Sometimes I admit to myself that it's possible
I will never be able to finish my life's work.
My one and only book.
And that in the end, without her...
...there will be nothing.
And I will die alone.
What are you doing here, Coane Dominic?
I have a migraine.
I thought a walk might help.
But in your pajamas on Christmas Eve?
Don't catch cold. Look.
At the first opportunity, I'll...
What do you do at the first opportunity?
At the first opportunity, I have to-- I have--
It's in the drawer.
I-- I have saved-- I saved it for--
At the first opportunity, I will open the blue envelope.
Not here in Piatra Neamt where everyone knows me,
but somewhere far away.
Bucharest perhaps.
At Easter.
Universul.
Special Easter edition. Universul.
War clouds over Romania.
Oh, it's pouring.
Universul.
He was struck by lightning.
Call an ambulance.
Call for some help.
Look, who knows what sins he has committed
that God would strike him on Easter.
They say whoever dies during Easter goes straight to heaven.
Dominic.
Oh...
I will wish you. You know what I mean. I mean...
I will love you until the day I die.
The eye seems intact,
but I don't know if he is blind or not.
I don't even know if he's conscious,
if he hears or if he understands what he hears.
If you understand what I say, squeeze my finger.
I'm Dr. Roman Stanciulescu.
I'm here to help you.
Good.
We wish to find out your age.
For every 10 years, squeeze my finger once.
Ten.
Twenty. Twenty.
Thirty.
Forty. Forty.
Fifty. Fifty.
Sixty. Sixty.
Seventy. Seventy.
Seventy years old.
Seventy. I would have thought less.
Well, in this larval state,
it's hard to estimate.
I've never met anyone like you.
You want to know absolutely everything.
Laura, try to imagine
conceiving a passion for something,
having one desire, dedicating your life to it
and then failing.
I am 26.
I have no accomplishments,
I've made no discoveries.
I'm a failure.
Do you have a wife?
No. - No.
Nephew?
Yes. - Nephew.
Nephew. - Do you want us
to inform your nephew about your condition?
No.
Let us know the first letter of your name. Continue.
I am going to say the alphabet.
A, B, C, D...
D. - D.
He doesn't live in Bucharest.
He has only one relative, a distant one,
and he has no wife.
Thank you.
He'll accept any test,
no matter how dangerous or painful,
to verify whether the optic nerve was damaged.
That's interesting.
How old did you say he was?
Seventy.
He's hiding his age.
He's a young man in the prime of his life.
I didn't come here...
I came here for an education. - Come.
What did you think about the lecture?
Professor Matei is getting senile.
He told us the same thing three or four times.
I didn't notice. I was asleep.
Let's go get something to eat.
Is it true?
Failure, success.
Such extremes, Dominic.
You yourself taught me about Chandrakirti.
The concept of tetralemma logic, the four possibilities.
What you say is so, or it is not so,
it's also so and not so combined, heh,
or it's neither so nor not so combined.
You know,
I've never told you this,
but Dr. Chavannes' lecture in Paris...
I waited to see him.
I was hoping that he would accept me as a student.
And he told me that if I didn't master Chinese, Sanskrit,
Tibetan and Japanese,
I would never become a great Orientalist.
But didn't you tell him
you wanted to study only the Chinese language?
I did.
I told him that I'd been studying Chinese
for six months, six hours a day.
He stepped up to the blackboard.
He wrote some 20 characters on it,
and he asked me to pronounce them
one by one and then translate the passage.
In order to master Chinese,
one must have the memory of Mandarin.
Photographic memory.
A memory of a Mandarin.
I remember hearing about another case,
a priest hit by lightning.
Burned over his whole body
and would survive many years afterwards.
True, he was left blind and mute,
as our man is also probably.
Don't talk so loud. Maybe he can hear you.
I want him to hear me.
Let's see how he'll react. Maybe he isn't mute at all.
No!
Not mute! Not mute!
Try to pronounce any word, anything.
Blue envelope.
Envelope...
The teeth, they're barely holding.
Call the dentist right now and see if the x-rays are ready.
What's next?
"Romania may be forced to negotiate with Hitler."
France is abandoning us to the Nazis.
He is right.
His x-rays have come in.
You really should take a look at them.
The roots are healthy, but they are being pushed up by new ones.
So we feel you're out of danger.
