6b 1910 ADIEU DR. FRAENKEL! > download Word-Doc Spa Tobelbad. Alma Mahler and Dr. Joseph Fraenkel are arguing. FRAENKEL Alma! What's the matter with you all of a sudden? Did I do something wrong? Alma, please stay ! Did I say something that hurt you? ... Alma!! Hold on ! Why are you so angry with me all of a sudden? Remember, Alma! Remember yesterday, won't you! Please, Alma! Yesterday everything was fine, so good between the two of us, and now, just like that? Yesterday's operation! Have you forgotten it already ? You were completely satisfied! The results are fantastic, aren't they? You've been relieved of a burden! Please don't run away, Alma! ... At least say something ! What did I do to deserve such a brutal change in your behavior? Alma, how can I know what this is all about if you don't talk to me? What deadly sin have I committed? ALMA My poor, sweet Doktor Fraenkel... FRAENKEL »My poor, sweet Doktor Fraenkel!« What kind of answer is that? Is that supposed to be some kind of consolation? For what? I know I'm poor. In every sense of the word. ALMA Don't be ridiculous! FRAENKEL And on top of it I'm ridiculous now. I am! You said it! You can't take it back. , it doesn't make it any easier for me. ALMA We've been such good friends... Let's leave it at that. FRAENKEL I operated on you! Please don't forget that! I've touched you ... ALMA Medically, Doctor, only medically! FRAENKEL Only medically? Only?! That's the most intimate touching there is, Alma! Far more intimate than the way all other men continually harass you with their animal eyes! You mustn't let yourself be defiled ! ALMA Don't be vulgar! FRAENKEL And you've got to stop drinking, Alma. Really. Please give up the bottle. Try to return to yourself, to what you were before your miserable marriage. ALMA What was I ? I can't remember anymore
FRAENKEL A young person with the whole world at your feet. You had the most wonderful gift a person can have: you had talent-- ALMA I don't know what's left of it. My head is empty. My heart is mute. My feelings are dead. FRAENKEL Leave that life behind you-- ALMA How can I? I'm keeping house, I'm supporting Gustav, I have a young daughter. FRAENKEL Give it all up. Take your forgotten songs with you, and go back to composing. ALMA How do you know about my compositions? FRAENKEL A guest of ours played one yesterday. ALMA Nonsense. I'm not going to be a composer any more. I can't do anything about it- FRAENKEL Yes you can. But this time don't let anyone distract you from your path . ALMA Stop it, Dr. Fraenkel! FRAENKEL Alma, I know I'm not Hippocrates. ALMA Stop it, Dr. Fraenkel! FRAENKEL Yes, you've told me many times. ALMA I was joking. FRAENKEL No, you weren't. You weren't at all! I know what my colleagues say about me, I'm not under any illusions. I know they keep telling you how poor I am. And it's true - ALMA External appearances have never interested me. FRAENKEL But they do, my dear, they interest you a great deal! I know you well enough by now to be aware of that. ALMA Don't flatter yourself, Doctor. FRAENKEL You're after money, talent and fame. I have none of all these. ALMA That isn't true. You have talent, and you know it . You're an authority. FRAENKEL I'm not so sure any more. ALMA You're an authority, Dr. Fraenkel. I can assure you of that. FRAENKEL But I'm not a genius. Now you be quiet. . I'm certainly not a genius. If you believed I was , you wouldn't have let me down. - Alma! Don't leave me! I want you. I need you. I have to have you, do you understand?! For ever! I want you for ever. Do you understand?! I want to shape you, you see?! I want to form you! Your body! - Don't let me beg like a child. Do you really have so much to give that others have to beg? ALMA Yes. FRAENKEL Well fine, I have nothing. I have to beg! ALMA Stop it! Stop it right now!! I can't bear it! Do you understand me?! Stop humiliating yourself right now. I can't stand it. You must never, do you hear, never humiliate yourself in front of me. You should never, never, never beg for my love! FRAENKEL If you don't give it to me - ALMA Nothing kills love like begging, , don't you understand that? If someone asks for help, you shouldn't give it to them. Because that means they aren't worthy of it! Why can't you see that? If a man asks me for something - if he begs for it - then