CLOSER [2004]

If You Believe In Love At First Sight, 

You Never Stop Looking

 Dan: You've never left somebody you still love?

Alice: No.

Anna: Is your heroine based on someone you know?

Dan: Yes, she's someone called Alice.

Anna: How does she feel about you stealing her life?

Dan: Borrowing her life.

I'm dedicating the book to her. She's pleased.

 Dan: She's too young.

She works in a cafe near here. She's coming to meet me.

Anna: Why are you wasting her time?

Dan: You're judgmental.

Anna: You're devious.

Dan: I'm not wasting her time.

She's completely lovable, and completely unleavable.

Anna: And you don't want someone else getting their dirty hands on her.

Men are crap.

Dan: But all the same...

Anna: ... they're still crap.

Larry: But why would he pretend to be you?

Anna: I think he likes me.

Larry: Funny way of showing it.

Can't he send you flowers?

Alice: I'm waiting for you.

Dan: To do what?

Alice: Leave me.

Dan: I'm not gonna leave you. I totally love you.

Why won't you let me love you?

~Alice

 It's a lie.

It's a bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully, 

and all the glittering assholes who appreciate art say it's beautiful

because that's what they want to see.

But the people in the photos are sad and alone.

But the pictures make the world seem beautiful

so the exhibition's reassuring, which makes it a lie.

And everyone loves a big, fat lie.

~Alice

Dan: Look at me. Tell me you're not in love with me.

Anna: I'm not in love with you.

Larry: I had a chat with young Alice.

Anna: Fancy her?

Larry: Of course, not as much as you.

Anna: Why not?
Larry: You're a woman, she's a girl.

She has the moronic beauty of youth, but she's sly.

Anna: She seems open to me.

Larry: Yeah, that's how she wants to seem.

You forget you're dealing with a clinical observer of the human carnival.

Anna: Am I, now?

Larry: Oh, yeah.

Anna: You seem more like the cat that got the cream. Stop licking yourself.

Larry: That's the nastiest thing you've ever said to me.

Dan: I'm sorry.

Alice: Irrelevant. What are you sorry for?

Dan: Everything.

Alice: Why didn't you tell me before?

Dan: Cowardice.

Alice: Is it because she's successful?

Dan: No. It's because she doesn't need me.

Alice: Did you bring her here?

Dan: Yes.

Alice: Didn't she get married?

Dan: She stopped seeing me.

Alice: Is that when we went to the country? To celebrate our 3rd anniversary?

[Dan nod]

Did you phone her? Beg her to come back?

When you went for your long, lonely walks?

Dan: Yes.

Alice: You're a piece of shit!

Dan: Deception is brutal.

I'm not pretending otherwise.

Alice: How? How does it work? How do you do this to someone?

[Dan shrug]

Not good enough!

Dan: I fell in love with her, Alice.

Alice: Oh, as if you had no choice?

There's a moment. There's always a moment.

"I can do this, I can give in to this, or I can resist it."

And I don't know when your moment was, but I bet you there was one.

I'm going.

Dan, holds the door: It's not safe out there.

Alice: Oh, and it's safe in here?

Dan: What about your things?

Alice: I don't need things.

Dan: Where will you go?

Alice: Disappear.

Alice: Dan, can I still see you?

Dan: I can't see you. If I see you, I'll never leave you.

Alice: What will you do if I find someone else?

Dan: Be jealous.

Alice: You still fancy me.

Dan: Of course.

Alice: You're lying. I've been you.

[start sobbing] Will you hold me?

[Dan hugs her] I amuse you, but I bore you.

Dan: No, no...

Alice: You did love me?

Dan: I'll always love you. I hate hurting you.

Alice: Then why are you?

Dan: Cause I'm selfish.

And I think I'll be happier with her.

Alice: You won't. You'll miss me.

No one will ever love you as much as I do.

Why isn't love enough?

I'm the one who leaves. I'm supposed to leave you. I'm the one who leaves.

Larry: Are you leaving me, because of this?

Anna: Dan.

Larry: Cupid? He's our joke.

Anna: I love him.

Larry: You're seeing him now?

Since when?

Anna: Since my opening last year.

I'm disgusting.

Larry: You're phenomenal. You're so clever.

Why did you marry me?

Anna: I stopped seeing him. I wanted us to work.

Larry: Why did you tell me you wanted children?

Anna: Because I did.

Larry: And now you want children with him?

Anna: Yes. I don't know.

Larry: But, we're happy... aren't we?

You're gonna go and live with him?

Anna: You stay here if you want.

Larry: Oh, look, I don't give a fuck about the spoils.

