Sans famille

THE FOUNDLING

- Is this the Barberin farm? - Yes, sir.

Your mother?

She's in the house.

There she is.

Thank you.

AII I can offer you is a cup of chicory. It's warm.

No, thank you.

This is aII I couId find, Roussette.

But don't worry, it'II soon be spring

and you'II have Iots of grass.

I don't know that man who's just come. Do you?

Remi, come over here, pIease,

with Roussette.

I've seen better cows.

Go back in the house, dear.

I don't need your heIp at the moment.

So you've seen better cows than Roussette, have you?

Look at her feet. And her neck's too short.

She doesn't give miIk from her feet!

I can onIy give you 1 00 francs.

1 00 francs for Roussette?

But in Chavarnon market I couId seII her for twice that!

1 00 francs, no more.

Wait, Remi!

Remi, wait for me.

Don't cry, my dear.

I'm not crying.

Don't be sad. I know how you feeI.

It hurts me to see you cry. You don't want to set me off, too!

I don't understand why you had to seII her.

Mr Barberin feII off his scaffoIding in Paris.

He can't work as a brickIayer any more.

He gave aII his money to the doctor,

and he's coming back to the farm.

Come on, Iet's go in before you catch coId.

How wiII we get miIk and butter?

One day at a time, young feIIow!

How about if I make us some nice pancakes?

PeeI those three appIes for me.

Don't make the peeI too thick.

- Gustav? - I'm back!

Nothing Ieft for me in Paris.

You two aren't suffering, are you?

Eating pancakes...

whiIe I risk Iife and Iimb in Paris!

Get out, scram!

He's off to the orphanage tomorrow. I'm hungry, too!

No, I need him at the farm.

I said the orphanage!

If you Iisten through keyhoIes you don't get any supper.

Go on!

Get out of my sight!

Why the orphanage?

Did you Iearn something about him in Paris?

I contacted the poIice station which originaIIy found him.

Avenue de BreteuiI, a rich area.

WeII, rich or not, no one ever came for the chiId.

Ten years now! I've given up hope.

His parents are gone.

How can you say such a thing?

I soId Roussette so we couId make ends meet.

And you'II get better sometime.

Of course I wiII, but for the moment we've no money.

You shouId have soId the kid, not the cow.

Is there a bottIe Ieft in the ceIIar?

Your poIice service here in Paris wrote this Ietter

to my sister-in-Iaw, the Countess Johanna von Strausberg.

As she is iII, I am representing her.

Yes. Madame Strausberg wrote to us many times

when we had more pressing concerns than Iost Prussian chiIdren.

If you see what I mean.

I'm afraid not.

At that time

there were, in France, perhaps too many Prussians in uniform

unwiIIing to go home.

My nephew was Bavarian.

Bavarian!

We may have a Iead.

I've received a Ietter from the Avenue de BreteuiI.

A brickIayer named Barberin... Let's see.

He found...

on some steps in the Avenue de BreteuiI...

an aImost dead chiId...

AImost?

AImost dead. It was in January,

weII before that awfuI war between our two countries.

- May I? - It's aII here:

the brickIayer's address, the aImost dead chiId, January...

But my nephew disappeared that year in February.

And yet Madame Strausberg...

Countess!

She mentioned January in her Ietters.

May I take this Ietter

to show her?

- Do you have power of attorney? - Of attorney?

She shouId have thought of that

but she's so upset...

I'm sure you'II be understanding.

Thank you.

Remi! Remi, I'm waiting!

Don't worry. I've been thinking.

The counciI might give us some money to bring up the kid.

What do you think?

I'II go and see.

You haven't eaten anything.

We'II go to the cafe.

Come on, Remi.

I Iike the kid, too.

This is on me.

FeII off a scaffoIding, eh? Nasty.

PIease excuse my companion's Iack of manners, young man.

Your companion?

His name is LadykiIIer. Isn't that right?

LadykiIIer.

What are you doing here?

Who's he?

An odd customer.

The counciI won't give us anything.

WeII, if they gave money for every orphan the war produced,

they'd soon run out.

The orphanage is the onIy soIution.

He doesn't work, he eats, he needs new cIothes...

We're ruined!

Is this chiId a bother? Because...

I was thinking...

- What? - Oh, nothing.

Perhaps the chiId couId be usefuI to me in my business.

- What business? - Artist.

Do you hear that?

You want to take this chiId who works on the farm,

who's aIways heIpfuI, eager, never compIains...

Who needs feeding and cIothing.

Think how it wouId hurt me and my wife.

Fifty francs.

No, I have to teII Mr Fontane. Wait!

From whom was that object stoIen?

You? Mr von Strausberg?

- In person, CharIes. - You.

After aII this time.

But to what do I owe the pIeasure...

The pIeasure?

I wouIdn't taIk of pIeasure if I were you, CharIes.

HeIIo, IittIe one.

This is my niece, Lise.

Curtsey to the gentIeman, Lise, and then go to bed.

Come on.

My niece cannot speak.

She became dumb after her parents died in a fire.

I had to take her in.

She survived...

ChiIdren seem to survive in your company,

don't they, CharIes?

I don't understand.

Are you stiII making Iots of money from burgIaries in Paris?

Come and see.

These things go down weII in Germany.

Just Iook!

I didn't come here for that,

I didn't come here for pIeasure.

I toId you,

my dear CharIes...

Can I stiII caII you that?

What are you getting at?

This!

This Ietter addressed to my sister-in-Iaw.

Johanna, the chiId's mother?

Read it and teII me.

It's a miracIe that the postman gave the Ietter to me.

The poIice have found the trace of a chiId

abandoned ten years ago in the Avenue de BreteuiI.

You aIways toId me

the chiId was dead when you reached Paris.

WeII, aImost.

AImost?

Yes, aImost.

And what does ''aImost'' mean?

He was aImost dead of coId when I abandoned him in Paris.

In the Avenue de BreteuiI?

Yes, perhaps. I don't know.

If he hadn't been almost dead,

I wouIdn't be almost the heir to the famiIy fortune.

So that expIains this Ietter.

But there's no proof that...

''There's no proof that...''!

You're right, CharIes, there's no proof.

But I paid you once, and paid you very weII, too,

for a contract which was not honoured.

I demand you now honour it in fuII!

- Honour it? - Understand?

Honour it.

I know who wiII Iike this jeweI.

We mustn't Iose hope.

We stiII have Remi.

And we might even get some money to put by for him.

- From the counciI? - Why not?

Let's drink to it.

The innkeeper promised me a bottIe.

Go and get it for me.

Now?