"Home for the Mentally Ill"
Raskolnikov! Raskolnikov! Raskolnikov!
- What happened, Sonia? - Come, Raskolnikov! Hurry up!
Come and look!
In Memory of my grandson David Manuel de Oliveira
Then God said to Man: Why did you listen to your woman
and eat the fruit from the tree from which I forbade you?
You should have never eaten the fruit from this tree.
Cursed be the ground because of you!
In toil shall you eat its yield
all the days of your life.
By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat
Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken.
For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return.
Oh, Mary, born without sin, pray for us
who depend on You. I belong to You,
Mother Eternal, Our Lady. Guard me and protect me
as your belonging. Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with thee; Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
This woman who posed as Eva, became a penitent nun,
- convinced that... - that I'm a saint.
I'm not convinced... no, sir. I am a saint.
Blessed to redeem myself from original sin.
Yes, because I am repentant Eva.
Look, dear prophet, humanity is mad and they don't realize their madness.
I don't see anything wrong with this, my philosopher friend, that way they can at least obtain some happiness.
In effect, if the concept of happiness was inconsequential,
it could be that way. But, thinking of happiness, in this world,
is a joke. It's truly mad.
It's exactly what I say
in my book.
But the world is not "a joke".
We need to talk about this mysterious book.
But first... let's observe this passionate woman.
You know I saw her among the fruit trees, completely nude?
What a beautiful womanly body you have!
You're very feminine, it's like they say, a "Pretty Girl"!
What do you think, prophet?
To the prophet, your observation was somewhat vulgar.
The prophet has, with regards to the woman, another feeling.
What feeling?
- Dignity. - When you fuck?
- That's all you think about, pig! - I think about that
because women best serve us like the men we are.
But that's not all we are! We're human beings,
created in the image and likeness of God, don't forget!
And we came from the womb of woman And it was also from a woman that He came.
Like a symbol of all women, who was called Mary,
that created Jesus by art and grace of the Holy Spirit.
Oh! The idealist. The idealist, like the father,
has grand ideas in his hands. And not only in his hands!
He plays with them contemptuously. Outside of reason,
against his instincts, against his honor, against his own welfare,
against science. In summary, the sanctity has done,
up to today, much more damage to life,
than all of the dreadful things,
than all of the vices,
whichever they may be.
I come with a burning desire to eat with you this Easter,
before I die of hunger,
but I tell you that I won't eat it
until it has been blessed fully by the Kingdom of God.
Liar!
You're not the Messiah. The Messiah will come, but it's not you.
You're an impudent imposter, that's what you are.
- This is my body - There he goes...
Drink and eat.
This is the chalice of the new alliance, with my blood
that will be shed for you.
Drink and eat everyone.
Do this in memory of me.
Nevertheless, look,
the hand that will deliver me, is here at this table!
The Son of man continues his way, like he's destined.
But, woe to that person through whom they come!
Shit! I've got to get out of here...
-What are you doing in my room? -I've been observing you.
I've been analyzing you for some time.
Analyzing?
- Why? - You're being harrassed
by obsessions. I'm going to prescribe you some medicine.
No!
No, sir, I'm fine...
I'm perfectly fine.
Thank you!
- You hear that? - That's Marta, the pianist!
Yes. Our own Maria João Pires, and her love of the piano.
It'll do you good to listen to this melody.
I'll leave the door open, so you can hear better.
Very nice, don't you think?
What is good? Everything that is exalted in man,
the sensation of power, the desire for power, the power itself.
What is bad? Everything that nails its roots in weakness.
What is happiness? The sensation of the power growing,
that any resistance has been overcome.
It's not the satisfaction, but once more, the power.
It's not peace over everything, it's the value, it's the virtue,
the free virtue of moral force.
Let the weak and fallen die.
That's the first principal of our love of man.
And that we help them to disappear!
Hush! That's not you talking. There's always he who laughs
at what he doesn't understand, because he's stupid. Of what he fears,
to hide his passion of his vices.
And the most prejudiced of all the vices, is piety that helps
the disabled and the weak: Christianity.
Stop with the blasphemy.
The risen Christ left the Earth twenty centuries ago.
I am but the most humble of his disciples.
I come to save you: You will be born again.
- The eternal reward? - No!
- Then? - We all have to die in life,
like our master, then resurrect.
Poor are those who never die in life, For then they are dead forever!
You want to save me? I condemn Christianity,
I throw the most terrible accusations at the Christian church,
more terrible than anyone's ever said.
It's the biggest corruption that one can imagine.
It willingly committed the biggest corruption imaginable!
That someone keeps daring to show me its "humanitarian" benefits.
Eliminating misery is contrary to its deepest needs.
It creates misery, makes misery to eternify itself.
You talk like the antichrist,
May God have pity on you.
God? What God?
I am the anitchrist, God is dead.
God is living within each of us.
God is the promise of our eternity.
Well then! Who are you?
I'm whom you've been looking for,
whom you need to resurrect,
whom you've called crazy,
that everyone calls crazy,
because they don't understand that he's lived for centuries to save the world
in the function of the sacred Spirit of the Lord.
There you are again, with the resurrected Christ
as if you were really Christ.
Stop that blasphemy. I'm not Christ. I told you that I am
his most humble disciple.
Everything is explained here.
- What is this book? - It's the Fifth Evangelist,
that still hasn't been revealed. - Come on, as if the other four
weren't enough, and now you come with a fifth,
to reinforce christianity.
That Cross, the most underground conspiracy
to have ever existed,
that conspiracy against life itself.
Kneel down, I tell you, that you are before the Holy Spirit.
It is not to the saved ones that these words should be said and repeated,
but to the others, like you, the ones that are considered dead.
No son of a bitch is going to make me kneel, prophet.
And I'm shitting on everything you've said.
My desicion is signed and sealed.
I condemn Christianity,
The Christian church is guilty of the worst possible crimes.
It is the largest corruption imaginable.
lntolerable! lntolerable! lntolerable!
Blessed are those without spirit because the Kingdom of Heaven
belongs to them...
Eva.
Eva!
Eva.
Don't punish me!
I'm no longer Eva, I'm a saint! Saint Teresa.
