Now I am yours, you are mine.
Where I must go, you will accompany me.
For what I must do, you will help me.
Don't fail me, or you will lose the very memory of me.
What are you saying?
Pardon me?
What are you saying?
I don't know.
You don't know.
You don't know what you just said?
No.
- Are you making fun of me? - I've never been more serious.
- Julien? Madame X. - It's you!
- May I speak to you? - Yes, with pleasure.
I thought it over. I accept your conditions.
Well, I prefer you like this.
How can we proceed?
If we're agreed, no problem.
Call me tomorrow, same time.
- And then? - I'll tell you how to proceed. Tomorrow!
Who was it?
To each his little secrets.
I'm asking who is this person you were charming
who must call tomorrow, answer me.
A woman.
Very beautiful. Very elegant.
I'm fed up with all these women!
I love you Marie.
I love your neck, your arms, shoulders, mouth, tummy, eyes.
I love everything. I love you.
Since you've been here, it's a new beginning.
What's wrong?
It's nothing,
nothing.
I love you.
I want you here all the time.
Say it again.
I couldn't stand you disappearing again.
Me too, I need you.
Where are you going?
Where are you?
Where did you go?
What are you looking at?
Come on, you'll explain it to me.
So, you found them?
I wasn't looking.
What is it?
You can see.
I see...
some kind of certificate.
And some fabrics...
They are very beautiful, they look old.
Fake.
Nothing but fakes.
Really... a pity.
And a Japanese doll...
Chinese.
With a hole in the head.
- There was something inside. - Really? What?
I don't know.
- And the photo? - It's a photo.
It's her?
Her, who? The girl from Montauban? No.
No...
the girl to whom you give secret dates on the phone.
Yes,
this one.
And that one,
the other one, I don't know.
One is dead,
and the other is alive.
The one who is alive killed the one who is dead.
I don't think so.
Tell me about the forest again.
You were lost in the forest,
in that big forest...
Walking in circles for hours,
my dress is torn,
I've lost my shoes,
my feet are wounded...
they bleed.
After all the walking, you reach a path.
And there, see a man.
A man,
filthy.
With blue eyes
and hands...
Hands of a butcher.
I'm not afraid.
- I ask him to save me. - He says he'll lead you to the road.
Instead, he goes deep into the forest with you.
In the bramble and thorns
it hurts, I'm torn,
one sees my skin through the tears in my dress.
I follow him without a word.
He takes you to a wooden hut,
a ruin deep in the forest.
- He tells you it's his home. - He tells me to take off my dress.
I obey,
I am naked.
He looks at your scratched breasts,
your stomach,
your sex.
I see he has a hard on,
he lies me on the bed.
An iron bed
with a beat up box spring.
A bed with nettles for sheets...
He ties your wrists,
your ankles,
stretched to the four corners.
Ties the knots so tight,
makes me yell,
I'm hot, I'm cold, I'm ashamed.
And yet I am wet
so much that it runs down my legs.
Tells you to take his tongue in your mouth.
I do everything he says,
he crushes me on the bed,
on the nettle,
the bramble.
He stays still a long time.
He breathes hard,
harder and harder...
And then?
Something is going to happen.
I don't know what it is... Don't know what to do.
You are my only recourse...
It is I who chose you.
I don't know what else to do.
I love you Julien. And I know you love me.
I don't want to lose you. I have but you.
Something is approaching...
something awful.
And I don't know what it is...
I know it will tear me away from you and I don't want it.
It's unbearable...
I'd like to cry, but I can't.
I had to do something and I can't anymore.
I love you,
I love you so...
I shouldn't have loved you.
What to do now?
How to end what I began, what I must do...
You tear me apart.
I am split in two...
split from top to bottom.
Forgive me... I love you.
I am Adrienne.
Open your eyes, Marie. You haven't much time left.
Yes, I know.
I'm afraid.
Open your eyes.
What should I do?
You know the forbidden sign?
Don't do it.
It's our last recourse,
if all else fails.
Don't do it.
It's almost three.
Which means?
Which means Madame X is late. Or rather, will be late.
Want to bet she'll call right on time?
I bet she will make me wait...
- Hello, Julien. - Who is calling?
- Can we speak? - Absolutely.
Is it indiscreet to ask who is the other person?
The other person, as you say,
is as discrete as me.
