Hovering Over The Water
Director, producer,
writer and screenplayer
If I had my own way,
I would add nothing to it.
Not even bacon.
It's fat as it is.
I would put it into the oven
right away, serve it almost plain.
A pinch of salt,
I won't say no,
a trickle of the best olive oil,
a spring of parsley...
And that's all, Amelia.
Too seasoning
will spoil its sea taste.
As to the rest,
the fire is the master.
Have no illusions.
This one's not meant for you.
Go find yourself a she-cat.
New York Herald Tribune.
Come in.
- I brought you the newspapers.
- Leave them on the chair.
Wouldn't a bit of fresh air
do you good?
I don't see the good it would do
but you can open the window.
Blasted light!
I thought I'd find
my happiness in you.
How's the world?
It might be a good idea
to ask senhora Amelia to tidy it up.
The bird who fouls his own nest
can't be a good one.
Besides, senhora Amelia
has other things to do.
Baked snook for dinner.
A good snook does
deserve a tidy room.
My God: when You created the world
You knew very well where to start...
- I'll help you.
- I still can do what's to be done.
Bring me some flowers,
if you remember.
No. Don't.
If I'll pluck up some courage,
I'll go for a walk through the fields.
Carlos invited us
for a trip on his boat.
- Would you like to come along?
- Just like that...
- Can I give an answer after dinner?
- You can.
- Turn your head a little bit.
- What for?
You've got an oil spot on it,
little sister.
It must have been the bycicle chain.
I'm so sweaty!
I'm going to take a bath.
I've still got salt on my body.
Silvestre, my fool, my cat:
have you never seen
a naked girl washing herself?
And if you were a charmed prince?
I would blush with shame,
hide from you.
Do you think I'm beautiful?
Is it because the sun
tinted my skin with gold?
Because my mouth is like a fruit that
seems to be always offering itself?
I made myself beautiful
for your sake
and, in the reflexes in your
cat's eyes, I fell happy.
Do you know what this is?
It's a black fig
that isn't black but blue
and pink inside
and from it trickles a honey tear.
Did you call aunt Sara?
Yes, we did.
It makes one's mouth water.
It looks magnificent.
I congratulate you for it.
When the fish is good
it gives you almost no trouble.
Are you sure you don't want to stay
for dinner, senhora Amelia?
I'll taste a bit tomorrow.
I'd rather go home now to cook
dinner for my son, who's waiting,
if you don't need me anymore.
- No, you can go.
Is Sara coming down?
I thing so,
but one never knows.
I think we'd better start.
Could it be the fuses?
It seems one of Sara's jokes to me.
It's not Sara: it's Callas.
I bet aunt Sara
will appear in a disguise.
In what disguise?
Disguised as Norma?
What about that famous snook?
I'm starving.
What's the idea of going around
barefooted?
Shouldn't you be in bed?
Maria asks if aunt Sara is really
coming on the boat trip tomorrow.
Aunt Sara has already said yes.
Mama said yes, Maria said yes,
senhora Amelia already said yes.
Everybody said yes.
Does Maria need carrier-pigeons now?
Maria is a girl and mother knows
quite well that a girl is a girl.
Now that the message is delivered,
you can go back to bed.
And I don't want to see you
here barefooted again.
They go past us,
untouched by what
we project upon them.
It is new life affirming itself
regardless of our own life.
We get frightened by the smallest
trifle, we loose countless nights,
we consume ourselves
so that they grow.
You're the only serene mother I know.
Last night I had a dream:
a big coloured tropical bird
peeped in a heartbreaking way
while it discribed crazy circles
around the house.
Suddenly, it changed its course
and began to flutter,
the enormous wings wide-spread,
in front of the window of my room.
The peeping grew more horrible
and piercing every minute.
All of a sudden,
it vanished.
It seemed to have gone away
and then there it was,
charging against the windowpane.
And at each charge,
the blood sprinkles
spread over the glass panes
and the light gradually went out
inside the room
till complete darkness.
At last,
the thousand-coloured feathers
exploded in the sky
like fireworks.
It reminds one of a virgin's dream.
It reminds what it reminds.
You look stunning!
Fat, girlish moon...
