Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942)

Dominique - un ménestrel : Men have loved me, as they like to whisper in my ear. I let them. Is it my fault if they wept, gave everything for me, even their lives? The young men were passionate; the old men crawled at my feet.

Gilles - un ménestrel : When did I ever cry or throw myself at your feet?

Dominique - un ménestrel : [snorts] You're different - greedy, stubborn, proud. You just want to be loved, to take without giving, to keep it all and leave.

Gilles - un ménestrel : Like you!

Dominique - un ménestrel : You hunted me like a cat hunts a mouse - but we're both cats, there is no mouse. It's not our fault. We both thought we'd caught a tender new victim... two executioners, face to face and no one to torture. How sad.

[walking through the palace garden in the moonlight, Anne and Gilles see a man and a woman kissing]

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : My page Guillaume with Agnes? I didn't know they were in love.

Gilles - un ménestrel : They're not. For them, it's a game. They toy with love. That's the one who truly loves Guillaume.

[Anne turns and sees a servant hiding in the bushes]

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : Louison?

Gilles - un ménestrel : She hides and watches them. She wants to cry. She's ugly; no one loves her.

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : If she loves him, why is she ugly? It's not fair. It makes me sad, too.

Gilles - un ménestrel : I don't want you to be sad tonight.

[Gilles magically transforms Louison into a lovely young woman]

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : She's beautiful now!

Gilles - un ménestrel : It's nothing - the devilish beauty of youth.

[Gilles, whose memory of Anne has been erased by the Devil, finds her sitting at their fountain]

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : Are you thirsty?

[Anne fills her hands with spring water]

Gilles - un ménestrel : The water is so sweet.

[they kiss]

Gilles - un ménestrel : Your lips are sweet, too.

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : Gilles!

Gilles - un ménestrel : [remembering] Anne!

[Anne stops crying and runs to Gilles when he enters her bedroom]

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : Ah, Gilles! I knew you loved me!

[they kiss passionately]

Gilles - un ménestrel : Alas, we are under a spell and once it dissipates, you'll see me as I truly am - miserable and alone.

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : I love you!

Gilles - un ménestrel : Anne, I belong to the Devil. I'm among his friends. If you love me, it's probably thanks to him.

Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne : You look proud of yourself. How dare you gaze into a lady's eyes while crooning such nonsense?

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : Renaud, please!

Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne : If I had you hung, would you sing as sweetly with a rope around your throat?

Gilles - un ménestrel : I doubt it.

Le baron Renaud - le fiancé d'Anne : Then sing no more if you value the pitiful thing you call your life!

Le baron Hugues - le châtelain, père d'Anne : Sing us another song.

Gilles - un ménestrel : [singing] The tender and dangerous face of love, Appeared to me one night after an endless day, Perhaps is was an archer with his bow, Perhaps a musician with his harp, I know no more, I know nothing, All I know, Is that he wounded me, Perhaps with an arrow, Perhaps with a song, All I know, Is that he wounded me, His shot hit my heart wounded forever, Burning, Ardently burning, This wound of love...

Le baron Hugues - le châtelain, père d'Anne : I believe my daughter would like to hear sweet things that touch the heart. Stories of romance, the yearnings of simple hearts. Are there any singers in the hall?

Gilles - un ménestrel : [singing] Demons and marvels, Winds and waves, Far away already, The tide has gone out, And you like seaweed, Caressed by the wind, In the dunes of your bed, You stir in your sleep, Demons and marvels, Winds and waves, Far away already, The tide has gone out, But in your half-open eyes, Two little waves, Still remain, Demons and marvels, Winds and waves, Two little waves, To drown myself in...

Gilles - un ménestrel : As soon as I saw you, I knew why I'd traveled so far. I thanked Heaven for leading me to you.

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : As soon as I saw you, I knew you'd come for me. I knew it. I'm sure my life will change.

Gilles - un ménestrel : Do you regret it?

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : No.

Gilles - un ménestrel : Will you regret it?

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : Never. Even if it makes me suffer.

Gilles - un ménestrel : Those who love never suffer. Look at them. Do they suffer? No. They feel marvelously alone, the moonlight shines on their love. And those two star-gazers, what are they thinking of? Nothing. Not even the stars. They are together, in love. They are happy.

Gilles - un ménestrel : It isn't worth a single tear, it's nothing but a story invented to amuse the Devil. Believe me, no one loves anyone. Everyone pretends! They stalk their prey, set traps.

Gilles - un ménestrel : If you'd truly loved me, I might have loved you.

Dominique - un ménestrel : If you'd truly loved me, I, too, might have loved you.

Gilles - un ménestrel : Dominque!

Dominique - un ménestrel : Go on. Scare me. Hit me. Kill me. Slit my throat. My handsome love.

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : I was so happy, then suddenly, I thought of Renaud. He also said, "I love you, Anne." But with the same hard voice in which he says: "I love my dogs. I love hunting. I love killing whatever flies or leaps." "I love you, Anne. You'll be mine forever." Forever. Is it possible for a person to totally belong to another?

Gilles - un ménestrel : Some call that love.

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : Then is love like death? We no longer exist? It's all over? Why? If you love me, don't hurt me, don't lock me up, let me live! Love me as I love you - simply.

Gilles - un ménestrel : Why stir up long-dead things?

Dominique - un ménestrel : Who killed them? Did I? Did you? Or both? Who nipped in the bud our story of love?

Gilles - un ménestrel : I believed myself utterly alone, yet since I've found you, I'm even more lost, more alone, more desperate. Anne, to me, you are all the love in the world - and all I can bring you is sorrow and despair.

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : Gilles, hold me in your arms. Once more, tell me you love me.

Gilles - un ménestrel : Anne, you are so simple, so young, so sweet, and so alive! Protect me. Teach me to live. Before I met you, I only pretended. My heart was like ice.

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : Gilles, my love, be happy and at peace. My body is close to yours, your heart beats with mine, our bodies, our hearts are one. Nothing can ever separate us.

Gilles - un ménestrel : Anne, I love you. And on one - do you hear? No one can stop me from loving you!

Gilles - un ménestrel : [singing] Sad lost children, We wander through the night, Where are day's blooms? Love's pleasures? Life's radiance?

Dominique - un ménestrel : Why bother, Gilles?

Gilles - un ménestrel : I enjoy dong good sometimes.

Dominique - un ménestrel : Why bother?

Gilles - un ménestrel : The devilish beauty of youth.

Anne Hugue - la fille du baron qui se fiance avec Renaud : I don't believe in the Devil.

Gilles - un ménestrel : You're lucky.