Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
For the sake of auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll drink a cup of kindness here
For the sake of auld lang syne
We'll drink a cup
God save...
Our gracious king
Long live our noble king
God save our king
Send him victorious
Happy and glorious
Happy new year, Karen.
And for you too.
God save the king
Someone has left her underclothes in the back.
I want you to take a place in town.
Are you sure?
Eat.
Elephant.
Give me work.
We've got peace. Where is the prosperity?
Why should prices fall now just because we're not killing anybody?
Well, tea's down just as bad.
Do they always have to whip them so?
Look. They finally made a machine that's really useful.
Listen.
It's for you.
- I can't accept it. - Why not?
Bror's moved to town.
That's a private matter, I imagine.
Did you think you would spend the night?
Can't, thanks. I have to go down to the Mara.
I've taken up safari work, and I've got to find a camp.
There's country there you ought to see.
It won't last long now.
No. I would be wasting your time.
Why don't you get your things?
If you like me at all...
don't ask me to do this.
What's your word?
Shoo?
Is that it? Shoo?
That's a fine word you've got there, Baroness.
Crank it again, will you?
Almost. Crank it again.
Again.
Once more.
Well done. We're off.
I don't know the scientific basis for it...
but I know you can see further in the African night than any other place.
And the stars are brighter.
It's about the tents.
When I'm out with Kanuthia...
it used to be we didn't use them.
I remember him.
There was something...
Masai.
He was half Masai. That's what you remember about him.
They're like nobody else.
We think we'll tame them...
but we won't.
If you put them in prison, they die.
- Why? - Because they live now.
They don't think about the future.
They can't grasp the idea that they'll be let out one day.
They think it's permanent.
So they die.
They're the only ones out here that don't care about us...
and that is what will finish them.
What did the two of you ever find to talk about?
Nothing.
So. You knew I would come.
It's an early day tomorrow. Why don't you get some sleep?
- And what happens tomorrow? - I have no idea.
- Good night. - Good night.
You would think they would run off.
You didn't.
Think of that.
Never a man-made sound, and then Mozart.
- Have you clients already? - In a week.
A man from Belgium and his daughters.
His letter said, "We'd like three of everything."
It'll be an interesting trip. I'll be gone a month...
or an hour and a half.
Why are you doing this?
I don't know how to sew.
Do you know what they're made of? Cloth.
Where will he land?
Trick is not to.
It must feel amazing.
It's how I imagined America to be.
- Have you been to America? - No, but my father was there.
He told me stories about it when I was a little girl.
- Are you still close? - He died.
He killed himself when I was ten years old.
I can fix that, I think.
"Laughed loud and long...
and all the while his eyes went to and fro.
'Ha ha,' quoth he, 'full plain I see.
The devil knows how to row.'
- Farewell, farewell..." - You're skipping verses.
I leave out the dull parts.
"Farewell, farewell...
but this I tell to thee, thou wedding guest."
Lay your head back.
"He prayeth well...
who loveth well both man and bird...
and beast."
That's better.
Will it be so different, hunting for hire?
Not for the animals. Well, maybe for the animals.
Do you really prefer them to people?
Sometimes.
They don't do anything halfheartedly.
Everything's for the first time...
Hunting, working, mating.
It's only man that does it badly.
It's only man that tires of going through it.
Who says, "See here. Now I know how you feel about me...
and you know how I feel about you...
and we understand each other, so let's lie down and get on with it."
Why am I here?
Because I wanted you to see all this.
I wanted to show it to you.
I thought you'd understand it.
Do you think much about death?
I think about getting old.
Be like living with a cranky, demanding old bastard.
Well, you are a cranky, demanding old bastard.
I had syphilis.
That's why I went home.
I know.
I never seem to get anything.
German measles once.
They say I'll have a normal life now...
but no children.
So, the school?
So, the school.
The farm. That's what I am now.
We'll need meat for the camp tomorrow.
