PIERRE and the AMBIGUITIES – A Filmscript - 2. Part 2 – Ever-Hungry

[Part 2 – Ever-Hungry – I: A Talk with Emily]

INT. REDBURN’S COUNTRY HOME, BEDROOM – DAY

The light and breeze comes through his boyhood room. The door opens, and REDBURN enters with his carpetbag and in traveling clothes. He sets it down, and begins to take off his outer dusty layer; he is distracted by his dresser mirror and a marquetry box sitting there. He opens it and pulls out Yojo, Queequeg’s idol. He kisses it lightly before setting it up next to the box, then he extracts The Greenlander’s green and white scarf and holds it up to his face. He inhales and sets it on the other side of the box from Yojo. He lowers the lid, sets up his copy of ”Typee,” softly murmuring: “Toby.”

 

EMILY

(raps on the door softly)

May I come in?

 

Redburn goes to his bed and gestures for her to sit next to him.

 

REDBURN

Are our houseguests settled?

 

EMILY

Yes, Sara and her father are here. We’ll all meet at dinner. How was the ferry ride?

 

REDBURN

Refreshing as always, and as always, mixed with sadness as I remember my final trip with Peter.

 

EMILY

He’s in a better place now.

 

REDBURN

I know, sister. But still, to lose a brother

is hard.

 

EMILY

It is, for me as well – but it’s still nothing compared to what Mama lost; to lose a husband and a son, what could be worse?

 

Both siblings glance silently at their father’s “younger” portrait.

 

REDBURN

Yes, Emily. You are good to always remind me of others. Thank you.

 

EMILY

Do not be down, Guy. We’ll have a nice two weeks together – and – you can get to know Sara and come to love her as I do.

 

REDBURN

(laughs; kicks hands back on bed)

Well, not as you do, but maybe ‘like’ her

a bit more.

 

EMILY

Have you considered my proposition

a bit more?

 

Redburn sits up in obvious discomfort.

 

REDBURN

Emily, you know I love you; you know I want to make you happy. But, I do not want to marry a woman, any woman. It would be wrong for me to do so.

 

Emily blinks, trying to hide how crushing this is.

 

EMILY

But, you would be married in name only – I would be her spouse, and we would make a merry home together, free of prying eyes and gossipy interloping. You need that just as much as we do, brother. And besides, what about children? Do you not want a legacy for your name, and your efforts here on earth? What better way is there for the three of us – for people like us? Brother?

 

Redburn latches onto her hand in an effort to make her listen to him.

 

REDBURN

Emily, please, do not talk about this. The very notion makes me feel sick. Can you understand? Forcing me to marry your love, and then, then – well, it would be incest to me! It would be like lying with another sister of mine.

 

Emily rises. Her sadness has transitioned into flushing anger. She rushes to the doorway, pauses, then turns back to him with more calm.

 

EMILY

We will talk later – and – beware of Reverend Goranson. He is usually a difficult, and disapproving man.

 

Emily leaves.

 

REDBURN

(calling)

Emily….

 

She does not return, instead, Redburn opens his bag and pulls out the manuscript of ”Pierre”. He goes to the desk below his window, and begins to write. He glances up and out to the heights of Slide Mountain in the distance.

 

[Part 2 – II: Strawberries in the Twilight]

EXT/INT. COUNTRYSIDE AND SADDLE MEADOWS– DAY – TRACKING

 

BEGIN 'PIERRE'S WALK HOME' SERIES OF SHOTS:

A) PIERRE traipses down from the heights of Slide Mountain with CHARLIE locked arm and arm. Near the base, they part ways with a hug.

B ) Pierre continues down through the woods onto a country lane. He greets his family’s farmer tenants, and they show deference to him as the ‘young master.’

C) Pierre passes by the quaint cottage and attached barn of the Ulver’s farm, where unbeknownst to him lives Isabelle Banford.

D) By the time we first see Saddle Meadows, the day has grown into late afternoon. But the manor house is a glorious Georgian brick mansion on a high basement level. Double marble steps lead up to a two-story portico with four columns. ^[2]

E) The estate’s road takes Pierre over a stream and footbridge.

F) Pierre walks around the lake and under the shade of an ancient oak. His gaze stays on the placid view of the house, which is now a few hundred yards in front of him.