- But, you tempted me! - It wasn't me. It was the serpent.
Eva!
Sonia!
Sonia?
Was it bad?
Oh yes, very!
I went to visit them and my father told me: "Sonia, my head hurts,
read me something. You have a book there." It was a book from André Lebeziatnikov,
who, once in a while, lent us some great books.
"I've got to go", I answered him.
Truthfully I had no desire to read
and I had gone home primarily to show Catarina lvanovna
some things I had just bought.
Isabel, the rag seller, who works
in the loan store, the sister of the loan shark, got me
some cuffs and some really beautiful collars,
and gave me everything at a great price.
Catarina liked the collars a lot... She tried them on,
looked at herself in the mirror and was enchanted.
"Give them to me, Sonia, please!"
They didn't work for her at all, but she's like that.
She never forgets the happy times of her youth.
She loves to look at herself in the mirror. Even though she hasn't had nice clothes or anything
in a long time. And she's incapable of asking anything of anybody.
She's very proud. She'd first give what little she has.
Despite that, she asked me for the collars.
That's why I can tell she really liked them!
I asked her: Why do you want these, Catarina lvanovna?
Yeah, I asked her that and I shouldn't have spoken to her like that.
She had such sad eyes,
but it wasn't because I denied her the collars... No!
What had done the damage, what made her sad,
was my question.
How I'd love to go back
in time, never to have spoken those words!
Your father told me some time ago...
I also know from him everything that you suffer.
He told me that one time he left his house at 6
and came home after 8, and that Catarina lvanovna
had kneeled down before his bed.
- I think I saw him yesterday. - Whom?
My father. I was in the street, on a corner close to here,
between 9th and 10th. He was ahead of me.
I swear it was him.
And I was just about to tell Catarina lvanovna.
You...
were out and about?
I was.
Did Catarina lvanovna beat you, when you lived at your father's house?
- No! How can you say that? - So, you like her?
Do I like her? How could one not like her?
Ah, no... If only you knew her!
Look, she's just like a child and her mind's
a bit screwy from disgrace. You can't imagine, though,
how intelligent, good, and generous she is.
You don't know anything...
If you knew...
Her? Mistreat me?
What are you saying? My God! Her? Hit me??
And, even if she had hit me, what's so important about it?
You know nothing, nothing, nothing. She's so unhappy, poor woman
so disgraced! Besides, she's sick.
Look for justice, she's a pure woman, believe that justice
should impose itself and demand that it be so.
Despite how they mistreat her, there's no injustice.
Look how it's impossible to have justice in this world, and she gets irritated...
like a child, like a little child.
She is just. Just!
And you, miss?
What will happen with you? Everything's in your hands.
Clearly she was that way before. Her deceased father
came to ask her for money, to drink.
But what will happen now?
I don't know. She talks of borrowing
some money, I don't know from where, and return to her hometown.
- Who? - Catarina lvanovna.
She's says she'll start a school for rich girls
and that I can be the house inspector.
A completely new life. It will begin a happy life for us.
She tells me that, hugging me.
Those thoughts comfort her,
she firmly believes in her fantasies.
Oh! But what am I saying?
Why would this interest you...
Did you at least know this Isabel, the rag seller?
The one who worked with her sister, the loan shark?
I knew her. And you, did you know her?
Catarina lvanovna has tuberculosis, in terminal condition, and will soon die.
No, no!
But it would be much better that she die.
No, it wouldn't be better at all, no way!
And the children? What will she do, now that she can't be with them?
- Oh, I don't know! - Let's suppose, that Catarina lvanovna
will live for some time longer. You could get sick,
and when they take her to the hospital. What will happen then?
What are you saying? What are you saying? This is impossible!
lmpossible? How? I don't suppose you have any health insurance.
What would happen to you, then? The whole family will be kicked out into the street,
the mother would ask for charity, coughing and hitting her head on the walls.
Catarina lvanovna would fall in the street, they'll take her to some place for help
and then to a hospital, where she'll die, and the children.
Oh, no! God wouldn't let that happen!
Do you know how to save?
Put aside some money, for an emergency?
- No. - Obviously not.
But have you tried?
Yes, I've tried.
And you haven't been able to. Understandable.
It's no use insisting.
You don't earn money everyday?
No.
Obviously it would be wasted away like in Pólia.
No, no that's impossible! God would not allow such an abomination.
- He's permitted others. - No, no, God will protect her!
But maybe God doesn't exist.
You say that Catarina lvanovna has a screwed-up mind,
but the same is happening to you.
What are you doing?
Why are you kneeling before me?
I don't put myself in front of you,
rather in front of a great human suffering.
Listen.
Earlier, I told an insolent man that he wasn't worth even your little finger,
and yet, this morning, I gave him the honor
to invite my sister to sit beside him.
How could you say that in front of her?
An honor, to sit beside me?
Even if I'm a dishonored woman?
Why do you say that?
When I said it, I didn't think of your dishonor,
nor your sins, but of your great suffering.
No doubt you're guilty, but mostly
for stupidly sacrificing yourself.
How unhappy you must be, obligated to live in the mud that you hate
and knowing without doubt that your sacrifice
is stupid, it won't save anyone!
Tell me...
How is it possible that you with your great soul
resign yourself to the same shame?
Why do you keep doing it?
Is it the same pleasure as deprevation?
It would be a thousand times better that you drown yourself,
that you finish it once and for all!
And them? What would happen to them?
No, you've only prostituted your body,
the vice hasn't entered your soul.
No doubt, she's already considered suicide.
She's already ruined her luck, before her she has: the canal, the asylum
or the loss of reason.
- Do you pray much, Sonia? - What would I be without God?
But what has God done for you?
Shut up, don't ask me anything else!
You're wrong, God is omnipotent.
I went to look for her in her room. Nobody answered, so I went in.
Was that a bad decision on my part?
The door was open, so I dared enter.
- What did you want? - I knew you had a Bible.
It's not mine, I borrowed it. It's the New Testament.
- Who lent it to you? - Isabel, I asked her for it.
- lsabel, the rag seller? - Yes, her,
the one who sold me the collars.
lsabel! How strange.
Where is the resurrection of Lazarus?
Where is the resurrection of Lazarus?!