Only now do you begin to become an interesting case.
You understand why, don't you?
The way the lightning struck you,
you had to have been killed on the spot,
or else to have died of asphyxiation.
At best you'd be left paralyzed,
mute or blind.
You are lucky, I'll give you that.
Yes.
We had ordered a set of dentures to allow you to eat
and above all, to speak normally.
But the x-rays show that, uh,
a new set of teeth are ready to appear.
It's impossible.
Yes. It's simply impossible.
And yet the x-rays are clear.
You are getting new teeth.
This is no longer a case of a living dead man,
but of something else.
What, exactly,
we still don't know.
Your recovery is amazing.
I don't want to tire you out.
Get some rest. I'll be back tomorrow.
News stories and feature articles
are starting to appear in different papers,
the majority of them absurd, ridiculous.
What are you doing?
New teeth!
But you must help us understand this.
We have to know more about you, who you are,
what your profession is.
What's your real age?
Please cooperate a little more.
Were you so stubborn when you were young?
Always.
What is this you insist on writing, young man?
Well, I've almost finished with antiquity, the Middle Ages.
But the most exciting part, the origins.
The origins of language, of--
But when will you finish it, Dominic?
He needs 10 lifetimes to do it all.
The origins of language, human consciousness,
even the idea of time itself.
This would call for years of research.
And what with the inexperience of our provincial...
...librarians.
I'm terribly sorry, professor.
I have an appointment. I really must run.
He's brilliant. Brilliant. But--
Laura, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot.
We have to talk, Dominic.
It's very important for both of us,
and I can't hide it any longer.
Of course.
It's snowing. Should we go to the Café Select?
No. And please don't interrupt. It's not what you think.
I feel that you aren't mine,
that you are never here with me.
That you-- That you live in another time.
I'm not thinking of your research,
which in spite of what you believe, does interest me.
I wanted to help you with that.
But you keep yourself shut away in an alien world,
one I can't enter.
So for my sake and for yours,
we should break our engagement and separate.
No.
Laura, no.
We are still young.
We both love life.
You will have more time for your research.
You'll see later.
Tell the professor what he wants to know.
Tell him you need a new identity.
All right, you can go. I'll be here all afternoon.
I understand that you are willing
to speak to me candidly.
You don't have to make a great effort.
The words you cannot pronounce, you can write.
My name...
is Dominic Matei.
On January the 8th...
I reached the age of 70.
I am a teacher in Piatra Neamt.
I live on Strada Episcopiei at Number 18.
It is my house.
It contains a library of...
some 8,000 volumes...
which I have willed to the lycée.
You're 70 years old?
Extraordinary.
If...
If you require further proof, I can tell you the...
titles of the books on my desk or any other...
There's an album of photographs somewhere?
More precisely, with pictures of you when you were young?
And some, uh, clothing?
I implore you to be very, very discreet.
Agents from the Secret Service,
they'll never believe I'm past 70
and therefore they'll never believe I am who I say I am.
Of course. We'll be very careful.
Anything can happen if you're interrogated by them.
I won't let that happen.
It's true, though,
these are difficult times in Romania.
In truth...
I came here with the intention of committing suicide.
I had saved an envelope with enough strychnine in it
to end my empty life.
Please...
could you find me a fictitious identity?
That's not a problem.
When your beard comes off, you'll look like a man of 35,
or, um, 40, at most.
Don't worry.
You're handsome without the beard, you know?
I have your jacket.
If you like, you can take me to the movies sometime.
The sleeves are too short.
And the tie is no good.
They look like an old man's clothes.
Go with him.
I've seen that car before.
Last night in my dream.
Some people might say that's a bad omen.
I'm not superstitious.
They're waiting for us.
Professor.
Welcome. Thank you, doctor.
There's wild roses somewhere.
I want you to note down all that passes through your mind.
All the books you've read, all the languages you know,
everything, all the memories, no matter how insignificant.
If you aren't in the mood to write,
or if you have too much to say,
use this device.
German, I'm sorry to say.
A wire recorder.
How do I operate this?
My memory...
My memory is unbelievable.
I have a surprise for you.
Soon you'll receive all the things
from your home in Piatra Neamt:
your reference books, dictionaries,
personal belongings.
Ah.
The watch she gave me.
I've brought your family album.
The one with your pictures from lycée and the university.
