I Murder Seriously (Asesino en serio)

ONE EVENING, A TRAIN

The flower of summer lasts until autumn

is pruned in the winter and is reborn in spring.

Love which blossoms from summer to autumn

fades and stiffens in the white winter frosts.

Love which blossoms from summer to autumn

fades and stiffens in the white winter frosts.

...and Mathias, she thought it was so funny...

when you came every day at 2 o'clock for your spicecake

You were only 5 years old

and you crossed the street all by yourself.

You never caused us any trouble, that's true, never,

except one day, when you refused to come to the cinema with me.

You said...

I won't go to the cinema with her!

I had my hat on. I took it off.

I never forgot that, Mathias.

You were 10 years old, and you were ashamed of me.

But no!

Yes, yes! You didn't like my hat.

But, I forgave you long ago.

You know, I've never done wrong to anyone.

Mathias, have you asked little Louis to look after the grave during Holy Week.

Yes, I did, don't worry.

And did you choose the two pots of chrysanthenums?

They are very beautiful.

How much do I owe you?

Nothing.

Ah! You won't forget? Because I... Here, this is for Anne.

Tell her that I'm waiting to see her.

You still have no children!

No.

I think I showed last week, by way of example,

how diverse are the meanings of the Symbol

even if we limit its usage to the purely linguistic sphere.

But, it is now thought, in certain circles,

that the exact sciences themselves

can be used to establish linguistic axioms

and help make important advances

in organizing a coherent view of universal phenomena.

For my part, I think that this attitude,

is quasi-religious, almost mystical,

and can only prejudice the rational certainties

obtained through linguistics - after much labour - by Saussure.

I remark that this evening I have been invited to a nearby university

to present a summary of this research

and to defend the position which I have just mentioned.

Pardon...

I'm very sorry. I'm astonished to see so few here!

It looks like your Flemish colleagues are on strike this afternoon.

I understand their reactions against the ecclesiastical authorities

in this affair, but I am more concerned

about their position regarding their francophone colleagues.

Otherwise I support them wholeheartedly.

Well, I am most happy to discuss linguistic matters.

Gentlemen, till next time!

...here's my translation, can you read it?

God says...where art thou, my death, thou who spares nobody?

Come forth, listen to my orders!

Hmm, it would be better to say first

GOD orders...and then afterwards Where are YOU, my death?

Because during the Middle Ages YOU had the same meaning as it does now.

I understand.

And Everyman, each man? All man? No, Everyman is better.

Then, go and seek out Everyman and tell him to make that pilgrimage

from which no-one ever returns, and that he should render me his account without delay.

In fact "rekeningen doen", that is, "give a reckoning", is a lot more immediate to me.

Actually Death doesn't have very much to say, and he says it with very few words.

Everyman, you can suddenly lose what you thought was always yours.

A pilgrimage from which no-one ever returns.

Bring your account, your writings, drafted with most careful attention.

For which I am, of course, ill-prepared. Render your account to God. Why?

Who are you, messenger?

I am Death who spares nobody.

Well, it is not too bad!

Should I keep the archaisms?

No, translate them into 15'th century French, if possible.

But retain the biblical forms.

We'll talk about it again tomorrow.

Thankyou, Monsieur.

See you then, Ilza.

Now, Bremen, are you going to demonstrate?

Demonstrate? It's not so simple!

In my opinion we ought to show solidarity with the students.

Is it solidarity, to persecute a minority?

Apartheid, racism, wait, doesn't that remind you of something?

That's easily said!

It's even more easily done!

Hello, are the actors still rehearsing?

No, thanks don't bother.

Goodbye!

Where are you, my death,

who spares no-one?

I follow your orders, Almighty God.

Go say to Everyman

that he must make a pilgrimage

and that he must render his account to me without delay.

These are my orders.

Everyman, where are you going?.

Have you forgotten God?

Why do you ask me that?

Thank you Franz, thank you Henrik.

You see Anne, it's impossible like that.

Henrik is wrapped in his cloak.

He has no free hand, and he's isolated.

Again!

I shall reign on earth...

That's the traditional representation of Death during the Middle Ages.

It has an absolute symbolic force.

Although, in Mathias' adaptation, death is one among 1001 other things which can occur.

It is one event among many others.

It is a force which Everyman can master.

It is like a public figure,

like virtue, like confession.

Even so, we can't change this Death, Werner.

It is a fiction rooted forever in the past.

It's like Christ.

He is neither Dracula nor Nosferatu, but a disquieting figure.

Imagine a kind of plastic material or a sort of silvery material,

a figure shining softly in the darkness.

Are there batteries in his belt?

Oh, you're crazy, I'll never be able to do that by tomorrow.

The stagehands have aready been working all night.

You're a genius, you'll certainly find a way.

00:11:8,960 --> 00:11:9,560 Anne!

Hey!

What are you doing here?

I finished early.

The students were demonstrating this afternoon.

Were you there?

No.

I have to work all night, you won't be there?

My train leaves this evening, the conference begins at 8.30am

I'll be thinking of you.

I have to invent a new Death.

Will he be thin?

Hard.

Cold.

Little death.

When?

Without delay.

And, say, how is it going with Werner?

Mathias, what are you doing here?

I think we've discovered something.

Look. Everyman doesn't talk to Death, he talks above Death.

As if he was invisible.

Consequently we have a great monologue of Everyman with Everyman.

Obviously. The whole play is a monologue.

Everyman knows that he is talking to himself.

Therefore he is stronger than Death, stronger than God.

Because he agrees to play the game.

But he is alone.

So, his dialogue with Death is that veil between the self and the not-self.

Do you see?

Yeah.

The veil between the self and the not-self

Render account to God? Useless.

Who are you, messenger?

I am Death

who spares no-one.

You know, I've come to realize

that a person can be so taken up with another,

that they can't ever see themselves.

It's like death, the anguish of death.

Well, in the meantime I need to re-think the play,

look for material in the archives,

and get it all ready at the theatre before 10.00am

Oh! Who's been playing with this?

And you know, we'll never be finished before the afternoon. I'm sure of that.

Yes. I want to follow up this again.

What?

I said, I want to follow up this idea.

Bernard thought the interview with Freddy was very good.

Do you know that Freddy taped it for at least 2 hours?

Anyway, half of it can be thrown out.

Can you give me a suggestion for the costumes at the end, Mathias?

I can't imagine it clearly.

Of course, my dear.

One for the self...one for the not-self...

You want napkins?

Yes.

We don't have to have white ones!

You know Werner, he'll make a fuss!

It's too bright here, don't you think?

Try it. You'll see.

Montrachet '61.

To the angel!

The angel spreads its wings and says

I pluck the soul out from the body.

Its substance is pure and light

I bear it skyward into the blue,

there where we will all be reunited.

You don't believe it?

They are the most beautiful lines in the whole play.

I find them admirable.

What don't you like about them?

Angels have no sex.

And no clothes either!

I spent the whole night thinking about it.

And to clothe Death who hides his anguish