My name is Michel Maudet.
Or... At least let's say it is.
At this period I used to be a boxer.
Or more precisely, I was trying to become one.
This fight should decide if I would.
Because Mr. Andrei my coach didn't want to go further if...
...if we hadn't won that night.
Tonight great welterweight fight,
in six rounds of three minutes,
between Michel Maudet and Marcel Lelac.
They have been weighed this morning:
Michel Maudet, 146 pounds,
Marcel Lelac, 135 pounds.
Judges, Mr. Magloire and Mr. Varand.
Timekeeper, Mr. Geoffrey.
Referee, Pierre Dupond.
Marcel Lelac!
Michel Maudet!
Ready? Lelac?
Ready Maudet?
MAGNET OF DOOM
Winner by decision of the judges, Marcel Lelac!
Now it's over, let's stop messing about this!
You're made for bowing as I am for being a nun.
Does it hurt Michel?
No. Not at all.
Yes it hurt. A lot.
But where did it hurt most?
Michel! Are you coming? A last drink!
And why not the last cigarette?
No, no, not tonight, Mr. Andrei.
As you want Michel.
Don't worry. Have no regrets. It's a dirty job, you know.
You can die from a punch just like David Moore...
...get blind like Billou Platner...
...or get crazy.
Have no regrets.
No, no, Mr. Andrei.
In my opinion, the referee was unfair.
You're nice Pina.
I've been counting...
Mr. Andrei spent about a million francs to make me a boxer.
He's not asking you to refund him...
Why should you care?
When I think that I'll have to live with this guy...
What guy?
This guy who had just betrayed me and couldn't be me.
Me.
Nobody is called Boussac, Dassau or Ferchaux with impunity.
It is normal that my brother is attacked.
And anyway let's be serious, what do you fear?
The truth, simply the truth.
You want the truth?
Let's talk about the truth.
But once and for all!
Here is the little story.
Three niggers, that I killed 30 years ago,
while I was going to meet up my brother's caravan
which was hundreds of miles away.
Three niggers who were about to kill me!
Purely and simply!
To steal the food and the ammo.
I lighted some dynamite, and I threw it on their mug!
I'm asking you, who wouldn't have done the same?
I'm asking you...
I'm telling you again it is not the first time that I'm attacked.
The other times it was the papers but today it's the Minister of Justice.
The Minister of Justice?
Yes, the Minister of Justice is holding an inquiry.
And I doubt...
And you doubt! And when you draw the dividends from the company,
do you still doubt?
Are we only allowed not to agree with you every time?
No! I don't acknowledge this right to you!
It's the CEO's privilege when he represents the majority of the stockholders.
Majority of the stockholders... Ghosts!
The two of you are the majority. The two brothers...
Yes, it's us...
The stocks exist, they belong to the holder.
And I owe you information about it only I want!
The Minister of Justice has lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor
and asked for an inquiry.
The news papers tell such a thing, not the minister...
So, what about this niggers story?
People started talking about it only because of the financial affair!
But the prescription?
There's no statutory limitation because a minor over-zealous colonial official
who has regularly renewed the regulatory commission.
Then he has persecuted the company
about our accounts, our statements, our tax payments...
It's these accounts scrutinization that we're worried about
What about it?
We have the right to know! No?
Absolutely!
Gentlemen, please...
You're not Caesar!
No, I'm not. But you're in the minority
so you're not allowed to interfere in my business!
Except that this situation of minority gives us the right
to ask for the institution of a provisional receiver.
You're not in Africa anymore.
In France the law protects the weakest.
Napoleon code. And we have the right...
You don't have any right Mr. Brassac.
And if you want to eat your money,
ask for the institution of a provisional receiver.
You're trying to threaten me. You are all witnesses?
No, I'm just warning you.
If there is a provisional receiver...
...you'll do with me as you did with the three black men?
It's a mania...
Ask for the institution of a provisional receiver!
These savages!
Now Dieudonné, tell us the truth.
The truth, the truth... The true truth?
Yes.
Ok, so it's right that the Minister has given orders to the Prosecution Service.
