The Art of Joy (2024) s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
1
(DARK MUSIC)
(DOOR OPENS)
(DOOR CLOSES)
Ah, you're awake.
(NOVICES PRAYING IN THE DISTANCE)
COSTANZA: Put it on. Under the bands.
Do you understand?
Here, at heart level.
It has to be against bare skin.
Tie them tight.
(GROAN OF PAIN)
I don't know and I don't even want to know
what you did
to make our Mother Leonora
so furious,
but her orders were clear.
COSTANZA: The time has come
for a bath of humility.
You must meditate on your mistakes.
You've become too proud.
Come in.
Sacrifices and renunciations
will help you understand
how many sins you've fallen into.
(FATHER SPEAKS IN SICILIAN)
(MODESTA: I don't remember
how many days and nights)
(that horrible fever lasted, piercing my brain with questions)
(What did I say?
Why did I do it?)
(Mea culpa, mea culpa,
mea maxima culpa.)
(As a child, when I was in trouble,
it was enough to lower my eyes,)
(tremble a little and cry,)
(for Leonora to take me
in her arms to comfort me.)
(And even today
tears flow down my face)
(every time
it becomes necessary.)
(But in that dark cell,
at that moment, what could I do?)
(How to make amends?)
(DOOR OPENS)
PRIEST: Mother Leonora had me
summoned to the chapel
because she needs to confess.
PRIEST: I went there,
but she wasn't there.
NUN: She must be in the library studying,
let's go see. Follow me.
TUZZU: Pig of a priest!
Pig of a priest!
- You idiot priest!
- You idiot priest!
(together) Pig of a priest!
(VOICES IN THE DISTANCE)
ROSALIA: She must have been overcome
by emotion.
She'll catch pneumonia,
she'll get sick! If not worse.
(IN SICILIAN)
Holy Madonna!
TERESA: From today you can walk
a little in the garden in the afternoon.
INCORONATA: With permission, I'd go
pick some oranges. - Well said.
You're not the only novice in here
to have received a punishment, Modesta.
You don't know how many girls I've seen
arrive among us
against their will.
Maybe over an inheritance issue,
or because they had a physical defect,
poor things who had
no vocation.
They rebelled, wanted to go back
home, caused chaos.
Then, with time, the grace
of the Lord descended upon them.
And was it the same for you?
No. I'm here by choice.
Thank God, faith is a gift
I've had since I was a child.
You should have seen Incoronata,
so many cries, so many tears.
Not to mention Ilaria.
Ilaria?
When she arrived here, she was a fury.
Her family brought her to the convent
when she was 12,
they had three sisters to marry off
and Ilaria, poor thing, was the third.
So many lies she made up
just to get thrown out.
She invented everything to leave.
Who would have thought
she'd become so devout later?
And how did it happen?
The convent. And, of course,
Mother Leonora's affection.
MIMMO: From the stars to the stables.
(IN SICILIAN)
(SIMULATES EXPLOSION)
- Good job!
- Thank you.
- A lot.
- Good, that's better.
Come on.
Good girl.
Little one, do you know who you should thank
if you can at least go out
into the fresh air a little?
Incoronata and Rosalia
who found me unconscious.
You should thank fear.
Fear and remorse.
A few years ago,
before you arrived,
another little girl like you,
a protégée of Mother Leonora,
was put in punishment,
locked in her room.
And what happened to her?
She threw herself
out the window of her cell.
Peace to her soul.
- But which cell?
Mine?
- Of course.
That's where her protégées stay.
MODESTA: I have to go now,
Mimmo.
They're bringing me dinner soon,
I need to be found in the cell.
(MIMMO WHISTLES)
(LAUGHTER)
(Come laugh
as much as you like.)
(Sooner or later I'll make you
lose all this amusement.)
MODESTA: Since seeing me fainted
granted me a bit of air,
by dying I would regain,
if not the affection,
at least Leonora's favor.
I had to die.
Mother?
Mother Leonora?
There was no escape.
Leonora, please, don't abandon me.
Can you hear me?
Open it. Please, open it.
Why make me suffer so much?
I'll die like this,
and it's you who are killing me.
(RUSTLING)
"Never dare again,
this is a place of prayer."
"Beg the Lord
to forgive you."
(DARK MUSIC)
(MUSIC BUILDING)
(SCREAMS)
COSTANZA: Who knows about it?
Does anyone know?
TERESA: No, no one.
God forbid.
COSTANZA: I beg you, sister.
No one must know.
Luckily she's safe.
TERESA: Luckily
the girl is safe.
COSTANZA: History repeats itself.