G) Pierre bounds up the white marble steps of the portico two at a time.

H) He pauses at the iron railing at the top to briefly look out on his domain, then turns and strides through the open double doors.

I) Pierre strolls through the two-story stair hall, which is rich in firearms and swords mounted on the blue walls. Pierre’s eyes drift over the captured British colors hanging all around the hall. He feels proud of his heritage.

J) DATES, the butler, is waiting by the dining room door, and Pierre sails past him and into this room.

END ‘PIERRE’S WALK HOME’ SERIES OF SHOTS.

 

INT. SADDLE MEADOWS DINING ROOM

This heavily carved and paneled room is about thirty feet square. The wall decorations take the form of deep moldings, pilasters, and elaborate over-doors and mantels. MARY GLENDEMMING sits at the table, which is exquisitely set and filled with early summer flowers; she pretends to be engaged in reading a small book. PIERRE is late, and she is quietly chastising her son for keeping her waiting. He smiles and bounds towards her as free as a bird.

 

PIERRE

Good evening, Mother!

 

MARY

(disinterested)

Oh, yes. It is evening, isn’t it?

 

Pierre kisses her cheek, then goes to sit at the far end of the table.

 

PIERRE

Sorry to have kept you waiting. Charlie Millthorpe is gone back to the City now.

 

MARY

Yes.

 

She closes her book and motions to Dates, who goes to the sideboard and picks up the soup tureen. He serves while they chat.

 

MARY (CONT’D)

I hope you haven’t forgotten that Saddle Meadows plays host to the Reverend Mrs. Falsegrave’s charity event.

 

PIERRE

Not forgotten! The church ladies’ quilting bee; I don’t know how the old house will stand through that much excitement!

 

MARY

(dour)

You’re in a good mood, Pierre. But just remember, as the heir-apparent, you must conduct yourself tonight with suitable gravity.

 

PIERRE

Yes, Mother.

 

She casts him a look.

 

PIERRE (CONT’D)

Yes, ‘Sister,’ my mood is good. I always like spending time with Charlie, and being out in the blessèd air.

 

Dates AHEMs, and Pierre removes his elbows off the table so Dates can fill his soup bowl.

 

MARY

(affected pleasure)

‘Brother Pierre,’ I do not seek the general homage of men, or quilting bees, but the select acknowledgement from the noblest among our own kind.

 

PIERRE

As with my father?

 

Pierre starts to eat.

 

MARY

Yes, your sire was among the noblest ever born. He…he loathed to leave earth while you were still a boy of ten. But since then, I believe I have been a suitable father and mother to you. Have I not?

 

PIERRE

Most so, Sister Mary.

 

MARY

But now, Pierre, you are nearly grown.

 

Pierre finishes his soup with gusto. Dates takes his bowl and returns with a platter of roast beef for Pierre to serve himself, which he does with a grin of contentment.

 

MARY (CONT’D)

I have seen you, Brother. The way you moon about that Lucy Tartan.

 

Pierre stops eating; he is aghast.

 

PIERRE

I would hardly call it mooning. I respect the young woman. She is a fine artist…we are friends—

 

MARY

Please don’t interrupt me, Brother. I was saying, that you must come to accept your role as the young master of Saddle Meadows, and that means, you must take a wife.

 

Pierre rocks back on his chair, sickened.

 

PIERRE

I….

 

MARY

If not her, then who? Tell me, Brother, who?

 

PIERRE

I….

 

Mary picks up her spoon. She begins to eat and cast glances over her utensil to her son with the confidence that she’s already won.

 

MARY

You know your Sister Mary only too well – only too intimately – and that I have never steered you in any direction but the ‘correct’ one. Have I not?

 

PIERRE

Yes, I mean no—

 

MARY

Then it is settled. By the end of summer, you shall have a wife – Saddle Meadows, a young mistress-apparent.

 

PIERRE

Doesn’t she have a say in the matter?

 

MARY

Foolish boy – Lucy Tartan loves you. You shall make her overjoyed with your proposal…

(cryptic)

…When you see her next. Now, Brother, give your dear Sister a kiss.

 

Pierre reluctantly rises and steps to her side. As he bends to kiss her cheek, she reaches up and places her lips full on his.

 

DATES

Miss Tartan, My Lady.

