À L'Aventure (2008) - full transcript

I shouldn't have waited for you.

I shouldn't have waited for you.

You already said that.

You're a real pain lately.

Does my getting married bother you?

You're jealous.

You waited
and we're eating on a bench.

You could've gone ahead
and reserved.

I'd have caught up with you.

Please, that's enough.

Anyway, we're all sheep.



We all eat at set hours,

line up to use the can
at set hours,

we all watch the boob tube.

In the past, we'd make a public
protest of it at least.

But nowadays,
slavery's par for the course.

We've always been slaves,
you'll tell me.

But to submit to this extent!

We even fuck at set hours.

No, we don't fuck
at set hours.

Then good for you.

Make the best of it.
It certainly won't last.

Aren't you the pleasant guy.

Think for a moment
of those who,

in a few years time,



will have kids of their own,
and as a result,

will have new constraints
to deal with.

Look at that poster.

What do you think of it?

Attractive.

Even a bit arousing.

It was designed to be.

Think a little...

Panties...

are meant to protect

two orifices.

Or to protect us
from these two orifices.

Brassieres, as you know,

are designed to provide support.

These two pieces of fabric,

their first mission
accomplished,

are then turned
into tools of charm.

So they come at a high price,

probably because we are all...

fetishists.

He's got a nerve!

Our undies and the protection
of our "two holes"?

He's right, you know.

You're as vulgar as he is.

We all imprison ourselves.

I've lost you there.
Why do we imprison ourselves?

I'm going.

Sandrine, we're really late.

You're a real pain.

Relax, young lady, I'm going.

But in any case,

whatever you do,
what sky can fall on your heads?

What a jerk!

Sure, if we're late again,
the sky will fall on our heads,

especially yours.

You're late every day now.

They won't fire me.

Maybe not fire you,

but you won't
get a promotion, old girl.

Let's go.

Come on.

You get on my nerves.

Sure, we all submit.
No one enjoys it.

But if you want to succeed,
or just eat, what else is there?

You feel superior now since
you're expecting an inheritance,

so you let that tramp get to you.

Do like I do.

Think of things
that make you forget,

like love and marriage.

Let's go.

Fred...

Come here.

Do you think

that we're all conditioned?

That we do things at set hours?

Not tonight.

I have to be up at 6:00
for work.

Turn off the light, please.

Why are you doing that?

Because it feels good.

Didn't it feel good earlier?

Are you trying
to humiliate me?

I'm exhausted these days.

I know.

You have been
for some time.

True, you work too much.

It's not even that.

I'm fed up with the routine,

fed up with lying to you.

You've been lying to me?

Every day.

You cheating on me?

No.

I mean, yes.

I touch myself every day.

Even with this.

Why?

Because I enjoy it.

You're a slut.

What are you doing here?

Why didn't you come to work?

I'm quitting.

What's the matter?

I decided to take a year off.

Just like that?

You're nuts.
How will you live?

My grandmother died.

I have enough to live on for a year.

I'm stopping.

You'll never
find another job later.

I have an MBA.

I'll find a job when I feel like it.

Had a fight
with your boyfriend?

I decided to take a break, that's all.

Lately, I feel like I'm in a prison.

I have to get out,
take a look around.

I'm fond of you,

but you should
spend your money on a shrink.

Like you?

I have to go.

Keep me posted?

Okay?

I'll call you.

“Studies in Hysteria“

“Trance and Hypnosis“

Say, mister...

Am I disturbing you?

No.

Can I ask you a question?

It depends.
I'm not sure I can answer you.

What exactly
is psychoanalysis?

- You really want to know?
- I wouldn't ask otherwise.

What do you know about it?

Not much.
I went to business school.

May I?

Go ahead.

I'll make it short and sweet.
I'll try anyway.

It all begins with hysteria,

conversion hysteria.

In the late 1800s,
certain patients suffered

from psychic disorders
like blindness and paralysis

but not organic injuries.

They were thought to be bluffing.

But if you stick a pin
into a paralyzed hysteric's leg,

he feels nothing, no pain.

At the time, Freud began to work
with a doctor named Breuer,

who took hysteria very seriously.

By using hypnosis,

he managed to return
to the patient's past

and discovered
one or more traumatic events

that caused the symptoms.

Explain that.
I don't understand.

In fact,

it's an idea,

a violent but forbidden desire

that is so repressed,
it becomes totally unconscious.

Then it resurfaces,

but converted
into a physical symptom.

For example:

a young woman
at her father's sickbed;

She tends to him.

An incestuous desire
appears in her.

She thinks:

"Not another step in that direction."

So the desire and the thought

that comes with it

are repressed.

But the thing is,

it resurfaces in physical form.

Here, as a paralysis.

To put it simply,
she can no longer walk.

Just like that?
She's not faking it?

Not at all.

