In Turin, on January 3rd, 1889,
Friedrich Nietzsche steps out of the
door of number six Via Carlo Alberto,
perhaps to take a stroll, perhaps to go
by the post office to collect his mail.
Not far from him, or indeed
very far removed from him,
a cabman is having trouble
with his stubborn horse.
Despite all his urging,
the horse refuses to move,
whereupon the cabman...
Giuseppe? Carlo? Ettore?
...loses his patience
and takes his whip to it.
Nietzsche comes up to the throng
and puts an end to
the brutal scene of the cabman,
who by this time is foaming with rage.
The solidly built and full-mustached
Nietzsche suddenly jumps up to the cab
and throws his arms around
the horse's neck, sobbing.
His neighbor takes him home,
where he lies still and
silent for two days on a divan
until he mutters the obligatory last words,
"Mutter, ich bin dumm,"
and lives for another ten years,
gentle and demented,
in the care of his mother and sisters.
Of the horse, we know nothing.
THE FIRST DAY
It's ready.
Go to bed.
Hey!
Hey, you!
What is it?
Can't you hear them either?
What?
The woodworms, they're not doing it.
I've heard them for 58 years.
But I don't hear them now.
They really have stopped.
What's it all about, papa?
I don't know.
Let's sleep.
She lies back and pulls
the blanket over herself.
Ohlsdorfer turns on his side
and fixes his eyes on the window.
The girl stares at the ceiling,
her father at the window.
At times a tile can be heard
crashing down from the roof
and shattering noisily.
The gale roars relentlessly
around the house.
THE SECOND DAY
Come here!
Can't you see she won't move?
Stop it!
Come here!
Fuck!
It's ready.
I've run out of brandy.
Would you give me a bottle?
Give him some...
- Why didn't you go into town?
- The wind's blown it away.
How come?
It's gone to ruin.
Why would it go to ruin?
Because everything's in ruins,
everything's been degraded,
but I could say that they've
ruined and degraded everything.
Because this is not some kind of cataclysm,
coming about with
so-called innocent human aid.
On the contrary...
It's about man's own judgment,
his own judgment over his own self,
which of course God has a big hand in,
or, dare I say, takes part in.
And whatever he takes part in
is the most ghastly creation that
you can imagine.
Because, you see,
the world has been debased.
So it doesn't matter what I say,
because everything has been debased
that they've acquired,
and, since they've acquired everything
in a sneaky, underhanded fight,
they've debased everything.
Because whatever they touch,
and they touch everything,
they've debased.
This is the way it was until the final victory.
Until the triumphant end.
Acquire, debase,
debase, acquire.
Or I can put it differently if you'd like,
to touch, debase and thereby acquire,
or touch, acquire and thereby debase.
It's been going on like this
for centuries. On, on and on.
This and only this,
sometimes on the sly, sometimes rudely,
sometimes gently, sometimes brutally,
but it has been going on and on.
Yet only in one way,
like a rat attacks from ambush.
Because for this perfect victory,
it was also essential that the other side,
that is, everything that's excellent,
great in some way and noble,
should not engage in any kind of fight.
There shouldn't be any kind of struggle,
just the sudden disappearance of one side,
meaning the disappearance of the
excellent, the great, the noble.
So that by now the winners who have won
by attacking from ambush rule the earth,
and there isn't a single tiny nook
where one can hide something from them,
because everything they can
lay their hands on is theirs.
Even things we think they can't reach,
but they do reach,
are also theirs.
The heavens are already theirs,
and theirs are all our dreams.
Theirs is the moment, nature,
infinite silence.
Even immortality is theirs, you understand?
Everything, everything is lost forever!
And those many nobles,
great and excellent just stood there,
if I can put it that way.
They stopped at this point,
and had to understand, and had to accept
that there is neither God nor gods.
And the excellent, the great and the noble
had to understand and accept this
right from the beginning.
