PIERRE and the AMBIGUITIES – A Filmscript - 8. Part 8 – Unblinking

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[Part 8 – Unblinking – I: News from Charlie; Sex with Sister]

INT. PIERRE’S ROOM – DAY

PIERRE sits at his desk. Beneath his hand is a page only partially written. His eyes are fixed out the window, unseeing, unblinking. Some city SOUNDS interrupt. Pierre has fallen far. He looks half starved, wan and feeble; his eyes seem watery and weak. By his side is a cane, and a cot is nearby with half a dozen open books, all being used by Pierre as reference material. Off shot, there is the sound of a KNOCK, then Isabelle’s FOOTSTEPS and the OPENING of the kitchen door.

 

CHARLIE (O.S.)

Good day, Misses. I have to speak with him.

Pierre does not react, just stares out; FOOTSTEPS as Charlie approaches.

 

CHARLIE (CONT’D)

Old boy?

 

There is not reaction. Charlie goes and sits on the end of the cot. He scans Pierre’s profile and bites his lip a moment, then lays a gentle hand on his arm.

 

CHARLIE (CONT’D)

Old boy.

 

Pierre blinks at the hand touching him, and then at Charlie.

 

CHARLIE (CONT’D)

Pierre, my dearest and oldest friend, I worry that you are pouring all your life-force into your book. Come out with me, and we will take some air – walk Broadway. Don’t worry; my arm will be there to support you.

 

PIERRE

(curtly)

What do you want, Charlie? I am in the middle of something.

 

CHARLIE

(removes his hand)

There is no easy way to say it – your mother is dead. Her final will was read today, and Glendemming Stanley gets all of Saddle Meadows, on the proviso that he marries Lucy Tartan.

 

Pierre barely reacts.

 

PIERRE

Dead…?

 

CHARLIE

I’m sorry to say, yes.

 

Charlie rises to his feet.

 

CHARLIE (CONT’D)

Let’s go for that walk!

 

PIERRE

Leave me.

 

CHARLIE

But….

 

PIERRE

Please.

 

Charlie bows slightly, then hesitates.

 

CHARLIE

All right, but I will be back to visit with

you later.

 

Charlie exits via Pierre’s door to the loggia. Once he is gone, Pierre slowly turns to the shadow of the interior doorway. ISABELLE stands there. Her guitar droops loosely in her left hand.

 

PIERRE

(rises feebly)

Did you hear his news?

 

Isabelle nods and enters. She goes to the camp bed, sits, positions her guitar on her lap and extends her hand to her husband. Pierre sits next to her. She begins to ‘play’ the original Bach melody she produced for the first time Pierre heard the instrument. ^[6] As Pierre is mystified and gasps at the moving strings, he mutters:

 

PIERRE

“Happy is the dumb hour of passion –

It makes no threats,

It will seldom falsify,

It takes the man lost

From reckless bile

To calm acceptance.

Blessed is the dumb hour of passion.”

 

Pierre moves trembling hands to place on Isabelle’s cheeks. The music transitions from solo to full orchestra. He turns her to look at him.

 

PIERRE (CONT’D)

I am worried that Glen knows about my crime – about our criminal marriage!

 

Isabelle tries to shake her head. Pierre becomes upset.

 

PIERRE (CONT’D)

(adamant)

You are in jeopardy. I don’t care about myself.

 

He suddenly rises and goes to the window. Isabella sets down her guitar, rises and goes to stand behind him. She interlaces her arms around his waist, and lays her cheek on his shoulder.

 

CUT TO:

PIERRE’S POV:

 

He sees movement in Plinlimmon’s window.

 

 

PIERRE (CONT’D)

(as if to himself)

I am sick.

(agitates himself)

I am sick, and I will write about it; write deeper secrets than the apocalypse. I will write it. I will write it!

 

Isabelle turns him around.

 

ISABELLE

Why torment yourself so, Pierre?

 

PIERRE

(blinks)

It’s the law.

 

ISABELLE

And what is the law? That a nothing should torment a nothing? For are we anything but a dream, Pierre? And in that dream – this dream – we are nothing except those who painfully slumber. Your feelings, brother…

 

Pierre shakes his head. A new look is there, one of tender longing, one of growing passion.

