The Ice Rink

The producer

But if he doesn’t come to Paris, we might not be in time for the festival. When do you publish the list of films in the official competition?

The assistant to the director

The 17th.

The producer

My God...

The assistant to the director

And what if you came to Rome with the copy? You do have a copy?

The producer (hesitating)

Nearly. A double system. For the moment, the film hasn’t been mixed.

The assistant to the director

That’s no problem, we’re used to work in progress. (gesticulating wildly) Ma passa di là, cretino, non stargli incollato al culo! What do you say to coming yourself to show us the picture, dear Madame. What about the 2nd?... Or later? The 7th? I don’t know. The 15th? (He opens his notebook, holding it on the steering wheel.)

The producer

The 15th, very well. (determined) We’ll be ready for the 15th.

The assistant to the director

I mark it? (facetiously) Watch out, I don’t have an eraser. If I mark it...

Suddenly, he shouts out and turns round.

A car has just run into the back of him, in Rome, in the traffic. Before long, on the videophone screen, a furious Roman driver appears and starts shouting at him.

Two carabinieri soon come over and join their conversation.

The producer

I'd better go, Mr. Battisti, we'll do as we said.

She hangs up.

She gets up and goes over to the bay window, where the shooting continues down below.

She watches a moment.

The producer

Okay, that leaves us a little more than two weeks to finish the film. (very calmly, evidently) We’ll never make it.

52. INT. ICE RINK - NIGHT

It is dark in the ice rink.

The stands are silent, deserted, immersed in darkness.

Light can be made out in the editing room, where the editors are at work.

The director walks alone over the ice, his hands in his pockets.

53. INT. EDITING ROOM - NIGHT

In the editing room, the film editors work on quietly.

The chief editor makes marks, cuts, tapes the film.

An assistant winds film reels behind her.

The producer watches them.

The director comes into the editing room.

He glimpses at the screen of the editing table.

The director

Actually, the close-up of Sylveste when he sees Dolores for the first time, I feel like cutting it out.

The producer ( conciliatory)

So, cut it out.

The director (startled)

You think so?

The director watches the shot on the editing table.

The editor passes the film back and forth, the same shot of the actor who says Dolores, back and forth (Dolores, Serolod).

The editor

We’ll never be ready for the 15th.

The producer

Oh yes we will, we have to be. (With determination) We'll work all night if we have to.

Suddenly someone knocks softly on the door.

The manager of the ice rink comes into the room with a reel of film under his arm.

The manager of the ice rink

I have a little surprise for you. Look. (He opens the can, takes out two rolls of film, a reel of picture and a reel of sound). (To the film editor) You'll have to take that out, can you help me?

The editor grudgingly removes the reels of the film and loads the reels brought by the manager of the ice rink.

She runs the reels through the machine.

On the screen of the editing table appear several large digits in black and white, nine, eight, seven, then one thousand, then, trembling, the Eurovision logo.

The manager of the icerink starts to whistle the Eurovision jingle in the editing room.

The picture is blurred, somewhat swimmy.

The slender silhouettes of two ice skaters on a rink, filmed in a very wide shot, wheel about far off, in black and white, over the screen.

The manager of the ice rink

That’s me, that’s me, did you see it?

Watching all the while, the manager of the ice rink accompanies his pirouettes on the ice with imperceptible body movements, small twists of the hip when landing.

Finally, taking his chance, he slowly slides his left hand around the producer's shoulder.

The producer disengages herself with tact.

54. INT. ICE RINK - DAY

A large banner hangs over the ice rink, "Welcome to the Wrap Party".

Small groups form, people mingle from group to group, they chatter.

The producer talks courteously with the icerink manager.

The cinematographer is no better, he sits in a wheelchair in a corner of the rink, immobile, prostrate, his head down, with his thick little dark glasses for the blind and a plaid blanket over his knees.

The script girl watches over him.

The director comes over to greet them.

The director (discreetly, in the script girl’s ear, about the cinematographer)

Creutzfed - Jakob?

The script girl shrugs.

The actor and actress are surrounded by Lithuanian hockey players.

The Lithuanian hockey players wear very worn out old grey suits, very East European, they are neatly combed and wear flowers in their lapels, one of them is dressed as a seminarist.

They get autographs signed by the actors in various notebooks, on scripts, hockey uniforms, pucks.

The producer goes to get the sound system microphone and advances to the middle of the rink, asks for a few seconds of attention.

The producer

Ladies, gentlemen, I have a little surprise for you. (To the director) And especially for you, for that matter...

The lights go down in the ice rink.

Drum roll, music.

Preceded by a blue-tinted follow-spot, a man slowly cycles onto a length of red carpet that has been laid out on the rink.

He is about fifty years old, he is wearing a suit and tie.

It is Eddy Merckx.

Applause.

The producer (modestly, to the director)

The idol of your youth.

Murmurs of conversation in the ice rink, it's the idol of his youth, it's Eddy Merckx, the idol of his youth (the technicians admire, the Lithuanians look puzzled).

The Producer (to the director).

Alright, we'll leave you two alone. (To an assistant) Go take them to Sylvester's dressing room.

55. INT. CARAVAN - DAY

In a large caravan that serves as the actor's dressing room the director and Eddy Merckx sit on a beige couch beside a Formica coffee table.

They smile, they are uncomfortable.