Dogville Page #3

think of your asthma.

Dogville is a good place to hide,

that's for certain.

Exactly.

The only way up here is Canyon Road.

That could easily be watched by Ma Ginger's

-excuse me-nosey cousin who lives

only yards from the turn off.

She has a telephone.

Martha, you could ring the bell,

tell the town if people were coming.

But Tom, I chime the hours,

what if people get confused with all the ringing?

Come now, Martha.

Surely we can use our old bell to save a life, if need be.

Why should we?

Because we care, Chuck.

We care for other human beings.

No, that ain't what I mean.

How do we know that this woman is

telling us the truth?

Maybe these gangsters did shoot at her,

but that don't make her somebody to be trusted.

He is right.

Why would you trust me?

I trust you!

Tom, we're not gangsters.

We mind our own business

we don't ask nothin' from nobody.

So at last you admit it!

If only there were some way,

we wouldn't doubt the young lady's word.

some way to know her..

Then I think we would all ignore the risk.

But there is a way!

You said it yourself.

By living side by side with her.

Dad, you are such a fine judge of character.

How long would it take a good man

like you to unmask her?

A week? Maybe two?

Surely we can offer her two weeks.

And if after that time so much as

one man cries out 'BE GONE!'

I promise I'll happily send her

packing herself.

Well, if Master Tom thinks this is right

for us, and for the

community,

then that will do for me.

He might be young, but his heart is right.

And I've known his heart

for as long las it's been beating.

[Narrator] No more words were spoken

at the town meeting in the mission house.

But it had been decided, they all felt,

that the fugitive would be given two weeks.

And they would all be able to look

at themselves in the mirror and know

that they had done what they could, indeed,

and perhaps more than most people would have done.

So that very afternoon Tom took Grace on a stroll

down Elm Street to introduce her to the town "he loved".

Well, this is where Olivia and June live.

June is a cripple...

They live here as a token of my dad's broadmindedness.

Chuck and Vera have seven children

and they hate each other.

Next door we have the Hensons.

They make a living from grinding edges off

cheap glasses to try to make them look expensive.

And here we have Jack McKay.

Now, Jack McKay is blind and the whole town knows it.

But he thinks he can hide it

by never leaving his house.

In the old stable Ben keeps his truck.

He drinks and he visits the whorehouse

once a month and he is ashamed of it.

Martha she runs the mission house

until the new preacher comes which will just never happen.

That leaves Ma Ginger and Gloria.

They run this really expensive store,

where they exploit the fact

that nobody leaves town.

Used to leave to go vote,

but since they put on the registration fee,

about a day's wage for these people,

they don't feel the democratic need any more.

Those awful figurines say more about

the people in this town, than many words.

If this is the town that you love,

then you really have a strange way of showing it.

All I see, is a beautiful little town

in the midst of magnificent mountains.

A place where people have hopes

and dreams even under the hardest conditions.

And seven figurines that are not awful at all.

[Narrator] Calling Dogville beautiful was

original at least.

Grace was just casting one more look

at the figurines she herself would have dismissed

as tasteless a few days earlier,

when she suddenly sensed

what would best have been described

as a tiny change of light over Dogville.

They are keeping an eye on you.

If you love them already,

they might need a little persuading.

You've got two weeks

to get them to accept you.

You make it sound like

we are playing a game.

It is. We are. Isn't saving your life

worth a little game?

What do you want me to do?

Do you mind physical labour?

No!

Dogville has offered you two weeks.

now you offer them...

[Narrator] The next day was

a beautiful day in Dogville.

The tender leaves on Ma Ginger's

goosberry bushes were unfurling

despite wise Tom's misgivings

as regards her gardening methods.

But more than that, this first day of spring

had also benn picked to be Grace's first ever day of work.

The day in which she was to set off around

Dogville and ofeer herself one hour per household per day.

Excuse me.

I would like to offer you my help..

if there is anything that you need?

Yeah.. A carburetor that don't leak..

alright here, let me take that.

Maybe I could help around your home?

I don't really have a home.

Just the garage.

I'm in the freight business.

The road is my home!

I'm ready. Good morning!

Miss Olivia has got a home.

She is looking to help out

in somebody's home.

A cleanin' lady for a cleanin' lady?

You be talkin' nonsense, Mister Ben!

Have a good day!

Alright. See ya later on!

[Narrator] And off Ben went to Georgetown

with the weekly shipment of glasses

that Mr. Henson had so laboriously cleansed

with his polisher of any trace of their cheap manufacture.

So Grace turned into the alley

which went by the exotic name, Glunen Street

to knock on the door of the blind,

but only too vain, man.

Yes?

Good morning, Mr. McKay.

My name is Grace.

I was wondering if there is anything

I can do for you?

Oh, that's very kind of you, Grace,

but...

I was thinking that perhaps because of

the situation that you are in...

What situation am I in?

Hmm... You are.. on your own.

Oh, I have been on my own for so long.

Anything that you might need?

I'm sorry!

Have you ever noticed the wooden spire

on the roof of the mission house?

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, it points

a shadow at Ginger's grocery store,

right at the O in OPEN

on the sign in the window.

Maybe it is telling people that it is time

to go shopping for supper.

Goodbye, Mr. McKay.

Bye, Grace!

[Narrator] Grace's interview with Jack McKay

proved sadly

symptomatic of the attitude in Dogville.

Reserved but friendly,

not without curiosity.

Only Jack had expressed his "no"

consicely and precisely:

Martha needed a monologue almost

an hour long to arrive at the same conclusion.

Oh my goodness... I, I, I'd have to think of

work for you to do,

because I have barely enough work myself.

[Narrator] So not very much later Grace had

ended up next to Ma Ginger's gooseberry bushes

in a mood that was not particularly good.

She could not tell a gooseberry bush

from a cactus,

but the meticulous order in the yard

appealed to her,

such as the metal chains placed there

in order to shield the second and third bushes,

lest anybody decided to make use of

the deplorably time-honored shortcut to the old lady's bency.

Grace pulled herself together and

headed towards the store.

Hello!

Hello. We don't need any help here either.

I told that to Tom.

Wow, it doesn't matter anyway,

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