Do you really think
a thought, a desire,

can become something physical
in your body,

even express itself as paralysis?

Yes, or as total
or partial blindness

or loss of appetite.

Or in the case
of certain neurotics,

the appearance of phobias

or obsessions.

And you provide answers?

I'd like to.

Anyway, we try.

We're only starting to discover
the mysteries of the human soul.

Psychoanalysis has moved away
from hysteria and the physical

to concentrate
on other neuroses.

It seeks
to understand manifestations

of the unconscious.

It's amazing to see
just how much our unconscious

expresses itself in our daily lives.

The unconscious speaks.

It speaks continually.

In what way?

Through our faulty acts,
our Freudian slips,

and the projections we make in life.

Everything has meaning.

The unconscious
speaks all the time.

But to people like me,
who have no idea how it works.

Right.

Except that you,
you pick things up quickly.

It's strange how our unconscious
speaks by itself.

After all, we usually speak
to our entourage consciously

without really being heard.

We always talk to ourselves.

Wouldn't it be really interesting

to study the body,

to know how and why

a thought, a desire turns into pain

or paralysis?

Am I being silly?

Not at all.

Maybe I shouldn't say this,
but you're cute.

I like you.

I really like you.

Because I talk about hysteria?

Maybe.

I want you.

Let yourself go.

Think of nothing.

What's your name?

Gregory.

My mother chose that

because she was in love
with Gregory Peck,

a '50s Hollywood movie star.

Everyone calls me Greg.

What do you do for a living?

Training to be a psychiatrist.

You also study hypnosis to cure people?

Not only that.

I'm trying to go faster

and deeper in my knowledge
of people and life.

Hypnosis is a shortcut.

Your patients know
you use them for your research?

Yes.

Well, not always.

But I don't rape them.

I just learn from them
without telling them everything.

Isn't it dangerous?
For whom?

For them, for you?

My love of truth is stronger
than any morality.

What do your parents do?

They're both dead.

My mother was a cleaning woman,
my father, an engineer.

He abandoned us when I was 12,
never saw him again.

But I was very happy that way.

He paid us a small allowance.
We lived off that.

And today, I'm a doctor.

And what do you do?

For a living, I mean.

Since yesterday, nothing.

I'm exploring life.

Starting to, anyway.

You see, we're a bit alike.

Where have you been?

I just had sex with a man
in a hotel room.

Has he been your lover long?

Since this afternoon.

When did you meet him?

This afternoon at 5:00.

I ran into him in a café.

He told me exciting things about life.

I wanted him.

And you enjoyed it?

Except for one thing...

That you'd be hurt.

You don't say!

But it didn't stop you from having sex.

And you want more?

With him or someone else,
if I feel like it.

Why don't you like me?

Are you kidding me?

Want to hurt me for no reason?

No.

Maybe I should have lied to you.

But I don't want to anymore.

You're behaving like a whore.

You already said that.

I'll send for my things tomorrow...

and my furniture.

You know, I just realized
something really odd.

Hello.

Hello, young lady.

Like you, I observe people
and the world around me,

all that exists.

If I touch someone,

a woman,
you, for instance,

she'll react.

She may slap me

or be glad about it.

But in fact,

what are you if not a void?

Did that shock you?

You didn't feel anything
since I'm a void.

You're very arrogant.

And you have a funny way
of starting a conversation.

But, young lady,

you're not a simple "someone" for me.

What I see...

People, trees,
that tall building over there...

I realize,

with difficulty,
that everything,

including the sense of space,

and time,

and distance...

All that
is entirely in my head.

What's more,

they're images
first seen upside down,

then set right
by reflex by my mind.

In other words,
I see you upside down.

So I'm an upside down void.

Listen good.

Matter is made up of atoms.

Atoms are made up of a nucleus

and electrons
that vibrate around it.

But...

the distance between
the nucleus and these electrons

is more than
a thousand times greater

than their dimension.

Observe those trees.

They look like

a compact mass.

If you get closer,

you realize
that void is greater

than matter.

Read this.

Go on.
It's not a trick.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

Watch this.

Watch closely.

You see,
they're exactly the same signs,

but you read them
in two different ways.

Sure,
depending on the context.

What does that prove?

That the way
you see things and beings

is predigested,

unconsciously oriented
by acquired knowledge,

which can also conceal

certain truths.

You might tell me,

"What is truth?"

What do you do in life?
I'm a taxi driver.

I work when I want.

Meaning, not often?

You're quite mistaken.

A long time ago...

I was engaged
to a young woman.

She was very beautiful,

and very rich.

Her family
wanted to force me

to enter society,

to elevate me
to be her social equal.

I left the girl.

You didn't love her?

I did...

deeply.

I was looking

for something else.

First I went to work
in the mines,

in the factories.

And then,

I hitchhiked to India,
where I spent seven years.

