♪♪

[ Pencil scribbling ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Calm music plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Clicks tongue ]

♪♪

[ Clicks tongue ]

♪♪

[ Chittering ]

[ Chuckles ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Growls ]

[ Chuckles lightly ]

♪♪

Many, many years ago, my Zen master insisted

that I visit Leonora and ask her to mentor me.

"You want to become an artist, Adán," he said.

And Leonora is great master of art and alchemy,

who somehow achieves the psychic freedom you seek.

I am as mysterious to myself as I am to everyone else.

♪♪

[ Sighs deeply ]

♪♪

This morning has been endless.

Looking out the window, watching the street.

♪♪

Waiting for some message outside my dreams.

♪♪

A sign shall appear.

A door shall open, and I shall see and know.

♪♪

I arrived at Leonora's home in Colonia Roma.

194 Chihuahua Street.

I was entirely embraced by fear.

A feeling that began to disappear as...

as I saw her

standing at the top of the stairs.

Not quite a human being.

Rather, an ethereal figure

made of pure energy.

It's a tricky subject, isn't it?

The woman as unreal element in the life of a male artist.

I was intimidated to the point of not being able to speak.

I had worn my -- my best coat.

Prepared all morning.

As I entered the house, I felt the walls were closing in on me.

♪♪

And I noticed remnants of my breakfast

were taking firm hold of my left lapel.

Quietly...

I wondered if my fly was open.

Adán. [ Claps hands ]

Your teacher told me

that you view women exclusively in the realm of sex.

[ Singing in Spanish ]

Oh, he also told me that you are a dance teacher.

Is that right?

Yes.

Show me how you move so I can get to know you.

[ Singing in Spanish ]

♪♪

Oh, dear.

[ Continues singing ]

♪♪

[ Chuckles ]

♪♪

I suppose he told you that I am a witch...

♪♪

and that I have been locked up.

♪♪

For neither Breton nor the rest of them

have ever seen me inside of an actual madhouse.

But I do not regret my life.

♪♪

All stories are true, you see.

What you see here is merely a fragment what I see.

It's just a fragment.

[ Somber music plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

Silence.

Drink up, my friend.

The gods are malevolent and dangerous.

♪♪

The sun was shining on the sea.

Shining with all his might.

He did his very best to make the billows smooth and bright.

And that was odd, because it was the middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily, because she thought the sun

had got no reason to be there after day was done.

[ Laughs ]

"It's very rude of him," she said,

"to come and spoil the fun."

The sea was wet as wet could be.

The sand was dry as dry.

You could not see a cloud, because no cloud was in the sky.

No birds were flying overhead.

[ Vocalizing ]

There were no birds to fly.

The walrus and the carpenter were walking hand-in-hand.

They wept like anything to see such quantities of sand.

"If only this..." [ Tapping ]

...were cleared away," they said, "it would be grand."

♪♪

"Oh, oysters, come and walk with us,"

the Walrus did beseech.

"Oh, a little walk, a little talk,

along the briny beach.

We cannot do with more than four,

to give a hand to each."

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"to talk of many things.

Of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax,

of cabbages and kings,

and if the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings."

The cabbage.

The cabbage is a rose.

The alchemical rose.

And the eating of a God is ancient knowledge.

And although it differs in many properties from that of animal,

it still screams when pulled from the ground

or plunged into boiling water.

♪♪

[ Clears throat ]

♪♪

Forgive us, cabbage.

Adán: I was enraptured by Leonora.

She could distill things to their vital essence.

Why, her inner world was a vast constellation,

raging like the seas,

teeming like a cauldron filled

with the dreams of ancients and the jokes of deities.

Hubiera sido suficiente -- It would have been enough

if she could simply channel life's mysteries.

But no.

[ Laughs ]

She was its incarnation.

Let's play a game.

What do you call...

this?

♪♪

A cabbage.

♪♪

[ Blows raspberry ] No, no.

No, no. Of course, I call this a question.

The center of the universe.

♪♪

What doyou call this?

