LOVE UNTO DEATH
He's upstairs!
This is 17-30-20?
Judith?
Elisabeth, am I disturbing you?
I don't know...
You poor dear...
I'll call the hospital.
No, I'll go straight there.
He's dead, dear... He's dead.
Simon! Don't be dead!
This Is Jerome.
Judith Is very worried, You hung up on her.
Elizabeth, are you there?
Do you need help?
Who were you talking to?
Did I sleep long? Anyway, my headache's gone.
Darling, what is it?
You're alive!
What do you mean? Did something happen to you?
What is it?
Don't move.
It's Judith.
I'll phone Dr. Rozier.
Why?
To postpone all those tests.
No. You must go.
I feel fine.
Hi there.
I'm sorry... No, everything's fine.
Judith came over? What a shame.
Guess we were out. We love our midnight walks.
How's the dig going?
I'm on my way there.
If you stop by, I'll have some things to show you.
I know you won't have time, but...
We'll come by,
Good, then I'll expect you.
Tell Judith we're sorry...
Not telling them?
I'd rather not.
Not even them?
No one.
Neither them, nor my colleagues.
They'd tease me about being "resurrected".
And it'd ruin our old doctor's reputation.
Going by car?
Our old doctor's reputation mustn't be ruined.
So I'm taking you to see him.
Get in. We're late.
I can't think of any better tests.
I know, I've been put to shame.
I'll lose what's left of my practice.
But you were definitely dead.
I won't budge on that.
Happens often?
Two years ago, a doctor I know had a similar case.
How's Simon now?
In perfect health.
He needn't fear death more than any of us.
I'm short of basil.
Any mail for me?
A card from your friend Gerbault.
Saying that?
He's inviting us for the summer.
He wants to meet me.
Then we won't go.
But next to Jerome, he's your oldest friend!
Precisely.
Why be "resurrected" to lead the same old life?
If I'd died, here's all I'd have left behind.
A paper on garbage dumps in the pre-Gallo-Roman era.
Not much, eh?
You fathered 2 kids!
How'd they remember me?
Have I done anything worthwhile? No!
Does it matter?
It matters a lot.
Now I should live differently.
Be altruistic, like Jerome and Judith.
Why not live frivolously?
Heads or tails?
Heads or tails.
This is what we'll do!
By plane?
On foot, by boat, changing our plans every day.
When?
At Easter.
Won't you miss your kids?
Do you ever see your family?
Are you any the worse for it?
Why should I see kids who don't like me and I don't like?
Life's too precious.
And we barely know each other.
Here come Judith and Jerome.
You're just a scavenger!
Their houses were giant garbage cans.
All refuse got thrown on the floor:
when things got unbearable,
they just moved on and built a new house.
You learn a lot about people from their garbage.
My greatest find: it's 2000 years old.
Should I be impressed?
I find it rather moving.
Still no objets d'art? Or beautiful things?
No evidence of religious activity, is that what you mean?
No, only utilitarian things!
I'm into 2000 years old daily life.
And their dead? What did they do with them?
They burned them.
I'd like to see what's left of us in 10,000 years!
You, Elizabeth?
You think we'll last another 10,000 years?
You're a weird couple.
I haven't known Elizabeth long...
But you, Simon, only care about people who died centuries ago.
And you, Elizabeth, by creating new varieties of plants...
Elizabeth works for man's future.
Simon studies his origins.
Those activities go hand in hand.
Forgotten something?
I'd like to see all the lakes.
Those of Auvergne, Finland,
Quebec...
Lakes?
I only like salt water.
When I swim, I need to be surrounded by fish, by seaweed... by life!
The Great Salt Lake, then!
What if we went up the Missouri?
Let's do all the things we'd have missed if...
There are too many names.
Some must go.
Herbert? Iturbi?
Keep Herbert. Drop Iturbi.
Should I cross out Jacqueline?
You bet! She's a vampire!
Of course we keep Judith and Jerome.
Put them on hold.
He's not in!
I say he is,
No, he isn't.
Oh yes, he is!
It's your father.
I know my son. He's never in when I phone!
Sorry, he just went out.
I bet he's right beside you.
Who are you? The maid or his new mistress?
You're the latest one, right?
He's abandoned his wife, won't see his kids,
You may be the latest, but you won't be the last!
