Sundays and Cybele (Les dimanches de Ville d'Avray)

This movie received two awards at the Venice Film Festival in 1962

The Special Jury Award and the Maschere Award (International Critics)

SUNDAYS AND CYBÈLE

Let go of me, please!

I don’t want to go there! Take me back to Granny. I’ll be good.

That’ll do now, be quiet. Will you?

I don’t want to go there!

Come along. Are you going to come along?

Excuse me, sir, can you direct me to the Convent of St. Margaret?

Yes, St. Margaret’s School... Don’t you know where it is?

No... This is the Ville d’Avray.

Certainly, I know that! But it’s at Ville d’Avray.

Come, we’ll ask someone from round here.

No, Papa, I don’t want to go there.

Now listen, I’ve already explained to you. It’s very nice.

You’re going to have little friends. And then everyone will be kind to you there.

And then on Sunday I’ll come and see you, and then if you’re very good...

...at Christmas I’ll give you a very nice present, you know that doll...

- Why is she crying? - It’s nothing, it will pass.

She mustn’t cry.

Excuse me, sir, I know what I have to do.

Come along now, that’s enough!

She mustn’t cry.

Sir!

Take one.

Take one of them.

It’s the piece of a star.

It fell from the sky.

No, thanks.

I can’t.

But it was just a joke.

It’s water.

Only water.

Excuse me, sir. Come.

Is she the little new girl? You’re bringing her very late, sir.

- Forgive me, Sister, I couldn’t... - Are you a relation of the child?

I’m her father.

Come, my child. I’ll take you to our Mother Superior.

You heard?

Come, my child. It’s very late.

You’ll come back, won’t you?

You’ll come back on Sunday?

Above all, be good. You’re a big girl now.

Goodbye, Sister.

Slam the gate, it’s very heavy.

Hey. Sir.

Sir!

Why, I thought you had gone.

Did you see a man who was running?

When? Here, just now? A fellow in a raincoat?

Another nut case was taking his ticket when the train’s just leaving.

"You’ll wait for the next," I tell him.

"Out of the question, out of the question! My plane goes in an hour.

I can’t miss it, if I miss it, it will be terrible, terrible."

Second platform.

And he thrusts his ticket under my nose.

"It’s okay today, but I won’t let you do this next time."

"No danger of that, I’m leaving forever," he says to me.

Forever?

But, in fact... Do you know him?

He has gone... forever.

Ruined... What does that mean, a ruined life?

A life in which one hasn’t done what one wanted to...

...in which one has had bad luck.

A life like mine.

Pierre.

Why do you say that?

Aren’t you happy with me?

I’m nothing.

I’m nothing anymore.

Pierre, you’re not being reasonable!

Listen...

Only a year ago you couldn’t even go out alone in the street.

You were still having those horrible headaches.

Now you’re a man again.

- My man! - Now! I walk about, I wait.

I walk about and I wait!

And my memory doesn’t come back.

Fortunately, there are the trees.

In the evenings, I go to the station...

...and I wait for you.

I’m unhappy, Madeleine.

I still don’t know who I am.

And you...

...perhaps you know.

- And you don’t want to tell me. - Pierre, darling, don’t be unkind.

You know quite well you shouldn’t look backwards.

- You know the doctor told you so. - The doctor.

- The doctor’s not inside my head! - Pierre.

What happened today?

Nothing, nothing. I was at the station and then...

That’s all.

Quite sure?

Ask the guard. He’ll tell you.

I believe you.

You’d better get undressed now, my darling.

Do you still love me a bit?

Yes.

Yes. We’ve started on the cage for the birds.

Another Sunday I’m going to spend without you.

To think it’s going on for six weeks.

Do you remember how we used to go for walks?

But after Christmas I’ll be free every Sunday.

Won’t that be marvellous?

Would you like a little more? Because there’s some left.

No, thanks, Carmela, this is fine.

How is Madeleine?

You can tell her she is becoming quite a stranger.

Why, Pierre...

...look what I’ve found for the aviary.

Don’t, Carmela! Let us listen, can’t you?

- You must listen very hard to this! - You weren’t even listening!

We were listening! We were listening without seeming to.

We were listening, but you’ll never understand.

And, anyway, I don’t mind. I know it by heart.

No, be quiet!

Now it’s the end of the ceremony.

They have encircled the universe.

It’s in Tibet.

Well? You feel the "Forces."

Suppose you heard that at night?

But come to think of it, you must have heard things like that, before.

Does it remind you of anything?

No, nothing.

But I like it.

Help me.

Well, look, you put a wire here. You pull.

And so on, right to the top.

Like that, it’s quite steady.

There, pass me the pliers.

Yes, it’s lovely.

Go along, Pierre, go for a walk.

Come back tomorrow and we’ll carry on.

But no going to the station again, eh?

Because your past is not going to come back by train.

No. Look at the trees.

People hide themselves behind their faces. They wear masks.

And you believe in them.

And then, you don’t know where you are anymore.

Goodbye, Pierre.

Say hello to Madeleine, and tell her to come and see us a little more often.

Goodbye.

A tree is different. If you take time, you can understand everything.

Trees... Yes. They help.

But if I look up for too long, I feel bad.

- I get... - Vertigo.

I’ll tell you something. The day you stop having vertigo, you’ll be cured.

You must get used to it gradually.

It’s the same with water.

If I look too long...

...I feel as if I were falling in and I feel ill.

Don’t be afraid, go on, make yourself do it.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go in, this is heavy!

- Delivering at this hour! - I deliver when I can, Sister!

My driver is ill and I have to do his work.

At 57. And with a weak heart since Verdun!

- And you. What do you want? - I came to fetch the little girl.

What?

I came to fetch the child, over there.

- What have I done to deserve this? - Go to confession, you may find out.

Then you’re the father of the new girl? I couldn’t guess it.

You must come earlier next time!

Come here, child! Someone’s come to fetch you.

You’ve come to fetch me?

You recognise me?

But where is my father?

Are we going to meet him?

Yes, he sent me.

No later than 7 p.m. Otherwise no more permission.

Those are the rules.

It doesn’t surprise me that my father asked you to take me out.

At my grandmother’s when he was supposed to do it...

...he was always putting it off.

My grandmother had only one idea, to get rid of me.

When one thinks of it, I really have no luck.

My mother ran away with a conjurer.

Perhaps because my father never wanted to marry her.

And, in all, I’ve seen my father three times.

All that isn’t much fun... Is it?

Weren’t you surprised when Sister Opportune called me Françoise?

No. Why?

You know quite well my real name’s not Françoise.

My father did tell you my real name?

No.

The nuns made a great fuss about my first name.

It’s not Christian.

So they decided to call me Françoise.

I don’t mind that, you know.

- Tell me it. - Guess.

It’s very ancient, because my grandmother is Greek...

...and it’s after her.

Well, have you given your tongue to the cat?

- What? - You don’t know?

- Yet it’s very lovely. - Tell me it, I’d like to know it.

No! That would be too easy. Look!

I’ll tell you, if you’ll get me the cock from the steeple.

Don’t you think it’s very beautiful?

The other Sunday I had the feeling I had seen you before.

And I thought that maybe you... You could help me.

He has deserted me. I felt it coming.