 

Pierre and Mary glance to the door, and LUCY is standing there with some blinking shock to her. She wears a sundress with blue ribbons, and holds a small basket overflowing with strawberries.

 

MARY

Ah, young Lucy. What a surprise.

 

Pierre goes to her, blushing. Dates exits.

 

PIERRE

Miss Tartan.

 

He leads her towards the window’s slanting light.

 

PIERRE (CONT’D)

Will you sup with us? This is an unexpected pleasure.

 

MARY

Now, my dear little Lucy, let Pierre take off your shawl, and stay to Tea with us.

 

LUCY

Thank you, but I cannot linger for long. Look, I have forgotten my own errand. I brought these strawberries for you, Mrs. Glendemming, and for Pierre. Pierre is so wonderfully fond of them.

 

MARY

Indeed, he is. I was just saying….

 

Her voice continues to chat with Lucy, dominating the girl’s attention, while it fades into the following voiceover. As it does, the burnished quality of Lucy in the twilight transitions into shots of countryside and sea; then it intensifies at the end into conflicting close-ups of Lucy and Mary.

 

REDBURN (V.O.)

As she hovered, Pierre saw the rays of the tilting sun bathe her whole form in golden loveliness. The vivid translucency of her complexion flowed with the fleecy investiture of her dress to glow all about her in a rosy snow of light. Youth may be no philosopher, but still in the young man’s heart crept the thought that the glory of the rose can endure but for a day. Yes, into Pierre there stole the feeling of utmost sadness, the pondering that all earthly beauty is but an evanescence, and as such, becomes the food for ever-hungry sadness. His thoughts moved beyond her mortal form, and out towards the source of that heavenly light – out there, beyond the meadows, far away to the golden hills, towards the still sunset and to the most gracious of evenings about to bloom. It was where all that splendor seemed to say: ‘I go down in sorrow to rise in joy; Love reigns throughout all the wonders that sunsets visit. Would Love leave misery in His dawn?’ No, the god of sunshine does not decree gloom. ‘Yet,’ he thought. ‘I am of heavy earth; she of feathery air. A marriage between us would be Nature’s most impious affront.’

 

MARY

…Is that not so, Pierre?

 

PIERRE

I….

 

MARY

I said, you would be more than happy to escort Miss Tartan back to the road.

 

PIERRE

Why, yes. Most certainly.

 

MARY

Good day to you, Lucy. I hope you hear some good news, shortly.

 

Pierre extends his arm; they exit. After another moment, Mary rises and saunters to the window. She watches Pierre and Lucy stroll towards the pond and bridge.

 

MARY (CONT’D)

(to herself)

Good. He remains obedient to my will…

(chuckles)

…Just like his father. That girl is good for him – she seems not to think or feel anything other than what Pierre wants her to. And soon she will be pliant to the tastes and demands of her belovèd mother-in-law.

 

INT. SADDLE MEADOWS DINING ROOM/GREAT HALL – TRACKING

MARY begins to meander – first across the room, then into the great hall, and to the ‘official’ portrait of Pierre’s father. She pauses below it, seeing she is alone, and sneers up to him.

 

MARY (CONT’D)

You. He thinks of you as some sort of god. Flawless, like chipped marble, sculpted to honed perfection, but this portrait shows you as I molded you, not as you were – weak, sinful, full of a shameful secret. But it is one Pierre will never know from my lips, and thus it is one he’ll never know.

 

[Part 2 – III: Fear of God]

INT. REDBURN’S COUNTRY HOME, DINING ROOM – EVENING

Candles are lit, and dinner is in mid-progress. MRS. WINTHROP sits at the head of the table, with REV. GORANSON at the other end. REDBURN sits near the center, and has a perfect view through the open door into the parlor across the hall and of his father’s ‘official’ portrait. SARA and EMILY are across from him.

 

SARA

Mrs. Winthrop, I do so look forward to our stay with you and your family. I hope we are no burden.

 

MRS. WINTHROP

Not at all, dear. Tomorrow Guy will show you the village; you can luncheon at the inn. It was founded in seventeen fourteen, you know.

 

SARA

(darting eyes to Emily)

Why, no, I did not know. Very interesting.

(some eating in silence)

Mr. Winthrop, I have read all of your books, and I enjoyed them with supreme relish. Your intellect does American belles letters a great honor.