Screw you, sir!
I don't think I loved you before.
Before?
Before your death.
These tomato plants were injected with bacteria.
Notice the tumors that they developed.
Let us pray to the Lord, our God.
We trust in You,
O living God, Savior of all Mankind.
Our brother, André Jourdet,
has been taken from his loved ones,
at the age of 30.
In faith and in hope,
let us return him to his rightful and merciful Father.
Let us all listen to the Gospel of resurrection.
"A man named Lazarus, became sick in Bethany,
"the town of Mary and Martha.
"Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
"When he heard Lazarus was sick,
"he stayed where he was two more days.
"Then he said to the disciples: let us go back to Judea.
"Lazarus is dead!"
"When Martha heard Jesus was coming,
"she went out to meet him.
"Martha said to Jesus:
"If you had been here, Lord,
"my brother would not have died!
"But I know that even now God will give you...
"whatever you ask of him.
"Jesus told her: "Your brother will rise to life".
"I know, she replied, that he will rise to life
"on the last day.
"Jesus said to her:
"I am...
"the resurrection and the life..."
Miss Sutter...
Swell of you to come.
We all liked Jourdet.
Right, sir?
Thank you for what you did... I'm at a loss for words.
I thought she'd never stop crying.
As she kissed me, she said:
"They're all mad at me, as if I'd killed him!"
Poor woman...
Poor Jourdet!
Jourdet... If you ask me...
He should've told me he had problems,
I'd have tried to help him.
They weren't the kind of problems one tells a minister.
Let alone a female one.
He should've asked your permission to die!
Idiot!
One can tell anything to one's minister.
We're witnesses, not judges.
Jerome's mad at me.
I am?
Because I held the services.
If you hadn't, I'd have agreed to eventually.
But you didn't.
I can't condone an act I find repulsive.
Suicide is a rejection of life, a lack of courage.
Life is a gift, and we must live it out.
Deciding to die may take more courage than living on.
If we're witnesses and not judges,
we've no right to judge Jourdet.
André Jourdet was a unique person.
Since time immemorial, there'd never been an André Jourdet,
and now, there'll never be another.
Once and for all,
there's only one Jerome,
one Elizabeth,
one Simon.
Once and for all!
Shall we save this discussion for later?
Let's change the subject.
The food's still as lousy at your house.
It's not mortification!
Sheer incompetence!
Mom, David won't go to sleep!
Coming!
Excuse me.
David! You'll get your spanking.
David's spanking!
Usually, that's when Simon makes his crack about...
how chilly it is here in the rectory.
But for Jourdet, I'd never have met Elizabeth.
He found a pottery shard on the lab's grounds.
He brought it to me and I took it to Simon. That did it!
In a way...
They say love begins at first sight. Not true.
It happens later.
I was smitten on an October Sunday, at 11 a.m.
I was all alone. I started to shake.
I knew I'd never want to do anything without you.
Suddenly I felt frightened...
Very frightened...
Sleep well.
Sweet dreams!
See you soon.
What do ministers dream of?
Ministers, I don't know. I dream of Judith.
What if I married you?
know any happily married couples?
Jerome and Judith?
Do they love one another?
They've been married 10 years, they have 2 kids...
Doesn't prove a thing.
They're compelled to love one another.
I'm sure that what we just experienced,
we'll never experience again.
It'll never be as strong.
We'll do it again. But it'll be a repeat performance.
We'll grow more and more wrinkled.
Tired, emptied of desire...
It'll get harder and harder to move, to breathe...
Ever thought of it?
That after such happiness one should kill oneself?
Idiot!
It's so late. I went looking for you.
They wouldn't let me leave.
There's a word I can't bear now:
separation.
If I died now, you'd know nothing of me.
I know all I ever want to know.
Confessions are a waste of time.
In a month, we'll be at St. Louis, Missouri.
Elizabeth, it's for you.
I'm calling from the site. Simon's fainted again,
He won't see a doctor, and we're sworn to secrecy,
We must convince him, sorry,,. I have to hang up,
I'm going out...
I'll be back.
Not sleeping?
You're not sleeping.
Show your medical records to a specialist.
Why?
I don't want to lose you.
I don't want to lose you, either.
Doctors won't prevent me from dying.
