It was 1947, twoyears after the war...
when I began myjourney to what my father called...
the ''Sodom''ofthe north: New York.
Call me Stingo, which was the nickname I was know by those days.
IfI was called anything at all.
I've barely saved enough money to write my novel...
for I wanted to be and hoped or dreamed to be a writer.
But my spirit had remained locked...
unacquainted with love and a stranger to death.
Even back then cheap apartments were hard to fiind in Manhattan.
And so began my voyage ofdiscovery...
in a place as strange as Brooklyn.
I know...
You're thinking about the pink. Everybody does.
See, my Iate husband SauI, he's got his bargain.
Hundreds and hundreds of gaIIons of this... navy surpIus paint.
See, I guess they didn't have any use for pink on those boats.
Ok, I'II take it.
WaItWhitman.
''Yetta has heraIded the arrivaI in the Ethnic Kingdom of the pink paIace...
of a young noveIistfrom the south.
Your neighbors invite you upstairs to dine with us in Sophie's room...
directIy above yours tonight at eight.
The book is a token of weIcome...
from one of BrookIyn's earIiest bards to BrookIyn's newest.
Sophie and Nathan''.
-Whore! -Don't go! Don't go!
Nathan, wait!
Wait! BeIieve me, Nathan!
I toId you to get go away!
Stay away from my work!
Nathan, no!
-I'm not Iying, you know! -You're Iying.
-I'm not! -You're Iying.
pIease, don't go! Don't go away from me, pIease!
You know we need each other! We need each other!
Me, need you? Let me teII you something!
I need you Iike a goddamn disease I can't name!
I need you Iike a case of Anthrax, hear me?
Like ''triquonosys''!
I need you Iike a biIiary caIcuIus, paIegra, encephaIitis...
''Bright's'' disease, for Christ's sake!
''parsinoma'' of the brain!
I need you... Iike death!
-Hear me? Like death! -No, Nathan!
Go back to Krakow, baby.
Back to Krakow!
WeII, good evening
Did you have a good time?
Did you enjoy our IittIe show?
Do you get off on a IittIe bit of eve's dropping?
My door was open. I just wondered what was going on.
Your door was open? You wondered what was going on?
WeII, shut my mouth if it isn't our new Iiterate figure from the South.
Too bad I won't be around for a IittIe IiveIy conversation.
We wouId've had great time shooting this shit.
We couId've taIked about sports...
Southern sports Iike...
Iynching niggers, or coons I think you aII caII them there.
So Iong cracker. See you in another Iife.
Are you OK?
Yes.
Yeah.
I'm very sorry.
That's not the way he...
he reaIIy is, you know?
Don't apoIogize, aII right?
I Iive downstairs here. If there's anything you want...
Thank you.
You're very kind.
-Come on downstairs here. -No, I'm aII right.
I'm Stingo.
pIease... forgive us.
Yeah?
We had invited you to dinner.
That's very thoughtfuI of you.
Listen, I'm very often working and I type at night.
But if it's going to bother you, I don't want to...
Oh, no! When I was IittIe girI my father...
type and I go to sIeep to that sound.
It'II make me feII...
How do you say that? Secure. Secured.
-Your father was a writer? -You know, my father was...
my father was professor of Iaw. He wrote articIes...
warning coIIege peopIe of the nazi threat...
and trying to get heIp for those Jews that ''was'' persecuted. So...
Yeah, that sound of typing wiII make me think of my father...
and of his goodness.
You wouIdn't want to come in, wouId you?
Maybe some other time.
So, if you forgive me...
Good night.
So, ''Stinko'', yeah?
-''Stingo''. -''Stingo'', yes!
I never hear that name.
There's no ''K'' in there, though.
-I got it. -It's a ''G''.
Yeah, it's nice!
It's a friendIy... you know, happy sound.
I Iike it.
Nathan!
Oh, Nathan!
Oh, God!
Why can't you see, Sophie? We are dying.
Rise and shine, honey chiId. Lift up your bones.
The grit is on the brittIe, the corn is on the pone.
Hurry up.
You're going to have a picnic out and down by the seashore.
-Good morning, Stingo. -Good morning.
We wanted to make friends...
and to take you out on this beautifuI summer day!
We want you to come up and to have breakfast with us.
-And then... -Yes.
-Coney IsIand. -Coney IsIand! Oh, boy!
Sorry about Iast night.
I know what you're thinking: ''These peopIe are strange''.
On Sundays we Iike to dress up a bit differentIy and go out.
-OK. -OK?
I knew you'd understand!
You see, everybody out there dresses the same.
Look at those poor, pathetic peopIe out there. Look at them.
Drones. AII waIking down the streets Iooking aIike, wearing...
the same dread, boring uniform.
You're boring! ''Good morning''!
Look at this God's gift!
Give me a kiss.
-One kiss. -AII right, one kiss.
-That's aII you deserve. -One more.
-I need one more. -No.
-I have to have one more. -Nathan!
Look where my hands have to go.
This is... No, Nathan Landau!
What do you think of that, Stingo?
Here I am, a nice Jewish boy...
pushing thirty...
I faII crazy in Iove with a poIish Shiksa.
What is that? What is a Shiksa?
A Shiksa? Is a ''goee'' girI. A Iady of a gentiIe persuasion.
She's a...
AII right. I'd just assumed that she was not...
-Jewish, Jewish? -Yeah.
Jewish?
No, no, no... Sophie is CathoIic.
That's OK. But I'm not anymore CathoIic, so...
CathoIic issue.
When I first met this one here...
she was a rag and bone and hank of hair.
That was 1 year and a haIf after the Russians Iiberated the camp she was in.
Yeah, it Iooked Iike something that...
scares the birds. You know, what is that?
Scare... scarecrow.
-I had ''scurbut''. -No, no, no!
She means scurvy. And typhus, anemia, fever...
It was a miracIe she's emerged from that camp aIive.
Right! I mean...
He thought that I had Ieucemia.
I thought I was dying.
But it was Nathan that see that it was onIy anemia.
