Before Midnight Page #11

JESSE:

(Laughs)

Yes, that's true.

CELINE:

Yeah. Isn't that common where you

come from? I mean... you didn't

answer the question.

JESSE:

What question?

CELINE:

Will you be able to put up with me

for another 56 more years?

JESSE:

I am looking forward to it.

CELINE:

Sh*t, you're really working it.

JESSE:

(Spanish accent returns)

Ze nectar of your sex ages like a

fine wine.

CELINE:

Uh-oh, my hairy Spanish lover is

back.

JESSE:

Greek. I'm Greek now, for sure.

Greek, yeah.

72.

CELINE:

(a beat)

Oh! Look at this! Wow. This place

sort of reminds me of this film I

saw when I was a teenager. It was a

black and white film from the 50s.

I remember a couple walking through

the ruins of Pompeii, looking at

bodies that had been lying there for

centuries. I remember the bodies

caught in their sleep, still lovingly

holding each other. I don't know

why, sometimes I have this image in

my mind when, you know, we're asleep

and you hold me.

JESSE:

What, of being buried alive under

molten ash, that's what you're

thinking about?

CELINE:

Yeah!

(Laughing)

JESSE:

That's not very fun.

CELINE:

(Laughing)

Well... I don't know, it's not

horrible. They had some bodies with

little kids sleeping between them...

JESSE:

Oh, that's nice!

CELINE:

Yeah! I guess I was young and a bit

morbid - I mean at that age you

romanticize the idea of dying with

the person you love.

JESSE:

Well, you wanna die with me?

CELINE:

Maybe, if it were, you know, our

first night together, then, a long

time ago. But now, no. I'd like to

live!

73.

JESSE:

Well, I just wanted you to say

something romantic and you blew it!

Putain de merde!

CELINE:

Oh, no! Putain de merde, I blew it.

Okay, if we're both 98 you can ask

me again, but anytime sooner...Ehhnt!

(Whispers)

Sorry.

They are walking by an old, tiny Chapel.

JESSE:

Hey, this is the chapel I was telling

you about. It's from the Byzantine

era, it's like a thousand years old.

CELINE:

Can we go in?

JESSE:

Yeah. I think so. Check this out.

Hello? Hello.

CELINE:

Oh, wow!

They enter.

INT. CHAPEL - AFTERNOON

JESSE:

It's a shrine to Saint Odilia, a

patron saint to eyesight. People

come from all over, they leave little

dedications to the blind, to help

restore sight.

CELINE:

I'm sure it works.

He is looking at the old faded paintings on the walls.

JESSE:

Maybe. These paintings here, they

make me think of those Japanese monks,

you know, with their deal on

impermanence. They like to paint

with water on rock on a hot day so

by the time they're done it's already

evaporated.

Celine notices all the icons have been subtly defaced.

74.

CELINE:

All the eyes are scratched out. Is

that about the blindness?

JESSE:

No, I thought that too, but the

caretaker guy, he told me that the

Turks did that during the Occupation.

CELINE:

That's it! I'm never eating Turkish

food again.

JESSE:

Oh, okay. Well, that'll send a shiver

through the international community.

CELINE:

Okay fine, then I'll never suck

another Turkish cock.

JESSE:

(Laughs)

Now THAT's gonna have a global impact.

CELINE:

Oh, that's terrible. No, I forgot

you're a closet Christian. Is it

really bad to make blow-job jokes in

a church?

Jesse just shrugs.

JESSE:

Kind of is, okay? But we've done

worse.

CELINE:

(a beat)

The girls asked me again what our

wedding was like.

JESSE:

Yeah? What'd you say?

CELINE:

I said it was very low key.

JESSE:

Yeah, very low key. So low key I

don't even remember it.

CELINE:

Very Quaker.

(MORE)

75.

CELINE (CONT'D)

I don't know why they want us to be

married so badly. It's important to

them.

JESSE:

We're in a church. You want to get

married?

CELINE:

No.

JESSE:

No.

CELINE:

It's just all those fairy tales they

like so much, you know? Remember

when they were little, at the end of

every cartoon they watched, they'd

be all "Oh they're getting married!"

Even if it's Pinocchio and his dad,

or Donald Duck and his nephews.

EXT. WALK PART THREE- EVENING

They are now walking through the town on their way to the

shore.

CELINE:

So if we're going to spend another

fifty-six more years together...

JESSE:

Yeah?

CELINE:

... What about me would you like to

change?

JESSE:

(Smirks)

That's another one of your can't-win

questions. I'm not answering that.

CELINE:

What do you mean? There's not one

thing you'd like to change about me?

I'm perfect?

JESSE:

Okay.

CELINE:

Okay.

76.

JESSE:

Actually...

CELINE:

One thing.

JESSE:

... If I could change one thing about

you...

CELINE:

Uh-huh.

JESSE:

... It would be for you to stop trying

to change me.

CELINE:

You're a very skilled manipulator,

you know that?

JESSE:

Well, I'm onto you. I know how you

work.

CELINE:

You think?

JESSE:

Yeah. I know everything about you.

Here we go. Let's go through here.

CELINE:

I don't think you do, actually.

(Laughs)

JESSE:

(Laughs)

No? Well, I know you better than I

know anybody else on the planet.

But... maybe that's not saying much.

CELINE:

I mean right now?

JESSE:

What?

CELINE:

This is great. You know?

JESSE:

Right. Yeah.

77.

CELINE:

I feel close to you.

JESSE:

Yeah.

CELINE:

But sometimes, I don't know, I feel

like you're breathing helium and I'm

breathing oxygen.

JESSE:

(helium voice)

What makes you say that? Huh?

CELINE:

See? I'm trying to truly connect

JESSE:

(Helium voice)

What? Come on, I'm just being

myself!

CELINE:

-And you make a joke! That's exactly

what I'm talking about!

JESSE:

Oh, listen, come on, come on. If

we're ever going to truly know one

another, I think we'd probably have

to get to know ourselves better first.

CELINE:

Yeah. Do you remember this friend

of mine? George, from New York.

JESSE:

No.

CELINE:

Oh, no, that was before. That was

before.

JESSE:

What was?

CELINE:

He was this friend of mine that,

when he found out he had leukemia,

and he was probably going to die, he

confessed to me that the first thing

that came to his mind was relief.

78.

JESSE:

Relief? But why?

CELINE:

Well, before he found out he had

nine months to live he was always so

worried about money, and now his

thought was, great! I have more

than enough money to live for the

next nine months, I've made it!

JESSE:

(Laughing)

Oh, okay.

CELINE:

And then he was finally able to enjoy

everything about life, even like

being stuck in traffic. He would

just enjoy looking at people...

staring at their faces. Just little

things.

JESSE:

And then what happened?

CELINE:

What do you mean?

JESSE:

Well, like, is he still alive?

CELINE:

No, he died. A long time ago.

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