You did this to me the day that we met.

You let me hang myself for your amusement.

Why didn't you just tell me the second I walked through the door?

Anna: I was scared.

Larry: You're coward, you spoilt bitch.

Are you dressed cause you thought I might hit you?

What do you think I am?

Anna: I've been hit before.

Larry: Not by me.

Is he a good fuck?

Anna: Don't do this.

Larry: Just answer the question. Is he good?

Anna: Yes.

Larry: Better than me?

Anna: Different.

Larry: Better?

Anna: Gentler.

Larry: What does that mean?

Anna: You know what it means.

Larry: Tell me. I treat you like a whore?

Anna: Sometimes.

Larry: Why would that be?

Anna: I'm sorry, you're...

Larry: Don't say it!

Don't you fucking say, "You're too good for me."

I am, but don't say it.

You're making the mistake of your life.

You're leaving me because you believe that you don't deserve happiness, but you do, Anna.

Larry: Come home with me. It's safe. Let me look after you.

Alice: I don't need looking after.

Larry: Everyone needs looking after.

Alice: I'm not your revenge fuck.

Larry: I'll pay you.

Alice: I don't need your money.

Larry: Alice, tell me something true.

Alice: Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off, 

but it's better if you do.

Larry: You're cold. You're all cold at heart.

I'll sign on one condition.

We skip this.

We go to my sleek new surgery and we christen the patients' bed with our final fuck.

I know you don't want to, and I know you think I'm sick for asking, but that's what I'm asking.

For old times' sake.

Because I'm obsessed with you.

Because I can't get over you unless...

Because I think, on some small level, you owe me something for deceiving me so exquisitely.

For all these reasons, I am begging you to give me your body.

You'd be my whore.

And in return, I will pay you with your liberty.

You do this, I swear I will not contact you again.

~Larry

Dan: What do you expect me to do?

Anna: Understand.

Dan: Why didn't you lie to me?

Anna: Because we said we'd always tell each other the truth.

Dan: What's so great about the truth?

Try lying for a change. It's the currency of the world.

Dan: I want Anna back.

Larry: She's made her choice.

Dan: I owe you an apology. I fell in love with her.

My intention was not to make you suffer.

Larry: So where's the apology, you cunt?

Dan: I apologize.

If you love her, you'll let her go so she can be happy.

Larry: She doesn't want to be happy.

Dan: Everybody wants to be happy.

Larry: Depressives don't.

They want to be unhappy to confirm they're depressed.

If they were happy, they couldn't be depressed any more.

They'd have to go out into the world and live, which can be depressing.

Dan: Anna's not a depressive.

Larry: Isn't she?

Dan: I love her.

Larry: Boo-hoo, so do I.

Dan: She's gone back to you because she can't bear your suffering.

You don't know who she is.

You love her like a dog loves its owner.

Larry: And the owner loves the dog for so doing.

Dan: You'll hurt her. You'll never forgive her.

Larry: Of course I forgive her. I have forgiven her.

Without forgiveness we're savages.

You're drowning.

Dan: You only met her because of me.

Larry: Yeah, thanks.

Dan: It's a joke. Your marriage is a joke.

Larry: Here's a good one.

She never sent the divorce papers to her lawyer.

Now, to a towering romantic hero like you, I don't doubt I am somewhat common.

But I am, nevertheless, what she has chosen, and we must respect what the woman wants.

If you go near her again, I swear I will kill you.

I didn't do it to give her a nice time.

I fucked her to fuck you up.

A good fight is never clean.

She enjoyed it.

As you know, she loves a guilty fuck.

~Larry

Alice: This is the moment of your life.

Dan: You were perfect.

Alice: I still am.

I would have loved you forever.

~Alice

Dan: I love you.

Alice: Where?

Dan: What?

Alice: Show me. Where is this love?

I can't see it. I can't touch it. I can't feel it.

I can hear it. I can hear some words, but I can't do anything with your easy words.

Whatever you say, it's too late.

*****

KING ARTHUR [2004]

Rule Your Fate


 By 300 AD, the Roman Empire extended from Arabia to Britain.
But They wanted more. More land.
More people loyal and subservient to Rome.
But no people so important as the powerful Sarmatians to the east.
Thousand died on that field.
And when the smoke cleared on the fourth day, the only Sarmatian soldiers left alive were members of the decimated but legendary cavalry.
The Romans, impressed by their bravery and horsemanship, spared their lives.
In exchange, these warriors were incorporated into the Roman military.
Better they had died that day.

For the second part of the bargain, 
they struck indebted not only themselves but also their sons, and their sons, and so on,
to serve the empire as knights.

