I dedicate this film to Henri Langlois
Oh, Mother, why did you desert me?
Oh, how I hate this place!
No, I will not.
All strange and terrible events are welcome, but comforts we despise.
Our size of sorrow, proportioned to our cause,
must be as great as that which makes it.
Lord, how tedious it is here.
I hate this country and its people, why did I ever have to come?
I want to go to Rome!
No, I will not.
All strange and terrible events are welcome, but comforts we despise.
Our size of sorrow, proportioned to our cause,
must be as great as that which makes it.
As great as that which makes it.
Mother!
Not now, Eleonor, I'm trying to work. Go play the piano, we'll be going soon.
No, I will not.
All strange and terrible events are welcome, but comforts we despise.
Our size of sorrow, proportioned to our cause,
must be as great as that which makes it.
I want to go to Rome. I am going to Rome.
Rome?
What are you reciting now, Shakespeare again?
Yes, Cleopatra.
I thought you'd given up any idea that you had any histrionic
ability left. I thought you'd given up that idea several years ago.
- You... - Must we go through it every day?
You wouldn't understand. You're a businessman, I am an artist.
In my world, you would be a nothing!
Perhaps someone to be thanked for putting up the money for a production,
but you would be a nothing.
Amelia, my dear...
As you are nothing to me now.
I'm going to London again in two weeks' time.
You will please make the usual arrangements about the house
while I'm away and see that Eleanor's tutors conduct their lessons properly.
I am going to Rome. Eleanor is going to a convent.
You become more and more ridiculous from day to day...
It's not ridiculous, we're going just as sure as you are going to London.
All the arrangements have been made.
How can you even entertain an idea of putting a child
of six in a convent, let alone take that idea seriously?
Edward, I am going to Rome,
you are going to London, and Eleanor is going to a convent.
There is nothing more to be discussed.
- I forbid it! - Try to stop me.
I want you here.
Have you ever wanted me at all?
Have I ever wanted you at all?
Why, I've always wanted you. And I want you here now.
Don't you believe that?
Eleanor...
Play something for me.
You will find there's no music in a convent.
How good this light fits here.
I don't understand how you can't appreciate it as I do.
Listen to her play.
She plays better than I ever could.
And she speaks Portuguese better than I ever will.
She's only six. Why, this is home to her!
I've come to think of it as home too.
And I cannot understand why you do not think of it as home as well!
Every morning when I wake up,
I look out of the window and I think of Byron's lines.
Oh, this Glorious Eden.
Why, some of the trees in this garden must be 200 years old.
Some of the oldest in Iberia.
And I cannot make you see...
That it has any importance to me.
Why, there's nowhere else in Europe that's better for doing business
than at the moment in Portugal.
You make me despise everything I've got here.
You make me think of myself.
And yet...
I feel I belong here.
What else could I want?
Come, Eleonor. We're ready.
Good evening
May we come in?
Enter, brethren, into God's house.
Don't be afraid.
Come, we like children around here.
What is this ridiculous place you've found for our daughter?
Why, look at those absurd statues.
Anyone would think this was a mortuary, that's no place for Eleonor.
Come this way, be careful not to fall.
Our brethren... Our brethren love to have play.
- They really do. - Hi, little girl.
Are you going to stay here with us, little one? Come along.
Are you?
- Here, look at this boat... - I beg you to reconsider your decision.
It is all thoughtful, Edward.
Eleonor will stay here while you and I go separate ways.
Oh, separate ways?
You're thinking of leaving me for good now, are you?
Well, you go off to Rome, you stay by yourself in Rome,
you enjoy yourself in Rome, and think of the child that you're leaving behind you.
What am I to look after a child? She needs a mother, and you send her up here.
I admit, the place is attractive.
It is pretty in summer, it might even be
beautiful as the rest of Portugal is beautiful.
But is it right to leave a child here?
Here with these old monks who don't know how
to look after children, let alone how to live.
Can you expect them to look after Eleanor?
Edward, there are other children here, they know how to look after children.
They don't know how to look after children, those
other children are here because they're orphans!
They've come from Lisbon, they've come from the countryside,
their parents don't want them, we want Eleonor, at least I do.
And if you don't, then you can stay in Rome for all I care.
I just might stay in Rome!
Then let's see how you would get on without me.
I'd manage. I'd manage perfectly well.
I would manage in the same way that I managed before I married you.
You couldn't manage without me if you tried.
I'm everything to you, Edward, and you know it.
You wouldn't go further than the end of the road without me.