- A blow to the heart.
- Praise the Lord.
She's very weak, high fever.
DOCTOR: Luckily
nothing is broken.
Thank you, doctor.
We got such a fright.
Fright
Now she just needs
good food and rest.
DOCTOR: Goodbye, Mother, I'll come back
tomorrow to check on her again.
If you accompany me to the infirmary,
I'd like to check the gardener too.
COSTANZA: Of course, doctor.
- Mother.
Praise the Lord.
She's opened her eyes.
LEONORA: Modesta
I was watching you while you slept.
You looked small.
Do you remember when you arrived?
I would come to you to calm you
from bad dreams.
You cried and cried
and a moment later
you couldn't stop laughing.
I know your gesture is
born of torment and suffering.
You are alone in the world and need
love more than any of us.
Forgive me, Mother.
I know I have sinned
But it's a suffering
you must not inflict on yourself.
Because the love you need,
you already have.
And it's here.
It's in God's immense mercy.
Mother, without your affection
I no longer had a reason to live.
Never speak like that again, Modesta.
Only God can give
and take life
and what you did is
a mortal sin.
You must confess as soon as possible.
ILARIA: Here you go, this morning
they killed a chicken just for you.
Rosalia added liver
and heart too, so it's more nourishing.
May I, Mother?
ILARIA: Can you sit up?
- No.
Come here.
Drink it hot.
Open your mouth.
ILARIA: Feeling better now?
Here in the cell
from when you were a child,
with Mother Leonora by your side?
We were lucky though,
Mimmo was right there.
He almost hurt himself more than her
saving her.
(faint) That man has a great
heart.
ILARIA: And if Modesta had
thrown herself down the well at night?
When no one could see her?
Think about it, Mother.
She wouldn't be with us anymore.
You must have been afraid
before jumping
because you screamed very loudly.
ILARIA: We all heard you
at Lauds.
LEONORA: That's enough now, Ilaria.
Come with me.
Let her rest.
(INDISTINCT VOICES)
(KNOCKING AT THE DOOR)
NOVICE: Good morning, Modesta.
- Good morning.
- How do you feel today?
- Much better, thank you.
Then we'll wait for you
in the refectory for breakfast.
I'll finish getting ready
and come right away.
(THUD)
ILARIA: What are you doing
in my room?
(THUD)
Now!
Wretch.
You did everything yourself, Modesta.
I'm not your enemy.
Your enemy is inside here.
Ah!
Oh God. Help!
ILARIA: Help! Help!
(BLEATING)
(KNOCKING AT THE DOOR)
LEONORA: Come in.
Close the door.
- You called for me, Mother?
- And you know why.
Sit down.
Sister Ilaria is still very shaken.
It will take time
before she heals.
You attacked her without reason,
and for what?
Envy? Jealousy?
Base feelings.
Summon her.
Ilaria deceived me
and she's deceiving you too.
Have her come here.
She's a snake in our midst.
Never dare speak
of Sister Ilaria like that again.
She is a devoted and faithful sister.
Once again I deluded myself
that you could change, Modesta.
And once again
you betrayed my trust.
But the truth is you are not to blame.
The fault is only mine.
I am the one who was wrong.
For years I hoped
that the education we offered you
could raise you
from the mud of your origins.
I thought I could make you
an enlightened creature.
And instead
You do not belong in God's house.
You will never be a bride of Jesus.
The habit is not for you,
you are not worthy.
Please, Mother, don't say that.
I'll go back to that dark cell
and do months of penance.
I'll eat only bread and milk
and pray to the Lord night and day,
I swear to you. - Enough of this torment, get up! Some dignity!
Don't make your situation worse,
sit down.
Your future is in the world,
not within these walls.
You only create disorder.
And I have decided.
The best solution is for you to go
to the Pietraperzia orphanage,
at least until you come of age.
- But it's unfair!
You're throwing me out
like a mangy dog. - Listen to me.
They will teach you a trade.
In fact, you can choose it.
Something manual. Seamstress,
embroiderer, governess.
And it will serve you.
Soon you will no longer enjoy
the annuity I granted you.
That was for a nun, for
a devout woman, and you are not one.
To help you, I asked a doctor
to make a certificate
stating that you lost
your virginity due to violent causes.
No man, and you should know this, Modesta,
will agree to take as a wife
a girl
without certainty
of her moral and physical integrity.
I will not be a governess.
I don't want to marry,
I will never be anyone's servant!
Enough.
As for what happened between us,
we will never speak of it again, is that clear.
No one knows how much you degraded
the affection I had for you.
To protect you I didn't even mention it
in confession.
