

Thank you.

Good evening. You must be Veronica.

Welcome.

I'm sorry, I have an eye condition and

it hurts when lights go on suddenly.

Well, I suppose you must be tired after your travel.

We'll begin tomorrow.

If you're hungry I can cook you somethig for dinner.

Did you eat something?

Please, get comfortable.

-Don't you like the divan?

-How much?

Excuse me?

You're an obviously well trained psychologist.

They must have offered you a lot of money to accept me.

Are you upset because I get money to treat you?

You make a living asking questions,

but can't answer even the simplest.

-How much?

-Tenfold my usual fee.

So sincere.

I believe that's the best way to start any kind of relationship.

After all, I don't know you nor you know me.

We do know each other.

You're the narcissistic psychologist who thinks she's so sane

she can heal others from their pitiable derangements.

And me, the patient who desperately needs your help.

So you accept you need help.

You tell me. You've read my medical record.

No, unfortunately I haven't.

The doctor that treated you hasn't answered my calls.

Why don't we start from the beginning?

OK.

Why did you study Psychology?

Usually, the one making the questions is me.

You're upset about me asking you questions?

No. It simply isn't my style of working.

What is your style of working?

I try to create empathy with the patient

using a series of basic questions.

Like what?

What are your hobbies?

Hobbies? I haven't heard that word

since elementary school.

What can I tell you?

Chasing ants, picking my nose... play doctor.

What would you like to do?

I don't know. I'm between astronaut and juggler.

What is your favorite study subject?

Are you sure all these degrees are yours?

'Cause you look like an amateur.

How frequently do you masturbate?

May I?

You think this is a game.

Our lives are a game.

We're nothing but pawns being manipulated.

Who do you think is manipulating you?

We all are manipulated by our own minds.

Not just me.

Do you think your mind manipulates you

with an external being?

What's so funny?

I swear psychologist believe any kind of bullshit

as long as they can label people.

Let's make a deal. You answer one last question,

to yourself, as if I weren't here.

I'll light your cigarette, and we'll call it a day.

OK.

I think it's fair. Just think your question well.

What did you dream last night?

That's a good question.

I have the same dream every night.

I'm around eight, nine years old.

I'm running through the forest.

There's a hunter.

I can't see him, but I know he's there.

I hear a shoot.

I hear the moaning of some animal and I follow it.

Is a loud moan.

I see it's a deer.

It's suffering.

I try not to see it, but I can't.

I got to see it. I like it.

The flowers get stained by the

blood flowing out of its neck.

The hunter approaches.

I can't recognize his face.

It's like a version of someone I met before.

I try to protect the deer.

But he pushes me aside.

And puts the chain around its neck.

That's when I wake.

But I don't wake up feeling scared.

Nor feeling sad.

I wake up aroused.

Wanting to masturbate.

Patient Veronica de la Serna, 25 years-old.

Transferred from unfinished therapy

with Dr. Alesander Van Rocie.

From whom to this day, no medical

record has been obtained.

The patient shows certain reticence to therapy.

Her answers are generally elusive.

However, she shows fast, smart reactions.

The subject has recurrent dreams that

could or not, be caused by one

or more traumatizing events during her childhood.

This correlation with death, provokes

a disfunction in the sexual drive that...

What's for dinner?

You can't get into my office without knocking first.

You must ask for my permission to enter

any room not part of the common areas.

In the same way, I'll never enter

your room without your consent.

When I flashed you with the lantern,

it didn't seem to hurt you a lot.

It needs to be a brighter light source.

Don't you like mushrooms?

Did you know that many years ago,

there where some asian physics who believed

that these mushrooms had so much energy

that could even stop the aging process.

Today I want to start the session differently.

You'll show me cardboards with black butterflies.

Something like that.

I'll tell you a list of words, and I want you to answer me

with the first thing that comes to your mind.

For it to work we can't have visual contact.

-Light.

-Sun.

-Darkness

-Moon.

Family.

The first thing you think. No exceptions.

-Religion.

-Church.

-Friendship.

-Distrust.

-Mountain.

-Cabbin.

