SCENE 5B:1 - INT/EXT STUDY/F≈R÷ Day 3

ISABELLE

View from Bergman's window

I N T E R L U D E

MARIANNE'S DAUGHTER TELLS A STORY


SCENE 8 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA

DAVID,ISABELLE,BERGMAN

BERGMAN (F.C.)
Isabelle is nine, slender for her age, with sun-bleached tangled hair. We are in the nursery and she is holding my hand. Isabelle's hand is beautiful, with long shapely

BERGMAN (F.C.) (cont.)
fingers, the palm slightly moist. We are in the nursery and she is holding my hand. She smells good and
astringent, the smell of young children. She peers with a look like her mother's and says that she wants to tell me a story. The story-telling is a favour.


SCENE 9 - LIDING÷ VILLA - ground floor - day

ISABELLE
There's something that could be a troll under my bed. Maybe it's not a troll, but anyhow, it's not an animal. It's a strange little boy. He's so ugly I feel sorry for him. His face is quite flat and he has narrow sticky piggy eyes, you know, a pig.
Then he's got crooked bow legs that are so thin, he finds it difficult to walk. But he's got a lovely blue shawl he wraps himself up in.
It's as big as he is. His mother gave him the shawl. She cut a bit off her own shawl and gave it to him. He was very pleased with it and took it wherever he went. A ghost with a yellow face all over and horrible eyes lives behind the radiator over there. The ghost is no bigger than the troll, but is somehow dangerous. Sometimes he bangs on the radiator and that's horrible. He never walks. He rushes about with his nastiness. And one day he took the shawl.
Just took it. And then he ate it up. The troll cried and whined like a dog. The ghost just kept laughing until he found he had turned blue. He had turned the same colour as the shawl. His face was blue, and so were his arms and legs and his whole body. The blue shone right through his dirty ghost gown. A ghost couldn't be blue, so now he couldn't haunt anyone any longer.

(That is the end of Isabelle's story)


SCENE 10A - INT STUDY - day 4

MARIANNE, BERGMAN

MARIANNE
I had been awarded a scholarship, not that much money, but terribly flattering. I had planned a trip to Paris to go to theatres. It had been long decided that Isabelle should stay with my mother at the Summer House. Markus was on tour in Boston, Detroit and Los Angeles, which was colossally important for his career. So we were pleased summer had come and reckoned everything had been arranged in the best possible way. You've never met my husband, have you?

BERGMAN
No, I've never actually met Markus.

MARIANNE
Well, what sensible thing can I say about Markus?
He's - well, you know what he looks like - to say the least, he's a charming person. His older sister Miriam - we were students together at drama school - thought it was about time her little brother settled down. So extremely insidiously I must say, she arranged for us to meet. His family is upper class Jewish and at the time lived in a palatial country house outside Goteborg. His father was an Emeritus Professor at Lund University. His mother was Mother in a big way: five children, innumerable grandchildren and a great many family gatherings. She ran things and was the fixed point in the family. They were all more or less musical and there was always a lot of playing and singing. But Markus was the only one to become a professional musician.
He composed, conducted, played jazz on the clarinet, and then the piano, of course. The only complication was probably that he had to choose, and so chose to conduct.
Well, what can I say, it's hard to describe Markus. He was a good child. Kind, well-adjusted and incredibly
MARIANNE (cont.)
spoilt. What if I say he loved life? He possessed joie de vivre. Does that say anything? Music was - became - a pleasure. Or (at a loss) something.
 

SCENE 11 BROADCASTING HOUSE, STUDIO 2 - spring day

MARIANNE, MARKUS, ISABELLE,
MARGARETA, MARTA, 2 musicians
Markus is on the podium by the piano, with three dignified young musicians: violin, viola and cello.
A middle-aged woman is seated next to Markus.She is the page-turner. The rehearsal is for a recording of Johannes Bach's piano quartet in C-minor Opus 60. In the half-light of the hall are Marianne and Isabelle.Short-sleeved men are moving about in the technical room beneath overhead lights; one is drinking coffee and eating a sandwich, another reading a newspaper. The musicians have just taken up the third movement, an andante: the cello and the piano in intimate interplay.Markus stops them and sits there saying nothing for a moment, turning a page. The woman cellist is young and beautiful.

MARKUS
Perhaps we should begin to say something about this andante. Brahms was twenty-two, noticeably beardless and madly in love with Clara Schumann, in every way an unspoken passion. The husband was called Robert and was a dear close friend. Johannes was like a child in
their house, possibly dreaming of practical declarations of love. But their friendship stifled any declaration. On the other hand, nothing could stop Johannes from admitting his passion in an andante espressivo. My guess is that Clara listened and understood. The andante remained unpublished for nineteen years, and was finally put into Opus 60 together with three newly composed movements. So, my friends. Marta, let us try again.
 

(they play)

MARKUS (interrupting)
Wait now, Marta. You're really playing this very well, but wait a moment. Have you ever thought about how the voice of the cello sings. Sing the first notes. Go on, sing them! You, who sings so beautifully.

(and Martha sings the first sixteen bars, Markus accompanying her cautiously, restrained and pianissimo.)

MARTHA (stops singing, smiles)
Oh yes, it's different, of course.

MARKUS
I have imagined that there are secret words in those notes: "Ich liebe dich, ich liebe dich! Clarchen" or something even more expressive. We mustn't forget that Brahms was so in love that he was thinking of taking his own life.
Well, one more thing: it is certainly night-time and quiet. Brahms is standing by his writing desk. He sends every phrase through the stillness to his beloved. Now let's play, let's make love. It couldn't be more painful, more wonderful. Poco Espressivo. Now, Martha, you are Johannes and I am Clara. For a moment, she is fairly guarded. (they play)

MARIANNE v/o
Isabelle is sitting beside me on my right, listening intently. (She gets up, puts her hands on the backs of the seats in front and stands there, small, slim and absorbed.)
I look at her from the side and wonder what she's feeling. My mysterious child with her dreams and stories. She is so very much Markus's child. Their relationship is special and quite closed to insight into it.

SCENE 10B - INT STUDY - day 4

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

/silence. The music fades/

MARIANNE
To some extent, I am left out. No, no, I'm not jealous, but I do sometimes wonder.

BERGMAN
You've said nothing about difficulties.

MARIANNE
Do you mean marriage difficulties? I don't know. Trifles. Markus is so restless. His energy and vitality could occasionally be rather - numbing. I like to think Markus has a dark room somewhere, and he keeps the door to that room shut - presumably unconsciously. At the beginning of our marriage, differences in our temperaments were quite a strain. So there were sacrifices and annoyances. But we eventually learnt. And we became good friends - I think. This business with David came out of nowhere, and there was nothing to indicate it. What kind of madness had afflicted me? Me, so sensible and level-headed, never doing anything rash or inconsiderate.
(falls silent, laughs) I remember an old lover - he was twice my age, at least forty. He said rather miserably that the only thing wrong with you, my lovely Marianne, is your passion for what is useful. That was pretty precise. Although at the time I wondered whether I ought to have been offended. But he was right, of course, the old goat. So this was just a side issue, but an important one, so you will realise that once upon a time Marianne was an extremely coherent
MARIANNE (cont.)
person who didn't fall out of the part at the first opportunity.
Anyhow, I now had just one thought in my head - one single thought: I must get David with me to Paris. Then we met by chance in the theatre canteen.


SCENE 12 - INT DRAMATEN CANTEEN - spring day

MARIANNE,DAVID,supernumeraries

MARIANNE v/o
and ended up at the same table with our trays. It was about two o'clock and fairly empty. I mentioned in passing that I was going to Paris in the middle of June, and David had already heard that from Eva, who shares my dressing-room.
David answered in monsyllables and was distrait in that way of his. Then he suddenly suggested we should go for a spin round DjurgÂrden and perhaps go to the Theile Gallery.


SCENE 10C - INT STUDY - day 4

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE cont.
I said yes straight away, a small improvisation in the first warmth of the spring. So we got into David's indescribably ramshackle Renault. We drove straight to the gallery.
Have you ever been there?

BERGMAN
Oh yes, I often go there. In fact it's my favourite.



SCENE 13 - INT THIELE GALLERY -spring, afternoon

MARIANNE,DAVID, supernumeraries

BERGMAN v/o cont.
haunt, a sunken world, tidily concealed behind those thick white walls.

MARIANNE v/o
Eventually we ended up in the tower room. We sat down and stayed there in that great silence. We had nothing to say, or perhaps too much, I don't know. Suddenly David began to explain himself.


SCENE 14A - INT THIELE GALLERY TOWER ROOM - spring, afternoon

MARIANNE,DAVID

DAVID
Forgive me, Marianne dear, for my incomprehensibly clumsy suggestion that evening.

MARIANNE (laughs)
But David dear.

DAVID
It's decent of you to accept the comical aspect of it. But I'm one of those people who complicate issues both for myself and my kind fellow human beings. Sometimes I wonder whether there's something seriously wrong with me, whether I'm going nuts and perhaps ought to go into analysis. (pause) I lack any natural relations to reality. I know exactly how it works. I've learnt to read people. But every honestly meant attempt at contact always results in failure. I know it. And I really ought to benefit from the consequences of what I know. (pause) Well, for Christ's
DAVID (cont.)
sake, I perform my role. And if I say it myself, I do it almost perfectly, especially my professional role. The annnoying thing is just that there's always an empty second, if you know what I mean. And that second is decisive.

MARIANNE (commenting)v/o
Then he was struck dumb again, and just sat there. Nor had I anything sensible to say. I was disorientated. My Paris trip and all my plans appeared to have been wiped out and things were looking grey. The caretaker called up the stairs that perhaps we ought to leave now. He was going to lock up. I dutifully replied that we were just about to go.
Then I leant over and kissed David on the lips, and they were cold.

DAVID (in close-up)
This is serious, that much I do realise, anyhow. Christ, this is serious.

MARIANNE (commenting)v/o
We both got up at once and went across to the half-open door, but couldn't go any further. Something had to be said

Cont. SCENE 10D - INT STUDY - day 4

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
It'll be troublesome now, because we have to talk about the kind of things I'm not keen on talking about. But this is it: I must have told you that Markus and I had a good sex life. I'm not specially complicated (smiles slightly), I mean in bed. Usually - well, mostly - I've really enjoyed my not all that numerous relationships. Yes, yes, of course. There were a few chaotic years which I have suppressed quite well, because I think I was stupid. If there's anything I damned well dislike, then it's feeling stupid - to myself, I mean. Oh yes, we had good times
MARIANNE (cont.)
together. Markus said it was more fun sleeping with me than conducting Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring". So you see. Sometimes
(Marianne stops)

BERGMAN
Sometimes? Sometimes what?

MARIANNE
I don't exactly feel like talking about this. Yes, Sometimes something peculiar happened when I was together with Markus. I lost my head and consciousness.
It's called "the little death", isn't it?

BERGMAN
Something like that, yes.

MARIANNE
I don't know - but this business with Markus. Sometimes I think that inside Marianne - that actress I can see in the mirror - inside Marianne is another person - with neither name nor identity. Like a face which is both - no, that's enough.
The scene that has been stopped continues.


Cont. SCENE 14B - INT THIELE GALLERY - spring, afternoon

MARIANNE,DAVID

DAVID
(quickly, quietly)
Another wretched thing I want you to know is that I carry failure around with me. And I don't mean a chance failure, but a major fiasco. Sometimes I wonder why I am alive, but Im not good at suicide.

MARIANNE
(gently touching his face)
Another time, David. Analysis can wait. Not now, please.

DAVID (smiles)
I had to warn you.

MARIANNE
To me, you can be however you like. (appeals) David!

DAVID
If only I weren't so damned clumsy. And
complicated. Sometimes beyond even comical, though no one laughs, least of all me. And then I'm so hellish suspicious. I don't trust anyone. Probably because I suffer from a lack of any ordinary self-confidence.

MARIANNE
(starts laughing, then tries to be serious, but can't.)

DAVID
If you like, I can go on down the list. No one is as rotten as I am.

MARIANNE
You're forgetting we've been friends since time immemorial.

DAVID
With you, I'm always speechless.

MARIANNE
Dearest David. Can't we regard this quite simply. It's fun, isn't it?

