A BRUTAL GAME
A film by Jean-Claude Brisseau
"Listen! I took the case of children only to make my case clearer."
"Of the other tears of humanity,
with which the earth is soaked from its crust to its centre
I will say nothing. I have narrowed my subject on purpose."
Dostoyevsky The Brothers Karamazov
- Is Mr Tessier there? - Yes, straight ahead.
Mr Tessier?
Are you really leaving us?
We'll miss you. A great scientist such as you.
Goodbye.
YOUR MOTHER'S HAD A HEART ATTACK. HOPELESS CONDITION
SHE WANTS TO SEE YOU BEFORE SHE DIES. CONSTANCE
Hello, Constance.
What was Marchant doing here?
I won't be spied on right under my own mother's roof!
I thought he was your friend.
He was my boss at the Pasteur Institute for Biological Research.
He was never my friend.
You know of his affection for your mother.
When he heard how ill she was, he insisted on examining her himself.
How is she?
It's strange. She lay there as if she'd been dead for several days.
And when she opened her eyes, she seemed ecstatic.
She just said, "How beautiful it is."
"I tell you, it's so very beautiful to open your eyes right where you are."
Leave us alone, Jeanne.
- How are you, my dear? - How are you?
I've discovered that life and death
are both just particular situations.
I wanted to see you before I depart.
Why did you quit your job at Pasteur and give up all that responsibility?
I was living in a universe where everyone was spying on me.
The ministry expects you to continue your research.
My decision is irrevocable.
I deplore Marchant's attempting to involve you.
We'll see what happens.
God be with you.
Are you in pain?
No. I'm going to the other side...
...and I'll go happily and serenely.
Please look after your daughter. Take care of Isabelle.
But I have a very important task.
Please, she's never had anyone. She needs you.
Return to Saulières, your place of birth. Recuperate.
Try to raise your daughter
and get in touch with your roots.
I beg you.
I'll send Lucien to fetch her from the convent school.
I'll move to Saulières with her.
Be patient.
That poor thing was abandoned when her mother left you.
Actually, she never had a father either.
Won't you attend the funeral service?
What for?
Look at her.
She's nothing more than an object.
A thing, like a stone.
So what is all this nonsense good for?
How are you, Miss Isabelle?
You'll be better off in Saulières than at the convent school.
FABULOUS FRENCH VICTORY OVER CANCER
DISCOVERY OF ETERNAL YOUTH AT THE PASTEUR INSTITUTE
12-YEAR-OLD GIRL MURDERED
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, sir.
We didn't know when you would be arriving.
It's your father. He's come to live with you from now on.
Oh, my father.
Hello, Isabelle. What are you thinking about?
I'm looking at the people.
Where should I place a bomb to kill as many as possible?
First I'd blow up the market when it's the most crowded.
Bodies torn apart, women and children screaming.
Sewers blown apart, mud, and corpses spreading blood everywhere.
Then my second bomb explodes... Carnage.
It is true that my team and I at the institute seem to have unravelled
the mystery behind indestructible cancer cells...
...and have succeeded in utilising certain modified cells
to considerably slow down...
Everyone would fear the third bomb.
Everyone would flee, leaving the others crying out.
All those dirty humans...
You have to indulge her.
She was born like that and she'll die like that.
And she has always lived in solitude.
We're all alone.
You have to cope with it.
There has been a lot of discussion
about the resignation of your colleague, Mr Christian Tessier.
What was his part in your success?
Mr Tessier is certainly
one of today's most brilliant researchers,
but he made the error
of staying alone, of isolating himself from the rest of his team.
Why are you doing that?
Because it's fun. It amuses me.
I hate these insects. Why did you save that beast?
You think it's fun to make those poor things suffer?
All they ever do is annoy me. At least when I kill them it's amusing.
Do that again, and I'll give you a good thrashing.
That's it, just try it. Come on, take me back home, lazy old sod.
- Little devil. - It's your fault! You made me this way.
I never asked you for anything!
Leave me alone!
Lucien!
Go get her wheelchair down by the river. And her crutches.
- Die! You make me sick! - You'll wash yourself!