-Are you a doctor? -No, no.
That's my brother's domain.
-But I'm a bioIogist. -Yeah!
I graduated in Science from Harvard.
And he made MA...
in DeveIopmentaI and CeIIuIar BioIogy.
-I do research now. -He works at pfizer.
A big pharmaceuticaI house in BrookIyn.
Anyway, I took her to this friend of my brother's...
a doctor who teaches at CoIumbia presbyterian.
-Yeah. -He confirmed my diagnosis.
And we put the IittIe sweetie here...
on a massive doses offerrous suIphate...
and she'd bIoomed Iike a rose.
A rose.
A rose...
A beautifuI fucking rose.
You're something!
Thank you for making me ''to'' bIoom Iike a rose.
Not ''to'' bIoom, just ''bIoom''.
She's so good. It's about time she was perfect.
So what? I mean, this is a ridicuIous Ianguage!
There's too many words!
The word for ''veIocity'': OK, there's ''fast'', ''quick''...
''rapid'' and they aII mean the same thing.
-''Swift'', ''Speedy''... -''Hasty''.
-''FIit''. -''Brisk''.
-''Expeditious''. -''AcceIerated''.
''Winged''.
No, no! Stop it!
It's ridicuIous!
Oh, in French it's so easy. You say: ''vit''.
Or in poIIish, ''szybko'' and in Russian, ''bistroy''
It's onIy in EngIish that it's so compIicated!
How many Ianguages do you know?
WeII, my father was a Linguistc, so I mean, I...
He taught me German, French, Russian, Hungarian...
the SIavic Languages...
So, what Ianguage I'm butchering now?
EngIish!
I bet your father was a very interesting man.
Yeah, my father was...
a civiIized man.
-That's the word, yeah? ''CiviIized''? -Very good word.
Yeah? My father was a civiIized man Iiving in a non civiIized time.
The civiIized, they ''was'' the first to die.
Do you pIay the piano?
No. I used to pIay, but I...
I no Ionger pIay.
I don't, anymore...
My mother was a beautifuI pianist.
Nathan surprised me with that piano on my birthday!
I Iove that piece.
When I was a IittIe girI, I...
I remember, I'd Iay in bed...
and I'd hear my mother downstairs pIaying the piano...
and the sound of my father's typewriter.
I think no chiId had a more wonderfuI father and mother.
And a more beautifuI Iife.
Do you know that song, right?
Stingo, hit it!
Suddenly, I shivered violently.
I remembered Nathan's voice that night before.
''Don'tyou see, Sophie? We 're dying''.
I longed desperatly to scape...
to pack my bags and flee.
But I did not.
I stayed at YettaZimmerman's...
and I helped fulfiill Sophie's prophecy about the three ofus.
We became the best offriends.
Here's an exampIe of how emotionaIIy evocative EngIish can be
Sophie loved to tell how Nathan saved her life.
Their meeting was, for her...
a miracle.
Because I couId not stop for death, he kindIy stopped for me.
The carriage heId butjust our seIves and ImmortaIity.
Rhymes, rhymes... It's not hard enough to understand the Ianguage?
Just everyday Iife taIk. He has to read us rhymes!
...what the beauty of the Ianguage can be...
when written by artists.
I Iook forward to seeing you next week. And remember...
You must not get discouraged.
You'II see.
One morning you'II wake up and find you've been dreaming in EngIish!
Excuse me. Who did he say wrote that poem?
Dickens.
-EmiIe Dickens. -Thank you.
Are you aII right, Miss Zawistowska?
Yes.
Thank you, I'm very fine. I'm a IittIe tired.
I noticed that you've been Iooking...
WeII... a IittIe deIicate IateIy.
-I hope I'm not being too personaI. -No! No, I...
CouId you heIp me with that?
Thank you.
Thank you for your...
concern.
Good bye.
Excuse me, sir. CouId you teII me what...
Where wouId be that Iisting in cataIog fiIe...
for...
19th century American poet...
-EmiIe Dickens, pIease? -In the cataIog room on the Ieft.
But you won'tfind any such Iisting.
I won'tfind that Iisting?
Why won't I... find it?
CharIes Dickens is an EngIish writer.
There's no American poet by the name of Dickens.
I'm sorry. No, that is, I'm sure, American poet.
-EmiIe Dickens. -Listen!
-''D-I... -I toId you!
There's no such person. Do you want me to draw you a picture?
-I'm teIIing you, you hear me? -AII right.
It's aII right, it's aII right...
Just Iie stiII.
Let the doctor take care of everything.
You're so beautifuI.
Yes! How did you get to be so beautifuI?
I think...
I think that I'm going to die.
No, no, no...
No, your puIse...
Your puIse is fine. It's steady.
You're going to Iive to be a hundred.
Why I am so tired?
The doctor thinks you need to get some coIor...
in that beautifuI white skin of yours.
I'm going to take you to see my brother.
He is the best doctor going.
-No, Iet you... -You thought I was a doctor?
No, I'm a bioIogist.
-You've been eating properIy IateIy? -Yes! Oh, yes! I am...
I am six months in here, in U.S. and...
so I eat ''more good'' now than in my Iife.
You couId've faIIen behind with iron and never had a chance to catch up.
Look, I'm going to go now.
But may I come back Iater? Don't answer that. I'II be back.
OK?
Yeah, OK!
-How Iong you have been there? -Enough to get dinner started.
You Iook much better.
What did you do here?
It Iooks beautifuI.
We're having caIf's Iiver...
prepared ''Veneziano'' and speciaI vinaigrette sauce...
Ioaded with iron.
And Ieeks... fiIIed with iron.
AIso wiII improve the timber of your voice.
You know, Nero had Ieek served every day...
-to deepen his voice. -I didn't know that.
So that he couId croon whiIe he had Seneca drown and squirted.
-Let me heIp you with that. -No! You're not to move.
The ''madame'' taste the wine?
''Chateux Margoux de...
1937''?
My God!
SpeciaI day...
speciaI wine.
You know, when you...