- Find it for me, Sonia. - It's not there, you have to look for it
in the Fourth Evangelist.
Look for that passage and read it to me.
- You've never read that passage? - A long time ago. When I was a boy. Read.
- You never heard it in church? - No. I never go to church.
- And you, do you go often? - No.
I understand. So you won't go to your father's funeral tomorrow?
Yes. Last week I went to church.
- and I attended a mass of Requiem. - For whom?
For Isabel's soul.
They ruined it.
- Were you a friend of Isabel? - Yes. She was a good person.
She rarely came to my house, but she wasn't able to come more often.
We would read together and talk. Now she's with God.
Why are you interested in this lesson if you're not a believer?
I want you to read it!
You didn't read it to Isabel?
"Lazarus, of Bethany, was sick."
"And many Jews came to Martha and Mary
to console them in the death of their brother
and when Martha heard that Jesus was also coming,
she went to the entrance, while Mary stayed sitting inside."
"And Martha said to Jesus: 'Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died. But now I know, that everything
that one asks of God, God grants".
"And Jesus said: 'Your brother will live again'.
And Martha answered him: 'I know that he'll live again in the resurrection
on Judgement Day'. And Jesus told her:
'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live,
even after dying, and all who live and believe in Me will never die.
Do you believe this? ' And she said to him:
'I believe, Lord. I believe you are the Messiah,
the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God"'.
"When Martha came to where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell to his feet and said to Him: 'Lord, if You had been here,
my brother would not have died'. Jesus, upon seeing her enter, she and the Jews
that had come with her, he was moved with indignation and
deeply troubled and said: 'Where have you put him?
They told him: 'Lord, come and see"'
"And Jesus, was spiritually moved again, and led them to the grave.
It was a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance"
The wind...
"And Jesus said: 'Roll the stone aside'. And Martha, the dead man's sister,
said: 'Lord, it will smell terrible,
because he's already been dead for four days.'
"And Jesus told her: 'Didn't I tell you that you
will see God's glory if you believe?'
"So they removed the stone and Jesus looked up to to heaven
and said: 'Father, thank you for hearing me.
You always hear me,
but I said it aloud for the sake of those standing here
so they will believe You sent me.'
"Having said that, he shouted: 'Lazarus, come out!' and he came out"
"That same moment the man who was once dead came out,
bound in graveclothes, and his head wrapped
in a headcloth
Jesus said to all present: 'Unwrap him and let him go!"'
"Then many of the jews who had gone to visit Martha and Mary,
who had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him!"
And that is all that it says, with respect to Lazarus.
I have come here for an important reason.
I have decided to renounce, this very day, all of the chains that bind me
to my mother and my sister.
I shall not visit them again.
I have finished my battle with them.
- Why? - Now I only have you.
Come with me. That's why I came to look for you.
A curse weighs heavy upon us, and if we're cursed, the two of us together,
we should follow our destiny together!
Follow our destiny together? To where?
I only know that the path and the goal are the same for you and me.
That's the only thing I'm sure of!
You're so unhappy... That's all I see.
You'll understand later. Haven't you acted just as I have?
You too have broken the law, You've been brave in that.
You have worked against yourself, you've destroyed a life, your own,
and your future! Furthermore you don't even realize
that you're starting to go mad. We have to leave together,
and follow the same path. Come with me!
- Why? - Why?
- Why do you say that? - Why?
Because you can't keep selling yourself...
I'll tell you why. You need to think seriously
and see things in the right perspective
instead of crying like a child and putting everything in the hands of God.
What would happen, tell me, if tomorrow they take you to the hospital?
Catarina lvanovna, who is almost lifeless, will soon die.
What would happen then to her children?
Haven't you seen the mothers out there who send their children out begging?
A long time ago I tried to figure out
how those mothers live, under what conditions...
It confounded me. Children cannot continue to be children their whole lives.
What one mostly sees over there are 7 year-old kids, already depraved,
and accustomed to stealing.
And, despite that,
the children are the image of Christ.
"The Kingdom of Heaven is theirs", said the son of God,
and ordered that they mold them, and respect them,
because the future of humanity depends on them.
God is great!
But what to do?
What to do?
You need to break your bonds, in one go,
and keep moving forward whatever the costs. Don't you undertand?
Liberty,
and power, More than anything the power!
Reign over all the creatures that quiver with fear
on this anonymous mass! That's the point!
Don't forget it! This is the testament that I leave you.
Perhaps today is the last time I tell you this.
If I don't come tomorrow, you'll soon know everything, so mark my words.
If I come tomorrow,
I'll tell you.
Good bye!
I'll tell you who killed Isabel.
You know who killed her?
I do, and I'll tell you.
For that I picked you. You, and only you.
I won't come to ask your forgiveness, just to tell you.
Don't touch me.
Bye.
Oh my God! How does he know who killed Isabel?
What does he mean? It's so strange!
How dare you touch that sacred book?
Sacred?
Without ideas, without doctrine... With nothing written!
And you, my dear prophet, say that you've seen him, that you've heard him.
Yes! I've seen his every step with these same eyes
that are looking at you, poor mortal!
I've seen the mystery! The mytsery of all of the Passion and Death!
I've seen him gasp his last breath, like a common man dying.
I've seen him buried like a cadaver.
But I've seen him, in the middle of the night,
while the guards slept, break the stone of his tomb.
And so starts the great Turn.
Then starts the resurrection of the dead!
Because everything I had seen before was almost nothing
and only now did it truly trigger the Holy Spirit.
Nothing! It's blank!
Blank. But you still don't understand?
Isn't it always words that come to destroy the Spirit?
What good are words, ideas, doctrines,
if not to exasperate mankind, one against another?
Don't you understand that the Holy Spirit can only communicate
- by itself? - The pure spirit is a pure lie.
It is necessary, in effect, to consider the purpose of lying
It would be very different if it's to conserve, or if it's to destroy
It is possible to draw an absolute parallel between the Christian and the anarchist.
Both purposes and both instincts are destructive.
- Truly, only God has it! - Let's take a little break
and listen to this fine piano player.
This music is divine.
You don't appreciate art?
What is art compared to the glory of God?
Ephemeral pride.
There you go again.
