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BORDEN: You went halfway around the world. You spent a fortune. You did terrible things… and all of it for nothing.
Angier looks up at him with his last spark of competitiveness.
ANGIER: Nothing? You never understood, did you? Why we did this? (coughs)
The audience knows the truth- that the world is simple. Miserable. Solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, you could make them wonder. Then you got to see something very special… (coughs, looks up) You really don’t know?
Borden just stares at Angier. Who smiles.
ANGIER: It was the look on their faces.
KNIGHT
I want to talk to you as openly as I can, but my heart is empty.
DEATH doesn’t answer.
KNIGHT
The emptiness is a mirror turned towards my own face. I see myself in it, and I am filled with fear and disgust.
DEATH doesn’t answer.
KNIGHT
Through my indifference to my fellow men, I have isolated myself from their company. Now I live in a world of phantoms. I am imprisoned in my dreams and fantasies.
DEATH
And yet you don’t want to die.
KNIGHT
Yes, I do.
DEATH
What are you waiting for?
KNIGHT
I want knowledge.
DEATH
You want guarantees?
KNIGHT
Call it whatever you like. Is it so cruelly inconceivable to grasp God with the senses? Why should He hide himself in a mist of half-spoken promises and unseen miracles?
DEATH doesn’t answer.
KNIGHT
How can we have faith in those who believe when we can’t have faith in ourselves? What is going to happen to those of us who want to believe but aren’t able to? And what is to become of those who neither want to nor are capable of believing?
The KNIGHT stops and waits for a reply, but no one speaks or answers him.
There is complete silence.
KNIGHT
Why can’t I kill God within me? Why does He live on in this painful and humiliating way even though I curse Him and want to tear Him out of my heart? Why, in spite of everything, is He a baffling reality that I can’t shake off? Do you hear me?
DEATH
Yes, I hear you.
KNIGHT
I want knowledge, not faith, not suppositions, but knowledge. I want God to stretch out His hand towards me, reveal Himself and speak to me.
DEATH
But He remains silent.
KNIGHT
I call out to Him in the dark but no one seems to be there.
DEATH
Perhaps no one is there.
KNIGHT
Then life is an outrageous horror. No one can live in the face of death, knowing that all is nothingness.
DEATH
Most people never reflect about either death or the futility of life.
KNIGHT
But one day they will have to stand at that last moment of life and look towards the darkness.
DEATH
When that day comes …
KNIGHT
In our fear, we make an image, and that image we call God.
DEATH
You are worrying …
KNIGHT
Death visited me this morning. We are playing chess together. This reprieve gives me the chance to arrange an urgent matter.
DEATH
What matter is that?
KNIGHT
My life has been a futile pursuit, a wandering, a great deal of talk without meaning. I feel no bitterness or self-reproach because the lives of most people are very much like this. But I will use my reprieve for one meaningful deed.
DEATH
Is that why you are playing chess with Death?
KNIGHT
He is a clever opponent, but up to now I haven’t lost a single man.
DEATH
How will you outwit Death in your game?
KNIGHT
I use a combination of the bishop and the knight which he hasn’t yet discovered. In the next move I’ll shatter one of his flanks.
DEATH
I’ll remember that.
DEATH shows his face at the grill of the confession booth for a moment but disappears instantly.
KNIGHT
You’ve tricked and cheated me! But we’ll meet again, and I’ll find a way.
DEATH
(invisible) We’ll meet at the inn, and there we’ll continue playing.
The KNIGHT raises his hand and looks at it in the sunlight which comes through the tiny window.
KNIGHT
This is my hand. I can move it, feel the blood pulsing through it. The sun is still high in the sky and I, Antonius Block, am playing chess with Death. He makes a fist of his hand and lifts it to his temple.
Marlon Brando died today. He was 80 years old. A giant he was. I have a few of his movies in my DVD collection: On the waterfront, A streetcar named desire, The godfather, Apocalypse now, The score. I remember also One eyed jack’s, an intelligent western in which he starred with Karl Malden. They don’t make performers like that anymore.
Even after viewing Insomnia a few years ago where he did a great job as a killer, I am impressed by Robin Williams’ performance in One Hour Photo. He has a gift for appearing innocent even though you know he’s guilty. It makes every line he says even spookier.
I enjoyed the movie. The ever present white and a chase scene through hotel corridors and an interior parking lot reminded me of a few of Stanley Kubrick best scenes. Whether it was a ripff or an homage, it was very well done. The story also has a few clever twists which keep you guessing till the end.