DAVID
Christ in heaven, yes, it's fun.

MARIANNE
It really is that simple. I've got this scholarship and am going to theatres in Paris. That fits in well, as Markus is in Los Angeles. Isabelle will be with her grandmother in the country. And you, David mine, happen to be going, by chance, a stroke of luck, to Paris to meet a scenographer or something else important. So far, everything's perfect.
Also, Markus will be totally in agreement that you and I are in Paris at the same time. And that we'll probably meet. No creeping around, lying or fiddling. He'll be neither suspicious nor jealous, I can guarantee that. Well, David - that's how simple and - fun and - exciting it might actually be. And it has happened that life doesn't only consist of disasters and diabolical things, but of dear and tender things and all kinds of pleasant things. David dear, do laugh just a little.

DAVID
You're right, of course.


SCENE 15A - INT STUDY - day 5

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
Markus had come home to work on a collaboration with the Radio Symphony Orchestra. The last concert took place one Saturday afternoon. We were there, of course, David, Isabelle and I. Ovations, of course.


SCENE 16 - INT BERWALD HALL

MARKUS Radio Symphony Orchestra

Music
Bruckner's Symphony No.5 (end)


SCENE 17 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA, ground floor + upstairs, spring, evening

MARIANNE,DAVID,MARKUS,ISABELLE

MARIANNE v/o
After the concert, we had dinner at home, the atmophere bright and cheerful. We had wine and chocolate creams from Sprungli in Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. Then suddenly we began talking about my Paris trip.

MARIANNE
Oh yes, They've got a great programme together.
(reads, glasses) Six Molières, four Corneille and then Racine, of course. Phèdre in a performance from Hamburg with Edith Clever, I've simply got to see that. I'll probably do Phèdre before it's too late, and then Claudel: Partage du Midi. That's another part no one would do any better.

DAVID
Perhaps we could see that together?

MARIANNE
What are you saying? Are you going to Paris?

DAVID
Oh, didn't you know? Yes, I'll be in Paris from mid-June.

MARKUS
That's great.

MARIANNE
How nice. Then we can go to theatre and opera and go out for a good dinner. That's fantastic.

MARKUS
And I'll be stuck in Detroit

MARIANNE (recklessly)
Cancel your concerts. Just like that. Just say your wife and your best friend are in Paris together and you simply have to check up on the situation (laughs)

MARKUS
And what are you going to be doing in Paris, David?

DAVID
Well, you know my film. Maybe I'll get French-Danish-Swedish funding. Then I'm to meet Plantier and Wendtland and some others. And I'm going to have an Italian cameraman, you know, Tullio Pinera. He's in Paris making a film with Corneau, who made "All the World's Mornings". Did you manage to see it? But he's made it a condition that we use a French laboratory - but I'm not so keen, nor are the Danes, who are coming in with studios and equipment. It's all fantastically complicated, but if only Plantier can get eight million then we're on thesafe side. You know the script's really based on a short story by Nicole Verdier, though only the core of it.
I've set it in turn-of-the-century Sweden -

MARIANNE
Is Maria going with you to Paris?

DAVID (disorientated)
Maria? You mean Maria?

MARIANNE
Of course, Maria. Your ex-wife.

DAVID
No thank you. Anyhow I'm thinking of meeting a very special lady.

MARIANNE
Aall these mystifications. Whom, if I may I ask?

DAVID
Her name's Yvonne and I'm not telling you anything else.

MARKUS
Marianne will have to make sure you behave, David.

MARIANNE
Yes, that's going to be absolutely necessary. David, can you speak any French at all?

DAVID
Moi? Je parle une francaise incroyable et complètement irrésistible. (laughs)

MARKUS (raising his glass, both smile)
I propose a toast to your stay in Paris. May it be a joy.


SCENE 18 - LIDING÷ VILLA - ISABELLE'S ROOM - spring, evening

DAVID,ISABELLE

/David pulls the covers over the sleeping Isabelle/


SCENE 19 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - bedroom, spring, evening

MARIANNE,MARKUS

MARIANNE (walking round in her nightgown)
Markus?

MARKUS (electric toothbrush)
Yes, my treasure.

MARIANNE
Do you think it's somehow inappropriate with me and David in Paris at the same time?

MARKUS
What?

MARIANNE (to the bathroom)
Do you think it in any way inappropriate with me and David in Paris at the same time?

MARKUS (laughs)
Why should that be inappropriate?

MARIANNE
I don't know - I just thought - I thought - I don't really know what I thought - just had this idea.

MARKUS
Now just wait, dear heart, and I'll tell you exactly what I think. (finishes cleaning his teeth)

MARIANNE
I just thought I'd ask -

MARKUS
If you mean that Marianne and David would - my Marianne and my David would - my dear, I like to think of myself as a pretty good judge of people, but I cannot possibly imagine - no, no, sometimes you really are funny.

MARIANNE
Would that be so stunningly inconceiveable?
(slightly agitated)
David's actually a terribly attractive man and I'm not exactly - (laughs)

MARKUS (kisses her)
You and David? I'll tell you why that's impossible. It would be treachery. And as I know you - I think I know you, I mean. And David even better, almost - then I know there are no treacheries written into your scripts. That's sounded good, didn't it?

MARIANNE (embraces him)
Very good indeed.
(tenderness and kisses)


SCENE 20 - INT DAVID'S APARTMENT - spring, night

/David in bed. He takes a sip from a half-empty glass of whisky, then puts the glass on the bedside table/


Cont. SCENE 15B - INT STUDY - day 5

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
So I went to Paris on the second of June. It was already summer at home.. I had booked a room at the Hotel St Anne, an old-fashioned family hotel along English lines. Perhaps I ought to tell you that this was the first time.

BERGMAN
What do you mean, the first time?

MARIANNE
The first time I was palpably unfaithful. Planned and staged adultery. I had perhaps been a bit careless occasionally


MARIANNE (cont.)
(very little actually). Anyhow, much less than Markus. But this was serious. David was coming that afternoon. His plane was delayed an hour or two, but that didn't worry me.
(Marianne thinks silently)
I took a short walk to the Comedie Française to pick up our tickets for the Molière evening. Then I had lunch at the hotel and lay down on my bed.


SCENE 21 - INT HOTEL ROOM IN PARIS - dusk to night, early summer

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE v/o
I fell asleep and woke to a knock on the door. Suddenly everything was a fact, and I was so terrified my heart almost stopped. I remember thinking Marianne, what the hell are you up to? But the time had come. And when David came in through the door, I thought- that man is a stranger. What's he got to do with me! But at the same time, I shouted myself down, there's David, my best and dearest friend. So my unease vanished and I felt desire and he felt desire. Then we woke when the cleaner asked through the door whether she could put the room in order for the night. We got up and dressed, went to a café and had a frightfully good dinner.
So we never got to that Molière performance. That night Markus rang from Philadelphia and told me he had had an amazing rehearsal of Brahms's Violin Concerto with Isaac Stern. I told him in passing that David had arrived and we had been to the theatre. Markus asked whether David was staying at the hotel. I told him he was staying at the hotel and I took the opportunity to describe my lovely room. Don't forget to give my love to David and
MARIANNE (cont.)
give him a hug from me. We went on like that for a while.
I yawned and said it was nearly three o'clock in the morning.
Markus turned serious and said he actually knew that.
But he had missed me so much and had wanted to hear my voice. Then I said it was nice of him to phone and that I was missing him, too. Then the conversation ended (with a flat lie). I put down the receiver, turned to David's back and told him Markus sent his very best love. But there was no reply. My lover had fallen asleep.

insert: 21:1 milieu pictures - Paris


SCENE 22A - INT STUDY - day 6/day to night (overtoning)

BERGMAN
Marianne didn't come the next day, nor the day after. I at once began to worry, had I offended her, bored her, had we already driven the "game" too far? In addition, I was missing our afternoons. I felt low and tried to kill my loneliness with a good book. On the morning of the third day, there was a letter. I'll quote a few lines.

22A:1 insert
/exterior pictures - FÂrˆ, taken at various times/


SCENE 23 - INT THEATRE - MARIANNE'S DRESSING ROOM

MARIANNE,ISABELLE

MARIANNE'S LETTER (Marianne in close-up)
I won't be coming today. Nor tomorrow. I don't know when I'll be coming. I've got a slight cold and I know you loathe snuffly people. But the real reason for my absence is not just my cold. I think it's getting more and
MARIANNE (cont.)
more difficult to move in this confused story. You sit there at your desk, looking at me with such attention. You're expecting Marianne to do the job. Just as all lousy dramatists at all times evaded the issue so that only a gifted actor can cope with this shapelessness to bring some life and drive to the mess. To be honest, I'm tormented.
Well, "torment" means do something about it. But it's so damned difficult to talk about "love". I mean the jungle of impulses and attacks of vertigo that keep growing like a cancer and finally becoming impenetrable.
I rush headlong into situations with which in no way can I cope. What does make me wonder a bit is that I don't think it is of any importance. Yes, for that matter, there is an exception, but one that's hard to deal with.

/faintly in the mirror - someone standing behind her - it is Isabelle/

I see Isabelle! I see Isabelle's little person, her face. And then I'm frightened, really frightened. I come to my senses (is that what it's called?) and think of some terrible words as if written on the wall: What am I doing to Isabelle?


Cont.SCENE 22B - INT/EXT STUDY - day 6

BERGMAN, ISABELLE

B. point-of-view. Tree and sea. A glimpse of Isabelle.
(Bergman sits with the letter on the desk in front of him, as he gazes at a cloudy sea and ( ? )trees. He is at a loss.)


SCENE 24A - INT STUDY - day 7

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

BERGMAN
Marianne is back. I can't deny that I'm relieved. We exchanged amiabilities, but refrained from explanations. Naturally I thanked her for her letter, but that was all. So - Paris? Marianne?

MARIANNE (fidgets)
There isn't much to tell about Paris.

BERGMAN
You could tell me about the retrospective jealousy?

MARIANNE
Oh, that.
(Marianne silent, then)
One afternoon we were sitting on a bench


SCENE 25 EXT PARIS - SACR… COEUR - summer's day

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE v/o
high up by the Sacré Coeur, the city at our feet. The suffocating heat haze is fading. David puts his hand on my thigh. I grow heavy and pleasantly sleepy. Perhaps it's time for a little siesta. Then he rather unexpectedly asks me about my past lovers. He asks with a smile, almost indifferently, roughly like a stimulating foreplay to some intended activity. I don't take it in, don't sense the risk, but chat a bit hither and thither from my really rather respectable erotic biography.
David asks funny, sort of initiated questions. We both laugh and I get bolder. That evening, after dinner, we'd drunk more wine than usual, that evening all hell breaks loose.
I could do without this? I really don't want to.


Cont.SCENE 24B - INT STUDY - day 7

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

BERGMAN
Of course, you can do without.

MARIANNE
It's the first time in our long friendship that David frightens me. His jealousy is mindless. I am so frightened I have to throw up.


SCENE 26 - INT HOTEL ROOM - PARIS - summer evening

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE v/o
I think he's going to hit me, but he doesn't touch me. At the same time, I am furious, but struck dumb. I can't even cry. Suddenly he is full of regrets, anguished (Pause) I sometimes wonder if that evening changed our relationship. But no. We sink even deeper into each other.


Cont. SCENE 24C - INT-STUDY - day 7

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

BERGMAN
Would you rather not talk about that evening?

MARIANNE
Preferably not. Where do we go from here?

BERGMAN
You decide.

MARIANNE (laugh)
I decide?

BERGMAN
You decide. I get nowhere on my own. Not any longer.

MARIANNE
Then the time's come for the journey back home?

BERGMAN
The journey back home. Good.

MARIANNE
We'd agreed I'd take the morning flight and


SCENE 27 - INT HOTEL ROOM - PARIS - summer morning

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE v/o/alt.speech
David the afternoon flight. We suddenly realised that we were standing with our foreheads against a wall. The future seemed impenetrably hazardous. I am suddenly dreafully miserable and about to start crying, but I have to go in a few minutes and don't want to spoil my make-up. So I don't cry.
I know exactly how you want to arrange our future, he says, then stops. We have only a few minutes. Don't bother, I say, and sit down on the edge of the bed with lead weights on my shoulders. Oh yes, this is how you would like it, but you daren't say anything, you're too cowardly, but this is how you want things. And then he says everything I had thought but hadn't said. And he says it nastily:

DAVID
Everything will be as usual, anyhow outwardly. Your marriage will remain. Intact. You will meet me when it suits. Suits you, I mean. You want to have everything, and me as well.