I and my prophet friend would love
- to hear you play. - This is my passion!
We would love to hear you continue Isn't that right, Mr. Prophet?
- Would that be asking too much? - Of course not, I'd love to.
- Any request? - Any music
that you play is sublime!
Look how well she plays... such agility of the hands...
how supple, how masterfully she slides her fingers
to adjust the notes.
It's truly sublime.
Look at the dexterity.
That certainty to hit each key precisely.
It's as if she has intelligence at the end of each finger.
- A gift of God! - Firstly a virtue of the body.
It's totally an intelligence and a sensibility
that exist in the body, when the body represents
ability, force, domination!
Look at that posture at the piano.
My, how she carries herself!
What beauty!
What a woman!
What an unhappy soul!
She's extraordinary!
Look how the body of man
- of man? She's a woman. - Yes, yes, she's a woman,
but for all intents and purposes, it's the same.
What is represented here is the human, the human body.
Look how the body of man, by his virtues, by his strength,
by his instrinsic intelligence, by his great sensibility and by his power,
yes, yes, by his power, rises up to a super-man,
and a divine being does that of a human being.
No human being is, or has been, divine, who is not Jesus Christ.
Dear friend, we're men
and it is in that capacity that I come here
to speak to you about your wife, Eva.
Eva? What do you know about her?
I don't know. Really I don't know, but I suspect.
Suspect?
Suspect. I suspect that she avoids you because she wants to be holy.
To redeem herself from original sin... For now, pretending to be Saint Teresa.
You're right. She avoids me she forgets that's she's a woman, my woman
and I feel like she despises me. You can't imagine how I suffer.
I understand your frustration... To deny the place of a man
is a true crime against humanity
Even moreso with a woman of such beauty.
But don't give up, friend, don't give up. It's your duty to persist.
- It's your duty as a man! - Pardon, philosopher,
I don't know you very well, but I like what you say and I
would like to ask you, if it's not too much trouble,
- I'd like to ask a favor. - Well, what?
I'll do what I can. Tell me, tell me...
Could you speak to her on my behalf
and explain the same reasons that you gave me?
- But of course, no problem. - You can't imagine how grateful I am.
I'll try...
Enter.
I see my visit surprises you!
and really, it looks strange.
Really... I thought it was the director knocking.
I have something very important to tell you, Eva!
Don't call me Eva! I'm not Eva, the sinner. I'm a saint, Saint Teresa.
- You know that. - Exactly.
That's what brings me here. You are an extraordinary woman
and with that attitude you are commiting a crime against humanity.
- I don't understand what you mean. - It's simple. Nature made
man and woman, in order to join them in the sublime act of love...
And we have you, a perfect example of femininity,
being a recluse.
- Recluse? - More than that!
Hiding yourself and not allowing your man to enjoy the body
and face that are perfect representations
of the beauty that a woman should be.
You are slowly killing
Adam, the Man.
And each day you are accentuating the desire within each man.
Since the first time I saw you, I was head over heels for you.
Woman of my dreams, my love...
Leave me!
No!
- No! - Oh, saintly one, come on, let me...
Let me, dear, it's good, it's good!
No!
Get out, serpent who tempts me!
One step more and I jump!
Saint, don't do that, it's a sin!
Fortunate are you who are poor, the kingdom of God is yours
Fortunate are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
Fortunate are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Fortunate are you when people hate you,
when they reject you and insult you and number you among criminals,
because of the Son of Man.
- Rejoice in that day... - What did you say to her?
- ...for a great reward... - Tell me!
- ...is kept for you in heaven. - Don't you see I'm desperate?
But alas for you who have wealth...
...for you have been comforted now.
- What? You didn't talk to her? - Talk.. I talked. I even insisted.
Well, I insisted as much as possible.
Alas for you who are full...
- And? - ...for you will go hungry.
- She's a lost case.
Alas for you who laugh now...
...for you will mourn and weep.
Eva's fallen into the Christian trap
- Period! - Period?
Yes, period! Nobody will get her out of it.
- But she's my wife! - Sure she is, sure she is!
Tell her goodbye!
Alas for you when people speak well of you...
Tell her goodbye? But she came to me from God!
And she's returned to God. Console yourself, my friend.
Console myself? Me without her? Without her? Never!
- I'll have to convince her. - Look, I had no luck.
- This woman is a prostitute! - "In truth, in truth I tell you
tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you.".
"Go, woman,
and never sin again!"
But I say unto you:
Love your enemies,
do good to them that hate you,
bless them that curse you,
and pray for them which despitefully use you.
And whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek,
turn to him the other also.
And if any man would take away thy coat,
let him have thy cloke as well.
This story's not bad! And you, do you believe too?
It embarasses me, my friend!
But let your communication be Yea for yea; Nay for nay.
for whatsoever is more than these cometh of the devil.
That's how it is. In Christianity, the religion, the morality, and the atonement,
"The cleansing of sin"... all of these fantasies impede
in the final analysis, the joys of life.
Look at your wife, she's a lost cause!
How is she a lost cause? I won't accept that hypothesis.
Wasn't I made by God?
Aren't we all creatures of God, put into this universe
- that has also been created by Him? - Yes, that's what is written
- in the Old Testament. - But everything has its origins,
and God made me from the mud, and from my rib made woman.
the woman who has my rib, and who has been created for me,
and that at least should be mine, but she's not.
That's what I don't understand!
What am I without a woman?
And what is a man without a woman? Women and men are born
one for the other. It's only natural that they enjoy their bodies
so that they have fun and enjoy life
with sexual attraction and the pleasure of sensuality that it gives them.
While "sanctity" is denying all of that.
- It's denying life.. - It's my disgrace.
If you really have a kindgom, perhaps we can have
- an interesting conversation. - An interesting conversation?
- But what concersation? - Well, it's not exactly
a conversation. What I want to propose is more of a deal.
- A deal? - A great deal!
I'm prepared to give you whatever quantity of money you ask of me.
You sell me, for the price that you want, of course, if not all,
at least half of your kingdom.
How shall I put it...
we'd be partners,
half the kingdom for each of us.
My kingdom is not of this world.
Have you forgotten that I cast out the sellers
from my father's temple?
