Le Week-End Page #4

Why should I?

You dressed up for him. You took him tea.

You hung around wearing that scent.

I love you, Meg.

Take that seriously.

Love dies.

Only if you kill it.

- Fool, you really are.

- Call me paranoid.

You are, you must be. Melik!

Cold, you. You're frozen inside.

Frankly, you'd freeze a penguin.

- Ha, ha. That's not f***in' funny.

- You're weak.

You won't even get through this

evening without a nervous breakdown.

- Welcome!

- Ah!

Thank goodness, you made it.

That's so wonderful.

- Ah! There we are.

- Hi.

Not far to go. Good evening.

Welcome. Here, would you

like some champagne?

- Thank you.

- Please. Come on in, come on in.

I was worried you guys

weren't gonna make it.

I almost had a thrombo.

Come on, come on.

There are some great

people in here,

and they're dying to meet you.

I've been talking you up.

Thank you, Stphane.

I've been thinking

about you all day.

You have?

What gorgeous hell is this?

- Merci.

- Merci.

Go on, go in.

They're French. I'm sure

their lives are awful too.

Don't leave me on my own.

Isn't that what you want?

There we are.

Thought I'd lost you. Come on in.

I didn't see... Oh, look at that.

Come on in, I'll introduce you.

I didn't see that black lacy...

I wish I had my sketch pad.

May I introduce you to all

these talkative types?

Hey, this is, uh, Nick, everybody.

Well, here's Robert and Dominique

Ertel, my long-suffering publishers.

They do all my stuff

here in France.

This is my great old friend,

Nick Burrows, and his wife, Meg.

They're from London.

He's a professor of philosophy.

Meg, I'm so sorry, I didn't ask you.

Tell me what you do.

- Writer?

- I'm a teacher.

That's so interesting.

I wanna hear all about that.

Jean-Pierre. May I introduce

our expert on Proust?

- He's exaggerating.

- Not true.

He's so good. And you're

currently translating Dickens.

Yeah. Bleak House.

- Oh!

- Bleak House.

Oh, yeah. Victoire Lachapelle,

the novelist, I'm sure you know,

Amricain, very successful...

And Harry Rose, the sculptor,

who's got a very interesting

show of drawings.

- Where is that gallery?

- Think and Do Gallery, St Honor.

I saw it, it's fantastic.

I highly recommend it.

- Christophe Aragues.

- Ara-gueth.

Ara-gueth.

He's a professor of

economics at the Sorbonne.

And Valentin Lefevre, who's

an economist at Le Monde.

Financial Times.

The Financial Times. Perhaps

you've run into his stuff.

And the Mona Lisa over there,

can you see, is my wife Eve.

Hello, my darling.

Nick Burrows and Meg.

Thank you.

So there you go.

Hey, come with me, Nick.

Can I steal your sweet

husband away for a sec?

- Take him, do.

- What are you gonna say?

Yeah, right.

There you go. Okay.

There you go.

There you go, Nick.

Oh, if I may.

Thanks. Can't wait to read it.

Oh, well, you know, it's actually

just a rehash of my old articles.

But, you know, they put it into this

book and it took off for some reason.

I got lucky, I guess.

It could happen to anybody.

- It didn't happen to me.

- Well, you're too serious.

You know, have you ever even said

anything slight in your whole life?

I don't think so, not in the time

that I knew you. Here have a...

Please have a seat.

Over the years that I've sat in

desks like this and, you know,

in those times when I've tried to

convince myself I had some kind of brain

or just a little bit of

rigour and integrity,

you know what I've thought

so often to myself?

"What would Nick Burrows do now?

"What would Nick say now?"

- You have?

- Yes.

Thank you so much. Would

you like something to eat?

- No, merci.

- Are you sure? Thank you.

Thank you. Is it, Ju...

- Julie.

- Julie?

Thank you, Julie.

Eve.

She's gonna eat me alive.

You know, I'm not...

I'm not a total idiot.

But...

Nick, I was so depressed and I was

just suffocating and I was dying.

I was seeing every psychiatrist

on the Upper West Side.

Until I finally found one who, of course,

told me what I wanted to hear

and he released me

and I slipped away from

my wife one morning

without even taking my toothbrush.

It was totally insane.

And I wound up here.

But then, I decided to do the

whole thing all over again.

Love, marriage and kids.

And so now here I am...

Mmm.

Enjoying...

Keeping the Mona Lisa fascinated.

And she adores me.

Can't see through me... Yet.

But we know she will.

I mean, she will.

So am I brave or am I foolish?

Why would you put yourself

through all that again?

Because I'm vain.

Because I'm just ridiculously vain.

I wanna be adored and waited for

and listened to.

Don't you?

I don't share your delusion.

What do you mean, delusion?

How am I deluded?

That by giving up on

someone, you're free.

No, no, no.

No, no. Mmm.

Mmm!

Do you know what I just flashed on?

Do you remember those

mornings at dawn

that we would get up to sell those

newspapers in front of the factory gates?

I think we sold about four of them before

the working-class heroes chased us away.

I'll bet those factories

aren't even there any more.

How about the Brecht play,

that you put on at the ADC

with the Pink Floyd music?

Very brilliant. Very brilliant.

Were those the days?

Oh!

Wow!

I mean, we grew up so safe

and easy, that's the truth.

You know, it's been just a

breeze for guys like us.

- It has?

- Well, look at you, you know.

Sitting comfortably in

some 15th-century room,

with your spectacularly

striking, beautiful wife.

A weekend cottage n the Cotswolds,

I'll bet, and a Labrador,

the royalties from all your books and

a big pension at the end of all of it.

Am I getting my serve

in the ballpark?

And you've got smart, bearded friends

with whom you can discuss politics

and philosophy while you all sing

along to Joni Mitchell records?

You see me more clearly

than I see myself.

I can... You know,

I can do a little thing.

You know...

I think we've taken too

much out of the world.

We were the spark. The '60s

and '70s lit the fuse, baby.

Really?

Yeah. Feminism, racial equality,

human rights, all that stuff.

Yeah, I wanna ignite some

kind of blaze, you know.

I wanna go into the banlieues with

some good people and some money

and, you know, have discussions,

political, literary, but shake things up.

Do you wanna come with me?

Me?

I could put you down for, you know, 2K.

Neither of us'll miss that kind of money.

Make it four.

Make it 4K, I'll put a

cheque in the post tomorrow.

Nick Burrows.

I knew you'd get it.

Oh, I knew it.

Here's to the future.

- Are you an artist?

- I wish.

Well, you... You

look like an artist.

Perhaps it's your hair.

So, what are you doing here?

Yes, that's a good question.

No, I mean, what are you

doing here in Paris?

Oh, it's our wedding anniversary.

Really? Wow, how long?

- Thirty years.

- That's amazing.

Yes, it is, isn't it?

Our children have

left home. Nearly.

So now, we're alone together.

And now you will have

time just for each other.

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