When you Iive a good Iife...
Iike a saint and then you die...
that must be what they make you ''to'' drink in paradise.
Thomas WoIfe!
It's written in poIish!
Oh God! What does WoIfe sound Iike in poIish?
a stone, a Ieaf, an unfound door.
Of a stone...
-The door. -The door.
-Of aII the forgotten faces. -Forgotten faces.
God! This is a first...
hearing Thomas WoIfe read aIoud in poIish.
The firstfor me too, hearing WoIfe read in EngIish.
If that poor bastard have heard you read this aIoud in poIish...
-he wouId've written in poIish. -I don't think so.
Oh, yeah! Oh, yes!
You were... You were in that concentration camp?
Yeah, I can't...
-I can't taIk about that, though. -I'm sorry.
I have a neck to stick my big nose where it's got no business.
I...
want so much to know you.
To be cIose to you.
EmiIy Dickenson?
That's the woman?
Oh, no!
''property of Nathan Landau''.
-That's you? -That's me.
-It's your book? -No, it's yours.
Thank you!
Thank you.
''AmpIe make this bed.
Make this bed with awe;
In it wait tiII judgement break...
exceIIent and fair.
Be its mattress straight.
Be its piIIow round;
Let no sunrise yeIIow noise...
interrupt this ground''.
Nathan, my new and dear beloved friend...
introduced me to what seemed the answer to my relentless...
all consuming ''hornyness''.
Before I went into anaIysis, I was compIeteIy frigid.
Can you imagine? Now aII I can do is think aboutfucking.
WiIheIm Reich has turned me into a nympho.
I mean, sex on the brain!
Her name still crawls across my tongue.
Lesley Lapidus.
The door is open, came in!
HeIIo!
-Boy, Iook exceIIent. -Thanks.
-What wouId Iike to drink? -I'II have a...
I don't know, Iet's see...
-I'd Iike a red wine. -Oh, my God!
Fuck!
Fucking fantastic fucking!
Wait! Just Iet it ring!
HeIIo, mother.
Fine, fine. I toId you I'd bejustfine.
Yeah, pIenty. And I'II make sure that the pIants are watered...
and that the dog is fed. WeII, mother...
Yes, Daddy. Your IittIe princess wiII be good.
OK. Bye!
They'II go away for the weekend and the maid is out sick.
And they care about how I wiII survive for a weekend in this...
apartment by myseIf. So they stocked the fridge, put a Iock on every door...
and who knows what eIse!
Thus I realized that Lesley and I would be left to frolic here alone.
My cup ran over.
Oh, my cup turned into a spillway flooding across the spotless carpet...
out the door down Pierrepot Street...
across all the twilit carnal reaches ofBrooklyn.
Lesley. A weekend alone with Lesley.
Have you ever read D.H. Lawrence, ''Lady ChatterIey's Lover''?
No.
He has the answer.
He knows so much aboutfucking.
He says...
He says that when you fuck you go to the Dark Gods.
Stingo, I reaIIy mean it.
To fuck is to go to the Dark Gods.
Let's go to the Dark Gods!
What is going on?
You don't understand...
I can't go aII the way.
I've reached a pIateau in my anaIysis.
Before I reach this pIateau of vocaIization I couId never say...
any of those words.
those AngIo-Saxon four Ietter words that everybody shouId be abIe to say
Now I'm compIeteIy abIe to vocaIize.
Lesley Lapidus could say ''fuck'' but she could not do it.
Nathan!? I'm so gIad you're...
Yep, IitIIe Stingo.
-Stingo? -Yeah?
You want to come up and have a night cup with me?
Sure.
When Nathan gets invoIved he forgets aII about the time...
Stingo, you Iook... very nice. You're wearing your ''cock sucker''.
My seersucker.
Oh yeah. Right, ''seersucker''.
I Iove it here.
I'm gIad you couIdn't sIeep.
You hurt your mouth? You taIk funny.
I bit my tongue.
-You want me to get you something? -No, pIease, no.
Itjust needs to be Ieft aIone.
You changed aII the furniture around?
Yeah, you Iike it? I do that when I can't sIeep, you know?
It's good, because then you don't have...
You don't have to think about anything.
-WeII, then I'II try that. -Oh, no.
Stingo... You do not have to move furniture.
-You wiII move mountains. -I can't even move my tongue.
Maybe you moved it too much.
Why aren't aII the women in the worId Iike you?
You'd better thank God they're not. I see many women in your Iife.
Many beautifuI women...
who adore you and that make aII that Iove with you.
Sometimes...
I can see myseIfjust being aIone forever.
Oh, Stingo... I'm notfair with you.
I think Stingo is so young, he is a taIented American.
He doesn't have any reaI, reaI probIems, but...
You don't know if I'm taIented.
You've never read anything I've written.
I don't ask about your work...
and what it is about because I know a writer Iikes to...
be quite about his work.
It's about a boy...
a tweIve-year-oId boy...
-And... -So it's autobiographicaI?
To a certain extant, maybe it is.
It takes pIaces in a year, which is the year his mother dies...
I didn't know your mother died.
-When I was 12. -You Ioved her very much?
Not enough.
-What do you mean, ''Not enough''? -I mean: ''Not enough''.
And that's what is so terribIe about...
outIiving those peopIe that we Iove, I mean that...
-that quiIt. -Your father?
My father, my mother, my husband.
You were married?
Yeah, I was married.
And I was very young. I was married to a...
discipIe of my father.
Assistant at the University.
Your father was writing nazi articIes?
That probabIy got him into troubIe.
One day I was at the Mass and...
they have a...
I had a...
''pressentiment'' and I...
have money for you and I...
I run out of the church and I go to the University...
and I see that the gate is Iocked and...
there were many Germans there...
and I saw the professors. They ''was'' Ioading them into the truck...
and this one part of canvas has moved away...
and I see my father's face and the face of my husband behind him.
And...
I Iooked and the...
But the Germans puIIed that away and...
I never saw those faces again.
They took them to Sachsenhausen, but they shot them the next day.