Wait, wait!
Don't go!
You go because you have no kingdom. We know where you're from
but the true Messiah, when he comes, nobody will know from where he comes.
You're an imposter!
I am the Path, the Truth, and the Life.
This generation is a perverse generation.
However, whoever believes in me will be saved and know eternal life.
Sir! Master! I'm desperate
and I implore you to help me with my cause, because it is just.
Nothing, if not from the Father, is just.
But tell me what you have to say.
It's true what you say. But it was God that created me.
And He created woman for me and from my rib, because he thought it good
to be so. But now, Master, Eva has abandoned me
and says she's saintly, and avoids me, and has thus become a sterile woman.
The sterility is a dishonor, but it can have
- a spiritual fertility. - So, what do I do, Master?
Shall I remain thus, abandoned?
Follow her example and you will be rewarded in Heaven.
- And my rib? - Don't persecute her any longer.
She has chosen the right path.
But God has ordered that we procreate!
If every woman followed Eva in the path of abstinence...
It would be the beginning of the end of humanity!
Few are among the chosen.
A goddess! There's power and domination within you!
- At the piano, you are a goddess. - No, no. A goddess? Me??
More like a slave.
I'm not a goddess, I'm a slave to music.
And when I play, I always play in the honor of God.
To God? What God? An artist is a god. Art grants divinity.
Art makes a man into a superman.
Please don't repeat what you said before.
Your words humble me. I play to the glory of God,
- it's like praying. - Marta is right.
Art is not just pride and vanity.
Prepotent affirmation of a personality
that wants to impose itself on others,
including the Omnipotent One in a gawky imitation.
This woman pedals her instrument
with her feet with pride
to Him that is the reason for everything.
It's true! It's true! It's always thus. Religion is always
interfering in everything. Poor creatures.
- You offend us. - Yes, you offend us.
The one who should like hearing this is our prophet.
- He suffers from the same sickness. - Sickness?
- Yes, yes, sickness.
- But I must go. - Religion is not a sickness, philosopher
And it's us who must go.
- How good to see you, dear... dear... - Ivan. Ivan Karamazov
lvan Karamazov, of course! Ivan Karamazov! Please take a seat.
Director, I've come mainly to visit
- my brother, Aliocha. - Ah! Very good. I'll send for him.
But also I came to see if you have an opening.
- No. The house is still full. - We talked about this before,
- Remember? - Of course I remember!
But we don't have any room, you know. Our clients
feel good being here, they like it here.
I've been working a lot... intellectual work.
- It's the most difficult. - And I need some rest.
Please call Mr. Aliocha Karamazov.
I was just talking with him. He's here with me.
Ivan.
How's everyone at home, how's dad?
- Dad, still kicking. - And you?
Here, anxious to see you and show you this.
- Are they poems? - You know I haven't written
- two verses in my life! - So, what is it?
You'll be my first reader, or better, my first editor.
And it would please me to have the director present.
- To be my second editor. - How nice of you!
It would be my pleasure, but we should go into
the other room.
One fine day, an 8 year-old serf,
who loved to throw rocks, accidentally broke
the leg of one of the favorite dogs belonging to an old general
- who had a lot of pull. - But, where did you
- find this story? - I believe I read it
in a magazine called "Russia of Antiquity"
and it was set in the darkest time of serfdom
at the beginning of the 19th Century. They said "Long live the Tzar, Liberator!"
Well, the general, seeing his dog limping, asked why.
When he found out who was guilty, he ordered that the boy be found.
They ripped him from the arms of his mother
and he spent the night in a cell.
The next day, it was an autumn morning,
- foggy and cold... - Excellent hunting weather...
the general, in his splendid uniform, accompanied by his "parasites"
his hunters, his dogs, his horsemen,
ordered that the boy be stripped of his clothes.
Naked, the boy trembled furiously, and didn't dare say a word.
"Tell him to run" shouted the general.
"Run, run", the hunters shouted at him.
The boy began to run.
With a grunt the general shot him with an arrow.
The dogs ripped apart the boy's body in front of his mother.
Afterwards, they put the general in protective supervision.
What do you think that he deserved? That they shoot him?
- Without a doubt. - Bravo! If you say so it must be because...
Get outta here with your asceticism!
Do you also have a little devil in your heart, Aliocha Karamazov?
- It was trivial, but... - Yes, but. You can be sure
that the world could use more triviality.
Without triviality, down here, nothing would happen.
- One knows what one knows. -And what do you know?
Nothing. I understand nothing. Nor do I wish to understand. I worry about what is done.
- If I try to understand it, it changes. - But, why do you torment me?
- Like what you just said to me? - I prepared myself to tell you that.
I affect you and don't want to abandon you to your liveliness,
to your ascetecism.
Who are you? What are you doing?
Have you been listening to our conversation?
Do you have something to say?
Talk, man!
He's a mute, one of our guests.
And the coffin? Why does he have a coffin?
Well, he's a bit odd. He wants to be like Lazarus
and be resusitated. To be resusitated, one needs to die,
so he practices dying, getting into the coffin, so that afterwards
he can be resusitated into a new man.
I've limited myself to the example of that child to be more clear.
I didn't speak of the human tears that saturate the Earth,
Because I wanted to keep my conversation short and not test the patience
- of the director. - But please, go on.
I listen with much curiosity!
I humbly confess that I don't understand these kind of things.
By my poor spirit I know that as soon as suffering exists,
there is none guilty, that everything passes and balances.
I need to comprehend, otherwise I'll destroy myself.
No, I can't admit that. There exists a Being that can pardon
all of our sins, because he spilt his innocent blood for us.
You've forgotten Him, but it's to Him that you should shout:
"You're right, Lord, your path is revealed to us."
Ah, yes, "the only one withour sin", that "spilt his blood".
No, I haven't forgotten him. On the contrary, I wondered
why you hadn't mentioned him, since all our discussions usually
- go that way. - That boy of which you spoke before
that was devoured by the dogs in front of his mother's eyes,
- Was also innocent. - Wasn't that rock the
-cornerstone of the building? - Of what building?
Of humanity. Didn't he spill blood for it?