 

ISABELLE (CONT’D)

…Your feelings, Pierre, have long been mine. Long loneliness, long anguish, and yet they have opened miracles to me. These two shadows…

(gestures to the floor)

…Are cast from the same source….

 

PIERRE

Virtue and vice, as shadow?

 

ISABELLE

Cast the same from one nothingness; seen in one combined dream.

 

Pierre lays a hand on the side of her breast.

 

PIERRE

Nothing precedes nothing…?

 

Isabelle moves his hand to the front of her chest.

 

ISABELLE

How can one sin in a dream, Pierre?

 

Pierre’s free hand flies to her cheek. They kiss, mouths open and tongues exploring. Isabelle’s hands rips off Pierre’s shirt and work trouser buttons. Pierre paws at her bodice, then begins to guide her backwards into her room – still drilling his lustful mouth into hers. Kneeling, he lays her on the bed, hikes her skirts, and fumbles with his fly. He enters her, and she pants, moans, grabs the bedspread. As he ruts her, he falls onto her body and kisses her skin, her chest, her neck, and then, as he climaxes, she rises her head and kisses him back. He collapses on her as a sweaty, panting and shattered man. She slowly strokes his hair, and coos at him as if he were an infant.

 

ISABELLE (CONT’D)

It’s all right. It will all be all right.

 

FADE TO DARKNESS.

 

 

[Part 8 – II: Akker’s Review]

INT. COFFEE SHOP – DAY

RENSLOW LEPINE sits down, is served coffee and picks up a magazine. He snaps it open to show it is fresh and emblazoned with the name: ”Akker Review.” Lepine reads something with anticipation that soon turns into disgust. He rises, fishes a nickel out of his pocket, and drops it on the table. He exits with purpose.

 

EXT. MANHATTAN STREET

LEPINE makes his way up a residential street. At a stately home, he bounds up the stoop. ^[12]

 

INT. AKKER’S LIBRARY

AKKER is lounging on the sofa with a book. LEPINE bursts in. He is heated; Akker stands, and Lepine angrily flaunts the magazine.

 

LEPINE

How could you?!

 

AKKER

How could I what?

 

Lepine opens, reads indignantly.

 

LEPINE

‘Some authors are praised recklessly and become the foolish glory of a bauble-crazed world. And often what is regarded as the best products of “the best” writers are not only very poor, but sometimes positively distasteful: so it is with Moby-Dick. This book issues forth from a very unoriginal mind – as is often the haphazard case of an inferior happenstance due to an exposure in life that the public finds “novel,” and promotes to the status of “writer” – for in it flies away the last rag of Guy Winthrop’s vanity.’

 

AKKER

A man is entitled to his opinion, and

that is mine.

 

LEPINE

But to him?

 

He wags the mag.

 

AKKER

Young authors come and go; it is not

my business—

 

LEPINE

Then you, sir, will be remembered as a Judas to one of the world’s greatest authors.

 

AKKER

(scoffs)

If he cannot withstand a bit of criticism, then he should turn to farming; do something productive.

 

LEPINE

You would betray him this way? When all he wants is your love and approval.

 

AKKER

You are mistaken. The one love he wants is from you, sir. What are you going to do about it?

 

Lepine is floored – the magazine slips listlessly from his hand to the floor – with it, he feels he falls from being Redburn’s hero to tormentor in one swoop. A YOUNG MAN enters, then pauses.

 

YOUNG MAN

Should I…?

 

AKKER

(waving him in)

No, no – come in, my boy.

(to Lepine)

As I said, they come and go.

 

The Young Man gets to Akker’s side with a shy smile, and Akker latches onto his shoulder with gusto. He speaks to Lepine.

 

AKKER (CONT’D)

This fine young American author is already my new protégé.

 

Lepine is disgusted; he turns to go.

 

INT. AKKER’S HALLWAY

Lepine stalks to the front door.

 

AKKER (O.S.)

Expect to see him in print very shortly. Come and go, Lepine – come and go!