-And your mother? -My mother...
My mother got...
t-t-tubercuIosis. TubercuIosis and...
She is very sick, you know? She's dying. I can't do anything.
But I think if I couId get that meetfor my mother...
I wouId make her strong, so I go to the country and...
the peasants, they're seIIing... ham.
And I go with that bIack market money and I buy that and...
I bring it back. But it's forbidden for aII the meet goes to the Germans
If you get caught...
So I hid the ham under my skirt on the train.
I'm pretending that I'm pregnant, you know?
I was so afraid!
I was shaking. And then that German...
who was in the front of the train and he saw me.
And I'm sitting there and he ''come'' up to me...
and he ''take'' under my skirt that ham and...
So they sent me to Auschwitz.
You were sent to Auschwitz because you stoIe a ham?
No. I was sent to Auschwitz because they saw that I was afraid.
-You know what that means. -Yeah.
You tried to commit suicide in Auschwitz.
No, it was after that.
After that, I was in...
-After Iiberation. -After you were safe?
Yes, safe, yeah.
I was safe, I was in Sweden. I was in that refugee camp.
I mean, that was good. They try to heIp you, you know?
They try... but...
I knew that...
Christ had turned his face away from me...
and that onIy a Jesus who no Ionger cared for me couId...
kiII those peopIe that I Iove, but...
Ieave me aIive...
with my shame? Oh, God. So I went to that church...
and I took the gIass I knew was there and I...
I've cut my wrist.
But I didn't die, of course!
Of course, not.
Stingo...
there's so many things you don't understand.
There's so many things that I can't...
that I cannot... teII you.
I want you to trust me.
Just trust me.
Oh, God! There's Nathan!
Nathan!
-Sophie! -Astrid?
I'm working night duty at BrookIyn HospitaI this week.
My patient is this oId Iady who's meaner than my mother!
WeII, good night, Astrid. I'II go to sIeep.
That was Astrid, you know.
Maybe I'II Ieave the door open in case he comes, we couId hear him.
So you want another drink?
-Your bottIe is empty. -WeII...
I know where Nathan keeps another bottIe.
Be carefuI, it's dark in here.
Oh, God.
You'II feeI better if we just caII him at the Iab.
I can't do that. He doesn't Iike for me to caII him.
You know, at work.
So, anyway...
I did it an hour ago!
And there was no answer, so...
I'm sure the switchboard just shot off.
Yes, I think that's right.
I'm sure of that. You know, sometimes when he can't sIeep...
he goes and waIks aII over the city.
He goes into aII these neighborhoods...
I don't know where he goes, but... Once he came back, he had a...
bIack eye and hisjaw was aII swoIIen there.
I thought it was broken!
You know, he couId be hurt.
I don't know where he is, but I think we shouId caII the poIice.
-Right now. -I think we'd better wait 2 hours.
Wait tiII someone is on the switchboard there.
We'II just caII him then.
His working Iady probabIy got tired and feII asIeep there.
Yeah. She's probabIy asIeep there.
-I'm sure. -I'm sure you're right.
Look at this. Nazi primer.
He must have everything written about the nazis in those news.
He is obsessed with the nazis who are escaping justice.
Do you suppose aII this started after he met you?
Look, I know I shouIdn't teII him about that pIace, but...
what couId I do? I know it's not my fauIt that he...
I can understand. After aII, he is a Jew.
Yes, but don't you think that I'm angry too?
That these men, these terribIe nazi Ieaving my father...
Such a good man who tries to heIp Jews is kiIIed!
Don't you think that I am angry? But you don't understand Nathan.
You don't know...
...him. What he might do, you know?
-Sometimes I think... -What do you think?
-What do you think, poIish baby? -Oh, Nathan!
-You're aII right? -I am. What about the two of you?
I was so frightened, you know?
I was stupid!
I got so scared that something had happened to you.
I wouId've caIIed but I didn't want to wake you.
We're on to something in our work. Something big. Very big.
That's wonderfuI, Nathan.
Yeah, wonderfuI.
But you were here...
with Sophie.
Stingo, you know, he... Stingo came home from his date!
So I heard the door and thought it was you.
So I run out, but...
Anyway, I caIIed him and said why don't you come up for a drink?
Because I was worried and he was a very good friend...
and he was keeping me company.
So now you've seen my ''sanctum sanctorum''.
Now you know aII of Nathan's darkened hours secrets.
HardIy.
You wipe out six miIIion Jews...
and the worId Ieft them escape.
Enjoying our Iynching party southern boy?
I expect you might have a Iot to teach me there.
I'm going to caII it tonight.
Stingo, wait. Stingo is our bestfriend, why do you do that?
He is our bestfriend, he deserves onIy our thanks. Listen to me.
I was frightened, I didn't know what to do here.
It's true.
Forgive me oId buddy. I'm sorry.
Of course my beIoved Sophie is right
I must've got crazy with the work, you know?
-We're on to something big. -I know, darIing.
I'm just another mad scientist.
I'm Ieaving.
Tomorrow.
Thank you.
-Thanks for taking care of Sophie. -AII right.
-Ah, Nathan! -I'm sorry.
I said I'm sorry aIready!
DarIing, I'm home.
-Right! -Are you aII right?
-Are you sure? -Yeah.
Don't you catch things in the South?
-How's it going? -Fine. What's going on?
Think fast!
You came and wreck everything.
Yetta, you know, aIways provides the best...
the best you can find in BrookIyn!
Oh, shit!
Sophie shouId be taking a nap after work.
Shejust doesn't sIeep anymore. Not since the war. How's it going?
-Fine. Thank you. -Let me take a Iook at those.
.-No. -Come on!
I won't interfere, I won't make any comments, I won't even...
Look, I'II show this to no one! No one is seeing this.
I'm not no one. I'm a friend. Don't you have those down South?
''Friend'', a person attached to another by feeIing and affection.
-A supporter. -I vowed to my seIf when I started..
this I was not going to show it to anyone 'tiII I finish it.
-Then I'd go for that comfort person. -WeII...
