Therese (Thérèse Desqueyroux)

Your father's here.

Case dismissed!

Tomorrow I'll have the official notice.

- There won't be any suprises? - No, don't worry, it's over.

After my son-in-law's testimony, it was all settled.

Settled - well... you know, Larroque, the victim's testimony...

There was no victim.

I meant, victim of his own imprudence, madam.

You should have your say in the Sunday paper...

No. There's nothing to respond to.

It's perfectly clear the case was slapped together.

Thank God we control the editor of the Conservator.

That story about the girls...

Silence, concealment, that's what's best.

I'll do whatever I have to, I'll meet their price,

but for the family's sake, we have to cover all that up.

It's time.

You've caused this family enough harm.

Free. What more could I wish for?

What will Bernard's first words be, he whose testimony saved me?

What confession do I start with?

How do they get by, all those who know their crime?

I never wanted to commit the one I'm charged with.

I've never known where I would be led...

by this deranged power inside of me... and outside of me.

Do I have to go back as far as my teenage years?

Anne...

I'd need to tell Bernard about her first.

To see things from the very beginning.

But where do our actions really begin?

Argelouse is at the end of the earth.

Beyond Argelouse, until the ocean, there's nothing except

80km of swamps, lagoons, and thin pines.

The Landes.

Bernard Desqueyroux had inherited the house next to ours from his father.

As soon as the holidays started, I spent my long days here,

in the care of an old deaf woman. Aunt Clara.

I hated that game Anne indulged in, innocent and happy.

But I stayed, unsatiated by her presence.

Was I ever so happy, or so honest?

I was pure, pure as an angel. But an angel full of passion.

To be as pure as Anne, brought up in the convent,

I didn't need all those ribbons, all those refrains.

Her purity was still largely down to ignorance.

The ladies of the Sacré-Coeur placed 1000 veils

between reality and their daughters.

Are you coming tomorrow?

Oh, no. Not everyday.

I'd end up getting ill.

Well there's no obligation, just do what your heart says.

Will you put this back in its place?

- Do you want the birds? - No, keep them.

Well go on then!

- Is it empty? - Of course.

It's a shame you don't want to hunt. It's such fun.

Therese! Don't go far, we're about to dish up!

Bernard, Bernard.

How can I let you into this confused world of mine?

You who belong to the blind, implacably simple race.

You can't say Therese is pretty, but it doesn't seem to matter.

Her charm always comes through.

The richest girl in Landes doesn't need to be pretty.

Unfortunately she always has a cigarette in her mouth.

But she has a very upright nature. Honest as gold.

It won't take long to bring her back to sound ideas.

It's not exactly a marriage made in heaven.

Her father. Larroque has his flaws, but he's well-connected.

The thing that worries me most about Therese is her intelligence.

I'm worried that with her, your Bernard might...

Take Anne, for example, she's so much more delicate.

But you're her father, not Bernard's... you're prejudiced!

I don't see the difference between my own two children.

Anyway, Bernard will soon finish his studies in Paris.

Don't forget, a husband must be more educated than his wife.

That's what my poor husband used to say.

Your poor husband... that's me now.

Not that poor. You know what you spent on the horses this winter?

Sometimes I wonder if I was wrong to remarry.

Bernard doesn't write often... to Therese I mean.

It's sentimental, isn't it.

He'll wait a bit longer, but you know Therese.

She wants him so badly.

I wanted to marry him, yes.

Maybe firstly to have the joy of becoming Anne's sister-in-law.

There was Anne.

But really, why be ashamed?

Bernard's 2000 hectares didn't leave me cold.

Doubtless his domination of such a forest seduced me.

Maybe I was also obeying a deeper hidden feeling,

and sought in marriage not domination, or possession, but refuge.

Careful with your cigarette Therese.

It could catch fire, and there's barely any water in the Landes.

Is it true that ferns contain prussic acid?

Hydrocyanic acid, yes, apparently so. But in minuscule quantities.

Not enough to poison yourself?

Do you want to die?