Pelagius: Behold, Arthur, young knights.
If you so choose, they may someday be yours to lead, as your father before you.
Arthur: I'm to be their commander?
Pelagius: Yes.
But with this title comes a sacred responsibility to protect, to defend, to value their lives above your own, 
and should they perish in battle, to live your life gloriously in honor of their memory.
Arthur: And what of their free will?
Pelagius: It has always fallen to a few to sacrifice for the good of many.
The world isn't a perfect place, but perhaps people like you, Arthur, and me and them can make it so.

Bishop Germanius: And these are the great Sarmatian knights we have heard so much of in Rome.
I thought The Woads control the north of Hadrian's Wall.
Arthur: They do, but they occasionally venture south.
Rome's anticipated withdrawal from Britain has only increased their daring.
Soldier: Woads?
Gawain: British rebels who hate Rome.
Galahad: Men who want their country back.
Bishop Germanius: Who leads them?
Lancelot: He's called Merlin. A dark magician, some say.

Gawain: I've often thought about what going home would mean after all this. What will I do?
It's different for Galahad. I've been in this life longer than the other.
So much for home. It's not so clear in my memory.
Bors: You speak for yourself. It's cold back there and everyone I know is dead and buried.
Besides, I have, I think, a dozen children.
Gawain: 11.
Bors: You listen, when the Romans leave here, we'll have the run of all this place.
I'll be governor in my own village and Dagonet will be my personal guard and royal arse-kisser, won't you, Dag?
Gawain: First thing I will do when I get home is find a beautiful Sarmatian woman to wed.
Bors: A beautiful Sarmatian woman? Why do you think we left in the first place?
What about you, Lancelot, what are your plans for home?
Lancelot: If this woman of Gawain's is as beautiful as he claims, 
I expect to be spending a lot of time at Gawain's house.
His wife will welcome the company.
Gawain: I see. And what will I be doing?
Lancelot: Wondering at your good fortune that all your children look like me.
Gawain: Is that before or after I hit you with my axe?

Lancelot: What will you do, Arthur, when you return to your beloved Rome?
Arthur: Give thanks to God that I survived to see it.
Lancelot: You and your god! You disturb me.
Arthur: I want peace, Lancelot. I've had enough. You should visit me.
Lancelot: Nah!
Arthur: It's a magnificent place, Rome. Ordered, civilized, advanced.
Lancelot: A breeding ground of arrogant fools.
Arthur: The greatest minds in all the lands, have come together in one sacred place to help make mankind free.

Let us not forget that we are the fortunate ones.
Let us raise our wine to those gallant and extraordinary men we have lost, 
but who will be remembered for eternity.
~Arthur

Horton: A round table? What sort of evil is this?
Jols: Arthur says for men to be men they must first all be equal.

Bishop Germanius: Rome has issued a final order for you and your men.
Arthur: Final order?
Bishop Germanius: You are to travel north to rescue the family of Marius Honorius,
and return, in particular, with Marius' son, Alecto.
Alecto is the Pope's favorite godchild and pupil.
It is his destiny to become a bishop, perhaps even pope one day.
Arthur: On this day you ask this of my men. On this day.
They have risked their lives for 15 years for a cause not of their own.
And now, on the day they are to be liberated, you send them on a mission
which is far more dangerous than any other they have undertaken.
You tell me, Bishop, how do I go to my men and tell them that instead of freedom I offer death?
Bishop Germanius: If your men are truly the knights of legend, perhaps some will survive.
If it is God's will.
Your men want to go home, and to get home they need to cross the entire breadth of the Roman Empire.
Deserters would be hunted down like dogs.
Will you defy the Pope, Arthur? Rome? God himself?
Arthur: Everything I've done has been for the church and for Rome.
Do not mistake a loyal soldier for a fool, Germanius.
Bishop Germanius: Would you leave a defenseless Roman boy, destined to lead our church,
at the hands of the Saxons?
Fulfill this mission, and your men will receive their discharge.
Their papers will be waiting here the moment they return.
You have my word.
Arthur: You think very hard upon that vow, Bishop, for I will hold you to it.
Break it, and no Roman legion, papal army, nor God himself will protect you.
That is my word.