Then I came back.

I drive a taxi.

Why did you leave?

Why do we
leave the people we love?

Maybe I was running away.

I was looking for myself.

Did you find yourself?

No.
And you?

So what happened?

Nothing.

I cheated on him.
I told him, and he left.

My daughter is mad.

He's just a little jealous.

It'll work out.

What made you touch yourself
in the next room

after making love with him?

I wasn't satisfied, that's all.

It could have excited him.

Hardly.

That's something
you should only do

to avoid seeing other men.

And discreetly.

You'll learn with age,
love isn't everything in life,

love of men, in any case.

So you had a little fling.
Okay.

- But why did you tell him?
- I was tired of lying.

I'm practicing freedom.

That's a good one.

If anyone
finds you your freedom,

send it to me.

We all have moments of freedom,

often privately.

Meaning, in secret.

We all have our secret lives.

Everyone knows it,
everyone pretends not to,

and that's fine.

But tell me,

what about this other man?

I was in a café.

I was talking with a stranger,

who's no longer a stranger.

We talked for a long while,

and I suddenly wanted him.

We went to a hotel.

Listen, daughter.

You and Fred
have been engaged for six years.

He's smart.
He's got a bright future ahead of him.

You'll learn to love him.

Usually, you're in love first,
and all that changes later.

For you, it's the opposite.

Do you think I'm an idiot?

There aren't
just marriages of love.

That's a good thing.

Sure,
society puts you in a cage.

But that's how it is.

So choose the most
comfortable cage you can.

Your respectable straitjacket
is not for me.

Don't get on your high horse.

It's hard not living
like other people.

You'll learn that
at your expense.

You all right?

You men will never know
how good it is.

By the way,

I don't even know your first name.

And Mr. Psychoanalyst
only asks now?

And first of all, why?

We met.

We call each other.

You teach me
lots of interesting things.

We make love.

What's the point
of knowing my name?

Just your first name.

Sandrine.

I want to know all about you.

- Give me a break.
- I'm serious, really.

You want to psychoanalyze me?

Not necessarily.

I want to know who you are.

I'm not the slightest bit interesting.

I don't even know what you do in life.

Nothing.

I'm trying to get off
my own beaten paths.

You mean that?

And what will you live on?

Relax.
Not your money.

Why do you say that?

Oh, shit!

I'm late.
I completely forgot.

I have to meet a friend.

Excuse me, honestly.

Come along, if you like.

I'll introduce you.
She's a real case.

I almost forgot.

Sandrine.
Sophie.

Sophie.
Sandrine.

- Salut.
- Salut.

- What do you do in life?
- I'm in modern dance.

It's a bit special.

I'm invited weekends
by little theaters,

in youth clubs.

And you're
making a living off of it?

I get by, more or less.
Mostly less.

How did it go
with Olivier today?

He cried, in front of the
judge, in front of everyone.

- What's going on?
- I just divorced.

Olivier is my exhusband.

We were in court this morning.

He started to bawl.

But we had a lovely wedding.

Want to see the photos?

Sure.
Why not?

What do your folks do?

My mother's a psychiatrist.

My father's in real estate.

They're separated.

And what does
your exhusband do?

He spends his time
moving money around.

It doesn't stop him from loving me.

- How long have you known him?
- 19 years.

He's a childhood friend.

- And how long were you married?
- Two months.

What?

Ten days after the wedding,

I met a guy
in my mother's waiting room.

We had sex right off.

It was so good,
I couldn't help seeing him again.

- But isn't your mom a shrink?
- That's right.

Didn't you ask her advice
before your marriage?

Sure, I did.
We phone each other every day.

She told me,
"I think you're a big girl."

And your father?

All he cares about is money.

So why did you get married?

I don't know.

To make my husband happy.

To make everybody happy.

You see, until now,

I'd always had very small orgasms,

especially with Olivier,

even by touching myself.

I touch myself every day.

But it's always disappointing.

When I met Greg at my mom's-

he's the one I slept with.

I figured that out.

In the beginning, it was great.

We did it again.
We had sex all the time.

You know,
I had sex with Sandrine too.

Was it good?

Sure. I think so.

I hope it lasts for you two.

For me, my orgasms

were soon only little ones again,

even with him.

Delighted to hear it.

But you,

you're going to be a shrink

and you sleep
with every girl you meet?

But never with my patients.

I have a right to a private life.

Say, know what happened to me?

I was on stage.

The director
had a friend in the house,

a guy in his mid to late 30s,

thereabouts.

Good looking.

Very goodlooking, even.

An architect.

When I got home, he called me.

He was nice.

He asked if I'd agree
to undress in front of him.

I said yes.

So he came over.

He ordered me

to strip in front of him.

So I did.

It excited me a little.

Then he asked
if he could give me a spanking,

saying that I could,
of course, refuse

and that I could stop
when I wanted to.