 

[Part 8 – III: Lucy’s Arrival]

INT. PIERRE’S ROOM – DAY

PIERRE sits at his desk, slumped back, staring out the window and not writing. Slowly, COMMOTION breaks his spell. Shadows move on the loggia; men’s VOICES sound. He glances through the open internal doors. Figures move about the kitchen.

 

INT. KITCHEN

ISABELLE stands back as TWO MOVERS bring in a trunk; a third man, the BOSS, directs.

 

ISABELLE

There must be some mistake….

 

PIERRE stands in the doorway.

 

PIERRE

What is this?

 

The Movers drop the trunk, stand aside, and Pierre sees ”L.T.” stenciled on the end. The Boss comes up to Pierre.

 

BOSS

Are you…

(reads from his clipboard)

…Pierre Glendemming?

 

PIERRE

Yes.

 

BOSS

This letter is for you.

 

Pierre takes it, turns to Isabelle’s room, and opens it.

 

 

INT. ISABELLE’S ROOM

PIERRE holds the letter to the light, blinks a few times and reads.

 

LUCY (V.O.)

I have, dearest Pierre, figured out what happened. Can I live with you – I have no one else to turn to, and I will never ask about your ‘secret.’ My dearest Pierre, you cannot say no, as I have had a premonition that you are in severe jeopardy, and I believe I can protect you. I will arrive shortly after my belongings. Lucy.

 

Pierre turns back to the kitchen in time to see Lucy’s easel being set down.

 

INT. KITCHEN

PIERRE walks up the easel. He squats before it and runs his fingers over the scars where the ivy was ripped away: ripped out of its natural setting.

 

ISABELLE

(softly)

Pierre…?

 

He rises, and takes her by the shoulders from in front.

 

PIERRE

You trust me, do you not?

 

ISABELLE

Implicitly.

 

PIERRE

Then know that all things are well between us, but a young woman is coming to stay with us. You have naught to fear – she shall not seek to unravel our ambiguity – so you must welcome her.

 

ISABELLE

Who?

 

PIERRE

It’s Lucy Tartan.

 

Isabelle is slack jawed. There is a COMMOTION out on the loggia – angry male VOICES begin to shout.

 

EXT. LOGGIA

ISABELLE and PIERRE rush to the handrails. Midway up the last flight, LUCY is desperately clinging to the banister. Tugging on her from behind is GLENDEMMING STANLEY, while pulling hard on him from below is CHARLIE. Lucy sees Pierre and grows desperate.

 

LUCY

Pierre! Help!

 

Pierre bounds down and takes her arms. The four struggle. OTHERS begin to gather and watch.

 

CHARLIE

(to Glen)

Let her go! She knows her own mind.

 

GLEN

Hands off me!

 

CHARLIE

You should be ashamed of the way you treated your boyhood love.

 

This takes Glen aback for a moment; Pierre pushes Glen’s chest with his foot, and Glen and Charlie fall back a few steps on the stairs. Pierre gets Lucy to her feet, and they lunge up the steps. Isabelle takes Lucy at the top and rushes her into the apartment. Just as the door closes, Glen roughly twists Pierre around and pushes him against the door. He is seething with rage.

 

GLEN

Turn her over!

 

PIERRE

(shouting through the door)

Lock it!

 

GLEN

She is coming with me.

 

Glen draws back his fist to punch Pierre, but Charlie latches onto his arm from behind. Several other YOUNG MEN grab Glen. They drag him off of Pierre as he continues to sputter in anger.

 

GLEN (CONT’D)

You can’t do this!

 

He is dragged backwards to the steps.

 

GLEN (CONT’D)

The law will hear of this.

 

He breaks free, and stands there a moment, adjusting his clothing.

 

GLEN (CONT’D)

I know your vile secret, Pierre. Send my fiancée home, or else.

 

Charlie walks in front of Glen to block his view of Pierre.

 

CHARLIE

Enough. Walk down those steps and out of this place on your own, or we will toss you down and break every bone in the process.

 

The Young Men crack knuckles. Glen turns and casually descends.

 

GLEN

(singsong)

Send her home, Pierre.

 

CHARLIE

(shouts)

And don’t show your Judas face around

here again!

 

_