MARIANNE
Is that so tremendously stupid? Can't we give ourselves a little time. Can't we wait and see how everything goes? David dear, give us a little time.

DAVID
This is a bloody awful scene we're acting, isn't it?
(They embrace each other and kiss, but it hurts so much they no longer have any feeling left.)

ISABELLE TELLS THEM SOMETHING SHE THINKS IS A DREAM


SCENE 28 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - ISABELLE'S ROOM - summer day

ISABELLE
We were lots of children playing in a big house. There was no furniture in the room and the walls were red. The windows were big and it was summer outside, but as cold as winter.
We were wearing winter clothes. A door opened. I hadn't seen that door before. A school nurse took away two of the children and closed the door behind her. There were lots of toys like at playschool. Nearly all of us were playing. Another girl and I were playing with a doll's house. Some of the children were sitting around looking miserable. Then the door opened, and the nurse took two children away, one of them the girl I was playing with. She struggled and didn't want to go into the other room. The door wasn't closed, but opened a little by itself. So I could see, although I was sitting on the floor of the red room. Then I saw a big person with her back to the half-open door. She was wearing Mamma's fur coat, which was
ISABELLE (cont.)
too small for her, and she had a crown made of gold paper on her head. It was snowing in the room. A whole lot of children's clothes had been flung on to the floor and were covered with snow. Then the school nurse saw that the door was open and she at once closed it. I was scared and started looking to see if there was another way out, because I was going to run away. I realised that the big lady in the fur coat ate one child after another after the school nurse had undressed them. When I found there was no other door, I was terribly frightened.


SCENE 29A - INT STUDY - day 8

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
Just before we were to land in Copenhagen, we were told it was foggy and Arlanda airport in Stockholm was closed.
We would have to stay at Kastrup for an indefinite number of hours. I sat down with a book and let the day pass. Late in the afternoon, the airport in Stockholm was still closed. There were hotel rooms nearby. I ended up in a comfortable cell with a shower cabinet and television.


SCENE 30 - INT HOTEL ROOM - COPENHAGEN - summer evening

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE v/o
The window looked out on to a gigantic concrete façadewith innumerable pedantically lighted windows. Right down at the bottom, traffic was roaring along, mostly long-distance trailers and heavy trucks. I put on my pyjamas and watched an American thriller. I kept falling asleep (when I'm miserable I sleep, and I was dead miserable). So I woke up in the middle of fishing in Lofoten, but as I was still just as miserable, unlike
MARIANNE (cont.)
me, I took a mogadon. I stood in the middle of the room between the bed and the little table with the glass in my hand, swallowing and swallowing. Just as I had at last got the pill down, there was a knock on the door and I called come in. Someone moved the door handle but I had locked the door, so I unlocked it. It was David. Then I began to cry. I don't really know why, but on principle, I am not in favour of improvisations. We closed the door behind us and there we were, clinging to each other as if drowning. I couldn't stop crying and swore over the sleeping pill I had just swallowed with such difficulty. Well, anyway. David had come to Kastrup at about nine. He asked the porter if I was in the hotel and I was, of course. I was in room nine hundred and seventy-eight. So we decided to go to bed immediately
and if possible enjoy this unexpected respite. We got into the narrow bed under a duvet which kept slipping in all directions and was too short at the top and bottom and the pillows were too soft, but that didn't matter much.
We lay close together in the dark listening to the incessant roar of traffic and planes en route over the hotel roof.
We clung to each other, but it didn't occur to us to make love. I was already semi-conscious from the mogadon, and David was uneasy, his heart thumping hard and fast. He didn't sleep all night and looked wretched in the shadowless morning light. He was to go to his room to shave and shower, but stopped in the doorway.

MARIANNE cont v/o
I was still in bed, heavy, miserable and with a headache.
I wanted him to leave at once, but he didn't. I saw him standing there in the sharp light, his face open and expressionless.
I had never seen him so open, well, I don't know how to describe that moment. But David said quite tonelessly that he had never in his life felt such pain. Then he left, slowly closing the door behind him. And I thought did it have to be this painful?
Is this what we have to pay?


Cont. SCENE 29B - INT STUDY - day 8

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
As we were going through the landing ritual over Arlanda, we made a confused attempt at some kind of plan. Over and over again. I was to take a taxi at once and go to the country to Mamma and Isabelle. David was to have a production meeting at the theatre and a whole series of committee meetings. It all sounded like evasions and excuses: I simply couldn't reach him. And he couldn't ring me. The only thing
we knew with any certainty was that we would already separate on the plane, as Mamma and Isabelle were to meet me. It was a mean farewell. I got off first. Anyhow, it was as I'd thought. Mamma


SCENE 31 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - living room - summer evening

MARIANNE,ISABELLE,12 relatives

MARIANNE v/o
was there with Isabelle. So then there was all the tumult of homecoming and a welcome-home dinner and the evening was easier than I had thought it would be.


SCENE 32 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - stairs, summer, dawn

MARIANNE v/o
I phoned David at four o'clock in the morning. But David didn't answer.



SCENE 33 - LIDING÷ VILLA - living room. summer day

MARIANNE,ISABELLE,12 relatives

MARIANNE v/o
The day went by. When we were all assembled for dinner, the phone rang. I hurried to answer. It was David. I said we were just going to have dinner and he said that it sounds like that in the background, and he thought we should try again.
Couldn't you come to my place tomorrow at three o'clock.
I said no, that was impossible, as I would be far too late for dinner and hastily suggested one o'clock. But David couldn't manage then. The conversation ended. We went on like that for several days. In the end we gave up and silence prevailed.


Cont. SCENE 29C - INT STUDY - day 8

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
Yes, I had a letter. I have it here. I can read it to you.
(glasses, reads the letter)
I can't live like this. It's humiliating, heart-rending, unendurable.
I can see only one solution: clarity and truth.
(stops reading. Sits in silence, upset)
After I'd read the letter, I went walking in the forest for several hours. I wasn't crying from sorrow, but because I was damned annoyed. Once I had calmed down, I went for a long swim.


SCENE 34 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA, small sofa - summer afternoon

MARIANNE v/o
I took a glass of red wine and sat down in Grandfather's study to write back. I wrote that he ruined any possibility
MARIANNE (cont.)
of a continuation. That we should think ourselves lucky to have discovered our mistake in time. I wrote that I didn't understand, didn't understand, or something along those lines.


Cont. SCENE 29D - INT STUDY - day 8

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
How could he imagine that there was any place for some kind of ultimatum in this situation. I asked him to keep quiet, keep away, to put it briefly, to go to hell. I hurried to post the letter, not even reading it through. But it was relief after that terrible ache. Then we played badminton all afternoon.
That night Isabelle came into my bed and said she wanted to sleep with me - I don't know what she was thinking, she knows so much in her amazing way. Then we slept. I slept soundly for the first time since I'd got back. (Falls silent, sits saying nothing. Looks at the sea, pulls herself together and again starts talking, but in another tone of voice, the tempo changed.)
Everyday life began to resume its proportions. I was pleased, even slightly cautious that the autumn season was to begin and that I had a good - not great - part in a good play. Then Markus came home. He was fairly exhausted, but pleased with his successes, the offer, and to be home. And then he was so happy with Isabelle. Markus can be almost luminous when he's in the mood, so I was happy, too. It wasn't at all difficult to resume sleeping together. Yes, he did ask quite a lot about Paris and David, but only in passing. I didn't have to tell particularly many lies. On the twentieth of August, the theatre opened and we assembled as usual. Naturally David and I saw each other and greeted each other with a fairly formal hug in the general scrum. Nothing was said. In a big theatre, you don't see much of other people when you're working in different
MARIANNE (cont.)
productions on different stages. One day we literally bumped into each other round a corner. We laughed slightly in embarrassment. David asked if we could meet for a few moments in his room after our respective rehearsals. I heard myself answering that would probably be all right.
And then we went off in our different directions.


SCENE 35 - INT DIRECTOR'S ROOM, DRAMATEN THEATRE - autumn, afternoon

MARIANNE,DAVID

DAVID
I think things are heading for a disaster. Here, I mean. At the theatre. A theatre disaster.

MARIANNE
One hears this and that in the canteen.

DAVID
I warned the actors. I said we were to do anti-theatre with "A Dream Play". That it was about time. Everyone except Eva thought it'd be really great. Now, after six weeks, it's nothing but uproar. Why aren't you saying anything?

MARIANNE
Can't you see I'm listening, fathead.

DAVID
Do you think I'm going mad? Why do I always get things wrong, can you tell me that? Why do I get things wrong with those damned actors? Why do I get things wrong with you? Is it something that has happened, or changed without my realising? And that film that was at first postponed, then cancelled. And all the row about money.
I've bloody got debts everywhere. Sometimes it's almost
DAVID (cont.)
comical. (laughs quietly) I can't damned well sleep, either. No, not alcohol if that's what you're thinking,
only the pills that are supposed to give me a few hours.
But it's almost the other way round. I've talked to a trickcyclist and he defined my state on the spot: "severe depression". He wants to put me on the sick list.

MARIANNE
Would you like that?

DAVID
Not bloody likely. You were going to say something.

MARIANNE
I thought of suggesting that we should meet, but I changed my mind.

DAVID
You could invite me to an ordinary everyday dinner like in the old days. So that I can see Isabelle. And Markus, of course. How is he, by the way?

MARIANNE
Markus is always well, you know that. Of course, one of his toes is hurting him.

DAVID
Yes, well, that must be a worry.

MARIANNE
I don't know what to do about you, and I don't know why I imagine I have to do anything.

DAVID
You might agree that at this moment I'm a real nutcase. (laughs quietly)

MARIANNE
I really must go now. (Swiftly strokes David's cheek and the nape of his neck) Your hair's dreadfully long.

DAVID.
Exactly. I've started neglecting my exterior.

MARIANNE
They say you've got it together with Fanny.

DAVID
Fanny says that, yes.

MARIANNE
Bye, then, old Strewelpeter. I'll think about that dinner.


SCENE 36A - INT STDY - day 9

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
In the canteen some rather malicious talk began about David's rehearsals. He was working on "A Dream Play" - of course, I told you that. Or didn't I? I was worried, of course, so one day I went as sat in the dark in the circle to see what David was really up to.



SCENE 37 - INT - THEATRE, STAGE and AUDITORIUM - autumn day

MARIANNE, DAVID, EVA(Indra's daughter), JOHAN (the Poet), GUSTAV, AXEL

1. Marianne slips in to the circle and sits at the back.
2. David has stationed himself below the stage, his elbows on the ramp.
3. The reheasal is going on. Four actors are in a décor that leaves the stage bare.

EVA (as Indra's daughter)
Haven't you as a child held a shell to your ear and heard ...

JOHAN (as the Poet)
I hear nothing but the roar of the wind.

EVA
Then I'll be its interpreter. Listen. The lament of the wind (recites)
Born beneath the clouds of the sky. Hunted we are by Indra's fires
Down on the dusty earth. The field's litter soils our feet
The dust of the roads, The smoke of cities,
Evil breaths. Cooking fumes and wine vapours
May we endure (Eva throws herself down headlong)
Stretched out on the wide sea
We air our lungs
Shake our wings
And wash our feet.

DAVID (interrupting)
Just a moment Eva. I am being extremely disturbed by Johan chewing gum all the time.

JOHAN
Oh hell. Are you disturbed? The Master is disturbed.

DAVID
Would be kind enough to go out to the stage manager and leave your chewing gum in his care?

JOHAN
And in what way are you disturbed?

DAVID (friendly)
In am simply disturbed.

JOHAN
It's nicotine chewing gum I've been prescribed by my doctor.

DAVID (politely)
I'd be damned grateful if you didn't chew the cud on stage.

JOHAN (sitting up)
The risk is that under the present circumstances I might start smoking again.

DAVID
What do you mean by "circumstances".