- Are you going to some party?
- I'm going for a ride with Carlos.
- Ah! The sailor...
- Not a sailor, he's just rich.
I must go now.
Don't go to bed late.
I haven't talked much with Rosa.
To be honest,
I haven't talked much with anyone,
except with Antoine,
but that's another thing.
Damned kid:
Rosa, Rosarum.
Yesterday I was changing her diapers
and soon she'll come up pregnant.
Rest in peace, little mother.
Your Rosa has more sense
than both of us together.
I don't believe she's in love.
It's comforting but not enough
to appease one's consciense,
a true burgeoise conscience.
I do hope not.
What's so funny?
Nothing.
Do you remember
the first time you met Virglio?
It was in Florence.
Those things can't be forgotten.
You waited until I had
finished giving a lesson
and you came to ask me
I don't know what.
"His was an eagerness to live;
no more the eargerness to love".
It's a passage
from "Amor de Perdio"
that still fascinates
and troubles me.
You can't strike a match twice.
I believe Simo only wanted soup
and rest by then.
We left college together,
remember?
I'm doing my best to forget it.
We strolled for hours on end
along the Arno...
It's a muddy river in spring time.
It was hot,
the kids bathed in the river,
the Easter holidays
were at the door,
and I talked and talked...
You listened,
your eyes wide open...
I sometimes
opened my eyes wide...
Suddenly, I felt you gripping my arm
with all your strength.
You turned pale
and started trembling.
It was Virglio,
the one over there
crossing the bridge to meet us.
You had spoken so much about him
that I felt like knowing him already.
I was immediately aware
there you were in love.
Some years have past since...
How will it be with Rosa?
It's strange her not beeing in love.
At her age...
It will be different.
Let's wait and see.
I'm going to bed.
Are you coming tomorrow with us?
No, but I'll drop you at Tavira.
I might go for a ride afterwards.
Without destination.
There were several shots,
fired upon a leader of PLO,
here for the Socialist Congress.
Sartawi lies dead on the ground,
we think he died instantaneously.
His assistant was also shot
and is now on his way
to the hospital in Albufeira.
He was first attended here,
at the hotel
and then was taken by ambulance
to the hospital.
The sniper managed to escape
and the hotel is packed
with police agents.
We don't understand
how he managed to escape,
with so much police around.
Issam Sartawi
was shot at the main lobby,
down by the entrance
of the hotel at Montechoro.
The man came from the hotel
and shot several times.
Issam Sartawi
fell immediatly to the ground...
They started work very early,
the untiring crime workers.
It's horrible to die
on an empty stomach.
Those who are sentenced to death
know it well:
a coffee and a cigarette.
Human life, after all,
conforming to small vices...
I must take you to a hospital.
The wound looks bad
and ought to be disinfected.
I'm coming, I'm coming...
Just a second.
I drew the bolt because I'm afraid
of being here alone.
If you want, you may leave earlier,
senhora Amelia. I don't need you.
Do you now when the ladies and the
children will come back from the sea?
I suppose tomorrow or the day after...
I don't know for sure.
The house is as clean as can be
and if you really can do
without my help,
I might use the occasion
for going to the doctor.
Not that I need it,
thank God I never did.
It's my son who's drinking heavily
and they told me to take him
to a doctor for the brain.
I'm sorry to know that.
If I can help you in some way,
please don't hesitate to ask.
God bless you, my lady.
Oh! It's you.
You scared me...
I called time and again
and nobody answered.
Hello, Antoine.
Sara is not here.
She isn't?
On second thoughts,
I'm really almost relieved
not to have found her.
With Sara
I always get the feeling
I'm one too many.
Or not too short.
Sometimes I fell
like I never calling on her again...
Do you remember the time
she sent me a telegram
asking me to join her in Florence?
"I love you. Come."
No, no...
"Come. I love you."
At first,
I thought it was a joke.
It couldn't be.
After all, Sara is not in the habit
of joking with that sort of things...
I didn't even
have the time to change.
When I arrived in Florence
it was bitter cold
and it rained cats and dogs.
I rang the bell at her place,
drenched to the bones and shivering.
She looked at me from head to foot.
I was immediately aware
that she was furious.