Oh, I call this...

Adán.

♪♪

And from now on, your name shall be...

Mr. Mole!

♪♪

The cabbage is of divine origin, that is true.

But if deities do exist,

I don't believe that they take on a human form.

I believe that they look like a cabbage, or a zebra,

or a bird.

In fact, when I was a girl,

I was not a girl at all...

but a young ram.

♪♪

And every day, I would take a walk into the forest.

It was my escape from the world.

And there among the many, many beasts, my favorite...

Leonora: ...was a young hyena.

[ Shrieks ]

And she was wild and wise.

She taught me her language. [ Hisses ]

And in this way, we spent all afternoon together.

And I learned that the hyena eats only trash.

And she did not eat sweets all day long, my dear.

♪♪

But sometimes, when the moon was full,

she would go on the hunt for children!

[ High-pitched laughter ]

Run, children, run!

The hyena will get you, children!

[ Speaking Spanish ]

♪♪

Oh, my dear, do you ever stop talking?

[ Speaking Spanish ] Aah!

♪♪

[ Laughing ] Man: So...

you're up to your old tricks again, little one.

Oh, my. My ancestors are trying to frighten me.

I'm glad that Señorita Rock...

My father... ...has brought you here.

...is right here in this very room with me...

It is now exactly... ...looking at me...

...a very long time. ...with his eyes...

...since I prohibited you... ...filled with...

...from playing with a horse! ...badness

and fear and...

I find myself obliged... No, Father.

...to punish you severely! No, Father, please don't.

I shall burn this horse! No, Father.

I shall burn... No, Father!

Please don't, Father! No!

♪♪

[ Thud ]

♪♪

Are we feeling better today, my dear?

♪♪

Mm, I would say so.

I am seeing a young woman,

not a wild animal.

♪♪

You and I could be excellent partners

in this work we are embarking on.

With knowledge, I can do anything. [ Laughs ]

You shall then turn me into the world's greatest doctor.

[ Chuckles ]

Oh, you are proud, my dear,

and pride is a kind of blindness.

You need to learn to contain all of these fantasies that...

that, hmm, possess you.

I am not your property. I..

You must learn to work strenuously if...

I have private...

...you are ever to overcome...

...thoughts.

...your diseased imagination.

♪♪

My own.

♪♪

Some people say, "El pasado es el pasado."

"The past is the past."

But I believe time is circular.

You can visit the past.

You can even sculpt it, making subtle revisions.

Leonora: [ Clicks tongue ]

Not to remove its pain,

but to transform it like a pearl from a grain of coarse sand.

♪♪

It is a prejudice that we perceive of time

in a straight line.

♪♪

Or any sort of line at all, really.

A corkscrew or a zigzag.

♪♪

The formula for a vital evocation

is hidden somewhere deep inside me.

♪♪

I prefer to feel

enormous and powerful.

♪♪

You know, I secretly believe that I am a goddess

with very brief moments of incarnation.

♪♪

Alchemists have always felt the pulse of animal,

vegetable and mineral.

We have allowed ourselves to forget what we were taught

before we were born, you see.

The tarot.

The tarot is a mirror.

[ Chanting ]

You bring yourself to the tarot.

It tells you the story of yourself.

♪♪

♪♪

The 13th arcanum.

The death card.

Look at him.

The skeleton is as happy as a lunatic

who has finally been freed from the asylum.

[ Chuckles ]

He doesn't need anything at all.

He is neither hungry nor cold.

Hot nor cold.

He seems so free. [ Laughs ]

The moon.

Mysterious and dark.

Light and cold.

♪♪

The high priestess.

♪♪

She protects her egg,

filled with secret knowledge like the apple.

Eve received it, shared it with Adam,

and has been blamed for eternity.

♪♪

I-I associate her with -- with mystery.

♪♪

A mirror, a-a reflection.

There is an egg,

symbolizing great potential within the stillness.

♪♪

She tells me things are not as they appear.

I've been thinking recently about an egg.

The beginning and the end.