JOHAN
Didn't you know I was in the family way (acts camp)

DAVID
Nevertheless, would you please be so immensely good as to remove your chewing gum. In some way or other.

JOHAN
Certainly. (Johan spits the chewing gum straight at David.
It misses but passes his ear)

DAVID (cheerfully)
Thank you, Johan. Now we can continue.

EVA
No thank you. I can't go through all that shit again. (silence)
Anyhow, not today. Preferably not before the première. (pause)
If I may. Well.
(silence)

GUSTAV
If there is a première. Of course.

DAVID
What do you mean?

EVA (gets up)
He probably means what he says.

JOHAN
I think David should have a long confidential chat with the boss. Then perhaps he will be made to listen to what we've been trying to say for the last eight weeks.

DAVID (losing his composure)
Have you been to see him?

ALL
(silence)

DAVID
I just thought that Axel -

AXEL (rising majestically)
This sort of thing makes me sick, and shall be in my dressing room until three o'clock if someone would be kind enough to tell me what the arrangement is for tomorrow's rehearsals.
(he leaves)

GUSTAV
Actually, it is twenty to. Perhaps it'd be just as well to
take a break?

DAVID (laughs)
Not just as well. Better.

(David hastily leaves the auditorium.
The piercing light goes out, the working and auditorium lights go on.
Eva stays where she is, tugging and straightening
her uncomfortable costume that is too tight over her chest.)

EVA
Anyhow, I don't know. Somehow I think we're making fools of ourselves.

GUSTAV (yawning stressfully)
This is no worse than all the other shit we have to cram into us,
is it? In other contexts.

JOHAN
Yes it is, definitely worse, as it's actually talented shit.

EVA
The truth is, we agreed with him at first.


Cont. SCENE 36B - INT STUDY - day 9

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
I made my way out of the circle and went straight to David's room. He wasn't there, but the door wasn't locked, so I sat down to wait. I was shaken, tearlessly ready to cry, and I didn't know what I was doing. Or knew what I was doing. David came eventually. When he saw me, he made a dismissive gesture, not you too, for God's sake. I went over to him and held him as hard as I could. Then I simply said I would be at 46. his place in an hour's time. Then I left without looking back.
At four o'clock I was on the stairway outside his door, ringing the bell several times.


SCENE 38 - INT DAVID'S STAIRWAY - autumn day

MARIANNE,DAVID


MARIANNE v/o
No one opened. David wasn't there. Just as well. Better.
Almost a relief. Almost a relief. I was having regrets, real basic regrets, and I was just about to leave when he arrived, out of breath after running up the stairs as the lift was out of order. I couldn't summon up the energy to ask him why he was late. And he offered no explanation.


SCENE 39 - INT DAVID'S APARTMENT - autumn, afternoon

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE v/o
It was like a dream in which what you fear most happens over and over again. Everything was strange though not loving, but fumbling and aggressive. David was impatient and inaccessible and I was frightened. I kept thinking, I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't understand. We lay naked side by side on the bed. I took his hand. He tried to free himself, but I held on.

DAVID
No playacting, please, Marianne dear.

MARIANNE (slight laugh)
It'll be really hopeless if everything we do is to be classed as good or bad theatre.

DAVID
Are you laughing?

MARIANNE
Because it's all so deplorable.

DAVID
Deplorable?

MARIANNE
You and me, David. This is you and me, after all.

DAVID
I knew all the time you were up there in the circle, watching all that misery.

MARIANNE
Sometimes I think you drape yourself in misery. Simple things aren't allowed to be simple. Behind every reason there's another reason, ad infinitum. Surely it isn't all that strange that I felt sorry for you.

(Marianne gets up and starts getting dressed. David is still on the bed, sitting cross-legged.)

MARIANNE (stopping)
You look as if you were wondering what the fuck cost.

DAVID
I'm an idiot, of course

MARIANNE
Self-knowledge or coquetry?

DAVID
I mean this - if a person like you feels affection for a person like me - if that's so, then I ought to be humbly grateful.
Instead I behave like an idiot. How stupid am I allowed to be? Turn round, Marianne, and look at your idiot.


SCENE 40 - INT STUDY - day 10

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

BERGMAN
How was it later? I mean, with you and David?

MARIANNE
We settled down. We met a few times a week in his infinitely dismal apartment. Usually after my rehearsals. Sometimes I was afflicted with a guilty conscience, or perhaps it wasn't a guilty conscience, but simply grief.

BERGMAN
Grief. What do you mean?

MARIANNE
Yes, grief. Something was happening to me that I couldn't deal with. Even worse for that matter was that I knew for certain that every day was wrong. I sensed an ulcer coming on and took stuff for it. But I simply couldn't bring myself to make any kind of sensible decision. This is difficult. I haven't the right words for it. I never talk to anyone about all this. And how am I to talk about something that has no words: a person growing into another person; it's irrefutable but frightening. The process can't be halted. It's almost biology. David is growing into Marianne and Marianne is frightened. She doesn't want to expose herself to anything she doesn't understand. David is different. He decisively and precipitately surrenders himself, with no reservations. He maintains I mustn't take responsibility for him. How the hell can he say anything so stupid! Sometimes I get so tired of his - childishness, or whatever it is. He has no insight or empathy. Yes, you can hear what I sound like. Despite all the practical difficulties, it was a rather nice time. Then Markus comes home from one of his guest appearances. I am living with two men. It goes better than I had thought. If I weren't so damned morally indoctrinated, it would be excellent. It might also be rather fun. Things are passable at the moment, because I like Markus. We've always got on well together. I don't think he notices anything. He just thinks I've
MARIANNE (cont.)
become unusually considerate. Sometimes David comes to dinner and everything is as it was before. I admonish myself and and tell myself I should be content. And then I try to forget that I live under constant threat.

MARIANNE
One day at the beginning of November, I think it was the fifth, we were collating "To Damascus". After the readingthere's a bit of chat and I am late at David's. It doesn't matter. We're pleased to see each other. It's three weeks since the last time. Isabelle has had chicken-pox and I've been at home as much as possible. We have tea and chat. David shows me some lovely drawings and photographs from his great Almqvist project. I tell him about some tedious days filming a soap opera. Winter dusk is falling.


SCENE 41 INT DAVID'S APARTMENT - autumn afternoon

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE v/o
I draw the curtains and switch on a little art nouveau lamp on the bedside table. What I'm going to tell you makes me very uneasy, it's so humiliating and silly. This is where the tragedy starts, though at first it seems mostly like a Feydeau farce. The front door bell rang with two short signals. Then something plumped down through the letter-box. I think David was sound asleep. I got up carefully so as not to wake him, put on his dressing-gown and went out into the hall. It was dark, but on the mat was a folded piece of paper. I picked it up and switched on the overhead light.
I saw at once it was Markus's handwriting, a brief message.
"I'm standing outside on the stairway. Get dressed and let me in. I'll wait ten minutes, then I'll let myself in with my own key. I've got a duplicate key." David had
MARIANNE (cont.)
woken up. I handed him the letter and started dressing.
We didn't say anything. What could we say? I put on my shoes, went out into the hall and opened up.


SCENE 42 - INT DAVID'S STAIRWAY - autumn afternoon

MARIANNE,MARKUS

/Markus was sitting on the stairs smoking a cigarette./

MARIANNE
How did you get hold of a key?

MARKUS
I went through your handbag and found the key there. I stole it for a few hours and had it copied. It was as simple as anything.

(gets up)


SCENE 43 - INT DAVID'S APARTMENT - autumn, evening

MARIANNE, DAVID,MARKUS

(Markus follows Marianne into the apartment, takes of his leather jacket and puts it tidily on a chair by the door)

MARKUS
Shall I take off my shoes?

MARIANNE
If you like. There's no need to.

MARKUS (smiles bleakly)
Yes, this was really the whole thing. (he sits down on a
MARKUS (cont.)
high backless stool) If you want to know the truth - do you want to know the truth?

MARIANNE
If you consider it necessary, then we want to know the truth.

MARKUS
I already knew about your relationship, or whatever you call it - before your Paris trip. I had a rather interesting letter from one of Marianne's colleagues, just who doesn't actually matter. (calmly) Well, I did have my suspicions. When they were confirmed, I was somewhat affected, I can't deny that.
(speaking calmly and in a friendly way) I was affected, but what could I do about what had already happened?
(silence)

MARIANNE
(says nothing)

DAVID
(says nothing)

MARKUS
I decided to play a waiting game. Yes, it's true. So I encouraged the Paris project. I liked you both. You are my best friends, for Christ's sake. Rather over-cleverly, I thought that if they are only allowed to be together properly for a while, then the passion - for it is a passion I presume? - then the passion would burn out and everything would return to normal.

MARIANNE
(says nothing)

DAVID
(says nothing)

MARKUS
Now. It's worse now. (Markus gets up and goes towards the door and turns round) Now the matter has to run its course.

MARIANNE (confused)
- do you mean divorce or -

MARKUS
I don't really know what I mean. But I probably mean something which will hurt (lightly) Are you coming
home for dinner? I've got the car here. I can drive you there, if you like.

MARIANNE
Thanks, but I've got my own car.

MARKUS (nods)
See you, then. (Markus leaves, carefully closing the door)


Cont. SCENE 40B - INT STUDY - day 10

MARIANNE,BERG

MARIANNE
David and I talked rather confusedly about what ought to be done and about what Markus was thinking of doing.
Then we said we would phone. So I left. On the journey home, something like a poison spread through my body. At first I thought I was ill, that I was going to faint, but that wasn't so. At Lidingˆ Bridge I had to stop the car and just sit there. The poisoning was a kind of horror I'd never felt before. I didn't know what to do. It was somehow unmanageably physical. I didn't know what to do about the poison. It was going in waves though my body.

MARIANNE (cont.)
Nothing had really happened. I'm talking off of the top of my head. I can't - clarity perhaps. Definitely - perhaps. Disaster? Is this how everything breaks? Now, at this moment, I don't think so, I don't want to believe it. And Isabelle. A new wave of fear. Isabelle. Wasn't Markus to have an afternoon rehearsal? So that was a lie. And the key? Another lie. Carefully planned and thoroughly carried out. The threat: "Now it is going to hurt". I don't know, I was on time for dinner. We conversed. Grandmother dropped off Isabelle, who noticed at once something was wrong. She became clingy and whiny. I promised to read to her. Markus sat down in the living room to watch the news. Then we watched a film and chatted - but nothing.
Markus was consistently friendly, perhaps a little distrait. My fear, "the hurt" that had subsided during the ordinary rituals of the evening, came back again. I took some Valium, which helped for an hour or two. Then it got worse. The horror that had been blocked out by the pills broke out with renewed strength. I tried to read, but that was no use. That diffuse sense of poisoning penetrated through the words. I couldn't take in what I was reading, and I kept having to go to the lavatory. In the end I sat in the lavatory and waited for morning to come. Then a day went past, and another. I simply had to talk to Isabelle.


SCENE 44A - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - bedroom, December morning

MARIANNE, ISABELLE

MARIANNE v/o
I chose a Sunday morning. When Markus was away, Isabelle used to come into my bed and we had
breakfast together. Then we lay there idling and chatting. December had come. Sunday morning in December

MARIANNE (cont.)
with the distant sound of church bells and snow quietly falling. Isabelle drank her cocoa and I my coffee. Then I told her: I was going to move in with David, and she was to live with Grandmother. Markus would be abroad for nearly two months. Isabelle was concentrating on one of her dolls while I was talking. I became long-winded and verbose: we would often see each other, the only problem for Isabelle would really be that she would have further to go to school. But Grandmother was pleased. And so on. This is difficult. Isabelle stopped playing with the doll. I see her attentive little face and the tangled childish hair. I see that slender little body is tense under her nightie, the thin arms folded across her chest.


SCENE 40C - INT STUDY - day 10

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
Oh God, that things should be like this, oh God. She swallowed and swallowed, her face expressionless, totally blank. I was about to say, forget it, Isabelle. I'm talking nonsense, you and I will always be together, always, always. The only important thing is that you and I don't lose each other.
After a silence, I couldn't think of anything to say. Isabelle asked whether she could live with David and me. I told her the truth, that there wouldn't be room. But that David was looking for a larger apartment.