She looked lovely thus.
I only wished the earth
would swallow me on the spot
but the only thing I did
was to take the telegram
out of the pocket
and show it to her.
She smiled
and said: "Ah!"
"I can offer you
a grappa and a towel."
"I'm sorry but I worked late
and I'm going to resume sleeping."
"We'll meet for lunch
at the Piazza della Signoria,"
"if you want."
She gave the name of a cafe,
the Rivoire,
and turned her back on me.
She was willing to marry you.
But what made her
change her mind?
What makes people change their minds
if they ever do change them?
Who knows?
If there had been another man...
There have been other man...
All right,
but I don't believe she loved them.
I don't believe she loved me.
Sara loved only one man:
Virglio, her brother.
It's not by chance
he was the only guy
I was truly jealous of.
Also of you, in a way.
Of me?
It was dreadful
when we went to Arezzo
to look at Piero della Francesca,
the Leggenda della Uera Croce.
Which cross?
I constantly asked myself.
Mine or Piero della Francesca's?
For both of you
it was as if I didn't even exist.
After a while
I couldn't see clearly any longer.
Virglio irrupted
from every recess of the frescoes
as a more and more intense
and bright volume.
I could never stand that...
...Piero della Francesca.
You're being unfair.
I was very much in love
with Virglio
and everything spun around us...
I'm jealous of everything,
that's the truth.
I don't know.
After all...
a guy tries to find,
by fair means or foul,
is excuses for his mistakes.
It might be a mistake
to think one failed
because things don't happen
as one has desired.
Maybe the blame we insist
on laying upon ourselves
should simply be laid on the rain.
On the rain?
Maybe your story
would have had another outcome
if, on that very day,
it hadn't rained in Florence.
Do you believe such nonsense?
What has the rain
got to do with our story?
Probably nothing but let me believe
that kind of nonsense.
It's undeniable
that Sara grew up
worshipping her heroe,
Virglio.
It took me some time to grasp that.
Strangely enough,
the jealousy only came up later.
More or less about the time
Maria was born,
but mothers are very powerful.
But that's another story.
What one must keep in mind
is that Sara's love for Virglio,
let's call it so,
was fully returned.
She knew herself loved by God.
That fervour filled her heart
and the men who approached her
got scared,
trembled with fear.
Instead of offering her their human
love they turned into rivals of God.
It's stupid to be jealous of God.
When you left Florence,
Sara cried her eyes out.
Maybe a drinking bout
helped her get over it,
or maybe not.
There's nothing we can do now,
is there?
No.
There's nothing one can do now.
Okay.
Tell her...
I came by
and will do so again
one of these days,
as usual.
Do you want me
to drop you somewhere?
We aren't going the same way.
Be careful. I hope you won't
come across Sartawi's killer.
If I'll come across him
I'll tell him that I've got a friend
who was an anti-fascist
and has severely criticized
the security system set up
by the Portuguese authorities;
or I'll simply say
that he commited
a disgustingly coward crime,
certainly in the pay of the Sionists.
Did I say it right?
You're not far from the truth
but one can add
a more personal touch
to ready-made sentences.
Anyway, you probably
won't come across him.
I suppose he has already
been caught.
How silly of me. I always forget
to switch off the headlights.
Good evening.
Documents, please...
Please, show me that bag.
Open it.
This one here?
Take it out.
The keys to the trunk,
please.
Here you go.
Your documents.
Thank you.
You may go on.
Good night.
The trousers are somewhat short.
No, I'm italian.
From Alta Valle del Tevere.
Borgo Sansepolcro,
provincia di Arezzo,
Toscania.
Excuse me...
Do you know where I can find
the Divine Comedy at this late hour?
Arriving at Portimo
you'll see a bridge.
You don't cross it.
You turn immediately to the right.
You drive some hundred yards
and you'll come upon a confectionery.
The Dom Rodrigos are good,
specially if you've ordered them.
Right beside it,
is a bookshop
where you'll be able
to find the Divine Comedy.
Up to now, we weren't instructed
to put translators into jail
and it's a pity.
I've got a son called Dante.
Mine is called Roberto
but he's still too young
to read Dante.