Well, I said okay.

It was a new experience.

So he hit me

with his hands,

then with his belt,

then with a whip.

He kept asking me if I agreed.

It hurt.

But I wanted to keep going.
I wanted to go all the way.

And you know what?

The truth is,

it gave me pleasure,

a lot of it.

And you did it again often?

Once,

sometimes twice a week.

Now it's at his house
and with his wife.

You know, I like to please.

When it's over, I feel drained,

a bit like today.

This morning in court killed me.

I never understood

how you could feel pleasure through pain.

You never experienced it?

If you want,

I'll ask him if you can come
to one of our sessions.

- You agree to obey me?
- Yes.

If you don't,
would you tell me?

I'd tell you.

Take off your panties.

Come over here.

Finger yourself.

Unclip your hair.

Good.

Finger yourself faster.

Are you enjoying it?

A little.

Especially when I'm ordered to
and you watch.

Then I'll give you orders
and I'll watch you.

Finger yourself faster.

Stand behind the couch.

Keep fingering yourself.

Good. Keep going.

Mina, go over to her.

Keep going, Sophie.

Good.

Mina, lift her dress.

Slap her once
hard on her thigh.

Did it hurt?

Harder, Mina,
slap her harder!

Again!

Good.

Keep going, Sophie.

Take her dress off, Mina.

Go on.

Keep fingering yourself, Sophie.
Look at me.

Take off your dress, Mina.

Keep going, Sophie.

Faster. Faster.

Good.

Kiss her, quick.

Mina, get under her
and lick her.

Quick.

Sophie, look at me.

I'm going to come over,

take a belt, and whip you.

Scratch her!

What do you do in life?

I'm an architect.

Actually, I'm more interested in decors,

and with interiors,
arranging these decors in space,

including for the theatre.

That's how I met Sophie.

- Sophie?
- Yes.

Did experiments like tonight's
start before your divorce?

Yes.

When I told my husband,
he wasn't pleased.

He wanted my life
to be just with him,

have children, a family,

a middleclass job...

How could
I have said yes to that,

especially when he cheated on me
a week after our wedding?

It made me very sad.

We parted because
he never wants to see me again.

He even said
he was sorry he ever met me.

Personally, I think that when
you love someone, it's for life.

The proof is, I still love him.

Does loving someone mean
refusing new experiences?

Mina and I
are often accomplices.

She's a beautiful woman,

intelligent, simple,

and very gentle.

And she has one major quality:
she obeys.

Only under
certain circumstances,

often in an erotic vein,
but not only with you.

Are you the submissive kind?

Not really.

What's the submissive kind?

Someone who,
during certain parties,

obeys, whatever the order.

Can I ask you a question?

Go ahead.

I suppose you must get orders
that are hard to obey.

Yes.

Are you a masochist?

No.

Then why be obedient all the time?

For the eroticism
and the pleasure.

It's practical.

You're relieved of criticism
and real choices.

But I also find
a kind of liberation in it.

A liberation?

By being obedient all the time?

Yes.

Freedom isn't something
very easy to live with.

Obedience led me
to something different,

more profound,

to stop thinking.

That was the first step.

Towards liberation?

Yes.

To stop thinking
is to be free of pain.

A few years ago,

I went through
a very painful period.

I had a little girl.

I lost her when she was
only a few months old.

At that time,

I'd already given up
all sense of pride,

for my own survival.

But that time,
I touched bottom.

I obeyed people who happened
to be around, to help me;

nuns, yogis.

They gave me simple advice...

Crush my ego.

I obeyed.

Without
asking yourself questions?

Without
asking myself questions.

And my pain gradually faded.

By becoming a slave?

Not exactly.

By not thinking,
my inner defenses fell.

So without even wanting to,

I could find previously hidden
realities inside myself.

In fact, my pain was linked
to a profound refusal

to accept myself.

So the pain slowly diminished.

I gradually felt almost totally free.

I also began to really know my body,

and to use it,

including as an object of pleasure.

So obedience calmed you down?

I stopped thinking.

My constant anxiety disappeared.

Don't laugh at the word,

but I opened myself up to everything.

I have to be up early
tomorrow morning.

You can stay. You can stay
with our new friends too.

We'll see each other again.

Good night.

See you later.

You know,
he's a really fine man,

but he's also very curious,
very hungry for new pleasures.

Meanwhile, my ass hurts.

Right, joke about it.

My back hurts too.

You seemed
to enjoy being whipped.

Yes, but the orgasm is over.

The pain remains.
It's unpleasant.

Want to go back inside
to turn your pain into pleasure?

Right, joke about it.

Seriously,

tonight it hurts more than usual.

Greg?

Could you hypnotize me
to soothe the pain?

You don't practice hypnosis for fun.

Why not?