Cont. SCENE 44B - LIDING÷ VILLA - bedroom, December morning

MARIANNE, ISABELLE

ISABELLE
And what about Pappa?

MARIANNE
Pappa and I have to be away from each other for a while.

ISABELLE
Are you in love with David?

MARIANNE
I'm in love with David. I can't live without him.


Cont. SCENE 44C - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - bedroom, December morning

MARIANNE, ISABELLE

MARIANNE v/o
At the same time, I thought, what am I saying, what kind of nonsense is that? Can't I live without David? And then I knew that it was quite literally true. I can't live without David. Isabelle got up, put her cup on the tray and went into her room without another word. That thin straight little back by the door. She didn't turn round. I wanted what had been said to be unsaid. Anything, but not this. Now, at this very moment, Isabelle's life had taken an unpredictable turn. And I was to blame.


SCENE 45 - INT LAWYER'S OFFICE - snowless winter's day

MARIANNE,GOLDBERG

Marianne goes to see the lawyer, Martin Goldberg, at his and his father's office. There is a faint aura of lilies all round him.


MARTIN GOLDBERG
I heard from David that you weren't going to engage a lawyer of your own. I really must advise you to think that over. It would save you - all of us - considerable unpleasantness. I have taken the liberty of making a list of suitable people who should be of great help to you. Mainly female colleagues. Here is the list with addresses and telephone numbers. Yes, yes, yes, let's now speak plainly, Marianne. As you very well know, Markus is deeply hurt. We can't ignore that what has happened continually torments him. He maintains he has endured with patience and indulgence your - relationship with David - he has cherished the hope that - how can I put it - your passion, that your passion would burn itself out, and you would return to your marriage. That was his wish and he was prepared to wait - a considerable time. But things did not turn out like that.
You and David moved into a furnished apartment?
(Marianne nods)
An apartment David rented as a sub-tenant. Markus established that you had definitely left your joint home, and that you took Isabelle with you without consultation.
Tell me now if I have misunderstood anything. I have mainly Markus's version, and it could be that his statement is coloured by - well, accordingly. If I have understood correctly, you are requesting a divorce as soon as possible. Markus is extremely hesitant. He considers you should give yourself a chance to think through your situation and proposes a separation agreement over a period of two years. Yes, yes. You've presumably heard that before, and you are not considering the proposal. So then it will be an immediate divorce. The problem is - of course - custody. The custody of Isabelle, who is now nine years old. In a personal letter to Markus, you have proposed shared custody, but that Isabelle is to live with her mother and David. Unfortunately, I must now inform you that Markus refuses to discuss that possibility. He demands sole custody and Isabelle is to have her home with him. With no restrictions. To give emphasis to his demand, he says - we talked about this on the telephone only yesterday - he pointed out that he intends to refuse all international engagements and will stay at home in Sweden for the foreseeable future. As you will have gathered, Markus is taking this decision with utmost seriousness. He is giving up a brilliant international career in order to live with his daughter. He has also already talked to your nursemaid, Silja Toivonen - and –

MARIANNE (interrupting)
He's talked to Silja and she - I haven't heard a word.

GOLDBERG
The responsibility for that is mine. When she was here last week, I urgently requested her not to say anything until you and I had had an opportunity to confer. If you consider that disloyal, then you must direct yourcriticism at me.

MARIANNE
So this has all gone on behind my -

GOLDBERG
Marianne, all I'm saying is get yourself a lawyer.

MARIANNE
I must have a cigarette.

GOLDBERG
Of course - ashtray. Here -.

MARIANNE
I'm totally - shattered. I'm so angry that -

GOLDBERG
I understand. We can stop here if you like.

MARIANNE
No, no, go on. It's interesting, to say the least.

GOLDBERG
As you must see, Marianne dear, your position is not particularly strong. About, let's say twenty years ago, you wouldn't have stood a chance before a Swedish court: - "the woman has deserted the home", as it was called in those days. Today it is more difficult to predict the outcome. But you probably have to reckon on some difficulties. The Social Services - if things go badly - will intervene. In that case, they undertake a thorough investigation in which both you and David will be assessed. Marianne dear, this is what I had to say. I am only the poor messenger with the odious message. Please don't behead me. Personally, I would have preferred to see this conflict solved peacefully. But as far as I can make out, that is inconceivable.

MARIANNE
Markus wants to do me as much harm as possible.

GOLDBERG
That's your interpretation, Marianne dear.


SCENE 46A - INT STUDY - day 11

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
The threat of a court case brought us closer together. Apart from the occasion when we suddenly ended up in an outburst of aggression, we regarded our anger with horror and hurried to paper over the cracks which kept appearing on the most unexpected occasions. Our now joint finances were fragile. No film to save us appeared on the horizon,
MARIANNE (cont.)
either for David or me. I made repeated efforts to contact Markus, but he remained inaccessible. All natural and sensible arrangements were inconceivable. David wrote a level-headed letter to Markus, in which he requested shared custody. I added a few lines and asked, or rather begged for a meeting. The letter was returned - unopened.
One day we were subjected to the paradoxical run-through by the Social Services.


SCENE 47 - INT JOINT APARTMENT - living room, spring afternoon

MARIANNE,DAVID,PETRA

Petra Holst, an attractive young woman, is sitting on the living room sofa. A stressed David is walking slowly round the edge of the rug. Marianne is sitting on an uncomfortable antique chair with a lively back.

PETRA
I hope you'll excuse that "in the pursuance of my duty" I have to ask some difficult questions. I simply have to. (smiles)

DAVID (smiles)
Just fire away. We're ready.

PETRA
You have two children from a previous marriage?

DAVID
Yes, correct. Two children. Lotta and Oskar.

PETRA
How is your access organised?

DAVID
You've touched on a sore point there. I presume my ex-wife has complained.

PETRA
No, she hasn't complained, but she thought it sad you never contact the children. That you keep forgetting their birthdays and only sporadically appear on some weekends. She says the children no longer count on you.

DAVID
Oh, yes. I see. She says that, does she?

PETRA
Then we've the heading "finances".

DAVID
Which we can skip. As they're non-existent.

PETRA
You have quite large debts.

DAVID
Exactly. Four hundred thousand or so.

PETRA
Four hundred and seventy-three thousand.

DAVID (smiles)
I am impressed - and overwhelmed.

PETRA
And the future?

DAVID (showing signs of being harassed)
We had thought of marriage and what is called a "stable relationship" (different tone of voice) I should perhaps say that I am very fond of Isabelle and I think Isabelle is fond of me. We're actually good friends - good old friends.

PETRA (noting down something)
I would like to talk to you, Marianne, about your Paris trip.

MARIANNE
Yes?

PETRA
Three - just over three weeks.

MARIANNE
Yes.

PETRA
And Isabelle constantly staying with her grandmother.

MARIANNE
Yes (tearfully)

PETRA
Can you tell me a bit about your motives.

MARIANNE
My motives?

PETRA
That long-stay parking of Isabelle with her grandmother has gone on, hasn't it? I'd like to hear a little about your motives. I have spoken to your mother. She was truly worried. Isabelle's behaviour has changed (reads from her notes)
Sleeping badly. Nightmares, waking suddenly and crying. Poor appetite. Restlessness. Difficulties in concentrating at school. Could you say something about this problem?

MARIANNE (extremely agitated)
I don't think I can.


PETRA
It would be a great help if you would -

DAVID
Give you the number of orgasms, for instance?

PETRA
(says nothing)
(silence)

DAVID
Can't you see you're harassing Marianne?

MARIANNE
No, no. It's just so difficult, I can't help crying. Oh hell.

DAVID
Listen now, Petra Holst. I think you should leave.
Petra Holst says nothing for a moment. Then she takes her notebook, briefcase and a pretty little shawl, takes off her glasses, puts them in their case and snaps shut her elegant handbag. She gets up.

MARIANNE (at a loss)
What will happen now?

PETRA (friendly)
Unfortunately I haven't anything to tell you on that score. It depends to a large extent on further developments and weighing up the relevant facts.

DAVID
I apologise. But I can't (gesture) - can't -

PETRA
By all means. I'm not asking for apologies. Goodbye.

DAVID (shakes her hand)
It was just that - I couldn't - Goodbye.

MARIANNE
Goodbye.
(exit Social Services)


Cont. SCENE 46B - INT STUDY - day 11

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
David and I realised one truth with icy clarity. We had given an unusually wretched performance. All our words contained the same lack of validity. Anyhow, during our planless talk we did realise that a lawyer was absolutely necessary. I remembered an old school friend called Anna Berg. For better or worse, I phoned her and she answered immediately, which I took as a good sign. We met the very next day and
spent several hours going through the problems from all aspects. Anna was fairly optimistic (from conviction or professional routine, I couldn't make out).


SCENE 48 - INT+EXT SUMMER HOUSE/collage, summer's day

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE v/o
Then summer at last came after that terrible winter. We moved into an old summer house we were able to borrow from relatives. For David and me it was paradise. Isabelle spent the summer with Markus and his family, and was to come to us in August. The court case was remote and almost unreal. The old house contributed to a great deal.

MARIANNE (cont.)
We sank into a lethargy of light-heartedness and we drank our fill of the quiet and remoteness. I don't know, but both David and I have a kind of gift for light-heartedness. By the end of July I was able to establish that I was pregnant. Beyond all reason, we were uncontrollably delighted. I was also probably rather surprised, as I'm not the kind to get pregnant easily, so we (I) had probably been careless to some extent. I probably wanted to have a child by David without knowing it. And now I was at an age when - well, who cares about that. Our light-heartedness was good, and it was especially good for me to be close to David and feel his joy - at last. When the date for our case was decided, we had a visit from Anna Berg, our lawyer. She smoked a cigarillo or whatever they're called and I asked her not to because the smell made me feel slightly sick.


SCENE 49 - INT SUMMER HOUSE/veranda,summer's day

MARIANNE,DAVID,ANNA BERG

Anna Berg at once stubs out her cigarello in the ashtray and looks attentively at Marianne.

ANNA
Sorry to ask, but are you by any chance pregnant?

MARIANNE
I don't really know. Second month or something. Though I'm not really sure. I'm going to my doctor as soon as he's back from his holidays. But I feel a bit sick and all that.

ANNA
Are you going to keep it? - sorry again.


MARIANNE
Anything else is out of the question.

ANNA
You'll be four months pregnant when the case comes up. We probably ought to keep it quiet all round. The court will be kept out of it, anyhow. Does anyone know?

MARIANNE
I'll have to tell the theatre.

ANNA
So that's goodbye to any secrecy. Yes, yes. I have, by the way, some bad news -

MARIANNE
Social Services?

ANNA
After an unusually long time considering it, they have decided to recommend that Markus has sole custody.

MARIANNE (defeated)
It can't be true.

ANNA
You ought to know that the statement by the Social Services is nothing more than a recommendation. But isusually a guide. Actually, it's terribly irrational and can be altered this way or that during the proceedings.

MARIANNE (quietly)
But that's hopeless. (pleads) - that's hopeless.

ANNA
On the other hand, your situation has improved. You have a good apartment, orderly circumstances and you intend to marry. And then, of course, Isabelle's grandmother, who means a lot in this context.

MARIANNE (quietly)
It can't be possible. It can't be true (pleads)


SCENE 50 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - pianos

ISABELLE
/Isabelle at the piano/


SCENE 51 - INT STUDY - day 12

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
Late in the summer, we move back into town and the unfamiliar apartment with its unfamiliar furniture and unfamiliar smells. We made heroic efforts to create some kind of fragile ordinary life. I was free of rehearsals and acting only the odd evening in the week in a production from the previous autumn. Our lawyer made herself known. She had spoken to Martin Goldberg, well, you know, Markus's lawyer. To her surprise, Goldberg had extremely cautiously suggested shared custody to Markus and an attempt at unity. Markus had refused and broken off all contact. So what happened two weeks later, a few days before the legal decision, was very surprising. It was a Tuesday evening, rather late, at about ten.

Scenes 52 and 53
/All telephone conversations in the joint apartment and at the Lidingˆ villa./

SCENE 52 - INT JOINT APARTMENT - autumn evening

MARIANNE,DAVID
Marianne and David are watching television. The telephone in David's study rings several times. David looks at his watch.