What are you thinking?
What kind of memories?
What kind of associations?
When I look at that photograph,
I sense the heat
of that morning.
The fragrance of the oleander.
Laura's scent.
Soap...
on her skin.
It's unforgettable.
She married someone else, you know.
And a year later she died in childbirth.
It was awful.
It's a kind of hypermnesia with lateral effects.
It's...
too much,
and it's useless.
It seems useless
because we don't know yet what to do with it,
with this fantastic
recovery of memory.
It's useless.
Soon it will be learned
that someone,
an old man of unknown origin, was struck by lightning
and after 10 weeks
appeared perfectly healthy and young again.
Let's hope the rest will not be found out.
The anterior-posterior diameter, 19 centimeters.
The height of the face, 12 centimeters.
And the length of the nose, 6 centimeters.
The sexual organs look like those of a man of 40.
They are fully functional.
My opinion: the patient is clinically youthful.
I warned you there would be
a sort of international consultation.
They had to see firsthand.
They couldn't believe the reports
I published in La Presse Médicale.
Well, I wasn't expecting such questions.
Especially since I was still in the hospital and had no way
of confirming or ruling out sexual possibilities.
Excuse me.
In your notebooks, you speak of erotic dreams.
Are you sure they were dreams?
I don't know.
But if I've confused erotic dreams with real experiences,
my life is far more interesting than I'd imagined.
Good,
we value this information.
Thank you.
But in the case of the young lady in Room 6,
my friend,
that woman was imposed on us by the Secret Service.
What young lady in Room 6?
Have we met somewhere before?
Of course we've met before.
Several times, in fact.
I am impressed. You are very discreet.
Where?
And when?
Most recently, last night in Room 6.
Your room is next door.
Open up!
Second floor is clear.
Sir... - Over here.
Over here or there? - Hey, get out of the car.
Hey, you, stop the car. Stop the car.
Don't worry.
It had to happen like this,
for you to be confused with others,
for people to think you can't distinguish dream from reality.
Who is taking care of me?
Did you think all you've gone through is due to chance?
Who is watching over me?
It doesn't matter now. You'll find out later.
Besides, you've guessed some of it already.
Otherwise, why haven't you told the professor
about... certain dreams like this?
Stop.
If you know someone else exists,
why have you never referred to it?
I must not think, I must not think,
I must not think of anything.
I must not think, I must not think of anything.
I must not think, I must not think...
Yes.
You learn more quickly, more profoundly, in sleep.
You told the professor that in sleep
you continued your studies of the daytime.
Little by little, you discovered you'd mastered Chinese,
just as later, you discovered you'd mastered other languages.
I'm beginning to understand what's happening to me.
Yes.
Good.
The enormous concentration
of electricity that exploded directly above me
regenerated me and...
amplified fabulously all my mental faculties.
But this electrical discharge also made possible
the emergence of a new personality, a sort of...
double.
Yes.
The formula of the double
is...correct and useful.
But don't be in a hurry to tell the professor.
So, what I can say?
A man was about to
cross the street.
He was 70 or 80 years old.
The young lady in Room 6
disappeared two days ago.
Your companion of a night, or several.
I'm afraid it was several.
Do you love me?
Yes, more than I could have imagined.
Tell me how you desire me, how you long for me.
You are my dream and my goddess.
She recorded all your conversations
and transmitted them to the Gestapo.
And when she asked you questions
in Russian, Polish or German,
you replied without difficulty in all those languages.
It's probable that after listening to the recordings,
someone high up in the Reich decided to kidnap you.
Kidnap me?
You have become
the most valuable human specimen
existing today on the face of the earth.
Come, have your chicken.
All the medical schools in the world
would like to study you.
As a sort of guinea pig. - Professor.
We are doing all we can to prevent that.
Professor, ahem,
in your office, you must come.
Please, professor, immediately.
We are disturbed over your level of cooperation, Herr Professor.
As you see, your government has instructed you
to relinquish the patient
and all relevant files to our custody.
I'm sorry, I cannot comply with this one.
"Cannot comply"?
I will not turn over the patient himself.
As his doctor,
his condition won't allow transfer at this time.
I'll return with a German doctor.
Good.
You're behaving as you should
in order to create the necessary confusion.
The double.
He always answers the questions I'm ready to ask.
Like a true guardian angel.