- Have a nice trip.
- Thank you. Good night.
- Enjoy your reading.
- Thank you.
Does it hurt?
Maria is the eldest.
Roberto, the youngest,
wails like a cat!
There!
It's done.
Let me see...
It looks great!
But very seldom,
once every century.
Excuse me.
But you're dead!
Exuberant sudden explosions
of pure colored matter.
This one is the king of fishes
that Carlos caught.
It's not the king of fishes.
The king of fishes is the shark.
This is the king of fishes.
This is aunt Rosa
on the bottom of the sea.
She holds a fish in her hand
and is feeding it to Silvestre.
This is aunt Sara
vomiting into the sea.
She got sick
with the rocking of the boat.
This is Maria making a face.
This is sailor Robert Rossellini
peering through a spyglass.
And what does the sailor
Roberto Rossellini see?
He sees mother.
What a liar!
Yesterday it was the treasure island,
today it's mother!
It's mother.
Mother is the treasure island.
Maria wrote a logbook.
She doesn't let anyone read it.
It's secret.
Is it true, Maria?
I'm ashamed, mother.
If you don't want us to read it,
no one will.
And won't aunt Sara
be angry with me?
Ask her.
Sara, will you be angry
if you don't read her logbook?
No, my dear.
I like to read what you write
but nobody will be angry at you.
And aunt Rosa?
Aunt Rosa never gets angry.
She has a good nature.
No, love, I won't get angry.
I know why Maria
doesn't want to show it.
It's not because of that!
Don't be stupid!
Yes, it is.
You're the stupid one.
Children...
Is my son a sissy now?
I'm not a sissy but I also
saw the man under the bedshet.
She wasn't the only one.
Aunt Rosa didn't let you look at him.
I saw the ambulance with the siren
wailing and the people around.
And I saw the man's feet.
What are you talking about?
- It was the black pirate.
- It wasn't the black pirate.
It was the black pirate
and he was dead.
It was daddy.
My daddy!
Get out at once
and apologize to your sister.
And you won't repeat
that kind of nonsense again.
They got too much sunshine.
What's that story about?
From what we gathered,
and it wasn't much,
it looks like an ordinary smuggling
story with some shooting in between.
The navy seems to have intercepted,
somewhere, a mysterious ship.
Not exactly the phantom ship but
there wasn't a living soul on board;
the deck was scattered all over
with bullet-riden corpses.
When did that happen?
Yesterday or the day before.
I don't know for sure.
So the boat was towed to Tavira's dock
to the tourists
and other on-lookers delight
and handed over
to the coast authorities
who immediately sealed the cargo,
feeling at a loss as
for what to do with the corpses.
At last the police arrived
and is now proceeding
with enquiries.
They say that in the meanwhile
the corpses roasted for hours on end
under the sun.
Their removal took place,
unfortunately,
at the precise moment
of our arrival.
And that's all.
As you know,
I don't believe much is won
from hiding from children
the biological fact called death.
But after Sartawi's murder, which they
scrupulously listened on the radio,
I suppose it was
an overdose of murder...
I'm worried about Maria.
She's a half-orphan
and will have to live with it.
It's not serious.
There are plenty of fathers around.
Are there?
No.
There aren't,
but it's up to you to switch off the
lights upon the stage of the drama.
She'll get over it
after a good night's sleep.
Do you suppose
there's some sort if connection
between that story about the ship
and Sartawi's death?
I don't see any but we could skim
through the evening newspapers.
I was precisely going to suggest
that we dined out.
My head is swimming
but it seems an excellent idea.
Did you get sick aboard?
Mal de mer.
I get seasick since I was a kid.
Long ago, when one still
travelled by ship to Azores,
it was usual to see an enormous
line of passengers leaning overboard.
One wouldn't know if they were sick
with the rocking of the ship
or with the neighbour's vomit.
"Load overboard", yelled always
an imbecile enjoying the show.
Search the house!
That's how you got your eyes into that
condition. Search behind the books!
We don't like to harass
women and children.
We don't speak Spanish.
Galician-Portuguese resistance.
If you behave,
nothing will happen to you.
Stop it.
Damned!
Stupid yourself.
