There’s this man on my phone, in a gray coat and speckled waistcoat, dancing alone in front of a light-colored wooden coffin and a photo of a smiling woman. Thumbs, accustomed to the neurotic wobble of videos, stop in amazement. The man dancing is called Stephane and was the companion of Agnès Lassalle, the woman in the photo, the Spanish teacher who was killed with a stab wound to the heart by a student who says he heard the voices in his head. We are in the churchyard of a church in Biarritz, the funeral has just ended and the coffin containing the body of the victim of an absurd crime is about to be devoured by the hearse when anger is replaced by music. «Love» by Nat King Cole, in the French version.
Stephane and Agnès had met on a dance floor in their forties and treated themselves to a fresh start together. “Love” was her song. Stephane dances lightly around the coffin with outstretched arms as if they were full of her. Friends watch the scene until they decide to be there. A grey-haired gentleman starts twirling a redhead, another couple joins them, then two women and two boys: it seems to be on a movie set where a wedding party is being filmed. In the middle of the picture, Stephane and the ghost shared Agnès with her perfect steps who knows how many times in life. I’ve never had so much desire to dance.
Il Caffè di Gramellini awaits you here from Tuesday to Saturday. Anyone who subscribes to Corriere also has access to «PrimaOra», the newsletter with which you can start your day off right. Those who have not yet subscribed can do so here and have access to all the content of the website, all newsletters and podcasts as well as the newspaper’s historical archive.