If it hadn't been for me, you would still be in London.
You would still be in your sordid little music halls.
where I found you, where I rescued you from, you and your mother.
You leave my mother out of this!
I can scarcely leave her out of it since it was I who brought her
from the same sordid little rooms that you were living in.
How can you tell me that...
How despicable can you be? You leave my mother alone!
Your mother wasn't better than a whore!
A prostitute, scarcely better than anything I might find anywhere in London.
And you know it!
And you would have gone the same way if it hadn't been for me.
If it hadn't been for my hard work, if it hadn't...
???
...because I loved you.
Money, money, money, that's all you ever think about!
I was the talk of London before you came on the scene, I had the scene at my feet.
Do you see that? Look, the boat has come near us.
We should play much more with the boat, alright?
Whenever we come here, we are to play with the boat a little every morning.
And the other girls will come to play too.
You know, when I was your age, I wanted to be a sailor.
And now I'm here, but let's play with the boat.
You’ll see, you’ll really like being here.
You’re going to love it.
We have lots of flowers...
And then we can even put some on the boat.
In a year, flowers will be put on the boat, but you’ll only do it with me.
You’ll only do it with me, not with the other brothers,
they don’t want to. Only with me, right? Okay?
Let’s go out on the boat, the two of us.
If the little boat were bigger, we could go on a trip together.
Aren’t you from England? No?
We’d take the boat, just the two of us, far away.
We should take the little boat out and put flowers on it.
Then you can play with it, but you have to be really careful, very, very careful.
It's a really beautiful boat.
You will really like being here with us.
You will play with all the girls,
you will play with me, with the other brothers...
Yes, you'll like being here.
And this boat is... You'll love it, won't you?
Yes, you will. Come with me.
There... Look! Right over there!
Blow it, come on.
Yes, blow it.
Keep going, blow!
Come, come.
See?
Be careful, it's an old boat.
- Do you want a piece of meat? - No.
What about you, want a piece of meat? And you?
- Here, brother. - Thank you.
- Brother, would you like some meat? - I'll pass.
- Would you like some water? - Yes.
All you do is eat and drink...
You don’t seem to care about anything else.
Brother...
You know what I mean.
Eat and drink, eat and drink...
Only the pleasures of the table concern you.
Brother, you should eat too.
Our Lord has provided this food for us.
We must eat it with a grateful and joyful heart.
But you do exaggerate.
You can’t think of anything else.
As if you had become dull of heart.
You seem very unsettled, brother.
I am, indeed.
Have you been praying, brother?
You know that as much as I pray, it wouldn’t make a difference.
Go on, keep eating as if nothing were wrong.
You will end up like our brother who cannot leave his cell.
Do you know the story of our brother who cannot leave his cell?
Listen...
There was a brother who ate and ate...
Until he fell ill and was sent to his cell.
And there, he ate every single day.
And he kept eating. A lot.
You know how small the doors to our cells are, don’t you?
They’re so small that even you can barely get through, only with great effort.
And he kept growing... bigger
and bigger. He became fat, very fat.
And he was never able to leave again.
How can you just sit there, eating so calmly?
- What’s wrong, brother? - One of our brothers is missing.
Our brother went wherever he had to go, the Lord knows where he is.
(inaudible)
He went away, but he’ll return. By tomorrow, he’ll be with us again.
I don’t know that for certain.
And now, this evil force I feel... It’s gripping me...
Taking over me...
We live in peace and harmony.
But there’s something alien... I can feel it taking hold of me.
These evil forces are taking over me.
Brother, how could evil be among us?
Look at those trees.
Those trees were created by the Lord, they're goodness.
The Lord is among us. Evil does not exist, brother.
But I feel it.
Have you forgotten what happened in this house?
Look! What I feared has come true.
Our brother has vanished from the painting.
I saw something! I saw the friar the brothers were talking about just now.
He stopped... A little angel... With wet little arms...
Well then, my child. Are you lost?
I can't sleep.
Have you been baptized?
Come with me, and I shall give you the true baptism.
You'll be dressed as an angel.
So beautiful...
You look so beautiful.
Just like an angel.
Sit down.
You shall come to know a new world.
Come with me.
Now that you have become an angel, I can baptize you.
Go, my child! Dive in, and you shall know eternal life!
Mother!
Give one more piece of bread, today is All Saints’ day.
By the grace of the Holy Mother, it all ended well.
This film received financial support from the Portuguese Film Institute.
We thank the Directorate-General for Forest Planning and Management for their collaboration.