But, if the suffering of the children is to reach the sum of pain
necessary to acquire the truth, then that affirms that the truth
does not deserve such a price. I don't deny myself to submit to God,
but, respectfully, I give back my ticket.
- I call that revolting. - Revolting? I don't want the mother
to pardon the executioner, she doesn't have that right.
Pardon the suffering of the mother, but not the son,
who was diced up by the dogs.
Revolting? I didn't want to hear you say that word.
I want to live. But, can one live rebelliously?
There is, in the world, a Being that can pardon.
Yeah, you said!
I'd like to read my work that I wrote some time ago.
Are you ready to listen?
- I'm all ears. - It's not poetry, like I said,
but I dreamt a poem and that's what I call it.
- I don't want to try your patience. - I'm also anxious to hear
- your lecture. - The poem is called:
"The Inquisitive Boss". It might be nonsense, but I'd like to know what you think.
There's no preamble, from a literary point of view.
It takes place in the 16th Century.
The Inquisition occured in this epoch
concretely in the Iberian Penninsula. It was an epoch of order
based on the conviction that to save souls
- the Jews and irreligious had to be burned. - Exactly. And the head inquisitor
unanimously took on the rights of God
putting himself above, or substituting himself, for God.
These "witchhunts" combined with shows
called "Mysteries", which were ingenuous representations
interpreted by civil employees of justice and monks
entering the scene as the Virgin Mary, angels, saints, Jesus and the Lord God.
"Oh, it wasn't thus that you promised to return, at the end of times,
in all your celestial glory, suddenly, like lightning,
that comes from the East and flows to the West."
"No. He wanted to visit his sons in the same place where the
heretics' bonfires crackled." "In lavish witchhunts
they burned horrible pagans". Ice that falls upon the ardent streets
of the southern city, where, exactly in the eve
in the presence of the king, of the cortesans, the horsemen,
the cardinals and the most seductive ladies of the cut,
the head inquisidor commands that a heretical hundred be burned
"Ad Maiorem Dei gloriam".
"He appeared discretely, without anyone noticing,
and, strangely, everyone recognized him".
It would be one of the greatest steps in my work
to explain the reason for this to you.
"Silently, God goes on
via the multitudes with a compassionate smile.
His heart is wrapped in love, from his eyes shines a Light,
the Science, the Power, awakening the admiration of the mortals.
Everyone extends their arms. A certain elder, blind since birth,
exclaims from the middle of the mass: "Lord, cure me, and I will see You".
The bandages fall from his eyes and the blindman sees. 'It's Him, it must be Him,
It can't be any other than Him! ' And He stops by the plaza of the cathedral,
where they bring before Him a small white coffin in which lies
of a seven year-old girl, the daughter of a notable citizen.
She was covered in flowers. All of a sudden, a roar sounded,
the mother kneeled at the Lord's feet, crying out
'It is You, resusitated! '.
From His mouth sweetly came:
'Talitha cumi',
and the little one awoke, sat up,
and looked around, shocked and smiling.
At this moment the head inquisitor came to the plaza.
A tall old man, almost ninety, with a wrinkled face and sunken eyes,
but eyes that sparkled.
They followed him from a respectable distance - the dismal aids and the Official Saintly Guard.
He's seen it all,
the coffin put before Him and the resurrection of the girl.
With a pointed finger he orders the guards to stop it.
They lead the prisoner to the old and shady building of the Inquisition,
where they lock him up in a low-ceilinged cell".
- What's going on? - What is it?
It's lvan, the bad lvan, Aliocha's brother.
The Director is with them.
- Where are they? - There, in the other room.
- Talking a lot! - Ivan is the one who is
- saying the most. - He says such strange things!
Come on.
"In the darkness, the iron door of the cell is suddenly opened,
and there appears the Head Inquisitor, torch in hand.
He is alone, and the door closes behind him.
He hesitantly analyzes the Saintly Face. And finally says: Is it you? You?
Not getting a response, he quickly adds:
Say nothing, be quiet. Besides, what could you say?
You haven't the right to add even one more word
to what you've already said, long ago. Why have you come to bother us?
I'm not sure exactly who you are; Is it you, or just your appearance?
But, tomorrow I'll condemn you and you'll be burned like the worst heretic.
The same people who today kissed your feet, will tomorrow rush,
on my signal, to feed your bonfire.
Do you know? Surely, concludes the Inquisitor, pensive,
with his gaze constantly fixed upon the prisoner."
I don't really undertand what you want to say, Ivan.
Is it a fantasy, an error of an elder, a strange "Quid pro quo"?
I accept that last position. If modern reality transformed
to that point of resistance with respect to the supernatural.
But "Quid pro quo" or fantasy, what does it matter?
What should stand out here is that the Inquistor reveals
what he has hidden during his entire career.
And the prisoner? He says nothing? Is he kept from seeing?
Exactly, he can only be quiet. That same old man makes him see
that he hasn't the right to add one more word to his previous lesson.
This is perhaps the fundamental point of Roman Catholicism
in my opinion: "Everything was transmitted by you, to the Pope."
Don't come and bother us, especially not before its time.
Didn't you say so many times: "I want to give you liberty"?
Well, okay. You've seen them, the "liberated" men,
the old man adds with a sarcastic air.
And goes on: "But it's done, and done well".
You don't believe me. You look at me with gentleness,
you don't even give me the honor me of your indignation.
But you should know that men never have considered themselves freer than now
and, even so, have humbly placed their liberty at our feet.
This is our work, so to speak. Is this the liberty that you dreamed of?
Again, I don't understand. The inquisitor mocks,
- is he being ironic? - In no such way.
Suppose you have, for him and his people, eliminated liberty.
with the intention of making the men happy.
"Then it is now, for the first time", speaking, obviously, of the Inquisition,
"that you can imagine the happiness of men."
You said that: "He's speaking, obviously, of the Inquisition".
But couldn't we transfer it to modern times
and, even, not just in the religious aspect,
but also politically, with respect to certain ideologies comparable
to the idea of the inquisitor, when Ivan says there in his poem:
"Suppose you have, for him and his people, eliminated liberty,
with the intention of making the men happy?"
If you like! But I see our director is a pessimist.
Yes! I am! I don't believe in God nor Man.