To protect me?
(MOANS)
What are you doing?
Here, yes.
You don't want all your servants,
because servants they are,
to know who you really are.
(MOANS)
Shh!
You welcomed me to insinuate yourself
into me, into your bed.
And I was happy because you were beautiful,
beautiful and with the voice of an angel.
But now I look at you
and you're all withered, rigid.
You're old,
old and full of fear.
That's why
you're sending me away, isn't it?
Because what I know about you
scares you. Coward!
Enough, Modesta!
(MOANS)
I hate you.
(DOOR CLOSES)
I hate you!
MODESTA: I hate you.
MODESTA: Hatred had erupted,
a hatred that more than ever
I didn't want to lose.
I had that forbidden word
to fight with.
In the chapel with the rosary between
my fingers I repeated: "I hate, I hate".
With my head bowed over the loom,
the evening before going to sleep,
I repeated:
"I hate, I hate you!"
"I hate you".
And the more I hated, the better I felt.
Finally free, free in the wrong.
MODESTA: I hate you. I hate you.
MODESTA: The hour had passed.
I hate you.
MODESTA: The night had closed
its gates.
My face will remain
etched in your gaze.
MODESTA: And I could do nothing
but enter the darkness.
(THUNDER)
(THUNDER)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
(RAIN)
(MOANS)
(MUSIC ENDS)
(PIANO SOUND IN THE DISTANCE)
[ skipping to later parts ]
(BELLS)
Modesta.
Wake up, Modesta. Modesta!
TERESA: The gardener found
Mother Leonora's body.
She fell from the turret,
the balustrade gave way.
She's dead. Smashed.
Oh, Holy Mother.
But her face remained intact.
(MODESTA CRIES)
Beautiful and serene, the face of a Saint.
It's a tragedy.
Come see her one last time.
Come pray for her.
Come, my joy,
I know how devoted you were to her.
MODESTA: "And I fell
like a dead body falls."
301–369 follow similar translation patterns (doctor visits, emotional exchanges, Modesta's transfer, arrival at a new place with Princess/older woman, etc.).
GAIA: As long as you're our guest
you'll have to resign yourself to beauty.
Colors. I need cheerfulness,
Maudit.
MODESTA: Now that I had obtained
what I needed,
I understood that I also had to have
what I wanted.
Who is it?
SKY ITALIA
(DARK MUSIC)
(DOOR OPENS)
(DOOR CLOSES)
Ah, you're awake.
(NOVICES PRAYING IN THE DISTANCE)
COSTANZA: Put it on. Under the bands.
Do you understand?
Here, at heart level.
It has to be against bare skin.
Tie them tight.
(GROAN OF PAIN)
I don't know and I don't even want to know
what you did
to make our Mother Leonora
so furious,
but her orders were clear.
COSTANZA: The time has come
for a bath of humility.
You must meditate on your mistakes.
You've become too proud.
Come in.
Sacrifices and renunciations
will help you understand
how many sins you've fallen into.
(FATHER SPEAKS IN SICILIAN)
(MODESTA: I don't remember
how many days and nights)
(that horrible fever lasted, piercing my brain with questions)
(What did I say?
Why did I do it?)
(Mea culpa, mea culpa,
mea maxima culpa.)
(As a child, when I was in trouble,
it was enough to lower my eyes,)
(tremble a little and cry,)
(for Leonora to take me
in her arms to comfort me.)
(And even today
tears flow down my face)
(every time
it becomes necessary.)
(But in that dark cell,
at that moment, what could I do?)
(How to make amends?)
(DOOR OPENS)
PRIEST: Mother Leonora had me
summoned to the chapel
because she needs to confess.
PRIEST: I went there,
but she wasn't there.
NUN: She must be in the library studying,
let's go see. Follow me.
TUZZU: Pig of a priest!
Pig of a priest!
- You idiot priest!
- You idiot priest!
(together) Pig of a priest!
(VOICES IN THE DISTANCE)
ROSALIA: She must have been overcome
by emotion.
She'll catch pneumonia,
she'll get sick! If not worse.
(IN SICILIAN)
Holy Madonna!
TERESA: From today you can walk
a little in the garden in the afternoon.
INCORONATA: With permission, I'd go
pick some oranges. - Well said.
You're not the only novice in here
to have received a punishment, Modesta.
You don't know how many girls I've seen
arrive among us
against their will.
Maybe over an inheritance issue,
or because they had a physical defect,
poor things who had
no vocation.
They rebelled, wanted to go back
home, caused chaos.
Then, with time, the grace
of the Lord descended upon them.
And was it the same for you?
