THE MAN WHO LIES
My name is Robin. Jean Robin.
I'm going to tell you my story.
Or at least, I'm going to try.
This how it began, in a forest, a big forest.
There was a kind of path. You couldn't quite tell.
Before, there had been a stream,
a stone in the current, ahead branches...
No, that's not it.
It was actually a field,
a huge field with thistle seeds floating in the wind.
It must have beer near a small town... or a big village.
Where was I?
My name is Boris.
But usually people call me Jean.
And sometimes 'the Ukrainian.” INN EYE lel a RA
ll start again.
The first time I came to the village,
I strolled the streets anonymously among the crowd.
Jean.
Of course I have to speak about Jean.
He was my friend, my ally, my comrade-in-arms.
Yes, the streets were empty, of course.
It was during the war and people stayed at home.
They didn't like fraternizing with the occupation troops
or having to show their papers to the police at every intersection.
Yes, that's it barricades.
And sentries that stop you
Have I already told you about the pharmacy
and the control point set up Mn the street?
So when I came to the village,
I went straight to the inn, also empty at that early hour.
I'd like... a glass of wine.
And a slice of bread, please.
They'll treat him like a hero.
Jean Robin. There was a man.
If I ever caught the bastard who -
Remember, he once said, “I'll be back in the spring.”
Yes, I remember.
That was two years ago.
Three! That was three years ago.
If he were dead, how would we know?
If he is alive, then what's happened to him?
He'll just turn up some day.
And all of a sudden he'll be here.
What about his wife and sister at the castle?
No one has seen them for months.
Where do you think he'll come from?
That's enough about Jean Robin.
He'll come out of nowhere, from the mountains.
You won't have seen anything, and all of a sudden he'll be here.
Jean Robin won't come back. This old story is over and done with.
Of course Jean Robin will come back.
He's dead, dead, dead.
And yet they still wait for him at the castle.
He'd be how old now?
Thirty-three, thirty-four...
That young lady who's waiting, the one who's so lovely -
Who are you?
Jean sent me.
Where is he?
My name is Boris.
Boris Varissa.
You must have seen me in the village.
But I've changed. You don't recognise me... probably.
I used to have a beard...
and glasses to hide my face.
I arrived here at the end of the events.
Everyone had to go into hiding.
You remember? There was barbed wire barricading all of the streets.
And as you had to show your papers,
you never knew if you might be on a list of suspects.
That meant police, jail and so on.
We all had fake papers, of course.
But that wasn't always enough.
Jean was my only true friend,
my perennial comrade and hope.
We trusted each other completely, unquestioningly...
as If we shared the same mind,
the same memory, the same goal, the same body.
But I had to keep out of sight. I was too easy to spot.
I lived mostly in the forests,
in huts or in caves, or under borrowed faces.
That day, I had to show myself. The situation was too serious.
When I met Jean at the inn,
he didn't know he was done for.
He made up his mind then and there.
There wasn't a second to lose.
I was there in time.
He followed me without hesitation.
I should go and find a doctor.
I'll be there in two hours.
Then we'll go on.
I know where to find someone who's on our side.
And then?
- Did you find a doctor? - Yes, of course.
Who was it?
Doctor Muller.
There are no villages between here and the border.
No. I had to come back here.
There's no Doctor Muller around here.
Muller was what we called him.
We all had code names.
Muller, that meant the doctor.
Yes, we all had nicknames in those days.
They called me “the Ukrainian.”
The doctor's real name was -
No, I've forgotten.
- Don't you believe me? - I don't know anything about it.
I don't know all these stories.
When I came here, Monsieur Jean had already been gone for a while.
Didn't you know him?
No, I came here from the lowlands.
Madame must have mentioned her husband to you.
No, never.
Well, I can tell you about him.
I worked with him constantly, day and night.
Jean was an amazing person.
One day, I remember,
some general had come to inspect the fortifications in the woods.
