Before Midnight Page #13

JESSE:

"Good luck with your mom."

(Laughs)

I mean, come on

CELINE:

I didn't mean anything by it.

JESSE:

I know, but it's not good. It just

reminds him of the whole thing. I

just wish you wouldn't do that...

CELINE:

Oh, like you think he forgets?

JESSE:

No...

CELINE:

That's so American to just sweep it

under the carpet and act as if it

didn't happen.

JESSE:

Why put it into his head? You know?

What if he doesn't want to be thinking

about that right now? He's too

stressed.

CELINE:

It means nothing.

JESSE:

It means something. It does.

CELINE:

Alright, I even made a joke the other

day that his mom and I should try to

settle it in one big mud wrestling

contest.

JESSE:

Mud wrestling? You said that?

87.

CELINE:

And he laughed. He might have more

of a sense of humor than you do.

Come on.

JESSE:

We just talked about that. When you

say bad things about his mom, what

he hears is bad things about himself.

CELINE:

Well, I didn't say anything bad about

his mom. I made a joke; it's as

much on me as it is on her.

JESSE:

Well you're right. I know, I know,

I know. Just why conjure it up at

all, you know?

Jesse gets up out of bed and goes across the room, goes to

Celine's purse and turns off her phone.

CELINE:

I think he's old enough now. I mean,

he knows how bad it is between his

mother and I.

JESSE:

His mom and me.

CELINE:

And I didn't do anything, it's all

coming from her towards me. Okay,

she hates me; yes, I f***ed her

husband a long time ago. Or should

I say, he f***ed me?

JESSE:

Yeah, right!

CELINE:

Making a joke about the fact that

his mom and I don't love each other

is not the issue. That's not going

to traumatize him. That already

happened, alright, and now you're

trying to transfer your guilt and

blame me?

JESSE:

No, I'm not.

88.

CELINE:

You know, on the contrary, if he can

make a joke about it, maybe he'll be

able to live with it better. That's

what I think.

JESSE:

Okay. You're right. As always.

Let's just not talk about it, okay?

CELINE:

It's nobody's fault if his mom is a

drunk and abusive psychologically.

JESSE:

Don't say that!

CELINE:

I mean, it makes me sick that he has

to be with her, but I guess judges

assume that women have the mother

instinct. She has the mother instinct

of Medea!

Jesse goes to the bathroom and washes off his face.

JESSE:

Medea, huh?

CELINE:

Yeah, after all, it is a Greek myth.

JESSE:

It's actually a play by Euripides,

but

CELINE:

A woman killing her kids to punish

her ex-husband? That's basically

what she's doing, she's hurting him

to get to you.

JESSE:

No, she's making my life hell through

him, that's what she's doing. You

know, sometimes, you say things that

just go too far.

CELINE:

Okay, stop blaming me for everything

that is wrong in this whole thing

with your wife, okay?

JESSE:

Ex-wife! Ex-wife for a long time!

89.

CELINE:

Okay, you should have dealt with it

a little better back then. She

wouldn't have hated us so much.

JESSE:

Okay--I screwed up. And I love this

little re-write you do: everything

that isn't perfect in our life gets

laid at my feet...

CELINE:

And now you're putting this sh*t on

me about Henry?

JESSE:

What sh*t? What're you talking about?

Jesse takes off his pants and returns to the bed. Celine

immediately begins putting on her top and gets up.

CELINE:

Let me tell you what I'm talking

about:
the moving to Chicago and

giving up of my life. Now that you

mention that Henry needs you, how do

you think that makes me feel? I'm

miserable! Alright? How can I take

that job now? Tell me!

JESSE:

Okay.

CELINE:

Tell me. I'll feel too guilty! No-

no-no-no-no!

JESSE:

Look, look. That's a choice you're

making, to look at it like that,

alright?

CELINE:

It is in the nature of women to be

the nurturah.

JESSE:

The what?

CELINE:

Nur-tchur-yer.

JESSE:

The nurturer?

90.

CELINE:

Okay, I can't even say that f***ing

word! I just naturally feel bad

about everything. And you give me

that look, like it's my fault.

JESSE:

What look?

CELINE:

That look, the I-forgot-to-put-inthe-

bag-the-science-project-look. I

know you blame me.

JESSE:

I didn't say anything.

CELINE:

No. You didn't say anything. You

didn't have to. Yeah, yeah, it's

always my fault.

JESSE:

Yeah right.

Celine walks across the room, sits on the couch, and turns

on her phone again.

CELINE:

I read on the fridge at work - you

know those magnet words that people

make sentences with? Someone had

put together, "Women explore for

eternity in the vast garden of

sacrifice."

JESSE:

(Laughs)

Wow! That's a sure sign from God!

CELINE:

Yeah. That line is so damn true and

it's been for ten thousand years.

But that's enough! Okay. I don't

want to be one of these women. Like

marriage is important to gays or

contraception to women rights - it's

the same with giving up my hopes,

with the millions of women that have

had to give up their hopes. I am

not going to do it. This is bigger

than me. This means more than me.

Jesse bursts into applause.

91.

JESSE:

Wow! Bravo! The Nobel committee is

taking note. I'm just - hold on a

second, I'm gonna alert Sweden, okay?

I mean, it must be a full-time job

carrying that much feminine

oppression.

CELINE:

It is.

JESSE:

You suffered so much growing up in

middle-class Paris! I mean, the

agony in the trenches of the Sorbonne

in the post-feminist era. I can't

imagine.

CELINE:

You're an a**hole. You know what

sweetie, when are we moving to

Chicago? I want to make sure we are

able to find a nice house and I can

sew the drapes and pick matching bed

covers.

JESSE:

So this is how you now want to be

spending this evening? I mean, this

is what you wanna do tonight?

CELINE:

Well, you started it.

JESSE:

No. You are the one who will not

shut up about it. But if you want

to talk about it, I mean, really

talk about it. I would prefer to

have an unemotional, rational

conversation. I mean, do you think

we can do that? Would that be

possible?

CELINE:

Here we go. Unemotional, rational.

You always play the part of the one

and only rational one and I'm the

irrational, hysterical, hormone-crazy

one because I have emotions. Yeah,

you sit back and you speak from your

big perspective which means everything

you say is level-headed and true.

92.

JESSE:

I don't always do anything.

CELINE:

The world is f***ed by unemotional

rational men deciding sh*t, alright?

Politicians going to war for no

reason, corporate heads deciding to

wreck the environment, Cheney,

Rumsfeld - very rational men.

JESSE:

Cheney and Rumsfeld? Yeah, okay.

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