They say I'm a very docile subject.

You often practice hypnosis?

I already told you.
I'm a psychiatrist.

Certain clinicians, such as myself,

sometimes use
this kind of treatment.

Ever hypnotize Sophie?

Yes.

Do it again.
I want to see how it works.

It's nothing spectacular.

You put people into a kind of sleep.

You give them orders,

you wake them up...

and they obey
without knowing why.

I want to see for myself.
Please.

Mind if we watch?

Not at all.
I just want to stop hurting.

Then don't do it again.

Or go see a doctor.

Hypnosis is not a game.

I'm not sick.
Hypnotize me.

No way.
You matter too much to me.

Try it on me.

You won't have any problem
since you don't know me.

I love to watch the stars.

It's one of those simple things

that gives me
a small idea of infinity,

along with some grandiose poetry
at the same time.

Did you know the Earth

revolves around the sun
at 110,000 kilometers per hour?

And as the entire
solar system revolves

at 800,000 kilometers per hour

around the center
of the Milky Way,

we are now moving

1 million kilometers per hour
through space

without realizing it.

If the stars all exploded now,

we'd see the first burst
in four and a half years,

and the others,
gradually over billions of years,

in the time it takes
the images to reach us.

If our sun disintegrated,

we'd have to wait eight minutes
before seeing it.

You think we're alone
in the universe?

Probably not.

But do you realize,

we're the only living beings
in our solar system?

But the other sun closest to us

is four and a half
light years away,

or more simply,

4,000 million billion kilometers.

At the speed
of 50 kilometers per second,

it's the speed
of our space probes.

It would take us,
at best, 25,000 years

to reach the closest
possibly inhabited planet.

Maybe there are secret doors

that allow us to cross
space and time in a flash.

Maybe.

You talk a lot, you know.

But I enjoy listening to you.

You're like a child.
You believe what you say.

When I'm alone,
I ramble on even more.

That's why I like your presence.

Just before,

I went so far as to start waiting,

even hoping that we'd meet.

I feel small next to you.

Meaning?

I ask the questions I asked
when I was a kid.

What is a star?
Why am I here?

I remember one night,
I was walking with my parents.

I was very small.

I wondered
what my shadow was.

My mom or my dad explained.

We forget, we grow old,

we change.

It's weird.
True, I feel good here.

So do I,

except that at my age,
I'm luckier than you are.

Tell me...

I'd like to see where you live.

You really flatter me.

When I was young,
it was me who'd ask the girls

to come see where I lived.

I just want to know what it's like.

If you insist,
I'll take you some day.

I'd really like that.

The next time we meet,

I'll tell you

about the stars
and their relation to time.

A glass of orange juice, please.

How've you been
since you stopped working?

- Everybody left me.
- Your family?

My family,
my boyfriend, everyone.

But that's okay.

I'm meeting other people.
I'm learning.

Thank you.

What's the important thing
you have to tell me in person?

You got married? You're happy?

I'm getting a divorce.

- You too?
- What'd you mean?

Skip it.

I can only talk to you.
Everybody will be against me.

It's serious?
What did your shrink say?

I switched.
He started saying things I didn't like.

The new one is better?

I don't tell him anything.

So why do you pay him?

I feel better talking to him
but only things I want to.

So I'm the one to whom
you tell the serious stuff?

I loved my boyfriend.

I was so happy
on my wedding day.

But right from the honeymoon,
I was bored.

Did you have sex before then?

Often, and I loved it.

But it wasn't the same then.
We didn't live together.

We weren't glued to each other
all the time.

Before, we couldn't wait
to see each other.

We'd dream,
go out to restaurants,

or eat sandwiches in his car.

He was going to be everything:

my husband, my lover,

and my very own child.

As soon as I really had all that,

it was over.

And you still have sex with him?

The worst is at night.

We sit down to eat, we watch TV,
then we go to bed.

Daily life is just a sea of boredom.

You clean and cook?

No, he does.

He loves me,
so he wants to do everything.

It's worse. When I used
to do something, I wasn't bored.

Tell the truth.
You had another guy?

Not right away.

I met him three weeks later.

I waited before we had sex.

How long?

Two days.

Does your husband know?

What's the other guy do in life?

He's a smuggler.

Drugs?

Mostly arms dealing.

But he's interested in gold right now.

He's going to Latin America,

to Cayenne,
where the big deals are made.

And I'm going with him.

What can I do for you?

Nothing.
I just came to say goodbye.

You're leaping without a net.

You were madly in love
with your husband.

My mind's made up.

You think I'm crazy?

I can't send you my address.

So this is really goodbye?

Give me a kiss?

Please sit down.

You look uneasy.
Should we stop?

Not at all.

I'd rather consider you
a bit like a sorcerer.

That would help.

As you like.
Please sit down.

What do you know
about hypnosis, Mina?