Who is that old man?
You should know if you know this house so well.
- I came here as little as possible. - Once should be enough.
It's Monsieur Jean's father.
Excuse me, Monsieur, could I have -
I'd like a glass of wine.
And a slice of bread, please.
Did you know Jean Robin?
No, of course, you're too young.
I knew him well.
I worked with him here in the mountains.
You must have heard about me.
My name is Boris.
“The Ukrainian” they called me at that time.
Surely you've heard how I got him out of jail?
No, it wasn't the real jail.
They set up a police station in a requisitioned building
with cells for suspects taken in round-ups.
Jean had been picked up in the mountains.
We didn't know if they had anything on him.
We had to get him out of there
before they found out
I made my plan and got word to Jean
by a note hidden in an apple.
His sister was allowed to bring him fruits.
At the right moment,
Jean had to be at a certain window.
Meanwhile, he kept an eye out for anyone coming.
The cells have bars over the windows,
but not the window of the central corridor.
Since it overlooked the courtyard, there was no guard.
And to get into the corridor...
all you needed to do was hoist yourself up onto the false ceiling
and crawl around the building over the sacks of flour
until you reached the inner façade.
Then, you just jump down into the inner corridor.
Where should I unload?
It's the hay for the command. The hay.
It's supposed to be for the command.
I was asking if you had any rooms.
How many?
You mean... how much money?
No. How many rooms?
Well, one, obviously.
It's not obvious. You asked about rooms.
Just go upstairs. Third floor on the left down the right corridor.
To the end of the second floor
You know Maria, the girl who works in the castle?
Yes. Is she a friend of yours?
She said you had lost something there.
Like what?
If you want it back, she'll be over at the ruined tower this morning.
Now you're breaking my glasses!
I was trying to help her.
No one asked you to clean up the glasses.
And to break them, we don't need anyone's help.
Monsieur plans to stay here long?
Well, actually, I don't know yet.
I might have another accommodation,
or I may have to leave.
You better find out. There are other customers.
- But the hotel is empty. - Mind your own business.
We may be expecting someone.
You said I forgot something.
My raincoat?
Did I have a raincoat?
No. You forgot to tell us what happened with that general.
The one who was inspecting the fortifications.
What fortifications?
How should I know? I wasn't in the war with Mr. Jean.
Yes, the war.
But the war didn't have any fortifications.
- Is this yours? - No. Do you like it?
This is Mademoiselle Sylvia's.
You remind me of a girl who had the same voice,
whom I knew a long time ago.
Oh? During the war?
Why not during the war?
Women fought there too.
Jean knew her too, the girl who looks like you.
Her name was -
Her name was Eva.
The liaison agents who arrived in town hid out in her place, at first.
But we had our suspicions.
She was perhaps duplicitous.
Or else there were strange coincidences.
One day, in any case, she was found strangled in her bed.
Listen, Maria...
I can't stand these lies anymore.
I must tell you a horrible thing.
You must know the truth.
Follow me this way.
Here it is.
Jean Robin isn't the hero you think.
He's a traitor and a coward.
You've heard about the hay wagon?
Jean was picked up by a mountain patrol.
By they didn't have anything on him.
He had to keep from talking.
But he was afraid.
And to save his skin, he agreed to act as a decoy.
He sent us a message through his sister,
supposedly to organise his escape.
Our two best men, Joseph and Vladimir,
were to go info the prison with a tractor. It was a huge risk.
He was the boss.
She doesn't want to hear more, of course.
No one wants to hear more about that now.
They'd rather think Jean died during deportation.
And the other two caught by accident.
Actually, Jean Robin is in hiding. Across the border.
And he doesn't dare come back now on account of Joseph...
who managed to escape, who's still here...
and who won't say anything.
But how is it that no one knows you in the village?
All of them. They all know me.
But they pretend not to see me.
It upsets them to hear what I have to say
because they know, or guess,
that the local hero is an impostor.
