Apocalypse Now Redux Page #32

DEMARAIS:

This is Baudelaire. It is a very

cruel poem for children, but they

need it, because life sometime is

very cruel.

He reaches behind him and picks up a plaque, hands it to

Willard.

DEMARAIS:

As you can see. Attack repels by

the family.

PHILIPPE:

Just for this war

DEMARAIS:

(pointing to the

plaque)

Vietcong, fifty-eight. North

Vietnamese, twelve. South

Vietnamese, eleven.

WILLARD:

Americans, six?

DEMARAIS:

Yes, well, there were perhaps

mistakes.

Willard hands the plaque back to Demarais, who hands if

off to Philippe.

ANOTHER ANGLE TO INCLUDE ROXANNE

The young woman we saw earlier, ROXANNE, has come down the

stairs and moves into the dining Room. DeMarais looks up

and sees her.

DEMARAIS:

(in French)

Roxanne, you were curious to see

these Americans, weren't you?

ROXANNE:

(in French)

No, I was only hungry.

She stops in front of an empty chair next to Philippe.

Willard rises to greet her.

DEMARAIS:

May I present Captain Willard, he

is of a Paratroop regiment. Madame

Sarrault.

She smiles and indicates for Willard to sit down.

ROXANNE:

Captain.

She sits down. There is an uneasy silence. She laughs

slightly.

ROXANNE:

(in French)

"An angel passes..."

DeMarais reacts.

DEMARAIS:

(in French)

"...Let's butcher it!" Do you

remember this story in Paris, when

the baron said, "Let's cut the

angel?"

ROXANNE:

(in French)

I don't think that is the subject

tonight.

DEMARAIS:

I'm sorry, Captain. It was just a

little story. And people starving

during the war. They are all around

the table, and there was a silence,

somebody say "An angel is passing

by." So somebody say "Let's eat

it!"

(laughs)

WILLARD:

How long can you possibly stay

here?

DEMARAIS:

We stay forever.

WILLARD:

No, no, I mean, why don't you go

back home to France?

DEMARAIS:

This is our home, Captain.

WILLARD:

Sooner or later, you're --

DEMARAIS:

No!

Roxanne interrupts, saying something to him in French. He

silences her.

DEMARAIS:

(to Willard)

You don't understand our mentality!

The French officer mentality! At

first, we lose in Second World

War. I don't say that you Americans

win, but we lose.

CLAUDINE:

Oh, Papa.

DeMarais is starting to get heated up.

DEMARAIS:

When I speak, you shut up!

(to Willard)

In Dine Bien Phu, we lose! In

Algeria, we lose! In Indochina,

we lose. But here, we don't lose!

This piece of earth, we keep it!

We will never lose it! Never!

The OLD BLIND UNCLE at the other end of the table speaks,

as Claudine cuts his food for him and feeds him.

OLD UNCLE:

And now you take French place, and

the Viet Minh fight you. And what

can you do? Nothing. Absolutely

nothing.

DEMARAIS:

The Vietnamese are very intelligent.

You never know what they think.

The Russian ones who help them,

"Come and give us their money, we

are all Communists. Chinese, come

and give us guns. We're all

brothers." They hate the Chinese!

Maybe they hate the American less

that the Russian and the Chinese.

If tomorrow the Vietnamese are

Communists, they will be Vietnamese

Communists. And this is something

that you will never understand,

you American.

OLD UNCLE:

I don't know. Maybe in the future

we can make something with the

Viet Minh.

PHILIPPE:

Don't you understand? The V.C.

say, "Go away! Go away!" That's

finish for all the white people in

Indochina. If you're French,

American, that's all the same.

"Go!" They want to forget you.

Look, Captain --

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