 

The Reverend makes a dismissive grunt.

 

REDBURN

Thank you, Miss Goranson—

 

SARA

Sara. You must call me, Sara.

 

REDBURN

Well, only if you call me Guy.

 

SARA

(swallows)

Impertinent, I know. But I feel as if I already know you as ‘Redburn.’

 

Redburn’s sight glances up to his father’s portrait, and suddenly he feels supremely uncomfortable about what he is doing.

 

REDBURN

‘Guy,’ if you please. As I was saying, Sara, your praise of my work surprises me a bit.

 

SARA

Why so?

 

REDBURN

My tales are…well, pardon the term at the dinner table…’sweaty.’ They are manly accounts, and rather rough ones at that.

 

SARA

They are anything but rough in scope and accomplishment.

 

Redburn blinks, genuinely flattered.

 

REDBURN

Thank you, but I must confess to some astonishment that a woman would find much interest in them. In my new work, I have areas to explore that the gentler sex may find very engaging.

 

SARA

Well, then, I cannot wait to read it, hopefully with the privilege of seeing it before it is in print.

 

EMILY

(chuckles)

But Guy is rather secretive with his manuscripts.

 

The Reverend startles everybody by actually speaking.

 

REV. GORANSON

I believe your writings mostly deal with your time amongst the heathens.

 

REDBURN

Many of them, yes.

 

REV. GORANSON

Perhaps that time actually ‘un-Christianized’ you?

 

REDBURN

With all due respect, sir, I am curious to know if you have actually read my ‘savage’ books in person.

 

Emily stiffens and tries to shut down her brother’s smirk with a dour blink.

 

REV. GORANSON

I have not, naturally, but there are several volumes written about your work, and those I have read.

 

REDBURN

Ah, yes. Words from my critics.

 

REV. GORANSON

My point, Mr. Winthrop, was this: your time out of contact with honest and decent Christian communities may have seriously altered your outlook on the world – heathenized it, in fact.

 

Redburn again glances at his father’s portrait and this time takes strength from it. He controls his temper.

 

REDBURN

As you say, it has altered my outlook, but it is one for the better, Reverend Goranson. Perhaps my time with Polynesians has actually Christianized me.

 

REV. GORANSON

What do you mean, young man?

 

REDBURN

I mean, in the valley of the Typee, no one locks their doors, no one worries about theft of goods, no one fears a covetous regard of their neighbors’ mates. No one is hungry, no one hates for reasons of arbitrary race or creed. What’s more, not a soul disrespects their parents, nor do their children feel unloved. I mean to say, sir, that there the Ten Commandments are not carved in stone above the jailhouse door, but are lived in the flesh without one single iota of self-conceited righteousness. In other words, they love as naturally and unaffectedly as Christ commanded us to do.

 

REV. GORANSON

You may deem a fancifully incomplete knowledge of the Decalogue for them, but you casually omit ‘Thou shall not kill,’ and do so in regards to a pack of headhunting cannibals.

 

REDBURN

It is all a matter of closeness to God and His principles, is it not? For every day in this country The State executes condemned men and finds no fault in our justice. Why so then point a finger and claim another government’s killing is not as just?

 

Sara inhales sharply and assumes the assertive role of peacemaker.

 

SARA

Gentlemen! Such passionate talk before a majority company of ladies—

 

REV. GORANSON

(scoffs at Redburn)

You – young man – just as I have suspected, have been heathenized! You show that by your lack of a proper fear of God.

 

SARA

(raising her voice)

Father! This is not appropriate, not for a guest to suggest something like that when at another man’s table.

 

The Reverend acts like he is acquiescing.

 

REV. GORANSON

I have been castigated, and I readily apologize if I have been overly heated – however, answer me this, Mr. Winthrop: I have read that your ‘work’ contains near-scandalous references to men loving one another. I can think of no other modern American writer who dares to say in print that one man can openly love a second man. Do you not find that most remarkable?

 

Redburn’s temper rises, but Emily places a gentle hand on his clenching fist on the tabletop. He regards her, and his vision slips back to his father’s image once more. His anger goes. He glances between Sara and Emily and feels sympathy for their situation. Calmly he turns back to the Reverend, and speaks through a half-smile.

 

REDBURN

Why, yes, Reverend, I do. I find it most remarkable!

 

 

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