And does Laura - Madame - know that her husband -
Why do you think she still waits for him
when everyone says he's dead?
Maybe he's even written to her.
And neither she nor his sister dare show themselves now
because they know that everyone knows.
And they all hate me.
You saw how the innkeeper tried to get rid of me.
I'm cursed because I carry a secret that's too heavy.
Don't give up. I'll help you.
There must be something we can do.
You're a nice girl, Maria.
Yes, you are. You're kind.
But you can't beat your head against a wall.
I'm fighting in the dark, and every turn I take is a blind alley.
Is Mademoiselle Maria done with her work?
She's daydreaming all by herself.
- Is that Jean's father? - No, that's only Franz.
They called him the steward.
He's always lived here, you know.
That's Franz.
How he's aged.
It must be all the suffering.
- He didn't seem to know you. - Yes, did you notice?
As if he didn't see me.
If he didn't know who I was, he would have asked what I was doing here.
And now you're leaving.
You're deserting me too.
No, I have work to do for lunch.
Come back this afternoon. I'll wait for you at the cemetery.
You weren't expecting to meet me here.
Yes I was. Why shouldn't I be?
Maria's the one you made a date with.
And you're the one who came. I knew it all along.
You told her filthy lies about my brother.
Forgive me.
I wanted to talk to you alone.
It was the best way to make you come.
You have no right to speak of Jean.
Why do you need to lie about him that way?
Yes, you're right.
I'm a ruined man.
That's what I wanted to tell you.
Ruined? Why?
Because no one believes your stories about my brother?
Because no one can believe my lies. Not even me.
Especially me.
I know well that the coward and the traitor is me, Varissa Boris.
Let me tell you my sad story.
You alone can understand and release me.
No, of course there's no Doctor Muller around here.
Muller was the police chief.
He was the one I told where Jean was hiding.
I wanted to get rid of him.
For no reason. He was the leader and I couldn't bear that
You see, I'm not looking for excuses.
But he was cleverer than I was.
He read the treason in my eyes.
That wound of his must have been a bluff
When the police got to the hut,
Jean wasn't there anymore.
Thank God.
He might have killed me right away once he figured out my plan.
But Jean is too honest to condemn someone on suspicion alone.
He wanted to be sure.
And now [ know he's looking for me.
That's why he hasn't come home yet.
He wants to kill all the traitors first
He follows me from village to village.
Every night I sleep in a different bed.
The only refuge I have left Is my own house.
But he'll find me even there.
I hear him coming closer,
He'll shoot me down.
Like a dog.
You're mad.
Did you hear that noise?
What noise? There wasn't any noise.
The noise of a man running through the woods.
No, there's no one there. And there are no woods.
But if someone were coming -
Wait for me a minute.
Don't go get Doctor Muller.
Well Maria, tell us who this man is.
- What's he doing here? - / don't know who he is, Monsieur.
This girl is making a fool of you.
Be quiet, Franz.
Some things are none of our business.
Then what is our business ?
This room will have to be thoroughly cleaned.
There are vermin in the mattress.
Explain yourself, Monsieur.
Let me introduce myself. Boris Varissa.
I haven't had the honour.
Your son sent me.
From my son into my servant's bed.
- All right, who is he? - I don't know, Monsieur.
You see people nowadays...
even in your own house.
Who knows where they come from.
I'm going to tell you my story.
Is that really necessary?
Let's see, I knew Jean in the resistance.
Where is he now? What's he doing?
When will he come home?
Listen, it's not so simple. I can't tell you everything right away.
Then what are you doing here? Do you have a message for us?
A message”?
Let me tell you my story.
Get out now.
Be quick about it.
We'll have to... air the whole place out.
They turn me away from here too.
Good-bye, Sylvia.
Now I have nowhere to go.
Sylvia, that's not all.
You must know the whole truth.
- I can't leave you without - - Hide for now.
But come tonight.