You'll wash yourself.
And then tidy your room, all by yourself!
If you don't do what I say, you'll have to stay here!
You make me puke, you bastard!
Leave that for a minute and sit down.
This will be her daily schedule.
You'll wake her every day at six o'clock.
- I can't deal with her on my own. - I'll be there at the start.
- She'll cooperate or get the whip. - But you're...
I have to put my foot down! At the moment she's just an animal.
She needs discipline, or else the devil will get a hold of her.
- Do you wash and dress her every day? - It's too hard for her...
She has to start doing it on her own.
First give her 45 minutes, then half an hour.
- But that's impossible... - Breakfast at 7 am, lunch at noon,
dinner at 7 pm and bedtime at 9pm.
You'll feed her dairy products, raw vegetables, soups,
rice and wholemeal bread.
You'll see to it that her room is always tidy.
But you'll never help her clean it.
She'll work with a teacher who'll come live with us.
What's her scholastic level?
They thought she was intelligent at the school.
- Can she read? - When she wants to.
You'll stick closely to her schedule.
Copy it and post it everywhere she goes.
- She'll destroy the copies. - Most likely.
After a good thrashing, or going hungry for a few days, she'll understand.
She's unhappy enough the way she is,
disabled for the rest of her life.
The sands of time are always running out.
Disaster may always be around the corner.
You have to be just as harsh and cruel as the forces of evil to vanquish them.
Time to get up, Miss.
Get up!
You've got half an hour to get washed, clean up and to get downstairs!
If you're not ready on time,
you'll get a beating and no food for 24 hours.
Good, that's enough. Let's wash you up.
Lucien sleeps in the sheepfold?
Now put your fingers on your legs and sit up straight.
Straighten your spine so you can breathe better through your lungs.
That's hard...
Just sit like me. You have to learn how to control your breathing.
- It won't make any difference. - Yes, it will.
If you do this exercise regularly, you'll feel much better.
Your face will be friendlier, softer... Alright, start over.
Inhale for four seconds.
Hold it in for two.
Exhale for four and then start over again.
Come on, apply yourself a bit.
Sit up straight.
Inhale for four seconds.
- What's your name? - Annie. I already told you.
I meant your surname. - Lorraine. Like the Lorraine.
I'd like to get to know you, what you used to do...
I was a school teacher. I taught kids with learning difficulties.
- Where did you live? - In lvry, a suburb of Paris.
Now concentrate on the exercise. Inhale for four seconds.
- Why did you come here? - I answered an ad in the paper.
Didn't you like your job?
Now please focus on the breathing exercise.
I have the right to get to know you!
- Now sit down on the chair. - I'd prefer to stay in my wheelchair.
You have to learn to move like everyone else.
You're just doing this to annoy me.
Now draw what I do.
That's good.
Why can't I manage to do that? Why don't my legs work?
Inside your vertebrae is the spinal cord, you see?
It sends messages from the brain to the body.
At the base, a piece is missing. That's why your legs are paralysed.
Will I always be this way?
Yes. But I'll teach you to move all by yourself.
What difference will it make?
I should have never been born!
Stop fidgeting and close your eyes.
Try to relax your body as much as possible.
Let your arm fall down on its own.
No, watch me.
Look at my arm, I relax it.
When I let it go, it falls all by itself.
Keep the rest of your body completely still, don't react to anything.
Let it fall. No, let it fall by itself.
OK, we're going to try something else.
Rest your hands alongside your body. That's right. Close your eyes.
Listen to all the sounds around you and describe them to me.
I'd rather do French lessons. This is stupid.
Now close your eyes and concentrate.
- And? - And what?
Everything is quiet except you.
It's good like that. Just think about the sounds around you.
I don't hear anything. Why did you quit your job to come here?
That shouldn't concern you. Do what I say.
- Do you have a boyfriend in Paris? - My life's is boring.
Relax and just think about the sounds you hear.
How could I? You can't even keep calm when I speak.
- That's clever! Are we done? - Yes. We'll do something else.
"On a nice summer day, an injured horse
stood bleeding in Carrousel Square."
