La Discrète - Fabrice Luchini (1990)

[Salon pianist plays]

[Crowd murmurs]

[Glassware tinkles]

[Piano]

[Glass thuds on table]

Thank you, sir.

Come on, drink up.

How is it?

Do you like it?

Yes.

Look how beautiful this place is.

There's no other place like it in Paris.

Look at these couples.

I'm not talking about the people
behind you; they are sexless, dull.

I love it here.

Catherine, give me a smile, or I will
think you're bored and you want me.

How's that.

One day, 100 years ago, on a train trip:
Tristan Bernard.

You know Tristan Bernard?

Huge name in theater.
Amazing writer.

A fellow traveler spotted
Tristan Bernard

in a lady's first class train cabin.

The traveler scolded Tristan Bernard
for smoking in a no smoking area.

"You could have at least
asked this lady's permission!"

Tristan remained silent and
continued to smoke his pipe.

The fellow traveler was furious.

Threatened to notify the station master,
at the next stop.

Tristan Bernard remained
absolutely silent.

The train arrived at the station.

The traveler alerts the station master.

Lists Tristan Bernard's egregious behavior:

no smoking area, never asked permission;
sums it all up.

Tristan Bernard turned
to the station master:

"Why don't you ask this lady
why she was seated

in first class,
with a third class ticket."

Everyone is stupefied.

Everyone forgot the smoking issue.

The station master no longer
cares about it either.

He asks the lady for her ticket,
then begs her to leave.

The train departs.

Can you imagine?

The train departs,

and Tristan Bernard is alone
with the tattletale traveler.

"How could you embarrass that lady!"

"And how did you know
her ticket was third class?"

Tristan replied: "Her ticket
was the same color as mine."

[Laughs]