The religions, for example. Aren't they in a permanent crusade?
Not only the Christians among them, but above all the Muslims
in opposition to Christianity and against the Jews.
Yes! Against the Jews! If there is a God, there is one, and only one,
common to every religion. I mean, isn't the Old Testament
also a book for the Jews?
Yes, God is one. God is always the same.
This controversy doesn't make sense. How can you believe, my friends,
in this God that we confound with so many religions?
How can we believe in men that act like the grand inquisitor?
I see also that our director is a skeptic, a rebel!
A rebel?
- A man without hope! - Excuse the interruption.
You yourself, Ivan, perhaps you're a freemason. You don't believe in God.
How does the poem end? Right there?
No. Listen how I want to end it. "The inquisitor stops
and waits for his prisoner's response. His silence bothers him.
His silence, that during the whole time he listened to him,
looking at him with a penetrating stare, clearly meant he would not answer.
The old man wanted him to say anything,
even if they were bitter and terrible words.
All of a sudden, the prisoner comes close to the inquisitor,
and kisses him with his lifeless lips. It's the only answer that he gives him.
The old man feels a chill, his mouth trembles.
He goes to the door, opens it and says: "Leave and don't come back! Ever!"
I'll let you lose yourself in the darkness of the city".
- And the old man? - The kiss touched his heart,
but maintains his idea.
And you're with him. You too!
How silly! It's just a little literary project, without sense.
The work of a student who never wrote verses.
You think I want to join those who have corrected the work?
I told you, let me get to thirty years old,
and then I'll throw in the towel.
And the new sprouts,
the lovely tombs, the blue of the sky, the loved woman?
What would be your love for all that? Could it be that one can live
with so much fire in one's heart and mind?
There is, in me, a force that resists everything.
- Which? - That of the Karamazovs.
The force that they will take to the foundation.
You think everything is permitted?
When I came to look for you,
I thought you were all I had in the world.
I see now that there is no place for me in your heart.
As I do not deny the formula of "everything is permitted"
therefore it is you that denies me. Aliocha.
It's a plagiarism! You copy the scene from my literary work.
Even so, I thank you.
Listen, Aliocha. If I can still love
each new Spring, it will be thanks to your memory.
It's enough for me to know that you're here, in some place,
so that you can recoup your lust for life.
Does that make you happy?
If you like, accept this as a declaration of love.
I do not ask only for these, but also for those who,
by their word, believe in me, so that we may all be one.
Like You, oh Father! You are in Me and I in You.
Let them also be in us.
So that the world believes that you have sent me
I have given them the glory that You have given me, so that they may be one,
like we are One.
I in them and You in Me, so that they may be in perfect unity
so that the world believes that you have sent me, that you have loved them
like you have loved me.
Father, I wish that those you have given me
wherever I may be, are also with me
so they may see my glory. The glory that You have given me.
Porque tú me has amado antes de la fundación del mundo.
Ah! Just Father, if the world does not know you, I know you
and they know that you, just Father, sent me.
I have presented your name and I will present to him until the love
that you have given me is in them and that I am also in them.
- What happened to you? - Nothing, Sonia, don't worry.
It's not worth the trouble, it's stupid.
Why have I come to torment you?
Yes, why?
It's a question that I'm always asking myself, Sonia.
How you suffer!
When I left you yesterday... Do you remember?
I told you that perhaps you were bidding me farewell for the last time.
but that if I returned, I'd tell you, who killed Isabel.
So, you were serious? How do you know?
I know.
Have they found the person responsible?
No, they haven't found him.
Then, how do you know?
- Guess. - Why...
- why do you insist on scaring me? - He didn't want to kill Isabel.
He killed her without premeditation. He only wanted to kill the old lady.
When she was alone. That's why he went to her house.
But, Isabel arrived, and he was there
and killed her.
So what,
you can't guess?
No.
Think hard.
You guessed it.
Oh God!
Enough, Sonia, enough!
Don't torture me.
I don't undertand you Sonia.
You hug me after I've told you "that"?
You're not conscious of your actions.
There is no man on Earth more unhappy than you!
Would you ever abandon me, Sonia?
No, no! nevera! No way! I'd follow you anywhere!
Oh God! Why didn't I know you before?
Why haven't you come before? My God!
I'd go to prison with you.
To prison?
Yes! To redeem our sins!
But how can it be true?
An assasin! Is it possible? Why?
- To steal! Enough, Sonia! - Were you hungry?
Was it to help your mother?
No, that wasn't the reason. I did want to help my mother,
but that wasn't the reason. Don't torture me, Sonia!
How can I believe it?
You who deprive yourself of everything for everyone else!
Ah, so the money you gave me?
No, that money didn't come from there, Sonia. Take it easy. My mother sent it to me.
As far as the old lady's money,
I'm not sure if I'll ever have it.
Could you be crazy?
You know what, Sonia?
If it were only necessity that turned me into an assasin,
I'd be a happy man, believe me.
But, what good does it do me to confess my motive,
If I've already told you that I regret it?
Why this stupid triumph against myself?
Oh, Sonia, why have I come to your room?
I came, because I'm bad. Anyone else wouldn't have come.
- But I'm a coward. - No!
No, you did well to come!
Sonia, Sonia, I have a bad heart.
Think of that. It can explain many things.
It's better that you know everything, much better!
I wanted to be a hero, a Napoleon,
There you have the reason for me killing her.
- Do you understand everything now? - No. But speak, speak.
You'll see how I'll try to understand everything!
The reality is that one day, I asked myself:
If for example, Napoleon was in my place.
If he didn't have, to start his career, a Toulon, nor Egypt,
nor the "Mont Blanc" pass. If instead of these feats
he saw the necessity to commit a murder
to assure his future,
would the idea of murdering a woman for 3000 Escudos disgust him?
Would he say, that for himself,
that such an action was dishonorable and too repugnant?
I've been wracking my brain for a long time with this question.
and I couldn't help but feel ashamed when I finally realized
that Napoleon not only would have no doubt,
but would never have considered doubting.
After arriving at that conclusion, I doubted no more.
I felt protected by the authority of Napoleon!
This probably sounds funny to you, Sonia, and understandably.
Talk to me frankly and honestly!