"It got up, paralysed only on three legs,
the other leg was injured, torn and hanging..."
Stop. What's the story about?
I don't know what "Carrousel Square" is.
It's a large square in Paris.
So, what do you think you've just been reading about?
Go on, tell us what you've just been reading about.
It's about a stupid horse who's had an accident.
One of his legs is torn, but it's still hanging from his body,
blood flowing down, while everyone watches.
Good. And then?
"Nearby there is a coach and a car,
motionless like a broken clock."
"The horse doesn't complain."
"It doesn't know. It just waits."
"It's ever so beautiful, so sad, so simple, so reasonable
that it's impossible to hold back the tears." Jacques Prévert.
What characterises this scene?
- I don't know. - Yes, you do.
Do what you're told or I'll lock you up without food till tomorrow.
Everyone is silent, motionless, like a broken clock.
- Why? - I don't know.
I really don't know.
How do the people react?
Some of them probably cry.
- Why? - I don't know.
How does the horse react?
He's in a lot of pain but he just waits.
- How does he wait? - Without complaining.
What is he waiting for?
For his owner to come take care of him.
What do people do to horses with torn legs?
They kill them.
Why are the people motionless?
Because they know the horse is going to die.
This breaks their hearts.
They know the horse will die and they can't do anything about it.
This poor, sweet animal is suffering.
Why are they so moved,
even though they themselves are not affected?
What do you mean?
The bystanders aren't the ones suffering and dying, so why are they moved?
They're themselves in the horse's shoes.
- And what do you think about it? - It's funny.
Try putting yourself in the place of the animals that you torture.
Why? I don't care about the horse. He is himself and I am myself.
Let the stupid nag can kick the bucket!
I would have made a see-saw out of his torn leg.
I'm sick of you! Especially him! He never leaves me alone!
I haven't seen him in years,
and then he shows up just to annoy me!
Lock her up until tomorrow night.
We'll see if she behaves after 28 hours without food.
Fucking bastard!
Are you sure this is the right method?
When I need your opinion, I'll ask you for it.
For now, go to your room.
You'll resume work with her tomorrow.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Here she is, our miraculous recovery.
You'll be alright.
Will you be gone long?
For about two weeks. If something happens, call Constance.
Yes, OK.
- So I'm not dead? - No. You can see that.
This is my brother, Pascal.
You're lucky he drove by on his moped.
Any longer and you'd have been dead. Your head was already underwater.
Thank you for saving my life.
Prepare the room upstairs for this young man.
Very well, sir.
- Can I put my things upstairs? - Of course. Follow me.
What did my father say?
He was very upset at first.
Then he took it out on me, because I didn't lock your door.
I'm sorry.
This is the first time you've ever been nice to me.
Buy yourself a donkey to push your bike, you silly bugger!
Can you repeat what you just said to me?
Buy yourself a donkey to push your bike, you silly bugger!
Hey, lads, look!
Who is that?
That's your grandmother, your father's mother who died recently.
Did you know my mother?
No. She never wanted to come live here.
- Have you worked here a long time? - 38 years.
Your grandmother was a comedian, and so was I.
Then one day she stopped working.
No one ever knew why.
She married your grandfather, came here...
...and I followed.
- And what was my father like? - He was always alone.
He always wanted to be the best, and he was.
He knew everything without training.
He was just like you.
Just as stubborn as you. No matter what people said, he did things his way.
It must run in the family.
The thing I never liked about him was his experimenting on animals.
I saw him pierce a frog in the head with a needle.
And then douse it in sulphuric acid just to see how it would react.
Sometimes he would sit alone on a bench for hours
and gaze out at the countryside.
In those moments, no one else existed for him.
- Look. - Look at what?
Don't you know how to observe?
They're gathering food to bring back to the ant hill.
It's funny, they're carrying things ten times their own weight.
They're incredibly strong. It would be like us carrying a truck.
They're very organised.
The larger ones over here are the fighters.
They protect the rest, and they'll fight to the death
- to protect the collective's labour. - They're intelligent.
Yes.
Look.
I want you to take me up there. I've never felt so light.
Maybe I'll make it up there some day all by myself.