And ugly. And bad.
My vase!
Nothing, chief.
Keep on searching!
You're completely fucked!
Aren't you old enough to have grown
some sense in that head of yours?
I can't control myself, madam.
Where is Laura?
For some moments I was afraid
of seeing a werewolf come forth.
He's not a werewolf.
Here they are.
Have they left already?
Yes. Where is Rosa?
She's repairing the damage.
Everything is in a chaos.
They opened drawers,
cupboards,
browsed among papers,
scattered clothes everywhere,
with a special liking
for the so-called underwear...
No traces of ill-treatment
were detected,
which is already more
than one could hope for...
The Chief was strict
with regard to that...
And we had Roberto to protect us.
I must tell you your children
didn't waste a second.
As soon as that idiot Stavroguine
turned his back on us,
they set to work.
I'm proud of these children.
What has changed is that,
in days past,
they came at dawn
and caught people half-asleep,
trembling with fear.
Your children
weren't educated in fear...
There's more here.
And that's what makes them
somewhat strange,
almost detached,
undoubtedly fascinating.
Will it be the future tense
of our present?
I'll find out what happened.
There's no need
for all of us to go prying about.
What could have been?
It was the bogey exploding.
- Mother went to check.
- I'll look for her.
Back to work.
Mother and aunt Rosa went to check
and will tell us everything about it.
That did it to our lovely dinner.
After these emotions
we'll have to do
with some scrambled eggs.
Where can Antoine,
who's never around when needed, be?
There's more here, aunt.
That's enough for today.
We'll stop at Virgilio.
I was worried about you.
Is it them?
I think so.
But it's a madman tale, Laura.
I must catch some fresh air.
It's after ten and I don't know
where to go to catch some fresh air.
We could go to the seashore.
I've had my fill of sea.
Another spoon full of sugar
if you don't mind.
Where can Antoine be? One can't
get hold of him at this hour.
I forgot to tell you: he came by
yesterday, looking for you.
He didn't leave an address
but he said he would come again.
He always does.
Particularly
when I don't feel like it.
Returning to the subject:
first, there's an PLO leader
who is shot down...
The killer has been caught.
The presumable, Laura.
The presumable.
It wasn't a isolated action.
There was premeditation
and an efficiency
that presupposes complicities.
It's all together canonical:
shooting down the bodyguard
before the target.
It's in the books.
It is not an amateur's job but one
of people who learned how to kill.
Roberto had nothing to do with it.
Robert, I've grasped it,
has nothing to do with anything.
The sea brought him by chance
and, in your head, be might as
well be Ulisses, back to Itaca.
And is he not?
That's what I was trying to tell you:
of course he is.
He's called Robert Jordan
and came straight out of one
of Hemingway's novels,
as if it still was possible
to come straight
out of one of Hemingway's novels.
I would prefer him
to be called Robert Schumann
and to have come ashore
carrying a piano on his back,
but I'm probably just trying to bring
grist to my mill:
in case he disappeared
he would always have left
some musical traces behind.
You're being very sceptical.
I would be very much more so
if I were the mother of two children.
What would you have done
in my place?
Do I have to answer now?
Besides,
what have I been talking for?
The walls of this fortress
can't detain the invaders greed,
the door is frank and welcoming
for whoever appears:
"Welcome whoever it is".
Remind me to have it placed
at the doorway.
What am I complaining about?
Maybe about the days
that make us old, and nothing else.
Could you lend me the car's keys?
I insist upon fresh air.
I'll go along
if Rosa doesn't mind
to stay alone with the children.
Fear has already found
better company:
it won't leave us
for times to come.
They are ashamed of the light.
You must do as aunt Rosa told you
and wait for them.
Bat, Bat, come down
to the cane greased with tallow...
There's no need for such yelling.
You'll scare off the bats.
They won't come
if you don't ask gently.
Bat, bat, come down to the cane
greased with tallow.
That's it. Keep asking.
I'll be right back.
We went all the way round the house
and we didn't see a single bat...
Angelus.
Angelus.
It's the prayer of Annunciation
and I'm not fond of Millet.
It's also the name of a boat,
of the boat arrested at Tavira.
It says so in the newspaper.