to me, he's dead. FRAENKEL And - am I dead to you? (uses his stethoscope) ALMA You are doing everything you can to make my departure easier for me. . FRAENKEL Your departure?! What departure?! ALMA Doctor, I have an awful dilemma. FRAENKEL Is there someone else? ALMA Please, Dr. Fraenkel... FRAENKEL Who is it? - Don't call me »Dr. Fraenkel«! - Who is it? I want to know his name! ALMA It's Mahler. FRAENKEL Gustav Mahler? But he's your husband! ALMA No, you sweet little idiot! I'm only experimenting. FRAENKEL I know. ALMA No, not with you. I'm experimenting with myself: I whisper »My love«, and it's always Mahler's name that comes out first. FRAENKEL And whose name comes out second? Silence. FRAENKEL Whose name comes out second, hmm? I can already smell him on you. What has he got that I haven't? Is he younger than me? Better-looking? Is it Ossip Gawrilowitsch the pianist? I know you, Mrs. Alma Mahler. You want to sparkle like a star in the sky. The brightest star. The evening star. And for that you don't need love. But that's all I can give you. What you do need a rich and respectable man. - What are you laughing at?! ALMA »A respectable Man!« Oh, my God... How do you know! FRAENKEL So he isn't respectable ? Then he must be very rich. ALMA He isn't rich either. FRAENKEL Then he must be famous. ALMA Dr. Fraenkel, stop it, please! FRAENKEL Stop lying to me! Is he famous? World famous? ALMA Not yet. FRAENKEL Ahhh! - Who is it?!!! ALMA It's Sauerbruch. FRAENKEL Who?! ALMA Sauerbruch, your colleague. FRAENKEL Stop this nonsense. I won't tolerate such a man in my house. ALMA I'm not going to tell you. So please leave me in peace, will you?! FRAENKEL Don't make me crazy! I want to know now, dammit! Who is it? At least tell me his room number. ALMA Dr. Fraenkel! You're getting on my nerves. Stop torturing me! FRAENKEL I'm torturing you?! You're torturing me! Who is the man? I want his room number right now! ALMANIAC (whispers) Psst! It's one-one-eight. FRAENKEL What? What?! (takes out the list of patients and searches through it:) No! No, you've got to be kidding! It can't be true! That animal? That Aryan thoroughbred? That German Schäferhund?! ALMA He's in love with me. FRAENKEL He's in love with you? But you're a married woman! ALMA It's not my fault if I light passion's fire , it's not my fault! Men swarm around me like moths to a flame , like flies to a honey pot...! I was made that way! That's why I was born into this world! FRAENKEL Flies swarm to shit in the street too... ALMA You're just jealous. FRAENKEL My God! You are the most incorrigible Man-Hunter I've ever met! ALMA What's wrong with that? FRAENKEL Well! Madam! ALMA I'm listening, Doctor! FRAENKEL If you you don't think there is anything wrong with you, then I won't disturb your peace of mind. ALMA Tell me what you think, what you feel. FRAENKEL Frankly speaking, I can't approve of your weakness. ALMA You really think people should tie up their whole lives with the first object that happens to come along? FRAENKEL An object? You call a Man an object?! ALMA What's wrong with objects? They can be very interesting and even exciting sometimes. But that's no reason to give them all up for the first object that catches your attention? Why should one precious stone make you blind to all the rest? FRAENKEL But what are you left with when you finish a love affair
? ALMA There's always a new love to start up. FRAENKEL And you think Mr. Gropius is that a love? What's so new about him ? ALMA It quickens my pulse to feel his desire. It awakens me from my deep sleep. It's like therapy! FRAENKEL Go on devouring life like a pig-- stuff yourself with food, drinks and cum! ALMA I am what I am! I was made to devour life, not to describe it
