Brancusi from Eternity (Brâncusi din eternitate)

Elaine.

You know what you deserve?

Wrong!

- Try this, just once. - No.

...right hand! You're mine with the right hand!

- They are a little tipsy. - Even drunk.

Forget about him, check out them two.

I... when I'm so kind as to...

to invite a little tart to join me...

She shouldn't dare say 'no' to me... understand?

- Dear sir... - Yes... shortie?

I see that you are the strongest man here...

My friend, the great painter, Amedeo Modigliani,

Have you heard of him?

Well, no worries...

He sold a painting today for a lot of money...

He placed a bet that you're stronger than me... on 500 francs.

If you win, you take half!

Well then...?

Come on, break his arm!

Come on, Constantin!

- Come on! - Go, go, go!

I thought we had a gentleman's agreement! Was I wrong?

Milarepa...

Answer her, master, we beg you, it will be a joy to hear your conversation...

Or, rather, your answers, oh enlightened one...

I am here with you, have faith.

Cast your fears aside!

Otherwise your transition will be difficult.

Your transition has begun...

Think and look with your mind wide open.

Go... go, Jeannot.

I'm better now.

There is no division between our worlds...

A spider's web could not pass between them without our knowing.

- You're telling me the truth, aren't you? - Yes, of course.

I want to be alone, please leave.

And what about him? Is there something I should tell him?

No, thank you, Jeannot.

When I'm back on my feet again, I'll pay him a visit.

He needn't know, he'd only worry.

Now, go!

Yes...

Yes, of course...

No problem if you can't make it.

It's not a big gathering, just a committee meeting.

Well, Mr Sadoveanu... comrade Sadoveanu, I'm sorry, comrade Calinescu...

Yes, I'll close up here, same as usual...

Wait a second!

Ok. See you tomorrow at 11. Goodbye.

- What are you doing? - I want to see if it reacts.

- And what's the verdict? - Not bad at all!

Today a man posed for us, first in a Roman toga, then nude...

It really turned me on...

I missed class and you get, turned on by everybody!

I got turned on thinking about you. Yours is more... beautiful.

- What's wrong? - I don't want people to hear us.

We have no need for this... ...decadent art...

So, this Brancusi can donate his worthless objects to anyone he chooses!

Wait a minute...

- They're rejecting Brancusi! - Who cares? Don't stop now!

The decadence of his sculpture has nothing to do with true art,

with Soviet monumental art!

More to the point, he's not creative...

he doesn't adhere to an essential means of expression...

Hah, I think that was Calinescu... Those damned fools!

For the record: The will and testament of comrade Brancusi Constantin,

in which the undersigned describes his intention, upon his death,

to leave his studio in Paris and its contents to the Academy of the People's Republic of Romania

is hereby rejected...

The honorary council does not consider...

The Romanian Academy is full of bullshit and incompetence... idiots!

Can you believe this?

All I believe is that you didn't do a proper job... on me...

I'll send you to do some patriotic work...

...to the labour camp, maybe, to work to the Black Sea Channel...

...my channel...

It's so simple... just like when a child is born and screams its heart out...

It passes from one side to the other... That's all there is to it.

I'm waiting for you here. We'll have a lot to talk about...

- But I want to talk to you now! - Don't you all?

You cling to your last dying moments and want to tell me your life stories...

But it's not about me, I want to talk about him, about Constantin.

- I've never heard of this happening before... - I know!

Talking about someone else... In these moments...

Please, we'd all like to hear what she has to say... Don't stop.

I have something else to do now! What about you? Aren't you bored?

You have the most perfect curves...

A combination of spheres,

cylinders, truncated cones

and pyramids. Wonderful.

Superb.

A perfect creature.

Would you like a glass of wine?

Don't move!

Jeannot! Jeannot! Where are you, boy?

Buy me a bottle of wine, the same as yesterday...

Still here?

I have to look beyond. Beyond the shapes.

I realised I had met...

a strange and very special man...

He would have told me everything about himself, anything I'd asked...

...a woman who gets answers, knows what questions to ask.

He told me he never "hides behind his finger",

for lying is only for those who pretend to be something they are not...

He wants only to be who he is,

he doesn't want to be someone else.

Constantin...

do you think I'm going to the market with only these bowls?

Is that what you think?

What are we going to eat, how am I supposed to put bread on the table?

The Kiln is hot... By nightfall, I want to see the carriage full, you understand?

You and your stupid art!

It's my clay!

Constantin, I brought you something to eat.

Don't be upset...

Vasile only wants things to turn out for the best. Like all parents...

I don't care what Vasile wants!

And he's not my father, either, he should get rid of that idea...

One day I'll do the same to him!

With a heavy heart, he left the village to follow his calling,

He was always eager to learn,

he studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest.

Soon he realized that Paris was the only city where he could fulfill his calling, as an artist.

He decided to travel all the way to Paris on foot, over 2,500 kilometres...

He wanted to get Amedeo off drugs.

But in a different way... like saving someone from drowning;

Not by dragging someone out of the water

but by throwing himself into the water,

and then lifting him up...

So he chose to do drugs and get drunk together with him,

to seek the ecstasy and deceptive depths of Hashish.

He only held out a couple of weeks as one of Rodin's pupils...

Then he left and followed his own path...

He wasn't attracted to the academic forms of his master.

His drawings, which he showed to no one, had something very special...

the forms he came up with... and his calculations...

seem to come from outer space... from another world...

Jeannot, my boy!

Here you go.

Close your eyes!

Go on, go, go, go!

Come in!

Here's a letter for you.

Pay attention, it's hot!

- Is it good? - Yes.

- May I...? - Of course.

Here you go. Wait a second.

Thank you.

Come in.

Come here Jeanott.

What is it?

No, no... don't tickle me!

Martha...

You're the best model there is.

- You look wonderful... - Stop it!

I'd like you to pose for me.

Martha, pose for me!

Take your clothes off for me now!

Modi, if you don't stop right now, I'll wake him up!

Modi! Modi, come on, let's go.

First, pay the debt.

The painting remains here!

We have payed the debt!

What are you doing? Have you gone mad?

What are you doing?

I'm destroying the narcotics of old, academic art,

they stop me from flying...

This is how you must deal with drugs! All drugs!

That's what you should do too... those drugs destroyed your life...

We are in Paris, Mod...

Paris, the capital of modern art.

We must create...

we must make true art...

If I wanted academic art I'd still be in Bucharest:

They offered me the professor's daughter on a plate.

In a few years I would have been member of the academy and rich guy.

But that's not what I wanted!

If you kill yourself,

no one will have the slightest idea about what you were trying to say with your paintings!

Wouldn't you like us to do an exhibition together?

Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Modigliani and Brancusi. Imagine it!

Milarepa?

Yes, a Tibetan sage and poet...

He lived long before our time, but his thoughts are just as valid today...

In the East they say happiness comes to you when you least expect it,

just when your mind desires nothing in particular...

and, as a result, your thinking becomes absolute...

you are happy when you are free...

And you can be freer than even a king or an emperor could ever be...

if you succeed to dettach yourself from the desires of the flesh.

Should I believe you?

He spoke very kindly to you.

Oh Enlightened one, tell us what it is you are thinking of, right now.

I see something green, something fresh and joyful...

There was a time in my life...

- Like Constantin? - Yes, I believe so...

He spoke about happiness, for he did not posses it then...

but he was preparing to embrace it...

I too thought after a few years of solitary meditation,