Hardcore Never Dies

In fact, people do everything wrong. Did you know that?

Everything. Totally wrong.

We were once just beasts: we ran across the fields of Africa...

climbing trees, jumping from rocks.

We were wild beasts and we still are.

At most, we are some smart monkeys who think they're a bit better than the rest.

Arrogant, capricious monkeys. Nothing more and nothing less.

And do you know what? What's crazy? What I often think about?

What did we do all day?

What all wild animals do: a little resting, a little fucking...

and occasionally getting off your butt to look for some food.

Now we are 3000 years further and what exactly have we achieved?

We built cities, flew rockets to the moon...

invented drugs against typhoid and built giant factories...

where we all spend fifty weeks working ourselves to death every year.

Fifty weeks of toil and then to go on holiday for two weeks.

Sometimes only ten days. Spain.

Or Turkey. Have you ever been to Turkey?

Beautiful. And cheap. That's almost impossible, man.

Those Turks there are very different than the Turks here, right?

Yes, they also know what they send this way.

Where was I? Oh, yes. We sit for two weeks there, after a year of toiling.

Just enjoying for two weeks.

Two weeks licking the tit of Mother Earth.

And what do we do when we're there?

Exactly. A little resting, a little fucking...

and occasionally getting off your butt to look for some food.

Get it? Do you see where I'm going?

Resting, fucking, eating.

We haven't made any progress at all.

In fact, we went backwards.

That's what we've been doing all along, but all year round.

From 52 weeks per year to two weeks per year.

I calculated it: that is just a 2000 percent decline.

You can check. Walking there in Alanya on the way to the beach...

in your slippers with your beach towel...

past a meadow where the mountain goats are eating grass.

Those animals laugh themselves to death, man.

They see us coming and think: what a bunch of complete morons they are.

All that work for nothing.

And didn't see them in those factories, right. No.

Just resting a little every day, a little fucking...

and occasionally getting off your butt to look for some food.

What does this have to do with the 2000 guilders that you were going to bring?

You know that I have a lot of respect for you.

That's why I came here myself.

I'm not hiding from anything. -What?

I tried last week to call you twenty times.

I almost came to look for you. - Mate, those mobile phones.

On TV, you see people laughing and calling...

...but half the time it doesn't work, and the other half you have no signal.

Even here, I have no signal at all. You can check.

What matters is that I'm here now. I just wanted to talk to you about this.

The past few weeks have been a bit crazy with some people I had to pay...

and a buddy of mine whose house burned down.

But Friday it's back on in the hall and I know that guy at the door.

I really want to do something, you know?

So if you could give me 500 pieces...

I'll pay you after the weekend for both... -Wait a minute.

So in addition to not being able to pay me, you want extra on loan now?

This is easy money for you, right?

Instead of me paying you those two now I'll pay you four after the weekend.

I do all the work, don't I? I take all the risks.

All you need to do is sit in the garden and tend the barbecue.

I'll help you out.

500 pieces for 3000.

What? Last week it was two... -Inflation.

Satay sauce has gotten more expensive.

Oi, lima ratus.

That's 5,000 next week. And don't try to screw me.

If you do, I'll shove that bald head of yours in your own ass...

with your mother there crying. Got it?

Understood?

Next week 5000. Don't worry. -I'm not worried.

You should be worried.

You have rough hands. You work?

In the tomato greenhouse.

Difficult to hear where you took lessons.

From your transitions, I can see that you started late, but put in many hours.

I play with Gerard Schouw.

Gerard Schouw... I did not know that he was still seriously teaching.

Do you know what it is about Beethoven?

It's not about the technique, as most people often think.

Beethoven is feeling.

Everything he wrote, came directly from his own life.

That is why it is almost impossible for young people to play it well.

Take a look at what Nietzsche wrote about him.

You were late today.

I had just cycled past that company that has the position you told me about.

And from there it was a longass way to here, so...