- You know what Annie makes me do? - No.
I have to close my eyes and listen and tell her everything I hear.
But I never manage it. I'm too nervous.
- You want to try it with me? - Yes.
First, she tells me to relax my arm like this. Can you do it?
Lay down. That's right, like that.
I hear crickets chirping. One to my right and one farther away.
Relax.
I hear the wind in the trees and in the reeds.
And I can hear you sifting sand through your fingers.
There was a little animal running off. Did you see it?
No.
I feel good.
- Can I do that too? - Be careful, the sun is strong.
I know, I often undress by the river side.
I like to feel the water.
I can feel it caressing my neck, my chest, my stomach.
It's so nice.
Don't worry, it's just a spider, an insect, it suffers like you and me.
It'll bite me! It's ugly!
Since you don't know how to look at it, you compare it to yourself.
It's a being in its own right. Regardless of us, it will keep on going.
- Do you want to hold it? - No, throw it away. It's too ugly.
The only beautiful person on this earth is you.
Do you know why I'm happy?
Thanks to you, I'll never be alone and unhappy again.
I'm starting to even like people I used to loathe.
- Good morning. - You're already up?
I get up at six every day. At first I disliked it. Now it's become a habit.
I like to look at the countryside, in the morning, at sunrise.
- Will you take me up there? - At this time of day?
Yes, you promised.
Are you holding tight?
Are you alright? Happy?
Yes, but I wanted to go all the way up to the top!
- Right now? - Yes.
- Then I'll carry you. - Yes.
Come on, go on, upwards!
- Have you hurt yourself? - No, it's nothing, look.
- Are we going to continue? - I'm a bit knackered.
Come on, let's go.
Wait.
Watch out. If you fall, you'll die.
I feel so good.
The systematic massacre of the insurgents
by the authorities is continuing.
Eyewitnesses report thousands of deaths. Women and children are being tortured.
This afternoon, a 14-year-old boy, a shopkeeper's son from Évreux,
was found stabbed to death.
It's the third child murdered in the past month.
- Can I help you? - You can peel the potatoes.
Lucien, can you hand me a plate?
A little more flour.
I'm making this cake especially for you.
- Annie, did you see your brother? - He went to town to buy some stamps.
What are you doing so far from home, little Isabelle? You'll get in trouble.
What's wrong?
- She's pretty as can be. - Who?
The girl you were talking to. Do you know her?
A bit.
- I'm sure you've known her for a while. - Why?
- She laughed a lot with you. - That doesn't mean anything.
Only prostitutes act that way with boys.
- Isabelle, are you jealous? - No. I'm just concerned about you.
- What did you write down on that note? - Nothing!
You're lying. She had a Parisian licence plate.
She must love you to come visit you so far away. And you love her too!
Isabelle, stop pestering me!
Stop being so aggressive towards me. You've no right to be like that!
Why did you come here?
You still don't understand?
You don't see that I need you?
You make me act like a child sometimes.
Because you haven't managed to tie me down like the others.
Leave your sister with her pupils, that's all she's good for,
and come live with me!
- What about your father? - Ivan?
All he cares about is his painting. And anyhow, he's re-married now.
- Anyway, he always gives in. - Always?
Yes, because I'm the stronger one of us two.
- Because you never give in. - Shut up.
Isabelle!
Calm down!
What happened? Leave her alone, Pascal! Leave her!
- Pack up your things and leave now! - Not before tomorrow.
Get out of here, both of you!
- Take this, it'll make you sleep. - No.
- You need to rest. - No.
Don't you want me to help you?
Get out of here! I'm sick of you! Go away!
I hate you! I hate you all!
I never want to see you again, never again! Piss off!
You can try to hide everything away from me. I'll kill myself.
I'll kill myself anyhow.
I'll do it!
A goodbye kiss?
Leave, Pascal, that's enough, go!
"Music often takes me like a sea! Toward my star so pale,
under the mists of a vast canopy, I put out to sail."
"My chest heaves forward, my lungs fill like canvas in a gale,
I scale the backs of waves that swell below the night's veil."