Still a few bad ideas in there...

So destroy them, Bernard.

I never felt closer to peace... or what I thought peace was.

It was just half-sleep, the drowsiness before waking.

That stifling wedding day.

It was that morning I first felt lost.

Where are you off to?

Paris!

The wedding night. It was horrible.

Well no. Not that horrible.

When we look at a landscape at night we imagine what it was like by day.

That was how I discovered love.

I played dead.

Well!

Do you know what mother's writing about? Anne.

She's infatuated with that Azevedo boy.

You know, that sickly chap. It sounds serious.

You've got three letters from her, we'll soon find out.

I want to read them in order.

And I won't show you them.

Oh, you make everything complicated.

Let's hope the Deguilhems don't know.

Their young lad might get cold feet.

She said she'd hold out until she's 18.

You need to make Anne see some sense.

My parents are counting on you.

You're a big influence on her.

It's true.

It's time we went home.

I'll send a telegram, and book two seats on the Southern Express.

Are you doing this on purpose?

What are you waiting for to read those letters?

For you to be gone!

When I met him I couldn't believe it was him.

He was running with the dog, and shouting.

I'm sure he's not prone to illness - just being careful.

You wouldn't recognise him.

I fetch him his jacket when it gets cold.

You remember the hunting lookout?

You picked out the spots where I was to feel such joy.

Darling, forgive me, I'm talking about happiness as if you'd never known it.

She's known such joy.

And what about me?

It's all sorted, we leave tomorrow.

For our final lunch, cost be damned, I'm taking you up the Eiffel tower!

What's wrong? Not eating?

It would be a shame to leave any behind, at this price.

I was thinking about little Anne.

Funny, I'd all but forgotten about it...

since you've taken the matter into hand.

I was wondering why your parents are against the marriage.

The Azevedos are worth more than the Deguilhems.

You know they're Jewish, mother knew the old Azevedo man.

He refused to baptise his children.

The more I think about it, the less I understand.

Even from your point of view.

Because you know, there's no-one in Bordeaux older...

than those Jewish Portuguese families.

The Azevedos were already way ahead when our miserable shepherd ancestors...

were shivering with fever on the edge of their swamps.

Therese, don't argue just for the fun of it...

All Jews think highly of themselves.

They're a family of ill-breeding and disease.

And what did your grandfather die of? And Aunt Clara. Have you seen her?

You're going too far Therese.

You shouldn't joke about our families.

Our families don't care about what they don't see, or know.

They're experts at covering things up, hiding their dirty secrets.

Without the servants we'd never know anything. Luckily we have them.

I'm not answering.

When you get going, it's best to let you finish.

But at home, it won't be put up with.

No more jokes about the family history.

Therese, don't make that face. If you could see yourself.

I was laughing. How silly you are, my darling.

To think of what strangers see... what shame!.

And that's how they'll judge us.

I admired that this prudish man was the same one

whose patient nocturnal inventions I had to suffer.

That foolish girl, thinking happiness existed.

She needed to know, like me, that it doesn't.

Even if we had nothing else in common, we should at least have that: solitude.

And certainly not love. Not love, for Anne. Not love.

Would Bernard follow up to this point?

When I reached this parade I'm in now, I'd have to recall for him

those first few weeks spent at Saint-Clair... in my new family.

Do please make an effort!

And you Therese, eat up! In your state you need to eat.

Pay no attention to her. I'd like to coddle her but she won't have it.

In her state, the nausea... it's understandable.

I remember when I was pregnant with you, I had to sniff a rubber ball.

It was the only way to settle my stomach!

What's the matter with them?

That's it: Anne's got to leave for Biarritz, to stay with my sister.

As for that Azevedo, Therese will know how to talk some sense into him.

Therese, where are you?

Here, on the bench.

Hold me, Therese.

Are you unhappy, my dear?

No, not tonight.

I know that one way or another, I'll be with him.

What's important is that he knows it too.

And you're going to tell him.

I've decided on this trip. When I get back I'll be with Jean.