I used to think
it was like magic.

Now I know
it's used in psychiatry,

in medicine.

Look into my eyes.

Don't look away.

You're looking into my eyes.

And now...

you're beginning to feel calm,

relaxed.

You trust me completely.

Now...

Your gaze

is fixed on the tip of this cigarette.

Don't look away
from the end of this cigarette

on no account.

At the same time,

you're beginning to feel sleepy.

Your eyelids are heavy.

You have to close your eyes.

Your body lets go.

You're lying down.

You feel good.

You're asleep.

You're asleep, Mina.

You're aware of nothing now,

not so much as a sound.

You're only listening to my voice.

You're going to obey me,

aren't you, Mina?

Yes.

Good.

When I wake you in a moment,
you will remember nothing.

The four of us will talk,

and when I light my cigarette,

you'll get up

and go over

and open the umbrella
by the fireplace.

- Is that understood, Mina?
- Yes.

Good.

Now...

hold out your arm.

Roll up your sleeve.

I'm going to place a coin on your arm.

This coin is burning hot.

It's white hot.

I'm going to place it on your arm.

The burn will hurt very badly,

so badly

that you'll probably scream in pain.

But you'll leave the coin on you arm

until I remove it.

- Is that clear?
- Yes.

So I'm placing the coin on your arm.

Keep the coin there.

It's over, Mina.

You feel relaxed.

There is no more pain.

It no longer hurts now.

Good.

Now, Mina,

I'm going to count to five,

and you'll wake up.

You won't remember a thing,

but you will obey the orders
I just gave you.

- Is that clear?
- Yes.

I'm counting to five.

One,

two,

three,

four,

five.

You're awake.

What happened?

You fell asleep.

Don't you remember?

What should I remember?

Mina,
why did you open the umbrella?

Because it's pretty.

Why are you looking at me like that?

- Can I tell her?
- Sure.

While you were hypnotized,
Greg ordered you

to open the umbrella
when he lit a cigarette.

- This is a joke.
- No.

You don't remember anything?

Should I remember something else?

I also put a cold, ordinary
coin on your forearm,

telling you it was burning hot.

It hurt so badly,
you almost screamed.

Where did you put the coin?

On your forearm,
your left one, I think.

- Are you kidding me?
- No.

- Why?
- Look.

You burned me badly.

- Does it hurt?
- No.

Using suggestion,
I forbade you to feel pain.

But this coin was cold.

The girls can vouch for that.

Are you trying to trick us, to upset us?

Why would I do that?
And how?

In that case,

you were so influenced
by my suggestions

that you unconsciously
burned yourself.

But this sort of phenomenon
is very rare.

One out of a hundred.
No, out of a million.

What that means, Mina,

is that you're
an exceptional subject.

If I'm such an interesting subject,

why not try other experiments,

and go further this time?

Meaning?

I often have strange dreams
of ecstasy, violent,

mystical ecstasy.

It's something like

an orgasm,
only more intense.

Help me.

To do what?

Find out if it exists.

What?

Ecstasy.

Sexual or mystical?
It's not the same thing.

How do you know?

Even if you're right,
what's the difference?

Do you know?

And you?

Nobody knows anything about anything.

The only way to find out
is to take a closer look.

You're my only chance to do it.

I'm game too.

And why not me?

We can't control how this will go.

It's okay.
We're big girls now.

And if the ecstasy
happens to turn erotic, so what?

How about you?

Got the guts for something like this?

Are you all nuts?

We're all adults

and consenting.
and ready to go.

So shall we?

You're asleep.

Mina, I'm going to ask you...

to search your memories.

Let yourself
slip back into your past.

What do you see?

I'm in a forest.

It's hot,

very hot.

I'm little,

very little.

I'm in a woman's arms,

my mother's.

She's holding me tight,

very tight against her breast.

She's on her knees
in a very thick bush.

She lowers her head

but is watching something
behind the bushes.

She looks terrified.

What's she doing, hiding?

Yes.

She lies down

and puts her hand over my mouth.

She won't let me breathe.

She's suffocating me.

I'm terrified too.

I hear harsh sounds,

screams,

sounds of car doors slamming,

cars driving away,

then silence.

My mother
still doesn't dare move.

She still holds me tight.

She waits a little longer,

then lets me breathe and gets up.

I'm crying.

My mother is walking along a road,

among people lying there.

And there are men,

women, and children,

cats and dogs,

all lying in their blood.

A few steps away, there's a truck.

No...

a bus with signs on it.

No, just written things

but in Arabic script.

I'm in Algeria.

My mother keeps walking...

past people.

No...

Bodies.

And then, suddenly,

she drops to her knees beside a man.

His throat is strangely red.

She screams.

And I feel her tears
dropping on my face.

How old are you?

I don't know.

Less than a year old.

Relax a bit.