DAVID
Who the hell's ringing at ten at night. Must be a wrong number.

MARIANNE (hastily)
I'll answer.
(She goes into the study and picks up the phone.
David stays where he is in front of the television. Marianne
says "Marianne" but no one answers) Hullo, Marianne here.


SCENE 53 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA, by the pianos, autumn evening

MARKUS

MARKUS (after a pause)
It's Markus.

MARIANNE
Markus! I didn't recognise - (stops, pause)

MARKUS (formally)
I apologise for ringing so late.

MARIANNE
It doesn't matter. We were watching tv.

MARKUS (calmly)
I just wanted to say that I'm rather tired of this conflict and would like to discuss a solution. If you want to, of course (pause) I mean for Isabelle's sake. (slight laugh)
MARKUS (cont.)
No, Marianne, I'm not drunk, if that's what you think. I'm cold stone sober, but think I've got a solution that might possibly "form the basis for an agreement".

MARIANNE
"Form the basis for an agreement"??

MARKUS
Yes, that's the way the lawyers talk.


Cont. SCENE 52 - INT JOINT APARTMENT - study

MARIANNE
- I can't say anything else - it would be tremendously - Markus dear, do you mean what you're saying -?

MARKUS (rather cheerfully) (v/o telephone)
You sound bloody confused?

MARIANNE
Yes. Yes, I probably am a bit confused. Markus dear -


Cont. SCENE 53 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - by pianos

MARKUS
Maybe we should meet?

MARIANNE
Of course. As soon as possible.

MARKUS
I would like to meet you alone. I mean, with no lawyers and without David.

MARIANNE (v/o telephone)
- but of course.

MARKUS
As soon as possible.

MARIANNE
Yes, yes, yes.

MARKUS
yes, yes, yes

MARKUS
Tomorrow at seven?

MARIANNE
Yes, that's fine. (v/o telephone)

MARKUS
I'll pick you up at seven. We'll take my car and go for a spin, then we'll have to see.


Cont. SCENE 52:1 - INT JOINT APARTMENT - Isabelle's room, evening

ISABELLE

/Isabelle is asleep, a teddy bear beside her, her thumb in her mouth/

MARIANNE v/o
Good, Markus. We must meet, you and I. Of course we must.

MARKUS (friendly) v/o
Then let's say that, Marianne. It'd be a relief once and for all to be rid of this bloody misery. And Isabelle is actually more important than everything else. We're agreed on that, anyhow, aren't we?

Cont. SCENE 52 - INT JOINT APARTMENT - living room, evening

MARIANNE,DAVID

/David cannot hear - but is uneasy/

MARIANNE (quietly)v/o
Yes, yes ... yes.

MARKUS (suddenly) v/o
Goodnight then, Marianne. Regards to David.


SCENE 54 - INT JOINT APARTMENT - autumn night

MARIANNE,DAVID,ISABELLE

The receiver is put down. Marianne says "Goodnight Markus" all the same. Puts down the receiver. Stands by the desk looking out of the window,. It has started sleeting. Then she pulls herself together and goes in to David, switches off the television and stands in front of him.

MARIANNE
That was Markus. he wants to discuss a solution and says he'll meet me tomorrow evening. Tomorrow evening at seven. He's coming to pick me up.

DAVID (calmly)
You certainly may not meet Markus alone. (pause) I forbid you to.

MARIANNE (suddenly)
You can't forbid me to do anything.

DAVID
If you meet Markus, that'll be an end to it, I'll have you know. You must be absolutely clear about that.

MARIANNE
Then an end to it it shall be. Now there's perhaps a solution within reach, and you want to stop it. For no other reason except your idiotic jealousy.

DAVID
If you can't grasp that you're risking - I think you're mad, agreeing to meet Markus alone. How the hell could you agree to any such thing?

MARIANNE
Markus sounded kind and concilatory - perhaps he's also grown tired of it. Maybe some sensible person has got him to change his mind.

DAVID
You can call me jealous or whatever you like. But I'm sure Markus is out to -

MARIANNE
Take revenge? And how is he to do that? Why can't you for once take something for what it is. Marcus has realisedIsabelle will suffer, and he's no intention of destroying any more than you and I have already destroyed. So he wants a settlement. Can't you try to see that Markus is an unusually loyal person. He doesn't go around thinking up some revenge. He feels just as sick as you and I and Isabelle do. Maybe he wanted to hurt me by taking Isabelle. But think what he is prepared to stake - his entire overseas career. And that means a lot to him.
You know that as well as I do. It's that simple, David.

/Isabelle's door is half-open. Isabelle is asleep. She has turned on her nightlight/

DAVID
And the silence he's maintained month after month, doesn't that count? Is that suddenly as if blown away? And your torments
DAVID (cont.)
and your fears and humilations? Doesn't anything of what we've been through suddenly not count? Just because on an impulse of sentimental benevolence, he says he has thought up a solution. Why can't he get it out of him on the phone?

MARIANNE
To me it is perfectly understandable that he wants to talk to me without any lawyers present - without you being present. He and I have actually lived together for eleven years. And I know him quite well.

DAVID
You don't know Markus as he is today and you've no idea what he's out for. Your sudden trust is utterly absurd. A person who's shown so much hatred and who's humiliated you right down into the shit.

MARIANNE
And how have we humiliated him? Have you thought about the way we've humiliated him?

DAVID
I've thought about it. And I'm thinking about it now. I don't think anything good can be expected from that direction.
For God's sake, Marianne. Don't you see the man's really dangerous. You've no idea about - (falls silent, remains silent)

MARIANNE
I've a suggestion.

DAVID
What suggestion?

MARIANNE
Let's phone the lawyer.

DAVID
Which bloody lawyer?

MARIANNE
Anna Berg, of course. What's the time? Half past eleven. It's rather late.

DAVID
Phone anyhow. Maybe she's got something sensible to say. Have you her number?

MARIANNE
I wrote it in the telephone book. No, nothing but the office number here. Now - Anna Berg, lawyer, 63 35 55. Here you are. Shall I, or will you? She's probably got an answerphone. Then we won't be able to -

DAVID
Of course you've got to.

MARIANNE
All right, I'll do it. 63 35 55. No, she doesn't answer. It's an answerphone of course. At this time of night.

ANNA (v/o telephone)
I am unable to speak on the phone at this moment, but please leave a message and I'll call you back.

MARIANNE
It's Marianne. I've an important question -

SCENE 56 and 57
/all telephone conversations in joint apartment and in Anna's hall/bathroom.


SCENE 55 - INT ANNA'S HALL/BATHROOM - autumn evening

ANNA

ANNA
- hullo, is that you? I was only in the bathroom and I heard your voice. How are things?

MARIANNE (v/o telephone)
Sorry to phone so late.

ANNA
That's all right. I hadn't gone to bed.

MARIANNE (v/o telephone)
David and I want your advice. You must tell us what's best.

ANNA
Oh yes. Fire away.


Cont. SCENE 56 - INT JOINT APARTMENT -

MARIANNE
Markus has rung and asked for a meeting. But he wants to meet me alone.

ANNA (v/o telephone)
Did he say what he wanted?

MARIANNE
He just said he had a proposal regarding custody. He sounded concilatory. We haven't spoken to each other for ages.


Cont. SCENE 55 - INT ANNA'S HALL/BATHROOM

ANNA
But did he say anything concrete?

MARIANNE
No, nothing concrete. But I thought he sounded anxious to get this whole thing -

ANNA(interrupting)
- And what did you say?

MARIANNE (v/o telephone)
Naturally I said I would like to meet him as soon as possible. Tomorrow evening.

ANNA
And where were you going to meet?


Cont. SCENE 56 - INT JOINT APARTMENT

MARIANNE
He was to pick me up and then - he said I could decide.

ANNA (v/o telephone)
What does David say?

MARIANNE
He's furious. He wants to forbid me. I said he can't forbid me. And that's where we stand, getting nowhere. So we agreed to ring you.
 

Cont. SCENE 55 - INT - ANNA'S HALL/BATHROOM

ANNA
So you want my advice?

Cont. SCENE 56 - INT JOINT APARTMENT

MARIANNE
Yes, please. I would - we'd be grateful, both of us.


Cont. SCENE 55 - INT ANNA'S HALL/BATHROOM

ANNA
I must tell you that there is a rule of thumb in cases like this. And I keep repeating it over and over again. So I'll do so now. Every experienced divorce lawyeradvises his or her female client against meeting a wronged husband - alone. It's much too risky and can cause untold misery. So - never alone.


Cont. SCENE 56 - INT JOINT APARTMENT

MARIANNE
- but now I've actually promised.

ANNA (v/o telephone)
If you like, I can phone Markus or his lawyer, and cancel the meeting. I mean if you think it unpleasant to do it. I can say I have advised you against it.

MARIANNE
But this is silly. I know Markus.


Cont. SCENE 56 - INT ANNA'S HALL/BATHROOM

ANNA
You should preferably say you knew Markus.

MARIANNE (v/o telephone)
Will you be mad at me if I don't take your advice, Anna?

ANNA
Wait now. No, I won't be mad at you. But I think you're doing something unwise. And risky. And also, you actually have David.


Cont. SCENE 56 - INT JOINT APARTMENT

MARIANNE
First and foremost, I have Isabelle.

ANNA (v/o telephone)
Yes, yes. You'll have to decide yourself. I can only advise you. Will you ring me as soon as possible. I very much want a report.

MARIANNE
Of course I'll will. Goodnight, Anna.


Cont. SCENE 55 - INT ANNA'S HALL/BATHROOM

ANNA
Goodnight then, Marianne. Regards to David, by the way.
For I suppose he's somewhere nearby. Goodnight.


Cont. SCENE 56 - INT JOINT APARTMENT

MARIANNE
Yes, he's right here. And sends his regards. And thanks. (rings off)
I can't take her advice.


SCENE 57 - INT STUDY - day 13

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
The next day was a Wednesday. After a sleepless night, first thing in the morning David said he would be out all day and was going to spend the night at his apartment. I thought that a good arrangement. That would spare us both. All hostilities had indeed been set aside, but we were deeply upset. David even made an effort to be kind and asked to be forgiven for his overstatement - and - well. When he was to leave for the theatre, we said goodbye and we'd phone and all that, nothing dramatic, almost to the contrary. I keep trying to remember what I was feeling that day. No, I don't remember what I was feeling.
Well, a bit foolish, perhaps. I wondered what to wear. Markus had always been interested in what I wore. He's got good taste. I tried on several alternatives as we hadn't a definite form for our meeting. In the end I thought I'd solved the problem fairly successfully and sat down on my bed with a book, but I don't think I took in anything I was reading. I must have been in a high state of tension, yes, I probably was. At ten to seven, I looked out of the window and his car was already there. I looked in the bathroom mirror and realised I was looking washed-out under my make-up, in fact I was looking awful. Markus had got out of the car, apparently pleased to see me and we attempted a clumsy embrace. He held open the car door and then we sat there for an endless period of bitter silence. Markus suggested we should drive out to Lill-Jans woods while we decided where to spend the evening. Everything went swimmingly and was actually really quite pleasant. We talked about Isabelle, of course, but not about the complications. As we talked, Markus drove out towards Fiskartorpet. It was dark by then, and there was no street lighting. Markus swung into a side road and stopped, put on the handbrake and left the engine running.


SCENE 58 - EXT+EXT/INT MARKUS' CAR/autumn evening, rain

MARIANNE,MARKUS

MARIANNE
He switched on the interior light above the driver's seat and turned to me. Perhaps you'd like to hear my proposalbefore we go on? Yes, I'd very much like to hear his proposal. He spoke emphatically slowly, smiling slightly. I couldn't see his eyes, the faint light shading his eyes. If you let me fuck you, then you can have custody. I sank downwards and inwards. I couldn't reply. He turned his face away and switched off the engine. It was quiet. We can go back to my place or to some suitable hotel, or we could simply use the back seat. We've done that before. Haven't we? His voice was totally without expression. How can I trust you to keep an agreement, I said in the end. You can't, of course, but you can take the chance. You'll be paying a fairly small price. I'm pregnant. Markus didn't reply, but drew a deep breath and remained silent.
(a long silence)
When I got back home, it was half past one in the morning.


