The Big Blue Page #27

JACQUES (V.O.)

Here, it's getting dark.

JOHANA smiles. She stretches, lies down on the carpeted

floor. JACQUES seems to have gone through all topics of

conversation.

JACQUES:

I've been thinking about you a

lot, you know...

JOHANA is by now completely stretched out on the floor.

JOHANA:

So have I.

(a beat)

... Hello?

JACQUES:

I'm still here.

JOHANA:

Well, then, talk to me some more.

JACQUES:

... It's hard you know. You're so

far away and I don't know what

else to say.

JOHANA:

Then, tell me a story.

JACQUES:

Uh... Ah! A story?

He turns around and sits on the window sill, his feet

dangling in mid air.

He looks at the sea, seeking inspiration.

JACQUES:

Do you know how it is?

(starting again)

Do you know what you're supposed

to do to meet a mermaid?

JOHANA:

(with a smile)

No... tell me.

JACQUES:

You go down to the bottom of the

sea, where the water isn't even

blue anymore, where the sky is

only a memory... and you float

there, quietly, quietly and stay

there... and you decide that you

will die for them... Only then do

they start coming out. They come

and greet you and they judge the

love you have for them... If it's

sincere. If it's pure... They

will be with you and take you away

forever.

JOHANA listens with the abandon of a child being put to

sleep.

INT. JACQUES' ROOM - ANTIBES

The sun hits the roof tops. The sea is sparkling.

The phone rings on the window sill. JACQUES answers.

JACQUES:

Hello?

JOHANA (V.O.)

It's me again.

JACQUES smiles.

JOHANA:

(after a silence)

I'm being a pain, huh?

JACQUES:

... Not at all.

JOHANA (V.O.)

You sure?

JACQUES:

(smiling)

Absolutely positive.

JOHANA (V.O.)

Okay. In that case... I'm at the

airport in Nice.

JACQUES doesn't know what to say. He looks around him,

can't figure out what to do.

JACQUES:

(lost)

Okay... huh, I'll be right over.

INT. AIRPORT - DAY

JOHANA is standing in front of the airport.

JACQUES sees her. They smile shyly at each other.

EXT. STREET - NICE - OPPOSITE THE NEGRESCO HOTEL

JACQUES and JOHANA are sitting in the back of a taxi. The

driver stops in front of the hotel.

DRIVER:

(loud)

The Carlton! Enjoy your siesta.

JACQUES and JOHANA look at each other.

INT. HOTEL ROOM - JACQUES - JOHANA - DAY

The room is in semi-darkness, despite the blazing sunlight

coming through cracks in the shutters. JACQUES and JOHANA

are making love. JACQUES is on top of her, his whole body

covered in sweat. The rumpled sheets and the movements of

their bodies suggest the movements of the sea. ALL SOUNDS

are disproportionate and slightly distorted, they are

underwater...

ALL JOHANA'S reluctance has vanished. Both of them act

like people who have never felt anything like this before.

A certain astonishment at the depth of their feeling. An

increasing freedom. All the muscles of their bodies stretch

to their limits.

JACQUES, progressively, finds himself disappearing. His

image dissolves point by point... disintegrates into

unbroken blue... The effect creates the impression of

someone melting, the screen is now totally blue.

A thin, HIGH-PITCHED SOUND.

From the bottom of the image, a tiny pinpoint starts TOWARD

the CAMERA. It is JACQUES, naked, swimming out of the

deep blue ocean toward the light as if he were coming out

of a dive. He comes CLOSER and CLOSER to the CAMERA...

Until his head almost touches the lens...

A sudden DEAFENING NOISE... and we find JACQUES on top of

JOHANA. He looks down at her, speechless.

JOHANA:

(a little frightened)

Are you okay?

After a long beat.

JACQUES:

... I think I love you.

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - ANTIBES - DAY

JACQUES and JOHANA step out of the elevator of a 19th

century building.

JACQUES is carrying her suitcases.

JOHANA:

Why did you take me to the hotel,

if you live here.

JACQUES:

You'll understand.

JACQUES rings the door bell and sticks his key in the door.

JOHANA:

(surprised)

Someone in there?

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