Something tells me...
that we'll never be separated.
Simon, I insist.
No. I said no.
EEG is normal.
The X-rays are of excellent quality.
I can only confirm my colleague's diagnosis.
But more tests should be done.
Simon won't agree to that.
Then what can I do for you?
You don't owe me a thing. Since I can't tell you anything.
It's the right season.
We're leaving in 2 weeks.
What are you playing?
Nothing... Some music can't quite remember.
The original texts were in Hebrew or Aramaic.
But those that came down to us were in Greek.
In Greek, there are two words for love:
"eros" for possessive love,
and "agape" for selfless love.
in the New Testament, there's only one word for God's love:
"agape".
For centuries, the Bible was read in Latin translations.
But there's no word in Latin to translate "agape".
So for centuries, "eros" and "agape" were confused.
We misunderstood the meaning of God's love.
We tried to possess it, to prove its existence.
Proving God is denying Him.
Reducing Him to human dimensions.
We forgot that God, and here's the real meaning of"agape",
loves us unconditionally,
to the point where He became one of us,
and suffered and died like us.
He rose from the dead, brought a lot of others back to life.
Lazarus and all that.
If he really came back from the dead,
why didn't he say what's in store for us?
What kind of a God doesn't speak up?
he never stops speaking to us. Read the Bible.
The Bible!
The Bible is for believers.
I want to know.
Now let's talk about serious things!
Good evening, Mrs. Vigne!
Good evening, Reverend.
How is your husband?
That's just it... He's much worse.
He wants the minister.
I'll go.
What do you mean by "serious things"?
Certainly not what you're about to do.
It's that music...
I think I've found it, then I lose it again.
What music?
The music I heard... There...
There?
I don't know...
Among the dead...
"You will not let me go to the world of the dead."
"Your dead shall live and rise with my dead body."
Have you seen Judith?
We see Judith and Jerome all the time.
I saw you with her this morning.
She lent me some books.
The Bible?
You, reading the Bible?
I'm not interested in the Bible.
I'm interested in death.
In my death.
Because I am dead.
the doctor said so, and he was right.
Even if I came back to life.
If I say I'm dead, it's because I saw myself dead.
I saw my corpse and the doctor bending over me.
I heard him say I was dead.
But before there was...
Before?
Did I say before? Maybe it was after. It's hard...
It was as if...
As if it all happened at once?
Yes, in a way...
I heard a loud, unpleasant noise...
A sort of scream.
A very piercing scream.
I was sucked into a tunnel, a hole.
It was neither a tunnel, nor a well.
It was cold.
Yes... I was very cold.
There were people... a crowd came toward me.
They climbed up to me, to keep me from falling...
I recognized them.
They were dead.
Dead? I don't know.
But I recognized all of them.
Even those I'd never met in real life.
I felt a kind of light, a kind of music...
A light that carried you...
I was enveloped by it.
Then I stopped being cold.
I felt happy,
incredibly happy.
All that light swept me up.
Later... or almost at once... I was pulled back. It was awful.
I wanted to stay there... with them.
I didn't want to leave.
Why didn't you tell me?
I was so happy... I didn't dare tell you.
Stop it, Simon. It's not funny!
It was here.
I was beside this stream. Right here.
The others were over there, beckoning me to cross.
I went in.
I felt very cold,
then immensely happy...
Come on. It's late.
My love...
I went to see Jerome this afternoon.
I tried to explain it to him. He didn't understand a thing.
He's convinced I wasn't really dead, that I dreamt it all.
He says the Bible never mentions immortality of the soul,
because the word "soul" never appears.
Or only in bad translations!
Never appears!
Yet, the light...
That music... the stream...
Did you tell Judith?
Look at me!
You're alive!
Jerome is right. You never died. You were asleep. You dreamt it.
The stream, the music, the light... You dreamt it all.
The dead are dead! They're nothing! Nobodies!
Who is it?
Judith.
I'm too tired. I'm too weak to talk.
Even to Judith?
Even to her.
I don't want to see anyone.
Simon's not in?
He went for a walk.
He can't be far off.
I guess he won't be home for a while.
Sometimes he walks for hours.
I wanted to talk to him before your trip to the States.
Didn't you know?
We're not going.
Judith left this for you.