Although you were trying to make me believe that it's working out...
Everything's going to work out! Or still can work out...
All that we would need would be that the Attorney General...
Morel? Call the Attorney General for me.
At this hour of the night?
Of course, at home!
He won't like that, wait for tomorrow.
I don't give a fuck that he likes it or not. Go ahead!
He had already told me the last time that
you didn't seem to understand you're charged
with a crime of common right.
For the public you're just a murderer
and you can't keep being free too long
without giving the impression that justice is not the same for everybody.
And tonight the papers are attacking. They probably got orders.
Probably! Too bad. Go ahead, inch allah...
Don't overestimate your power...
You suppressed the scandal ten times, each time it has been more difficult!
The will finally get us.
There is one thing they'll never get: the Ferchaux's money!
What do you want to do with it if we are in jail?
But the Ferchaux will never go in jail,
Not a day! Not an hour! I hope you agree with me?
Mr. the Attorney General, Morel talking.
...it's not imminent, is it?
Yes?
Well.
I'll tell him. Well.
I'm sorry that I have troubled you that late sir.
The regulatory commission has already left...
You guess quickly, but there is more.
I'm lucky...
We won't be able to avoid an arrest warrant.
Wow, children... There is only one thing we should do for the moment:
to get the hell out of here.
A short period, waiting that it passes and we'll get back...
You, you can do this: your egoism made you safe from responsibilities,
You've no wife, no children.
Me, I'm not single.
But it's not my egoism, it's my youth which gave me safety.
When I'll be leaving tomorrow with a little case in the hand,
I'll be young!
You have always been old!
And if I decide to leave, it's not an escape,
it's because I want to defend myself freely! To fight!
You are thoughtless!
No! Powerful!
Morel, put a small ad in every daily newspapers. Tomorrow morning, ok?
I need a secretary, young. Who can travel. Handle this.
Don't make this face, we'll get out of this!
You, maybe.
You'll get out of this too...
Yes...
I'll always have a way to get out of this.
I prefer when you're talking like that.
HELP WANTED
A white coffee please.
Needed: a secretary, young, free, able to travel.
Do not apply in person. Call Mr. Morel.
I'm coming back.
Hello, I'd like to talk to Mr. Morel.
I found a job, as a secretary. I have to meet the employer tonight.
But if it doesn't work...
If we sell our clothes how much can we get?
What "our clothes"?
My coat for example. I would only keep my raincoat.
And this?
Oh no Michel, not this. It's my mother who...
She's dead, she won't know.
Michel...
What Michel?
Leave it Michel!
I would never had believed that you could do such a thing.
Neither would I.
However...
We'll send her a money order.
When?
Later.
So?
8000 francs for everything.
Take it. I didn't have enough courage to sell it.
I knew it!
I know you quite well.
Ok, I leave and I come back.
Michel! I've got no money...
I tell you I'm coming back right now!
Mr. Morel had only told me the hour and the address,
so I wanted to know who I was going to meet.
Ferchaux D. Banker.
Nobody wearing a cap would get hired by a banker as a secretary.
Above all when it's a red cap.
Red like the paratrooper beret I was nostalgic about.
AWAITING TRANSLATION
The little piece of sticking plaster was superfluous too.
I'm sent by Mr. Morel.
We were waiting for you.
You like it?
Yes. Mr. Morel told me that you were looking for a secretary.
Who was looking for a secretary?
Mr. Morel didn't give me any name.
He told me to come at this address at nine o'clock.
What is your name?
Michel Maudet.
What happened to your eye?
You probably won't believe me but I fell in my stairs.
Are you starving for a long time?
I mean... How long have you been looking for a job?
No, I lost mine two weeks ago.
I was... I was the secretary of a very famous singer.
I guess you never keep a job a very long time.
You can to use the typewriter?
Yes.
Shorthand?
Yes, a little bit. Enough, I guess.
Have you done your military service?
Yes.
A para, of course!
Why "of course"?
Because you couldn't have been in the commissariat with such a nose,
even if falling in the stairs is always possible.
No, this is a memory from before my national service,
I've been an amateur boxer.
