The Red Turtle Page #4

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He sits on the top, waiting.

Just then, he sees her on the beach below, just as he saw the turtle the first

time.

She has put on his shirt and is pulling her shell over the sand to put it in the

water.

She looks up and sees the man staring at her.

Time stands still as they exchange their first real glance.

II. 4. First tokens of love.

The man hurries down the slope. He's afraid he'll lose her again.

From the shore, he watches her enter the water, pushing her shell in front of

her. The man is worried that she has decided to return to the sea for good,

but no, the woman turns around, exchanges a glance with him, and carries

on.

It's like a beautiful, moving, solemn ritual.

The woman goes past the coral reef, taking her shell as far as possible, then

pushes it out to sea.

Now the young woman returns to the beach, far away from the man,

avoiding him. She walks off toward the bamboo forest.

The man stands there, not really knowing what to do.

He looks at the horizon, then he sees the raft he's building. He hurries over

to it. Yes, that's what he'll do: he'll put his raft to sea, too. As a token of his

love and of their equal status.

He pushes the raft, but suddenly he hesitates, he stops what he's doing, and

he stands back...

Then, with a determined gesture, he goes back to putting the raft in the

water.

From afar, hiding behind the line of bamboos, the woman watches him. Her

eyes shine exactly like those of the creature which watched the man in his

sleep.

She sees the man go past the coral reef and push his raft out to sea.

Is that the flicker of a smile on the woman's face?

The man floats on his back, like a human raft.

Night has fallen. He sees the canopy of heaven above him and an intense

feeling of joy washes over him. He slides under the water and swims in

acrobatic movements.

Just then, the woman joins him underwater.

She comes close to the man, changes direction, and turns around him

happily.

The man looks at her, equally delighted, even though he doesn't dare to go

too close to her.

The woman goes back up to the surface. She waits for him, then carries on

swimming.

The man and the woman go back to the island in the moonlight.

The man and the woman have reached the coral reef.

The woman stands on the surface above the water; she seems to know the

place well. She is leaning over a rock, pulling off a mussel. The man looks at

her in surprise. But his surprise is even greater when he sees the woman

swiftly opening the mussel with an empty shell found on the ground, then

gulping it raw.

The young woman looks up at him and hands him out an open mussel. She

smiles. The man hesitates for a moment. He accepts the mussel and eats it

as the woman looks at him. She keeps on opening mussels. The man is

fascinated by the young woman.

Suddenly, he’s overwhelmed by a thought. He turns away, and in a mute

flash back, he sees again the moment when he violently hit the turtle with a

bamboo. This horrible gesture awakes a strong shame in him. He raises his

head towards the woman. He feels sad and hides his face in his hands.

The woman looks at him for a moment, motionless; then, slowly, she pulls

the man’s hands away from his face. She delicately touches his forehead and

draws his profile with her finger: the forehead, the nose and the lips. As if

she wanted to show her tenderness and discover his face in a single gesture.

The woman slowly takes her hand away; she stands up and enters into the

water of the lagoon, heading to the beach. The man is surprised. He also

stands up and follows her.

The couple walks in a field by the pond, a field of high grass bathed by the

light of the moon. Crickets are quietly singing and the air doesn’t move. The

woman stops and turns back to the man. He comes close to her. They hug…

II. 5. They fly.

Music.

The man and the woman fly in the air. Looking at each other.

We don't really know anymore if we're above or below them, in the air or in

the water.

Their bodies come closer, in an irresistible physical attraction.

Lap dissolve

Birds fly past in the sky.

Lap dissolve

Some wonderful landscapes of the island. Birds flying.

Part III. The Child.

III. 1. Childhood.

Ebb and flow of a wave on the beach.

A little crab appears, coming out of its hole in the sand.

A child comes up. He is a few months old, maybe nine or ten months, less than

a year old.

He walks on all fours, but moves fast.

He notices the crab which is scurrying to its hole for shelter.

The child follows it, rummages in the hole with its hand, pulls out the crab

and puts it in his mouth.

That's no way to go about it. The crab pinches him, or wriggles in his mouth.

The taste is unpleasant, and the child spits the crab onto the sand. Then

carries on going.

A seagull dives down on the half-dead little crab and carries it off.

One or two years later.

The child is two or three years old.

He is sitting astride his father's shoulders.

The family is all together: the mother, the father, and the son. They are

walking together along the shore, by the water's edge.

...

They have stopped in the middle of the beach.

The man and the woman are sitting on the sand, making or mending a net.

The child is nearby, playing with the sand.

Then, his attention is caught by something near the sea and he runs off.

When the mother realizes he has gone, she gets up and looks for him.

The child is further away, by the water's edge. Something is of great interest

to him, an object washed up by the tide. It's a bottle.

The child tries to grab it when a wave washes over his feet and drives him

away.

The wave ebbs. The child comes back. He picks up the bottle (it's empty;

there's no message in it) and runs off so he doesn't get soaked by the next

wave.

The child goes back to his parents to show them his spoils. It's a strange

object when you've never seen glass or a bottle before.

The mother shows him how to take the top off. The child plays with it.

Taking it off and putting it back on again. It's fun.

Then he turns to his father, giving him an inquiring look. He seems to be

asking him where this object came from and what it's doing there.

The father stands up and starts to draw on the wet sand.

First, their island, which is easy to recognize by its shape and its inhabitants:

three figures, two big, one small. Then, further away, a much bigger land,

more inhabitants, unknown animals (a horse, an elephant, etc.).

The mother comes over. She draws too, but between the two lands: the sea

and its fish.

The child goes from one to the other, looking closely at each drawing, each

place. He can't seem to believe it.

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