Love Letters (1983) Movie Script
My darling,
remembering as I sit here, those last days
before we met in Los Angeles,
they now seem very significant.
For though they consisted only in waiting,
I knew as I waited my life was about to change.
And even though I've returned home now,
in all likelihood never see you again,
it is true that I am a new and better person,
for with you I've known the fullest love possible.
It feels like a long time ago.
Six months.
It's not so long, really.
All this began then,
just as it ended now,
with Momma.
- Momma?
- Anna, come in.
- Why are you sitting with the lights off for?
- Waiting for you.
Listening for you.
What's this?
- What do you think?
- Gardenias, my favorite.
It's not even the season.
- Smell?
Did you listen to my show today?
- Don't I always?
Anna, you're the only thing in my life that's really...
turned out.
That I can really be proud of.
I want you to know that.
- Please don't, Momma.
- You won't make the same kind of mistakes that I did.
So much smarter than I ever was.
I have...
something...
important...
for you.
You've never seen this before.
I've had it for a long, long time.
- Who gave it to you?
Not Daddy.
- It doesnt fit anymore.
I never really could wear it anyway.
I want you to have it now.
- I'll keep it for you.
Till you get better.
- All right.
- I love you.
Just go ahead the way you've been going.
- I know you'll be fine.
Hi, Daddy.
- Hi.
Well,
how're we feeling today?
- Oh, about the same.
- How's work?
- It's okay.
New owners are nice.
Looks like they're gonna keep me on.
Koreans.
- I have to go.
- So soon?
- I have a 6AM show.
Don't get up for it, okay?
I'll see you tomorrow.
Bye, Daddy.
- Bye.
- You've been listening to the "obsessions In Music show"
here at K-L-A-s, your listener supported radio station
where it's all music all the time.
Coming up next is Danny De Fronso
and the "Roots of Rock n' Roll."
- Now it's time to enjoy some real culture,
and I mean with a capital "C."
So here, from the '50s, are the Capitals and speed Row.
Anna, I'm sorry I'm late.
Thanks for covering for me.
- Where were you last night?
- I heard the most incredible band, forget it.
- And the guy out there in the gray sweater, you know him?
- I'm trying to pick his pocket
for the evening new music concerts.
- He's a donor?
- Guy's loaded.
God bless him.
- I found a ride home, okay?
- You got it.
- Bye.
- See you later.
- Up.
Oh, I'm sorry.
- Hello, again.
- Hello.
- You're Anna Winter, aren't you?
- Mm-hmm.
- Well, I'm Oliver Andrews.
I'm a fan, a very big fan of yours.
I listen to you all the time.
- That's great, I've always wanted a fan.
It's been nice to meet you, Mr. Andrews, excuse me.
- Nice to meet you too.
- Anna, I hope I'll be seeing you again.
In the meantime, I'll be listening.
- If you're a widower, do you still wear a wedding ring?
- I don't know.
You know, this is a hangup with you, father figures.
- Harley wasn't that much older.
- Yeah, Harley was an aberration.
- I'll say.
Wanna carry this for a minute?
- Not much.
Okay, I will.
I had an actual date the other night.
- Yeah, how'd it go?
- Oh, really badly.
This guy got loaded and proceeded to tell me
his entire life story.
- Yeah?
At least you got a good meal out of it.
- No way, wasn't any way I was gonna end up owing that guy.
Dutch treat, he wouldnt jumped me for sure.
Listen, do you wanna go to my house or your house?
- Mine.
- I'm going celibate.
I'm giving up men.
I mean, I'm really sick and tired of trying
to find some kind of guy that is witty,
intelligent, rich, handsome.
You just want a Prince Charming.
- Yeah and why not?
All I ever get are these kind of guys
that grumble out of the bedroom in the morning.
They smell, they never even help you make the bed.
- Now you're talking about George.
- Good old George.
Dropped his clothes everywhere
and expected me to pick them up.
- You did.
- Well somebody had to.
I'm telling you, that guy couldn't even fry an egg
without asking me 15 questions.
"How hot should the pan be?
"Where's the thing you flip it with?
"How can I tell when it's done?"
- He just wanted a momma.
- Yeah, he wanted a momma.
You want a papa.
No wonder you and George never got along.
- You just pick the wrong guys, Wendy.
- So what else is new?
It's like a national disease.
Look at Harley.
- Harley is a national disease?
- You know,
it's not George, it's not Harley,
it's men in general.
They're an inferior breed.
- Excuse me, are you Maggie's daughter?
I sang with your mother in the choir.
I just want you to know that we loved her very much.
She was a real live wire.
Oh, Chuck, you come to dinner next week, sure.
- Thank you, Frank.
Ready to go, hun?
Good.
Good cake.
Your mother had some things upstairs
you might wanna go through.
I want you to take anything,
anything...
that you might want.
Anything you think should be saved.
- What're you gonna do, Daddy?
- I kinda hoped you might come by
more often than you...
I know you and your mother were very close.
Daddy?
- I'm all right!
Daddy?
- I'm all right.
You just go upstairs.
Come on, Sammy!
My darling,
during the last weeks, I couldn't write as often as you
but it was the press of work and nothing else
that stopped the flow.
Most of the time I can hardly believe you're married.
I love you.
My love and need seem a permanent part of me.
A part that will not disappear in a year
or ten
or twenty.
You are the woman of my heart
and I'm happy you are,
despite all the obstacles,
impossibilities.
I am yours,
Joseph.
- Sammy and I have had our walk.
We feel much the better for it.
- Good.
- You gonna be long?
- No, I'll just clear up.
- Take your time.
I wouldn't want you to miss anything.
You're gonna spend the night, aren't you?
I mean,
it's getting awful late.
- Okay.
- Good.
Good.
Anna.
I wanted to tell you
that I love you.
I love you very much.
- Go to sleep, Daddy.
"At moments, I have the egocentric idea
"that I love you enough, intensely and strongly enough
"to hold us together,
"though we're separated for so much of the time.
"I am torn and harried by your absence
"and driven by the loneliness without you.
"I continually burn by the physical need of you.
"But at the same time you are my warmth
"and my energy
"and the goodness of the world to me.
"I will shamelessly do whatever I can
"to keep you loving me."
- Wow, when did all this go on?
- 1965.
- How old were you?
- About six.
Listen.
"Sometimes when I'm most alone,
"I fear that the memory plays me false
"and it cannot have been as intense and lovely as I think.
"But then certain overpowering images of you,
"of your face bending toward mine,
"of your body turned to me, reassure me that it was real
"and it will be again.
"My darling, I love you,
"it's amazing how much."
- Two dollars.
- Anna, please get Ralph back here as soon as possible
for that interview.
We're running a little over, okay?
- Okay, you know, I kinda like it.
- It's interesting, huh?
- Like four butterflies trying to fly in formation.
- That's very poetic.
You don't mind if I use that, do you?
You ever seen anything like that?
God, thank you so much for bringing me today.
Hi, Oliver.
You really should be proud of yourself.
- Thank you, there she is.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Did you like it?
- Are you kidding, I loved it.
- A little feedback, I heard it--
- Nobody else did.
Did you, Mr. Andrews?
- Oliver.
- Do you know each other?
- Danny needs you now.
- Great.
- You were wonderful.
- Maybe later?
- Okay, go on.
- How long--
- It's amazing.
I'm sorry, go on.
- No, you go on.
- I was just gonna say, I didn't know you knew Ralph.
- I was just gonna say the same thing.
- I--
- Are you two?
- We're just friends.
He's just excited, that's all.
- He's really a very talented fellow.
- He's a good kid.
- Perhaps you'd like to have a drink with me.
Maybe we could go to some place nearby.
- You dont feel like you have to.
- Is that a no?
- No, I just don't want you to be polite.