OK. You'rejust terrified that somebody don't Iike it.
Terrified as in fiIIed with terror. As sharp over mastering intense fear
AII right, aII right!
-That wiII give you some idea. -Oh, my God!
-What about the page in the typewriter? -No, this is a...
Nathan! Stop!
AII right.
Stingo! What is the worst that can happen?
I may discover you can't write!
-Bye! Shit! Fuck! -Nathan, get back here!
I'II give it back, oId buddy!
Fine, right!
Stingo, wait a minute!
Wait! Nathan has ordered me to take you to the movies.
He made me your guardian whiIe to read that.
Yes, so you can't do no vioIence to yourseIf now.
-Nathan must have finished that. -Yeah.
-Come on, Iet's go see. -I think I'II wait here aIone.
-No, come on! -If he's got something to say...
-Iet him come down and teII me. -Don't be siIIy.
Bravo!
On this bridge on which...
so many great Americans writers stood and reached outfor words...
to give America its voice...
Iooking toward the Iand that gave them Whitman...
from its Eastern edge dreamt his country's future and gave it words...
on this span of which...
Thomas WoIfe and Hart Crane wrote...
we weIcome Stingo into that pantheon of the Gods...
whose words are aII we know of immortaIity.
To Stingo!
How could I've failed to have the most helpless crush on such...
a generous mind and life enlarging mentor?
Nathan was utterly, fatally glamorous.
Sophie!
Where are you?
-Stingo! -Nathan!
-We did it! -What? What did you do?
Nathan!
Remember I toId you we were on to something big? Today we cracked it.
What? What, what?
I can't teII you. You'II hear about it aII tonight.
-No, what's a few hours make? -No, I can't teII you!
pretty soon the whoIe worId wiII know...
one of the greatest medicaI advances of aII time.
I can't teII you!
I'm taIking about StockhoIm. Next year, the three of us together.
I'm taIking to go nobeI-fucking-prize!
-AII right! -Sorry, kid. I'm going to get there first!
Wait! I got something for you to ceIebrate!
Oh, Nathan! What's that?
-One for you. -What is it?
-These go with that one. -Oh, God!
-Oh, Nathan! What a beautifuI dress! -Do you Iike it?
Try it on. put it on. Come on, try it on!
-Oh, Nathan! -Come on!
Try it on. pIease, I want to see it.
-I'm not going to do that. -I just want to see it on you!
HoId it up.
-It doesn't have a top. -You're the top.
Nathan, it's beautifuI!
-I've to get back to the Iaboratory. -Why don't you stay with us?
-Tonight we'II ceIebrate. -Look at aII this.
I can't. I got to get back to work.
Tonight we'II ceIebrate. Make sure Sophie gets back home safe.
-Wear those cIothes tonight. -Look at these shoes!
Tonight. Tonight I'II Iook at it.
Oh, my darIing. I'm so proud of you.
Tonight!
You were the one who gave me the idea to get it.
-I think it's Iike mine. -It's a beautifuI watch, yes?
Dr. Kats, my boss, and his wife...
Her famiIy is in thejeweIIery business, so he took me there...
-to get it engraved. -It opens at the top, Iike mine.
What? Don't get you fingers...
-You got your fingerprints aII over it. -Nathan won't know.
-Anyway, do you think he wiII Iike it? -Sure, he wiII.
I think he'II be very pIeased.
It... you know, it cost...
a great deaI of money. More than I couId afford.
Anyway, who cares?
Today, money doesn't seem very important.
Get the champagne!
He's going to... Get them!
-I got it! -Champagne is in the back!
I couIdn't remember Nathan's brand when I went to the store.
-Yeah? What kind? -The guy at the shop said...
something Rose. He said it's very good.
-Surprise! -Surprise!
Is it your brand? I couIdn't remember.
Stingo got you that champagne.
That's sweet.
It's beautifuI. Look at you.
-Yeah! Do you Iike? -Very becoming.
That wouId become you more.
-What? -Haven't I toId you...
that the onIy think I absoIuteIy demanded of you...
the onIy singIe thing... is fideIity?
And didn't I teII you that if you ever were with this guy Kats...
ever again outside of work, and if you waIk with this cheap schmuck...
this fraud, that I 'd break your ass?
-Yeah, but. -This afternoon he brings...
you home again. You spent the whoIe fucking afternoon with him.
Or shouId, I say you spent the whoIe afternoon with him fucking?
-Nathan! -Did you try the new dress for him?
So he couId strip it off in a cheap hoteI room?
Did he Iine up your vertebra in a nice neat Iine...
whiIe he was humping you? I bet he does quite a number.
Wait! Nathan!
How doyou know he took her home? Didyou follow her?
How did you find out Kats took her home?
You're going to feeI Iike a fooI when you find out why.
pIease, don't!
A baby southern artist defending a IittIe poIIack whore.
To bad our ceIebration wiII be of more mundane stripe than I intended.
-I think you shouId go. -I'm not going to Iet you aIone with him.
-You don't understand... -You don't have to take this shit!
Let'sjust cut out aII the ugIy shit!
Yeah, poor this. Let's ceIebrate. You know why?
We're here to toast you. But what are we here to toast?
-You're right. I'm terribIy sorry. -That's aII right.
I don't know what's come over me. Here...
Here is to my bestfriend...
-and my best girI. -There you are.
Look what I got you, anyway.
I had the wrapping, you know, but I...
It's beautifuI. Very beautifuI.
-Do you Iike it? -If I Iike it? I Iove it.
Yes? She'sjust Iike Stingo's.
It is?
-It has an engraving. -It's beautifuI. BeautifuI.
This toast is in honor...
my compIete disassociation...
from you two creeps.
Disassociation from you...
the Coony Chiropractic cunt of King's County...
and you, the dreary dregs of Dixie.
You have notfooIed me, young Stingo.
Since you so graciousIy aIIowed me to read your magnum Southern opus...
about your adoIescent seIf-pity...
-for your poor dead mother. -Knock it off, Nathan.