I'll wake you at dawn.
Good night.
We might scare up gazelles, but we'll be going through buffalo country again.
They get cocky when you're on foot.
Supper.
Good size, but...
Lion.
Careful, the wind's behind us.
Back up.
Slowly.
If there's a charge, drop flat...
and let me do it.
Reload!
Dinner in a while?
I'm glad you came.
To rose-lipped maidens.
There was a very young girl from Denmark...
who took passage on a steamer bound for Suez.
There was a storm...
off Morocco...
and she was washed ashore...
onto a beach.
Onto a white beach.
Onto a beach so, so white...
I'd like to do that.
- Will that hurt? - No.
If you say anything now, I'll believe it.
I need to know how to think about this.
Why?
Your clear soup, the new lettuce...
chicken, just the breast.
I trust this meets with your approval?
- Who is coming? - Bwana Cole is coming.
I will think on Bwana Cole.
I've got myself in real trouble now.
- Now you think they should vote? - No, worse.
Get Kamante.
He is out of hand entirely.
Does this look like a chicken?
Here is not a chicken, memsahib. Here is a fish.
Go away.
What do you think?
It's quite good, isn't it?
Be careful.
When the old mapmakers got to the edge of the world, they used to write...
"Beyond this place there be dragons."
Is that where I am?
He likes to give presents...
but not at Christmas.
He hasn't even said when he's coming again.
If he's coming again.
Would you divorce?
Then I would have no one.
Men who missed moose in Alaska...
grizzly in America, tiger in India...
are all at sea now, bound for here.
Berkeley is going to farm.
You could do that.
No, thank you.
You ought to look in on him, though.
He didn't look all that well.
Can you stay?
For a day or so.
- Is that all right? - No.
You don't need two guns on safari.
Then do the town work.
Meet the clients, do outfitting, there's mail.
I don't know that I'd be right for that.
You've got to do something.
I don't, actually.
My water's gone black.
We've got to get you to a hospital and get you some proper care.
I'm being cared for properly.
It's...
some years now.
She's fond of me, I think.
Why didn't you tell me?
I suppose...
I thought...
I didn't know you well enough.
There's money left in the trading account.
I'd like my share to go to Mairiamo.
Listen.
George Martin had black water fever, and that was five years now.
You might take along that 12-bore you're so fond of.
The trigger seems a bit...
Get Karen to try the Rigby.
It's a nice-size gun for her.
Would you like...
Would you like me to take you home?
I am home, I suppose.
- "F." - "F."
- "G." - "G."
"G" for girl.
Are you packed?
Yes.
How was town?
Crowded.
I've been thinking.
With all the safari work, I have little use for the room...
at the club.
I don't know that I'd be any good at this...
but how would it be if I kept a few things with you?
You would come and go from my house?
If that's all right.
When the gods want to punish you, they answer your prayers.
Berkeley's dying.
- What? - Black water fever.
Oh, my God.
- I'll go to him. - No, he wouldn't want you there.
Why?
There's a woman there. She's Somali.
She's been with him for some time.
You never told me this.
I didn't know.
"...with each one of us now and forevermore." Amen.
Strange that Denys isn't here.
I think he is off with Berkeley.
In the days and hours that Denys was at home...
we spoke of nothing ordinary.
Not of my troubles with the farm...
my notes due and my failing crop...
or of his, with his work...
what he knew was happening to Africa.
Or of anything at all that was small and real.
We lived disconnected...
and apart from things.
I had been making up stories while he was away.
In the evenings, he made himself comfortable...
spreading cushions like a couch in front of the fire.
And with me sitting cross-legged like Shahrazade herself...
he would listen, clear eyed, to a long tale...
from when it began until it ended.
Where did you get it?
Mombasa.
Get in.
When did you learn to fly?
Yesterday.
Don't move.
I want to move.
Don't move.
Tanne, may I see you?