The atom that contains the universe.

The tarot will tell me the story of myself.

The night sky assumes the shape of an egg.

I live.

On the eve of St John's, take the egg of a black hen

and a glass of water outside under the night sky.

I attempt.

Break the egg, shell and all, into the glass.

I desire.

At dawn, you will see among its shapes

the fate that you will have to endure.

I will know.

The cards speak to me in their own language

and reveal their fascinating secrets only in my silence.

♪♪

I do not know of any religion

that does not declare women to be feeble-minded,

or unclean,

or generally inferior to men.

I should hope by now that we all know

that a woman should not have to demand her rights.

Her rights were there from the beginning,

and they must be taken back again,

as well as the mysteries which were ours

and which were stolen or violated.

[ Clucks ]

Or destroyed. [ Clucks ]

Oh, let's play a game. [ Clucking ]

Good day, ladies. How are we feeling today, my dears?

Feeling better? Good. Please sit down.

Please sit down and rest your weary minds.

I've asked you already to please sit...

down!

♪♪

Thank you.

That's better.

Now, where was I? Yes! [ Snaps fingers ]

Now, it has come to my attention that you all are acting up.

Acts of protest in the cafeteria.

[ Chuckles ]

I don't know why you would stray

from the path of your own healing.

♪♪

This incomprehensible behavior ha--

[ Groans ]

Is upsetting members of this community!

[ Clears throat ]

Martina Giutierrez is leaving.

Mrs. Lutz is now leaving. Lutz?

Do you understand? Their bags have been packed.

Their families are en route. [ Cheering ]

Stop that at once!

I insist this behavior must stop at once! [ Whooping ]

Old birds like you do not have the luxury

to be wasting their time!

Now good day.

[ Both laugh ]

♪♪

[ Sighs ]

♪♪

Oh, I received a letter today.

♪♪

[ Clears throat ]

"My dear friend.

♪♪

Today, I had a cup of tea

and thought about the hyena whom,

although I've only known her a short time, I call my friend."

[ Laughs ]

"I have few friends. What can you expect?

I am a recluse, and I am glad to have a hyena as a friend.

Do not give up hope...

entirely...

despite the terror of your current circumstance.

Please know that I am doing everything possible

to release you from that terrible place.

Yours, Reme."

♪♪

I never could have imagined that I would end up like this.

♪♪

Living every day at the mercy of a madman.

Barely surviving.

♪♪

I don't know what keeps me here.

♪♪

Why don't I climb out the window and escape to the frozen tundra?

[ Atmospheric music plays ]

There must be some kind of dark magic

that will not release me!

[ Man vocalizing ]

♪♪

One must be very careful what one takes,

when everything changes forever.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

We float far from the wisdom of our ancestors.

We long for proximity to the light,

forgetting that we are all inhabiting the same universe

from the same star,

needing not new fears,

but to remember that the light lives within.

♪♪

We had stopped at a café for lunch.

♪♪

Five or six soldiers entered.

♪♪

Later, they took me to a room that was hung with red lanterns.

♪♪

[ Man laughs ]

[ Grunts ]

♪♪

After a while, they grew tired of me.

♪♪

I kept resisting them.

♪♪

They let me get up and get dressed.

♪♪

I was adjusting my clothes in the mirror...

♪♪

and I saw one of them emptying the contents of my handbag.

♪♪

I thought that was perfectly normal.

♪♪

Just as I thought it was normal when one of them drenched my --

[ Gasps ]

[Shakily] ...head...

♪♪

with a bottle of perfume.

♪♪

[ Clicks tongue ]

♪♪

[ Clicks tongue ]

♪♪

[ Clicks tongue ]

♪♪

You are a beautiful creature.

♪♪

It was at this time that I began to believe

that I could save the world.

♪♪

That I could absorb the pain of the world...

[ Woman vocalizing ]

...and hold it in my stomach.

♪♪

Transform it and release it into the universe.

♪♪

And I worshiped myself in this moment.

♪♪

And I worshiped myself because I saw myself as whole.

