DELICIOUS AND TRAGIC

Screenplay by Francis Lemoine

 

SYNOPSIS

 

Lyon, spring 2023.

In their apartment, Monica and Gérard, an attractive couple who have just passed their forties, are relaxing. The guests have left. Monica is lying on the couch, a glass in her hand, with Gérard at her feet playing "Thaïs' meditation" on the violin. 3am, the doorbell rings. Fabrice, her lifelong friend, is standing in front of the door with his hands covered in blood. During the night, Gérard drives Fabrice to the hospital at high speed. He is taken care of immediately. In the emergency department, Gérard waits... He is dozing, day is breaking... Without seeing him, Solange, a friend from college, passes by, a bouquet of roses in her hand. She has come to visit her sister Sylvie who has terminal cancer and is waiting to die. She reproaches her sister Solange for taking refuge in denial. Euthanasia remains a taboo word, it is a shame. She would like to sleep and die. Gérard finally sees, in the distance, in the corridor, the puny silhouette and the agitated gait of his friend Fabrice. He has a headband on his head that covers the beginnings of his baldness. He, the philosophy teacher who is constantly remaking the world, doesn't understand anymore! As he was leaving the party, some young people attacked him with knives to steal his scooter. Being ready to kill for a scooter! How is that possible?

As they were leaving the hospital, Gérard and Fabrice stopped! They saw a blond woman, with a classic look, with fine features, coming out of the elevator... It was indeed Solange, a friend from college that they hadn't seen for years.

All very happy to see each other again, they shared some news. Solange is a history teacher in Valence and ended up marrying Michel, their friend from college. He is a medical representative and works in the same laboratory as Daniel, also a friend from college. They exchanged phone numbers and Gérard promised to call her to invite them all to dinner one evening.

 

Meanwhile, Michel and Daniel are at a seminar in Cannes. Michel, the eternal pessimist, is very worried. He had an interview with his regional director who wants to fire him. In the evening, he joins his friend Daniel at the bar and confides his anxieties. Daniel, the inveterate flirt, is having sex with girls to escape the daily grind that bores him. He advises him to get drunk, on alcohol, women, music of all kinds, but he has to get drunk.

 

It's the big night. Monica and Gérard welcome their old college friends. They resume the discussions they had started, a long time ago. With a touch of ideology and philosophy, they remake the world. They affirm, they oppose, they rebel, they share, but despite their differences, they enjoy debating. They are well, they feel a breath of fresh air blowing over their ideas that fly away pell-mell. At the end of the evening, the towel around the head, sitting cross-legged, everyone has fun doing a musical blind test. Without restraint, they sing, they exchange knowing smiles. The bursts of laughter and the music revive their friendships.

 

Fabrice, after having treated his wounds, has returned to work. He gives a philosophy class. He asks his students if lying can be moral. The student Mohamed is offended and recalls the lie of the Americans in front of the UN that caused five hundred thousand deaths by authorizing the war against Iraq! Silence reigns in the room. Fabrice is stunned! He knows that Mohamed is right.

 

We find Michel in Professor Durieux's office. Following recurring heartburn, he came to have a gastric fibroscopy. Professor Durieux, half-man, half-robot, conducts his consultation with his eyes fixed on his computer and tells Michel that he has an ulcer. He is afraid of cancer and seeks reassurance. Professor Durieux answers him coldly without reassuring him that they must wait for the results of the biopsies.

 

It is a Saturday night in Lyon. They have decided to discover a libertine club. Kristin and Solange find themselves in their twenties again and dance under the sunlights. Their faces are close to each other and this proximity triggers an attraction that ends with a long kiss. Surprised, confused, hesitant, they start again. This first time is so intense that they already hope it will not be the last.

 

Monday 8 a.m. The doorbell rings. Michel, still under the influence of Lexomil, wanders to the door to open it to the postman, who hands him a registered letter. His blood runs cold when he reads: "Summon for a preliminary dismissal interview. »

 

It’s spring, daybreak over the hills. Monica has invited all her friends to come and spend the weekend at her family home in Ardèche. At lunchtime, the debates get lively. It’s a real political meeting. Everything is discussed, immigration, attacks, the left, the right. The sentences fly. Gérard tells Fabrice that communism serves venality men and that equality is just a pretext. Fabrice retorts that sixty people own half of the world's wealth and that one day it's going to blow up in our faces. Daniel, the anarchist, praises Bakunin and castigates capitalism, which for him feeds on cynicism and horror. Michel points out that only revolutions bring a bit of fat to the people. He believes in the power and wisdom of people and says "If there's only one left, I'll be that one." Monica brings them back to reality and suggests taking a walk on the Verona ford. In the evening, after a good dinner, Gérard announces that he has some weed! Well settled under the stars and wrapped up in blankets, the joints are passed around followed by the bottle of Mirabelle brandy. Gérard is high, Michel does a series of masterful farts. He expresses his fear of being constipated. Kristin, who is discreetly flirting with Solange, explains to her, as a doctor, that this fear is called apopathodiaphulatophobia. This incredible word surprises and each in turn, they try to pronounce it. But the mixture of laughter, weed and alcohol, quickly transforms the exercise into a hilarious sketch. Gérard again offers a glass of mirabelle brandy. They have fun, each in turn, shouting a poem or a quote. Sometimes moved, sometimes cheerful, they applaud each other, they are good. The evening ends in drunkenness and good humor.

 

It's Thursday, Kristin and Solange are walking in a park. They are surprised that it took them so long to realize that a woman could attract them. Already in love with each other, they savor this moment of intimacy that a phone call will break. Solange receives a call from Dr. Pujol who tells her that her sister has died.