! I simply love it when a man loves me. FRAENKEL Doesn't faithfulness mean anything to you? ALMA But Doctor, that's ridiculous! Faithfulness ! All intelligent men have the right to enchant me. Denying that would be doing them an injustice! The purely accidental advantage of the one who happened to be the first to cross my path should not rob the others of their rightful claims to my heart. FRAENKEL What are you saying, Alma? How can you? ALMA Women who are proud of being faithful all their life to one man - even if the man is exceptional - are certainly not interested in the intelligence or pure spirit of men! They have to force themselves to be faithful, through a false sense of honor that keeps them forever away from all other men. from their intelligence, from their greatness, from their genius! Women like that are dead long before they've died. FRAENKEL Alma! Why are you talking like this? You are an intelligent woman with refined tastes. Your music is far superior to anything that cheap prick of an architect could cobble together in 200 years. ALMA How do you know about my compositions? FRAENKEL A guest of ours played one yesterday. ALMA Nonsense. I'm not going to be a composer any more-- I can't do anything about it- FRAENKEL Why? ALMA The muses don't like me. FRAENKEL The muses?! ALMA But men do. Especially the ones the muses love. That's why the muses are jealous of me. Let them drop dead with envy-- like their lovers die of love for me. They pray at my altar! I don't know why, but that's how it is. My husband never was as absorbed in his work as he was absorbed in his love for me, believe it or not! Whatever he did, he did for me, to reach me, to touch me, to worship me...! FRAENKEL Gustav Mahler?! Really
? ALMA And Walter is going to be the prophet of modern architecture. I know it! FRAENKEL Walter?!! ALMA Walter Gropius. 1-1-8. He isn't just anybody! He's a genius! I know it. I can feel it. FRAENKEL As an architect he's a disaster, he's a nothing, a Zero! Just Think of his ridiculous visions of a Bauhaus movement! Ha! ALMA It's not his theories. Not in the least . His theories about architecture leave me cold. It's just
him! Him! It's him that fascinates me. Only him. It's strange... But I don't know how to say it. FRAENKEL Yes, sure, I know. The inexpressible , that »certain something«! ALMA Yes. Exactly. You see, when a man falls in love with me, I immediately fall in love with myself. And all of sudden my life feels so full, so justified! FRAENKEL Just because a man passes through your life?! That's ridiculous! ALMA Why? FRAENKEL Because they always leave their dirty footsteps on your soul, and their greasy fingerprints on your body! ALMA Oh no! The more men pass through my life, the more strongly I feel that I'm alive! FRAENKEL But they fill you with their rotten semen! ALMA Rotten? No. Nothing tastes better than the sperm of a genius. FRAENKEL You should know
ALMA If I love a man, I want to have a child with him. If I don't, it can easily be disposed of. FRAENKEL Alma! ALMA What's wrong with that? You helped me with it just yesterday ... FRAENKEL Alma, please! It was against my Hippocratic oath. ALMA Then you're a sinner now. Thank you. See you in hell! FRAENKEL Stop fooling yourself, Alma. All you want to do is sit on the hurdy-gurdy, like a fool! All dressed up, with a little red cap, a bowl of money in your hand, while some silly man grinds the organ! And the whole world dances to the tune! But not with me, Alma! Not with me!! Suddenly Dr. Fraenkel throws himself at Alma, trying to embrace and kiss her: ALMA Stop it! Stop it, Dr. Fraenkel! How dare you
?! FRAENKEL Alma... Alma! Come here, come to me! ALMA Dr. Fraenkel! Are you completely mad?! Leave me... in peace! Don't kiss me! Don't touch me! Go away!! Go ... away!!! (pushes him away and spits out) Urrgh! If only I'd met him a bit earlier, my body would never have been tainted by yours. FRAENKEL Ahhhh... Now I recognize you, Alma. Your boundless vanity, your craving for pleasure, your ridiculous fantasies! You're dead! You're lost ... ALMA Quite the contrary, my dear. You can keep your advice to yourself. I won't need it any more. I'll love Walter Gropius for the rest of my life. That man is pure oxygen for me! Anyone who steps too close to him catches fire! FRAENKEL And what about me? What have I been for you? ALMA Sulphur. It burns too - but it's stinkier. FRAENKEL Well, then
! Then I insist that you leave immediately, right away, tonight. Get out of my sight! Fuck yourself to fame and glory! That's what you were born for! ALMA That's not for you to judge, thank God. FRAENKEL Adieu ma vie, adieu mon coeur, adieu mon espérance! I have to drown my sorrows and break the news to our friends. All I need is a good drink, and some juicy jokes. Enjoy your thoroughbred German Schäferhund! When you're fed up with him, join me for an abortion. You'll always be welcome. |