The Laughing Woman (Femina Ridens)

You really hurt me this time.

All right. See you next Friday, same time, same place.

It's unheard of. Something like this hasn't happened in years.

I'm sorry but the decision of the Executive Committee hasn't been in your favour.

But...

Didn't they consider my diligence?

In a year, I could repay the amount I've withdrawn.

It's not a question of reimbursing what you've embezzled.

It's a matter of principle. A philanthropic foundation doesn't need...

a manager who's just pocketed $100,000.

You surely know that.

I wonder, sir, if I could lodge an appeal to the Board.

The decision of the Executive Committee is irrevocable.

You should be grateful that the matter won't be taken to court.

We don't want scandals.

I thought highly of you.

No, I really can't tonight.

Yes, we agreed but I really can't this once.

I'm so sorry for leaving you in the lurch at the last minute.

Hold on, will you?

But, darling, it's not my fault. It's just...

I don't feel well.

Yes, all of a sudden.

It's my liver. That's what it is.

Where am I?

At the doctor's. You know I'd never lie to you.

Oh, no. Of course it's not a money matter.

I don't feel well. I've a fever and I've got a high temperature.

I can't...

Let's put it off until next Friday.

I'd like to speak to the director.

- Miss Ergstrom is here. - Who?

- Miss Ergstrom, from the press office. - Let her in.

He'll see you now.

Ergstrom.

A Swedish surname, isn't it?

- I'm always forgetting it. - I've only been working here a month.

Tell me.

I'm sorry to bother you

but I need more material for my bulletin on male sterilisation in India.

I need trade publications.

I'd gladly give them to you, but I've got them at home.

- I can drop by and get them. - There's no hurry. I'll bring them Monday.

I hate to insist but I was hoping to get the article completed over the weekend.

You've a very odd way of spending your weekends.

I seem to concentrate more on weekends.

I can shut myself off from people and not be distracted.

Are you personally for or against sterilisation?

I'm all for it. A man who already has two or three children

can be perfectly sterilised.

Why should the women always be the ones to take precautions?

The pill is harmless. The sterilisation means permanent incapacity.

It's a monstrous barbarity.

I agree that the great increase in population must be curbed.

But only by means that don't lessen man's potential.

Like, through modern educational programs.

Through... a repeated appeal to responsibility.

Publication and diffusion of various methods.

And if that isn't enough, through the use of the pill.

It is essential that the fertility of the man

should remain absolutely intact.

- Is that clear? - My personal opinion apart,

I'll write a report to your satisfaction.

- I sincerely hope so. - May I come for those publications?

Alright, do come.

The address is rather hard to find. I'll expect you at 8.30.

Thank you. Goodbye.

I can't understand their meaning, but they're charmingly decorative.

They were painted by a missionary. He copied the microscopic slides

of various types of bacteria and protozoa.

Bubonic plague.

Leprosy.

Typhus.

Cholera.

Carbuncles. Tetanus.

Diphtheria. Rabies.

What's this one?

Trypanosoma gambiense.

It causes the sleeping sickness.

It's the one I like the best.

Would you like a whisky?

No ice.

- Do you like my little collection? - Yes, it's very interesting.

I've never thought you had such a hobby.

After all, we don't know each other well.

The only thing I know about you is

that you're a pretty and very enthusiastic journalist.

I know a little more about you.

You're a philanthropist, a bachelor,

and you've a very impressive collection of daggers.

They're nothing special. The valuables are few.

This one, for instance.

A Florentine work, 15th century.

Apparently, it belonged to Giuliano de' Medici.

It has an inside groove, for poison.

Please, untie me.

Why? From an aesthetic point of view,

your position is perfect.

You shape a long, sinuous line

against the grid's straight bars.

Very feminine.

You are mad.

No, darling.

I'm not mad.

You are.

You and all the other women.

You want to rule the world. You're making yourselves self-sufficient.

Socially and sexually self-sufficient.

Do you realise what you're saying? Enough of this buffoonery.

There are specialised units

where the sperm of the most intelligent men is frozen.

So that in 10, 20,

or 50 years, a woman can pick the child she wants.

Blond or dark.

Blue-eyed or brown-eyed. Athletic or intellectual.

Football fan or music lover.

What does it matter if the father's dead?

What does it matter if there are other living men

and sexually useful?

It doesn't matter at all.

Woman won't need them.

She'll only need a tube of sperm to be chosen from a rack,

like an aperitif or a tonic.

Please, I beg you, let me go. Come to your senses.

And you won't even have the unpleasantness of seeing

your beautiful belly distorted by pregnancy.

Four weeks after fertilisation,

you'll deposit the unripe fruit in a special incubator.

Please.

Stop it.

Female rabbits have already learnt how to reproduce by parthenogenesis.

All on their own.

Without any help from the male.

They breed exclusively female offspring.

And you, women, will learn to reproduce like that.

Giving birth to females only. A world populated by females alone.

The tranquillising influence of the full moon at the moment of birth

channels the onanistic instinct toward extroversion.

Gemini with Mercury on ascendant will accentuate masochism and sadism.

Those born in the early morning, will have a tendency towards masochism

with sublimation of sadistic urge.

Cancer with the Moon on ascendant gives rise to necrophilia.

However, it'll never be put into practise

and it will be replaced by scopophilia.

Lion with the Sun on ascendant is responsible for pederasty

as a never-accomplished taste,

and for sodomy which is instead widely practised at an adult age.

If the Moon was in the first quarter at the time of birth,

these tendencies will be manifested in a rather mild way.

You've been listening to: "Sexual Aberrations and the Stars"

You have to make love with him and prove that you enjoy it.

Use all your femininity.

Hold him. Hold still.

Hug him.

Come on, hold him tight.

Kiss him.

On the mouth. On the mouth.

More heatedly.

More heatedly, I said.

Are you deaf?

Very gently, mind you. With a touch of gracefulness.

Especially between the toes.

Pay a very special attention.

Good girl. Now, further up.

Ankles take more energy.

Energy. Haven't you any strength in your arms?

That's better.

Now, the other foot.

Well done.

Obey my orders promptly and do everything with diligence.

You must be aware that you're my slave.

I can do with you whatever I want.

Even kill you, if I feel like it.

Understand?

Please, take me back to town. I swear I won't do anything against you.

No one will ever know what happened here.

I've done everything you wanted me to.

I can't stand it anymore. Let me go.

But why? Why me?

I'm not sexy. I'm just like other girls.

Why you? It happened by chance.

Nothing but chance.

You've replaced the victim I missed at the last moment.

The poor girl felt sick. A liver attack.

I needed a woman for the weekend

and I took advantage of the fact that you were there.

At an arm's reach.

You can drink it. There's no narcotic.

It's too soon to kill me, isn't it?

You had too little fun with me. It'd be a pity to waste me.

Eventually...

I've sworn that I wouldn't say a word. That I'll forget all this forever.

But, you don't want believe me.

I see. Why taking the risk?

It's so much simpler to kill me. And much more exciting.

It can't be the first time. This is just another of your amusing weekends.

How many women have you dragged here? Tortured and killed, then disposed of?

You may as well admit it, for all the difference it will make.

Talk. Say something.

At least have the courage to look me in the eye. Coward.