are never afraid.
Leave him alone.
Better to appreciate the scent
of the paintings.
-It smells good.
-Very good.
You need not fear.
So strange to hear those words.
Now I understand. We're in the gallery.
Yes...
I understand.
We're in the Tsar's gallery...
near the portrait of a medieval fanatic.
Where have we wandered to?
That music was good, after all.
Who was the composer?
-Glinka.
-Who is he? A German?
A Russian.
No, he's German.
AII composers are German.
All composers are German?
EI Greco.
Very nice.
Looks Iike a Rembrandt.
EI Greco.... Dust from the roads.
What dust from the roads?
Nice, very nice.
-Something you don't like?
-Not at all.
-It's nice, very nice.
-Nice....
More flesh.... Very nice.
These are nice paintings.
Nice paintings....
They're getting better and better.
There's an angel.
Pardon me for addressing you
without an introduction.
To whom was that directed?
Do tell.
-I'm speaking to the painting.
-You are speaking to the painting?
How interesting!
-I must speak my mind.
-Speak your mind?
And so you talk to the painting.
Would you Iike to try?
Must I try? Very well.
-Like that.
-Like this?
Now, Iike this.
Now a turn.
Sometimes I prefer speaking to myself.
This painting and I...
we have a secret.
Really?
-Yes.
-Now it's over.
That's all, gentlemen. Good-bye!
Where are you going, madam?
She's offended. She has Ieft.
Hi!
Good-bye!
Farewell, gentleman!
How charming!
She's offended. But so charming!
Where has she gone?
Marble...
a white stone...
very white.
Rather cold, isn't it?
When you first came here,
it must have been disastrous.
That was just after the fire.
I have been here before,
but it's as if I have not.
What Iuxury!
What is that?
It's under the Convention that
everything was devastated.
You don't know
20th-century Russian history.
Our Convention lasted 80 years.
A real revolution.... Very sad.
What kind of system is there now?
A republic?
I don't know.
I have never believed
that a republic was suitable...
for a country as Iarge as Russia.
You Europeans are democrats
who mourn the monarchy.
-You are French, is that it?
-Who are you?
Excuse us, we're Iost.
-PIease be on your way.
-Let us Iive! Let us Iive!
-Remaining here is forbidden!
-Help us, please.
Who forbids it? What is forbidden?
What Ianguage! Everything is forbidden!
It's better not to argue.
We're going, we're going.
I know where we can hide.
I suddenly feel afraid.
I don't Iike military uniforms.
-Not that door, sir!
-But I Iike it.
-Such a beautiful door!
-No, not that one!
Why is it so cold?
I told you not to enter.
What cold! Frames.... But where are....
Where are the canvases?
Let's go back, I beg you.
-Who's there?
-It's me.
-Why have you come here?
-I don't know. I simply entered.
-Come closer.
-I'm coming.
Maybe you need help, kind sir.
Who is the "kind sir"?
Me.... You....
Not here, not there.
There is no one.
Only coffins and corpses. Come and see.
-I'm coming.
-That's my coffin.
-Your coffin?
-Yes, I made it myself.
Why that strange tone, kind sir?
Why coffins in the Hermitage?
"Kind sir"!
-It's my coffin.
-Yes, it is yours.
-He Iooks well-fed!
-But where are the corpses?
Why do you ask "where"?
Don't step on the corpses.
He Iooks well-fed!
You stepped on the corpses!
-What happened?
-The war.
Which war? Against whom?
-Against Germany.
-What is Germany?
The unified state of the Germans.
In the 20th century,
Russia was at war with Germany.
The Germans surrounded the city.
But the city did not surrender.
More than 1 million dead.
-More than 1 million?
-Yes.
That's a high price to pay. Very high.
Saint Petersburg
and the Hermitage paid dearly.
In Russia, it is said that
freedom knows no price.
A very high price.
But maybe not.
But it has already been paid.
I was wrong, by the way...
when I criticised your tsars...
for all this beauty and opulence.
Even if they all were..