Sit down.
Are you sure that you don't know my name?
Absolutely.
My name is Ferchaux.
Dieudonné Ferchaux. The oldest of the Ferchaux brothers.
I guess that you know the news?
I understand, now.
What do you understand?
The ad said "able to travel".
And you can travel?
Yes.
Right now?
Right now.
Tonight?
Tonight.
You're married.
No, I'm not.
Any affair?
None.
200000 francs every month, is it ok?
Yes, very well.
Good. I have to tell you that I'm naturally incredulous.
I don't believe in any word of what you said to me.
But it doesn't matter, I'm hiring you.
Morel, my businessman, is a true scoundrel,
but I don't care, he has the face of an honest man.
It's very important, a face.
I like your face.
Tell me your name again?
Michel Maudet.
Have you got a passport?
Yes.
You'll give it to Morel, he'll put a visa, tomorrow.
Do you have a case?
Yes.
Where is it?
At my hotel.
Bring it.
If you're back in half an hour, I'll take you on a trip.
I'm coming back.
30 minutes! I'm not sleeping here tonight.
We'll sleep in another flat.
My darlings, Paul-Louis is going to take care of you during this few days.
If you get bored, you can go to his house.
Open the door.
I'll miss you a lot, godfather.
It's nice.
Since you don't have a beard anymore,
people could think you're a schoolmate of ours.
Goodbye, my darlings.
Let's go Mr. Maudet!
They are my godchildren.
Departure to New York...
I pretended to think that everything was normal,
but I was feeling my heart beating very hard
Then, lots of memories came back.
Mr. Andrei. My last fight, suddenly seemed so far...
Lina...
And now, I sit in a Boeing, next to an old tree
that no wind or tempest would frighten or affect.
An old tree who wanted to be called, godfather.
When we'll be in New York, we'll go to my bank.
My safe.
Will take the money which in there,
about fifty millions in cash.
Dollars.
The rest in another bank, on an account.
It will be more difficult.
This is the key of my safe in Caracas where I have much money too.
I'm not sure we'll have to go there, only if it turns bad.
You have always prepared for this quick leaving?
No, I haven't.
But Europe is not safe anymore.
A war may happen, a revolution...
Communism...
Of course, there is Switzerland but...
They extradite.
And in Venezuela?
They don't!
Open the door.
Do you speak French?
Very bad, Mr. Ferchaux, very bad.
It will be perfect.
Let's see, how are we going to do?
You know how important are my accounts in your bank,
and I want to get back all my money.
I must run this operation very quickly.
Of course, given that it is a very big amount of money...
Two days!?
But why two days?
No, right now!
Tomorrow at latest.
In French please.
Yes, Mr. Ferchaux.
You read the papers.
You saw that your brother is in trouble.
There is the possibility of an extradition.
Yes, you're terribly sorry, but you're bank has enough money
to build a few branches with my millions.
I'm sure you can settle this immediately.
Think about that Mr. Schryder.
Ok, two days.
Two days!
They're all the same, when they have to give back the money
they were entrusted, it breaks they're heart.
These bankers are such charlatans...
Weren't you a banker in Paris?
So what? I was just like them.
With these sharks who are going to try to take profit of the situation,
let's go quickly to my safe.
And if they see us?
Mr. Maudet, if one day you become a rich man,
never trust a banker.
An account in a bank, a safe in another.
It's a rule without any exception.
Remember this.
Put it in your pocket.
No, not here, in an interior pocket.
Mr. Emile Ferchaux?
Yes?
We've got a warrant.
I'm at your disposal but...
Let's go quick!
We can't stay here.
If there is a demand of extradition...
I don't like this at all!
We'll go.
Where?
I don't know. The South.
Venezuela?
Not yet but we may go nearer to it.
We left New-York.
Ferchaux chose the car and not the airplane
to avoid the airport checks.
But before that we take the way of the South,
I had something to do.
I wanted to see the house where was born a little American boy
whose miserable parents, Italian immigrants, lived in Hoboken.
I was feeling, I still feel, close to this little American boy
who has now grown up.