Here's the key to the little gate. You know?
They're fools, you know. All three of them.
They pretend to have a brother or a husband,
but no one's ever seen them.
One day, Laura claimed that her husband was cheating on her.
With whom?
The lady in the pharmacy.
She told me the story.
It was during the war, just before they were all arrested.
Jean Robin would go there often to see Ivan, the assistant,
who carried the messages.
Which pharmacy?
There's only one here, on the other side of the square.
I'd like a bottle of mercury chrome.
- Is Ivan here? - No, he hasn't come yet.
I'm afraid for him.
Do you have sleeping pills?
Only by prescription, and we're out of them.
Do you want us to order some?
That's not necessary.
Something must have happened.
That man didn't need anything.
They take all their medications at their infirmary.
- Ever seen him before?
There are policemen getting out of trucks near the church.
I'll warn Laura.
Don't remain outside. There's an inspection in town.
Ivan has disappeared. Jean has escaped.
He'll be away for a time. We don't know yet who they're after.
I'll wait.
And then what did they do?
Well, Sylvia must be waiting for me now.
I have to go back there.
And if you meet the father?
No, the father's in bed.
He'll die soon.
I'd like a small bottle of Mercurochrome, please.
Did you know Jean Robin?
Of course. Everyone knows him here.
I dashed down, at the risk of breaking my neck, to help him.
But it was too late.
Jean died on the spot.
I don't know How long / stayed there, beside firs lifeless body.
And then, what did you do?
Well, then I went to tell the others,
and we came back to look for the body.
Which was sheer madness. We could have fallen into a trap.
What others? Can you remember some names?
Where is he? Answer me, Maria.
Where is he hiding now?
We chase him out one door and he comes back in through another.
That's your father.
I have to go and explain...
and also tell him the sad news.
Now that I've told you this horrible thing...
which I hesitated to tell you to spare you the pain...
I have nothing left to hide.
He's dead.
I came too late.
We have to go get a doctor, but only for the report.
A terrible accident, wasn't it?
Beautiful,
mysterious,
desirable, disturbing, et etcetera.
And it's because of them that I'm drawn
to this house full of ghosts and forebodings.
You three can't stay here alone with that crazy servant.
Sylvia, my poor orphan, I'd like to help you.
Doubt that the sky is blue, Sylvia.
Doubt that the truth hates a lie.
Doubt that the sun is shining.
But don't doubt that I love you.
Now that the father has left us,
I can't leave you alone with this crazy servant.
I'm going to move in here.
That Franz is a false witness.
A liar.
A Judas.
During the war they called him Judas.
We all had nicknames in the resistance.
He was Judas, and I was the Ukraine -
No, I've already told you all that.
Believe me, he knew how to grovel in those days.
Judas, my boots.
But Monsieur Boris -
Call me the Ukrainian, idiot, or I'll have you shot.
I should have had him shot.
Your poor father would still be alive.
Murderer.
The railing -
You saw how it came off all in one piece,
obviously sawed through at both ends.
Murderer.
When I think - It's terrible. When I think...
that you yourself could have leaned on it.
But I would have followed you.
I'd have punished the traitor and jumped after you,
my Julietta, down to earth.
Boris and Sylvia.
Foreign tourists would have wept over our grave.
And the two of us would be there forever
as they stare on, marvelling -
young, beautiful, naked,
wrapped in each other's arms, mouth to mouth.
What do you want?
What do you want with me now?
Haven't you persecuted me enough?
You're the leader. Yes, you're the leader.
That should be enough for you.
Get out.
I knew you would follow me here.
Get out, Jean Robin.
There's no room for you.
Explain.
What do you want me to do?
Yes, I'm still alive,
but I'm innocent.
Haven't you ruined my time and my world enough?
Leave me alone now.
Who are you talking to?
There is no one here.
No, of course there isn't.
Who could be here?
Don't be frightened. I'm not insane.