- I'm rarely polite.
Would you like to have a drink with me?
- I'd love to have a drink with you.
- I'm married.
- I figured.
- Two kids.
Look, I'd just like to tell you, with no strings attached,
that I think you're extraordinary.
I do, extraordinary.
No strings.
I know that what we have together
is by every moral standard, wrong,
and yet, I find I can never give you up.
You say that you're worried
that there's not enough that you can give me
but I'm not asking for very much,
just this,
to be with you sometimes.
- I lost track of time, are you early?
How you doing?
- I'm fine.
- You look fine.
- They're rinsing.
Andy's gonna watch them.
I told him no drum drying
and archival processing, like you said.
- All right.
- I'll take lunch now, if that's okay.
- Please.
Oh, Jake, this is Anna Winter.
- Not the K-L-A-s Anna Winter.
- Yes.
- No kidding, we listen to you all the time around here.
- Really?
- Oh, tell Craig I wanna see him before you go.
I wanna move that truck.
- Move the truck?
Don't you need me to?
- No.
- Right.
It was nice meeting you.
- Nice to meet you too.
Bye-bye.
- My office is upstairs.
Why don't you go up there and wait?
I'll be up in a minute.
- Okay.
I need you to move that other light up there
a little bit higher.
This one here, okay.
Yeah, further.
A little bit more in the corner.
Okay, good.
- Jake, do me a favor.
- Yeah.
- Put that away.
All right.
- They're gone.
- They're good.
- Oh, ancient history.
Look,
why don't you start on these?
I'm gonna go downstairs and set up the lights.
I wanna photograph you.
Please, look what I'm wearing.
- Take off your shoes.
Just relax, sit down.
Right there, that's good.
Relax.
- I saw that picture of you upstairs.
You had long hair.
- 1971.
I was a lot younger.
How old were you then?
- Eleven.
- Wow.
- You were very handsome.
- I'm sure you were adorable too.
Now, let me look at you.
You still are.
I don't wanna be forward but...
so you're 22?
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm 40.
- I know.
- I wanna me honest, I can't offer you much.
- I'm not asking for very much.
Just this.
- This?
- To be with you sometimes.
- Oh.
You were 11, huh?
- Okay, two more lines open, we got eight already lit.
Let's match that hundred dollar pledge.
- Come on, if you enjoy our programming,
remember, we depend completely on your contributions.
We're looking for 40 thousand dollars
worth of desperately needed new equipment.
If you call now with a donation of 25 dollars or more,
you're entitled to one free--
- I can't think with that damn radio on.
In addition, our programming guide--
- I don't know what the hell they're talking about.
- Please remember that public radio, like public TV,
needs your support.
Come on, one more light and we'll go
to an uninterrupted hour of "Call it Culture"
with Eva Baudelaire.
I mean, you should see our control board here.
It's literally held together with spit and gum,
isn't it, Danny?
- Chewing gum is a major part
of our operational budget here, absolutely.
Hey, okay, we got the 10!
Good afternoon, this is Eva--
- I guess I'll take this one right here.
Just bring on the highlight a little bit in the printing.
- Jake, would you make a note of this, I gotta run.
I have to go.
- No.
- Yeah.
I never knew it could be like this.
Nobody ever kissed me the way you do.
- Nobody?
- No, nobody.
- Look, I don't wanna go home.
- Let's do something, okay?
- What do you wanna do?
- I want pinball.
- It's too juvenile.
- Well, the arcade.
- It's too expensive--
- I'm not going to a bar where we're gonna get hit on.
I don't wanna deal with it.
Wanna break?
- Yeah, I shake 'em up better than you do.
Solids.
- I don't know why I set myself up for this punishment.
- Ball, excuse me.
Shit.
So,
you haven't told me anything yet.
- About what?
- You know what.
- Is he a good lay?
- Thanks a lot.
- You are welcome.
I have some wonderful opportunities
at this end of the table.
- As a matter of fact, he is.
- Except for the fact he's married, right?
- No, it doesn't make up for it.
It's complicated.
- He makes you feel...
- He makes me feel...
- Fucked?
Look, Anna,
the thing that you have to keep in mind
about these kind of relationships
is that if you dont feel something for the guy,
you're gonna get out
and if you do start feeling something,
you are fucked.
- I know.
Believe me, I know.
- If he's so great, what if you fall in love with him?
That's all I'm asking.
- I guess I'm in big trouble.
Is this what is known as psyching out your opponent?
- Anna, the thing you have to remember
is that this guy sleeps with someone else every night.
The next time we're together,
we must talk some about your other life.
The life in which I have no part.
We must talk about your husband, child,
Chuck and little Anna.
Help me to picture them as people.
To make them real,
for they are real
and I must face that fact.
- Come here.
- Come here.
- What is it?
- See those two?
They live out back.
You know, that beat up place behind the alley.
He's a drug dealer.
A lot of people used to come and go out of his house,
you know, a lot of women.
So one night, I'm sleeping
and I heard all these sirens and I got all scared
and I ran out in the alley
and cops were everywhere.
I thought they had been busted.
- So what happened?
- Turns out she shot him.
They put him in the hospital and took her to jail.
Next day, she came out on bail and came over
and borrowed my ironing board.
I know so little about you.
Do you have any pictures of your kids?
- Anna, are you all right?
- I'd like to see them.
It would help.
- That's Paul.
He's eight.
That's Emma.
Emma's two.
Does that make it easier?
- They're real now.
They're very beautiful.
Wanna listen to some music?
I'll play you what I was playing the day I met you
at the radio station.
It's Chopin.
"Prelude Number 15."
- Watch your step.
You better brush that sand off.
It'd be so hard to explain.
- K-L-A-s, may I help you?
- You have to get the name and address
and you have to make sure if they have a bank card
that you get it and the expiration date.
Your initials go there and then the time and date
and then you have to ask the donor if he or she
is willing to let us credit them on the air.
Okay, goes there.
And that's it.
Pick it up.
Hey, Daddy.
- Well, look at you.
What's this?
- Some wine.
- Wine?!
My date brought wine?
Hey, this is a pretty classy deal here.
- Are you sure there's nothing I can do?
- What, are you kidding me?
You just sit right there.
You're the guest of honor.
Surprised at your old man, huh?
Didn't know I could cook.
- I've had your steaks.
- Well,
well, actually, the rice is nothing.
Everything these days comes in a plastic bag.
Put it in a pot, you bring it to a boil.
Bingo, you got it.
Of course you have to flip it every 15 minutes or so,
otherwise, it doesn't heat thoroughly.
It doesn't heat evenly all the way through.
- It looks good.
- Yeah?
Well,
it's nothing fancy.
It's not like your mother used to make
but she was a real cook.
I'm doing all right.
I have a woman once a week.
To clean.
Older woman, comes in.
Other than that, I pretty much take care of myself.
- I'm impressed.
- Whoop.
I wanna propose a toast.
To us.
It is good.
It's good.
And another thing about orientals
is that they are born shop keepers.
They are real business men.
And they're everywhere.
Look around, you can't swing a cat
without knocking into one of them.
They're smart.
Okay, they recognize my abilities,
so they keep me on.
- I gotta go, Daddy.
- Go, shmoe.
Sit here and talk to me, please.
Look at you.
My little girl, a professional.
- I earn two hundred and 25 dollars a week.
- Hey, it's not the money.
You are a professional.
That's the point and don't you forget it.
Your mother was very proud of that.
- I miss her.
- What's that?
- I said, I miss her.
- Yeah, well, we all miss her.
She's a wonderful woman.
I was never good enough for her.
Not near good enough.
Hey,
forget it, it doesn't matter.
It's water under the bridge, isn't it?
We never,
we never talked like this before, did we?
I mean, just you and I sitting and talking.