This identification was due to the fact I'm originally Italian too.
But maybe also because he was very ambitious,
while I could only resolve to be what I was.
It was this house.
And this little girl who was watching Dieudonné Ferchaux and me,
probably didn't know that she lived in the room where
was born Frank Sinatra. On Monroe Street.
It had been hours that we were driving.
Ferchaux had said nothing about his brother's death.
He was indifferent to it.
What was exactly this man?
Terribly perceptive about human psychology,
cold, cynical, impressed by nothing, nobody...
I decided to question him about me, in purpose to learn more about him.
Mr. Ferchaux...
Yes?
I need to know what do you think about me.
I think you will become someone.
That's what I would like to know.
You know men quite well...
Do you trust me? Do you think I can succeed?
These are two different questions...
So give me two answers please.
It's not easy.
There are only three kinds of men.
What kinds?
There are the sheep.
The leopards.
And then, the jackals.
I see.
I don't know it what category you are.
Except the sheep, of course.
You don't want to choose between the leopard and the jackal.
I'm a banker Mr. Maudet.
So I'm cautious.
The limited psychology which is the only one which
can be used by a banker to decide who he is going to trust,
this limited psychology doesn't make us able to decide so quickly.
So no overdraft...
I see that you have smatterings of trade.
The evening class.
Probably when you were this singer's secretary...
Since that moment, Ferchaux had a different look on me.
I had not his esteem, but at least, I had his attention.
Always be suspicious with limited psychology.
And think that two American soldiers are not enough against you...
Against a French para, you need at least three of them.
Actually, it was not a regular fight.
And I had a revenge to take.
Against who?
It's a story I'll tell later.
I see! You have your little secrets!
Little? Big! Huge!
A jungle of secrets...
Yes.
With leopards and jackals.
What's happening?
Nothing but this car has been behind us for a quite a long time.
Slow down a little bit.
Has she been there for a long time?
Since we have eaten at the snack.
Maybe before.
We should stop to check.
It's forbidden there.
We'll do it at the first motel I'll see.
We're going to sleep here.
I'm going to check.
So?
It was two...
...two traveling salesmen.
Nothing at all.
I've talked to them.
Don't stop, fly!
Don't stop! Go goddamit!
Michel, tell this chick to get out immediately.
You hear me Michel, immediately!
Will you stop! It's my car!
Are you crazy?
Get out of here, goddamit!
Now, sit on the backseat.
I'm telling you to sit!
Mr. Ferchaux, don't ever talk to me again like you've just did please.
Where are the notes?
You mean my notes?
Yes.
In the air.
Where are they, tell me!
If I want to.
There.
Where there?
In the river.
Tell me why please?
Because I want to keep being the master of the situation.
How, if we no longer have a nickel?
I've kept enough money to go to Caracas. You'll bring me there.
Now, let's go.
Do you smoke Michel?
Not much. No thank you.
Everything could have gotten better between Ferchaux and me.
But the fate had chosen. Only me could watch in the rear-view mirror.
I would have felt ashamed if it had still been possible.
Maybe.
We entered the true South after miles and miles of rain.
The South with its residential districts for whites,
and its residential districts for blacks.
Ferchaux chose to settle in near the New Orleans.
Hidden in a park which looked oddly like a jungle.
Dear Morel...
At the beginning he was in great shape.
...it's now time to fight.
But suddenly, he begun to feel bad.
The tropical weather was changing him extremely.
Then, he fell sick.
But maybe he was faking.
Give me a bottle of milk and a book.
Don't you want to eat anything?
No, it's impossible.
You're going to feel like a baby!
If it's not already the case...
Give me a bottle of milk!
As you want.
I'm going to eat at Jeff's.
Come back right after eating!
Why?
Because I need you, I've got some letters to write.
It can wait. This is the only thing we can do here.
Hey! The old man let you go as I can see.
What do you want? Are you going to eat?
Today I've got a great chili con carne.
I don't like that. I'd rather that you bring me some spaghetti.
Who is this man?
Sometimes, I'm asking myself if he's not tailing me.