Arthur: Knights, brothers in arms, your courage has been tested beyond all limits.
But I must ask you nor for one further trial.
We must leave on a final mission for Rome before our freedom can be granted.
Above the wall, far in the north, there is a Roman family in need of rescue.
They are trapped by Saxons.
Our orders are to secure their safety.
Bors: Let the Romans take care of their own.
Gawain: Above the wall is Woad territory.
Galahad: Our duty to Rome, if it was ever a duty, is done. Our pact with Rome is done.
Bors: Every knight here has laid his life on the line for you. For you.
And instead of freedom you want more blood? Our blood?
You think more of Roman blood than you do of ours?
Arthur: Bors! These are our orders.
We leave at first light, and when we return your freedom will be waiting for you.
A freedom we can embrace with honor.
Bors: I am a free man! I will choose my own fate!
Tristan: Yeah, yeah, we're all going to die someday.
If it's a death from a Saxon hand that frightens you, stay home.
Galahad: If you're so eager to die, you can die right now!
Lancelot: Enough! Enough!
Galahad: I've got something to live for!
Dagonet: The Romans have broken their word. We have the word of Arthur. That is good enough.
I'll prepare.
Bors, you coming?
Bors: Of course I'm coming! Can't let you go on your own! You'll all get killed!
I'm just saying what you're all thinking!
Arthur: And you, Gawain?
Gawain: I'm with you. Galahad as well.

O merciful God, I have such need of your mercy now.
Not for myself, but for my knights, for this is truly their hour of need.
Deliver them from the trials ahead, 
and I will repay you a thousandfold with any sacrifice you ask of me.
And if, in your wisdom, you should determine that sacrifice must be my life for theirs,
so they may once again taste the freedom that has so long been denied to them, 
I will gladly make that covenant.
My death will have a purpose. I ask no more than that.
~Arthur

Lancelot: Why do you always talk to God and not to me?
Oh, pray to whomever you pray that we don't cross the Saxons.
Arthur: My faith is what protects me, Lancelot. Why do you challenge this?
Lancelot: I don't like anything that puts a man on his knees.
Arthur: No man fears to kneel before the god he trusts.
Without faith, without belief in something, what are we?
Lancelot: To try and past the Woads in the north is insanity.
Arthur: Them we've fought before.
Lancelot: Not north of the wall!
How many Saxons, hm?! How many?!
Tell me, do you believe in this mission?
Arthur: These people need our help. It is our duty to bring them out.
Lancelot: I don't care about your charge, and I don't give a damn about Romans, Britain or this island.
If you desire to spend eternity in this place, Arthur, so be it.
But suicide cannot be chosen for another!
Arthur: And yet you choose death for this family!
Lancelot: No, I choose life! And freedom for myself and the men!
Arthur: How many times in battle have we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat?
Outnumbered, outflanked, yet still we triumph.
With you at my side, we can do so again.
Lancelot, we are knights.
What other purpose do we serve if not for such a cause?
Lancelot: Arthur, you fight for a world that will never exist. Never.
There will always be a battlefield.

I will die in battle. Of that I'm certain. And hopefully a battle of my choosing.
But if it be this one, grant me a favor.
Don't bury me in our sad little cemetery.
Burn me. Burn me and cast my ashes to a strong east wind.
~Lancelot

Are you challenging me?
If you want to challenge me, you have to have a sword in your hand.
As long as my heart beats, I rule and you hold your tongue.
Or I'll cut it out.
~Cedric

Informant: We are 3 days' march from the Great Wall, if we camp at night.
Cynric: We won't camp.
The wall... what troops are stationed there?
Informant: Light Roman infantry. And possibly Sarmatian knights.
Arthur Castus is their leader.
Cynric: Arthur? Who is this Arthur?
Informant: It is said he has never been defeated in battle. It is said he is a great warrior.
Cedric: Why should I trust you? You're a traitor to your own people.

 Arthur: Who is this man?
Ganis: He's our village elder.
Arthur: What is this punishment for?
Answer me!
Ganis: He defied our master, Marius.
Most of the food we grow is sent out by sea to be sold.
He asked that we keep a little more for ourselves, that's all.
My arse has been snappin' at the grass I'm so hungry!
You're from Rome. Is it true that Marius is a spokesman for God and that it's a sin to defy him?
Arthur: I tell you now. Marius is not of God.
And you, all of you, were free from your first breath!

Lancelot: We're moving too slow. The girl's not gonna make it, and neither is the boy.
The family we can protect, but we're wasting our time with all these people.
Arthur: We're not leaving them.
Lancelot: If the Saxons find us, we will have to fight.
Arthur: Then save your anger for them.
Lancelot: Is this Rome's quest or Arthur's?

Guinevere: I am Guinevere.
You are Arthur, of the knights from the Great Wall.
Arthur: I am.
Guinevere: The famous Briton who kills his own people.

