A Trap for Cinderella (Piège pour Cendrillon)

TRAP FOR CINDERELLA

I...

Don't try to speak.

Just move your head a little bit like this...

Yes.

No.

Alright?

Before being here in this room...

...is there nothing you remember?

Somebody else, somewhere else?

Doctor...

Doulin.

Michele.

Got it?

Michele.

I'll turn 21 in 2 months.

I was born in Denain...

...in the north.

But I've mostly lived with my aunt in Italy.

Not so fast, my little mummy.

- Your name? - My name's Isola.

Michele Marie Marthe Isola.

I remember what you say, but it's just words.

I don't see anything.

You spent your holidays down south.

One night...

...there was a fire.

It was the gas.

Your hair caught fire...

The explosion threw you against the wall.

Two operations.

There was sepsis.

64 stitches.

But what is not fixed...

...is the fear that you must have had.

Do you know what you call to mind, little mummy?

A new-born.

You're taking the same path.

Of course, you're big...

...and things will go much faster.

- Doctor? - Yes?

I'd like to see some fire.

So?

Nothing.

Your father and your mother.

You've scarcely known them.

Your aunt, La Raffermi...

...who brought you up in Florence.

She died, some time before the fire.

You...

Another of you.

You again.

I was pretty.

Your housekeeper...

Jeanne Murneau.

Is she more familiar to you than the others?

I don't know...

No, please don't look at me!

Don't cry my darling... It's all over.

- It's me, Michele. - Don't look at me!

Am I very different?

You're thinner.

Sit down.

Give me your hands.

When you were 6, when your Aunt Raffermi took you to Florence...

...you had the same lost look... a little girl with a big suitcase.

Did you recognise me at the hospital, ma'am?

Don't call me ma'am, sweetheart.

Did you recognise me?

You're my daughter now.

I fed you, washed, dressed you.

I taught you Italian, the Charleston, snakes and ladders...

I even spanked you twice.

That makes you my daughter.

I would recognize you in the dark...

...with my eyes closed.

And yet, it is difficult.

Even your voice is no longer quite the same.

Maybe I'm not the same person.

Did he know me?

No.

He and his wife have only been with me 6 days.

Don't you like it?

Not very much, no.

You liked it before.

It's a funny word, "before".

Like a wall that surrounds me...

Which I bang my head against all the time.

Was everything beautiful...

..."before" ?

You were a very happy little girl, with no problems.

A full, satisfying life.

But when there was a fire in the house...

...were you with me?

No.

So I was alone in the house when it happened?

You were never alone.

There were always people around you.

How did the fire happen?

A gas leak. There was an explosion.

Was the house that burned, my aunt's house?

Was it a nice house?

It wasn't your aunt's house.

It was a little house out on its own.

A cottage that a friend of yours had rented.

A friend? why didn't you tell me that I had a friend?

It wasn't exactly a friend.

She was a cousin of yours who had come to live with us.

Was she there when it happened?

Yes...

Where is she now?

She was burned... She died.

But...

Look at this... I never showed you.

What is it?

The skin graft.

Your skin stopped growing again, after the second operation.

I've given you a lot of things... even some of my skin.

Will it always be visible?

I certainly hope so.

You see, I care.

That's what love is.

We do a lot of things for love.

Even bad things... It can be complicated.

What was my cousin's name?

Domenica... Dominique.

Did I like her?

Not really. She'd been rather nasty to you.

Would you like to read?

I guess it's not a happy idea to try and remember her.

"Capri"...

Capri is pretty... But it's too hot.

What did you say?

Nothing. I didn't say anything.

Of these 4 composers,

who wrote the tune that you just heard?

Frescobaldi.

Here are the results

I'm sorry but that is incorrect

It wasn't Vivaldi and it wasn't Scarlatti.

It was in fact

by Frescobaldi, "Saraband in D minor"

Where did you learn that name?

What name?

The name you just said, of the composer.

Did I say a name?

I've had enough of your game-playing!

What game-playing?

You can remember the name of a composer...

...and you don't know how the fire started?

It was just luck... a guess.

Good old Lady Luck!

What's got into you? What are you saying?

Don't look at me like that. I don't recognize you.

So don't recognize me. It's better that way.

Once the estate is settled, you'll regain your memory...

...and 'bye 'bye Jeanne... tossed out with the garbage, right?

What estate?

You know very well!

I don't know anything.... You know that!

Do you take me for an idiot?

You know very well who your aunt was.

You know what she's leaving you.

These... it's the Raffermi factories that make them.

The Raffermi boutiques that sell them.

Your factories! Your boutiques!

You know nothing, eh?

And on your birthday...

...how many billion lira will be yours?

- You still don't know? - I know nothing.

I know nothing.

You're an imbecile!

Why would I play games? What good would it do me?

I want to know! I want to know!

I want to know...

I want to know...

I want to know...

Someone will hear us... Shut up! Shut up!

Shut up, I didn't mean it.

I'm a nervous wreck, I'm not sleeping, Please calm down.

There, there, that's all...!

- I want to know! - I'm sorry for what I said!

There, there, my sweet!

It's alright... She's just not feeling well.

So just get the hell out!

There's something that's being hidden from me.

Something that no one here will tell me.

I'll have to find out what it is by myself.

I need to get out of here.

Can you take me to Paris?

If you'd said Peking, I'd have hesitated, but 40 k is possible.

Whereabouts in Paris do you want to go?

Can I help you, Miss?

This model doesn't suit you?

You don't like it?

Mr Francois...?

A foreign customer.

Leave us, Mrs Georges.

I almost didn't recognize you.

With your hair like that...