Suska? He could do that as he could do other things.
Anything.
But more than everything, he's able to shut up.
That's the rarest thing in the world, a man able to be quiet.
The silence never betrayed anybody.
Suska never talked to me to ask me a drink, it's not compromising.
Good appetite.
How is the old man doing?
As usual.
Tell me, why is a guy like you with him?
I was his secretary in France. The man he trusted.
During the last months, it was practically only me who
was managing the company.
You heard about the scandal?
Vaguely. In the papers.
The catastrophe happened and he asked me to follow him.
He told me that if had not came with him,
he would have taken the risk not to leave at all.
He was alone, tired. Sad.
He almost begged me.
No kidding?
That's true. The collapse must have aged him.
Has he still the money?
Yes.
How much?
Why should you care?
I don't.
Don't stop, keep talking about him.
He became fussy.
He's extremely afraid to be alone.
However, he can't stand new faces.
He hardly tolerates the black woman who does the cleaning.
I have to be with him from the morning to the evening,
and the evening to the morning.
When I seem to get out, he feigns a heart-attack.
Or something else.
Since he is quite crafty, he talks to me as if I were his son.
Actually he's as ill as me.
And... On the evening, where does he hide it?
What?
His money.
Is it true what people say about you?
What do they say?
That you went to jail during years and years because
you killed an man.
When you were in the American army in France.
So what?
Now I've got this bar, I count the money every evening,
and I bring my money to the bank. Something bothers you?
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
Don't you think that we could have settled in a country less rotten?
Not yet, later we'll see.
As long as I wouldn't have left this country and got the money from New York,
we'll have to live as economically as possible.
It won't last very much longer, be confident.
I was to keep fighting as if were not sick.
What illness do you have?
Given that I no longer eat anything and only drink milk,
it must be...
...a stomach cancer?
The other day it was the heart.
You have to choose.
Tell me what's next.
Where was I?
It was a letter to Morel.
Always the same.
What?
I'm telling you it's a letter to Morel,
the one which tells him to give a big envelope to the person
whose name is written on it.
The envelope which contains the great Mercator file,
which is supposed to overthrow the government.
Don't talk to me like that, please.
You're going too far, even if I'm fond of you.
Which means that you tie me with a chain in this apartment.
Why do you talk like that?
Because it is true. And you know it.
My dear Morel,
it's now time to fight.
Too bad for these gentlemen who thought that I would be afraid.
As soon as you will get this letter,
give the Mercator file on the desk of the news-paper director
who would be the most capable of using it as we expect...
I'm pallid.
You're just as usual.
Hold my hand.
Your pulse is just like mine.
A little bit weaker, it's normal.
I'm sure that I'm going to have an attack tonight.
I'm your secretary, not a doctor!
I'm going!
Michel!
Shit!
What's your problem now?
Can't I just play without being bothered?
I didn't want to bother you but I'm afraid
that I'm going to have an attack tonight.
Go back to your house.
I'll come to see you later.
Are you going to do the nurse, now?
Sure.
That night, I decided to go to the New Orleans,
to see how it looked like and how was its streetcar named desire.
I needed to get free from the old man's influence.
Is it true that you're French?
Yes.
Incredible! While I was dancing, I was thinking:
"What a strange American!", it's a man who
watches the woman just like the French do.
Because I knew that you were French.
I saw your posters outside.
Of course, it's essential.
You know, the French ladies are always the first on the international market.
Is Lou your real name?
It's my stage name.
And your real name?
Louise. What do you want to drink?
I'm afraid that you're losing your time with me.
I no longer lose my time now.
And before?
Before, I did.
May I know about before?
Yes, why not?
Two years ago, I was acting in movies in Roma.
Cinecitta!
And then, there has been a co-production with Mexico.
And then?
It would be to long to tell.
Anyway, it's here that I've ended up.
The last stop.
But this is not the worst thing that could have happened to me.
You don't want to go any further?
No, not anymore.
One day, later.
Maybe.
There have been lots of other whiskies...
I was alone, walking in an obscure country.
Lina!
I didn't sell your medallion because they didn't want it.