However, Iook on it optimisticaIIy...
you might be on the verge of a whoIe new form...
the ''Southern Comic Book''!
-And now, my sweet... -Stin...
I want to ask you one question that's been burning in my mind for so Iong.
Then maybe you can expIain something to me.
The reason maybe of why you are here...
Wait...
waIking the streets...
wearing this enticing perfumery...
engaged in syrup tissue's winery with not one...
but two, count them, Iadies and gentIemen...
two chiropractors!
In short, making hay...
waiting the sunshine to empIoy an oId maid...
whiIe at Auschiwitz, the ghosts of the miIIions of the dead...
-stiII seek an answer. -No.
TeII me...
TeII me Sophie. The same anti-Semitism...
for which poIand has gained such a worIdwide recognition...
that this simiIar anti-Semitism guide your own destiny, heIp you aIong...
protect you in a manner of speaking so you became one of the minuscuIe..
handfuI of peopIe who Iived... whiIe the miIIions died?
TeII me. TeII me why.
ExpIanation, pIease!
TeII me why...
oId Iucky number 11379...
TeII me...
why you inhabit the Iand of the Iiving?
What spIendid IittIe tricks and strategies...
is inside that IoveIy head of yours to aIIow you to breath...
the cIear poIish air?
What a muItitude at Auschwitz choked sIowIy...
-on the gas? -No!
-ExpIain! -Stop it!
ExpIain!
-Lay off of her! -Get off of my way!
Get off of my...
Stay away! Stay out!
Stay out! Get out of here!
Go away!
I'm Ieaving the house, they're here. I come back, two empty rooms.
No Nathan, no Sophie and the Iast anybody knows he puts her in a cab..
and he runs off the other way. I can't teII how hard it is...
-Is this Dr. BIackstock? -Yes.
I'm a friend of Sophie Zawistowska's and you may have heard of me, Stingo
Oh, the writer! She's very proud ofyou!
-I'm trying to track her down. -But don'tyou live in the same house?
She moved out Iast night.
She called in this morning and wasn't well. I was worried about her.
-She is such a tough girl. -Doyou know how I could fiind her?
What about the boyfriend?
I think that's over.
Maybe she went to stay with a friend.
I don't know any friends of hers.
There's this Polish girl who work for a professor at Brooklyn College.
I remember her name. It was Sonja Wajinska.
Is a woman named Sonja Wajinska work here?
No, I'm sorry. She went back to poIand six months ago.
But if you Iike, I can give you her address.
Thank you. Do you know her friend Sophie Zawistowska?
Yes.
She came here once to visit Sonja, but she did not came back.
I recognized her from my days at the University of Krakow.
She is the daughter of professor Bieganski.
Were you student of his?
I heard him Iecture once. That was enough.
I know he is very unspoken about the Nazis.
He was crazy about the Nazis.
I think because they hate the Jews as much as he did.
The Nazis kiIIed him.
They came one day and made a cIean sweep of aII academics.
And they didn't stop to check their poIiticaI views.
I think you have the wrong man.
Look, I shaII show you...
Zbigniew Bieganki...
Look, Bieganski...
professor of Law at the University of Krakow...
from 1919 to 1939...
known for his anti-Semitic threats.
A major promuIgator of the ghetto pension ruIe...
which made it iIIegaI for Jewish students...
to seat on the same bench as poIIs.
So...
I told Yetta I was leaving.
A few weeks before I had received a letter from my father.
He had inherited a small farm and knowing I was running out ofmoney
proposed that I'd come back South and live on it.
I could not bear to stay in Brooklyn.
Hello!
Sophie? You're back!
Oh, yes. Hello, Yetta.
I came to get the rest ofmy things, you know?
-Have you heard from Nathan? -No. Not a word.
Hejust came here this morning to take the rest ofhis things.
OK.
Stingo?
Yeah.
I'm sorry about what happened Iast night.
But I want you to know that Nathan...
didn't mean what he said about your book.
WeII, you know that. Right?
I know he reaIIy Ioves your writing.
That doesn't matter anymore.
But I mean...
''we'' wiII stiII be friends.
You know I'm Ieaving. I'm going home.
It shouId be a better pIace for me to write.
We've driven you away.
It has nothing to do with you.
I spoke with Dr. BIackstock today.
Oh, Stingo. Did you go Iooking for me there?
I wouId've Ieft you a note where I went but...
I just didn't think of it. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry you were worried about me.
I thought your friend Sonja might know where you were.
Sonja? Sonja Wajinski? But she went back to poIand.
I know that.
I went to BrookIyn CoIIege.
She used to work for a Language professor there.
Yes.
I think you met him once.
He knew your father.
Yeah, my father...
He heard him Iecture once...
at the University of Krakow where your father taught.
He toId you about my father?
Sophie, why did you Iie to me?
I Iied because, you know why?
I was so afraid...
I was afraid I'd Ieft aIone!
So...
Good bye... my friend.
Sophie, I want to understand...
I'd Iove to know the truth.
The truth?
It does not make it easier to understand.
And maybe you think that find out the truth about me...
and you'II understand me and then you'd forgive me for aII those...
For aII my Iies.
I promise I'II never Ieave you.
You must never promise that.
No one... no one shouId ever promise that!
The truth? I don't even know what is the truth.
After aII these Iies I've toId...
My father...
How can I explain how much I loved my father?
My father believed that human perfection was a possibilty.
Every night I pray to God...
to forgive me for always making a disappointment to my father.
And I pray to him...
to make worthy of such a great good man.
I was a grown woman.
I was wholly come ofage. I was a married woman...
when I realized I hated my father beyond all words to tell it.
It was winter of 1938.
And my father was working for weeks on the speech he calls...
''PolandJewish Problem''.
Orderly I typed those speeches...
and I don't hear the words, their meaning, but...
this time I came upon a word that I have never heard it before.
The solution for Poland Jewish Problem, he concludes...
is ''vernichtung''.
Extermination.
I have not meant to go to the ghetto that afternoon...
but something made me go there.
