His Days Are Numbered (I giorni contati)

ON BORROWED TIME

With

Story by

Screenplay by

Music by

Editor

Director of Photography

Directed by

Please, gentlemen.

Your ticket, please.

Your ticket, please, sir.

Your ticket, sir.

Your ticket, sir.

He's dead!

He's dead!

Driver! Stop, please!

Get down! Please, get down, gentlemen!

Come on! Please, get down, gentlemen!

Let's get down. Come on.

Mr. Cesare!? It's aImost eight o'clock.

Mr. Cesare?!

Mrs. Proietti has called.

She says you should go for that repair.

She says nobody coud wash themselves this morning.

What am I to tell her?

Alright!

Mr. Cesare, aren't you feeling well?!

No, no, I'm just fine.

How come you're dressed so smartly?

Yesterday, I saw a guy die in the tram.

- Are you making this up? - No.

We were more or less the same age.

Yeah, sure, laugh, laugh...

Laugh!

But that one laid there, stiff... Do you get it?

Heart attack.

Heart... attack...

And he was my age!

That means... your age also.

Do you get it?

One gets in the tram in the morning... like usual...

fresh like a flower... and suddenly the heart fails!

Don't go by the tram anymore...

I'll do something else.

Let's hear it...

I've stopped working.

But you're almost 53 years old...

You're not a child anymore.

It's just because I'm 53 years old.

How much more will I be around? 5, 10... 15 years.

And who knows, maybe less.

Then you shouldn't have started working even as a child.

Even newborns die.

For a child it's a misfortune.

But at our age, we live with death.

Do you understand this?

Do you remember my poor wife?

Strong, sturdy... she seemed in perfect health, didn't she?

But then, in 15 days...

she was gone.

Come on, climb up!

But who's gonna support you?

That's the least important thing.

I've got some money put aside.

This means that when it'll be gone...

something will happen.

Did you see it? Did you see how you might die?

Keep it up! Keep on working! Go on!

- Hey, Ce'! Wake up! - Come on! It's daybreak!

- I really feel well. - Yeah, sure, sure.

Sleeping one night in open air, it already makes you feel younger.

- Amilcare! - Where're you going?!

Somewhere, wanna come?

Come. Come with me.

Amilcare. Don't be afraid, come.

Look.

Come here and look.

Take a look.

This one here was born the same day I was.

You see?

The 11th of April, 1908.

The same date, exactIly the same one.

April... 1908.

And what does it mean?

What does it mean?

It means... it means...

Don't you get it?

It means I'm on borrowed time.

- This or that, we all Iive on borrowed time. - Exactly.

And so, I'll go on holiday.

- Show me your identity card. - Why?

Show it to me.

Come on... quicker...

What do you want with it, it's expired.

Amilcare Franceschetti... painter...

Italian nationality... domicile...

What are you doing?!

No!

What are you doing? Where are you going? Eh?

Where could I go? What do you want from me?

- Why? - What did I do to you? Why do you want to harm me?

- Me? - You wanna make my heart sick?!

If you don't want to do anything, you don't want to work, don't work.

- I'm tired... wanna go sleep. Gravedigger! - Me? Gravedi...? Why?

Come here! Stupid! Come here! Come here!

- Come on! Let's go! Follow it! - Get down! I must go to work!

What work? You'll go afterwards!

''WE WANT HOMES!''

- It's the 2nd time we've demonstrated for housing. - Is there a doctor's office here?

- Yes, and I'm the doctor. - Oh, it's you...

Could you tell me the scientific name for ticks? - Argas reflexus.

They come from Africa and can even carry meningitis.

Before making this demostration, have you notified the authorities?

Yes, in fact we did, but to no avail. - How many inhabitants are here?

- We were 11,000, but it's only half now. - And the ticks? Tell me about the ticks.

- Some stray dog must have got'em, kids took it inside. - I'll show you the ticks.

- Why, is there a certain place? - Yes, they're found by kids on the wall.

- Here, look... Here! - That's where you saw them? - Yes.

- There's a nest! There's a nest! - There's a nest of big ticks, dog ticks.

And not only here. In Quarticciolo also.

- So there are more cases. - The mother passes it to her son.

- Is it dangerous? - Yes, they prick, they attack...

- Where are you taking them? - To the slaughterhouse.

- Where? - To the slaughterhouse!

Sir.

Sir!

What's happened?

- Nothing... Excuse me. - Leave me alone!

Doesn't matter!

Come on! Cut them.

How come you didn't go to work this morning?

I work afternoons.

Ah, afternoons.

Hearts.

What are you doing! Play, it's your turn.

Damn it! Now I'll have to play a trump.

What are you doing? You must first draw a card. What's with you this morning?

How much I'd like to be able to swim...

Eh? To swim?

Well, learn.

I'm afraid of the water.

But, it's so good staying at home and doing nothing!

Mr. Ce', you're teaching her to play cards now?

Can I have a smoke?

Be careful. Your mother's around.

Smoke, smoke.

Excuse me.

- You've got patience. - They have to be washed.

- Get lost! Get lost! - Get lost... where to?

Go take a walk. Don't you see what a beautiful day it is?

If only I couId go... get lost!

Good afternoon.

- Your ticket, sir! - Eh?

- Your ticket. - But...

- How much is it? - 300 lire.

- Who painted it? - Raffaello.

- How much could it cost? - How should I know...

Not that I intend to buy it, but...

- And this one, whose is it? - Cranach.

This one is really beautiful, no?

- It's beautiful, this one, eh! - No.

Why not?

Then how come I like it?

Simply because you like it. What work do you do?

What has that got to do with it? I'm a plumber.

So you're a solderer. Everyone with his craft.

- Why, are you a painter? - No, I live among them. I'm an art dealer.

- You're a solderer, no? - Yes.

What are the connotations of this painting, eh? Soppiness, melodrama,...

sentimentality?

Haven't you ever played with beautiful figurines?

What do I know about beautiful figurines?

Even this is melodrama, sentimentality?

This is not melodrama. This is life, not make-believe.

- It's Raffaello! - He seems alive!

You see Professor, if one like me understands only today certain things,

they tell you it's too late. And this is unjust.

Don't you think so?

Or at least it's sad, isn't it?

No, it's fair. You'd have to be Einstein to know more than...

This is the most dramatic sign of old age.

Why should a 45 year old man have to get involved with 45 year old woman?

Why?

Because one...

Come, come to my house. I live here in the back, near the lock.

I'd like to show you something new...

artistically fulfilled... somehow distinct... with shapes...

See, your's is a modern problem. You're, without even knowing it, an existentialist.

But... who's in there?

No, no, don't expect finding models, nude women...

See, my guest paints in a totally informal manner.

How's that? In...

Informal...

Come, come...

You don't have to understand... just watch.

Come, come...

Society expresses its issues...

these paintings...

- Society alienates. - Alienates...

History in itself is...