I was putting on an act. I'm an actor. That's my profession.
Maybe you've heard of me?
I was rehearsing a part.
I'm sorry to have alarmed you
under these sad conditions.
But you mustn't be afraid, you know.
You have nothing to fear from me.
But I wasn't afraid.
I'd like to help you, Laura.
I don't know if you understand how much I'd like to do something for you.
But you act as if I were your enemy.
You're suspicious of me.
I'm the doctor you sent for.
I'm here to sign the burial permit.
Let me introduce myself.
I was the first to touch our poor father's body.
Doctor Muller.
Are you ill?
No, thank you. I'm feeling fine.
We've already met, haven't we?
No, we couldn't have.
I came to the district only yesterday.
All right, quick now.
Don't touch me. You get on my nerves.
The days of slipshod service
Now, I'm giving the orders.
Pass the bread.
You're funny. All three of you make me laugh.
I enjoy laughing. I'm a simple man.
During the war, I was the one who -
All right, enough.
Enough of those miserable old stories.
The only thing I want now is to live here in peace...
happy, the way I was before...
The way I was before.
That man won't last long here.
I loathe your crazy stories, your tantrums.
When Jean was arrested during the -
Oh, enough.
Enough of that.
Jean is dead.
I saw his dead body...
as plain as I can see you...
alive...
and beautiful.
I myself nailed up the pine coffin that we buried in a clearing
without a cross, without an epitaph,
without leaving the slightest trace
that might reveal the spot to the enemy soldiers.
But Jean isn't the kind to be forgotten so quickly.
The traces we were so careful to rub out reappeared the next day...
fresh... and obvious.
Jean Robin was here, asking to come out.
He'll come back.
I'm sure of that.
His power couldn't vanish because of a routine raid.
He'll come back.
I sense that he's already on the way.
His footsteps echo in my ears.
He's already reincarnated himself in another body.
And it's me, Boris.
I'm the face he has chosen.
This power that draws me to you...
is his power.
My eyes that see your beauty
are his eyes.
My hands are his hands that want to grasp your life.
I'm the one who killed your brother,
an impotent, frightened man.
He had to be eliminated.
I handled the job myself with pleasure.
I had some personal accounts to settle with him.
Then I promised myself I would come here.
I wanted to strip him too of that fool Laura,
too beautiful for him.
That way I would utterly destroy him.
As for you, I never knew you existed.
But you were good enough to take in passing...
until something better turned up.
Besides, you didn't keep me waiting long.
Every girl's a whore.
All you need is a little more experience.
Maria does it much better than you do.
How beautiful it is.
My body is light.
You're pretending to have some washing,
and I'm putting on an act too.
You know why?
Because I've already been dead...
for a long time.
In the war?
Yes, in the war.
You must have heard the story.
The morning of the liberation, the police shot us
In the cellars.
You'll find my name carved on the monument along with the rest:
Manneret and dozens of others.
In alphabetical order.
My body was left there, mixed with their corpses.
Apparently, I was only wounded. A head wound.
But everyone said I was dead, so I said it too. Why not?
I thought it was a head wound.
Yes, a head wound.
That's why I lost my memory.
And now I think of a bullet in the heart.
You can wash this too.
And you, lovely and empty-headed,
phantom of flesh,
do you suppose you can resist me much longer?
By fair means or foul.
Who will come to your rescue?
And if by foul,
I'll kill you afterwards, you know.
An accident happens so quickly.
Death comes quickly.
Mine too now.
Thank you.
Thank you for giving me this joy.
Your mad, virginal bride's body,
all our long night together...
Remember.
No, stop.
Just a minute.
I have one more thing to say.
Now I'm going to tell you my real story.
Or at least, I'm going to try.
In the resistance, I was called Jean Robin.
But my name is Boris.
After the war, I returned to my family's house,
where my sister Sylvia was waiting for me,
Ellorna whom I married
and who became Laura Vari -