-Forest.

-Green.

Family.

-Sex.

-Satisfaction.

-Sin.

-Pleasure.

-Pain.

-Pleasure.

-Desire.

-Forbidden.

-Caress.

-Mom.

-Naked.

-Pain.

-Masturbation.

-Guilt.

-Guilt.

-Family.

Remember your childhood. What comes to mind

when you think about your family?

Aren't psychologists supposed to ask questions

that place the patient in the here and now?

You know a lot about Psychology.

You're not my first analyst.

Do you feel discomfort talking about your past?

No. But there ain't a lot to talk about.

Let's leave the here and now for a while.

What's the first thing you remember of your mother?

We went to a cottage when I was a child.

Was that cottage in the forest?

Near.

Did you went hunting with your mom sometime?

Never.

What's in the barn?

Don't get distracted.

When was the last time you went to that cottage?

I was like eight, nine years old.

Why did you stop going?

I don't know.

And your dad? Where was he?

I never met him. He left the

house when I was a baby.

How does that make you feel?

It doesn't make me feel anything.

He simply wasn't a part of my life.

Did your mother marry again?

When was the last time you saw her?

I can't remember.

What's the last memory you have of her?

The trips to the cottage.

There's something you're not telling me.

We all hide things. Even from ourselves.

Good evening, I'm looking for Dr. Van Rocie.

It's about patient Veronica de la Serna.

It's imperative that he calls

as soon as possible. Thanks.

What are you doing?

Just wanted to see what's inside.

Let me see.

Come. It might get infected.

I told you to ask for my permission.

There's not a lot to do here.

If you need something, ask me.

Doesn't matter if I'm bussy.

When was your last session with Dr. Van Rocie?

Like one month ago. Why?

There's nothing of your interest in the barn.

If you don't open the door of a simple barn,

how do you expect me to tell you all my secrets?

What kind of relationship is that?

A psychologist-patient relationship.

Nothing more?

Done.

I told you there was nothing of interest for you in here.

You grow mushrooms.

And you ask me about my hobbies?

This is the weirdest hobby I've see in my life.

Growing shiitake mushrooms is a discipline.

It requires a lot of patience and dedication.

The log where the mushroom's buds are

put in, must be dead for them to bloom.

Life blooming from something dead.

Why don't you grow them outside?

Because they don't like light.

We're not as different as I thought.

What do you mean?

I like darkness better.

Let's harvest some.

What are you doing?

I make the questions now.

This is just a series of basic questions.

Alright. What do you want to know?

What are your hobbies?

I like growing mushrooms, you already know that.

What is your favorite study subject?

Are those the questions you want to ask me?

How often do you masturbate?

Who do you dream with at night?

-Veronica...

-With me?

What's up, Doctor?

I thought that in the psychologist-patient relationship

the doctor wouldn't allow herself

to be carried away by her emotions.

Lets go eat and then we go downstairs and talk. Alright?

-Let's go.

-I don't see a ring in you finger.

-What?

-I don't see a ring in your finger, nor the mark of one.

-Did you never married?

-No, I didn't.

Let's go dinner and then we'll talk more seriously.

Seriously, why did you never married?

You're a successful psychologist.

Smart, pretty. Do you feel uncomfortable with

me saying that you're pretty?

There's nothing wrong.

Some women don't like knowing that they're attractive.

When was the last time you had sex?

With a man.

The first time I got oral sex from a woman

I came immediately.

It's a totally different pleasure

than being penetrated by a man.

There's nothing more intimate in this world than

being sexually stimulated by a woman.

Skin to skin.

I think your dinner is ready.

Patient Veronica de la Serna,

the second therapy session showed

interesting preliminary results.

An early judgement may indicate the patient was

victim of a traumatic event

that provoked her a possible

specific dissociative amnesia

allowing her to block out

those events from her memory.

The mental block seems to be significant, so...

it might be necessary to use a different

method in order to access those memories.

I want you to let yourself be

carried away by the metronome sound.

You can feel your body resting on the couch

and your breathing helps you

to fall into a deep sleep.