SCENE 59 - INT JOINT APARTMENT - hall, living room, autumn night

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE v/o
Silja had left a message in the hall. Isabelle was in with her as the evening had been rather troubled. She had been crying, but wouldn't or couldn't say why. I was beyond all thought and initiative. If I had any thoughts at all, they were short words. "Cancel", for instance. I had a speech rehearsal at half past nine at the theatre. The word "shower"
MARIANNE (cont.)
passed somewhere. Another word appeared, as if written on the page of a book. "Catastrophe". Then the bedroom door opened and David came and sat down beside me on the sofa. He was dressed and grey in the face. Nothing was said for a while.

MARIANNE
Weren't you going to sleep at your place tonight?

DAVID
Yes. But by about eleven I grew uneasy and came here. I stood by the window looking down at the street. For twohours or so. You came at half past midnight. Then you sat in the car for about an hour.

MARIANNE
It took a long time, yes.

DAVID
Are you pleased with your conversation?

MARIANNE
Markus has promised me custody. With no reservations. There's to be peace at last.

DAVID
(after a silence) That sounds good.

MARIANNE
Yes, it's a relief.

DAVID
You could say it sounds rather too good.

MARIANNE
(wearily) I don't know what you're talking about.

DAVID
Did you go back home with Markus?

MARIANNE
Yes, I did go back home with Markus.

DAVID
No complications?

MARIANNE
Complications? When we'd got through the practical matters, we talked quite a bit about our present circumstances. That seemed fairly natural after our long silence.

DAVID
And then?

MARIANNE
Then? I don't know what you mean. Markus was relieved. Now that our problems were solved, he could take up his contacts with Detroit again. He was being asked about a senior post. But he's refused.

DAVID
That's all?

MARIANNE
He said something about a woman friend. But briefly. I think she's married.

DAVID
So they're living together?

MARIANNE
Obviously not.

DAVID
I'll have a glass of wine.

MARIANNE
Take mine. I don't want any more. (He fills a glass to the brim, his hand shaking)

DAVID
Tired?

MARIANNE
(close to tears) Desperately.

DAVID
At seven, you went straight back to Markus's, stayed there until about midnight. Then you sat talking in the car outside here. Until half past one?

MARIANNE
We drove to Lill-Jans woods, for we were fairly shaky at first and thought we ought to calm down. That's not really surprising. What are all these questions about, by the way? I didn't sleep with Markus, if that's what you're getting at.

DAVID
I wasn't getting at anything. But to be honest, I've been dreadfully frightened.

MARIANNE
Yes, you poor thing. But I'm actually fairly exhausted now. Can't we talk about this tomorrow? If you like. I'll answer truthfully to all your questions. Sorry I was cross.(tries to kiss David, but he turns away)

DAVID
Just one more moment.

MARIANNE
All right.

DAVID
I want to ask something of you.

MARIANNE
That sounds serious.

DAVID
More like silly.

MARIANNE
Can't we leave it till the morning?

DAVID
I want to you to take off your knickers.

MARIANNE
(says nothing)

DAVID
I said you're to take off your knickers.

MARIANNE
You're sick.

DAVID
I want to see if there are spots of sperm on your knickers. I think you're lying on one decisive point. I think you slept with Markus.

MARIANNE
(says nothing)

DAVID
(says nothing)

MARIANNE
I slept with Markus. He said that if I slept with him, I could have custody.

DAVID
Where did you sleep together?

MARIANNE
In the car. Markus suggested going to his place. But I wanted it over and done with as soon as possible.
We got into the back. I took off my panties, unbuttoned my blouse and pulled up my bra. Then I sat astride him. He was excited but kept delaying. He bit my breast and left a mark. Do you want to see it? Then he wanted me to suck him off, but he didn't come. He opened the door and pushed me out of the car, turned me over on my back and fell on me, so he got his orgasm. We got dressed and went back to his place and had a few glasses of wine. He said we should be naked. We undressed and made love on the floor. He took me from behind. All the time, I was scared he would do me serious harm. Then he wanted to force me to an orgasm. I tried to resist, but as he persisted I thought I'd do the same. I had an orgasm, although I didn't want to. I thought I'd phone for a taxi, but Markus thought we should lie on the bed and hold each other - as we used to. So we did. Then he drove me home, but I didn't want to get out of the car because I'd seen you up there in the window. I asked Markus whether we couldn't at least drive round the block, but he thought you could wait. I stayed, although I knew. Then he kissed me and said that this presumably meant the end of a long hostility.


SCENE 60 - INT STUDY - day 14

BERGMAN,DAVID

DAVID
Whenever - all these years later - I think about how I behaved, I'm filled with shame. There's no other word. (pause) That night was pure hell. And I am to blame. I realise now I was to blame. Marianne comes home shattered and humiliated. She has the courage to tell me what has happened. In detail. She doesn't cry. But her anguish is harrowing. She doesn't plead or make excuses. But perhaps she thought I would behave like an adult human being. I don't know what Marianne thought or hoped for. Now she's gone, too late I can see too late it wasn't her betraying me but me betraying her in the most infamous way. I let her down at the most important moment in our life together. All she said was: can't you try to understand. Can't you be a little kind. It all hurts so. But I was beyond all reason. I spent the night furiously interrogating her in a way - when I think about it and I often do - like pictures in a film, clearly etched, and spoken words, my words, all ground out over and over again. I went on for hours, a kind of obsession. One circumstance - I was tormented by something called restropective jealousy. During our intensely erotic escapade in Paris, almost jokingly I had questioned Marianne on her previous experiences. She was gullible and walked into the trap, probably slightly touched by my interest. That's how she came to tell me - in some detail - about her relationship with Markus. How under some circumstances she achieved an intensity of feeling she had never experienced - either before or since. That went deep in and became a small but infected wound. That night, the night of the catastrophe, the wound burst and I could do nothing about it. I can see myself. I can see Marianne, her face.
 

SCENE 61 INT JOINT APARTMENT - living room, autumn night MARIANNE,DAVID

DAVID v/o
It wasn't that I was shouting or hitting her. I was quite calm and almost courteous, but I was going to make her tell me in detail: did you feel desire, did you enjoy your exercises, was it perhaps the same as it had been before between you and Markus, like you told me so candidly in Paris.
Didn't you think about the child, our child? Had you no qualms of conscience? Or was your guilty conscience part of your enjoyment? Did you agree to meet again? Isn't it perhaps the only right thing for you to have several lovers at once? That perhaps stimulates your readiness? Perhaps you want to make love to me at this very moment? We could try. It'd be fairly exciting, wouldn't it? I mean as an experiment in advanced theology. I went on like that for hour after hour. I remember Marianne was stunned into silence. I remember her face. She was looking at me, never turning her eyes away, nor crying, just saying quietly

MARIANNE
Couldn't you stop now? Couldn't you be a little kind?
Can't you let me sleep? I'm falling apart. You mustn'tsay that about the child, it could be harmful, might harm the child. David dear.

DAVID v/o
But I didn't stop. I went on and on, tormenting her. That guilt, I'll never get away from that insight. Worst of all, probably - now that I think back on it - is that Marianne never defended herself. She just looked at me. Steadily - she must - hate me. All her life she was to have to carry the memory of my voice, my words, my face. She realised I was letting her down just when she needed me most. But she never reproached me.
She never showed any bitterness. But she hated - (silence).
DAVID (cont.)
I wish I could go to confession. I wish I could confess my betrayal. That I could be sentenced to a punishment that obliterated my guilt. But I suppose my punishment is still going on, and it is a life sentence. I will never get away from it because Marianne has gone.


SCENE 62 - INT STUDY - day 15

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
For some reason which I forget, the divorce proceedings were postponed twice, but took place on the eleventh of November. Markus had, of course, ignored our wretched agreement (had I ever thought otherwise?) I couldn't bring myself to remind him, it was all so degrading. David and I tried to repair our sex life. I suppose I could say quite successfully. But all the joy had gone. Our affinity lay in our misery. We grieved for something lost, and it became a comradeship in damnation. Without asking David, I had an abortion. He was temporarily away. When he came back, I told him about the abortion. He said nothing for a long time and then just said: "poor Marianne". I at once began to cry. I hadn't cried before then. He embraced me and we clung to each other. Now we're really are down in the shit, he said. And we clutched at each other. Yet I think we felt relief.

(pause)

Then the court proceedings began. Our relationship was presented in detail. Markus was quiet and pale. We greeted each other politely and said goodbye just as politely. Then came the verdict. I was given sole custody. The nightmare was over, but went on, obscurely, but tangibly. We agreed that Isabelle
MARIANNE (cont.)
should be with Markus as often as he wanted, but he made no move in that direction for months. Isabelle tactfully asked more and more often whether Markus didn't want to see her. I finally phoned Markus. He sounded politely embarrassed and excused himself by saying he had been on bad form recently. But he would like to see Isabelle now. There would be regular meetings. We decided that Silja should go with Isabelle to Markus's place for an early dinner. Then they would go to the cinema. It was a Friday.


SCENE 63 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - living room, late winter afternoon

MARKUS,ISABELLE

ISABELLE
Outside the Summer House at Grandmother's there's a meadow. Sheep graze it. I wanted to pat a sheep, but everyone said you couldn't do that. I took a piece of crispbread with me and went up to one after another, but they moved away the moment I got to them.

MARKUS
I suppose you got tired of it in the end?

ISABELLE
No, I didn't, because I'd decided. Then I thought if I don't run after the sheep all the time, but sit on a stone with the bread in my hand, and sit absolutely still, perhaps the sheep would begin to wonder and be inquisitive, and come up to find out what kind of creature I was, just sitting there.

MARKUS
What happened? Did a sheep come?


ISABELLE
It was a huge old ewe. She was shaggy and she had two lambs with her. At first she just stared and stared at me. Then she came quite quickly and butted me with her nose just here (points at her chest) and then she took the bread terribly cautiously and started munching it. I put out my hand and placed it on the sheep's head. She stood quite still at first, then she moved away.

MARKUS
Did she recognise you the next day?

ISABELLE
No, she was just the same the next day. Grandmother said I smelt too much of dog and that was why.

MARKUS
Listen Isabelle. I'd like us to have a little talk.

ISABELLE
Aren't we going to the cinema?

MARKUS
We can go to the cinema another evening.

ISABELLE
I suppose we could, though it would have been fun to go this evening. We never know when you have time.

MARKUS
We'll go to the same cinema, the same film, tomorrow evening. That's good, because it's Saturday.

ISABELLE
But you mustn't forget, like you do sometimes.

MARKUS
I promise I won't forget.

ISABELLE
What's so important that we can't go this evening, although you promised.

MARKUS
You should know what the situation is, Isabelle. You're old enough to understand. That's why we must have a talk.

ISABELLE
But perhaps I don't want to hear.

MARKUS
You and I have always talked so well to each other.

ISABELLE
I suppose so.

MARKUS
I want to prepare you for the fact that what I'm going to say is going to hurt. But it has to hurt. Just like at the doctor's, it hurts for you to get better. Do you understand what I mean?

ISABELLE
Why does it have to hurt?

MARKUS
The thing is, I'm no longer your father. The court has decided that I am no longer your father, and you have to obey the law and put up with it. We aren't allowed to be together whenever we want, you and me. Other people decide when you and I may meet. Do you see?

ISABELLE
But who decides?

MARKUS
Your mother, actually. And perhaps David. I'm not sure. Other people. I have to ask permission to take you to the cinema tomorrow evening.

ISABELLE
I think that sounds a bit peculiar.

MARKUS
It sounds peculiar because it is peculiar. Especially when you think about your mother not being - how shall I put it - all that interested.

ISABELLE
What do you mean, interested?

MARKUS
Well, you know she went off with David and left you with your grandmother. And then you were ill. But your mother didn't bother to come back and look after her little girl. She preferred to be with David in Paris. Then you have to consider Grandmother - who's so kind and thoughtful - Grandmother is old and rather tired. She finds it a strain. That's understandable. And now Silja's leaving and going back to Finland to get married. But I'm not allowed to look after you. The court has decided that. If I look after you all the same and we go somewhere, then I'd be sent to prison. I always have to think about being careful, so that I can meet you despite all this. You know David and your mother dislike me. They can't bear me even existing. So I'm not allowed to like you as I want to, because then I wouldn't be allowed to be with you at all. I presume you know your mother had a child for a while. Did you know that?


