Celine and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau)

CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING

Usually, it began like this.

MAGIC

Fill out a card, please.

But the next morning...

Here...

This is yours, Miss.

Thank you, Sir.

No, I won't have coffee.

Not here.

For you this time.

Here, Lil, for your collection.

- This one's from Borneo. - Java?

- Java good time? - Sure.

Better than Kilimanjaro before that.

How's that?

Past... future.

Escape from prison, theatrical coup.

The Chariot. New start. Conquest.

It's your lucky day.

- Oh, Death. - No, it's affirmative.

Movement, change, the end... becoming radiance, triumph.

Conquest. The Sun.

How useless.

Don't burn yourself.

You do me now.

The Past. The Hanged Man. Below is above. Your future is behind you.

And you plunge into the depths... of night.

My future...

Your grandfather the hermit... protects you.

You don't move. You don't advance.

You advance, but in total immobility.

- Stagnation. - Triumphal nevertheless.

Despite the stagnation.

So my future is in the present.

Exactly.

That's fine. I like paper. I like the smell of wax.

- It'll go better tomorrow. - Let's hope so.

Well, back to our places.

Back to literature.

Sir.

You may smoke... discreetly.

The children are being very noisy.

Is "White Elephant" back?

No, he's on a trip to Australia.

Have "Naive Larks"...

...and "Ladies of Flajolie" gone?

Like "Spiders in the Night.”

"Death with a Blue Ribbon.”

"Before the Mirror"?

"Before the Mirror"... 11th July...

1578.

Madame Michelle, I told you not to let your cats stray!

Sorry, did I wake you?

I thought it was them after me again.

Don't you think you need a bed?

I must wash... a shower... I must take a shower.

You had three phone calls while I slept.

First door on the left.

It's wild.

My last African safari...

...was really wild.

The heat was killing us.

Hunting animals every day in the savannah.

I had a boa cockstrictor.

A boa constrictor?

Right! A boa cockstrictor that stuck it to me.

Not dangerous, I put him around my neck.

When the natives killed the biggest tiger of all, they said...

...it was the Bengali tiger.

From Bengal, the region of Africa we were in. Do you know it?

It's a blue and brown bird.

I was the Pigmy emperor's guest.

But Zouba the Giantess was jealous.

She wanted to marry the emperor who'd given me the tiger-skin.

But since he had given it to me...

Not a bare skin?

Zouba wanted to skin me.

So I ran.

I almost croaked coming back from the jungle.

I lived through hell.

I lost my hair all over, plucked clean.

I was scared to death. I was traumatoed.

- Tomatoed? - Yes, freaked out.

I was invited to Hong Kong. A cool place, I'll tell you some day.

A Japanese guy there did acoopuncture. He did it to me.

After a month...

...my hair grew back, red at first, then the usual.

Then I came back.

- Who's he? - That's Grégoire.

Known as Guilou.

A distant cousin from childhood holidays.

We were lovers, we had our innocent games.

Playing hospital, etcetera.

On Sundays we'd get married in the grass behind the presbytery.

Naked as worms, solemn as popes.

Now Guilou's back.

He's written. I'm waiting.

But he wants a white wedding in church.

What's this relic?

A forgotten forget-me-not.

Isn't it a marguerite?

You're right, it's not a marguerite, it's a daisy.

It was a daisy.

We'll see to that.

Mind if I use alcohol?

Does it hurt you?

It's all right.

I have a first-aid certificate.

How did that happen?

I thought they were after me, so I ran.

I fell, I was scared.

But who are they? Scared of what?

I'd been hired to work in a house.

Then two days ago... it was fine until then...

...two days ago I found in my room...

...a bracelet with a foreign girl's name on it.

The girl before me, I thought, so I took it to my master.

When he saw it he turned pale. I thought he'd hit me.

He locked himself in his study with his wife.

She cried, he shouted, I listened. Then the other woman came.

So I went away.

I kept out of the way, poked around, looked in drawers...

...and in one drawer I found two passports...

...with foreign names - one was the name on the bracelet.

But the photos were torn out.

Yesterday, when I wanted to go on looking...

...drawers and cupboards were locked. I tried to force a drawer.

They caught me at it.

I ran away and now they're after me.

Who are they?

The master and the two women.

What did you do in the house?

Nanny.

- There were children? - Of course.

- How many? - One.

A little girl?

How old?

Young, seven or eight.

Were the women dark or fair?

Dark and fair.

I don't know their relationship, they were very secretive.

What did he look like? Grim?

Him? Like your fish.

Black.

All done.

Relax.

I'd kill for a Bloody Mary!

My head hurts.

Relax. Lie down.

Take this. Swallow it whole.

What's the address of that house?

But the next morning...

Lil? It's Julie.

No, not very well.

I don't know... I'm not coming in today... I'd rather...

No, something popped up.

I'd rather rest. I'll be in tomorrow.

See you tomorrow.

What was the address of that house?

But... I told you yesterday.

7 bis, rue du Nadir aux Pommes.

That's it.

Grégoire? Guilou!

Yes, it's Julie.

I'm so happy to hear you.

You sound so close. How odd.

You're in Paris? Since when? This morning?

I want to see you. Yes, today.

Three o'clock, St. Vincent Square.

Kiss, kiss. See you soon.

To my Julie. The child has become a man.

It seems people live here.

Nestor! Fancy meeting you.

Guess who.

I recognize those gentle hands...

...the sweetness of this skin, the pulse of this breathing.

Guilou, you haven't changed a bit.

Do you remember that Monday...

...when I wildly picked 313?

311, because five of them were dying purple crocuses.

Those days of blind man's bluff, when I couldn't find you.

I had no dessert.

Yet playing Hot and Cold you found the farmer's wife hottest.

Josette was always after me, even in church after Mass.

Has the presbytery lost none of its charm?

And the young girl...

...none of her innocence?

It's just as I'd imagined. Nothing's changed.

The cobwebs caressed our bare feet...

...they were silky and soft.

When I pressed you against the hedge to kiss you, no one could see.

Red mouth smeared... strawberries crushed in milk...

...sugared kisses, four o'clock, snacks, heat...

Kisses and rhubarb jam, cigarettes stolen from Uncle Edouard...

We blew blue smoke rings.

The forget-me-not song... white sun, brown stomachs...

...the wind howled and we danced and we loved... ecstasy!

Ecstasy! Perverse and mystic sodomization.

Homosexual spleen in the barn, disguised as Alsatians.