Feel every muscle in your body completely relaxing.

Starting in your feet.

We go up through the legs, your genitals,

the abdomen, your chest,

the arms feel light,

your hands, and we finally reach the neck,

and the head.

The relaxation of your body helps

you to fall into a deep sleep.

I'll countdown from 10, and when

I get to 0, you'll be completely asleep.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.

Lets focus on the word 'family'.

Where are you, Veronica?

In the forest.

In the cottage I used to visit with my mom.

Be conscious of what you feel in this place.

Of the images.

The sounds.

What's around?

Trees.

Flowers.

I can hear the wind.

Where is the cottage?

Behind.

Far away.

-Is your mother with you?

-Yes.

She's cutting flowers.

She calls me.

While you're with your mom, watch her.

-How is she dressed?

-I love you so much.

If she's wearing some object.

Her smell.

Allow yourself to go to another place.

To other space.

What's there now?

-There's a bridge.

-What's in the other side?

I don't know.

Maybe your subconscious is protecting

you from something.

It's a warehouse.

-What's there?

-Don't know. Don't want to get in.

Why don't you want to get in?

Veronica.

Because I'm scared.

You're doing very well, Veronica.

My voice scorts your way, step by step.

First let's go to the door frame.

We take one more step.

And wit the next one

we're already inside the warehouse.

What do you see?

Veronica, what's inside the warehouse?

Veronica, what's inside the warehouse?

Don't want to.

You know I love you so much.

Let's play the game I like.

Don't want to. But she makes me to.

Veronica, hear my voice.

My voices is helping you

to get out from this experience.

I'll countdown and when I reach 0,

you'll be completely awake.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

-You know I love you so much.

-Zero.

Good night. I've been trying

to reach Dr. Van Rocie.

No, no, no. Is not for an appointment,

it's a professional matter,

One of his patients was referred to me and I need...

What do you mean you can't find him? Is he on vacation?

Missed?

Since when?

Do you have some honey?

You told me that if I needed something I should ask you.

Did you know that wasps can make honey too?

Wasp hives are built by swarms.

Just like bee hives.

The difference is that bees have a single queen.

While wasps have several.

Bees are very well organized.

While wasps are a little chaotical.

But in chaos a lot sweeter honey is produced.

They're called melliferous wasps.

Has an evil ring, ain't it?

-But is nothing like that. Melliferous means...

-They make honey.

Yes.

Did you know sometimes honey

can be toxic for humans?

It may be a bit less sweet,

but it can be counterproductive.

Without pall, you always want more.

Patient Veronica de la Serna.

Hypnotic induction showed overwhelming results.

Evidently the patient was a victim

of sex abuse by her mother

from a very young age.

It's unknown when it happened for the first time.

Surely, the abuse was recurrent.

This would explain her dissociative amnesia.

It's probable that the patient has already

developed a dissociative disorder

with sadisctic features.

Medication may be necessary.

You like talking a lot, don't you? I don't read much,

but I really like horror novels.

Stephen King's Misery.

One of my favorites.

This one looks interesting. The Last Sin Eater.

-What did you say?

-The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers.

-Is it good?

-Where is the separator?

-What separator?

-That book was in my room,

on the nighstand with a separator in it.

-Where is it?

-I don't know what you're talking about.

You saw me, I just took it from here.

I've had enough.

Did you take it last night?

I know nothing of that separator,

I've never entered your room.

Veronica, this is not working.

-What?

-Yeah, after what happened yesterday,

I think the best is to refer

you to another doctor.

Hypnotherapy was your idea.

And I've never advanced

this much with other doctor.

-You know I'm not talking of that.

-So what is it?

It's always like this with your psychologists?

-Like what?

-What happened to your last doctor?

What do you mean what happened?

Doctor Van Rocie, why is he missed?

-Missed? I had no idea!

-Stop lying!

I'm not lying.

So your last doctor going missed right

after stopping your treatment is just casualty.

Why did he stop it?

-I don't know.

-What happened?

-It wasn't working.

-Why?

Because he treated me like a child.

Ain't that what you like?