Would you mind summing up?
"Angelus entered the Port of Lisbon
more or less one month ago"
"under Holland's colour."
"Ownership was registered
in the name of a Greek citizen,"
"Mr. Odysseus Onassis,"
"now suspected to be false."
"The crew consisted
of four individuals"
"whose identities
have not been confirmed,"
"it being strongly suspected
that they too are false."
"The names of the crew members
follow."
Names? What names?
Nothing particularly far-fetched.
They are familiar names
that seem to have been picked up in
the Tales of Thousand and One Nights.
"Angelus was moored
in the Quay of Bom Sucesso"
"where it supposedly
underwent a cleaning of the hull"
"and received a cargo
of pharmaceutical products"
"from a company now known
never to have existed."
A variant of the miracle
of the roses follows.
"An inspection of the ship's hold,"
"revealed inside the boxes,"
"- Io and behold! - "
"neatly wrapped up in sackcloth,"
"a real arsenal of war weapons."
"Angelus left the Port of Lisbon
bound for Beyrut"
"and was intercepted
off Algarve's coast"
"by a corvette
of the Portuguese Navy."
"Aboard were found
three male corpses"
"riddled with bullets"
"and traces testifying that a violent
armed confrontation had taken place."
"The police presumes it to be
the settling of a quarrel"
"among traffickers in arms"
"and proceeds with enquiries,"
"and so on..."
So what?
Nothing.
We are thinking about the same.
I'm not thinking about anything.
Where on hell could the fourth member
of the crew be hiding?
Is he drifting on open sea
or, on the contrary,
did he find shelter and help
on firm ground?
Isn't this
the subject of our thoughts?
I'm not thinking about that;
I'm worried about Robert.
Won't you understand the difference?
I don't recall
having pronounced that name.
You don't have to.
- Your logic is that of the police.
- Not only, Laura.
It's also that of the public
and, probably, that of the visitors
who called this afternoon too.
What does it matter?
I would like to see Rosa
and your children away from this mess.
That's all I ask for
and I suppose I'm not asking too much.
Again I ask you: what would
you have done in my place?
Again I won't answer you: it's the
only way to assure my own freedom.
We didn't speak with one another
for too long, Sara.
And yet, I loved you all.
I'm not guilty...
Of what?
- Of nothing.
- Tell me!
Of Virgllio's death?
I want to live and not wrapped up
in your bloody dreams.
One can't go back to fascism
and start afresh once more.
Shit! Bloody shit!
I can't bear it anymore.
What do you do?
He says that he travels
and has got a boat.
Like Sindbad's?
How was Sindbad's boat like?
It turned into a big bird
and flew wherever he wanted to fly.
Uncle Robert says
that his boat is like Sindbad's.
We travelled aboard the boat
of Rosa's boytriend yesterday.
- He's not my boytriend.
- Yes he is, aunt Rosa.
Get to sleep!
Ask Robert if he'll let us
travel aboard his boat, aunt Rosa.
He's going to make a very dangerous
trip and you children can't go along
but he'll take us all with him
when he comes back.
Is uncle Robert
going to kill the black pirate?
He is.
And does he promise to take us
with him through the Seven Seas?
And will you bring me
a little monkey?
And a parrot!
To keep company to Maria Callas.
He'll bring you whatever you wish
if you go to sleep at once.
I'm already sleeping!
What's this?
Uncle Robert was going after
a very fast fish
and hit his head against a ship
lying on the bottom of the sea.
Was uncle Robert born in the sea?
Uncle Robert
was born in an apple tree.
No one is born on apple trees;
only apples.
It's a long story.
- I'm listening to everything.
- Tell us!
Roma, open city!
El Lobo.
Leave everything,
I'll clean up later.
Everything is ready.
Robert sleeps in my room,
and I sleep with the kids.
Sleep well.
Naughty but nice.
It's the hard business of living.
- I want a bilberry ice!
- There aren't any.
Then...
I want a cup with chocolate
and coffee icecream.
Have you got blackberry icecream?
Only strawberry, chocolate, vanilla,
cream, almond and marashino.
Then...
I want mint.
A mineral water with sprinkles
and a small coffee.
Where are the children?