Guinevere: My father told me great tales of you.
Arthur: Really? And what did you hear?
Guinevere: Fairy tales.
The kind you hear about people so brave, so selfless, that they can't be real.
Arthur and his knights. A leader both Briton and Roman.
And yet you chose your allegiance to Rome, to those who take what does not belong to them.
That same Rome that took your men from their homeland.
Arthur: Listen, Lady, do not pretend you know anything about me or my men.
Guinevere: How many Britons have you killed?
Arthur: As many as tried to kill me. It's the natural state of any man to want to live.
Guinevere: Animals live!
It's a natural state of any man to want to live free in their own country.
I belong to this land. Where do you belong, Arthur?

 Guinevere: 'Tis a beautiful country, is it not?
Lancelot: If you say so.
Guinevere: And where do you come from that compares? The Black Sea?
This is heaven for me.
Lancelot: I don't believe in heaven. I've been living in this hell.
But if you represent what heaven is, then take me there.

Guinevere: When you return home, will you take a wife, have sons?
Lancelot: I've killed too many sons. What right do I have to my own?
Guinevere: No family, no religion. Do you believe in anything at all?

Merlin: Peace between us this night, Arthur Castus.
So Rome is leaving, The Saxon is come. The world we have known and fought for is ended.
Now we must make a new world.
Arthur: Your world, Merlin, not mine. I shall be in Rome.
Merlin: To find peace? The Saxon will come to Rome.
Arthur: My knights trust me not to betray them to their enemy.
Merlin: Rome was my enemy, not Arthur. We have no fight between us now.
Arthur: You tell that to the knights you killed before my eyes, whose bones are buried in this earth.
Merlin: We have all lost brothers.
Arthur: You know nothing of the loss I speak! Shall I help you remember?
An attack on a village. The screams of an innocent woman.
I ran to the burial mound of my father to free her. To kill you.
I feel the heat of that fire on my face even now.
Merlin: I did not wish her dead. She was our blood, as are you.
Guinevere: If you were so determined to leave us to slaughter, why did you save so many?
Merlin: My men are strong, but they have need of a true leader.
They believe you can do anything.
To defeat The Saxon we need a master of war.

That sword you carry is made of iron from this earth, forged in the fires of Britain.
It was love of your mother that freed the sword, not hatred of me.
Love, Arthur.
~Merlin

Guinevere: It is your destiny.
Arthur: There is no destiny. There is only free will.
Merlin: And what of the free will of your knights? Did they die in vain?

Arthur: I'm sorry for your loss.
Alecto: My father lost his way.
He used to say the church is there to help us stay on our path. It didn't help those he made suffer.
Arthur: The path he chose was beyond the reach of the church, Alecto.
Alecto: But not of Rome. What my father believed, so Rome believes.
Arthur: What, that some men are born to be slaves? No, that isn't true.
Alecto: It is so. He told me so.
Arthur: Pelagius, a man as close to me as any, is there now, teaching that all men are free, equal.
And that each of us has the right to choose his own destiny.
Alecto: Teach? How? They killed Pelagius a year past.
Germanius and the others were damned by his teachings.
They had him excommunicated and killed.
The Rome you talk doesn't exist, except in your dreams.

Arthur: Knights...
Bors: Well, I'm tired of running. And these Saxons are so close behind my arse is hurtin'.
Tristan: Never liked looking over my shoulder anyway.
Gawain: Be a pleasure to put an end to this racket.
Galahad: And finally get a look at the bastards.
Dagonet: Here. Now.

Arthur: Pelagius told me once there is no worse death than the end of hope.
Guinevere: You and I are not the polite people that live in poems.
We are blessed and cursed by our times.
Arthur: Perhaps the curse is of our own making. And the blessing.

Cedric: Arthur.
Wherever I go on this wretched island I hear your name. Always half-whispered, as if you were a god.
All I see is flesh, blood. No more god than the creature you're sitting on.
Arthur: Speak your terms, Saxon.
Cedric: The Romans have left you. Who are you fighting for?
Arthur: I fight for a cause beyond Rome's or your understanding.
Cedric: You come to beg a truce. You should be on your knees.
Arthur: I came to see your face, so that I alone may find you on the battlefield.
And it would be good for you to mark my face, Saxon, 
for the next time you see it, it will be the last thing you see on this earth.

For 200 years, knights had fought and died for a land not our own.
But on that day at Badon Hill, all who fought put our lives in service of a greater cause.
Freedom.
And as for the knights who gave their lives, their death were cause for neither mourning nor sadness.
For they will live forever.
Their names and deeds handed down from father to son, mother to daughter,
in the legends of King Arthur and his knights.


*****