You're hurting me!

So? He didn't pleasured you as you wanted

and you decided to make something about it.

Are you saying I'm involved

in his dissapearance?

I don't know. You tell me.

Maybe you blocked it out. If you really

have blocked out something before.

You're going insane.

I think it's time for you to leave.

I wasn't planning on staying here.

You're crazier than me.

You and your fucking mushrooms.

What's the meaning of psychoanalysis?

How can we help a patient to solve her problems

when we can't help ourselves?

Mushrooms are put in, they stick to

the bark, develop, grow and get reaped.

It's easy detecting problems in an organized process.

But how can one do the same with chaos?

The egyptians believed the

intelligence was in the heart.

Then Plato speculated the brain was

the rational part of the soul.

But Aristotle concluded that the

heart was the center of intelligence,

and the brain was only useful to cool the blood.

Breuer himself couldn't accept it

when one of his patients fell in love with him,

and he had to completely abandon the treatment.

Years later, Freud recognized what

Breuer couldn't openly accept,

that deep inside every hysterical

neurosis, lies sexual desire.

For Freud, Libido is a living entity.

Pleasure impulsing living.

But Freud also said that

underneath all of it, we have the

unconscious drive to die.

A doctor in University told us that

when she was a child, her grandpa died

in a sudden car crash.

The grandmother, totally dependent on him,

couldn't overcome trauma

and unconsciously started to wear

her husband's clothes, to talk like him, to act like him.

Even at nights she slept

on his side of the bed.

When she was buried years later,

they had to dress her on grandpa's clothes,

since she specified it so in her last will.

Meaning,

that she knew what she was doing,

but she did it anyway.

Do you know Plato's Allegory of the Cave?

Plato described a cave, inside

was a group of men, their necks and legs chained,

in a way that the only they could

see was a wall in front of them.

Just behind these prisoners is a wall with a corridor

and right after a bonfire just outside the cave's exit.

Men go through the corridor,

carrying objects which shadows

get projected over the wall in front of the prisoners.

These shadows are the only thig they can see.

For them the shadows are their only truth.

Their only reality.

But, what would happen if one of these prisoners

were freed and once out of the cave

perceived the totality of the world?

At first the sun would hurt his eyes.

-This can't be. You're...

-But after getting used to it,

he'd note that all he had seen up to that moment

was just a shadow, a reflection of reality.

The allegory ends when the prisoner

decides to get back into the cave

and get his old companions free, but

they make fun of him, as if he were crazy.

Plato says they would even kill, just to keep on

living their lie,

-in their world of shadows.

-What did you do to Dr. Van Rocie?

You don't get it.

You're but one of those prisoners willing to kill

just to keep on living a lie.

-Where is Dr. Van Rocie?

-What Dr. Van Rocie?

Van Rocie. Famous Dr. Van Rocie.

What is your name? Your name.

What is your name?

Do you like anagrams?

A psychologist of your level must be

smart enough, and as such

capable of solving an anagram.

An anagram of your very name.

What are you saying?

-What is your name?

-My name?

What is your name?

My name...

-What is your name?

-I need my glasses!

Tell me your name! Your name!

You can't bury the truth.

Your name is Veronica de la Serna,

your mom's name is Sofia de la Serna,

and she abused you when you were a child!

Since then you feel aroused every time

you see those chains in your dreams.

And it all happened here.

In this very place.

There are no mirrors in the house,

don't you think that's strange?

But not for closing the eyes to

the world, it stops existing.

You don't exist.

Don't you like mushrooms?

No. It's you who doesn't exist.

You're a construct of my unconscious mind.

You're like a version of someone

I met before.

You're Veronica de la Serna.

Born in September 18, 1987.

You're 25 years old.

Hello?

Yes.

Yes.

No, look, before you go on, I don't take any more patients.

Yes. It sure must be a very special case, but...

No, no. It's not an economics matter.

Yes, I get it, but listen, it's not about money.

Dr. Van Rocie? Yes, yes, he was my teacher some years ago.

What is the patient's name?

Her phone number?

Alright, we'll be in touch.