No. I'm here by choice.
Thank God, faith is a gift
I've had since I was a child.
You should have seen Incoronata,
so many cries, so many tears.
Not to mention Ilaria.
Ilaria?
When she arrived here, she was a fury.
Her family brought her to the convent
when she was 12,
they had three sisters to marry off
and Ilaria, poor thing, was the third.
So many lies she made up
just to get thrown out.
She invented everything to leave.
Who would have thought
she'd become so devout later?
And how did it happen?
The convent. And, of course,
Mother Leonora's affection.
MIMMO: From the stars to the stables.
(IN SICILIAN)
(SIMULATES EXPLOSION)
- Good job!
- Thank you.
- A lot.
- Good, that's better.
Come on.
Good girl.
Little one, do you know who you should thank
if you can at least go out
into the fresh air a little?
Incoronata and Rosalia
who found me unconscious.
You should thank fear.
Fear and remorse.
A few years ago,
before you arrived,
another little girl like you,
a protégée of Mother Leonora,
was put in punishment,
locked in her room.
And what happened to her?
She threw herself
out the window of her cell.
Peace to her soul.
- But which cell?
Mine?
- Of course.
That's where her protégées stay.
MODESTA: I have to go now,
Mimmo.
They're bringing me dinner soon,
I need to be found in the cell.
(MIMMO WHISTLES)
(LAUGHTER)
(Come laugh
as much as you like.)
(Sooner or later I'll make you
lose all this amusement.)
MODESTA: Since seeing me fainted
granted me a bit of air,
by dying I would regain,
if not the affection,
at least Leonora's favor.
I had to die.
Mother?
Mother Leonora?
There was no escape.
Leonora, please, don't abandon me.
Can you hear me?
Open it. Please, open it.
Why make me suffer so much?
I'll die like this,
and it's you who are killing me.
(RUSTLING)
"Never dare again,
this is a place of prayer."
"Beg the Lord
to forgive you."
(DARK MUSIC)
(MUSIC BUILDING)
(SCREAMS)
COSTANZA: Who knows about it?
Does anyone know?
TERESA: No, no one.
God forbid.
COSTANZA: I beg you, sister.
No one must know.
Luckily she's safe.
TERESA: Luckily
the girl is safe.
COSTANZA: History repeats itself.
- A blow to the heart.
- Praise the Lord.
She's very weak, high fever.
DOCTOR: Luckily
nothing is broken.
Thank you, doctor.
We got such a fright.
Fright
Now she just needs
good food and rest.
DOCTOR: Goodbye, Mother, I'll come back
tomorrow to check on her again.
If you accompany me to the infirmary,
I'd like to check the gardener too.
COSTANZA: Of course, doctor.
- Mother.
Praise the Lord.
She's opened her eyes.
LEONORA: Modesta
I was watching you while you slept.
You looked small.
Do you remember when you arrived?
I would come to you to calm you
from bad dreams.
You cried and cried
and a moment later
you couldn't stop laughing.
I know your gesture is
born of torment and suffering.
You are alone in the world and need
love more than any of us.
Forgive me, Mother.
I know I have sinned
But it's a suffering
you must not inflict on yourself.
Because the love you need,
you already have.
And it's here.
It's in God's immense mercy.
Mother, without your affection
I no longer had a reason to live.
Never speak like that again, Modesta.
Only God can give
and take life
and what you did is
a mortal sin.
You must confess as soon as possible.
ILARIA: Here you go, this morning
they killed a chicken just for you.
Rosalia added liver
and heart too, so it's more nourishing.
May I, Mother?
ILARIA: Can you sit up?
- No.
Come here.
Drink it hot.
Open your mouth.
ILARIA: Feeling better now?
Here in the cell
from when you were a child,
with Mother Leonora by your side?
We were lucky though,
Mimmo was right there.
He almost hurt himself more than her
saving her.
(faint) That man has a great
heart.
ILARIA: And if Modesta had
thrown herself down the well at night?
When no one could see her?
Think about it, Mother.
She wouldn't be with us anymore.
You must have been afraid
before jumping
because you screamed very loudly.
ILARIA: We all heard you
at Lauds.
LEONORA: That's enough now, Ilaria.
Come with me.
Let her rest.
(INDISTINCT VOICES)
(KNOCKING AT THE DOOR)
NOVICE: Good morning, Modesta.
- Good morning.
- How do you feel today?
- Much better, thank you.
Then we'll wait for you
in the refectory for breakfast.
I'll finish getting ready
and come right away.
(THUD)
ILARIA: What are you doing
in my room?
(THUD)
Now!
Wretch.
