The Debussy Film Page #3

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and you engaged Mary Garden,

a Scottish soprano.

Do you honestly believe

that that's the true reason?

Mm?

You walk around here

like some third-rate clown

because you haven't got the guts

to face up to the fact that y0ur...play

was a monumental failure?

Furthermore, lfind you uninteresting,

a self-opinionated bore,

and what is worse to me, tone-deaf.

Let's have a drink.

(Shouts) And let's have some music!

- You hate Debussy's music, don't you?

- It doesn't go with any drink live got.

- (I WAGNER:
"Ride of the Valkyries")

- And this one does?

Oh, on that I could get drunk

before I start drinking.

You know something? I find this music

like you - loud and vulgar.

Come on!

(Director) The whole thing was crazy.

Maeterlinck jumped

through Debussy's windows,

threatened to beat him up

with a walking stick,

and promptly challenged him

to a duel with pistols,

He then found a fortune teller

who saw Debussy drenched in blood.

After that,

he tried to sabotage the opera, failed,

shot as many cats as he could find,

and, honour satisfied, went back

to Belgium and Wagner - crazy.

Ol, 00p!

(Debussy shrieks)

(Shrieks)

(Shrieks)

(Debussy laughs)

(Debussy shrieks)

Where have you been?

Got the meat?

Well, are you gonna answer or not?

You never listen to me.

I suppose I'm not worth listening to

or talking to or looking at

or sleeping with or living with.

Oh, I'm not good enough for you.

Go on, say it, go on.

You never even seem to notice

I'm around these days.

(Director) That's it.

Ignore the statuette, Gaby.

Your taste is different.

(r THE KINKS:
"You Really Got Me")

See, don't ever set me free

I always want to be by your side

J Girl, you really got me now

J You got me so I can't sleep at night

J Yeah, you really got me now

J You got me

so I don't know what I'm doing

J Oh, yeah,

you really got me now

J You got me so I can't sleep at night

J You really got me, you really got me

J You really got me J

What's that?

It's Debussy. Danse Profane.

Oh, this is a party.

Who wants to listen to that?

I do.

Does anybody wanna shake to Debussy?

(Shouting)

It's supposed to be a party.

We're all supposed to be

enjoying ourselves, aren't we?

Oh, you don't want to listen to that.

You're only doing it to annoy me.

It's a load of old crap.

Oh! Can't anybody ever have a good time

while you're around?

Look, I want to listen to the music.

Do you mind?

(Record player pickup clicks)

- (Gentle string chords)

- (Man) Hi. Hey, come on!

- (Whistling)

- (Man) Put some music on!

(Music becomes a lilting waltz)

- (Man) Come on, then.

- That's it.

Gaby's got the idea.

That's more like it.

(Laughs)

(Man) Ooh...!

(Cheering and clapping)

(Man) Come on, come on.

Yes...

(Men) Whoo...

(Clapping and cheering)

(Man) Over here, dear.

(Shouting and whooping)

(Man) The suspense is killing us.

Here she goes!

(Cheering)

(Clapping and whistling)

- (Record screeches)

- (Cheering and laughter)

(Applause and cheering)

More! More!

Don't be so bloody miserable.

Stuff them down you.

I've earned it.

Damn your earnings!

I've told you before,

leave me alone.

- I won't, why should I?

- Leave me alone!

You're rotten, you bastard, you bastard!

I'm fed up with living in this bloody place.

Why don't you flippin' get out

and do some work instead of sitting around

looking at those stupid statues?

I'm fed up with everything in this place!

There's no clothes, no food...

Leave me alone.

I'll give you bloody money.

All right, then, where is it?

Money? It's there.

And there!

Go on, eat it.

Tell that to some of your friends.

You never understood anything I did!

You never will!

- You're mean, you're selfish, you bastard!

- You filthy tart.

- You hate me, you hate me!

- Get away!

You bastard, you bastard!

- You bastard!

- (Man) Stop it...

- You're lousy, you're mean...

- (Man) Am I in time for dinner?

How about some wine?

Please, stop it.

(She sobs)

She destroys me.

She doesn't understand anything.

- She hates everything I do.

- I can't blame her.

- (Sobbing)

- (Man) This is awful.

Now, darling...

Smell this flower. It will be...

- Oh, I don't want it.

- Come now, lovely...

I like it.

Cut!

Can I have my script, please?

Thank you very much.

And my pencil. Thank you.

- Was he really such a bastard?

- (Debussy sighs)

Didn't he ever do any work?

Well, er...

He played in

one or two nightclubs, he taught,

but mainly, he wrote music and...

that didn't sell well enough

to buy him a decent piano.

What about her?

Wasn't she on

the game before she went to Debussy?

Ah, probably.

There's isn't a great deal known about her.

She only seems to have had

one friend:
Lilly.

Good, er... Thank you. it was really lovely.

Close-ups after lunch, OK?

Thank you. ls the pianist there?

(I DEBUSSY:

"images - Gigues")

(Cries out)

(Debussy laughs)

(Shot)

"And then...

"Gaby, with her steely eyes,

found a letter in my pocket,

"which left no doubt

as to the advanced state of a love affair,

"with all the most romantic trappings

to move the most hardened heart.

"Whereupon...

"tears, drama...

"a real revolver

and a report in the PetitJou/nal "

You wrote that just aftewvards.

You hated melodrama in real life.

Gaby had offended against your taste.

But you were lucky this time.

She didn't die.

Now it was Lilly.

Lilly - Rosalie Texier.

A dress model.

Once again, the Bohemian life

closed in around him

and he dreamt his way through it.

This time with Lilly.

And, as always, with the help and cash

of his patron Louys.

But Louys decided to marry.

He wrote to Debussy:

"Write me a wedding march, pompous.

lustful, and ejaculatory in character."

For he was having, as he said,

a volcanic experience.

He announced,

"Because of her love for a rich rhyme,

"Mademoiselle Louise de Heredia

"is changing her name to Louise Louys".

Soon Debussy replied...

(Debussy) "Please remain seated.

"Mademoiselle Lilly Texier has changed

her disharmonious name to Lilly Debussy.

"Much more euphonious,

as everyone will agree."

(Director) But Louys was gone.

His wife disliked Debussy,

this scruffy musician,

and he was dismissed.

(Debussy) No money.

To pay for the wedding breakfast,

I gave a piano lesson

an hour before the ceremony.

Lilly fell ill.

We hadn't the money to carry out

the doctor's instructions.

I had to support her.

(Director) No patron.

No one to support his long trances,

his rejected work,

(P DEBUSSY:
"La Mer")

(Music obscures speech)

Cut!

Stop it, for heaven's sake.

What are you doing?

Come along here.

Well, you don't have to

behave like that in front of her.

What is it all about, this clowning?

Well, it's...

It's difficult to get the feeling

that I'm...

well, in refuge in a foreign county.

Well, I don't understand

what you're talking about.

That's got nothing to do with it,

all this clowning.

The only thing you are really

concerned about is the sea.

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