Was that Penders or Van Den Bergh?

Penders.

I know one of the foremen there, Henk.

I'll call him next week.

But was it anything?

What? -The company.

Good starting salary, bit of risk bonus, lots of holiday days.

You can start with five days in the morning shift.

After a while, buy a car, so you don't have to ride your bike.

You can of course also go back to school to finish your HAVO diploma.

You had the points for it.

I don't know yet.

Up too late with that piano? -No.

What are you going to do this weekend?

I don’t know yet.

Hans and Sander are coming to see a film at my place Friday night.

If you feel like it...

Hey, Michael. There's someone here looking for you.

Is it my dad? - Well, he doesn't look like it.

Shit, you've grown and all. I'll have to look out, I can see.

Is this yours? -Of course.

139 hp, 1800cc injection engine and 15-inch rims.

How's it going? -Yes, it's going fine.

Do you still play? -Sure.

Good.

And Mom? How's she doing? -She's good as well.

She's working two days a week again, so...

I got an apartment back here, on Monteverdilaan.

Good place, so you'll see me a bit more, I think.

But don't say anything about it to Mom, okay?

I need you to do something for me. Pretty important.

The last time I lived at home, I had a Nike shoe box in my room...

with all kinds of papers and stuff in it.

There's a folder in it with photos of a friend. She needs them now.

Those are important photos for him. Private photos, so don't look at them anyway.

Okay?

I'll see you then. -Sure.

So the whole thing went well.

Finger position, tempo.

Yes, everything. -And there were three people?

On the left was a woman with short black hair.

And then on the other side an old guy with a grey beard.

And then some slick guy in the middle in a suit.

Hofman. He's important.

And what did he say? -Nothing, really.

Okay.

That can also be good, of course.

I thought he was quite nice. -Yes? Well, you'll be surprised.

Not this one. Not this one as well.

Do you know what Nietzsche said about Beethoven?

Nietzsche? Not a clue.

I think it's important that we focus even more on your technique...

so that if you go through to that second round...

you're ready. -Okay.

Rotterdam Terror Corps. What a record, man.

It doesn't get any harder than this, man.

Where did I put that fucking lighter?

Just came out. What do you think?

Nice, right? Yes, that's different.

Here. Look out.

Turn that thing down, man.

Yeah.

Hey.

Another classic.

Come.

Did you find them? -Yes, here.

Nice. Great.

Thanks, mate.

Listen.

What are you doing Friday night? -Nothing yet.

Nine o'clock Maas tunnel. You're going with me. No bullshit.

Okay.

And put on a pair of sneakers.

Can I maybe leave an hour earlier today?

Yes, of course.

Everything okay?

Yeah, sure.

You know that Arie's been working here 18 years?

He's just like you. Started after the MAVO.

Advanced to shift leader.

If you keep your wits about you and just do what you have to do...

then you can have a great career here.

Yes, of course you can see that. When that modulation...

It just comes back. Also in the second piece.

It's a good question, really, but you should find out at home.

Okay. -Okay.

Thank you.

I found it.

What? -That quote from Nietzsche.

'At a certain place in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, for example...

he might feel that he is floating above the earth in a starry dome...

with the dream of immortality in his heart:

all the stars seem to glimmer around him...

and the earth seems to sink ever deeper downwards.'

Did you come all the way here to tell me this?

Do you get what he means? Any tomato picker can look up a quote.

Well, that at a given point in... -What it's about...

is that he transcends himself.

He's floating between heaven and earth. Do you get that?

That feeling is much more important than any technique.

Beethoven is the music at that time.

The moment he's floating between heaven and earth.

Where are you going?

I already told you that yesterday.

We're going with a couple guys to watch a movie at Nico's.

Take it easy with that tone of yours.

At least eat something before you go. -I'll eat something there.

Don't stay out too late. - Just leave him.

Tomorrow at nine o'clock we have to pick up the cake and decorations.

That's fine.