ISABELLE
No, I didn't. (starts feeling cold)

MARKUS
Yes, your mother had a child and David was the child's father. But he didn't want children and your mother just wanted David. So he had a doctor take the child out with knife and tongs. So the child died. I'm telling you all this because I'm worried about you. You're becoming very lonely, Isabelle. And you'll find out how miserable it is to be as lonely as you'll have to be. The problem is that you have no one to trust. But worst of all is not to be loved. That's the most difficult thing in life. I'm saying this as if in advance, so that you don't have to discover the truth bit by bit. It's better if you know what the situation is. Do you see, Isabelle?

ISABELLE
I don't know, I think I understand.
(She is cold)


SCENE 64A - INT STUDY - day 16/evening

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
A few weeks after the abortion, I reported back to work and was rather precipitately given a part really intended for an older actress. I was grateful. Days of loneliness had become long, and sporadic life with David wounding and uncertain. So now I could return to the order and rituals of the theatre. It was healing. I also really liked the part of leader of the chorus in Euripides' "The Bacchae". The chorus was training hard because we had to sing as well as dance. We were in a spacious hall up in the roof of the theatre.
 

SCENE 65 - INT RHEARSAL ROOM - winter afternoon

MARIANNE, Bacchae chorus, stage manager, telephonist

MARIANNE
"Happy is the one who stands above the trials of fate! Here on earth each has his time: power and wealth constantly changing. A thousand hearts hold a thousand hopes. Some lead to misfortune for us humans, others take the road to success. He who can enjoy the happiness of the short day - I count as happy." Description of scene: 12 women are sitting in a circle. They raise their oil lamps in the semi-darkness and sing a chorus. The chorus has been written by Daniel BÛrtz.
I remember sitting there with my friends and feeling an intimate contentment. I had gone through a life crisis, almost a disaster, but had come through it all fairly unscathed, perhaps even wiser. Anyhow, it was good to be sitting there on the floor with my friends. To be singing, looking at the still flames of the candles. Suddenly someone opened the door far away in the darkened room. It was one of the girls on the exchange. She tiptoed up to our circle and leant over me.
She had to speak to me, immediately. I excused myself and we went out. I was told at once. Markus had tried to kill himself. He had been taken to hospital. The girl from reception gave me a piece of paper on which she'd written the department telephone number and the name of the Sister on duty.


SCENE 66 - INT HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - HOSPITAL ROOM - late afternoon, winter

MARIANNE,MARKUS,SISTER ELIN

MARIANNE v/o
Half an hour later, I was in Ward 76 (intensive care). Sister Elin at once came over to me and introduced herself.
MARIANNE (cont.)
Matter-of-factly and concisely, she told me what had happened. Markus had been admitted at about eleven that morning. He was deeply unconscious, beyond all resuscitation. He had probably taken sleeping pills as early as the Saturday afternoon. She asked me if I wanted to speak to the doctor. He would come at any time. I didn't want to speak to any doctor. Sister Elin mentioned that a Mrs Danelius had also come in the ambulance. She had just left, but would be back later. I asked if I could go in to Markus for a minute or two.
Sister Elin held open the door. It was a very small room, and now about four o'clock, already dark. The bedside light was turned to the wall, snow blowing against the window. Sister Elin left the room and closed the door. I had never seen - I felt a strange diffidence and didn't dare look at his face.
I gazed at his hands. After a while, I found the courage to look.
His face was small, his mouth half-open. His hair was iron grey, greyer than I remembered, and he had several days' stubble. Cracked lips. This was near Death. (silence) Loneliness. Alienation.


SCENE 67 - EXT LONG DESERTED STREET - winter afternoon

MARIANNE v/o
Well. Then I left him, all my senses numbed. I left him and walked all the way home. That took an hour. I phoned Sister Elin. Markus had already died. I went in to Isabelle. She was at her little desk doing her homework.


SCENE 68 - INT JOINT APARTMENT/Isabelle's room, winter evening

MARIANNE,ISABELLE


MARIANNE v/o
I told her that Markus had died. Isabelle sat quite still, her hands on her textbook. She kept swallowing, then switched off the desk lamp, but nothing was said. I sat on her bed for a while and held out my hand to touch her, but she veered away. I asked her whether she would prefer to be left alone and she nodded.


Cont. SCENE 64B - INT STUDY - day 16, evening

MARIANNE,BERGMAN

MARIANNE
A few weeks after the funeral, I went to see Mrs Danelius. I remembered Sister Elin mentioning a Mrs Danelius who had been with him in the ambulance. I telephoned her and asked whether we might meet. She suggested I came to her place, that perhaps that would be best. She lived alone in a large villa.


SCENE 69A - INT MARGARETA'S HOUSE - living room, winter's day

MARIANNE, MARGARETA

MARGARETA
So, my name's Margareta.

MARIANNE
And so, I'm the one who's Marianne.

MARGARETA
How is Isabelle?

MARIANNE
Not too good, I think. The problem is she won't talk either to me or anyone else.

MARGARETA
Isabelle's a very unusual little person.

MARIANNE
You know her?

MARGARETA
We haven't met all that often. But Markus has told me.
He was much taken with his daughter.

MARIANNE
Is it tactless to ask how you knew Markus.

MARGARETA
I've known him for twenty years or so. Well, strictly speaking, twenty-three this spring.

MARIANNE
Known?

MARGARETA
We didn't know each other particularly well in the early years. That was mostly passion, or whatever you call it.

MARIANNE
So you and Markus had a relationship. You lived together.

MARGARETA (smiles)
No, no. We've never lived together.

MARIANNE
But a relationship?

MARGARETA
Not continuously. Markus had his trips abroad and - other arrangements. (small smile)
MARGARETA (cont.)
I was much married with a large family. Three children. I've been a widow for several years now and live alone in this far too big house. The children have flown, as they say.

MARIANNE
I'd really like to know whether you were with Markus during our marriage.

MARGARETA
Yes, we were together during your marriage. I think you and Markus - no. No.

MARIANNE
What were you going to say?

MARGARETA
Nothing really.

MARIANNE
Weren't you ever jealous?

MARGARETA
How could I be jealous of Markus? Presumably I would have gone mad. I was never the only one, if I can put it that way.

MARIANNE
Then you know quite a lot about me.

MARGARETA
Markus never talked about you and I never asked. Yes, when you went to Paris with your friend.

MARIANNE
I imagine you heard quite a lot about that.


MARGARETA
Not that much. Markus hoped it would end between you and David. Not until he saw it was "hopeless" - did he - he used that word "hopeless". Then he changed. (silence)

MARIANNE
Changed?

MARGARETA
Wrought up, rancorous and - afraid. (looks at Marianne)

MARIANNE
Weren't you there at the recording of the Brahms quartet for radio a few years ago? You were page-turner for Markus, weren't you? I remember wondering who that lovely woman was sitting beside Markus.

MARGARETA
I was going to be a musician ... I went to the Academy, but didn't think I had sufficient talent. So I opted out and got married
(silence).
You wanted to speak to me. Was it anything special?

MARIANNE
Sister Elin mentioned that a Mrs Danelius had come with him in the ambulance. So I began to wonder, and I found out who you were and where you lived. Markus never mentioned you.

MARGARETA
I know. Markus could be open, and also very reticent. For long periods we couldn't meet, then we talked on the phone. You know, on the phone - we became genuine, if you know what I mean. Genuine. I don't think we ever lied to each other. Why should we? There were no demands, nothing to be guarded about. But I never could understand -

MARIANNE
I see -

MARGARETA
I say to myself that I ought to have realised. I say that over and over again. I ought to have realised and stopped it. I have such a guilty conscience.

MARIANNE
I see, I think I understand.

MARGARETA
We had met on the Friday morning. I had left my gloves behind. I knew his housekeeper would be off duty on the Monday, because Markus had a concert in Oslo. I thought I could fetch my gloves on the Monday. I have a key. I took the gloves down off the hat shelf.


SCENE 70 - INT LIDING÷ VILLA - living room, winter's day

MARIANNE,MARKUS

MARGARETA v/o
I took the gloves and was just about to leave. Then I saw that he was sitting in the big chair facing the window, an empty wine bottle and a glass on the table. I went closer. I saw the two table jars on the floor, the lids off. There was a letter in Markus's handwriting on the table: "to whomever it concerns" he had written. I rang for an ambulance and all that.
Markus was already deeply unconscious.


Cont. SCENE 69B - INT MARGARETA'S HOUSE

MARGARETA
I waited for a while. Then I went home and read his letter. I have it here if you'd like to read it, but he was probably confused when he wrote it. Markus's handwriting isn't easy to read, but this letter is almost impossible to make out. I've spent several days trying to. If you like, I could read it to you?

MARIANNE
(accepts in silence)

MARGARETA
The beginning alone is totally incomprehensible, but here: (reads) - two old friends or rather acquaintances,they have been married for many years. They decided not to live any longer. They took their sleeping tablets, went to bed, held hands and died together. I wanted Isabelle and I to do the same. I talked at length to my daughter about how we would set about it. She wanted to die together with me. We had agreed on Saturday morning, and she was to come here at ten o'clock. I waited for several hours. In the end I phoned and asked when she would be coming. She was crying and said she wasn't coming, that she was frightened. I tried to calm her and said it was quite natural that she had changed her mind and that most of all she wasn't to reproach herself. I told her I loved her more than anyone else.
Whatever happens to her or me, we would be indissolubly united, always. Well, so I decided to go it alone.
(Margareta stops reading and sits without saying anything)

MARGARETA (cont.)
Then everything becomes hard to make out and his handwriting is almost illegible. Here it says: "I thought I lived in freedom but suddenly saw I was imprisoned". And here again: "Isabelle has been taken from me and I am left empty-handed".
MARGARETA (cont.)
(she turns the letter to read something written sideways in the margin) I don't understand this at all: "Essentially, I am already dead". No signature."
(silence)


SCENE 71
1. Lidingˆ villa - Isabelle is playing the piano.
2.Desolate landscape, in it a small figure


EPILOGUE:

SCENE 72A - INT STUDY - cont. day 16/night

LENA,BERGMAN

Lena gets up and stands behind Bergman's back. He is still at his desk, no longer able to see her face.

LENA
If  I'm to be absolutely honest, I'm not particularly pleased with your Marianne. There were far too many question marks.

BERGMAN
My Marianne? By the way, how did things go for those two we call Marianne and David?

LENA (laughing quietly)
Well, just listen to this. David was at last allowed to make a film. It takes place on a desert island in the ocean. The team went off and were away for two months. David came back with a tan and a guilty conscience. He had been unfaithful to Marianne with the new (very new) leading lady. He thought it would pass and asked for patience. And indulgence.

BERGMAN
And Marianne?

LENA
She showed neither patience nor indulgence.


SCENE 73 - INT JOINT APARTMENT - whole apartment - day

MARIANNE,DAVID

MARIANNE(furious)
Go to hell. I never want to see you again. To hell with you. I've no patience left, and no indulgence. Go away. You're not to humiliate me yet again, not yet again, do you hear. I'm going to live my own life and will not submit. Get out, I said. And it'll be bloody marvellous to be rid of you. At last. After all the misery you've caused. Take your little tart and go!
(A door slams. David has gone. Marianne lets out a scream and slams the other door.)


Cont. SCENE 72B STUDY - day 16/night

LENA,BERGMAN.
LENA (laughing slightly)
She screamed so much, she was hoarse for a whole week.

BERGMAN
And then?

LENA
Then they became friends for life. Though studiously apart.

BERGMAN
Marianne drowned.

LENA
Yes, she died ...
/or the Voice does not reply/
(pause)

BERGMAN
The end then.

LENA
That's probably how it'll be.

BERGMAN
Thanks for your help.

LENA
I suppose we'll see each other again some time? At the theatre, or somewhere.

BERGMAN
God knows. I've given up planning things.

LENA
Now I really must go.

BERGMAN
It'll be lonely without you.

LENA
Thanks, nice of you to say so. Goodnight then.

BERGMAN
Goodnight.


SCENE 74 - EXT F≈R÷

- night, moonlight
Lena walks along the shore. Empty shore.

THE END