Dogville Page #14

"If you say so, Grace."

But is their best really good enough?

Do they love you?

Grace had already thought for a long time.

She had known that if she were not shot

when the gangsters arrived

"she would be faced with her father's

suggestion that she return, to become"

a conspirator with him and his gang of

thugs and felons and she did not need any walk

"to reconsider her response to that,"

even though the difference betwen the people

she knew back home and the people

she'd met in Dogville had proven

somewhat slighter than she'd expected.

Grace looked at the gooseberry bushes

so fragiles in the smooth darkness.

"It was good to know

that if you did not treat them ill,"

"they would be there, come sping as always,

and come summer they'd again be bursting"

"with the quite incomprehensible quantity

of berries that were so good in pies,"

specially with cinnamon.

Grace looked around at the frightened faces

behind the windowpanes

"that were following her every step, and felt

ashamed of being part of inflicting that fear."

How could she ever hate them for

what was at bottom merely their weakness?

She would probably have done things

like those that had befallen her

"if she'd lived in one of these houses,"

to measure them by her own yardstick

as her father put it.

"Would she not, in all honesty, have done

the same as Chuck and Vera and Ben and

Mrs. Henson and Tom"

and all these people in their houses?

Grace paused.

"And while she did, the clouds scattered

and let the moonlight through"

and Dogville underwent another

of little changes of light.

"It was as if the light,

previously so merciful and faint,"

finally refused to cover up for the town any longer.

"Suddenly you could no longer imagine a berry

that would appear one day on a gooseberry bush,"

but only see the thorn that was there right now.

The light now penetrated every unevenness

and flaw in the buildings... and in...the people!

And all of a sudden she knew the answer

to her question all too well:

"If she had acted like them, she could not have

defenced a single one of her actions"

and could not have condemned them

harshly enough.

It was as if her sorrow and pain finally

assumed their rightful place.

"No, what they had done was

not good enough."

"And if one had the power to put it to rights,

it was one's duty to do so,"

"for the sake of the other towns,

for the sake of humanity,"

"and not least, for the sake of the human being

that was Grace herself."

"If I went back and became your daughter again,"

when would I be given the power

you're talking about?

- Now?

- At once!

Why not?

So that would mean that I'd also take on

the immediate responsibilities at once.

I'd be a part in the problem solving...

like the problem.. of Dogville.

We can start by shooting a dog

and nailing it to a wall.

"Over there beneath that lamp, for example.

Well, it might help. It sometimes does."

"It would only make the town more frightened,

but hardly make it a better place."

And it could happen again.

"Somebody happening by,

revealing their frailty."

"That's what I wanna use the power for,

if you don't mind."

I wanna make this world a little better.

"That damn kid won't shup up.

Says he wants to talk to you, Miss."

Can we just shoot him now?

Let me talk to him.

What? What is it?

"A man can't really be blamed

for being scared now, can he?"

- No. That's true.

- No!

"I'm scared, Grace."

I used you. And I'm sorry.

"I am stupid, I am.

Maybe even arrogant sometimes."

"You are, Tom."

"Although using people is not very charming,

I think you have to agree"

that this specific illustration

has surpassed all expectations.

It says so much about being human.

"It's been painful, but I think you also have to

agree it has been edifying. Wouldn't you say?"

"Not now, Tom.

Not now."

"If there is any town in this world

would be better without, this is it."

Shoot them and burn down the town.

"What?

Something else, honey?"

There is a family with kids...

do the kids first and make the mother watch.

Tell her you will stop if she can

hold back her tears.

I owe her that.

I'm afraid she cries a little too easily.

We'd better get you out of here.

"I'm afraid, you've learned

far too much already."

"Are you cold, Sweetie.

Do you need a wrap?"

I'm fine.

You want the curtains opened?

You don't need them anymore.

What do you think?

I think we should open them.

I think it's appropriate.

"Bingo, Grace!"

Bingo!

"I have to tell you, your illustration

beat the hell out of mine."

"It's frightening, yes, but so clear."

Do you think that I can allow myself

to use it as an inspiration in my writing?

Goodbye Tom.

- Somethings you have to do yourself.

- Really

That one you're gonna have to explain

to me on the way home.

[Narrator] Suddenly there was a noise.

"Not so persuasive and powerful

as it had been on a rainy night in spring,"

but loud enough to work its way through

the final sighs of the timber that was rapidly burning out.

It came again.

Everyone heard it.

Grace was the first to recognize it.

"That's Moses,"

"That's Moses, she said,

and jumped out of the car."

"She quickly covered the distance to the dog pen

over what, now the buildings were gone,

could scarcely be

called a street,"

"and certainly not Elm Street as there wasn't

a tree left on Dogville's little mountain ledge,"

let alone an elm.

It was Moses.

His survival was astonishing.

A miracle.

"No, just let him be."

They will have spotted the flames

in Georgetown by now.

Some one'll come and find him.

He's just angry

because I once took his bone.

"Whether Grace left Dogville or on the contrary,

Dogville had left her (and the world in general)"

is a question of a more artful nature

that few would benefit from by asking

and even fewer by providing an answer.

And nor indeed will it be answered here!

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