- No.
- Well, we will.
It's important to me.
Your mother expected a lot, you know.
Hey, I'm not saying she didn't deserve it.
God knows she deserved it, I just...
It isnt the case of that.
- I gotta go, Daddy.
- Wait a minute.
You got a boyfriend, Anna?
- Yes.
- He gonna marry you?
- Maybe.
- Not in a hurry, huh?
That's good.
Your mother and I were in a hurry.
Of course, it was different times
and our little secret.
- I know you married Momma because she was pregnant,
Daddy, she told me.
- No.
I married her because I loved her
and she was beautiful,
like you.
Listen, don't be afraid of me, honey.
I know I'm not gonna be any problem to you.
You can see that, I can take care of...
Wait a second, sit down, where the hell are you going now?!
What did I do?
Did I touch you, is that the problem?!
- Leave me alone!
- Oh God, you're like her!
You are so like her.
- I'm gonna wash the dishes and then I'm gonna leave.
- I'm sorry, honey.
What do you think about a man like me, huh?
- I think you should go to bed.
- Leave the goddamn dishes!
Go on!
Go on!
The most important thing in life is not a roll in the hay!
You understand me?!
Hello?
Hello?
Who is this?
Hello?
- Wrong number.
It's beautiful.
- So are you.
- I'll get your coat.
- Okay.
- She looks very nice.
I'm sorry.
I had to make her real too.
My darling.
I'm home again
and the memory of our last meeting is fresh in my mind.
Nothing and no one can take from me what we found together.
Together, we're more than the sum of our parts.
Can I sacrifice this even in my own best interest?
Not if I love you as indeed I do love you.
Maggie, my own,
forever.
- Come on, Emma, can you get this?
Emma?
Emma, here it comes.
Okay, I'm gonna try this.
Emma.
Oh, okay.
Okay, go!
- Hi.
Anna Winter?
- Yes.
- Marcia Newell, K-B-F-K San Francisco.
- Hi.
- I was expecting someone a little older.
So what do you think about it?
- I think it's a great opportunity.
I think you're right.
- You know, it's funny, K-B-F-K used to be my dream station.
- It's a good station.
- It's a great station.
- And we have 10 times the audience of K-L-A-s.
10 times, maybe 20 times the subscribers.
There's a real future for you.
- I know.
- You wanna talk about it?
- San Francisco's a long way away.
I mean, it's 400 miles, right?
- It's an hour's flight.
So what's the problem?
- It's sort of personal.
- I see.
- Have you listened to Danny De Fronso?
I mean, he's so good.
- I've listened to Danny.
You're better.
Look, Anna, sometimes when an opportunity gets away,
they don't come again.
You're young, maybe it doesn't seem that way to you.
- No, it seems that way to me.
- Just think about it.
- Okay.
Thanks.
I'm sick of my life
and its intolerable contradictions.
My mind keeps warning me that love,
even as we know it,
must be lived in the everyday world
of Chevrolets and toothaches
and lost chances.
stay very still.
We can do better.
I think it's too hot.
That's your fault.
Goddamn of it.
Okay.
Look down here.
Probably too much movement.
Shift your body.
No, too much tit.
Good, good, good, that's good, okay.
That's enough.
Just let me see this one.
10, 11, 12, okay.
Are we finished?
Just one more.
Look up here.
You look so sad, what is it?
Take off your wedding ring.
Just for an hour.
- I'm sorry.
Morgan!
Morgan.
How're you doing?
- Good.
Anna, I'd like you to meet Morgan Crawford,
famous American artist.
Morgan, this is Anna Winter,
famous American producer
- How charming.
so, how was Amsterdam?
- Wonderful.
In the winter it doesn't smell.
- Good.
- Not properly chilled.
- Don't you pick on her.
I'll be right back.
- He seems very happy.
You're responsible for that, aren't you?
- I don't know, am I?
- No doubt you'll be good for his work as well.
Contradiction and irony are two different things.
Look, youre just trying to change the subject
because you know I'm right and of course
irony and contradiction are two different things.
What's the difference then?
- Contradiction is a statement of fact
and irony is a way of dealing with the fact.
- Contradiction is objective irony subject.
What would you say the difference between
contradiction and irony is, Anna?
- I don't know,
I'd probably have to look it up in the dictionary.
- Doesn't know the game.
- Anna, the point is to figure it out.
Not to look it up in the dictionary, you know?
Conversation.
- Irony has humor in it.
- No, no, contradiction might be funny but irony, never.
- Never, no.
Irony is deadly serious.
I have it.
If contradiction is weather
than irony is umbrellas.
- Very good
but not quite.
Irony is stealing the umbrellas.
Oh, by the way, I have something here that belongs to Edith.
Would you mind returning this to me?
I'd do it myself but I'm flying off to Munich tomorrow.
That first essay is a straight ripoff of Walter Benjamin's
"Works of Art In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,"
but the essay on nudes is terrific.
You've read what he has to say
about photography, haven't you?
It's fascinating.
- You know what he told me?
He said I was good for you.
- He was jealous as hell.
He was green.
Jesus, get down!
Okay, get up.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, those people work with Edith.
Goddamn it!
No, wait, wait, wait.
Let's go in the living room and sit for a minute.
- You never wanted to sit in there before.
- Well I do tonight.
I got plenty of time.
Edith is at a lecture until 11--
- I don't wanna know where she is.
- Okay.
I just wanna go in the living room.
Sit.
Talk.
- Okay.
- They had a hell of a time getting it in here.
Try it.
I never heard you play.
- I'm not very good.
Emma, Emma, wait for me.
You know Pooh Bear?
I wanna ride a blue horse.
I want Pooh to catch me in the air.
Higher Mommy, higher.
- You ride in the saddles?
- I'm telling you, San Francisco is totally amazing.
It's a very, very exciting city.
Well, I'm sort of semi-managing this group.
You're gonna hear from them.
They're called "Little Claw."
Modernistic with classical overtones.
- It's great to see you back.
- Hey, thank you, it's great to be back.
God, you all look incredible!
Nothing's changed around here.
You still have the same crummy old coffee.
Hey!
- Hey.
You look great.
- You do.
- I gotta show, I'll see you later, okay?
- Hey.
- Hey.
- Mmmm.
You look tired.
- Partied all night.
- So how's it going?
- It's okay, about the same.
- I heard there have been some big cutbacks here.
They cut your hours?
- I'm fine.
So how's it going with you up there?
- Forget it, incredible.
Incredible, the people in San Francisco
are so wondering, not only that,
they're totally open to my kind of programming
and your kind of programming.
- Great.
- I think you oughta come up and check it out.
- I will.
- Not only that but truly,
the real reason that I came here was because
I wanted to say thank you
because I know what you did.
- I didn't do anything.
You got it on your own, you know that.
- Yeah.
Right.
- Well, anyway--
- Anyway.
What do you wanna hear for the ride home?
- Oh, right.
Little Richard.
- This is "obsessions In Music."
- So, what, it's gotta be classical?
Hey.
- I guess I could get obsessed with Little Richard for once.
- Anna,
you're the greatest.
- Bye.
oh, Ben!
I've got no place to go!
I'm talking about the drugs!
I'm tried of you fucking around in my life!
Leave me alone!
You've been fucking up around here!
I don't need you anymore!
- Ben Ben!
Ben, let me back in, Ben!
Ben!
Ben!
shut up and get the hell out of here!
- Ben, let me in!
Ben!
Ben, let me in!
Ben!
- You've got no money, huh?
You got no money, you want money!
You want money?!
Pick it up! Pick it up!
Pick it up!
Go ahead, pick it up!
Pick it all up!
Get the fuck out of here!
Make it on your own!
- I love you!
I love you!
I love you, Ben!
- Hello.
It's me.
