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Index
Cover
Landing Page
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
The Cinémathèque Française is located in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris
‘Have you seen the King?’
Did Matthew love Théo and Isabelle?
‘Have you seen the King?’
As the three of them walked down the path
At a first glance the scene confronting them
‘Salut.’
Jacques had shocking news
Théo, who never read a newspaper
The cinephiles had meanwhile dispersed
On the slope descending from the esplanade
They found a sheltered spot overlooking the scene
From the metro station on the place de l’Odéon Matthew left his friends
Sleep is a spirit
Waiting
He was still waiting
It was half past three when Théo finally arrived
Théo and Matthew, meanwhile, decided that they would take the metro
On the place Saint-Germain-des-Prés a sword swallower was performing
‘Now!’ cried Théo
Three abreast, they ran out of the Louvre
On the horizon, as inescapable as the moon itself
An unpleasant surprise was in store for them
Like children who, in awe of its hunting horns
In the place de l’Odéon
Théo and Isabelle lived in a first-floor flat
Isabelle entered the drawing room
Dinner was a lugubrious affair
From above, from somewhere in the ether
Lighting a cigarette, beaming at Matthew
Théo led Matthew to his own room
It was now after midnight
Later in the night, when the newsreel had long since run its course
When he opened his eyes next morning
Matthew had awoken into a state of semi-conscious malaise
In the same bathroom
Cleanliness is next to godliness
‘Here,’ said Théo
Love is blind but not deaf
It transpired that the flat did after all contain a wing of sorts
It rained all day and the three friends stayed indoors
Isabelle, for whom everything had to be given a name
Let’s return to that first afternoon
Walking back along the aisle
Back at the hotel Matthew stuffed his belongings into a leather suitcase
That evening Matthew dined with Théo and Isabelle
The first few days were uneventful
Isabelle was a subtle voyeur
Most unexpectedly, though, from this raising of the stakes
That evening no one tiptoed along the corridor
Yet, for all that that first night together constituted a turning point
During the two weeks that followed
One evening, for the first time
The Cinémathèque had been forgotten
It was a spectacular Busby Berkeley production number
So, amid all the laughter and steam
Unhappiness may lie in our failing to obtain precisely the right sort of happiness
Though these were becoming increasingly rare
Hunger, though, began to rack their temples
The world at large, meanwhile
Then suddenly, like Peter Pan, the street flew in through the window
They were not dead
It was Théo who roused himself first
It was at the corner of the street
The carrefour was a wasteland
An hour later, news having arrived that the CRS had turned off
The absence of passers-by
That same afternoon, to their surprise, the place Saint-Michel had been spared
Paris was a carnival
Théo was struck dumb
As the café had become stuffy and overcrowded
Leaving the bookshop
It was exactly half past four when they arrived at the Drugstore
By early evening, at half-past six, demonstrators converged
Into this ravaged landscape
Near the barricade behind which Théo, Isabelle and Matthew crouched
Though, as we grow older
Afterword
About the Author
Copyright
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