But, of course, they were quite incapable
of understanding it.
They believed it and accepted it
but they didn't understand it.
They just stood there, bewildered,
but not resigned,
until something, that flash on the mind,
finally enlightened them.
And all at once they realized
that there is neither God nor gods.
All at once they saw that
there is neither good nor bad.
Then they saw and understood that,
if this was so,
then they themselves did not exist either!
You see, I reckon this may have been
the moment when we can say that
they were extinguished, they burnt out.
Extinguished and burnt out
like the fire left to smolder in the meadow.
One was the constant loser,
the other was the constant victor.
Defeat, victory,
defeat, victory.
And one day, here in the neighborhood,
I had to realize,
and I did realize, that I was mistaken,
I was truly mistaken when I thought
that there had never been
and could never be any kind of
change here on earth.
Because, believe me, I know now
that this change has indeed taken place.
Come off it! That's rubbish!
THE THIRD DAY
Coat!
She's not eating!
She will.
Eat!
You have to eat!
What's that?
What's happening?
A cart's approaching.
Who are they?
Gypsies, I think.
What the fuck do they want here?
I don't know but they're coming this way!
The stinking rotten bastards!
What shall we do?
Go and chase them away!
What are you waiting for?
Get moving!
There's water here!
Come and help!
Come and help, papa!
Come on, hey! Come and drink!
Hold the horse.
Look.
Here comes the girl. Here's the girl.
Her eyes are like the devil's.
Get away from here! Go away!
What are you doing here?
Get away from here!
- Come here. Come with us.
- I won't.
I'm not going anywhere.
Come with us to America.
Are you deaf? Let me go!
I'm not going with you!
God forbid.
Come here.
I don't care.
Let go!
Fuck you sons of bitches!
Get the hell out of here!
I'll rip your guts out, for fuck's sake!
Dirty rotten Gypsies!
This is for the water.
He'll kill me! Papa!
Papa! Come on!
Just come over here, you worm!
We'll be back!
The water is ours! The earth is ours!
You're weak! You're weak!
Drop dead! Drop dead!
One.
Since in holy places
only those things are allowed,
the practice of which
serves
the veneration of the Lord,
and everything is forbidden
that is not fitted for
the holiness of the place,
and since
holy places have
been violated
by the great injustice of actions
that have taken place
within them
that scandalize the congregation,
for this very same reason
no service unto the Lord
can be held there until,
through a ceremony
of penitence,
these aforementioned injustices
have been put to rights.
The bishop says
to the congregation,
"The Lord was with you!
"Morning will become night,
"night will be at an end..."
The storm continues to rage outside,
the wind still sweeps relentlessly
across the land from the same direction,
but now there is nothing
in its path to obstruct it.
Only a great cloud of dust
whipped up by the wind
rushes recklessly forward,
bone-dry dust and the ravaging nothing
that the wind rolls before it
as it rages unbridled
over the barren land.
THE FOURTH DAY
- Come!
- What is it?
- Come quick!
- What's wrong?
The well!
Fuck!
Cover it!
And the brandy?
Why didn't you eat?
You're not going anywhere...
Drink!
At least drink a little water!
Drink!
For my sake!
Pack up clothes, dishes, needle
and thread, things like that.
What for?
We're not staying here. Pack!
Blankets, brandy.
Brandy!
Potatoes, too.
Get the handcart.
Come on!
THE FIFTH DAY
What's this darkness?
Light the lamps!
Fuck!
Why didn't you fill it up?
It's full.
Bring some embers!
What is all this?
I don't know.
Let's go to bed.
Even the embers went out.
Tomorrow, we'll try again.
We can hear them groping their way
to their beds,
we can hear them lying down,
and pulling the blankets over them.
We can hear them breathing,
only their breathing can we hear.
Dead silence outside, the storm is over.
Dead silence falls on the house, too.
THE SIXTH DAY
Eat.
We have to eat.
directed by
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set
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