- Are you calling from home?
I had to.
Listen, I know I said I'd be by this morning but I--
- You can't?
No.
- I see.
It's not my fault.
I cant talk now.
Are you all right?
- What difference does it make?
Just for five minutes, okay?
I'll be there in half an hour.
I won't come if you're gonna be angry.
- I won't.
Please come.
I miss you.
Hi.
I missed you.
- Me too.
- Come on.
- Anna, I...
Anna, please don't.
- I missed you.
- I don't have time for this.
- We could hurry.
- Anna, I don't have time to do this.
No, sweetheart.
Anna, no.
Anna, no.
God, Anna.
No.
- Why not?
- Oh, God.
Anna, I just made love with my wife.
Anna?
Anna, this is crazy.
Would you please open the door?
Anna!
Anna, open the door!
Anna?
Anna!
Sweetheart.
Forgive me, I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
It's all right, it's all right.
We've got a whole history together, Anna.
I've spent 15 years of my life with her.
That's almost half my life.
Hasn't always been great but
I've got two kids I love very much.
She's a very decent,
kind,
loving--
- Do you want me to tell you about my boyfriends?
About how good and decent and loving
and good in bed they were?!
- I'm sure they were.
- They weren't.
There's never been anybody.
Why couldn't you just lie to me?
Why couldn't you just lie and say,
"Anna, I don't love her."
Would it be so hard?
- It's not fair, is it?
- I think you should leave.
It's just not easy anymore.
- Do you really think it's any easier for me?
- I'm second best.
It's not the way I wanted, it's the way you wanted.
You wrote the rules.
- Anna, I'm afraid it's just
a little bit more complicated than that.
You and I don't have any children together.
- It has nothing to do with children!
It has to do with her.
You want all of her and just a little bit of me!
- You want me to leave my family.
- No, I want you to want to leave them!
I want you to want to leave her because you hate her guts.
Because you want me.
I want you to want me.
At any cost, I'll take guilt,
I'll take anything.
I just want you to want me.
- Come here.
- No.
- Come here.
- No!
- Say it.
- No!
I hate you!
- You don't hate me.
Say it!
Say it!
- No!
Not unless you think I'm the smartest
and most beautiful and sexiest girl--
- You are the sexiest.
You are the most beautiful.
Say it.
- No!
- Say it!
- No!
- Say it!
- No!
- Say it.
- No.
- Say it.
- I love you.
I love you.
"I'm sick of my life.
"And its intolerable
"contradictions."
My mind keeps warning me
that love, even as we know it--
- "Must be lived
"in the everyday world
"of Chevrolets
"and toothaches
"and lost chances.
"I'm torn and harried by your absence,
"driven by the loneliness without you
"and continually burned by the physical need of you.
"I can no longer bear to keep seeing you
"if there's no way you'll ever be mine.
"I want you now for my own and forever.
"Sometimes it's right to do the wrong thing.
"Be mine, darling.
"Be brave.
"I love you.
"It's amazing how much."
- Hey, Anna?
Hey, kiddo.
How're you doing?
- You know Chesley?
Joseph Chesley?
He made a terrible mistake.
- Yeah, right, who's Chesley?
- He wrote the letters.
- Yeah.
You know, I kinda forgot about him.
- You know, my mother was weak?
You know,
She couldn't take care of her own life.
He had to and he didn't.
He had to force her.
They were so much in love.
You know?
It's so rare.
See, he thought he was saving three lives but he didn't.
He ruined three lives.
He ruined his and my mothers--
- And your father's?
- Yeah, his too.
Sometimes it's right to do the wrong thing though, isn't it?
- Oh, Anna, I don't know.
- He had to make her see.
He had to take her.
- Look, Anna, I don't know what difference this makes.
- It makes all the difference.
You don't understand, do you?
- I don't know.
Yeah, okay, maybe.
- He wrote such beautiful letters.
Just beautiful letters.
I wish I knew him.
You know, just to know him.
I mean, theyre just beautiful.
Don't you think so?
- Anna, I think I'm getting really worried about you.
- Don't be worried about me.
I'm okay.
I'm great.
I know what to do.
I finally know what to do.
- Time to go to bed.
You can finish it tomorrow.
- Okay.
- Give me a kiss.
- Goodnight, Dad.
- I love you.
- Goodnight, Mom.
- Guess who wants to play elevator one more time?
I can't guess.
Here we go.
First floor.
Second floor.
Fourth floor.
Going down.
- Come up, sweetie, okay?
- Darling, why don't you take her up to bed?
- Okay.
- You come up soon?
- Yeah.
- Come on, hun, let's go to bed.
Say night, night.
Night, night.
- Anna!
Anna!
Let go of me!
oh, Anna.
Leave me alone!
Get your goddamn hands off me!
I said let go of me!
What's the matter with you?
- Maybe I should talk to your wife!
Maybe she'd like to know what the fuck you've been doing!
Maybe she'd like to know where you've been at night!
- What's Daddy doing?
- What do you think I am?!
- A fuck machine?!
- No, I don't.
- Turn me on, turn me off!
- Anna!
- My letter, you didn't even answer my letter.
- I did too, I've been thinking about it, that's all.
- Oh, bullshit!
- It frightened me, you frightened me.
It didn't even sound like you.
Anna, why are you doing this to me?!
I have always been honest with you!
Anna!
Oh my God, Anna.
Anna.
Did you call the doctor?
What did he say?
He said he's on his way.
Oliver, dont touch me!
Edit, please, for Christ sake.
Just answer me one question.
What is it that I did that would make you want
to do this to me?
Edith, you didn't do a thing.
It's me, God forgive me.
she's very young, isn't she?
You bastard.
I don't know what to say, Edith.
Honestly, I don't know what to say, Edith.
Do you love her?
That's impossible.
I love you.
I'm never going to be able to believe that again.
I really believed that you loved me.
And if not me, I knew you loved the children.
- Just give me a chance, Edith, give me.
- I can't, I can't believe it.
- I'm sorry.
- Anna, Anna, wait.
Look, you can't drive home alone like this.
- I'm fine.
- Anna, please listen.
- I said, I'm fine!
- Wait!
Wait, please listen to me!
I gotta tell you something.
I don't want it to end like this!
I just can't walk out on them!
I have to hurt the fewest people.
Do you understand me?!
- You love her.
- Yes, of course I love her, I always have.
I love you too.
- I don't think you did.
- Anna, you're very young, you're very special.
You can do a hell of a lot better than me.
A hell of a lot.
- Will I really?
- Yeah, Anna,
if there is one thing I've learned in life
is that everything passes, everything.
It's gonna be all right.
Just tell me it's gonna be all right, please, Anna.
Say it's gonna be all right.
- Goodbye.
Dont touch me!
Goddamn it, you!
You're drunk, leave me alone!
Don't touch me!
You don't care about me, you think about Anna!
Is that the problem?!
I'll never touch you again!
I'm leaving!
No you're not!
You're not going anywhere!
You don't care about me,
you think about Anna!
She's your daughter!
Just leave me alone!
What did I do?
Did I touch you, is that the problem!?
I'll never touch you again!
Don't you move!
- Anna?
- You're so like her.
- Excuse me.
Did you leave the flowers?
The gardenias?
- You're Anna.
Would've known you anyway.
You look just like her.
- When did you see her last?
- Oh,
five years ago.
Just for a few hours.
And before that, another 10 years.
- That's a long time.
- Yes, a long time.
- You should've been together.
- It was a mistake.
She was my chance.
I lost her.
- I have something of yours.
She gave it to me,
but I think you should have it.
- Kept it all these years.
- Here.
- Damn it.
It really is embarrassing.
She was...
she was the love of my life, you see.
You understand.
Maybe you've been in love the way we were.
- No.
