Dogville Page #11

I convinced them that it was you,"

since you were the one

using the medicine closet.

Why?

Because I'm here to do the thinking for you.

"If we are to have the slightest chance

of getting you out of

here,"

they can never know how close we really are.

They can't know I'm trying to help you.

"If they knew it was me that took the money,

I wouldn't be here talking to you now."

"Please don't disappear, Tom."

I need you.

I'll break this one...

with some thinking.

"[Narrator] It was not Grace's pride that kept

her going during the days when fall came

and the trees were losing their leaves,"

"but more of the trance-like state that descends

on animals whose lives are threatened,"

"a state in which the body reacts mechanically,

in a low, tough gear,"

without too much painful reflection.

Like a patient passively letting

his disease hold sway.

"And now that Vera had received proof that it was

in fact Chuck who'd forced his attentions on Grace,"

she was meaner than ever.

"Had Grace had friends in Dogville

they, too, fell like the leaves."

The most towns-people of the male sex now

visited Grace at night to fulfill their sexual needs.

It had occurred to the children

to give the bell an extra ring

"every time such an act had been consummated,

much to Martha's confusion."

But since the chain had been attached

things had become easier for everyone:

"the harassments in bed did not have to be

kept so secret anymore,"

because they couldn't really be

compared to a sexual act.

"They were embarrassing in the way it is

when a hillbilly has his way with a cow,"

but no more than that.

Tom saw everything.

"It pained him, and the sexual visits

were a particularly severe blow."

"But he supported her as best he could,

the way a spider supports,"

when it has been tangled

in its own web by the wind.

Tom!

Everything I tried to do went wrong.

I can't come up with the answe

I was looking for.

"You'll come up with it, you'll see.

You're very clever."

- We provoked them.

- I wouldn't worry about it.

We provoked them.

Now it is time for us to provoke ourselves.

What do you mean?

"I mean, by showing them some trust."

"It all started with a meeting, so it will be

logical to end it with

one, too."

You'll talk and they'll listen.

They can't refuse to listen.

- What will I say?

- Everything. You'll say everything.

"- Everything?

- Yeah, the truth. The Truth."

Just the truth about each and

every one of them.

I don't think they are gonna want to hear that.

"I know, I know. It is like a child

who doesn't want to take his medicine."

"They'll be furious at first, but in the end

they'll see it is for their own good."

Just don't be hateful. Don't be reproving.

"If anybody can do it,

Grace, you can."

They'll all realize that this weapon and

this understanding and injustice

has only one true victim and that's you.

And from there it is only

one small step to forgiveness.

"You've done some hard thinking, Tom Edison."

I'm sure it is an excellent plan.

I'm sure.

"[Narrator] If forgiveness was close at hand

in the mission house, they were all hiding it well."

It hadn't been easy for Tom to get them there.

Appealing to consciences stowed farther

and farther away by their owners every day

"as if they were as fragile as Henson's

glasses after polishing, had proved quite a task."

"But if one was going, the others

might as well come along, too,"

so nobody could talk behind anybody's back.

Tom had set the scene for Grace's speech.

"Now she'd have to sink or swim,

and sincerity be brought to bear."

While Grace addressed the silent congregation

in the mission house on Elm Street

the first of the early autumn snowstorms

embraced the town.

The snowflakes dusted down over the old

buildings as if this were just any old town.

"And they played in the brances and twigs

from which the apples had hung,"

but luckily the harvest was home and

via the freight industry had found a market

despite the ever disappointing prices.

Grace had presented her story with clarity.

She had not embellished or understated.

"And just as she finished the snowflakes

all at once stopped tumbling down,"

"leaving Dogville clad in the daintiest,

whitest blanket of snow imaginable."

I don't think it went very well.

It's fine. You did good.

"[Narrator] The snow had come early,

perhaps too early."

A misplaced augury of conciliation.

"Tom looked around, worried:"

Vera's teeth were clenched.

She was the first to speak.

Copious lies. Just lies.

"Yes, Tom. It doesn't accord with the perceptions

I got of this town and its residents."

"I'm a doctor, damn it, I don't need

anyone to tell me if I'm sick or not."

"What do you have to say for yourself, Tom?"

Maybe it's time you picked sides!

Are you for us or against us?

Liz is right. We've been

far too indulgent with Tom.

"Tom, I got to tell you.

Even I have trouble defending that girl."

"With your help, which I prefer to think

was accidental, Tom,"

she has managed to spread bitterness

and troubles throughout this whole town.

"She has to go.

How do we get rid of her, Tom?"

"So how do we do it, Tom?"

"I agree, Tom. You brought her in here.

You got to figure out how to get her out."

Without her lies and accusations spreading.

I asked you here to listen.

You only came to defend yourselves.

I'm sorry

it's quite a blow to me...

"to see all of my friends act this way,

so uncivilized."

"Your plan didn't work out very well, did it?"

"- You'll think of another one.

- No,"

"No more plans, I promise."

They asked me to choose between you and them.

That's not difficult on a day like today.

I love you.

"You may be stronger, it's true,

but the ideals, the ideals we share."

You're exhausted. Lie down.

"I've chosen, Grace.

I have chosen you."

Now it is the time!

The time we've been waiting for.

We free ourselves of Dogville.

"You're right. You're right, Tom.

It'd be so easy to make love right now."

They may kill us any minute..

It would be the perfect romantic ending.

I know. I feel it too. I love you.

"It would be so beautiful, but from ..."

"from the point of view of our love,

so completely wrong."

We were to meet in freedom.

"You're cold now, Grace."

I've just rejected everybody

I've ever known in your favor.

"Wouldn't it be worth compromising,

just one of your ideals just a little to ease my pain?"

"Everybody in this town has

had your body, but me."

We're the ones supposed to be in love.

My darling Tom.

You can have me if you want me.

Just do what the others do.

Threaten me...

"Tell me that you'll turn me in to the law,

to the gangsters and I promise you,"

you can take whatever it is you want from me.

I trust you...

but maybe you don't trust yourself?

"Perhaps you've been tempted, you've been

tempted to join the others and force me."

Perhaps that's why you're so upset.

All I've ever tried to do is help you.

I'm just asking if you're afraid

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