Think she really can't remember?

How can she go so far into her past?

She's not equipped
to imagine what happened

and to remember.

But it rings true.

Think she really went back into her past?

Yes.

What is it, Mina?

Where are you?

I'm far back, very far back.

I'm flying through a very beautiful

but strange sky.

I've just opened a door in the sky.

It's full of stars.

I fly to another door
that closes behind me.

Where are you?

In a castle.

I'm in this castle

lying on the ground,

face down,
my arms stretched out.

Keep going.

An old woman
is talking in Flemish.

You understand Flemish?

I'm Flemish.

I'm praying now.

Beside me, are other girls.

They're lying like me
with their arms stretched out.

I think they're nuns.

The two women sitting
at the end of the hall.

Above us

are the mother superiors.

There's a Christ
on his cross behind them.

I'm in a convent.

The Déchaussées Convent.

What's going on?

I heard something like a moan,

followed by a strange sound.

So I slowly
lift my head and I see

a light that seems
to be coming out of the ground.

The two mother superiors
look in the same direction.

The light stops

then starts again.

Actually,

it seems to come
from the body of another sister.

She's lying on her back,

her arms outstretched
but slightly bent.

A noise.

The sister moans.

Her head is thrown back

and her neck
supports the rest of her body.

Her face expresses

both intense pain and ecstasy.

The other girls lift their heads
and look too.

The two mother superiors say,

"Sisters,
we're going to interrupt prayer.

"Don't worry
about Sister Katerina.

"We'll take care of her.

Now rise and go to your cells."

The girls obey,

more or less
pushing and shoving.

I'm one of the last.

Suddenly,

I feel a harsh light behind me.

I turn around.

Sister Katerina's face is all white,

all lit up.

She's not moving.

There is a strange silence.

I can't hear the girls
or anything else now.

I look at Katerina.

I see her rise slowly.

The mother superiors are stunned.

Katerina slowly continues to rise.

The others try to hold her down

and even push her back to the floor.

One girl sits on her stomach
to hold her down.

She's caught
in the rising movement.

She's terrified.

She can't speak or scream.

Both remain there a few minutes

above the ground.

Then they come down.

It's over.

I saw total ecstasy
on Sister Katerina's face.

It looked
like intense happiness.

Mina, I'm going
to count to five now

and you'll wake up.

You'll remember

everything you've just been through.

I want to feel that ecstasy.

I thought you were beyond all that.

You can't understand.

It's so much more.

Hypnotize me again.

Hypnotize me too.

Why?

You hear what she just said?

There's nothing more to say.

What she describes

looks like the ultimate orgasm,
total fusion.

I've always wanted that.

I won't miss out
on the experience.

Me neither.

You're all maniacs.

She's describing mystical ecstasy.

There's nothing sexual about it.

I want to know both.

Your eyelids are getting heavy.

Close your eyes.

Now your body is letting go.

You feel good.

The three of you

are going to feel
the most violent ecstasy

you've ever known.

Then you'll wake up.

Come on.

You're very early, young lady.

Say something.
Tell me about your stars.

Show me your house,
like you promised.

Are you that unhappy?

I rushed into a new life.

Sometimes, I'm afraid.

God loves those who dare.

I don't believe in God.

Neither do I.

But sometimes

it's useful to find a word
to talk about certain things

we don't know.

Won't you tell me
a little more about yourself?

No.

Talk to me about your stars,
please.

The stars.

I love it when you laugh.

The sound of my shout

spreads
at 360 meters per second

along the boulevard.

Supposing you could travel
faster than the sound,

you shall overtake it

and hear it again.

On the other hand,

had you started before it,

at this same speed,
at 400 meters per second,

the shout wouldn't overtake you
and you wouldn't hear a thing.

You understand?

I think so.

During the last century,

physicists all thought
the same was true of light.

Not at all.

You can't catch light.

You can't pass light.

It's an absolute.

Did you learn that in India?

No, I learned meditation in India,

which means, to stop thinking.

But before all that,

when I still had hair,

I was a physics teacher.

Go on with what you were saying.

Come on.

Einstein came up with a rather
disturbing explanatory model.

According to this model,

the time we live,
the speed we move at,

the space we occupy

are relative to our speed.

Suppose we have the same watch

set in the same way.

You travel by plane,
I stay here.

Your watch goes less fast

because the time
each of us lives in

is different.

Obviously,
the difference is minute,

so minute

we can't detect it.

But if I now flew in a rocket

at 99% of the speed of light

and came back to Earth a day later,

you will have lived 18 years,

and me, 24 hours.

The space I occupy during that time

would become very small,

but my mass, let's say my body,

would be harder to pull
than a thousand freight trains.

Am I boring you?

No.

Taking this theory
to its conclusion,

we come to think
that at the beginning,

the universe
was just a quantity of matter

no bigger
than a pingpong ball

which exploded...