Not like that.
Not like you.
remembering as I sit here, those last days
before we met in Los Angeles,
they now seem very significant.
For though they consisted only in waiting,
I knew as I waited my life was about to change.
And even though I've returned home now,
in all likelihood never see you again,
it is true that I am a new and better person,
for with you I've known the fullest love possible.
It feels like a long time ago.
Six months.
It's not so long, really.
All this began then,
just as it ended now,
with Momma.
- Momma?
- Anna, come in.
- Why are you sitting with the lights off for?
- Waiting for you.
Listening for you.
What's this?
- What do you think?
- Gardenias, my favorite.
It's not even the season.
- Smell?
Did you listen to my show today?
- Don't I always?
Anna, you're the only thing in my life that's really...
turned out.
That I can really be proud of.
I want you to know that.
- Please don't, Momma.
- You won't make the same kind of mistakes that I did.
So much smarter than I ever was.
I have...
something...
important...
for you.
You've never seen this before.
I've had it for a long, long time.
- Who gave it to you?
Not Daddy.
- It doesnt fit anymore.
I never really could wear it anyway.
I want you to have it now.
- I'll keep it for you.
Till you get better.
- All right.
- I love you.
Just go ahead the way you've been going.
- I know you'll be fine.
Hi, Daddy.
- Hi.
Well,
how're we feeling today?
- Oh, about the same.
- How's work?
- It's okay.
New owners are nice.
Looks like they're gonna keep me on.
Koreans.
- I have to go.
- So soon?
- I have a 6AM show.
Don't get up for it, okay?
I'll see you tomorrow.
Bye, Daddy.
- Bye.
- You've been listening to the "obsessions In Music show"
here at K-L-A-s, your listener supported radio station
where it's all music all the time.
Coming up next is Danny De Fronso
and the "Roots of Rock n' Roll."
- Now it's time to enjoy some real culture,
and I mean with a capital "C."
So here, from the '50s, are the Capitals and speed Row.
Anna, I'm sorry I'm late.
Thanks for covering for me.
- Where were you last night?
- I heard the most incredible band, forget it.
- And the guy out there in the gray sweater, you know him?
- I'm trying to pick his pocket
for the evening new music concerts.
- He's a donor?
- Guy's loaded.
God bless him.
- I found a ride home, okay?
- You got it.
- Bye.
- See you later.
- Up.
Oh, I'm sorry.
- Hello, again.
- Hello.
- You're Anna Winter, aren't you?
- Mm-hmm.
- Well, I'm Oliver Andrews.
I'm a fan, a very big fan of yours.
I listen to you all the time.
- That's great, I've always wanted a fan.
It's been nice to meet you, Mr. Andrews, excuse me.
- Nice to meet you too.
- Anna, I hope I'll be seeing you again.
In the meantime, I'll be listening.
- If you're a widower, do you still wear a wedding ring?
- I don't know.
You know, this is a hangup with you, father figures.
- Harley wasn't that much older.
- Yeah, Harley was an aberration.
- I'll say.
Wanna carry this for a minute?
- Not much.
Okay, I will.
I had an actual date the other night.
- Yeah, how'd it go?
- Oh, really badly.
This guy got loaded and proceeded to tell me
his entire life story.
- Yeah?
At least you got a good meal out of it.
- No way, wasn't any way I was gonna end up owing that guy.
Dutch treat, he wouldnt jumped me for sure.
Listen, do you wanna go to my house or your house?
- Mine.
- I'm going celibate.
I'm giving up men.
I mean, I'm really sick and tired of trying
to find some kind of guy that is witty,
intelligent, rich, handsome.
You just want a Prince Charming.
- Yeah and why not?
All I ever get are these kind of guys
that grumble out of the bedroom in the morning.
They smell, they never even help you make the bed.
- Now you're talking about George.
- Good old George.
Dropped his clothes everywhere
and expected me to pick them up.
- You did.
- Well somebody had to.
I'm telling you, that guy couldn't even fry an egg
without asking me 15 questions.
"How hot should the pan be?
"Where's the thing you flip it with?
"How can I tell when it's done?"
- He just wanted a momma.
- Yeah, he wanted a momma.
You want a papa.
No wonder you and George never got along.
- You just pick the wrong guys, Wendy.
- So what else is new?
It's like a national disease.
Look at Harley.
- Harley is a national disease?
- You know,
it's not George, it's not Harley,
it's men in general.
They're an inferior breed.
- Excuse me, are you Maggie's daughter?
I sang with your mother in the choir.
I just want you to know that we loved her very much.
She was a real live wire.
Oh, Chuck, you come to dinner next week, sure.
- Thank you, Frank.
Ready to go, hun?
Good.
Good cake.
Your mother had some things upstairs
you might wanna go through.
I want you to take anything,
anything...
that you might want.
Anything you think should be saved.
- What're you gonna do, Daddy?
- I kinda hoped you might come by
more often than you...
I know you and your mother were very close.
Daddy?
- I'm all right!
Daddy?
- I'm all right.
You just go upstairs.
Come on, Sammy!
My darling,
during the last weeks, I couldn't write as often as you
but it was the press of work and nothing else
that stopped the flow.
Most of the time I can hardly believe you're married.
I love you.
My love and need seem a permanent part of me.
A part that will not disappear in a year
or ten
or twenty.
You are the woman of my heart
and I'm happy you are,
despite all the obstacles,
impossibilities.
I am yours,
Joseph.
- Sammy and I have had our walk.
We feel much the better for it.
- Good.
- You gonna be long?
- No, I'll just clear up.
- Take your time.
I wouldn't want you to miss anything.
You're gonna spend the night, aren't you?
I mean,
it's getting awful late.
- Okay.
- Good.
Good.
Anna.
I wanted to tell you
that I love you.
I love you very much.
- Go to sleep, Daddy.
"At moments, I have the egocentric idea
"that I love you enough, intensely and strongly enough
"to hold us together,
"though we're separated for so much of the time.
"I am torn and harried by your absence
"and driven by the loneliness without you.
"I continually burn by the physical need of you.
"But at the same time you are my warmth
"and my energy
"and the goodness of the world to me.
"I will shamelessly do whatever I can
"to keep you loving me."
- Wow, when did all this go on?
- 1965.
- How old were you?
- About six.
Listen.
"Sometimes when I'm most alone,
"I fear that the memory plays me false
"and it cannot have been as intense and lovely as I think.
"But then certain overpowering images of you,
"of your face bending toward mine,
"of your body turned to me, reassure me that it was real
"and it will be again.
"My darling, I love you,
"it's amazing how much."
- Two dollars.
- Anna, please get Ralph back here as soon as possible
for that interview.
We're running a little over, okay?
- Okay, you know, I kinda like it.
- It's interesting, huh?
- Like four butterflies trying to fly in formation.
- That's very poetic.
You don't mind if I use that, do you?
You ever seen anything like that?
God, thank you so much for bringing me today.
Hi, Oliver.
You really should be proud of yourself.
- Thank you, there she is.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Did you like it?
- Are you kidding, I loved it.
- A little feedback, I heard it--
- Nobody else did.
Did you, Mr. Andrews?
- Oliver.
- Do you know each other?
- Danny needs you now.
- Great.
- You were wonderful.
- Maybe later?
- Okay, go on.
- How long--
- It's amazing.
I'm sorry, go on.
- No, you go on.
- I was just gonna say, I didn't know you knew Ralph.
- I was just gonna say the same thing.
- I--
- Are you two?
- We're just friends.
He's just excited, that's all.
- He's really a very talented fellow.
- He's a good kid.
- Perhaps you'd like to have a drink with me.
Maybe we could go to some place nearby.
- You dont feel like you have to.
- Is that a no?
- No, I just don't want you to be polite.
- I'm rarely polite.
