A WONDERFUL SPELL
June 1940
My pay, Fernand.
My pay!
Out! Out!
It's for the boy.
Twenty thousand. Not a penny less.
It's all I've got.
Take my rings.
Okay. Julien!
Prepare Iskander and harness Volga to the cart.
They're not your horses!
Stay out of it.
They're not for sale.
Do as I say.
Buy them. It's my pay.
Fernand, get stretchers...
Doctor! The ru-ru-rules have been grievously broken!
For now, please help me.
I can't. I have my symptoms.
Damn them!
Damn your symptoms!
Leave your symptoms here!
On the windowsill, for 20 minutes!
I promise nobody will steal them.
You can get them back later.
Come!
I'm in pain!
I hear voices!
Voices!
What if it stopped?
What then?
I think you'd feel even worse if you stopped feeling anything.
- That's what I think! - Dog!
You'd feel even worse if you stopped feeling anything.
Treason!
Snap, snap! Royal!
I am worthy!
Co... Co...
Get on!
Hold him here.
Send Alida back to the asylum.
Start again.
It's easy! Start again.
Go away!
I'm not bothering you!
Stop it!
Stop staring at me!
Stop it!
Stop staring at me!
Healing!
Healing...
Corpses!
Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you amongst women
and Jesus...
the fruit of your womb is blessed.
Style, waiter!
Style!
I say, Monsieur!
Weren't you a section waiter
at the Café de la Paix in Paris in 1925?
Head waiter.
Your memory fails you, Monsieur.
Head waiter?
Fernand?
Gentlemen,
this is Fernand.
You know this man?
I saw him in Paris, at the Café de la Paix.
In 1925.
You could learn from him.
French make good servants!
Germany shall pay.
Germany is paying.
Relax, Gentlemen. They're ours.
Gentlemen!
To "la belle France"!
Excellent.
"Should I fly
"on wings of hope?
"Or should I, in despair,
"from heaven's zenith to the earth let fall
"my fledgling, stillborn love?"
Ronsard.
"My fledgling, stillborn love."
"No!
"I prefer
"boldly to soar aloft
"and plummet if you disappoint me,
"than to hug the ground, even were I to have,
"for my grave,
"the whole vastness of France."
"The whole vastness of France."
What would happen?
If your pain went away
and you stopped feeling anything?
What would happen
if it went away
and you stopped feeling anything, Fernand?
I think it would be much worse
if you stopped feeling anything.
That's what I think.
I think it would be much worse.
It would be much worse if you stopped feeling anything.
That's what I think,
Fernand.
Ma?
Are you okay?
Hungry?
Ma!
I'm Moses.
Alida.
Julien.
I'm harnessing the mare.
She's mine!
I'm borrowing her.
No!
Let go.
Where are you two going?
The canal bridge has been bombed.
I'm going down the Loire.
I'll take you that far. Okay?
Okay.
I can milk cows.
Col...
I really can.
Col...
It's Fernand.
My husband.
What's the matter?
Have you ever done it?
It's wet!
Take this and hold tight.
Let it out!
Colette!
I'm here!
Colette!
You didn't sleep with me.
You can talk!
Lucie, you can talk!
- You slept with the boy. - You can talk!
You left me.
You're talking! Can you hear?
You're talking!
Can you hear?
Moses!
Goodbye, son.
Kneel down. You won't feel a thing.
I'm going to kill you.
Treason! Treason!
He's shat himself.
This is good.
Lucie!
Aren't you hungry?
She's been eating.
Give.
- Have you been eating? - Give!
Have you been eating?
Leave her alone!
Stop it!
Peace!
Give it back to her. Right now!
Food!
Nothing!
Here! Here!
Lucie!
Who tried to open your suitcase?
Answer me.
Justice must be done. Royal! Snap!
We're famished!
She has food in her suitcase.
Open it!
Quiet!
Lucie, speak.
Hélène, what do you have to say?
Tears?
Is that all?
Invasions of privacy
cannot be tolerated in a Republic.
I banish you, Hélène.
Royal!
My decision is final. We leave this village.
You stay behind. Snap!
Nice hair.
Food.
Yes, Colette.
Come.
- I'm tired! - Come.
We've arrived, Lucie.
This is my room.
The horses!
Julien, the horses!
Parasols!
Parasols.
Parasol mushrooms. Lepiota Linnaeensis.
Parasols, gobble!
It was not the immaculate conception.
Your mother wasn't the first
but she wasn't the last.
