Good Morning, Babylon Page #3

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Whenever they chap like that,

I just know something

is going to go wrong.

Let me tell you,

the best medicine is to laugh!

I wish I wasn't here!

We have the money to go back.

Yes, but just enough to go back.

What will we tell father?

I wish I was back home

in the square playing in the bands.

What we do now, huh?

G. Rossini

"The Thieving Magpie"

This is the elephant

Griffith has been waiting for.

We will build one for him,

standing up, life-size!

They build that?

No, I can't believe it.

It's too beautiful!

What are you doing?

Are you not going undress?

I took off my vest.

A person wants to smell skin...

I know but...

I'm ashamed.

What about me, then?

A woman's body

is always beautiful!

At least your boots!

I told you!

It's good to be with you, Andrea!

You know some times I feel

like I am with two people.

You know, Edna and me, we're

friends too, but it's different.

But with you there's something more.

You two always together,

same,

always equal to each-other.

No...

Now tell me what

you were about to say.

Please tell me!

I was thinking about a time that

Nicola and I were not equal as you say.

We were about nine and ten,

and both had

two cents in our pockets.

We bought a ticket apiece.

Nicola got number 18.

I got 50.

18 came out!

Nicola got his beautiful Spanish knife.

Chance has favored just one of us.

Our strength, our equality

had been destroyed.

Why did you tell my this story?

To scare me?

No!

To make you realize

how much you mean to me.

You're the first person I told it to.

The scar's over here!

This is the scar?

Yes, but don't tell Andrea that

I told you this story, my love.

He'll never forgive me.

Those were happy days.

Edna and Mabel introduced

us to their friends

people from all over the world,

who had come to work in the movies.

One evening they came to see us

and we took them to see our elephant.

Was it worthy to be

shown to Griffith?

It's a little gray,

isn't it?

An elephant is gray.

It's true to reality,

but it won't stand on a film.

If it was lightened, Andrea,

I'd shoot some test of it.

- Then, we'll see.

- Yeah, right.

It'll be day soon,

in a couple of hours.

Why are we not waiting for dawn?

Oh, yeah!

Let's wait. Please, Sean!

I've never saw the sunrise

up in the woods!

If I'm going to shoot this thing,

I want it perfect

So who's going to give me a hand

to whitewash this monster?

Listen, let's make a circle

of candles all around it.

A circle of candles

around the elephant!

- How's the light, Okay?

- Yeah, just about.

I'm sorry, folks.

I guess I [...] to drink a little.

Just what I wanted to say is...

Oh, anyhow!

Who knows where we'll be

in ten, twenty years from now?

Let's just promise

never to forget the way we are now.

Together,

and how we are helping each other.

Oh dear, I...

What I mean

is that's why...

the movies for me

this Hollywood of ours

it's so wonderful...

because you...

I mean we...

Isn't it lightened enough yet?

Is it time?

Those two degos!

A real flop!

It's a masterpiece.

A masterpiece.

Should we take it to Mr. Griffith?

Stop it!

You're going to leave

from here for good!

Hey you guys

give me a hand!

- We need to do something!

- Don't worry.

You wanted to work in

the movies, didn't you?

Well, we didn't test

these chains before!

Is he looking at it?

I want eight of those elephants.

They're wonderful!

But the two Italian guys

made it they have... gone away.

Gone where?

To jail.

You're kidding!

- What did they do?

- They got in a fight.

- With who?

- Ask me!

With your production man!

Get those two delinquents out of

bail at once and bring them to me.

This is mine.

That's yours.

Sure.

They are the same.

I'll look funny sitting

behind a desk like this.

Me too.

If our father could see us now...

Now, we can bring him over.

In a moment!

Who told you to come in?

I knocked!

Were you on the service?

Sure!

Then, about face!

Forward, march!

About face!

Forward, march!

Are these for the bride and groom?

- No, for Mr. Griffith and Bonani!

- Mr. Bonani, right.

They wanted their father

to be here too.

We got important guests, today!

Oh, Mr. Griffith loves these

boys like the apple of his eye.

Who is this Italian father, anyway?

- Oh, some great artist from Tuscany.

- Whats his name?

Michael-Angelo, or, Raphael!

Raphael?

Yeah, I have heard of him.

I thought he was dead.

Here they come.

Do you like it?

Yes, it's beautiful.

This is our theater.

Let's move on.

Come on!

This banquet of ours

is offered by our boss.

Mr. Griffith.

There he is.

He is coming to welcome you.

Hand me this stick.

I'll go alone.

I've never noticed he limped.

He does it on purpose.

On purpose?

He wants to seem even older.

Who's going to greet the other first?

Good morning, maestro.

May I make the boldest

and ask your age, sir?

How old are you?

Ninety.

Ninety? seventy!

What's he doing?

This is the sign of blessing

of our ancestors.

For you, Mabel.

And for you, Edna.

And for you, my sons.

It's a traditional blessing.

It's for Mabel and Edna

and, of course, for the sons.

Maybe I am a bad person

but I want to tell the truth.

I blessed my two sons.

I should have not.

You have not honored your promise

to depart in order to return,

to work in a foreign land

but your earnings to help

a new start in your own country

in the profession of your father

and your grandfather

and your other ancestors

who built our cathedrals.

But this old man waited in vain

for his sons to honor their promise.

Say something.

Maybe it's not my place to speak.

I'm not a son or a relative

nor have I ninety summers on my head

like you've seen, Bonani.

But like you

I'm used to say what I think.

I don't know whether our work,

that of your sons and mine

is as fine as that of those

who built your Romanesque cathedrals.

I do know that those works were born

as these are born today

of the same collective dream.

I believe that your sons, Bonani,

are like those obscure stonecutters

who carved their masterpieces

on the cathedrals you honor,

who contributed and make

them famous with their art

and who helped their

neighbor to believe

and to live better.

This is why

I love movie-making...

and I respect it, Bonani.

You can tell I used to be an actor.

I've done a little of everything

in my life

but I've never given a

better performance than today.

Ladies and gentlemen...

The elephants!

- How tall you think they are?

- The elephants?

The columns are 90 feet high,

the elephants 50!

They weigh 5 tons each!

Thank you, Mr. Griffith!

Stop the war!

We want peace!

I'm fine.

- Where to?

- Home, please!

Where's that?

- The address?

- No, to the hospital!

Don't lose them!

Go faster!

Don't laugh but I don't

feel too well either...

What is?

Doctor, I'm the one

with the other lady.

How much long I have to wait?

- The other?

- Edna, yes.

The other lady isn't in labor,

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