Now that's a correct and useful formula.
Are there others?
Many.
For example?
Along with angels and guardian angels, there are powers:
Archangels,
seraphim, cherubim.
Intermediary beings par excellence.
Intermediary between consciousness
and unconsciousness?
Well, of course.
But also between nature and man,
man and the divine,
reason and Eros.
Feminine and masculine,
darkness and light,
matter and spirit.
So it's come back to my old passion again:
philosophy of religion.
Yes,
for you it will always come back to that.
But I can't believe in the objective reality
of the person with whom I'm conversing. I--
I can only think of him as my double.
Well, in a sense,
that's what he is, but...
that doesn't mean he doesn't exist
in an objective way independently.
Oh, I'd like to be convinced, but--
In metaphysical controversies, empirical proofs
lose their value, but...
wouldn't you enjoy receiving
a few fresh roses
picked from the garden?
I've always liked roses.
Well, where would you like me to put them?
Not in the vase, at any rate.
One right here
in my hand...
as I'm holding it now, open.
And another on my knee?
The third rose.
Where do you want me to put the third rose?
Let's see.
Things are more serious than we thought.
We know now why the Gestapo will try anything,
anything, in order to get their hands on you.
Why?
Among the intimates of Goebbels,
there is an enigmatic and ambiguous person,
a certain Dr. Josef Rudolf.
Dr. Rudolf believes that electrocution by a current
of at least a million volts
could produce a radical mutation
of the human species.
Word of these experiments
has reached the ear of Adolf Hitler,
who has become personally interested in your case.
Attention! The experiment begins!
They want us to lend you to them
for a period of time.
God help me.
Time, Dominic,
we are running out of time.
Austrian-Swiss border. Passport control.
Please disembark with all luggage.
An order has just come in from Vienna
that certain nationals will be detained.
But why? I have a valid passport and visa.
Please take a step back.
Go on!
My cooperation with the Nazis is only symbolic.
Go ahead.
Thank you.
Geneva.
1941, May the 7th.
Dominic Matei, dictation.
The documents in the Geneva safety-deposit box
summarize my life, which was profoundly changed
in the spring of 1938,
in front of the Gara de Nord railway station
in Bucharest.
My first experiences
were described and analyzed by Professor Roman Stanciulescu,
in reports which were confiscated by the Nazis.
The war rages around me.
I am a fugitive in neutral Switzerland,
encircled by the Axis powers.
My Romanian homeland has made a pact with the devil,
Adolf Hitler,
and may soon be under siege.
I've lost contact with my dear friend,
Professor Stanciulescu,
which could mean that he's been killed.
I live in fear,
dreading what awaits in the alleyways.
Eluding capture by my wits,
moving from hotel to rooming house,
always working on my book.
November the 30th, 1941.
Zurich. Dominic Matei.
I have explained in portfolio B
how I instinctually found the talent
to preserve myself.
Living like a secret agent,
I discovered abilities to forge documents,
change addresses and prepare disguises.
Shortly before he disappeared, Professor Stanciulescu
arranged a bank account for me in Geneva
under the name of William Pedersen.
Now, without him, these funds will be depleted.
Oh, good morning, Mr. Pedersen.
And I will have to find other means.
February the 20th, 1942.
Bern.
I must face the undeniable and chilling truth,
that I am a mutant.
Like a character in a science-fiction novel,
I am a strange superman of the future.
I have access to knowledge unavailable to mankind.
Powers I don't fully understand.
Despite this, I try to behave as an ordinary intellectual,
working to complete my book,
documenting the origin of language
and human consciousness.
I began to realize that with any text I had before me,
if I wanted to know the content,
I simply...knew it.
Lake Campione. October the 23rd, 1942.
I found I could augment my income.
Winning just enough not to arouse suspicion.
No more bets.
Nothing is as it seems, I am the proof of that.
We've got a winner.
Dominic Matei?
Dominic Matei.
I trust no one.
Look at these.
See? These were taken at the clinic
of Dr. Stanciulescu...
in 1938.
And to think, 10 months ago, on January 8th,
you turned 74 years old.
Eleven again.
You're trying to look older too.
Those glasses aren't even prescription.
I still don't-- Thank you. I still don't know
with whom I have the pleasure to be speaking.
Ted Jones, Jr.
I'm a correspondent for LIFE magazine.
