Eisenstein in Guanajuato Page #6

with all the right credentials.

With all the right credentials.

With all the right credentials.

Sergei! How are you?

We have been waiting to see you.

Hunter is worried.

Palomino, this is Mary Craig Sinclair,

the wife of Upton Sinclair,

famous American author,

much published in Russia.

Mary, this is Palomino Caedo.

My, you're handsome, Mr Palomino.

(GIGGLES)

Palomino! Sounds like a horse.

I used to have a beautiful

palomino mare two years ago.

Tennessee Walking Horse

out of an Appaloosa.

Are you a stud, Mr Palomino?

Are you registered at the Jockey Club

like my palomino, Mr Palomino?

Hunter, shake hands with a beautiful man

who could have been a horse.

Oh, we could have some coffee, too.

Oh, are you the maid?

Or are you doing for Mr Palomino

what my Appaloosa did for

the Tennessee Walking Horse?

(CHUCKLES)

Bring us some coffee, will you, dear?

Sergei, Hunter and I wanted

to know how you are doing,

how you are getting along.

(GASPS) Oh!

We have put your latest film rushes

through the laboratory in California,

and I must say...

We all say... (CHUCKLES)

They are truly splendid.

Albert says so, and George says so, too.

(CHUCKLES) I'm sorry.

Albert Einstein and George Bernard Shaw.

You have shown my rushes

to all these people

when I have not yet seen them myself?

Well, you couldn't, could you?

There are no Mexican laboratories

worth knowing, are there?

And we didn't want to disturb

you in your good works

and your long hours. (GIGGLES)

Though, Sergei, it is 10:00 in the morning,

and you are still in your pyjamas.

Yellow pyjamas, no less. (GIGGLES)

And in bed having breakfast?

Mmm-hmm.

With your friend.

Caedo is my official Guanajuato guide.

He intends to take me

to Diego's favourite restaurant,

and I am to meet Frida.

Oh, I'm sorry. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

- Ah.

- And then,

since I have been introduced

to the siesta by Caedo,

I intend to spend a large part

of the afternoon in bed, practising it.

Well, it is good to know

that you are in such safe hands.

But Hunter here has to speak

to you about budgets

and finances and money.

You know, you have been

in Mexico for eight months now,

and we only budgeted, as you know, for 12.

Oh, shall I get the invoices to check?

Oh, good Lord.

Oh, well...

I see it is still quite early for you.

Oh, yes. I am acclimatizing myself

to local practices,

many of them imported

from across the border.

You know? The border with America?

Russians don't wear pyjamas.

Even Stalin doesn't wear a pyjama,

but I'm sure that before long,

he might very well do, red ones.

I am used to wearing a Russian nightshirt

which can be a cast-off daytime shirt.

It is usually genderless, and usually,

if you tug it well,

can reach down to your knees

and even, with some sewing

and some adjustments,

can be made, when it's really cold,

to reach down to your ankles.

- (SCOFFS)

- Well, we will be going now.

Hunter can make an appointment with you

to talk finances and... And rushes.

Is, is that the right word?

And maybe you could do it

over dinner, Hunter?

Is that all right?

Infantile behaviour.

(EXHALES DEEPLY)

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

- Something else?

- No, thank you, Mercedes.

Gracias, Mercedes.

However, Mercedes,

you could put your naked elbow

under the shower

to test the water temperature.

And, oh...

Perhaps you could warm up

the lavatory seat for me again.

Take your knickers down,

sit on the seat the wrong way around,

take a pee, and wriggle around a bit.

Do you really want me to translate that?

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

Was that wise?

Wise? Wisdom?

What is that?

Learning how to live

with a modicum of happiness

and no harm to others?

Freud says that there are five things

essential to a man's happiness

and if you can get them all perfectly aligned,

you are extremely fortunate indeed,

health, work, money,

sex, and love.

I have my health.

I have unbounded amounts of work.

(EXHALES)

Money? As you just heard,

I have a banker, and he has money.

It's not mine,

but it's in their bank under my name.

Sex? Well...

I'm more than agreeably accounted for there.

And love.

I have the love of a centaur.

Obviously a half a man, half a horse.

A palomino.

"A Tennessee Walking Horse.

"A stud out of an Appaloosa."

(LAUGHING)

Can you whinny and neigh and snort

and trample the earth with your hooves?

- (LAUGHING)

- I can.

- (IMITATING HORSE WHINNYING)

- (LAUGHING)

(CONTINUES IMITATING HORSE)

Stop!

Stop.

(LAUGHING)

Oh! Oh.

- Oh.

- (CONTINUES IMITATING HORSE)

Oh.

(MEXICAN FOLK MUSIC)

SERGEI:
I am 33,

the age of Christ and Alexander at death,

the age St Augustine said

we all go to Heaven.

It is obvious.

I had to come to Mexico to go to Heaven.

(CHUCKLES)

You could have found this

ordinary heaven like most other people at 17.

I doubt it.

I doubt it very much.

I doubt that there are many 17-year-olds

that found Heaven that very first time.

I am certain that I would not have.

I was callow in all ways,

and it would have been a wasted experience.

33 is the ideal age,

old enough to be wise enough to know that 33

is the probable limit of promise.

After 33, you can no longer claim

to be a young person of promise any more.

And at 33, you are still young enough

to have your...

Physical attributes,

but old enough

to no longer have them

with vanity or triumphalism.

And...

33 is still young enough

not to be hopelessly cynical

and resigned to your fate.

I am discovering everything all at once.

And the catalyst,

the catalyst is sex.

I am just stupidly living

now in the present.

I could be fodder for

the Camorrista and not care.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

Someone...

Has opened a door to a...

Wet

and weeping...

Dirty...

Hurricane.

Look after little Sergei.

He is a Russian innocent,

and Russian innocents are the most innocent

of innocents in the world.

(ALL CHUCKLING)

You should be in that car, Sergei.

Keep them under control.

Stop them from spending needless finances.

Oh, don't worry. I'm following later.

Seor.

And they could be better off without me.

Tisse is a Capuchin monk

with money, doesn't eat.

And Aleksandrov is so charismatic

that everyone else pays for his bed and board.

He could scarcely be a drain

on anyone's resources.

(SIGHS) We need to talk.

(ENGINE TURNING OVER)

(CHUCKLES) Salud!

Sergei, with over 100 miles of film,

you're going to make a film 20 hours long,

which is stupid and intolerable.

Griffith shot 200 miles on Intolerance.

Von Stroheim shot 100 miles on Greed.

It is normal to shoot that much,

and we have a project here

covering the whole of Mexico.

We are not at all doing badly,

considering all the language difficulties,

the extras that don't turn up

or turn up too late,

the Mexican authorities who, out of the blue,

when we are all prepared,

deny us permission,

the exceptional heat

that is making everyone sick,

then, then the heavy rains,

not known for 20 years,

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