Very well. I said to myself
that, with the money, I'd quit being a burden on my mother.
That I'd be able to go back to the university and then start a new life.
It was all I thought about! Sure, I'm guilty
of the woman's death, but... Yeah, enough!
No, no, it's not that! It's impossible, there has to be something more!
You think that there could be something else...
but I've told you the truth.
The truth. But, which truth? My god!
How well you see things, Sonia, I've limited myself to killing
- a useless, squalid and harmful worm. - But that worm was a human being!
I know she wasn't a worm.
And everything I've said has been silly.
You're right, Sonia, it was another motive that pushed me to it.
But, let's drop this subject. I've never spoken to anyone about this
and this conversation is giving me a throbbing headache.
What a strange way to speak! Giving such explanations as if they were...
- as if they were valid! - Sonia! First imagine
that I am full of pride, that I'm envious, bad, vengeful
and given to craziness.
I renounced my studies. At night I had no lights,
I sat in the darkness, dreaming, lying on the sofa.
It's not necessary to say what I dreamt of.
But no, I'm not telling you this like I should.
I passed the time asking myself:
"If you know that everyone else is an imbecile
why don't you try to be more intelligent than them?"
And I concluded that if I were to hope for people to be intelligent
I was going to need a lot of patience.
So I convinced myself that people don't change
and to try to change them is a waste of time.
That's how it is, Sonia, and that's the rule!
Now I'm convinced
that the truest man among men would be
he who surpasses the rest in strength, firmness of the soul, and intelligence.
The more audacious he is, the more sense he'll see himself having.
He that defies them and despises them, imposes respect from them.
It's what always happens and always will happen. Only a blind man does not see it.
So I convinced myself that the power is only given
to he that dares lower himself to grab it.
I wanted to be audacious, Sonia, and that's why I killed her.
Oh shut up, shut up! You abandoned God and God punished you,
delivering you to the devil.
So you think that when these thoughts assaulted me
in the darkness of my room, that it was the devil that tempted me?
Quiet, heathen! Don't make fun of what you don't understand, of what you...
- My God you'll never understand! - You shut up, Sonia,
I'm not making fun of anything. I know very well that a demon drove me to it.
Oh, yes, shut up, shut up, Sonia!
I know everything that you could tell me
I've already told myself the same, wrecked in the darkness of my room.
Look, when I went to the woman's house, I was just practicing an experience.
- But you killed! - And how did I kill?
Perhaps I killed her like that, perhaps I killed the woman!
No, I killed myself
and lost myself forever! Leave me!
- What a torment! - What can I do?
What can I do?
Come on! Tell me!
What can you do?
Get up!
Go immediately, right now, to the closest cross
kneel down and kiss the earth that you have dishonored.
Then face yourself in each of the four directions
and say aloud, so that the whole world can hear, "I killed."
And God will give you back your life.
Are you going?
So, you want me to go into forced labor?
You think I should denounce myself?
You should accept the atonement, and redeem yourself.
It's better that you don't come to see me when I'm imprisoned.
Do you have a cross? You don't?
Then take this one, it's made from cypress wood.
I have another made of copper, that Isabel gave me.
We made an exchange, she gave me the cross and I gave her a medallion.
I'll use Isabel's cross and you can use this one. Take it, it's mine.
If we must suffer together, then we'll wear
a cross together!
Give it to me. No, better later.
Yes, yes, later. I'll give it to you at the moment of atonement,
we'll say a prayer and leave together.
Come in, my friend.
Baby, you can't imagine how much I've wanted to be with you!
Ah, corrupt Pharisee! I'll kill you right now!
Come in.
You can come in.
But how is this possible?
Why this?
I beg you, say something!!
We don't know anything either.
We came to talk to him and found him hanging like this.
But this is impossible!
I needed to confess my crime! Why did he hang himself?
- Why did he do it? - We don't know anything!
He didn't even leave a letter nor a note. Nothing.
But it can't be!!! No!! no!! I had to confess my crime to him!
yes, it was me that killed the old woman!!
It was me that killed your sister Isabel! It was me!
I am a criminal!!
I am a criminal and a demon is after me!
Sonia! Sonia!! Don't abandon me, Sonia!
Sonia!!
The Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit! It's the Holy Spirit!
Beautiful! Beautiful!
Look!
The Holy Spirit has come to visit us!
The Holy Spirit? A dove!
All I see is a white dove.
That's it! Just a dove!
You don't see further than with your eyes?
Beautiful! The Holy Spirit!
Beautiful!
The Holy Spirit? But what Holy Spirit?
It's only a dove, simply a dove.
And this is the society in which we live?
It will be more, it seems, than what it is.
In reality, everyone lives by himself.
or before the Holy Spirit
like in a desert. But the majority
of our actions and words still have much importance...
at least for the human race.
Pigeon shit!
He could have crapped somewhere else.
- Did he have to do it right on my head? - Maybe he had a good reason for it!
What do you mean? Do you mean that this excrement
is what the prophet takes as a sign of faith?
Exactly the opposite! That excrement is exactly what you call
- something concrete, real, concrete. - The pure spirit is a joke,
if we take it out from our nervous system, from "terrestrial involvement"
we have deceived ourselves, that's it.
Do you pretend to put Science before God?
I know what Science is,
God, I don't know what it is.
You'll never reach salvation like that.
Don't you think that that's terrible?
Terrible?
Yes! Terrible! Terrible!
Terrible is seeing them on their knees, chasing an illusion!
Faith is not an illusion! Faith is the explanation for life.
You don't explain life. Life just is!
Yes, for all those who enjoy earthly and false happiness
But what of those who know disgrace
suffering, hunger and misery?
Them, dear prophet,
Them, let it end with them.
Life is for the happy and powerful.
Pride and greed are the ruin of Humanity.
You worry me, because you are already dead for life.
The world will be pulverized in the final collapse.
The salvation of the world is in the Resurrection
and only in the Resurrection!!
By the work and grace of the Holy Spirit?
By the work and grace of the Holy Spirit!
There is no doubt, that this is a madhouse!
The Kingdom in Heaven is madness and only the violent fascinate in it.
I just hope you don't come along with that!!
What pleases mankind cannot please God.