♪♪

All was one, and one was in me.

♪♪

My face was an exact replica of the Earth.

♪♪

My eyes became, miraculously, solar systems.

♪♪

And I could see the planets...

♪♪

and the stars...

[ Gasps ]

♪♪

and the moons...

♪♪

and the solar systems.

♪♪

All vibrating in a divine dance

that reverberated throughout the universes.

♪♪

Calamities demand the capacity to embrace paradox

in the minds of those experiencing them

and those trying to comprehend from a distance.

Along the streets, people walk, hypnotized,

enslaved in heartbreak, scattering anguish.

♪♪

Her deep desire was to...

to free the world from this pain.

♪♪

To transform her blood into wine.

To be drunk by the sun and the moon.

♪♪

I first made this soup in the middle of a secret forest,

while a mythic horse flew through the sky.

The ingredients are simple.

[Claps hands ] One pink onion.

♪♪

Oh, some mugwort.

Oh, my dear.

Oh, of course, some garlic.

♪♪

Oh, a seashell for salt.

♪♪

And at the very end,

I submerge a cabbage rose

for one moment only before removing.

♪♪

A beautiful princess comes upon a frog

in a meadow near her castle.

The frog hops into the princess's lap and says,

"Principessa" -- because he spoke Italian --

"one kiss from you and I will turn back into

the dapper young prince that I once was."

And then, my sweet, you will marry me."

And you will bear princes and princesses

and forever be happy doing so.

Now, late that night,

while sitting down to dine in her castle,

the princess thought to herself,

"What a delicious offer, Prince Frog,"

as she dined on -- on sautéed frog legs.

[ Laughs ]

[ Laughs ] Yes.

I've invited several writers and artists here tonight,

although artists are always somehow embarrassed

simply for creating art,

while businessmen are actually proud of their thievery

and debasement...

[Vocalizing] ...greed and debauchery.

[ Singing in Spanish ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Who am I?!

♪♪

♪♪

[ Leonora laughs ]

I stay awake solving the riddles of ancient masters.

♪♪

There is a house.

One enters it blind and leaves it seeing.

♪♪

But what is it?

♪♪

At night, it comes without being fetched,

and by day, it is lost without being stolen.

Who am I?

♪♪

You're trying to intellectualize something...

desperately.

♪♪

You are wasting my time

by trying to use your mini logic.

You must use your feelings.

There is no other way.

♪♪

There is no alternative way.

♪♪

If anyone tries to psychoanalyze my work,

I shall go on strike!

♪♪

[ Speaking Spanish ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Whispering indistinctly ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

It is extraordinary

to spin beyond the boundaries

of time and space.

♪♪

Painting opens the door to a new world.

♪♪

The universe spirals forward...

♪♪

and then back again, collapsing.

♪♪

New dimensions are revealed.

♪♪

This is the egg.

[ Groans ]

♪♪

Eros, chaos, and old night.

♪♪

Tell the future.

Will you send a sign?

♪♪

Midnight replies, old night!

[ Screams ]

I am born!

My death is complete.

♪♪

What is the message, old night?

♪♪

Fire and air!

♪♪

And all the beasts have made

my body!

♪♪

And who shall see the sign?

Which one will go through the door?

[ Caws ]

You must remember, only some may enter and time begins.

[ Squawks ]

You must remember, only one may enter and time begins.

[ Squawks ]

You must remember, only one may enter and time begins.

[ Squawks ]

You must remember, only one may enter and time begins.

[ Squawks ] You must remember, only one may enter and time

[Choking] begins.

This is a love letter to a nightmare!

♪♪

[ Shouts indistinctly ]

[ Shrieks ]

I want to come in!

[ Chanting ]

The final flight of the dark pajaro

was an omen of my solitude that night.

♪♪

Man: Ha!

Standing by the ancient arch,

deciphering.

♪♪

[ Screams ]

Deciphering the keys that will allow me in.

♪♪

Hyah!

Hey!