Do you hear me, Lina?
Yes, I hear you Michel.
In the morning after that night, as soon as I entered Jeff's bar,
Suska got out as he was used to do when I was here.
I guess you didn't go to see the old man?
No and I don't think that I'll go.
And people say that women are naughty... Tell me!
Do you have something for my headache?
What have you done?
Maybe you're not talkative, but I'm not.
As you want.
But notice that the old man called a nurse yesterday night.
Maybe he's really sick.
How do you know that he called a nurse?
Suska told me.
This one...
If only I could be sure that he is really sick...
He's just playing, again.
He must think that I'm going to run to him since that I see a nurse with him.
Give me a double-scotch, for my headache.
Sit down Michel.
You didn't believe that I was ill, did you?
I'm just like you, naturally incredulous.
Tell me what you've done...
It's not interesting.
Do you remember a conversation
we had while we were leaving New York?
I remember.
I told you...
Actually what I said is not important.
It's what I didn't tell you that's important.
At this moment, you were worried about my opinion about you.
More exactly: my opinion about your possibilities, because
this the only thing you've always been interested in.
You wanted to feel your power.
To weigh it.
I don't remember what was my answer.
But I know that I've not been perfectly sincere.
Your claws were growing.
You wanted to know if you could be an important man,
someone powerful.
On that day I wanted you to understand I had always known what I was doing.
That's why there is no disillusion.
Anyway, I've been very glad that you came back.
Because...
Because I'm an old man who has habits and
it would be difficult to live without them.
Did you find outside what you were looking for?
Maybe.
Now we're used to each other.
In our relationships, our quarrels, we are just like
two old lovers who don't love each other anymore.
But who can't live without the other.
I'm saying it in my only name.
During the last night, you've tested your freedom.
Without choosing it, I've tested my loneliness.
It won't last.
I told you.
When I'll die...
Michel, I'll try to be less demanding.
To be less severe.
You'll go out when you want.
And if any night you don't want to come back...
Now come, please, I've tried to work...
Michel? Do you agree to try?
Please, go tell her that you're eating here.
And when the nurse will be back,
could you give her her money please?
You'll give us ten dollars more, she did her best.
You know Michel, actually if you prefer to go out...
What are you looking for?
A lovers argument?
You act like an old pathetic man,
and suddenly you're yourself again.
I've not forgotten what a character you've been.
Who killed three niggers?
Who was proud to have humiliated his employees during his all life?
You think that I've forgotten?
And what about all these little traffickers that you ruined, knowingly?
And your two lovely little slaves in your house in Paris?
Godfather!
You don't like that I tell you about these things...
Maybe you're right... Let's not talk about this anymore.
I was wrong.
We can't understand each other.
No, that's obvious.
Do you want to eat?
Yes, give me an hamburger and two eggs.
So?
So what?
He promised to leave me in peace and not to keep a watch on me anymore.
For that price, I stay.
For that price?
What?
Nothing.
Just an idea.
Go ahead, tell me your idea? Don't be a chicken.
During the night, while the old man is sleeping,
haven't you ever wanted to knock him out and
leave with his money?
No, it was not Jeff who gave me this idea.
It had walked, slowly, on my side,
during the all way since New York.
That night, I would leave Dieudonné Ferchaux.
But I didn't want to leave alone.
Oh no, don't be afraid...
Be afraid by what?
By who?
If one of the two of us has to be afraid, it's not me.
I swear that it's not me.
Oh no, not you!
Why not me, after all?
Wouldn't it be a logical end to that story?
Brutus, killing Caesar...
You're not Brutus Mr. Maudet.
And you old fool,
do you still think you're Caesar?
I think that I need a doctor!
Michel, Michel a doctor!
Don't bother to play, it's no longer working.
Who is the Lina you were talking about the other night?
While you were drunk?
Did I talk about Lina?
Yes.
Who is it?
A girl I left in France.
Just like the old man I've just abandoned.
I'm kind of getting used to do it.
I knew that you would come back.
In my pocket...
The key...
Caracas...
You can go to hell with your key...