steal the way network presents:
nicolas and carla [episode 3]
opening theme
close up of an eyeball. slow zoom out to reveal a rat, then a gutter, then a street at night, light refracting through the mist and catching the huge stones on the side of a building above a cobbled street. we pan up to a window accompanied by the sound of distant bells. the camera moves over the balcony, through the double windows and into the room. pan around to the dresser upon which we see a picture of nicolas, carla and their newborn in a silver frame with fleur-de-lys detail. pan over this picture to two others. one of nicolas with his ex-wife and son, the other of a very serious-looking carla with her hands on the shoulders of a young boy in a starched suit. she is flanked by two men in similar suits, one old, one young. fade to white.
fade back to a cloudy sky above a silver birch tree. we pan down the length of the tree to see a suited man with his back turned. he is looking out over central Paris. the shot is held for about 30 seconds until he turns around. he is brushing his teeth with an electric toothbrush. in the background a wolf appears walking vertically down the trunk of the tree. just then the image is split horizontally by another image: nicolas sitting on the edge of a white-quilted bed feeding a child with a bottle. this is Carla’s POV shot. she opens her eyes fully and we follow her gaze around the room before rotating to the side as she turns her head to face the pillow.
–commercial break–
elk and horn home insurance
–return to programming–
the reflection of a church spire shines in yves st laurent’s glasses as he lies in an open, glass-sided coffin, unseasonal drops of ice caught above his ears. a hint of shadow appears at the edge of carla’s eye. it moves down her face, catching rainbow colours like oil in a car park. her child, still without a name turns to her and makes a whirring noise. close up of carla’s face. we hear an echo – the translation: “why does the metal stay?”. she re-assures her son: “the metal moves more slowly, but it moves the same direction”. music has been brewing extra-digetic for a while now.
the entire extended family is in attendance – nicolas’ ex-wife cecilia and their son, louis. raphael, the father of carla’s son, aurélien and raphael’s father jean-paul with whom carla was living when she started her affair with raphael. relations are not good between these people. pan out to tv cameras walking in front of nicolas and carla as they follow the coffin. cut to a vein on cecilia’s forehead, throbbing regularly. cut to raphael – he removes a gold ballpoint pen from his breast pocket and begins clicking it quickly. slow fade to the graveyard – a black cover is thrown off the grave, at that moment four white doves fly out, there is a crack of thunder and rain begins to fall. this is like a trigger for rafael. the camera follows him as, slowly shaking, he walks over to the graveside and picks up a gold bollard. he raises it above his head and brings it down on carla and nicolas’ son shouting: “the seventh brain shall not survive”. at the last moment carla extends her arm to block the blow – a clang of metal against metal resonates around the graveyard. close up of rafael’s face – he looks confused. his head is suddenly taken out of shot and we pan out quickly to see nicolas tackling him – “i am a man with nuclear power!” he shouts. from here on in it is a free-for-all. the funeral band strike up their horns. cecilia runs over to carla and jumps on her shoulders, pulling her hair. nicolas is now wrestling with rafael inside the grave. the rain begins to bucket down. rafael’s father jean-paul, not wanting to be left out, throws a punch at the priest. aurélien walks over to louis and tugs at his sleeve – “in which part of his house does god live?” we hear him ask above the marching band. jean-paul gautier falls to his knees a single sepia tear running down his face. nicolas and carla’s un-named son has stayed stock still through all this… the camera, which has been stumbling around the graveyard as if in a dogme film up til now, notices him and walks over, stepping over the prone body of the priest. close up of the boy’s face he begins to shout:
“I do not claim here to be either a story-teller or a scribe. On the territory of dispossession, I would that I could sing.
I would cast off my childhood memories and advance naked, bearing offerings, hands outstretched to whom? – to the Lords of yesterday’s war, or to the girls who lay in hiding and who now inhabit the silence that succeeds the battles… And what are my offerings? Only handfuls of husks, culled from my memory, what do I seek? Maybe the brook where wounding words are drowned…“*
pan out from the boy’s face. the boy blinks. the image begins to fade then freezes as nicolas flies through the background tackling jean-paul gautier. fade to black.
closing theme
—-
credits
network image = erich berger – tempest (2004)
cecilia ciganer-albeniz
“i want a man with nuclear power”
dillinja – steal the way
ghost – reach out (rocksteady riddim)
sawako – petit garcon
guns and roses – november rain (video)
daddy y4nkee – ella m3 levanto
los hermanos tiuran – cumbia pa’ gloria – rebajada
*words from Assia Djebar’s L’amour, la fantasia