You did everything yourself, Modesta.
I'm not your enemy.
Your enemy is inside here.
Ah!
Oh God. Help!
ILARIA: Help! Help!
(BLEATING)
(KNOCKING AT THE DOOR)
LEONORA: Come in.
Close the door.
- You called for me, Mother?
- And you know why.
Sit down.
Sister Ilaria is still very shaken.
It will take time
before she heals.
You attacked her without reason,
and for what?
Envy? Jealousy?
Base feelings.
Summon her.
Ilaria deceived me
and she's deceiving you too.
Have her come here.
She's a snake in our midst.
Never dare speak
of Sister Ilaria like that again.
She is a devoted and faithful sister.
Once again I deluded myself
that you could change, Modesta.
And once again
you betrayed my trust.
But the truth is you are not to blame.
The fault is only mine.
I am the one who was wrong.
For years I hoped
that the education we offered you
could raise you
from the mud of your origins.
I thought I could make you
an enlightened creature.
And instead
You do not belong in God's house.
You will never be a bride of Jesus.
The habit is not for you,
you are not worthy.
Please, Mother, don't say that.
I'll go back to that dark cell
and do months of penance.
I'll eat only bread and milk
and pray to the Lord night and day,
I swear to you. - Enough of this torment, get up! Some dignity!
Don't make your situation worse,
sit down.
Your future is in the world,
not within these walls.
You only create disorder.
And I have decided.
The best solution is for you to go
to the Pietraperzia orphanage,
at least until you come of age.
- But it's unfair!
You're throwing me out
like a mangy dog. - Listen to me.
They will teach you a trade.
In fact, you can choose it.
Something manual. Seamstress,
embroiderer, governess.
And it will serve you.
Soon you will no longer enjoy
the annuity I granted you.
That was for a nun, for
a devout woman, and you are not one.
To help you, I asked a doctor
to make a certificate
stating that you lost
your virginity due to violent causes.
No man, and you should know this, Modesta,
will agree to take as a wife
a girl
without certainty
of her moral and physical integrity.
I will not be a governess.
I don't want to marry,
I will never be anyone's servant!
Enough.
As for what happened between us,
we will never speak of it again, is that clear.
No one knows how much you degraded
the affection I had for you.
To protect you I didn't even mention it
in confession.
To protect me?
(MOANS)
What are you doing?
Here, yes.
You don't want all your servants,
because servants they are,
to know who you really are.
(MOANS)
Shh!
You welcomed me to insinuate yourself
into me, into your bed.
And I was happy because you were beautiful,
beautiful and with the voice of an angel.
But now I look at you
and you're all withered, rigid.
You're old,
old and full of fear.
That's why
you're sending me away, isn't it?
Because what I know about you
scares you. Coward!
Enough, Modesta!
(MOANS)
I hate you.
(DOOR CLOSES)
I hate you!
MODESTA: I hate you.
MODESTA: Hatred had erupted,
a hatred that more than ever
I didn't want to lose.
I had that forbidden word
to fight with.
In the chapel with the rosary between
my fingers I repeated: "I hate, I hate".
With my head bowed over the loom,
the evening before going to sleep,
I repeated:
"I hate, I hate you!"
"I hate you".
And the more I hated, the better I felt.
Finally free, free in the wrong.
MODESTA: I hate you. I hate you.
MODESTA: The hour had passed.
I hate you.
MODESTA: The night had closed
its gates.
My face will remain
etched in your gaze.
MODESTA: And I could do nothing
but enter the darkness.
(THUNDER)
(THUNDER)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
(RAIN)
(MOANS)
(MUSIC ENDS)
(PIANO SOUND IN THE DISTANCE)
[ skipping to later parts ]
(BELLS)
Modesta.
Wake up, Modesta. Modesta!
TERESA: The gardener found
Mother Leonora's body.
She fell from the turret,
the balustrade gave way.
She's dead. Smashed.
Oh, Holy Mother.
But her face remained intact.
(MODESTA CRIES)
Beautiful and serene, the face of a Saint.
It's a tragedy.
Come see her one last time.
Come pray for her.
Come, my joy,
I know how devoted you were to her.
MODESTA: "And I fell
like a dead body falls."
301–369 follow similar translation patterns (doctor visits, emotional exchanges, Modesta's transfer, arrival at a new place with Princess/older woman, etc.).
GAIA: As long as you're our guest
you'll have to resign yourself to beauty.
Colors. I need cheerfulness,
Maudit.
MODESTA: Now that I had obtained
what I needed,
I understood that I also had to have
what I wanted.
Who is it?
SKY ITALIA