Listen.
Switzerland is entirely surrounded by the Axis powers.
I'm cashing out. Thank you.
I'm on special assignment for the United States.
I really think you're confusing me with someone else.
We can protect your identity, completely.
I have a very powerful organization behind me.
I know I can be of some service to you.
We can pay you, or we can make
some arrangements for you, anything that might help you.
You know, your English is perfect,
but you're not saying anything.
I'm afraid I must remain neutral in all of this.
Now, if you'll excuse me.
If someone were to tell me that there exist among us
authentic magicians, saints, bodhisattvas,
or anyone endowed with miraculous powers,
I would believe them.
In a certain sense, what you say is true.
But you've attained the freedom to accept
or reject these new conditions
to use them to finish your life's work, or not.
Have you decided?
To use them for good
or for evil.
Have you decided?
Despite my precautions,
I was afraid I would inadvertently
give myself away conversing with professors
and colleagues at the university.
I knew more than any of them and understood things
they never even suspected existed.
I know you're a good friend
of the Romanian Professor Stanciulescu.
I'm very sorry. I heard he died in a plane crash, an accident.
But we can talk about this when my friend gets here.
I told him to come at 9:00.
Your friend?
Dr. Monroe.
The director of an important gerontology foundation.
He's Swiss, like me.
Like you.
You know, I do have a name.
Would you like to know it?
Be careful.
He knows who you are.
Hello, I'm Dr. Monroe.
Head of the foundation investigating
the materials of Professor Stanciulescu.
I'm afraid I have no idea to what you're referring.
The belief that youth and life
can be prolonged in any way other than by the purely
biochemical ones.
You do know what I'm referring to?
No, I'm sorry.
Methods proposed by that Nazi, Dr. Rudolf.
Electrocution by means of a million or more volts.
Insane.
Fortunately, I believe that method was never tried.
But our informants said that Professor Stanciulescu
had worked with a somewhat analogous case of rejuvenation
induced by a bolt of lightning.
We know who you are, Mr. Dominic Matei.
Now, I have a prior engagement, I really must run.
I'm terribly sorry. - I know.
Perhaps we could have dinner. Later tonight?
Mr. Matei?
What do we do with time?
That question, "what do we do with time"
expresses the supreme ambiguity of the human condition.
I have no idea what you're talking about.
An opportunity has been given to us.
We, the human race.
"We"?
No.
You and I both know what is coming:
atomic warfare, cataclysmic destruction.
But unlike the others,
I'm trying to find a meaning to this impending catastrophe.
Think of me as the last European optimist.
This can be our life's work.
Please.
There are a few of us who since 1938 have known that you exist.
The fact that you appeared all of a sudden
means that you have a special mission
and that you possess means of knowledge much superior
to those available to us.
You are gravely mistaken.
What is indispensable to a truly human existence?
For instance,
the Occidental artistic treasury, music and poetry,
but also a part of classic philosophy,
and above all, science.
Post-historic man will be allergic to science
for at least one or two centuries.
No, always science.
Science above all. Dominic.
I'm surprised at you.
Dominic, don't believe anything he says.
Shut up!
I will tell him the truth.
Come, Dominic, join me in this work.
He is Dr. Josef Rudolf,
Hitler's most dedicated scientist.
Adolf Hitler?
If you actually knew him...
If you had ever been with him, in his presence...
If I could describe it to you...
Well, uh,
you will meet him soon enough.
No! The Gestapo had Stanciulescu killed
and Rudolf was the one-- Traitor!
You have no choice in the matter.
Dominic.
You were the honey in my dreams.
Forgive me. Please, forgive me.
It's true what he says.
You really have no choice in the matter.
Geneva 1955, 20th of August,
about 10:31 a.m. Dominic Matei.
I've decided to stop making notes in English
and instead to use an artificial language
of my own invention.
Now I can describe paradoxical situations
impossible to express in any existing language.
This will permit me to reveal facts
I have not dared to confess in writing.
This language will only be deciphered
by means of a perfected computer.
So my testimony is addressed to the future,
let us say in the year 2010.
But to whom?
The coming nuclear wars
will destroy many civilizations.
Undoubtedly, this will unleash
a wave of deep pessimism, historically unprecedented.
A general despondency.
My testimony, deciphered in the future,
could counter the despair
because it shows the potential of humanity: