Laure

Előszó

PART ONE
NICOLAS
I saw her for the first time in an alleyway in the Nayong Pilipino, the re-created village on the outskirts of Manila.
She came out of the Ethnological Museum, where there is an exhibition of everything known about the Tasaday. I thought at the time that photographing the stone age seemed obscene. When did it all happen? April 22nd, and today is the third of June. A month and a half ago, even less. If I changed my ideas in so short a time, she changed them for me.
I'd just been filming a dance session - contemporary dance, that is - in the open air theatre. A jeepney stopped near us.
A jeepney is a communal taxi, generally, striped red, yellow, blue, green and garishly decorated, tricked out with plastic orchids, alumínium horses, cheap glass chickens, phalloi, Virgins, rosaries and pin-ups. The route is agreed with the other passengers and, of course, the driver. All that for four or five centavos. A 16mm roll costs a hundred pesos. Both equally necessary.
The jalopy was packed as usual. The Philippine Republic being the land that oozes the most cops per square foot, it's out of the question to break too many regulations there. You get arrested so much quicker, one month in jail for drop-ping a crumpled piece of paper on a park lawn or for arranging for a political opponent to be bumped off by an accredited electoral agent. But perhaps it's justifiable. 1'm not qualified to judge the morals of others. Vissza