Would you like to have a drink with me?
- I'd love to have a drink with you.
- I'm married.
- I figured.
- Two kids.
Look, I'd just like to tell you, with no strings attached,
that I think you're extraordinary.
I do, extraordinary.
No strings.
I know that what we have together
is by every moral standard, wrong,
and yet, I find I can never give you up.
You say that you're worried
that there's not enough that you can give me
but I'm not asking for very much,
just this,
to be with you sometimes.
- I lost track of time, are you early?
How you doing?
- I'm fine.
- You look fine.
- They're rinsing.
Andy's gonna watch them.
I told him no drum drying
and archival processing, like you said.
- All right.
- I'll take lunch now, if that's okay.
- Please.
Oh, Jake, this is Anna Winter.
- Not the K-L-A-s Anna Winter.
- Yes.
- No kidding, we listen to you all the time around here.
- Really?
- Oh, tell Craig I wanna see him before you go.
I wanna move that truck.
- Move the truck?
Don't you need me to?
- No.
- Right.
It was nice meeting you.
- Nice to meet you too.
Bye-bye.
- My office is upstairs.
Why don't you go up there and wait?
I'll be up in a minute.
- Okay.
I need you to move that other light up there
a little bit higher.
This one here, okay.
Yeah, further.
A little bit more in the corner.
Okay, good.
- Jake, do me a favor.
- Yeah.
- Put that away.
All right.
- They're gone.
- They're good.
- Oh, ancient history.
Look,
why don't you start on these?
I'm gonna go downstairs and set up the lights.
I wanna photograph you.
Please, look what I'm wearing.
- Take off your shoes.
Just relax, sit down.
Right there, that's good.
Relax.
- I saw that picture of you upstairs.
You had long hair.
- 1971.
I was a lot younger.
How old were you then?
- Eleven.
- Wow.
- You were very handsome.
- I'm sure you were adorable too.
Now, let me look at you.
You still are.
I don't wanna be forward but...
so you're 22?
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm 40.
- I know.
- I wanna me honest, I can't offer you much.
- I'm not asking for very much.
Just this.
- This?
- To be with you sometimes.
- Oh.
You were 11, huh?
- Okay, two more lines open, we got eight already lit.
Let's match that hundred dollar pledge.
- Come on, if you enjoy our programming,
remember, we depend completely on your contributions.
We're looking for 40 thousand dollars
worth of desperately needed new equipment.
If you call now with a donation of 25 dollars or more,
you're entitled to one free--
- I can't think with that damn radio on.
In addition, our programming guide--
- I don't know what the hell they're talking about.
- Please remember that public radio, like public TV,
needs your support.
Come on, one more light and we'll go
to an uninterrupted hour of "Call it Culture"
with Eva Baudelaire.
I mean, you should see our control board here.
It's literally held together with spit and gum,
isn't it, Danny?
- Chewing gum is a major part
of our operational budget here, absolutely.
Hey, okay, we got the 10!
Good afternoon, this is Eva--
- I guess I'll take this one right here.
Just bring on the highlight a little bit in the printing.
- Jake, would you make a note of this, I gotta run.
I have to go.
- No.
- Yeah.
I never knew it could be like this.
Nobody ever kissed me the way you do.
- Nobody?
- No, nobody.
- Look, I don't wanna go home.
- Let's do something, okay?
- What do you wanna do?
- I want pinball.
- It's too juvenile.
- Well, the arcade.
- It's too expensive--
- I'm not going to a bar where we're gonna get hit on.
I don't wanna deal with it.
Wanna break?
- Yeah, I shake 'em up better than you do.
Solids.
- I don't know why I set myself up for this punishment.
- Ball, excuse me.
Shit.
So,
you haven't told me anything yet.
- About what?
- You know what.
- Is he a good lay?
- Thanks a lot.
- You are welcome.
I have some wonderful opportunities
at this end of the table.
- As a matter of fact, he is.
- Except for the fact he's married, right?
- No, it doesn't make up for it.
It's complicated.
- He makes you feel...
- He makes me feel...
- Fucked?
Look, Anna,
the thing that you have to keep in mind
about these kind of relationships
is that if you dont feel something for the guy,
you're gonna get out
and if you do start feeling something,
you are fucked.
- I know.
Believe me, I know.
- If he's so great, what if you fall in love with him?
That's all I'm asking.
- I guess I'm in big trouble.
Is this what is known as psyching out your opponent?
- Anna, the thing you have to remember
is that this guy sleeps with someone else every night.
The next time we're together,
we must talk some about your other life.
The life in which I have no part.
We must talk about your husband, child,
Chuck and little Anna.
Help me to picture them as people.
To make them real,
for they are real
and I must face that fact.
- Come here.
- Come here.
- What is it?
- See those two?
They live out back.
You know, that beat up place behind the alley.
He's a drug dealer.
A lot of people used to come and go out of his house,
you know, a lot of women.
So one night, I'm sleeping
and I heard all these sirens and I got all scared
and I ran out in the alley
and cops were everywhere.
I thought they had been busted.
- So what happened?
- Turns out she shot him.
They put him in the hospital and took her to jail.
Next day, she came out on bail and came over
and borrowed my ironing board.
I know so little about you.
Do you have any pictures of your kids?
- Anna, are you all right?
- I'd like to see them.
It would help.
- That's Paul.
He's eight.
That's Emma.
Emma's two.
Does that make it easier?
- They're real now.
They're very beautiful.
Wanna listen to some music?
I'll play you what I was playing the day I met you
at the radio station.
It's Chopin.
"Prelude Number 15."
- Watch your step.
You better brush that sand off.
It'd be so hard to explain.
- K-L-A-s, may I help you?
- You have to get the name and address
and you have to make sure if they have a bank card
that you get it and the expiration date.
Your initials go there and then the time and date
and then you have to ask the donor if he or she
is willing to let us credit them on the air.
Okay, goes there.
And that's it.
Pick it up.
Hey, Daddy.
- Well, look at you.
What's this?
- Some wine.
- Wine?!
My date brought wine?
Hey, this is a pretty classy deal here.
- Are you sure there's nothing I can do?
- What, are you kidding me?
You just sit right there.
You're the guest of honor.
Surprised at your old man, huh?
Didn't know I could cook.
- I've had your steaks.
- Well,
well, actually, the rice is nothing.
Everything these days comes in a plastic bag.
Put it in a pot, you bring it to a boil.
Bingo, you got it.
Of course you have to flip it every 15 minutes or so,
otherwise, it doesn't heat thoroughly.
It doesn't heat evenly all the way through.
- It looks good.
- Yeah?
Well,
it's nothing fancy.
It's not like your mother used to make
but she was a real cook.
I'm doing all right.
I have a woman once a week.
To clean.
Older woman, comes in.
Other than that, I pretty much take care of myself.
- I'm impressed.
- Whoop.
I wanna propose a toast.
To us.
It is good.
It's good.
And another thing about orientals
is that they are born shop keepers.
They are real business men.
And they're everywhere.
Look around, you can't swing a cat
without knocking into one of them.
They're smart.
Okay, they recognize my abilities,
so they keep me on.
- I gotta go, Daddy.
- Go, shmoe.
Sit here and talk to me, please.
Look at you.
My little girl, a professional.
- I earn two hundred and 25 dollars a week.
- Hey, it's not the money.
You are a professional.
That's the point and don't you forget it.
Your mother was very proud of that.
- I miss her.
- What's that?
- I said, I miss her.
- Yeah, well, we all miss her.
She's a wonderful woman.
I was never good enough for her.
Not near good enough.
Hey,
forget it, it doesn't matter.
It's water under the bridge, isn't it?
We never,
we never talked like this before, did we?
I mean, just you and I sitting and talking.
- No.