 

Two weeks later: Michel is standing in his GP's office. He tells her that he has stomach cancer! Michel falls down on the chair as if struck by lightning. He leaves the office and walks. He walks aimlessly, he passes in front of a grocery store and buys a bottle of whiskey. He returns to his car, turns off his phone, swallows three Lexomil tablets, collapses on his steering wheel and cries.

He starts his car, he has an immediate need; to drive, drive to escape. He starts talking out loud, as if to confess. He talks about Monica, whom he has always loved since college. He drinks and gets angry with him because he didn't do anything, he didn't say anything, like an idiot, he never knew how to make a decision. He didn't choose his life, he suffered it. Half drunk he starts talking to death. He doesn't see it, but he hears it! It tells him: "Accept me and I will deliver you." So he stops at the side of the road, walks along a bridge and makes his decision.

 

Michel's funeral takes place in his native village of Sonnay in Isère. Kristin supports Solange by the arm and suggests that she come and rest for a few days at her place. Kristin has decided to reveal their relationship to her husband Daniel.

 

Three months later: Daniel is in a hotel room, half drunk. He is with Sonia, a young Romanian prostitute. He explains to her that society disgusts him, that he has become an alcoholic and that he has been screwing whores since his wife left him. That he has no friends since Michel died, that life is macabre and he, at the moment, with her, he is making a carnival of it and he is annoying the whole world. Whores bring him carnal pleasure, enjoyment and life is nothing other than this carnal moisture, of desire of men and women who caress each other, who give themselves, who separate, who embrace, who get tired. All the rest is just futility and useless agitation.

 

Country house in Ardèche. Monica is on the terrace, surrounded by Gérard and Fabrice. They have come to spend the weekend and they are waiting for Kristin and Solange. They arrive hand in hand and Monica notices that they make a beautiful couple.

 

Sunday evening. Return by car to Lyon. Monica and Gérard arrive at their apartment. Monica takes off her bracelet and slips, naked, into her bed. She thinks about Kristin and Solange's assumed homosexuality. Fantasies cross her mind... She falls asleep and has an erotic dream.

 

MONICA'S EROTIC DREAM.

She goes home alone, takes off her jacket and she appears in a short, flowing white dress. She sees an intense white light upstairs. Slowly she crosses the living room, climbs the stairs, goes along the mezzanine and stops in front of the half-open door where a strange light emerges. She looks into the bedroom and discovers a man sleeping on his stomach with a sheet barely covering his lower back. Monica contemplates this Apollo sleeping half-naked! Then a hand rests on her shoulder! It is Gérard who with a knowing look invites her to discover this stranger. Monica approaches, slips into bed and desire carries them away. She is a libertine woman.

END OF MONICA'S EROTIC DREAM.

 

7:30 a.m. The alarm clock rings. Monica has trouble coming back to reality. Pensive, she thinks about her dream and tells herself that it was good. She gets ready, arrives at her work, in an open space when Gérard calls her, all euphoric. He has just got tickets for the Sarah Chang concert. Monica is delighted. They arrange to meet at 12:30 for lunch.

 

The sky is sad, the sidewalks are soaked, Monica walks with a determined step to meet Gérard. She crosses the street and an explosion throws her to the ground! The shock is violent. She is lying on her back, her head to the side. Blood is flowing from her ear. Her bracelet has been torn off her wrist. Gérard rushes. Half-conscious, she tells him she had a very beautiful dream. Gérard is shaking, he is afraid, his whole being is hanging on her lips. Monica whispers to him: "I would have liked to be... a libertine woman... with you, like in my dream... It was good." Then, she gives him a last smile and loses consciousness.

The noise becomes hellish. Police officers invade the street and secure the area. Firefighters' sirens roar amidst the screaming victims. Stretcher-bearers carry Monica into an ambulance. Gerard is terrified.

 

Two weeks later: Silence reigns in the intensive care unit. Monica is still in a coma…

Gérard has been watching for days and nights. He mechanically caresses Monica’s bracelet. Everything seems frozen. The monitoring continues to beat time. Then he has an idea! He takes out his smartphone, puts the headphones on Monica and selects “The Meditation of Thaïs.” He waits… Nothing, still nothing. He turns up the volume. No reaction. So, he makes promises to her by speaking out loud; he will give her all of Baudelaire’s books so that she can get drunk in his secret garden. He will play the violin for her if she is sad. They will return to the club… She will be able to be a libertine woman, like in her dream. But Monica remains without reaction… So Gérard, worn out, resigned, gets up and approaches the window that overlooks a park. He looks at the people walking down the aisles… He hears the monitoring speeding up, he turns around and sees Monica, her eyes open, smiling at him. He rushes over, hugs her and covers her with kisses. They remain motionless, frozen by emotion. Monica finally opens her eyes again.

 

Her gaze falls on the bed. She observes her left leg, her foot pointing under the sheets. Then she stiffens, her blood freezes, her breathing stops… She pushes Gérard away. Her gaze once again runs over the shape of her left leg, her foot under the sheets… But on the right, nothing… still nothing… emptiness. It’s horror, she realizes the terrible reality… Her right leg has been amputated!

 

At that moment, Gérard knows that she knows. He goes to get the resuscitation doctor. He leaves the room and waits in the hallway. After an interminable wait, his stomach in knots, he prepares to return to Monica. As soon as he enters the room, she tenderly asks him if he would bring her a Coke.

He complies and when he comes back, he stops in front of the door that has remained ajar, he hesitates, takes a step, and discovers an empty bed.

He sees a chair at the foot of the window that has remained open… The wind shakes the curtain… Gérard, terrified, puts his hands to his face. He presses himself against the door frame. Collapsed by the pain, he lets himself slide to the ground…

Freeze frame.

 

END