Kean Page #2

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Or maybe she tried to open it

and couldn't?

No way,

I oiled it myself this morning!

Look:
a child could

open it with one finger.

So, let's wait.

I detest waiting.

I detest waiting for Elena.

Elena!

What're you looking at?

- Nothing.

You're wasting time

talking to be about this bastard?

Again? I don't want to hear

this b*tch scream again!

Give me back my flowers!

- What flowers, madam?

Kean, you would please give madam back

the flowers her admirers...

I deny that madam has admirers.

- Ah!

The Prince of Wales!

Attention! His Highness!

Take care of it. - What should I do?

- Tell him I can't receive him.

You can't receive me,

Mr. Kean?

Without extreme and renewed pleasure,

naturally. - Beautiful dressing gown.

I dress evening

to please England,

I don't have the right to undress

to please myself? - Mh-mh.

Who made it?

- Perkins.

Ah. I'll order one

similar from him tomorrow.

Fine...

It's the sixth time you

base something on my taste, Highness.

What's wrong with that?

- Nothing,

except that all Europe will be

wearing this robe next week.

You seem very excited this evening.

It'd be the unexpected pleasure

of your visit.

Come, Kean,

share your secret with me.

I've never had secrets for you.

- Maybe till yesterday it was true,

but today less so. - Till yesterday?

- Whom are you waiting for?

No one.

You don't trust me? No?

Well, it's embarrassing.

It's embarrassing

because a certain lady,

thinking I enjoy your trust,

asked me to tell you something.

What about?

Ah, yes, now I remember! Because of a

reception she couldn't miss...

The countess of Koefeld told you...

- Kean, my friend, you betray yourself!

You gave her an appointment in

your dressingroom and expect her.

So the countess of Koefeld

told you everything...

Okay, I'll be a good prince!

I have your confession, I can put

an end to your torture.

No, Elena told me nothing.

- Oh! - Don't believe me?

Want me to give you

my word of honor?

I have faith in your Grace's

word as in Sacred Scripture,

except in cases

when it's a question of women.

Too many times we've lied together

to the husbands.

Kean! You're in love!?

Dying.

Romeo!

- A role I detest, moreover!

How about if I asked you

to renounce this woman?

You came for this?

- Exactly for this.

Then you're...

- Your rival? No! I'm thinking of you.

England can't lose

its best actor!

If you don't want to lose me,

leave me my passions.

I have to have them to be

able to express them. - Kean!

Give up this woman!

Let's say I ask you

in the King's name.

His Majesty is concerned

with my loves?

No, he hopes you leave

the ambassadress in peace.

You know with Denmark

we have important affairs.

I know. Cheese!

- Meaning?

Important affairs:

acquiring cheese.

Which our wholesalers

make in Copenhagen.

A strange balance, Highness:

on one plate

you put cheese,

and on the other you want

me to put my heart.

And if gold were added?

On the heart side?

- No, on the cheese's.

Here. Read.

What's this?

- Read it, go on!

Romeo!

"I renounce

for the sum of 4000 pounds

to encircle with my attentions

the countess..."

For 4000 pounds!

I thought you attributed

more weight to my word!

You should appreciate my

generosity. It's late,

Elena may not come,

in which case the 4000 pounds

will be a gift.

You really thing the countess

would prefer a reception...

To your dressingroom?

Ah, this certainly, old man!

Poor Kean! You really think our women

can last long with you?

Okay, okay.

Sign here that you agree.

Your women... Piff!

I know very well I'm nothing

alongside her, nothing!

Nothing alongside her husband,

who's a jellyfish.

Nothing alongside his peers,

or your peers!

All those who applaud me

and despise me,

to the point I no longer know

if I'm a king or a clown.

No, don't be afraid, Highness,

this is just Kean, the actor Kean,

preparing to play

his customary part:

Kean, a clown!

So be it,

for clowns they pay the debts, no?

Give me that paper.

So you sign?

I fear, Highness, that our conversation

has no reason to continue.

Thanks anyway,

for your offer.

O Elena, I wasn't still expecting you!

But who're you?

Not Elena.

- Who let you enter this way?

You. I knocked,

and you opened for me.

Anyone see you enter?

- No one.

The lady you expected

hasn't come.

So go away! Go!

Am I bothering you?

I'm helping you to wait!

The moment they knock,

I'll leave. I swear!

Sir, right now I don't know yet

whether to ask you for advice,

or ask asylum

in the Mayfair convent.

Go to the convent! Are you Catholic?

Irish.

Hmm, Irish..

Usually I like

the Irish.

They drink well.

Do you get drunk a lot?

- Never!

Rather, not anymore...

at least for several weeks.

You were drunk December 15

and knelt in front of the

the queen calling her Polonius.

You did it again,

next, December 18,

and recited Hamlet's soliloquy

so movingly

that I couldn't

hold back my tears.

So you see... - Yes, but that

evening you were giving "King Lear"!

O good God! In public?

- So? King Lear's crazy anyway,

and people can't really object

if he thinks he's Hamlet.

On December 22..

- Enough!

But... you knew I was drunk

and applauded just the same?

To encourage you!

- Encourage me?

I'm always afraid

you'll lose your memory.

O gods!

O gods of eternal Olympus!

Luck you have

a great prompter!

So you applaud the prompter!

You, too.

- Ah, thanks.

It's moving, a man

who struggles with his own tongue.

Besides, I think you were unlucky.

- Unlucky?

I, Kean, unlucky?

But who are you? What do you want?

- I want to act.

I want to be an actress.

- An actress?

Come here.

- She wants to be an actress!

Not under the stairs!

What are you doing?

what is it?

- Shssh! Quiet.

Quiet!

- Who's there? - Come in.

...for you...

- An aspiring actress!

...and the little innocents!

Not a bad temperament.

And for you, there's the street.

For me, too!

I'd liked to have given you violets,

but they all withered

when my father died.

So? Is that it?

And there's the daisy.

- I don't remember more.

Want the truth?

- Yes.

The whole truth?

- Yes.

Go into the convent!

Go into the convent!

Salomon, you who complain there're

not enough actors in England!

Here's one ready for you!

Take her and throw her out! Go!

Put on your cape, go on.

- Come, little one.

Why do you treat her so?

- I'm really, really bad?

Worse than bad. Decent.

- In-decent..

Decent, which is much worse.

- But, with work...

I'm determined,

I assure you.

Very! Everything I want,

I get.

With determination, little cheesemaker,

one can even obtain... the moon,

which is just a piece of cheese

hung in the sky.

But one can't become an actress!

Am I right, Solomon?

You think it's enough to act well?

I act well, me?

- Yesssss!

I have determination, yes?

- Nooo!

One is born an actor!

Like one's born... a prince.

And they're two jobs

one more boring than the other.

Mr. Kean, I need to act.

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