The Barefoot Contessa Page #10

I have the honour to

present Benvenuto Torlato

You have a resemblance to him

Thank you. I'm proud

of the coincidence

I admire this gentleman

He was one of Cesare Borgia's

most trusted assassins

He was stabbed to death

and thrown into the Arno

- Then what do you admire about him?

- His foresight

He adopted the motto of

our house. "Che sar, sar"

He knew what it

would be like with us

It has occurred to you, of course,

that I intend to marry Maria?

- It has occurred to me

- Do you approve?

- Have you told her?

- Not yet

She has been waiting to be told

I believe the proper word in

connection with marriage is "ask"

You keep saying "told"

I know Maria very little

but I've known for weeks

that she is in love with you

Do you approve?

It is almost frightening, how

much in love with you she is

- Then you don't approve

- Why do you ask me at all?

Because you want me to tell

you what you already know?

That to marry Maria

would be the most...

cruel and destructive

thing you'll ever have done?

As for destruction, we have

already been destroyed, you and I

We have come to the end of our line

Literally, to the end of the line

It is time for the Torlato-Favrinis

to get off the world

The fact remains that we are neither

unique nor important to the world

and it will go on without us

How will we be remembered, I wonder?

Why should we be remembered at all?

Nobility - the kind that continues

just because it continues to exist -

is becoming extinct

But why?

Because the world has

become a changed place

And, like the dinosaurs, we

can no longer function in it

Perhaps that's why I'm

incapable of having a child

Perhaps that's why you...

We cannot have come this

far to leave nothing behind

but some undistinguished,

unidentifiable portraits

to be hung on the back

walls of curiosity shops

to gather the dust of the future

Come here, Eleonora

The last contessa

The world will some day see

paintings of her, and of her and me

and then it will think:

"What a pity they have gone

and left nothing behind"

We will be remembered

Because the last

contessa was a movie star?

Vincenzo, you cannot marry a woman

as if you were putting on a play

because she's the type you've in

mind, because she's perfectly cast

as a portrait of the last

Contessa Torlato-Favrini

Maria is a living woman,

too much in love with you

Have you thought for

a moment about her?

Have you thought about

anybody else but yourself

and your obsession with

14 letters of the alphabet

arranged in a hyphenated name?

Thought about anybody else?

Yes. Yes, Eleonora, I have

About everybody else, it seems to me

I have thought about

every individual living man

woman and child in the

world, it seems to me

I've had the time for it, you know?

Since the 25th October

1942, to be exact

It's a lot of time

Especially when it stands

still with loneliness

Especially when it

has no days and nights

but just days that turn

black when the sun goes down

It's a lot of time

Especially when there

is nothing to think of

but all the living men, women

and children in the world

And nothing to do but

to think about them

And no way to forget

that I am none of them

Perhaps I have

become, as you put it

obsessed by our name and our past

and the absence of our

future, and by our paintings

As if, in some magical way

our long line of paintings

will accomplish what we cannot

I hadn't wanted this

It has happened to

me without my wanting

almost without my knowing

You are quite right, and

I do not have the right

But I do love Maria

The bride on whom

the rain doth fall

I read the official announcement in

the ship's newspaper I'm a way over

about six months ago

That Maria D'Amata was going

to marry Count Torlato-Favrini

The gossip columns had

been full of rumours

Mostly the kind of angry

insinuations they write

when nobody's really got the story

They even got on me, figuring

I knew more than I was telling

They were right. I'd had

many letters from Maria

What I knew was that the prince

had finally caught

up with Cinderella

and that nothing remained

but the slipper business

and a happy life ever after

Maria was trousseau-shopping

in Rome when I got here

So I went to work

Maria!

- Eddie?

- Yeah, boss?

You and Jack keep lookin' for that

alley. I'll see you back at the hotel

- Well

- Well

- How's Jerry?

- Jerry's fine. Sends her love

- You look fine

- I feel fine

Well?

Well

I'm behaving like...

like 13 years old

Don't kid yourself. You

look 14 if you look a day

Where do you want to begin?

There was no beginning

As if all my life I had

lived in a dark place...

and all at once the lights went on

That's the way it

happens in fairy tales

Are you still bewitched?

And bewildered?

No. Never in my life have

I been more sure of myself

and of everything else

- Tell me about him

- How can I? What would I tell you?

That he is handsome and tall, and

good and kind, and proud and so on?

This is how the hero is described

in the chip magazines one

reads at the hairdresser

Then what is "he"

that the hero is not?

This is what I do not

know how to tell you

For instance?

I say I cannot tell you

and you say "Tell it"

Harry the director: I say I cannot

play a scene and you say "Play it"

And you do. So, for instance?

It would sound silly even to try

but perhaps not to you

Harry, you won't laugh

but it is really like in the story

of "la Cenicienta" and the prince

- What is?

- Everything

Even when we're alone together

- How do you mean that?

- And now you will laugh

- He kisses my hand

- That figures. Standard opening

- And now you are being

deliberately stupid - No, I'm...

Oh! So he kisses

your hand, and period

- Is that all right with you?

- No, of course... Yes

- As it should be with a contessa

- In a fairy tale

How long's it been

since you've known him?

Almost six weeks

Six weeks of being

near you day and night

Sometimes he holds me with

his two hands, like this

and just looks at me

Are you sure he can see you?

He sees more than any man I have

ever known. Except perhaps you

I'm not seeing much of

anything at the moment

I told you. He is

what other men are not

That seems obvious. It also

seems obvious that maybe

we're carrying this

fairy-tale nonsense

a little too far...

right smack into reality

I don't want this

to be a shock to you

but a count is a man

and a contessa is a woman

- You had better see for yourself

- No, I want to hear more about this

No. I have a sitting and I'm late

Looking back, I probably wasn't as

worried then as I now think I was

But I do know that I was

filled with a sudden uneasiness

Good afternoon

Cominciamo

Well, Harry? Say something

Wait till they hear about

this in Southern California

In six months

Beverly Hills will have more

statues than orange trees

- Where does it go?

- Right where it is

Although, due to a whim of Maria

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