Mother:
this icecream isn't good.
Don't eat it.
Why do you eat it
if you don't like it?
Why are there never
bilberry icecream?
Mother,
when can we go into the water?
You can go right away
but don't swim out of your depth.
- Not even with uncle Robert?
- Can we have icecream?
No icecream.
There's cool lemonade in the bag.
Don't stay for too long under the sun.
I'm going to fly!
Aren't you coming to the beach?
I don't think so.
These much too perfect days
are inclement.
I prefer the comfort of this peace.
Beautiful,
the image of the children playing:
Maria and Robertino;
of Rosa bathing herself...
Is she?
Not now.
She seems to be telling something
to the children.
Beautiful too, the bearing
of a man who walks on the sand...
He isn't walking.
Each one of them
has a movement of his own;
and yet something joins them
and confounds them
with the movement of the light itself,
this animal light
which quivers and vibrates
like the wings of a cicada.
I don't even have to see them.
I have just been looking
through the binoculars.
I brought them close.
The image I keep of them
is an image of happiness.
I have not great doubts about it.
If they question me...
Ah, if they question me,
I'll be perfectly willing to deny
the nature of that image:
it's intolerable
in the present times.
I brought some red wine...
It's very good.
Maria wants a starfish.
I don't want to remember you.
All my days are memories of ghosts.
There's never
anything to drink in this house.
If it isn't eaten right away
it will loose the zest.
Dinner is served!
You children eat right here.
The fish-stew has lots of pepper in it
and isn't good for your bellies.
Where is Laura?
Miss Laura,
it had to be this very day,
has left some while ago and told me
not to expect her for dinner.
God bless her!
Take me away with you,
very far away.
I see you made a night of it.
You've already got there your food.
But I fancy you aren't hungry.
Are you in a hurry?
Won't you even say good morning?
Good morning, senhora Amelia.
Good morning, madam.
Do you want me to make you some tea?
That's filthy!
It's not filthy, it's a mosquito.
Don't make so much noise.
He dropped a mosquitoe into my milk.
What doesn't kill you
is good for you.
Do you think that's reasonable?
Uncle Robert eats lizards.
Then eat the mosquitoe. He was in the
desert and had nothing else to eat.
- There are some who eat stones.
- And the sole of their shoes...
I'll drink this one.
We all know Maria's a saint.
After they've eaten,
the mosquitoes belly becomes red.
I looked at the mosquitoe
through aunt Sara's microscope.
He looked like a hairy monster.
If the mosquitoe
is plunged into the milk,
the mosquitoe will turn pink.
Thus, the mosquitoe
becomes less repelent,
quod erat demonstrandum.
- What redeems you is being funny.
The lady should take the children
to the toad-hole in Castro Marim.
- What's a toad-hole?
- It's a swamp.
With toads?
Whit toads and frogs and leeches
and lots of vermin.
And very pretty birds.
Many tourists go there
to take pictures of the royal heron.
Do you know
what a royal heron is?
It looks like those flamingoes
you saw at the Zoo, you remember?
We know.
The flamingo is that pink bird
with big legs and a long neck
who sleeps on one leg
only with its head under the wing.
That's it.
Some call it a crane.
In days past they came in the Autumn,
in big flocks.
Now only one or two can be seen.
But no one takes the picture
of what there are lots of:
gnats and mosquitoes.
It's a place of fevers,
one of the most disgraced.
How is your son?
He's a heavy drinker.
There's nothing one can do.
Good morning, everybody.
Is there any coffee left?
Yes there is, miss.
I'm heating it.
Are you still coming with us
to the beach?
Of course I am.
And what about the trip
to the toad-hole?
I suppose that's all.
- The milk is missing.
- It's not necessary.
You were about to forget the honey.
I don't want
to see anyone ever again!
They came to fetch Roberto!
I won't let you go.
I would have liked to drink
a cup of tea with you.
I only wanted to say goodbye.
I don't know what else to say.
Have a good trip,
mister Roberto.
What did he say?
That he would like
to have a mother like you.
How nice...
Ship in sight!
It's the Angelus!
Uncle Robert!
We'll have to learn how to use up
the remaining unhappiness.