She is like myself.
- Do you have the money? - Only part of it.
A pity...
Hello Madame X, this is "the other person".
That is?
For you, I'm the "other person". This is what we've decided:
You have part of the money, you get part of the documents...
- I'll have the rest soon. - Very well.
The rest of the documents when we get the rest of the money.
I agree...
When and where?
Rue de Charenton, 193. Five o'clock.
Yes it doesn't bleed. I know. Don't say it to Julien.
I am "the other person".
It's you.
What is it?
Nothing...
I never expected... you.
Who did you expect?
I don't know.
You remind me of someone.
You don't look like her.
It's in your look...
Or the way you move.
We're not here to chit chat. Do you have the money?
- Do you have the documents? - The money first.
It's all here?
A third. It was agreed upon.
Very well,
this is for you.
- And the rest? - The rest another time.
You just saw my sister. Take this letter, it concerns her.
- She came? - Yes.
You have the money?
Here...
How did it go?
She only had a third... the photo and the doll, we keep hostage.
I have something for you...
It's beautiful.
I want to see it on your skin.
- You hurt yourself? - It's nothing.
- Show me. - No, I told you it's nothing.
How do I look?
You are beautiful.
You are sweet.
Answer me.
I do this to you? It's my fault?
Did I do something?
Answer me, it's unbearable... your distancing, like this.
Where are you? Right now, where are you?
I beg of you, answer me.
I love you so Julien,
it hurts.
Hurt, why, tell me why?
I can't.
I don't know what's happening to me.
I love you, I'm lost.
It's all I know.
You see this weather?
I hope you won't spend the day cooped up there.
The day, no, but I'm not through.
When do you show me?
Coffee.
- And your wound? - I told you, it's nothing.
Read this.
My dear sister.
Who is this addressed to?
The one who gave me this is the girl on the photo.
She's Madame X's sister?
Read.
My dear sister, you will be tempted, I know,
to crumple this letter and throw it in the basket
as you did with so many others
and as, in a sense, you did with me.
But this one, read to the end.
She underlined "this one".
I am not crazy.
The truth is you always dominated me.
We never dealt equal to equal.
You were sure of everything. I always doubted.
You ordered me. I had to obey.
I was like anyone, for life, pleasure, and freedom.
With bare hands, you twisted and broke my very being
that I may be the mere shadow of who I was,
incapable to see myself in the mirror
without wanting to vomit.
Today I did the irreparable:
I borrowed a lot of money from you to try to do something on my own.
I failed.
My shop went bankrupt.
I can never repay you. I know you'll never talk about it.
That is what I can't stand.
I know that sooner or later you will punish me.
I am lucid, in this horrible clarity of the worst.
I address to you, my sister, my murderess:
Even dead, I shan't disappear and follow you forever.
Yours,
eternally.
Well?
Well, what?
This girl is quite a novelist. Or...
Yes.
She's in a reprieve.
Reprieve?
It's funny?
There's an abyss between you and me,
and I don't know how to cross over.
It's a torture.
It's starting to resemble...
Second third...
There was something in there?
- Where? - In the head.
Bizarre ideas, as in mine.
Why do you look at me so?
I told you, you remind me of someone.
You've known Julien for long?
You call him Julien?
- You won't answer me? - For long, no.
- Do you live with him? - Yes. Does it bother you?
Where were you before?
Before, when?
Six months ago, or so.
Mind bringing the rest next time, or else...
- Or else? - Or else no photo.
- I didn't expect you tonight. - Am I disturbing? Another secret date?
No, no one.
- You come less and less often. - We shouldn't get used to it.
It will be harder when I leave.
Before, we couldn't see each other.
Now, we don't want to leave each other.
Life's funny...
Death's funny.
Yes.
You remember the first time you saw me...
I was terrified.
I thought I was going mad.
Now I feel I can see,
in a world of the blind.
I may be mad after all,
and you don't exist.
You're not mad, and I do exist.
I know.
I met your blackmailer.
It's not her, only her accomplice.
No, not only.
She is like me.
I knew it. I sensed it.
I guessed it.
You know everything...
Free me.
How?
You have to find how. I can't.
I can't tell you.
- Let me pass. - I want to know what you're up to.
You went and looked?
I don't spend my time spying on you, I have work, but you're going too far.