[ Shouting ]

I spent nights and days... [ Screams ]

wandering about, thinking.

Voices: Let me in.

I couldn't find my way through those gates!

I needed her to guide the path!

[ Shouts indistinctly ]

♪♪

[ Bell chimes ] [ Chanting stops ]

♪♪

The old gods are alive.

♪♪

[ Drumbeat ]

The ram shall renew the myth

♪♪

and transform paradise.

♪♪

And all on this Earth and throughout this galaxy

♪♪

shall be awakened to her.

♪♪

And she to them.

♪♪

The ovigerous claws of my own expectations

have finally let go of their grip.

♪♪

And I am left standing

on the precipice of your absence.

♪♪

[ Howls ]

[ Singing in foreign language ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Vocalizing ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Howls ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Wind blowing ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Wind moaning ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Bleats ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Bleats ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Bleats ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Bleats ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ Bleats ]

♪♪

[ Bleats ]

♪♪

♪♪

Leonora: Ama.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Leonora: I am.

♪♪

I am.

[ Voices muttering "I am." ]

♪♪

I am.

♪♪

I am the door made of stone.

No ordinary being can see me or pass through.

♪♪

I am.

♪♪

I am the queen bee who fills the cup

of the ancestors with honey to overflowing.

♪♪

I am the black dog baying at the moon.

♪♪

I am the errant angel

♪♪

hiding in the garden of King Solomon,

among the pomegranates.

I am.

♪♪

I am the red bird who sings

and the hyena who laughs at your fear.

♪♪

I am the left hand reaching 1,000 miles away from the body.

I am.

♪♪

I am the white horse running through the forest,

swift and powerful as a tiger!

I am!

♪♪

I am the fool who found the first tarot

and she who gives it.

♪♪

I am the spider princess

weaving my silken ladder.

I am.

♪♪

I am the eight spokes of the wheel,

vision, freedom, and light.

♪♪

I am the forgotten commandment!

None, not one,

shall be cast aside!

[ Horn blows ]

♪♪

[ Horn blows melodically ]

♪♪

[ Horns blowing melodically ]

♪♪

[ Bell dings ]

♪♪

[ Bell dings ]

[ Atmospheric music plays ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Objects contain the past, the present, and the future,

if you know how to trap their secrets.

[ Vocalizing ]

♪♪

Perhaps an image once reflected in a mirror can appear again.

Who are you?

[ Vocalizing ]

♪♪

Man: Adonai!

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

Who are you?!

I am Adán! Every man!

Adonai! [ Laughs ]

Adonai!

[ Shrieks ]

[ Speaking Hebrew ]

[ Vocalizing ]

♪♪

[ Whip cracks ] [ Screams ]

♪♪

Who are you?!

I am Adán!

A Jew.

♪♪

I am air.

I am the ram!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Shouting indistinctly ]

♪♪

♪♪

Leonora: Sometimes you looked at yourself in a mirror,

gazing for hours at your transparency.

[ Hisses ]

You see nothing.

♪♪

You begin to speak to yourself.

You flatter yourself.

[ Wind blowing ]

Beautiful creature.

♪♪

Sensuous body.

♪♪

A holy man.

♪♪

A prince.

♪♪

You gather your sycophants around you.

♪♪

You laugh at your lover, the moon.

♪♪

Who are you?

♪♪

Where are you taking me?

[ Wind blowing ]

Why am I dreaming you?!

[ Bell chimes ]

♪♪

What a lot of questions all at once.

♪♪

I hardly know where to begin.

♪♪

To answer who I am is difficult,

because every day...

every day, it is a new person.

♪♪

And how do you know that it is not I who am dreaming you?

♪♪

[ Speaks Spanish ]

♪♪

[ Chuckles softly ]

I know you don't believe in me.

♪♪

But my world is beautiful.

♪♪

I drank it from the serpent's well.

♪♪

You are fading away before my very eyes.

♪♪

A lost reflection.

♪♪

♪♪

You never could understand the moon.

♪♪

I am.

♪♪

[ Applause ]

♪♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