I stood there I don't know how long...
watching these people that my father has condemned to die.
All these men, these women, these children would be ''vernichtung''.
Extermination.
I suddenIy remembered that my father is waiting for that speech...
and I hurry home to finish the typing but...
in my rushing and my haste to finish that...
I make so many mistakes in the sentences and...
I run with it to the University and my father has no time...
to check that before speaking.
And he get up in front of aII those peopIe...
and he reads the speech and makes those mistakes...
and I see him getting so angry.
And when it was over, he came up to me...
I was with my husband, of course.
And in front of him and aII his coIIeague he said:
Zozia...
your inteIIigence is puIp.
puIp.
I didn't have any courage to say: ''Yes, but what about the Jews?''
The Jewish peopIe, but...
After that he didn't trust me anyway.
And neither did my husband.
Afterwards in Warsaw...
I had Iover...
who was very, very good to me.
Joseflived with his half-sister Wanda.
She was a leader in the Resistance.
Two weeks later...
the Gestapo killedJosef.
They cut his throat.
They had courage.
Oh, God, they had courage!
Not too long after that, they killedJosef...
I was arrested.
My children were sent with me to Auschwitz.
When the train arrived atAuschwitz...
the Germans made the selection.
Who would live and who would die.
Ian, my IittIe boy...
Ian, my little boy, was sent to the ''Kinderlogg''...
which was the children's camp.
And my little girl, Eva, was sent to crematorium II.
She was exterminated.
Thanks to my perfect German...
and my secretarial skills...
and the things my father had taught me...
so well.
I came to work...
for RudolfHoess...
Commandant ofAuschwitz.
The day they took me to work for Hoess...
I was forced to walk pass block 25...
That is where they took the prisoners that were...
selected for extermination.
The people there were made to stand for, sometimes, days.
They were naked and they had no water.
And their hands reached out from the bars...
and they cried andpleaded.
But in that night...
I kept saying to myseIf...
''I have saved my son, I have saved my son''.
''Tomorrow I can see him!''
''And I can teII him good bye''.
''And he wiII have been saved''.
Oh, my God, I had such happiness that night!
Such hope!
But Hoess did not keep his word.
I never did know what happened to my little boy.
So, you know, that's why I didn't want to...
to Iive no more.
TiII Nathan came and...
he made me Iive for him.
Live for me, Sophie.
Live for me.
Oh, my God! What have we done to you?
Be carefuI!
Stingo!
Nathan, put down the chair! This is no time for fun!
-put down the chair! -put down the chair.
-Stingo! -Oh, teIephone.
It's Dr. Landau, Nathan's brother.
Thank you.
Hello, this is Larry. -Nathan's brother.
-Yes, Larry! -Nathan has talked aboutyou.
-I knowyou've been friends. -He has taIked about you.
Is thatpossible for us to arrange a meeting?
Sure. Just teII when and where.
My brother thinks the worId of you.
I've never met anybody more briIIiant than Nathan.
-He's such a breath at knowIedge. -You're right.
He is convinced you're going to be a...
major writer, something he wants me to be.
pIease, sit down.
Seems to me, he's got to do everything he chooses.
He's toId you and Sophie that he is a research bioIogist.
At pfizer.
This...
bioIogist business...
is my brother's masquerade.
He has no degree of any kind. AII that is a simpIe fabrication.
The truth is, he's quite mad.
-Christ! -One of those conditions where...
weeks, months, even years go by without any manifestations.
He has ajob at pfizer in the company Iibrary.
an undemanding sinecure I gotfor him where he can do a Iot of reading...
without bothering anyone and he does a IittIe research...
for one the Iegitimate bioIogist on the staff.
I'm not sure Nathan wouId forgive me if he knew that I toId you.
He made me swear never to teII Sophie. She knows nothing.
The crueIestjoke is that he was born the perfect chiId.
He exceIIed in everything.
Even Nathan's teachers wouId specuIate on what he wouId achieve.
See, he was the kind of chiId...
everyone is prepared to take the creditfor.
When he was 10, we were toId that the...
chiId genius was a paranoid schizophrenic
From then on, the onIy schooIs he attended were...
expensive funny farms.
What can I do?
If he couId stay off the drugs...
he might have a chance.
Drugs? What is he on?
Benzedrine, cocaine.
-You didn't know? -No, I did not.
I want you to spy on him.
But if you couId simpIy keep tabs on him...
and report back to me by phone from time to time...
Ietting me know how he's getting on.
I'm sorry to have to invoIve you this way.
I don't think you understand.
I Iove them both.
They're friends of mine.
Good morning, Mr. Stingo.
We were afraid something terribIe might have happened to you.
Miss Sophie was aII for having me institute a search.
-You indeed Iook ravishing -Thank you, very much.
So, what you aII want to do this evening?
Come, darIing.
This was Nathan's idea to surprise you with a Southern evening.
Your book has wet my appetite to know about the South.
And about the trip, too.
Miss Sophie and I have been discussing the possibiIity of...
taking a tour to your beIoved Dixie in October.
And I've been thinking, if it's aII right with Miss Sophie...
Sure.
...that maybe we couId make a wedding trip...
and have you join us not just as our bestfriend...
but as my best man.
I have the honor...
to request your hand in marriage.
To have and to hoId...
from this day forth...
tiII death us do part.
With this ring...
I be true myseIf to you.
BeIieve it, it's traditionaI for the groom to give a gift...
to the best man.
I toId Nathan that you'd have to put that book away...
for a whiIe to make money and that made him very said.
Nathan, I can't possibIy accept this.
Stingo, don't reject this.
Don't waste your taIent.
I don't know how to thank you.
Future Mrs. Landau...
give me the honor of this dance.
It's not reaIIy about Nathan.
What do you mean?
You don't know?
It's supposed to be a secret.
He confided in me that he and his team...
discovered a cure for poIio...
in my house.
If onIy my SauI couId have Iived to see the day.
-The car is ready, Mrs. Zimmerman. -I'II be down.
What did Nathan say when he saw you?
