WEBVTT

00:00:00.487 --> 00:00:03.562
A film by Benoît Labourdette

00:00:05.380 --> 00:00:09.998
Vanitas

00:00:11.287 --> 00:00:17.622
As if life was a dream...

00:00:23.907 --> 00:00:26.040
One by one,

00:00:27.223 --> 00:00:30.214
you have shot down the doors

00:00:30.832 --> 00:00:33.708
of life with me.

00:00:35.099 --> 00:00:37.203
The wall,

00:00:37.508 --> 00:00:39.279
the large back wall,

00:00:39.342 --> 00:00:41.482
black,

00:00:42.732 --> 00:00:47.068
across which
you often used to go,

00:00:48.888 --> 00:00:52.444
full of openings,

00:00:54.551 --> 00:00:57.472
so then became

00:00:58.107 --> 00:01:01.177
darker and darker,

00:01:03.724 --> 00:01:08.083
as you were closing up
it's openings,

00:01:10.224 --> 00:01:13.076
with your light black dress,

00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:15.935
you moved around

00:01:17.662 --> 00:01:21.490
from the bright side where I lived,

00:01:22.592 --> 00:01:24.670
to the dark side,

00:01:25.381 --> 00:01:27.622
past,

00:01:28.248 --> 00:01:30.599
seduction,

00:01:30.748 --> 00:01:33.083
regrets.

00:01:36.291 --> 00:01:41.286
Despite that wall
increasingly dark between us,

00:01:41.873 --> 00:01:45.216
since there were still little openings,

00:01:45.443 --> 00:01:47.874
we passing by it,

00:01:47.982 --> 00:01:50.224
to meet each other

00:01:50.685 --> 00:01:53.802
on one side or the other one,

00:01:54.623 --> 00:01:57.216
to share.

00:01:58.763 --> 00:02:01.083
But

00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:04.224
over time,

00:02:04.334 --> 00:02:06.794
after all,

00:02:07.717 --> 00:02:09.654
you kept on,

00:02:09.763 --> 00:02:12.654
on various

00:02:13.404 --> 00:02:15.450
occasions,

00:02:15.638 --> 00:02:17.411
locking up,

00:02:17.467 --> 00:02:19.200
doors,

00:02:20.506 --> 00:02:22.396
windows,

00:02:22.974 --> 00:02:27.036
and any other openings.

00:02:29.552 --> 00:02:35.029
Eventualy, only one door remained,

00:02:35.881 --> 00:02:38.818
with a heavy lock.

00:02:40.313 --> 00:02:42.945
With a key,

00:02:44.008 --> 00:02:45.926
a single use key,

00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:50.437
as it is

00:02:50.546 --> 00:02:52.608
so rusty

00:02:52.687 --> 00:02:55.147
and black.

00:02:57.981 --> 00:03:00.371
One day,

00:03:01.294 --> 00:03:04.812
you slammed at my face,

00:03:05.133 --> 00:03:08.280
that final door.

00:03:17.662 --> 00:03:21.286
You has been seduced

00:03:22.826 --> 00:03:26.125
by sparkles in the darkness,

00:03:28.279 --> 00:03:31.177
promises of success,

00:03:33.178 --> 00:03:35.568
vanity,

00:03:36.895 --> 00:03:39.075
morgue,

00:03:40.592 --> 00:03:44.380
the power of diabolical

00:03:44.443 --> 00:03:48.404
impossible promises.

00:03:50.693 --> 00:03:54.982
Like a return to the rassuring

00:03:55.881 --> 00:03:58.083
mother,

00:03:59.404 --> 00:04:05.154
even if we know we can't go back
inside our mother anymore.

00:04:09.112 --> 00:04:12.357
Seduced by the poisonous

00:04:13.037 --> 00:04:16.763
words of a distant

00:04:16.842 --> 00:04:18.325
man

00:04:18.373 --> 00:04:20.646
and of a sick

00:04:22.357 --> 00:04:24.982
mother.

00:04:27.068 --> 00:04:30.615
Both so attractive.

00:04:39.990 --> 00:04:44.130
The terribly dark and reassuring

00:04:44.170 --> 00:04:47.524
power of death,

00:04:48.654 --> 00:04:54.489
much more attractive
than the fragility of life,

00:04:56.107 --> 00:04:59.557
for which we have to work.

00:05:02.704 --> 00:05:06.664
This masked death

00:05:06.711 --> 00:05:09.997
that promises an eternal

00:05:10.482 --> 00:05:13.700
strong, powerful existance

00:05:15.342 --> 00:05:18.888
so much more attractive

00:05:19.943 --> 00:05:23.036
than our fragile life.

00:05:26.295 --> 00:05:28.011
And now, there you are,

00:05:28.145 --> 00:05:33.771
confined on the other side,

00:05:34.318 --> 00:05:37.135
the black side.

00:05:37.557 --> 00:05:40.510
We can't see you, anymore.

00:05:45.500 --> 00:05:48.672
Panic took possession of you,

00:05:50.922 --> 00:05:53.627
because you can see,

00:05:53.979 --> 00:05:56.052
despite the perpetual grins

00:05:56.092 --> 00:06:01.583
tempters and temptresses 
bear on their masks,

00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:06.779
you were not free nor alive

00:06:07.318 --> 00:06:12.849
when they attracted you

00:06:14.258 --> 00:06:17.930
You were in the burning Hell

00:06:18.164 --> 00:06:20.966
prison of regrets,

00:06:21.935 --> 00:06:24.002
of passed misfortune

00:06:25.518 --> 00:06:30.654
of all the dead with restless
suffering.

