Before Midnight Page #8

ANNA:

(Laughing)

I'm sorry.

ARIADNI:

"You've been in a really bad

automobile accident. You're going

to be okay."

Ariadni puts her hands over Stefanos' mouth.

ARIADNI (CONT'D)

"You're going to be fine," and you

know, stuff like that. She said

that every woman, the very first

thing, the first reaction she would

have would be to ask about everybody

else. "How are my kids? How's my

husband? Is anyone else hurt?"

Every man - with no exception - when

they were told this, what was the

first thing they did? Looked down

at their cock.

GROUP:

(Laughs)

51.

JESSE:

Well, you know what? You've gotta

make sure it's still there, all right?

You've gotta make sure it's still

working, you have to!

ARIADNI:

Of course, of course!

STEFANOS:

Alive and kicking.

ARIADNI:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

STEFANOS:

Yeah, all that.

ARIADNI:

And only eventually, eventually,

they would come around to asking

about their kids, or about someone

else they might have accidentally

killed. Stuff like that. Important

stuff.

CELINE:

Doesn't that just say it all? Penis

first, then the rest of the world.

ARIADNI, ANNA, WOMEN

(Chanting)

Penis, penis, penis, penis, penis,

penis-

JESSE:

Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa. If you can

explain it all on strictly gender

terms, why do you or why does any

woman waste time getting mad at or

bother trying to change a man?

STEFANOS:

Exactly. It's all biology. What is

the problem?

CELINE:

(to Jesse)

And you're so, so good at turning

things around. I mean, he is a

genius!

52.

JESSE:

No, I'm just trying to say it's like

being pissed at a frog for being

green.

STEFANOS:

Exactly.

CELINE:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly!

ANNA:

Hearing all this, I wonder if this

idea of a love affair that lasts

forever is still relevant to us? I

mean, we know that we are going to

break up eventually.

ACHILLES:

Definitely.

JESSE:

(to Anna and Achilles)

Okay, but are your parents still

together?

ANNA:

No way.

JESSE:

No. And what about you?

ACHILLES:

They are. But they could be divorced.

JESSE:

Yeah, they could.

ACHILLES:

(Laughs)

I mean, I think that if they had

more money they wouldn't still be

together.

ARIADNI:

God, you guys are so practical! I

was born into the wrong generation.

ANNA:

My grandmother's mother wrote to our

whole family a twenty-six page letter

from her deathbed. And she spent

three pages on the costumes she did

for a play and only one paragraph on

her husband.

53.

JESSE:

Was she an actress too?

ANNA:

No, she was a...

(in French)

How do you say, seamstress?

CELINE:

(in English)

A seamstress. Seamstress.

ANNA:

Seamstress...and she had all these

wonderful friends. About my great

grandfather she mentioned three

events:
He went to the war, we moved

because of his job, and he died.

Her big advice was not to be too

consumed with romantic love.

Friendships and work, she said,

brought her the most happiness.

ARIADNI:

I couldn't agree more. I mean, that's

the thing that fucks us up, right?

This idea of a soul mate, of someone

who will come to complete us and

save us from having to take care of

ourselves. With Stefanos, I set the

bar extremely low - I know he is not

going to meet any of my needs.

GROUP:

(Laughing)

STEFANOS:

Definitely not!

ACHILLES:

(to Patrick)

So what about grandma? Was she a

soul mate?

PATRICK:

Well, sounds appealing, but actually

your grandmother was more rational

than that. She took care of herself

and asked me to do the same, with

plenty of room to meet in the middle.

ANNA:

Yeah that sounds ideal.

54.

STEFANOS:

Yeah, it is, actually. It is.

PATRICK:

But it must be obvious that my wife

is not here today. We were never

one person, always two. We preferred

it that way.

ARIADNI:

That's so beautiful. I think my

husband is always trying to almost

colonize me, you know.

STEFANOS:

I colonize you?

ARIADNI:

Yes, but I colonize you, too, darling.

STEFANOS:

Well okay then.

PATRICK:

But at the end of the day, it's not

the love of one other person that

matters, it's the love of life.

STEFANOS:

That's good to know, Patrick, because

life I can handle, Ariadni, on the

other hand... We all know that the

Greeks invented tragedy, right, and

on top of that she's from the region

of Mani, which is short for maniac!

GROUP:

(Laughs)

CELINE:

Ask about the hotel.

JESSE:

Hey, you guys, if we can't make that

hotel room tonight, could you get a

refund, or use it yourselves or

STEFANOS:

No, no, we don't get a refund.

ARIADNI:

Are you trying to get out of it?

Because you're going.

55.

STEFANOS:

You gotta go.

CELINE:

No, it's such a great gift you've

given us, but I'm so stressed getting

all the packing ready, the girls and

ARIADNI:

No, no, no

STEFANOS:

We made a deal, guys, you watched

our kids. You're gonna love it.

ARIADNI:

We're going to watch yours.

STEFANOS:

It's really, really good.

ARIADNI:

It's a fantastic, fantastic walk to

the hotel, and you won't regret it.

And we'll be very offended if you

don't go.

STEFANOS:

It is.

CELINE:

Okay. Thank you.

ARIADNI:

You're going.

NATALIA:

Well, when I think of Elias, what I

miss the most about him is the way

he used to lie down next to me at

night. Sometimes his arm would

stretch along my chest. I couldn't

move, I even held my breath, but I

felt safe... complete. I miss the

way he was whistling walking down

the street. Every time I do

something, I think of what he would

say:
"Well its cold today, wear a

scarf." But lately I've been

forgetting little things. He's sort

of fading and I'm starting to forget

him and it's like losing him again.

(MORE)

56.

NATALIA (CONT'D)

Sometimes, I make myself remember

every detail of his face - the exact

color of his eyes, his lips, his

teeth, the texture of his skin, his

hair - that was all gone by the time

he went. And sometimes, not always,

but sometimes I can actually see

him. It is as if a cloud moves away

and there he is. I could almost

touch him, but then the real world

rushes in, and he vanishes again.

For a while, I did this every morning,

when the sun was not too bright

outside because the sun somehow makes

him vanish. He appears and he

disappears like a sunrise or sunset,

anything so ephemeral. Just like

our life - we appear and we disappear

and we are so important to some,

but, we are just passing through.

JESSE:

(Toasting)

To passing through.

EXT. WALK - EVENING

Celine and Jesse are walking through a very old area, in mid-

conversation.

JESSE:

... And eventually he catches his

face in the window's reflection.

And he realizes he's no longer a

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