"I feel the tremble in me of all passions a vessel suffers through."
"A storm and its convulsions, walls of endless blue rock me."
"At other times, it's flat, calm and immense, a mirror of my despair!"
Charles Baudelaire.
What is this text about?
Baudelaire describes how music affects him.
Through which comparisons?
He compares himself to a vessel violently seized by the sea.
Back up your opinion with examples.
"My chest heaves forward..." "I scale the backs of waves that swell..."
"I feel the tremble in me of all passions a vessel suffers through..."
If Baudelaire compares himself to a vessel, what does the sea signify?
I'm not sure...
Maybe, the sea represents the violent and obscure emotions
the music stirs and awakens in him.
How does he describe how music affects him?
He is physically deeply moved.
"My chest heaves forward, my lungs fill..."
He suffers, music evokes suffering in him.
He says,
"I feel the tremble in me of all passions a vessel suffers through."
What's bothering you?
First he says music awakens pain in him, he suffers,
then a bit later on he says,
"A storm and its convulsions, walls of endless blue rock me."
The word "rock" is central to the text.
So, I am to understand that the suffering that music invokes
may also alleviate him.
Hello, Bruno. Don't be scared, carry on playing.
Show me how to play your game.
Can't you sleep?
Why was I born like this?
What's the point of living, when you're the prisoner of a disabled body?
- We're all prisoners. - So why do we live?
I think that we all have our own unique destinies.
It's what saved you from drowning and what enables you to feel pain right now.
Is that also what made me be born this way?
- Perhaps to make you closer, freer. - Closer to what?
- You have to find that out yourself. - I like you, you know.
I brought this for you.
- Is it dangerous? - No.
- It's just a garden snake. - There's a little frog!
Thank you.
Lucien, I'll be back later on tonight. Prepare some food for me.
Alright, consider it done.
"Dominique Tallu, accomplished."
"Irène lmbert, Arnaud Engoulvent, Bruno Latuile,
Laure Elisabelle, Eliane Sauvin..."
There's a name that resembles my own.
- Hello. - Hello.
I've been looking for my little frog for two days and can't find him.
- That's easy, the snake ate him. - Ate him alive?
- Sure. - That's awful.
What's awful?
All these creatures that eat each other.
That's nature's law. It governs everything.
Come on.
Look at all these trees.
They grow because they live off sunlight.
Just like all the plants and leaves.
Leaves fall, they're eaten by insects,
the insects are the prey of frogs,
who are devoured by snakes,
and the snakes are devoured by hedgehogs or buzzards.
You can only see all that here
because nature is a self-balancing system.
The woods are beautiful.
But my frog being eaten alive, that's awful, don't you think?
You can't see what's behind it all. You have to identify with it.
The snake, the frog, they're nothing, like all of us.
Just small links in an orderly chain of life.
You don't find that order of things awful?
Awful. Unfair. In fact, these words are meaningless.
Happiness comes from pain, pain from happiness.
Death impels life as life does death. The same goes for good and evil.
You're tormenting yourself with this because, like all humans,
you identify with never-ending illusions that draw you into their clutches.
You have to learn to free yourself of those chains...
...to complete the tasks that God set out for you.
The world will appear to you in all its splendour.
How should I paint the countryside?
Just observe and attempt to simplify.
Can I paint patches of colours to represent the bushes?
Sure.
I never noticed how many diverse shades of green there are.
I never really looked at them before.
- Are you still going away? - I left you instructions on your table.
- Are you going away? - Yes.
- For a long time? - For a week or two.
That long? Why don't you stay with me?
The sun is too strong now, Miss, we have to return.
Just for a few seconds I felt the whole universe in my heart.
Look at the water floating over our heads.
It's too hot, we have to go back, or else you'll get sick, Miss!
I want to stay, it's so beautiful.
- Isabelle! - Yes?
Can you recite for me what you learned about the stars?
Fire away!
The sky is so vast, distances are measured in light years.
- How far away is the nearest star? - It's 4.5 light years away.
Child serial killer strikes again.
A new victim: Laure Elisabelle.
Laure Elisabelle was found stabbed like the previous four victims.