00:06:32.521 --> 00:06:35.786
You turn back where you came from

00:06:37.256 --> 00:06:39.615
but indeed, you have

00:06:39.756 --> 00:06:42.872
solded every door,

00:06:44.006 --> 00:06:46.013
with your blood,

00:06:46.193 --> 00:06:49.724
over the last months.

00:06:51.076 --> 00:06:58.013
You wish you could open them
again and go back to your life,

00:06:59.662 --> 00:07:02.161
wich makes laugh your executioners

00:07:03.967 --> 00:07:06.435
laugh in a terrible sound

00:07:06.631 --> 00:07:08.904
of scratchy voices.

00:07:12.616 --> 00:07:17.944
The wall is a burning metal plate,

00:07:18.935 --> 00:07:21.708
with rusted doors having

00:07:22.170 --> 00:07:27.880
been incrementally closed for ever.

00:07:38.247 --> 00:07:42.911
Almost blood left in your veins.

00:07:46.397 --> 00:07:51.115
The ground seems to fall away
beneath your feet.

00:07:53.968 --> 00:07:55.937
The characters,

00:07:56.516 --> 00:07:58.421
so appealing

00:07:58.953 --> 00:08:03.200
before the door closed up
for ever,

00:08:03.829 --> 00:08:06.946
had lost in an instant

00:08:07.017 --> 00:08:09.751
the reflection

00:08:10.154 --> 00:08:15.068
that illuminated their eyes
with sparkles.

00:08:17.176 --> 00:08:20.582
And now, they are there,

00:08:21.348 --> 00:08:23.699
in front of you, in truth.

00:08:25.819 --> 00:08:28.506
The hollow eyes,

00:08:30.343 --> 00:08:32.466
nonexistant,

00:08:34.451 --> 00:08:38.248
because they are dead,

00:08:45.973 --> 00:08:49.246
which were, one day,

00:08:56.052 --> 00:09:01.841
making that choise of
shadow, like you,

00:09:02.068 --> 00:09:04.154
and since

00:09:04.451 --> 00:09:07.560
they must feed by beings

00:09:07.716 --> 00:09:10.786
they succeed to seduce.

00:09:14.388 --> 00:09:16.712
Yes,

00:09:18.572 --> 00:09:21.782
some kind of vampires.

00:09:24.694 --> 00:09:27.522
You can become like them,

00:09:27.874 --> 00:09:31.750
burned by an insatiable inner fire,

00:09:31.998 --> 00:09:36.450
devastated by suffering,
quench your thirst

00:09:36.553 --> 00:09:41.279
until the human drained.

00:09:44.509 --> 00:09:47.173
You see them all around you,

00:09:48.533 --> 00:09:55.771
mother, cousins, lovers, childhood friends...

00:09:55.951 --> 00:09:59.458
Finally, you see their true colors.

00:10:00.295 --> 00:10:04.660
Finally you see
they've fed of yourself,

00:10:07.527 --> 00:10:10.458
and now

00:10:11.029 --> 00:10:15.454
they receive you in their confraternity.

00:10:19.548 --> 00:10:21.865
Will you be like them,

00:10:21.970 --> 00:10:25.615
imprisoned in the eternal regrets

00:10:27.037 --> 00:10:28.474
or,

00:10:29.420 --> 00:10:31.474
no longer believes in,

00:10:31.794 --> 00:10:35.208
will you attemp, scratching your hands,

00:10:35.677 --> 00:10:37.177
throwing

00:10:37.693 --> 00:10:41.372
the latest drops of your blood
that remains,

00:10:42.185 --> 00:10:47.066
to reopen one of the first doors
that you had closed,

00:10:47.224 --> 00:10:50.510
maybe not as well as the others,

00:10:51.573 --> 00:10:55.010
to try to come back to life,

00:10:55.878 --> 00:10:59.208
where it rains now?

00:11:03.166 --> 00:11:05.119
To do that,

00:11:05.627 --> 00:11:07.608
you should

00:11:08.615 --> 00:11:11.646
forget vanity

00:11:12.224 --> 00:11:14.130
ego,

00:11:14.529 --> 00:11:16.606
pride,

00:11:17.622 --> 00:11:20.466
fantasy of greatness.

00:11:21.287 --> 00:11:25.818
You should be, plainly.

00:11:28.607 --> 00:11:32.529
And maybe, if you'll succeed

00:11:32.607 --> 00:11:35.943
to move your body on the other side,

00:11:36.943 --> 00:11:38.825
the rain

00:11:39.185 --> 00:11:42.044
would wash up your dress,

00:11:43.420 --> 00:11:46.404
that would become white.

00:11:50.076 --> 00:11:53.286
But it happens

00:11:54.748 --> 00:11:57.990
that the rain can't change anything,

00:11:59.193 --> 00:12:02.474
because vanity is too strong,

00:12:04.357 --> 00:12:08.708
and then, despite this breakthrough,

00:12:11.037 --> 00:12:15.333
some dive back behind the wall.

00:12:29.568 --> 00:12:33.643
text, voice, direction
Benoît Labourdette

00:12:34.054 --> 00:12:37.624
with
Bénédicte Loyen

00:12:37.898 --> 00:12:43.124
music : Ludwig Van Beethoven
Performed in 1973 by Ignaz Friedman

00:12:43.896 --> 00:12:47.982
filmed at the Chapelle des jésuites, Chaumont
during the exhibition "Posture(s)", 2016

00:12:48.553 --> 00:12:51.427
Thanks to

00:12:53.164 --> 00:12:55.460
subtitles : Leny Müh