Amour Page #2

GEORGES:

(on the phone)

What about next week? No but still,

it would make sense to get it done

soon. It might give people silly

ideas. And anyway, it’s too ugly to

look at... Wednesday? What time?

OK... Will you bring the paint with

you too, to paint over it? But at

least some primer...Yes, OK. Thank

you.

He hangs up.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

(to Anne)

You can depend on that guy.

ANNE:

(who comes back to the table with

the egg) I hope so. The last time,

he kept us waiting for ages, if you

remember.

GEORGES:

(laughs while acquiescing)

Yes, that’s true. (Reacting when

she places the egg in his egg cup)

Thanks. If I call a regular

professional, we’ll still be

waiting two months time.

ANNE:

(more to herself)

Really?

She has sat down. Looks straight ahead. He cracks open his

egg, puts salt on it, eats.

7.

GEORGES:

The Frodons waited three days when

their toilet was blocked. Not

exactly pleasant.

He eats. Wants to put on more salt, but the saltcellar is

empty.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

The saltcellar is empty.

He looks up for an instant, as if he expected her to deal

with it. As she doesn’t react, he realizes the

inappropriateness of such an expectation, gets up himself,

heads for the kitchen cupboards and fills the salt cellar.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

I don’t know if he’s going to bring

us the CD. Maybe he won’t come at

all. In any case, he didn’t mention

it. I’d like to buy it. It was

really good and I don’t want to

wait long for it. We could go to

Virgin this afternoon and buy it.

What do you say?

He comes back to the table and sits down again.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

Hmmm? Anne? What’s the matter?

She looks at him and doesn’t answer.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

What’s going on? What’s the matter?

He waves his hand in front of her eyes and laughs nervously.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

Helllloooo!!! Cuckoo!!! I’m here!

She continues to look at him without reacting.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

(serious now) Anne! What’s going

on?

He waits, looks at her. No reaction. He stands up slightly,

leans over the table to sit beside her. Tries to make her

turn toward him.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

Anne, what’s the matter?

8.

He manages to get her torso to turn halfway toward him, but

her eyes look through him.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

Anne...what’s...

He takes her face in both hands and turns toward him.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

Anne...

She stares into the void. He drops his hands. Then sits

beside her, for quite awhile.

SILENCE:

Finally he gets up, heads for the sink, turns on the tap,

wets a tea towel, wrings it out a little, comes back and

places it on Anne’s face. Waits for a reaction that doesn’t

come. Then he pulls up her hair in the nape of her neck and

applies the cloth there. Then sits down and looks at her

imploringly.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

(close to tears)

Anne...Darling...please!

Once again they both remain seated. In the background, we

hear the GUSHING of the tap that in his panic he has

forgotten to turn it off.

Making a sudden decision, he gets up, rapidly crossing the

hallway, he goes into the bedroom where he starts to dress

agitatedly, which takes him quite a lot of time. Suddenly,

the GUSHING of the tap stops, which had accompanied us as far

as the bedroom.

George doesn’t notice it immediately, then he stops short.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

Anne?

Finally he returns, half dressed, into the kitchen.

Anne is seated in the same place and looks at him.

ANNE:

What are you doing?

She turns toward the breakfast.

ANNE (CONT’D)

You left the water running.

9.

Georges stares at her.

GEORGES:

(both aghast and furious)

Hey, what’s going on? Are you

completely crazy? Is this supposed

to be a joke, or what’s going on?

She looks at him with amazement.

ANNE:

What did you say?

GEORGES:

(seriously)

Is this a joke? Is this meant to be

a joke?

ANNE:

What joke? I don’t get it! Why are

you talking to me like that? What’s

got into you?

Georges comes from the door to the table.

GEORGES:

Anne! Please! Stop this game. It’s

not funny.

ANNE:

(getting irritated)

What game, for Christ’s sake? What

on earth’s the matter?!!

Georges is about to answer in a similarly irritated tone,

but gradually begins to suspect that he could be mistaken. He

tries to calm down, takes his chair that has remained beside

Anne, sits down and looks at his wife. She doesn’t know how

to react.

GEORGES:

What’s the matter? Why didn’t you

react?

ANNE:

To what?

GEORGES:

To what? To me, to everything.

ANNE:

When?

10.

GEORGES:

Just now. A moment ago.

ANNE:

Please tell me what’s wrong. What

am I supposed to have done?

Georges first looks away reluctantly, then looks at Anne. He

doesn’t want to believe that its serious.

GEORGES:

I don’t know what to say. Do you

really not know what just happened?

ANNE:

But what DID happen?

GEORGES:

(almost reluctantly bowing his head

as he speaks) You were sitting

there, staring at me. You didn’t

answer me when I asked you what the

matter was.

He picks up the wet tea towel from the table.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

I put this tea towel on your face,

and you didn’t react.

Anne looks at the towel, then at Georges, and shakes her

head, perturbed that she can’t understand. Georges looks at

her. He sees the damp marks on the collar of her robe.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

Look... There’s still dampness on

your collar.

Anne follows his gesture, tugs on her collar and sees the

damp marks. She slowly grasps that something is awry.

ANNE:

When... When was it?

GEORGES:

Just now, a few minutes ago.

ANNE:

So...??

GEORGES:

There’s no “So”. I went into the

bedroom to get dressed. I wanted to

get help.

11.

ANNE:

Help?

GEORGES:

Yes, and then you turned off the

tap.

ANNE:

Yes. Because you left it on.

SILENCE:

ANNE (CONT’D)

I don’t understand.

GEORGES:

Neither do I.

PAUSE.

GEORGES (CONT’D)

Don’t you think it’s best if I call

Dr. Bertier?

ANNE:

Why? What can he do?

GEORGES:

I don’t know. Examine you.

ANNE:

I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong

with me.

GEORGES:

Anne, please!! That’s absurd. We

can’t pretend that nothing

happened.

ANNE:

But what DID happen?

PAUSE.

ANNE (CONT’D)

I’m here. I’m having my breakfast,

and you’re telling me things

happened that I don’t understand.

GEORGES:

Can you explain how the tea towel

got there?

12.

ANNE:

(irritated)

No, I can’t!

GEORGES:

Who turned on the tap?

ANNE:

You did!

GEORGES:

Can you remember that?

ANNE:

(more and more desperate, close to

tears) No I can’t! Do you want to

torture me? Leave me in peace!

Georges looks at her.

GEORGES:

Don’t you think it would be better

to fetch Dr. Bertier?

ANNE:

No!

She takes her cup of tea, as if to show how well she is, and

drinks it up. When she wants to re-fill her cup, she

completely misses her aim. She notices it, puts down her cup

and bursts into tears.

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