Production Diary 'The Suicide Artist' Pics - Script online!

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Lawriejaffa
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Production Diary 'The Suicide Artist' Pics - Script online!

Post by Lawriejaffa »

I thought I would start a thread, for a short film I am directing and producing over the forthcoming week.

The film is a romantic tragedy set during the Hungarian Uprising of 1958. It is a short film, and packs a lot in its duration. Its idea really is to recreate the glory of the melodramatic penny dreadful short novels, that i think could form interesting compilation dvds of intense stories of romance, bravery, danger etc.

As each day is filmed, i will update the thread with pictures and short clips until it is complete and will finally announce dates of its exhibition!

Some of you might recognise the title of the film from one i did ages ago, (well the title is back but the film is completely different.)

So here is a copy of the entire script!





SCENE 1

EXT. DERELICT TOWN HOUSE
SUPER TEXT

'HUNGARY 1958'

A luxurious car hums gently outside a decrepit building, a CHAUFFEUR clambers out and opens the rear passenger door. A one time art dealer ROGER emerges, he is now civil servant for the Communist Party's ministry of culture. He looks surprised at the decrepit building standing before him. He goes to a wooden panel nailed before the door and pulls.

SCENE 2
INT. DERELICT TOWN HOUSE

Roger enters into a grim... empty room. There standing in the corner is ELISE, while in the middle stands an easel and canvas.
Roger is perturbed.

ROGER
(amazed) After all these years? You are back? Back to your homeland... (smiles)

ELISE
(grim) ...Can't you remember why I left?

ROGER
(rebuked) Yes... but we all suffered back then...

ELISE
(emotive) No longer shall I paint death... (distant) It ends today...

ROGER
Oh come-come...? (chirpy) you can' quit! Your artwork is so 'patriotic'... The politburo has always printed your paintings... despite your bougeouis life in the west... I can still your artwork trams... billboards...

Elise's head turns slightly into profile.

ELISE
I wanted life... not death...

ROGER
(emphatic) But death is your greatest inspiration...

Elise turns suddenly to face Roger.

ELISE
Only one death inspired me!

Elise slowly steps behind the easel and begins to etch something unseen to us on the canvas.

ELISE
My whole life has been spent walking by the side of a bottomless chasm, jumping from stone to stone. Sometimes I try to leave my narrow path and join the swirling mainstream of life, but I always find myself drawn inexorably back towards the chasm's edge, and there (resigned) I shall walk until the day I finally fall into the abyss.

ROGER
(startled) Elise? It was his choice to fight...

Elise continues, ignoring Roger.

ELISE
(distraught) For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art.

Roger slowly approaches. As he does Elise steps back into the corner.

ROGER
(firm) he chose to fight... and to die... (adamant) by his own hand.

ELISE
(distracted, emotional) Yes... (sobs) but I persuaded him too! And I miss him... (distant) I am the... I am the...

Roger comes closer, and glances to the easel canvas. What he sees horrifies him, with alarm he turns to Elise just in time to see her produces a pistol from her coat. In horror he reaches to stop her but is too late. Elise, smiling in relief, her face wet with grief, shoots herself in the heart. Roger collapses by her side, lifting her gently as blood trickles from her smiling lips.

We cut to the canvas, seeing the words 'suicide artist' scrawled across it.

SCENE 3
EXT. PUBLIC PARK

SUPERIMPOSED TEXT - HUNGARY 1956 - THE UPRISING
The day is chilly, Elise and Richard run together through an alley past a man sticking up anti-government posters. Police are chasing them, they stop by the man and start to beat him, a barny ensures.
Breathing heavily on the corner, hidden Elise rushes to embrace
RICHARD.

ELISE
(passionate) Death has a thousand doors to trap life, but you'll find one that is open... (emotional) you have to come back to me safe.

RICHARD
(cheekily) You're a poet too!

ELISE
(smiles) And a woman... who wants you to live... don't fight them...
She Hugs him tightly.

RICHARD
I have to help people escape... there arresting everyone... and the rebellions already begun... and the west will help! And your art helps Elise... it helps the people to remember the freedom we're fighting for!

ELISE
(exasperated) Must I paint? While you fight!?!

Richard embraces Elise.

RICHARD
(warmly) Freedom begets life, but art... art saves our spirit

SCENE 4
INT. TOWN BUILDING

Richard is quickly handing piles of documents to various refugees and desperate people. They are acting fast, (there is little time.) As they rush down the steps they stop at the sound of distant explosion.

EXT. TOWN BUILDING
We see an explosion rising into the air over the horizon of the town. Outside the entrance of the town house are many soldiers.
A number of KGB agents walk forward, and signal the soldiers to break down the door.

INT. TOWN BUILDING
As they burst inside, Richard and his comrades panic. As some rush to flee, the soldiers open fire. Going from room to room they shoot/arrest various individuals. Richard is beaten and dragged with a number of individuals to the back of the building.

