Waiting for Bojangles (En attendant Bojangles)

Hello.

WAITING FOR BOJANGLES

What about you? What's your line?

Yes. You.

I said to my husband, you're very young

to attend a Success Story Weekend.

The next generation is woefully underestimated.

Isn't it, Edmond?

I manufacture harpoons.

Really?

Harpoons to kill flies.

Very sophisticated, guaranteed never to miss.

In my country, flies...

are a real problem.

I thought I detected an accent. You're from...

Romania.

That explains the sad air.

The Slav soul.

Melancholy runs in the family.

It comes from my ancestor, the Count of Pal.

Dracula, if you prefer.

My father held Detroit in the palm of his hand.

He was a very rich manufacturer of...

And you took up the torch?

He must be so proud.

¡Gracias!

I started out in haute couture after my wife passed.

Carmen danced the tango

out of this world.

Together, we won competitions nationwide.

My dear sir,

Francine may be no brainbox but don't take advantage.

Truth is stranger than fiction. Dracula really existed.

I knew it.

As a boy, I was struck dumb by the factory noise.

I was... traumatised.

And now you're bilingual!

What was your first word?

Tire!

Wonderful!

You're the most gullible of all.

- Really, Francine... - You are!

You have before you a direct descendant of Dracula.

Do you do large sizes?

Marie-Françoise!

Francine!

I recommend a bowtie.

Very pretty, a bowtie.

Time to leave, my friend.

You're right.

Give my regards to the undertakers!

Don't even think about it.

She'll drive you doolally.

I had the bad idea to invite her.

And she acts as if I don't exist.

Next to her, nobody exists!

A name?

Jean-Paul, if you like.

Antoinette. You look like an Antoinette.

Antoinettes are the best dressed, true.

And they tend to dance divinely to forget their woes.

A single name from cradle to grave, what a drag!

Name me as you wish.

I have a painting of a handsome Prussian hussar

and your hairstyle is the same as his.

In the whole wide world, nobody wears their hair like that.

Where do you find a barber now Prussia is gone?

My hair doesn't grow.

Never did.

I was born like this a few centuries ago.

I'm quite serious.

You are the hussar I fell in love with as a child.

Now you mention it, I recall one campaign when I was in the cavalry.

I had my portrait painted after a monumental battle.

You mock, sir!

My Prussian looks through me

even as I dance naked before him for hours on end.

Your sense of rhythm is capable of raising

an entire army.

It's innate talent?

You'll never believe me.

Try me.

Can you imagine,

my father was none other than Josephine Baker's lovechild.

Sapristi!

I knew Josephine well.

Don't tell me grandma and you...

Sure!

We frequented the same Paris hotel during the last war.

She fled to my room during an air raid.

That beautiful summer night,

the terror,

the heat...

We could not resist.

Sweet Jesus! Might you be Granddaddy?

I sensed we were cut from the same cloth.

There!

- There he is. - That's him!

The bereaved tango dancer is certainly fleet of foot.

It turns out you're Spanish, after all.

Don Quixote's grandson?

I was not so lucky.

My mother was indeed Spanish, married to a Hungarian prince.

They moved to America shortly before I was born.

It makes perfect sense.

Your accent is French. Citizen of the world, my eye!

I travel therefore I am.

You are a crook!

How did you get in?

Via the pretty patio. Not you?

The man's demented! Call security!

Come on, Camille. Party's over.

Wrong, Charles. Today my name is Antoinette.

Do you know this gentleman?

No, never seen him.

I'd be amazed if he was invited.

Let's not fight!

Stop this.

Please!

That man is every man!

He's my grandfather.

The lover of Josephine Baker.

As well as the descendant of Dracula!

And many more besides.

Is that not wonderful?

I believe you, my hussar!

I believe you.

We shall be husband and wife.

You are the best contract at the whole sad shindig.

Truth be told,

you signed the most fraudulent.

I'm a mere car salesman,

living off my father.

He moves in high society

and forced me to come to boost my business.

You saw the scope of my ambition!

Have no fear, dear man,

I'll lower my cover charge.

Special offer till midnight. Step right up!

Antoinette, you'll catch your death.

As long as it doesn't catch me!

Drive faster to dry me off.

Faster!

Or our lies will catch us!

More!

Faster!

Let us marry now before we forget!

Yes, sir, Antoinette!

I swear before Almighty God,

the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,

to love and cherish

all the women you'll be.

All of them?

Absolutely all?

All of them.

Absolutely all.

I swear to accompany them

all life long.

Day and night.

Everywhere they go.

Everywhere?

Absolutely everywhere?

Everywhere.

Absolutely

everywhere.

Ladies...

Antoinette!

Yes?

Five minutes! I'm coming!

Room service for...

The honorable senator, no less?

Okay? Your head's not spinning up among the elite?

What do you want?

Don't be a grouch first thing.

I always knew we'd get along.

Even two had a job cheering me up.

More fool me, thinking I had a chance with Camille.

Guess what, she vanished.

You wouldn't know where?

She did you a favor.

She dances on the edge of a precipice.

- She didn't want you to fall. - Dear man...

I already did.

Love is not to order.

Camille's scared of love.

I must reassure her.

A mighty task.

She grew up in abject poverty.

Hunger shrinks not only the stomach, but also the heart.

Her father misbehaved rather during the war.

The Liberation ruined him.

She found him hanging in their attic.

Poor angel.

She left home shortly after.

She got by for years in sordid circumstances.

I tried to help her.

But in order to need nothing,

she had no use for anything.

You won't escape the same fate.

The last thing I want is to escape.