Investigators believe the serial killer spent many hours stalking his victims
before attacking them.
The police are searching the area for the slightest traces...
- Hello. Can I kiss you hello today? - No!
I want to go out with you. Why don't you want to?
- Don't get attached to me. - Why not?
If you go out with me, you'll fall in love with me.
You'll get attached and you'll end up suffering.
Why will I suffer?
I'll do anything for you, whatever you ask me to do.
Can you pass a test without asking any questions?
Anything you want.
- Can you go to the Police Commissioner? - Did you do something wrong?
Don't ask any questions!
I want to tell the police something without my parents finding out.
I'm not sure if it's important. Are you sure you'll go?
I'm sure. So come on, what is it?
Don't be afraid, you can trust me.
The other day I was watching the news on TV.
You watch the news? That interests you?
My granddad will be dead soon, so he's living with us.
You can imagine what the evenings are like.
- Stop interrupting me with questions! - Sorry.
So listen, the other day on TV,
I recognised that girl who was murdered, Laure Elisabelle.
- Did you know her? - I just met her once.
And the boy Bruno who was killed before her, I knew him too.
How did you know him?
A while ago, my parents and I spent a weekend in a village,
and there was a party.
- And? - That's how I met those girls and boys.
- So, go on... - We were fooling around.
- What kind of fooling around? - It's not what you're thinking!
So, what did you get up to?
We saw a house, broke into it and trashed some stuff.
The owner showed up,
took a photo of us and then inquired about us.
You don't want me to clean your room?
- No, and no one should enter it. - Very well.
LAURE ELISABELLE... ACCOMPLISHED
- Why? - Because it all has to be accomplished.
You didn't really kill innocent children, did you?
No one is innocent. Remember that. We're all just links in the chain.
The world is full of signs.
Silent to the ignorant, the incapable, the fools.
Yet, clear indications to those who know how to interpret them.
I learned how to interpret them in the silence of my laboratory.
I know, and that's why I am greater.
Where did you take the photos?
At my laboratory in Vilaine.
You're weren't working at Pasteur any more?
Everyone was spying on me.
Marchant, my boss, who was secretly jealous of me,
my colleagues, people from the government.
I was living in a universe where everyone was spying on me.
Why would they spy on you?
Because the Lord destined me to bring the secret of life to the world.
- What do the kids have to do with it? - Those kids?
I walked in on them one afternoon, wrecking my laboratory,
burning my papers...
They ruined everything!
First, I thought it was a coup designed by my boss, by a jealous rival.
Or maybe by the government. But that wasn't the case.
God has always guided me, guided my thoughts, my work.
He intervened in my destiny to rectify my errors.
He placed another man along the path of my wife.
And above all, you...
My most grave mistake.
You could have been in my way for a long time...
But he made you disabled...
...so I would put you in a convent school.
So why would the Lord also place those kids along my path?
- By chance. - Chance does not exist!
I searched and I searched for days and finally I understood.
Understood what?
Go to the bulletin board.
Write down the six names.
Don't you see?
Write down the first letters of the first names and the surnames.
- Now read them out loud. - "Devil, kill them."
Do you understand now?
It's a message. Those kids were sent by the devil to foil God's work.
I still have one to go.
You're crazy.
That's what the ignorant ones believe.
But I know.
If God hadn't wanted me to do it, he would have stopped me.
You're blind, just like all the others.
I hope one day you'll see.
Please don't do it!
Don't make me add a true innocent to the list.
Lucien! Annie!
I'll be back in 36 hours. She's to remain locked up until then.
Don't listen to her. Leave her all by herself.
Do what my father tells you to do.
- What's going on? - Carry on with your work.
You're leaving now? You'll never come back.
God, please stop him, please forgive him.
Go buy some bread. Here's some money.
Eliane?
Is this the place?
You stay here! Alright, let's go!
- Which way? - Over there.
- Good afternoon. - Good day.
Does a girl live here by the name of... Eliane?
Yes. She just went downstairs.
- Did you see her? - No, I would have told you.
- What's going on here? - We're going down.
You search the building, you phone for back-up.
My God...
What have I done?