I felt the same pain... there...
Help me. I've got to lie down.
Can I speak to Dr. Rozier?
You're here?
Don't leave me.
Hold me very tight.
I think I'm a bit afraid...
Don't leave me.
Simon... I promise I won't.
I'll go with you.
I'm going with you.
I promise.
I knew Simon well.
He was my friend, almost a brother.
He claimed he didn't believe in Christ.
But he confided in me before dying.
I think he believed in an after life.
But we only have an after life because Christ
God become man, died for us in our stead.
He took all our sins upon Him, and delivered us from evil,
and from death.
I promise.
It's me. I came tonight because I can't make it in the morning.
That's fine.
Basil!
Simon would have complained about my cooking again!
Judith's right. We must talk about Simon.
Or we'd be accepting his death.
I understand your sorrow. I'm not trying to forget him.
We'd been friends since high school.
For me too, it's...
I know, it's not the same.
But why live only for Simon?
Bestow some of your generosity on us...
On the living...
I'm not generous! I don't care about the sufferings of others.
I'm not a believer.
My only religion is Simon.
I'd better go home.
Judith, you won't be angry?
Not staying for the party?
Party?
Françoise's going-away party.
Stay, it'll do you good.
No, I have to leave.
Thanks Judith, I don't want to see anyone.
You're alive!
Simon, I can't live without you.
I don't know if I can die, either.
I want to live with you, at your side.
I want you here.
I promised it... I'll come join you.
Speak to me!
Tell me to come!
Asign.
Give me a sign.
Simon, stop it! It's not funny!
Yes, Simon. I'm coming.
Hey, lady!
It's dangerous to cross there. The current's too strong.
Use the overpass.
Don't kid yourself, my dear,
there are no pleasant deaths.
Even self-inflicted death is a mess.
Hanging?
It may take 20 minutes!
And if you're revived, the after-effects are dreadful:
rectal and urinary paralysis, hemiplegia... etc.
Firearms? Suppose you bungle it.
I know a man who blinded himself.
Awoman who lived on with half her face gone!
And barbiturates?
One usually survives, but in awful shape!
You know how I should do it, but you won't tell me.
Listen...
I was married for 30 years to a lovely woman.
30 years. That's not 2 months!
When she died I thought I'd never get over it.
Then one day I woke up:
I felt like buying some new shoes.
I was over it.
I'm not sick of existence.
I don't hate life.
I hate life without Simon.
I'm so glad.
We gave up phoning you.
I wanted to be alone with Simon.
I didn't expect to see you here.
A minister belongs among the living, not the dead.
Yet I needed to visit Simon's grave.
Could we meet just the two of us?
At the rectory, tomorrow night?
Jerome has an ecumenical meeting. We'll be alone.
I'm going to die.
I want to die.
Simon asked you to?
No, I promised him I would.
And he agreed to it?
I don't know.
I don't even know if he heard me. He died right after.
A promise made like that isn't binding.
You promised nothing.
Live...
Not, as Jerome says, because it's your duty to live,
but because you've been granted life.
You're free.
I'm not free, because Simon is dead!
What if I told you that...
years ago,
Simon and I were in love?
We invented love.
Simon was 20, I was 15.
We felt ours was a unique experience, especially...
as no one was aware of our affair.
Simon said a love like that couldn't last.
That we'd grow ugly, consumed by life,
maybe sick and incapacitated.
We'd end up hating ourselves.
It was better to die. There and then.
I agreed with him: time had to stop.
We made a suicide pact.
No one knows what I'm telling you.
The only witness, Simon's grandmother, died long ago.
It was in October.
The weather had turned cold.
We bicycled to my parents' country house.
It was empty at that time of year.
We closed up everything.
We undressed completely.
We were shivering. It wasn't very pleasant.
We made love.
We'd decided to slit our veins with razor blades.
First, the blades kept slipping from our hands.
Then we didn't realize that blood coagulated so fast.
We squeezed our veins, but nothing came out.
In the end, we were smeared with blood,
not knowing what to do.
Simon started to vomit.
We felt ridiculous.
We wanted to wash.
But the water main was turned off.
We couldn't turn it on: it was frozen.
So we went home.
First to Simon's grandmother's, to wash.