EXT. TOWN BUILDING
Various individuals are interrogated by the agents. Then soldiers start stripping them off valuables. When Richard sees a frightened child/girl is about to be killed, he begs and offers the locket. This is taken but the girl is killed anyway and moments later Richard is shot in the head.
As the soldiers depart we see Richard among dozens of bodies (his face bloody and contorted.) Finally some of his comrades reach him, they check his body.

COMRADE
He's alive!

SCENE 5
FADE TO DARK

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
A mask is removed (in a POV) we hear Richard breathing heavily at times.

RICHARD
Please doctor... where's Elise... where's my Elise.

The Doctors look to another, they are both shocked at the extent of their patients facial injuries.

EXT. GRASSLAND OUTSIDE HOSPITAL
Elise (dressed smartly) walks somberly by Richard. He wears a plain white mask to conceal his face and limps with a stick.

RICHARD
(melancholy) The revolution failed Elise... they say I'm losing my sight... (sobs) I have no face Elise... they took it.

She covers her mouth in shock.

ELISE
I... I will look after you Richard... The 'party' buys my artwork... it's not much but...

RICHARD
(pause) I.. want you to have this (furnishes a ring from his pocket.) It's an engagement ring... I thought... (pause) but I'll...

Elise gently hugs Richard.

ELISE
It's alright darling, I accept. (affectionately) My fiance.

RICHARD
(happily) Fiancee!

SCENE 6
INT. ELABORATE STUDY
In a flashy office, filled with hurrying clerks stands Elise, looking increasingly impatient as ROGER tears through sheets of accounts. Finally he finds the one he is looking for and hands it to Elise.

ROGER?
There you go! That makes you absolutely rich! That makes you a champagne socialist...

Elise winces at this news.

ELISE
It's a sick irony that the 'party; should form my biggest customer... after what they did to Richard...

ROGER
Oh... incidentally have you set a date yet?
Elise, her face serious, gestures the clerks to leave them, they depart.

ELISE
He doesn't want to live... which concerns me more than any marriage... (pause) I bore of my paintings Roger (pause) Did you know, before the French revolution, the aristocrats would have mental asylums put on theatre shows... it was so perverse, but they loved it... I'm catering for perverts Roger...

Roger nods (half-listening) as he lights a cigarette.

ROGER
You just need inspiration.

Elise turns to leave, then stops and turns. Roger knows why... opening the bureau drawer, he hands her a packet.

ROGER
Here... more opium...

ELISE
(sad) It's the only thing keeping Richard from...
Roger nods somberly.

SCENE 7
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
Richard sits facing the window, it is night. He is surrounded by his beloved's paintings but is now blind. Donning his mask, he reaches for a needle to inject his drugs. Elise enters wearing her nightgown. She rests beside Richard, stroking his hair.

ELISE
There there... is that better?

RICHARD
The priest came to see me... I told him I wanted to die but he said... (trembles) If I kill myself... I won't go to heaven (sobs) That I won't see you again...

Elise soothes him, stroking his hair.

ELISE
It doesn't matter what the priest said my love... I'll be with you, (whispers) in heaven or hell. (kisses mask forehead.)

RICHARD
(pause) Can I die Elise? Please help me... its too painful now...

Elise is at first distraught, turning away she becomes deflated and grim, then speaking -almost in prayer she replies.

ELISE
The desire to survive, and the fear of death are artistic sentiments, (turns to Richard) so have no fear of perfection, for you'll never reach it. (light sobs) Take your life, and do not think on it, for the worst thing is freedom. Freedom of any kind is the worst for creativity...

RICHARD
(affectionately) You would make my death poetic... it's a eulogy a plain idiot like me doesn't deserve.

ELISE
(overwhelmed) Your no idiot... your the man I love.

She takes off his mask (his face unseen to us) and embraces him. We can hear him sobbing affectionately. Elise then takes from her bureau, a ladies pistol. She hands it to him, as he implores her.

RICHARD
Help me my love, let it aim straight and true... through the heart. Elise does this, then steps back from Richard.

ELISE
(mouths) I love you...

There follows a bang and RICHARD slumps forward.

SCENE 8
EXT. OVER GRAVE

Elise, dressed in black, places flowers over Richard's grave. A PRIEST stands near.

PRIEST
You realise... he will pay the price of sinful death... He will not enter the gates of heaven.

Elise continues her stare to the grave ignoring the Priest, who soon departs. Alone, Elise speaks to the grave as if RICHARD could hear.

ELISE
Your death leaves me no reason to stay darling... But it has inspired a hundred paintings my love... and the Western critics even call me the 'Suicide Artist' (laughs sadly) but I miss you... I paint from the heart, but my heart is not in art... my heart belongs to you.

In the distance, we see Roger waiting by the car. She casts him a quick glance before looking back to the grave.

ELISE
I'm leaving Hungary for a while... I'm taking a break from painting and... after I say the rest of my good-byes Richard... I'll come back to my homeland... to join you.

Elise checks the ladies pistol in her coat.

ELISE
(soothing) And don't worry my love, (places gun back in coat) I know how to find you.



THE END
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