- Well, we will.
It's important to me.
Your mother expected a lot, you know.
Hey, I'm not saying she didn't deserve it.
God knows she deserved it, I just...
It isnt the case of that.
- I gotta go, Daddy.
- Wait a minute.
You got a boyfriend, Anna?
- Yes.
- He gonna marry you?
- Maybe.
- Not in a hurry, huh?
That's good.
Your mother and I were in a hurry.
Of course, it was different times
and our little secret.
- I know you married Momma because she was pregnant,
Daddy, she told me.
- No.
I married her because I loved her
and she was beautiful,
like you.
Listen, don't be afraid of me, honey.
I know I'm not gonna be any problem to you.
You can see that, I can take care of...
Wait a second, sit down, where the hell are you going now?!
What did I do?
Did I touch you, is that the problem?!
- Leave me alone!
- Oh God, you're like her!
You are so like her.
- I'm gonna wash the dishes and then I'm gonna leave.
- I'm sorry, honey.
What do you think about a man like me, huh?
- I think you should go to bed.
- Leave the goddamn dishes!
Go on!
Go on!
The most important thing in life is not a roll in the hay!
You understand me?!
Hello?
Hello?
Who is this?
Hello?
- Wrong number.
It's beautiful.
- So are you.
- I'll get your coat.
- Okay.
- She looks very nice.
I'm sorry.
I had to make her real too.
My darling.
I'm home again
and the memory of our last meeting is fresh in my mind.
Nothing and no one can take from me what we found together.
Together, we're more than the sum of our parts.
Can I sacrifice this even in my own best interest?
Not if I love you as indeed I do love you.
Maggie, my own,
forever.
- Come on, Emma, can you get this?
Emma?
Emma, here it comes.
Okay, I'm gonna try this.
Emma.
Oh, okay.
Okay, go!
- Hi.
Anna Winter?
- Yes.
- Marcia Newell, K-B-F-K San Francisco.
- Hi.
- I was expecting someone a little older.
So what do you think about it?
- I think it's a great opportunity.
I think you're right.
- You know, it's funny, K-B-F-K used to be my dream station.
- It's a good station.
- It's a great station.
- And we have 10 times the audience of K-L-A-s.
10 times, maybe 20 times the subscribers.
There's a real future for you.
- I know.
- You wanna talk about it?
- San Francisco's a long way away.
I mean, it's 400 miles, right?
- It's an hour's flight.
So what's the problem?
- It's sort of personal.
- I see.
- Have you listened to Danny De Fronso?
I mean, he's so good.
- I've listened to Danny.
You're better.
Look, Anna, sometimes when an opportunity gets away,
they don't come again.
You're young, maybe it doesn't seem that way to you.
- No, it seems that way to me.
- Just think about it.
- Okay.
Thanks.
I'm sick of my life
and its intolerable contradictions.
My mind keeps warning me that love,
even as we know it,
must be lived in the everyday world
of Chevrolets and toothaches
and lost chances.
stay very still.
We can do better.
I think it's too hot.
That's your fault.
Goddamn of it.
Okay.
Look down here.
Probably too much movement.
Shift your body.
No, too much tit.
Good, good, good, that's good, okay.
That's enough.
Just let me see this one.
10, 11, 12, okay.
Are we finished?
Just one more.
Look up here.
You look so sad, what is it?
Take off your wedding ring.
Just for an hour.
- I'm sorry.
Morgan!
Morgan.
How're you doing?
- Good.
Anna, I'd like you to meet Morgan Crawford,
famous American artist.
Morgan, this is Anna Winter,
famous American producer
- How charming.
so, how was Amsterdam?
- Wonderful.
In the winter it doesn't smell.
- Good.
- Not properly chilled.
- Don't you pick on her.
I'll be right back.
- He seems very happy.
You're responsible for that, aren't you?
- I don't know, am I?
- No doubt you'll be good for his work as well.
Contradiction and irony are two different things.
Look, youre just trying to change the subject
because you know I'm right and of course
irony and contradiction are two different things.
What's the difference then?
- Contradiction is a statement of fact
and irony is a way of dealing with the fact.
- Contradiction is objective irony subject.
What would you say the difference between
contradiction and irony is, Anna?
- I don't know,
I'd probably have to look it up in the dictionary.
- Doesn't know the game.
- Anna, the point is to figure it out.
Not to look it up in the dictionary, you know?
Conversation.
- Irony has humor in it.
- No, no, contradiction might be funny but irony, never.
- Never, no.
Irony is deadly serious.
I have it.
If contradiction is weather
than irony is umbrellas.
- Very good
but not quite.
Irony is stealing the umbrellas.
Oh, by the way, I have something here that belongs to Edith.
Would you mind returning this to me?
I'd do it myself but I'm flying off to Munich tomorrow.
That first essay is a straight ripoff of Walter Benjamin's
"Works of Art In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,"
but the essay on nudes is terrific.
You've read what he has to say
about photography, haven't you?
It's fascinating.
- You know what he told me?
He said I was good for you.
- He was jealous as hell.
He was green.
Jesus, get down!
Okay, get up.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, those people work with Edith.
Goddamn it!
No, wait, wait, wait.
Let's go in the living room and sit for a minute.
- You never wanted to sit in there before.
- Well I do tonight.
I got plenty of time.
Edith is at a lecture until 11--
- I don't wanna know where she is.
- Okay.
I just wanna go in the living room.
Sit.
Talk.
- Okay.
- They had a hell of a time getting it in here.
Try it.
I never heard you play.
- I'm not very good.
Emma, Emma, wait for me.
You know Pooh Bear?
I wanna ride a blue horse.
I want Pooh to catch me in the air.
Higher Mommy, higher.
- You ride in the saddles?
- I'm telling you, San Francisco is totally amazing.
It's a very, very exciting city.
Well, I'm sort of semi-managing this group.
You're gonna hear from them.
They're called "Little Claw."
Modernistic with classical overtones.
- It's great to see you back.
- Hey, thank you, it's great to be back.
God, you all look incredible!
Nothing's changed around here.
You still have the same crummy old coffee.
Hey!
- Hey.
You look great.
- You do.
- I gotta show, I'll see you later, okay?
- Hey.
- Hey.
- Mmmm.
You look tired.
- Partied all night.
- So how's it going?
- It's okay, about the same.
- I heard there have been some big cutbacks here.
They cut your hours?
- I'm fine.
So how's it going with you up there?
- Forget it, incredible.
Incredible, the people in San Francisco
are so wondering, not only that,
they're totally open to my kind of programming
and your kind of programming.
- Great.
- I think you oughta come up and check it out.
- I will.
- Not only that but truly,
the real reason that I came here was because
I wanted to say thank you
because I know what you did.
- I didn't do anything.
You got it on your own, you know that.
- Yeah.
Right.
- Well, anyway--
- Anyway.
What do you wanna hear for the ride home?
- Oh, right.
Little Richard.
- This is "obsessions In Music."
- So, what, it's gotta be classical?
Hey.
- I guess I could get obsessed with Little Richard for once.
- Anna,
you're the greatest.
- Bye.
oh, Ben!
I've got no place to go!
I'm talking about the drugs!
I'm tried of you fucking around in my life!
Leave me alone!
You've been fucking up around here!
I don't need you anymore!
- Ben Ben!
Ben, let me back in, Ben!
Ben!
Ben!
shut up and get the hell out of here!
- Ben, let me in!
Ben!
Ben, let me in!
Ben!
- You've got no money, huh?
You got no money, you want money!
You want money?!
Pick it up! Pick it up!
Pick it up!
Go ahead, pick it up!
Pick it all up!
Get the fuck out of here!
Make it on your own!
- I love you!
I love you!
I love you, Ben!
- Hello.
It's me.
- Are you calling from home?
