Nocturne Indien
1989 · 110 MIN · IMDB 6.9 · 539 VOTES · DIR. Alain Corneau
Overview
The enigmatic but vivid imagery of this loosely plotted film is based on a similarly evocative novel by the Italian author Antonio Tabucchi, Noturno Indiano. An old friend of the hero's has been living in Bombay with a prostitute. His friend Peter Schlemihl (Otto Tausig) is a concentration camp survivor, who went to India after being captivated by a photograph he saw there. When the prostitute writes to him in Europe asking that he rescue his friend from a mysterious malaise, he flies into India to try and help. When he gets to Bombay, he discovers that his friend has disappeared. Following the clues left behind by the friend, and based on his acquaintance with him, he journeys to Madras to speak to a Theosophist dignitary there, and then journeys on to Portugues Goa. With each step of his journey, the hero (Jean-Hugues Anglade) becomes more identified with his friend, and re-enacts in his own person the transformations he must have experienced.
Dialogue Timeline — 193 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:04:29 Khajurao Hotel, 57 Suklaji Street, BOMBAY
00:45:34 I hope that in the another life you too will be re-incarnated...
01:27:21 You look remarkably like someone I know.
01:27:51 You know, I'm very sensitive to compliments to start with, I never resist.
01:28:43 You have an irresistible manner of wooing a woman.
01:29:18 Where did you come from? Where were you before coming here?
01:29:55 Don't go. Don't ever make that mistake.
01:31:20 A film?
01:31:45 I, also, am paid for such work.
01:32:49 A few years ago I published a book of photos.
01:33:31 OK, let's say that the subject is me losing my way in India. There you go.
01:33:59 He has but a few clues, some signals, some pieces...
01:34:36 Who knows? It's hard to say. Even as the writer of the story I don't know.
01:35:14 Yes.
01:35:39 and then one evening, he understands everything.
01:36:15 A nice name. "Rossignol" - nice.
01:36:46 I'm asking for the bill.
01:37:58 An evening like this evening; hot and fragrant.
01:38:40 He looks at me without moving.
01:39:17 And I don't want him to find me either.
01:39:57 Yes, that's all - that's the end.
01:41:13 Yes, my dead rats are waiting for me.