She put her heart into it!
- Fernand! - Am I upsetting Baby Jesus?
She was nothing
when she arrived. Nothing.
Didn't even know her own name.
I was placed with an employer.
He followed me everywhere. On Ash Wednesday 1924,
he followed me into the church. I tried to kill him.
I had long been
on excellent terms with the Head Doctor.
Knocked up immaculately, first time!
Was it in the laundry room?
"Here are clean sheets
for the Doctor, Monsieur Fernand."
I stayed on for Fernand.
I gave Alida
all I could.
Despite my symptoms.
Help!
I must've got Lepiota Linnaeensis muddled up
with Lepiota Morgani.
Help...
God! I'm touching the stars!
Does it hurt?
I'm happy!
It's all true!
Mark my words, it's all true!
Don't laugh. You're dying.
- Ask God's forgiveness. - Julien, come here!
Bring a jam jar, quick.
He's delirious already.
Snap.
Catch my soul in a jam jar.
Get ready. I'll give it to you.
What are you up to?
My coat.
Must we leave, Madame?
They dug a grave under the pear tree.
Julien!
They've signed an armistice.
We've lost the war?
His ma and pa's in the woods, too.
And the horses.
Royal!
Snap!
I've been counting, Madame.
I go fifty percent faster than the others.
Everything's disorganized.
I start my seventh sheaf
a length and a half ahead. Right!
But if I consider this sheaf
as number 1 of the next lot instead of number 7 of this lot,
all the numbers
fall back
into order!
Back into order.
You there!
We're wasting time.
You too. Keep pace with the others.
Who are the others?
What others?
There's your pa and ma...
but who are the others?
What others?
Those girls.
They're odd.
You reckon?
They're Swiss.
That's why they seem odd.
They have different habits.
Madame!
- Madame? - Take charge of the sheaves.
Your dad sent a postcard from Germany!
He's okay.
He wants some pâté and sausage.
If only we could stay.
Always patching things up!
Hard as nails, the signorina!
I've done it.
We're respected here.
That's what you think.
Julien?
Colette! Lend a hand.
Alida! What's the meaning of this?
Is someone refusing to work?
Julien!
Go get your woman.
She's tired. Let her be.
Your woman's a pest!
I could banish her
like Hélène.
It's you!
You're the pest!
You're not my dad.
You can't be!
I... the undersigned,
Fernand
Bracieux,
certify
that I never...
took any action,
knowingly or by proxy,
that could have hindered
the conception,
gestation, or even the birth
of Master Julien Bracieux.
What will you do after the harvest?
I'm going to find work and live my own life.
What would happen
if they took away your symptoms
from you all?
I think
you'd feel much worse
if they went away
and you stopped feeling anything.
I think
you would feel much worse
if they took away your symptoms.
That's what I think.
I can't stay.
I can't stay with you.
Urbain, take over from Julien.
- Julien, I need you at the truck. - Yes, Madame.
- Count the sacks. - Yes, Madame.
Panettone.
Why don't you speak Italian?
My father was Italian.
Mother was from Normandy. We were five girls at home.
So when I had a boy...
It's too small.
Lucie Robin.
District Asylum.
It's nothing.
Lovers, give us a song!
A song!
Alida, sing us a little Italian song.
Thank you.
I'm so happy to be with you.
We're like a family.
You took us in.
We're not crazy,
I promise!
We didn't break out.
The gate was open.
We're cured.
We know how to work.
You must go back.
You could get into trouble.
Madame...
You must pay!
Five francs a day, as agreed.
Add it up!
For you, Alida and Lucie,
five francs, five days, times three makes 75 francs.
What about Colette
and Julien? Count us all!
Colette did nothing.
I'll pay Julien separately.
Turn it off!
Don't pay me separately.
Forgive them!
Forgive them for they know not what they do!
Royal, royal! Snap!
Alida...
Alida!
I don't want you to go.
I love you.
Come on.
We don't have to go.
Do you hear?
Aren't you coming?
Come!
Inmate Bracieux, Fernand.
Loire District Asylum.
Men's block number three.
Head Doctor's ward.
Chronic hallucinatory psychosis, stabilized.
Snap!
Royal!
Snap!
- Can I go? - Go, quick.
They'll take us.
Ma!
- Where will you go? - To town.
It'll be easier.
Stay on the farm
till the men come back.
Okay.
Here.
It's my pay.
You'll need it more than me.
Subtitles by Nigel Palmer
Processed by ECLAIR - Paris