I had to.
Listen, I know I said I'd be by this morning but I--
- You can't?
No.
- I see.
It's not my fault.
I cant talk now.
Are you all right?
- What difference does it make?
Just for five minutes, okay?
I'll be there in half an hour.
I won't come if you're gonna be angry.
- I won't.
Please come.
I miss you.
Hi.
I missed you.
- Me too.
- Come on.
- Anna, I...
Anna, please don't.
- I missed you.
- I don't have time for this.
- We could hurry.
- Anna, I don't have time to do this.
No, sweetheart.
Anna, no.
Anna, no.
God, Anna.
No.
- Why not?
- Oh, God.
Anna, I just made love with my wife.
Anna?
Anna, this is crazy.
Would you please open the door?
Anna!
Anna, open the door!
Anna?
Anna!
Sweetheart.
Forgive me, I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
It's all right, it's all right.
We've got a whole history together, Anna.
I've spent 15 years of my life with her.
That's almost half my life.
Hasn't always been great but
I've got two kids I love very much.
She's a very decent,
kind,
loving--
- Do you want me to tell you about my boyfriends?
About how good and decent and loving
and good in bed they were?!
- I'm sure they were.
- They weren't.
There's never been anybody.
Why couldn't you just lie to me?
Why couldn't you just lie and say,
"Anna, I don't love her."
Would it be so hard?
- It's not fair, is it?
- I think you should leave.
It's just not easy anymore.
- Do you really think it's any easier for me?
- I'm second best.
It's not the way I wanted, it's the way you wanted.
You wrote the rules.
- Anna, I'm afraid it's just
a little bit more complicated than that.
You and I don't have any children together.
- It has nothing to do with children!
It has to do with her.
You want all of her and just a little bit of me!
- You want me to leave my family.
- No, I want you to want to leave them!
I want you to want to leave her because you hate her guts.
Because you want me.
I want you to want me.
At any cost, I'll take guilt,
I'll take anything.
I just want you to want me.
- Come here.
- No.
- Come here.
- No!
- Say it.
- No!
I hate you!
- You don't hate me.
Say it!
Say it!
- No!
Not unless you think I'm the smartest
and most beautiful and sexiest girl--
- You are the sexiest.
You are the most beautiful.
Say it.
- No!
- Say it!
- No!
- Say it!
- No!
- Say it.
- No.
- Say it.
- I love you.
I love you.
"I'm sick of my life.
"And its intolerable
"contradictions."
My mind keeps warning me
that love, even as we know it--
- "Must be lived
"in the everyday world
"of Chevrolets
"and toothaches
"and lost chances.
"I'm torn and harried by your absence,
"driven by the loneliness without you
"and continually burned by the physical need of you.
"I can no longer bear to keep seeing you
"if there's no way you'll ever be mine.
"I want you now for my own and forever.
"Sometimes it's right to do the wrong thing.
"Be mine, darling.
"Be brave.
"I love you.
"It's amazing how much."
- Hey, Anna?
Hey, kiddo.
How're you doing?
- You know Chesley?
Joseph Chesley?
He made a terrible mistake.
- Yeah, right, who's Chesley?
- He wrote the letters.
- Yeah.
You know, I kinda forgot about him.
- You know, my mother was weak?
You know,
She couldn't take care of her own life.
He had to and he didn't.
He had to force her.
They were so much in love.
You know?
It's so rare.
See, he thought he was saving three lives but he didn't.
He ruined three lives.
He ruined his and my mothers--
- And your father's?
- Yeah, his too.
Sometimes it's right to do the wrong thing though, isn't it?
- Oh, Anna, I don't know.
- He had to make her see.
He had to take her.
- Look, Anna, I don't know what difference this makes.
- It makes all the difference.
You don't understand, do you?
- I don't know.
Yeah, okay, maybe.
- He wrote such beautiful letters.
Just beautiful letters.
I wish I knew him.
You know, just to know him.
I mean, theyre just beautiful.
Don't you think so?
- Anna, I think I'm getting really worried about you.
- Don't be worried about me.
I'm okay.
I'm great.
I know what to do.
I finally know what to do.
- Time to go to bed.
You can finish it tomorrow.
- Okay.
- Give me a kiss.
- Goodnight, Dad.
- I love you.
- Goodnight, Mom.
- Guess who wants to play elevator one more time?
I can't guess.
Here we go.
First floor.
Second floor.
Fourth floor.
Going down.
- Come up, sweetie, okay?
- Darling, why don't you take her up to bed?
- Okay.
- You come up soon?
- Yeah.
- Come on, hun, let's go to bed.
Say night, night.
Night, night.
- Anna!
Anna!
Let go of me!
oh, Anna.
Leave me alone!
Get your goddamn hands off me!
I said let go of me!
What's the matter with you?
- Maybe I should talk to your wife!
Maybe she'd like to know what the fuck you've been doing!
Maybe she'd like to know where you've been at night!
- What's Daddy doing?
- What do you think I am?!
- A fuck machine?!
- No, I don't.
- Turn me on, turn me off!
- Anna!
- My letter, you didn't even answer my letter.
- I did too, I've been thinking about it, that's all.
- Oh, bullshit!
- It frightened me, you frightened me.
It didn't even sound like you.
Anna, why are you doing this to me?!
I have always been honest with you!
Anna!
Oh my God, Anna.
Anna.
Did you call the doctor?
What did he say?
He said he's on his way.
Oliver, dont touch me!
Edit, please, for Christ sake.
Just answer me one question.
What is it that I did that would make you want
to do this to me?
Edith, you didn't do a thing.
It's me, God forgive me.
she's very young, isn't she?
You bastard.
I don't know what to say, Edith.
Honestly, I don't know what to say, Edith.
Do you love her?
That's impossible.
I love you.
I'm never going to be able to believe that again.
I really believed that you loved me.
And if not me, I knew you loved the children.
- Just give me a chance, Edith, give me.
- I can't, I can't believe it.
- I'm sorry.
- Anna, Anna, wait.
Look, you can't drive home alone like this.
- I'm fine.
- Anna, please listen.
- I said, I'm fine!
- Wait!
Wait, please listen to me!
I gotta tell you something.
I don't want it to end like this!
I just can't walk out on them!
I have to hurt the fewest people.
Do you understand me?!
- You love her.
- Yes, of course I love her, I always have.
I love you too.
- I don't think you did.
- Anna, you're very young, you're very special.
You can do a hell of a lot better than me.
A hell of a lot.
- Will I really?
- Yeah, Anna,
if there is one thing I've learned in life
is that everything passes, everything.
It's gonna be all right.
Just tell me it's gonna be all right, please, Anna.
Say it's gonna be all right.
- Goodbye.
Dont touch me!
Goddamn it, you!
You're drunk, leave me alone!
Don't touch me!
You don't care about me, you think about Anna!
Is that the problem?!
I'll never touch you again!
I'm leaving!
No you're not!
You're not going anywhere!
You don't care about me,
you think about Anna!
She's your daughter!
Just leave me alone!
What did I do?
Did I touch you, is that the problem!?
I'll never touch you again!
Don't you move!
- Anna?
- You're so like her.
- Excuse me.
Did you leave the flowers?
The gardenias?
- You're Anna.
Would've known you anyway.
You look just like her.
- When did you see her last?
- Oh,
five years ago.
Just for a few hours.
And before that, another 10 years.
- That's a long time.
- Yes, a long time.
- You should've been together.
- It was a mistake.
She was my chance.
I lost her.
- I have something of yours.
She gave it to me,
but I think you should have it.
- Kept it all these years.
- Here.
- Damn it.
It really is embarrassing.
She was...
she was the love of my life, you see.
You understand.
Maybe you've been in love the way we were.
- No.
Not like that.
Not like you.