From Life is a Bed of Roses (1983) by Alain Resnais. min: 0.22.08
Does harmony reign among us? Not at all.
Harmony has fled from this world forever.
Nothing and no one are in their proper place.
That’s why we’re all unhappy.
One man may be fooled into thinking his wife loves him.
She's, however sought by another, but loves a third.
One is indecently rich while another is indecently poor.
Ashamed, one hides his wealth, the other his poverty.
You all suffer, you weep, all of you. Enough! Enough!
—Count Forbek
Synopsis (1):
“Does harmony reign among us? Harmony has fled from this world forever. Nothing and no one are in their proper place. That’s why we are all unhappy.”
A few months prior to WWI, Count Michel Forbek invites his friends to see a model of a "temple of happiness" that he intends to build in the Ardennes forest. In addition to this, he lets them know that the house will serve as their home as well as his, and that once it is finished, they would all get together for a huge party to celebrate his upcoming marriage to his fiancee, Livia. A mini-utopia where they could all live in peace and harmony forever.
Fast forward five years, the building is partially completed, many of Forbek's friends have died in the war, his fortune has dwindled, and Livia has since gotten married to Raoul. This, however, does not stop him from assembling the few friends he has left to a completed section of the building to begin his experiment.
When a friend makes an effort to persuade him to postpone the experiment until the "paint dries," Forbek brushes off this idea by reminding everyone of the losses they’ve had to endure as a result of the war:
"You were wounded in the war? So was I. My soul was deepIy wounded. I tried to still my pain, but I can't stand it any more. I know I'm not the onIy one. That's why I chose you, because you're my friends. I know you. Four years of suffering made us murderers. Of all the ties that bind us, isn't this the strongest?”
Forbek’s goal is simple: “Remake human understanding, shame 30 centuries of idiocy and disorder, bring harmony to this and future generations, restore the harmony we've lost.”
His plan: get his friends to drink a potion that will put them into a slumber of forgetfulness, so that when they wake up, they'll be completely different people with no memories of who they were before. In the moments leading up to this, he assures his friends that they don't have to stay if they don't want to participate. The majority remain, while a few leave. Livia and Raoul are among those who stay. Forbek is taken aback by this and asks Livia why she has decided to stay when she is clearly happy. In response, she tells him that she’s staying because of their friendship.
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