Well, I'm broke too, you know?
I wouldn't ask, but tips were a bit light.
- Are you all right? - If I get a decent crop.
I could shoot him.
I've got this terrible urge to kiss you.
He is smarter than I am.
It may go well.
Good luck, Tanne.
You might have asked.
I did.
She said yes.
If I get eaten up some time, bury me here, will you?
Whatever's left.
Just there, at the crest of the hill.
When are you leaving?
Tomorrow.
Doesn't it matter to you that I'm another man's wife?
What matters to me is that you tried so hard.
What time tomorrow?
Good-bye again.
How many acres under cultivation?
- Five hundred. - The rest of it's wild?
- Well, the Kikuyu live there. - Why don't you move them off?
'Cause they live there.
We'll take it over should you default.
- We've got another year. - God is great, msabu.
He's charging three percent.
This chief says...
tall children can come to school now.
Tell Chief Kinanjui that reading is a valuable thing.
His children will remember him well.
This chief says, "British can read, and what good has it done them?"
Miss Felicity Spurway, clear round.
She's quite something, that Felicity.
Yes, indeed.
The next competitor, Mr. John Sutton on Castano.
How are you?
Getting old, I think.
How about you?
How is the hunt?
I'll make a living. Where is Denys?
Uganda. Some potentate.
I thought you might be wanting a divorce.
Has she got money?
Of course she's got money.
Is this important
I suppose.
Well, I'll have to accuse you of something.
Or did you think you would have it the other way around?
Fire away. Whatever.
I have surely done it.
Thank you, Tanne.
How do you manage it... to keep us friends?
We started that way.
Well, I'll be happy for you, if I can.
I remember that quite well.
When you go away on safari...
are you ever with someone else?
I'd be with you if I wanted to be with anyone.
- Do you ever get lonely? - Sometimes.
Do you ever wonder if I am lonely?
No, I don't.
Do you think about me at all?
- Often. - But not enough to come back.
I do come back... all the time. What is it?
Nothing.
Bror has asked me for a divorce. He found someone that he wants to marry.
I just thought we might do that someday.
Divorce?
How... How would a wedding change things?
I would have someone of my own.
You wouldn't.
What's wrong with marriage, anyway?
Have you ever seen one you admire?
Yes, I have. Many.
Belfields, for one.
He sent her home for the rains in 1910.
Didn't tell her they were over till 1913.
It's not a joke. People marry. It's not revolutionary.
- There are animals that mate for life. - Geese.
You use the damn animals for your own argument.
You won't let me use them for mine.
I'd mate for life.
One day at a time.
I'd just like someone to ask me once, that's all.
Promise me you'll do that, if I promise to say no?
Just trust you, eh?
When you go away...
you don't always go on safari, do you?
Just want to be away.
It's not meant to hurt you.
It does.
I'm with you because I choose to be with you.
I don't want to live someone else's idea of how to live.
Don't ask me to do that.
I don't want to find out one day that I'm at the end of someone else's life.
I'm willing to pay for mine. To be lonely sometimes.
To die alone, if I have to. I think that's fair.
Not quite. You want me to pay for it as well.
No, you have a choice, and you're not willing to do the same for me.
I won't be closer to you...
and I won't love you more because of a piece of paper.
See if you can shore it up.
Move away.
Let it go.
This water lives in Mombasa anyway.
I flew as far as Narok.
You could see all the ruts where the lorries had been.
The Serengeti was still good.
Take a week just getting there.
And Samburu is still good.
Where's Belknap? I haven't seen him.
He must be in America by now.
I let him go.
I had to. But you don't want to hear about the farm, do you?
- I... Have you got any buttons? - What are you doing?
- Mending your shirt. - Don't.
Don't do that.
You don't have to do that.
Maybe I'll try Samburu day after tomorrow.
You just got back.
You know, Felicity asked to come along...
and I almost said no because I thought you wouldn't like it.
