Woyzeck

In a small town, on a wide, still pond...

Slowly, Woyzeck. Slowly.

One thing at a time! You are making me dizzy.

What am I supposed to do with those extra ten minutes?

Woyzeck, you still have a good 30 years to live. 30 years.

That's 360 months

and days, hours, minutes.

What are you going to do with that awful amount of time?

- Spread it out, Woyzeck. - Yes, sir, Captain.

I start to fear for the world

when I think about eternity.

Occupation, Woyzeck, occupation!

Eternal. It's eternal.

It's forever. Isn't that so?

But then again it's not forever. And it's the blink of an eye!

The blink of an eye.

Woyzeck, it scares me to think the world revolves in one day.

What a waste of time. And where does it all lead?

Woyzeck, I can't see another mill wheel or I'll become melancholic.

Yes, sir, Captain.

Woyzeck, you always have that hunted look in your eye.

A good man doesn't have that.

A good man who has a clear conscience.

Say something!

How's the weather today?

Bad, Captain.

Bad.

- Windy. - Yes, I feel it already.

There's a real wind out there.

I think it's coming from the south-north.

Yes, sir, Captain.

South-north.

Oh, you are dumb. So incredibly dumb!

Woyzeck, you are a good person.

But, Woyzeck, you have no morals.

Morals. That means...

...being moral, understand?

It's a good word.

You have a child without the church's blessing.

As our honorable chaplain puts it,

"Without the church's blessing."

Captain, sir,

God won't mind if nobody said amen before the little bundle was made.

The Lord said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me."

What kind of an answer is that?

Are you trying to confuse me? When I say you, I mean you, you!

Us poor people, you see, Captain.

Money, money.

A penniless man has no use for morals in this world.

We're only flesh and blood.

It's our lot to suffer, in this world and the next.

If we ever got to heaven, they'd make us work the thunder.

Woyzeck, you have no virtue. You're not a virtuous man.

Flesh and blood.

When I look out the window after it's rained

and watch those white stockings gallivanting along...

Damn, Woyzeck, love's coming over me.

I'm also made of flesh and blood. But the virtue, the virtue!

How should I spend my days? I always say to myself

you are a virtuous man, a good man.

A good man.

Yes, sir, Captain.

Virtue...

You see, common people like us don't have virtue.

We do what comes naturally.

Yes, if I were a gentleman with a hat and a watch,

I'd like to be virtuous.

It must be a fine thing, that virtue, Captain.

Good, Woyzeck.

You are a good man, a good man, but you think too much

and that wears on you. You always look so hunted.

Our little talk has taken it out of me.

Go now.

And don't run! Slowly! Nice and slow down the street.

Yes, Andres, the place is cursed.

See that streak of light?

That's where the heads roll at night.

Two little rabbits there did sit

Nibbling the green, green grass

Quiet.

Andres...

Hear that?

It's coming.

Nibbling the green, green...

It's coming up behind me.

Beneath me.

Hollow. Hear that? It's all hollow.

I'm scared.

It is a strange silence. You want to hold your breath.

Andres!

What?

Say something!

How it rises over the town...

- Run! Don't look back. - OK.

Woyzeck...

...can you still hear it?

Silence.

All is silent.

As if the world was dead.

We have to get away!

- You hear that? - Look, here they come.

What a man! Like a tree.

He stands on his feet like a lion.

Well, that was a friendly eye you gave him, neighbor.

You rarely see that in her.

Soldiers, those are handsome men.

Your eyes are still shining.

So what? Take your eyes to the Jew and have them polished.

You might be able to sell them for buttons.

Well, hear, hear! Miss Motherhood! I'm an honorable person.

But you could see your way through leather pants!

Bitch! Come on, boy. What do people want?

You're only the son of a whore

and your dishonest face fills your mother with joy.

Who's there?

Is that you, Franz?

Come in.

I can't. Got roll call.

Been out cutting wood for the Captain?

Yes, Marie.

What's the matter, Franz? You look upset.

Marie, it was there again. There's not much written about it.

"The smoke arose from the land like smoke from an oven."

It followed me all the way to town. What's going to happen?

Franz!

Tonight I have to go to mass. I saved up a little bit again.

That man! So haunted.

He didn't look at his child.

He might go crazy with these thoughts.

Why so silent, boy? Are you frightened?

What do you call this, Woyzeck? You! A man of your word!

You!

You.

- What do you mean, Doctor? - I saw it, Woyzeck.

I saw you pissing in the street, against the wall like a dog!

And that with three groschen a day plus board!

Woyzeck, that is bad.

The world is going bad, very bad.

But sir, the call of nature...

Call of nature? Call of nature? Superstition, sheer superstition!

Nature.

Woyzeck,

haven't I shown that the musculus constrictor vesicae

is subject to the will?

Nature?

Woyzeck, mankind is free.

Couldn't hold your water.

That's betrayal, Woyzeck!

Have you had your peas, Woyzeck? Nothing but peas, remember!

Next week we'll start with mutton.

This is going to revolutionize science.

Uric acid, zero point one, ammonium hydrochlorate, hyperoxide.

Woyzeck.

Don't you have to piss again?

Why don't you go in there and try it.

I can't, Doctor.

But you can against a wall! I saw it with my own two eyes!

I had my nose out the window to observe the phenomenon of the sneeze!

No, Woyzeck, I will not get angry.

Anger is unhealthy, unscientific.

I am calm.

Perfectly calm.

My pulse is at its usual 60.

And I say this with the utmost calm.

Who would want to get angry about a mere human being?

If it had been one of my test animals that had died...

But Woyzeck, you shouldn't have pissed against that wall.

You see, Doctor.

Sometimes, one has such

a character or make-up.

Nature, that is so...

Like, for example...

Woyzeck, you're philosophizing again.

Have you ever seen nature inside out, Doctor?

When the sun stands still at noon as if the world were on fire,

that's when a terrible voice spoke to me.

Woyzeck, you had an aberration.

But nature, Doctor, when nature is out...

What do you mean, when nature is out?

When nature is out is when nature is out.

That's when the world gets so dark

that you have to feel your way around with your hands

and it dissolves like a spider's web.

When something is and yet isn't.

When all goes dark

and there's only red in the west, like the glow of a furnace.

- When... - Man...

You're feeling your way with your feet like a spider!

The toadstools.

Doctor...

...the toadstools.

Did you ever notice how they grow in patterns on the ground?

If one could read that...

Woyzeck, you have the most wonderful aberratio mentalis partialis.

The second kind. Beautifully developed.

Woyzeck,

I shall give you a rise.

Second order. Fixed idea, with non-impairment of faculties.

Still shaving your Captain as usual?

Yes, sir.