To explain the slashes on my wrists,
I told my parents I'd done it breaking a window.
I don't know if they believed me.
Anyway, they packed me off to my cousins in Alsace.
I didn't see Simon for 15 years.
We were too ashamed to want to meet again.
At the Strasbourg theology department,
I met Jerome.
Then I realized that one's first love isn't real love.
With Jerome, I invented love.
Then you didn't love Simon!
If you had, you'd have died!
There's no such thing as a unique love.
20 years ago, I loved Simon.
ASimon you know nothing of.
The Simon that you loved,
is a complete stranger to me.
Unique love doesn't exist.
I've loved other men... I love Jerome.
Maybe tomorrow I'll leave him...
By dying with Simon, with Simon's love,
you may be killing a new love.
I'll die forthe Simon I loved.
Then why did you want to see me?
I hoped for a sign...
Simon asked nothing of you.
He didn't want us to be apart.
Simon was obsessed with death.
And his obsession was contagious.
I luckily escaped it.
He destroyed everyone he loved.
He's destroying you from beyond the grave.
I made him enjoy life.
I once mentioned killing ourselves. He got mad: he was cured.
But he's dead.
I'm leaving.
Elizabeth, wait...
I'm leaving.
Have you gone mad?
You're here...
Your phone didn't answer.
I must talk to you.
I want to talk to you.
I'll come down.
Judith told me everything.
You can't do that.
Our lives belong to God.
It's not for us to say if they're bearable.
I know your arguments. They come from books.
Those books were written before my love for Simon existed.
Your God, or Fate, or whatever,
hadn't yet separated me from the man I love,
and that I still love.
Now... this very moment... forever.
Jerome... if you love me a little, let me be alone.
You mustn't.
You're wrong, Jerome. I must do it.
Go away, please.
I respect you,
and admire you.
Your loyalty to Simon fills me with wonder.
But why this?
I've lost my best friend. Must I lose you, too?
You're a believer.
For you nothing and no one is ever lost.
Ever lost?
What if there's nothing?
Nothing?
Afterward...
You don't understand.
It's true, you don't understand.
I tried everything.
I understand that what Elizabeth wants to do is an act of hate.
Maybe you deserve that hate.
Maybe we deserve it.
We can't bear love that doesn't conform to our idea of love.
You can't tolerate that...
Simon and Elizabeth's frivolous love made them happy.
You talk about Hebrew and Greek words for love,
and you don't realize
that right beside you other forms of love exist.
Ever wondered if you and I love God in the same way?
Ever wondered what the word "faith" means to me?
What if there, too, the same word hides different meanings?
And I forbid you to answer me with a quote from the Bible!
Elizabeth? Is that you?
There he is!
I thought...
Yes, I was about to go join Simon.
Maybe in that realm of the dead that he tried to describe to me,
or maybe, as you Judith and Jerome believe, to be next to Christ,
waiting to be resurrected at the end of time with Simon,
and all the other dead.
I don't know.
All I know is that life in this world,
life without Simon,
is worse than death.
It's my only way to be reunited with him.
But you came back here.
I came because I want to leave with things in order.
Everything must be clear between us.
Jerome, Judith...
You've had years of shared intimacies,
of caresses and acts of mutual devotion
to prove each other your love.
You've fully lived out your love.
I've only known Simon a few months.
We haven't had time to live out our love.
I must still prove my love to him.
I promised I'd join him.
I'm going to the land where Simon is, and I'll walk,
I'll walk until I find him.
Can't you see, I'm not dying out of despair?
I want to die because I'm so full of hope.
I'm insanely hopeful!
Stay...
Stay with us. Let us pray.
Pray to whom?
Can you resurrect Simon? No.
So if there's one chance...
You'll be lost and lose Simon. You don't have faith.
What faith?
What do you mean?
The certainty of possessing some day an absolute good called God?
God will never be yours.
We'll never own God.
We'll always be searching for God. Even beyond death.
Confidently, lovingly.
What Elizabeth wants to do is an act of love, of confidence.
Suicide was outlawed by men avid to control souls.
The Bible doesn't forbid it.
Jesus knew what awaited him in Jerusalem.
He knew he'd die a horrible death.
Yet he said:
I give my life. No one is taking it from me, I give it freely.
We shall be resurrected.
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