- There's no reason for her not to come. - Yes, there is. I wouldn't like it.
You want her along?
I want things that don't matter not to matter.
- Then tell her no. Do it for me. - And then? What else would it be?
Why is your freedom more important than mine?
It isn't. And I've never interfered with your freedom.
No. I'm not allowed to need you.
Or rely on you, or expect anything from you.
I'm free to leave.
- But I do need you. - You don't need me.
If I die, will you die? You don't need me.
You're confused. You've mixed up need with want. You always have.
My God. In the world that you would make, there would be no love at all.
Or the best kind. The kind we wouldn't have to prove.
- You'll be living on the moon then. - Why? Because I won't do it your way?
Are we assuming there's one proper way to do all this?
Do you think I care about Felicity?
Do you think I'll be involved with her?
- Then there's no reason for this. - If she's not important...
why won't you give it up?
I have learned a thing that you haven't.
There are some things worth having...
but they come at a price, and I want to be one of them.
I won't allow it.
You have no idea the effect that language has on me.
I used to think that there was nothing that you really wanted...
but that's not it, is it?
You want to have it all.
I'm going to Samburu. She can come or not.
Then you will be living elsewhere.
All right.
Is that a prince in there?
I think that you had better get up, memsahib.
- What? - I think that you had better get up.
I think that God is coming.
All gone.
- How did it start? - I think God had a hand in it.
He gave me my best crop ever, and then He remembered.
- Insurance? - That's for pessimists.
Where is Denys?
Who knows?
Doesn't matter. The baroness is broke, "D."
It's over.
I've got to find some land before I go, for my Kikuyu.
You've trouble enough, Karen.
Just a chunk somewhere, so they can stay all together.
We're just out of coffee...
but I can give you tea.
There is no arable land that size outside the reserve...
and if there were, we'd not put natives on it.
- Since it's theirs. - It belongs to the crown, Baroness.
What you want is quite impossible.
Yes, it always is. Who must I see next?
You've run through us all, I'm afraid.
We have a new governor, haven't we?
Sir Joseph? He hasn't arrived yet.
But will soon, I'm told.
You do still ask me to things?
Captain Jacques Llewllyn.
- Your servant, sir. - Mr. Llewllyn.
The honorable Hugh Chomondeley, Lord Delamere.
- Your servant, sir. - Lady Delamere.
- How do you do? - Lady Delamere.
- Commissioner. - Baroness.
The Baroness von Blixen.
I'm sorry to know that Kenya will be losing you.
- You have heard of my trouble then? - Yes.
I regret it.
- And do you know of my problem now? - Baroness.
- This land you want from us. - Will you help me, Sir Joseph?
- Baroness, this really isn't the time. - That's quite difficult.
- Baroness. - Please, get up.
Kenya is a hard country for women...
so there is a chivalry here, of a sort.
You are a powerful man, and I have no one else to turn to.
Let's discuss this in the proper way.
You mustn't be embarrassed. I've lost everything.
- It costs me very little to beg you. - Wait.
Give her a moment, please.
This land was theirs, you see.
We took it, and now they have nowhere else to go.
I'll look into it. We'll do the best we can.
May I have your word, sir?
You have mine.
Thank you.
I hope you will be happy here.
I was.
I'm sorry I won't know you.
I didn't hear it until I got to the border.
It seems I'll do almost anything to get your attention.
I've nearly got you packed.
And my poor family, I've got them near bankrupt.
Now I have to ask them for more money.
- Let me help you. - You would keep me, then?
No. I want to be worth something now.
What will you do?
After my rummage sale, leave.
Friday for Mombasa, and then...
the boat to Denmark.
Thank you, Denys.
You must have them ready to leave before the rains.
It is good land, enough for all.
But they must not fight about it or be any trouble to the authorities.
Do you understand? Or they will lose it.
You must make them understand that I will not be here...
to speak for them.
This land is far?
