Three stories - Three versions of the same facts from different angles
THE FIRST ONE : (A KINDA OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW)
She couldn't help staring at him, staring at him in confusion.
- So you saw this young man being attacked on the tram and you filmed the scene instead of intervening ?
- Not exactly... I was about to take a selfie with my new jacket and, let's just say the scene came into my field of vision, I didn't mean to capture it, you see...
- Yes, but you still sat on your ass !
- Alice, it happened naturally... And I was alone in this fucking car, it was after midnight, what would I have done if the guy had a gun ?
- And for sure immortalizing the scene gave the guy a nice memory, thank you for him !
- Don't be so ironic and make me look like the bad guy, I'm telling you that I didn't CLEARLY intend to film...
- Oh yes and it's also true that the collaborators who let Jews be taken away by the political police during the second world war didn't CLEARLY intend to kill them either...
THE SECOND ONE : (THE GUY'S POINT OF VIEW)
Alors elle a commencé à me regarder bizzar, d'un air de dire t'es quelqu'un qui a pas d'coeur ou quoi. Alors moi je lui ai expliqué pourquoi qu'j'avais pas réagi dans l'tram quand y avait le gars qui s'faisait démonter la gueule par l'aut' j'ai pas réagi parce qu'on sait jamais si le gars il avait eu un pistolet ou chais pas quoi... Et pis moi je voulais juste faire un selfie, faut me comprendre aussi... Mais elle a pas compris, on dirait que c'est Mère Thérésa l'aut' j'te jure... Moi je suis pas un lâche, un collabo comme elle a dit... Faut m'comprendre aussi...
So she started lookin at me weird, like she was sayin you're someone ain't a heart or how.
So I explained her why I hadn't reacted in the tram when there was the guy who was tryana get his face knocked out. I didn't react because you never know if the guy had a fuckin gun or something... You know I just wanna take a selfie, you gotta understand me too... But she didn't understand, it looks like it's Mother Theresa, I swear ...I ain't a coward, a collaborator like she said... You gotta fuckin understand me too...
THE THIRD ONE : (THE ALICE'S POINT OF VIEW)
Il avait pour ainsi dire un regard de Merlan-frit, duquel ne transparaissait pas la moindre émotion, si ce n'est une discrète pointe de honte pour la forme, mais alors rien que pour la forme... Je finissais donc par prendre les choses en mains, lui posant la question avec ce franc-parler caractérisant tellement ce sentiment de révolte qui commençait à s'emparer de mon être.
Un individu dans la plus grande vulnérabilité s'était fait agressé dans les transports publics et voilà que je comprenais entre les lignes que la personne supposée être dotée d'empathie qui faisait office de petit copain n'avait tout bonnement pas réagi à la situation. Ce à quoi je m'empressais de réagir, lui demandant ce qu'il en aurait été de la liberté dont nous jouissons ici en France si les résistants avaient fait preuve d'un si grand courage durant la seconde guerre mondiale...
He had, so to speak, a silly gaze, from which not the slightest emotion showed, except for a discreet touch of shame as a matter of form but then only as a matter of form... So I ended up taking the things in hand, asking him the question with this frankness so characteristic of this feeling of revolt which was beginning to take hold of my being.
A very vulnerable individual had been attacked on public transport and now I understood between the lines that the person who was supposed to have a little bit of empathy and who was supposed to be my boyfriend had simply not reacted to the situation. To which I hastened to react, asking him what would have been the freedom we enjoy here in France if the resistance had shown such great courage during the Second World War...