10 to 20 billion years ago.
Let's say 14, more likely.

It took 4 billion years
for the Milky Way,

our galaxy, to appear

before the birth
of the solar system.

Our Earth
dates back 4.5 billion years.

In the beginning, we could have
touched the Moon with our hand.

The Earth cooled off

but...

it took 1 or 2 billion years
to create the atmosphere,

then water.

Reptiles date
from 2 or 3 billion years.

Man, probably a million.

Imagine that all this time
is represented by a 24hour day.

The Stone Age would begin
at five minutes to midnight,

virtually
at the end of the 24 hours.

The birth of Christ,
at one minute to midnight.

Most surprising of all,

we are here,
we human beings,

tiny bubbles

lost in the immensity,

and we have the capacity
to understand all that.

Because the miracle

is that all is logic.

If there is a God,

he may not be a softie,

but he's certainly
a very good mathematician.

Come in.

Want something to drink?

I haven't much to offer,
just water or cider.

Cider.

The main life line of the Universe,

from the Big Bang to the dinosaur.

The thickness of the red line
next to the dinosaur

equals 1 million years,

mankind's entire past.

And the crucifix?

What about it?

I thought you didn't
believe in anything.

I don't believe in a god
conceivable to the human mind,

that's all.

Even that I have doubts about.

Here's to you.

To the two of us.

Come in.

Thanks for coming.

I just had to speak to you.

Please.

Something fantastic
is happening to me.

First, I have to tell you...

I'm in love with Mina.

I hope you won't be angry with me.

And her?

She feels the same.

You have to understand.

I feel like

I've happened on a subject

that I'll never find again.

I'll try to take her
very far into the unknown

and follow her there.

That's risky.

Yes, maybe.

But we don't care.

Please,

put your jealousy aside.

First I have to tell you...

Remember

when she had that orgasm
under hypnosis?

She wasn't the only one.

If you advertise
female pleasure,

you'd be overrun.

I'm serious, Sandrine.

What she describes

is close to the state of bliss

certain mystics speak of.

Remember her second memory?

She mentioned a convent.
I checked.

It could be a Belgian convent

where nuns
experienced ecstatic states

they tried to hide.

That was in the 14th century.

Mina could have copied them.

Those saints
never interested her.

She doesn't know they exist
or what their names are.

Why tell me all this?

I want to put her under hypnosis,

to suggest she reach a strong orgasm

without gimmicks.

No women, no caresses,
no men, nothing.

Katerina
and the others were in love

with a guy dead
for 14 centuries.

So what?

Remember the violent ecstasy last time?

You'll do it again, but
this time without your hands,

without anyone to help you.

You'll go beyond,

then go into ecstasy

like the nun you saw
in the Flemish convent.

You understand me, Mina?

Yes.

Remember,

your most violent orgasm.

You'll go beyond it.

Start.

Where are you, Mina?

Inside myself.

The heat of my body is dropping.

I feel an incredible mellowness.

My heart is slowing down.

Her pulse is very low.

My eyes see nothing now.

An inner force
makes me shut them.

My senses and my body
are indifferent to me.

I feel driven

toward a kind of glory,

a glorious world.

I'm in pain,

yet I'm immersed in a sea of bliss.

I'm one great joy.

I hear...

"My daughter,
your soul no longer lives.

"It is I who lives in it."

Who's speaking to you?

Mina, who is it?

I don't know.

There's no name.

Words don't fit.

Now I feel

stuck between two worlds;

the one I come from

and which I'm not a part of now

and the other
indescribable world

to which I am being abducted.

Keep going.

What do you feel?

Tell me,
where are you?

What's going on now?

Try to say it.

Mina...

wake up.

Books, objects,
everything went flying.

Then, suddenly,
everything calmed down.

And your friend Mina?

She no longer speaks.

She just wants
to go into a convent.

A convent?
Did she do it?

I don't know.

Your friend
should have been more careful.

What arrogance.

What selfimportance.

But you know,
I'm a bit like them;

maybe a bit calmer, at peace.

Then you understand
what happened?

My mentors
would have told you

that your two friends,
out of stupidity,

unleashed some very powerful
negative forces.

And what do you think?

I don't know.

I thought you knew it all,
but you don't know a thing.

How right you are.

What is life?

What is pleasure?

What is love?

Look at this landscape.

What does it inspire in you?

A feeling of calm and harmony.

As it does for me.

But, and you know this,

it's, first of all, emptiness,

yet at the same time,
filled with plants and insects,

and thousands of animals
that devour each other

to survive.

The plants grow

thanks to the light,
thanks to the sun.

But the balance,
the harmony

depends on neverending
savagery and murder.

Maybe we're nothing more

than silly accidents in the universe,

or else,

fallen angels.

Fallen from what?

I don't know.