Not too far.
How can it be now with me and yourself?
You will have some money. Enough, I think.
I do not speak of money.
Do you remember how it was...
on safari?
In the afternoons I would send you ahead to look for a camp...
and you would wait for me.
You can see the fire...
and come to this place.
Yes.
Well, it will be like that.
Only this time I will go ahead and wait for you.
It is far, where you are going?
Yes.
You must make this fire very big...
so I can find you.
Take that out to the lawn.
Have you had dinner?
Yes.
Your things... I packed your things.
I thought I would send them on to the club.
Is that all right?
This wasn't a very good idea.
I think we should have had it this way all the time.
I don't know.
I was beginning to like your things.
And I was beginning to like living without them.
You've ruined it for me, you know.
Ruined what?
Being alone.
Have I?
I'd like to come with you to Mombasa.
Can I fly you there?
Aren't you going away again?
I have some things to do tomorrow at Tsavo, but I'll be back on Friday.
Will that be all right?
Of course.
I've got this little thing that I've learned to do lately.
When it gets so bad...
and I think I can't go on...
I try to make it worse.
I make myself think about our camp on the river...
and Berkeley...
and the first time that you took me flying.
How good it all was.
And when I'm certain that I can't stand it...
I go one moment more.
And then I know I can bear anything.
Would you like to help me?
Yes.
Come dance with me then.
You were right, you know.
The farm never did belong to me.
I may have been wrong.
I had a farm in Africa.
- Friday. - Yes.
Would you like a drink?
Please.
Denys has been killed.
His plane crashed at Tsavo.
There was a fire.
Can I take you into town, Tanne?
Why did they send you?
I thought I should.
My God, you are brave.
"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon at night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil.
He shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in.
From this time forth and even forevermore."
Amen.
"The time you won your town the race...
we cheered you through the marketplace.
Man and boy stood cheering by...
as home we brought you, shoulder high.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away...
from fields where glory does not stay.
Early though the laurel grows...
it withers quicker than a rose.
Now you will not swell the rout...
of lads that wore their honors out.
Runners whom renown outran...
and the name died...
before the man.
And round that early laurelled head...
will flock to gaze the strengthless dead...
and find unwithered on its curls...
a garland...
briefer than a girl's."
Now take back the soul of Denys George Finch Hatton...
whom You have shared with us.
He brought us joy...
and we loved him well.
He was not ours.
He was not mine.
If I know a song of Africa...
of the giraffe...
and the African new moon lying on her back...
of the plows in the fields...
and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers...
does Africa know a song of me?
Will the air over the plain quiver...
with a color that I have had on?
Or will the children invent a game...
in which my name is?
Or the full moon throw a shadow...
over the gravel of the drive...
that was like me?
Or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?
You cannot come where I am going.
There is no cooking where you are going?
You would not like it there. You must trust me about this.
Letters you can send on to this address in Denmark.
When you sell the car, if you would send the check to Hunter and Company...
and anything else you don't know what to do with.
Yes, ma'am.
Baroness, I've been sent to ask if we may stand you a drink.
- Who is "we"? - Well, the members, actually.
All right.
Whiskey, please.
Two whiskeys, please.
Baroness?
Rose-lipped maidens, light-foot lads.
Hear, hear.
Thank you.
This is very dear to me.
It has helped me to find my way.
Thank you, msabu.
I want to hear you say my name.
You are Karen, msabu.
The mail has come today...
and a friend writes this to me:
"The Masai have reported to the district commissioner at Ngong...
that many times at sunrise and sunset...
they have seen lions on Finch Hatton's grave.
A lion and a lioness have gone there...
and stood or lain on the grave for a long time.
After you went away, the ground around the grave...
was leveled out into a sort of terrace.
I suppose that the level place makes a good site for the lions.
From there they have a view over the plain...
and the cattle and game on it."
Denys will like that.
I must remember to tell him.