I haven't seem him.
He and Sophie Ieft here a coupIe hours ago.
He said he'd Iook for you and straighten things out once and for aII.
-Wait, what? -I guess you just missed them.
Sophie said he was imagining things trying to soothe him...
the way she does when he gets Iike that.
God knows what was going through his mind now.
I toId you to watch out.
Next time you'II Iisten to me.
I got better things to do.
-Do you know where he is now? -I don't know.
-HeIIo. -God damn you to hell forever.
Nathan?
-Are you aII right? -Oh, yes. I'm aII right.
-What's wrong with your arm? -He was breaking my arm.
I gotfrightened and I ran away. He has a gun, Stingo.
I think he's going to use it.
I shouIdn't have Ieft him there.
We shouId go find...
-Nathan? -Stingo.
Nowyou listen. Listen to me.
Is he good? Nathan!
-Oh, God! -Nathan!
My darIing, wiII you forgive me?
-Get offthatphone, you whore! -You know that I Iove you.
I don't want to speak toyou again!
Nathan, we Iove you very much, aII right?
We'd do nothing to hurt you.
Now you teII us where you are.
God damn you to hell forever for betraying me...
behind my back, you whom I trustt like the best friend I ever had.
and that shit-eating grin ofyours day after day?
Butter wouldn't melt in your mouth when you gave me your manuscript to read.
''Ah, gee, Nathan. Thank you so much''. When not 15 minutes earlier...
you'd been in bed with the woman I was going to marry.
Marry! Marry!
I'd burn in hell before I'd marry a two-timing Pollack...
who'd spread her legs for a Southern shit-ass betraying me like that.
We're going to come get you. Where are you?
Don't come. Stay where you are. I'm going to come getyou.
-Both ofyou. -Jesus?, Nathan!
Don'tgo away. You know what am I going to do...
toyou deceitful, unspeakable pigs. Listen!
-Now I'm going to getyou. -Oh, God!
I caIIed his brother's office.
Larry is in Toronto. They're going to try to reach him.
I shouId've stayed there.
Maybe I couId've heIped him.
He's never been this bad before.
I think he couId've kiIIed us.
-I think he couId've kiIIed us both. -I don't care that I'II die.
I'm afraid that he'II die without me.
Thank you.
Stingo.
Where are we going?
WeII, I want to take you to see the Washington sights.
We'II go by the White Hous.
We may get a pick Harry Truman
I mean...
where are we going?
Where are we reaIIy going?
WeII, I'm going to take you down to thatfarm...
that I toId about, in South of Virginia.
I think once we get settIed in there we can...
drive over to Richmond...
get a good phonograph and buy some records.
What do you mean ''get settIed in there?''
WeII...
I Iove you very much, Sophie.
And I...
I want to marry you.
I want you to Iive in thatfarm with me.
I want to write my books, I want you to heIp me...
raise a famiIy...
because I...
I Iove you very, very much.
Is it too much to hope you might...
you might Iove me too?
Listen, Stingo, I'm...
beyond 30 years now, you know?
What are you going to do with an oId poIish Iady Iike me?
Manage!
Manage. ''OId woman''...
Don't taIk that way. You...
You're aIways going to be...
my number one.
WeII, then yes. We couId go down there. Sure.
We couId Iive there for a whiIe and then...
We're not getting married because we couId decide that Iater.
Sophie...
In that IittIe country pIace that we'd be Iiving in...
we wouId have to be married.
ItfuII of Christians down there, you know?
WeII... I don't know, I mean...
Getting married soon, I Iove you for a very Iong time.
I know you're fond of me.
Give this time. Just give this time.
We'II be fine.
It's notjust the age difference, you know?
...between you and me, Stingo.
You shouId have another mother for your chiIdren.
OnIy you.
It wouId not be fair to your chiIdren to have me as their mother.
Sophie, that wouId be the Iuckiest chiIdren in the worId.
I'm going to die of something.
I'm going to teII you something I never toId anybody.
Never, but I need a drink.
So won't you get me thatfirst?
In the day that we went...
to Auschwitz, it was Spring, you know, and...
we onIy arrived there at night.
It was a warm night. It was a beautifuI night.
So...
we'II go to thatfarm tomorrow.
But pIease, Stingo, don't...
taIk about marriage...
and chiIdren.
It's enough that...
we'II go down there to thatfarm...
to Iive...
for a whiIe.
I was 22 and a virgin...
and was clasping in my arms at last...
the goddess ofmy unending fantasies.
My lust was inexhaustible.
Sophie's lust was both a plunge into carnal oblivion...
and a flight from memory andgrief.
More than that, I now see...
It was a frantic and orgiastic attempt to beat back death.
''My dearest Stingo...
You are such a beautiful lover. I had to leave and...
forgive me for not saying goodbye but I mustgo back to Nathan.
Belive me, you'll fiind some wonderful woman...
to make you happy on that farm.
But when I woke I was feeling so terrible and...
in Despair about Nathan.
By that I mean so fiilled with guilt...
and thoughts ofdeath. It was like ice...
flowing into my blood.
So... I must be with Nathan again for whatever that means.
I may not see you again, but...
do believe me how much knowing you have meant to me.
You are a great lover, Stingo.
Sophie''.
He worked in a pharmaceuticaI Iab.
I think that's how he got a hoId on the cyanide.
They found it next to the bed, you know?
-What Iab, you know? -I'm not sure.
''AmpIe make this bed.
Make this bed with awe.
In it...
I'II wait tiII judgement break.
ExceIIent and fair.
Be its mattress straight.
Be its piIIow round.
Let no sunrise yeIIow noise...
interrupt this ground''.
And so ended my voyage ofdiscovery...
in a place as strange as Brooklyn.
I letgo the rage and sorrow for Sophie and Nathan...
and for the many others who were but a few...
ofthe butchered and betrayed and martyred children ofthe Earth.
When I could fiinally see again...
I saw the fiirst rays ofdaylight reflected in the murky river.
This was notjudgement day.
Only morning.
Morning: excellent and fair.