You rush in,
don't say hello, you stay up there.
You're jealous? Jealous of a room?
- No. - Then, let me pass.
I want to know what you're doing...
I beg of you, open up. Now.
Open.
Why?
You're angry with me?
But I don't understand...
What I don't understand scares me.
- So, it's you. - Yes, today it's me.
Here, it's all there.
- And the letter? - No letter.
I held my end, you hold yours.
The letter isn't part of the transaction.
What will you do with it?
You'll keep it?
- Use it against me? - No,
and don't try to harm the one who wrote it.
Harm?
How?
Very simple. She's in the way, you kill her.
- Just like that? - Just like that.
But, how could I kill her...
if she's already dead?
Pardon me?
She's dead.
Six months ago.
She drowned.
A suicide.
Then, who gave us this letter?
She did.
You think I'm crazy?
I don't know.
What should I think?
Ask your friend...
"the other person".
What's it to do with her?
Ask her.
What do you know?
- About your friend? - Yes.
She does things you don't understand...
At times she freezes, without reason.
She can't say why,
and then it passes.
And if she hurts herself,
she doesn't bleed.
You're anxious to join her, no?
You love her, she loves you,
and yet you know nothing of her,
there's an abyss between you.
How do you know what's between us?
I only know what she is.
You speak of her as if she were an animal or a thing.
She's like my sister.
Meaning...
Dead.
I guarantee the opposite.
Yes, she's alive, but not like us.
"Reliving", if you wish.
Look at my sister,
don't you find we resemble a lot?
You resemble... a bit.
She was jealous of me,
madly.
She ended up killing herself,
tried to make me pass for her murderess.
That's the meaning of the letter.
The letter she placed in your hands...
as a weapon against me.
Just like that...
Yes.
Since her suicide, she returns, visits me.
We are reconciling with each other.
We're almost.
I think that when we fully are,
she will disappear.
It is so.
They need our consent...
to leave, definitely.
You are definitely mad.
She gave you the rest?
Yes. It's all here.
- What is it? - What's wrong?
You look strange.
It's her... Madame X, who is strange.
Why?
I don't know... No reason.
Some people appear as models of stability, and then you scratch
and you realize they are mad...
stark raving.
Drop the envelope.
Come.
Do you like it?
I don't know.
You must like it.
Yes, I like it.
- But what's it for? - I don't know.
I'm a warrior...
- An Amazon? - No.
I keep my breasts for you, my enemy.
We're in the middle of a plain. A desert.
Around us, a horde... It's our first battle.
I take over, come on top of you.
I hunger for you. I eat you till I'm sick.
You tear me apart... with your teeth, your nails.
You eat my sex.
It smells like wet soil...
I stick my tongue and fingers... Smell.
It's true, it smells like wet soil.
You faint. I take you in my arms.
I take you.
Far,
far from the battleground.
You wake up,
you cry,
scream.
You will deliver me.
No.
- Hello. - Hello, I'd like to have a room.
For how long?
For the night, after, I don't know.
The smallest one. A shower and a bed.
I'd like to speak to Mr. Vincent Lehman, it's Julien Muller.
I was very disappointed by her departure.
I didn't expect it at all.
In fact I didn't replace her.
- You must have her last address. - But not her last place of residence.
She moved. Went and lived with someone...
Simon... is that it?
I think so, yes.
A charming fellow, whom I cordially detested.
Must have met him twice... absolutely not made for each other.
- I know he killed himself in a car crash. - I learned that, yes...
It didn't bring back Marie, alas.
She's a researcher.
Collaborated on the notebooks of... what's his name.
They were very close, very good friends.
It's been years, I lost track of her...
It's crazy how time flies. It was our beginnings.
May I see her, on your behalf?
I accepted to see you, but actually, I have nothing to say.
You were very close...
Yes, it's true.
Did you see her recently?
Why?
What is she really to you?
I'll tell you, try to, if you accept to speak of her.
Why is it so difficult? What happened?
What happened is she went mad.
Mad?
To some, love brings joy and...
You mean mad...
madly in love, for that... Simon?
You know his name. I'd forgotten it.
Yes, Simon.
When we saw them together, we said how beautiful they are.
"The" couple. You see?
But no. It wasn't love.
It was an attachment. An absurd attachment.
They were prisoners.
- Prisoners? - Of the image they cast for others.
There was nothing between them. Nothing.
Couldn't bear each other, but couldn't bear to know it.
- Do you want another drink? - No, thanks.
You see I speak... Well, I try to.
And you?
I don't know who she is.
All I know, is that I need her,
in a way which is...
vital.
I want to know everything.
Who broke up? It's you?
It was unbearable, hellish.
They made scenes all the time, for nothing,
to exist.
The last straw was the day he insulted her, in front of me.
I told him to leave.
And then she came to his defense, in an odious way...
Calling me all sorts of names.
She had become someone else.
I told her I didn't want to see or hear about her anymore.
And I stood fast.
People who are too miserable, one has to flee them...
It's a matter of survival.
I only hope she'll free herself from this spell.
He's dead.
All the better.
Forgive me, I'm frank.
So, after this split, no news...
Once she wrote to me, but I never replied.
We didn't renovate, nothing.
They hesitate to rent it again,
after what happened.
It was a while the tenants were fed up.
Every night, yelling, fights.
He threw her down the stairs, yelling he wouldn't see her again.
He left not long after that.
Come in, please.
When he returned ten days later, he didn't have his keys.
So I opened for him.
This is where it happened.
We didn't touch anything. Took the seals off, that's all.
This is where she hanged herself.
As soon as I came in, I felt something was not normal.
There was a funny smell.
And then, there was that noise.
It was an old record, the stylus had reached the end, so it did...
- And then I saw her. - Hanging...
Yes.
Her hands were tied,
tied in the back, with...
tape.
She had a turtleneck pulled up to her hair.
And underneath,
her face was slashed with a knife.
That's why, at first, they thought it was a crime.
Him,
they harassed him for a while.
And finally, it was her,
just her.
How she did it, I don't know.
She must really have had it against him.
I remember
the effect it had on me when I entered
and saw her slowly turning,
like a sack hanging from the ceiling.
I have to do it.
I have to.
Who are you?
I am...
Yes.
The one I love...
Let's stay like this.
Just like this...
eat, sleep, love.
Yes,
living day by day.
Every time I fall asleep, I have a dream
and that dream is like an order which I must obey.
Or else?
Or else...
Don't let me sleep...
Look at me.
You must look at me.
You don't want to die anymore.
I see it in your eyes.
What will happen?
You know very well.
The worst.
And if I continue living.
Living?
Living with him.
We're here for a time.
If you don't act,
no one can do anything for you.
Give me the strength, Adrienne.
I too, I am alone.
I know.
I am bound by this letter.
Only one person can free me.
I, I do not want to be freed.
Why do you want to die?
Don't you understand it's the only solution?
I must do it. I want to be with you. Like you.
But you can't be like me.
I don't know the rules,
no one knows them, we obey laws which are beyond us.
If you die, you will not return.
What do I care? What do I care not coming back,
if you disappear forever?
You are destroying everything...
Go away!
Julien, I told you:
Don't fail me, or you'll lose the very memory of me.
Don't give a damn for memory! It's you I want!
Present, not absent. Whole.
Then I have no choice.
What an ass!
Using a knife for...
for what in fact?
I'm going mad!
What's wrong with me?
What an ass!
Using a knife for...
for what in fact?
I'm going mad.
What's wrong with me?
I want my letter.
What letter?
I need it, and you know why.
You have no more reasons to refuse it to me.
Ah yes, the letter.
Come in. I'll get it.
- What's wrong? - Nothing,
I thought it would be...
more difficult.
It's cold in here.
- The other person isn't here? - What other person?
The other person,
the one I can't name otherwise.
Don't know what you're talking about.
The one who is like my sister.
I live alone with my cat.
There never was another person.
- Something happened here. - Nothing happens here,
nothing ever happened here, nothing will ever happen.
Fine.
It doesn't concern me after all.
- Where is the envelope? - Yes, the envelope.
Thank you.
See you.
No reason to see each other again, I believe.
It's true.
Then, farewell.
You too, farewell.
Farewell, Adrienne.
My darling.
What time is it?
Pretty early.
I mean...
what are you doing here, who are you?
How did you enter?
A lot of questions, Julien.
You know my name?
I'm Marie.
Marie, the one you loved.
I doubt it, miss...
you're not at all my type.
That's what you think...
Give me a little time.
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