Opium (1) EST. SHOT> MANHATTAN IN LATE SPRING EXT> STREET (NIGHT) A WOMAN walks out of a brownstone on East 80th and walks toward Central Park. She is dressed in a clear incitement to rape: a black leather mini-dress polka dotted with brass eyelets, long lean black boots and about 15 lbs. of heavy metal junk jewelry. She's wearing disco makeup and a spindle top hairdo. Obviously some rich girl who has dressed up like a whore for a costume party. She has an impeccable upper class manner, the kind the English have forgotten and the Americans never learned. She is about 28 and blindingly beautiful. Her name is LESLIE and, right now, her face has an expression of carnivorous amazement. As she passes an apartment block, A MAN steps out of an alley labeled SERVICE ENTRANCE. His name is DAVID, one of the handsome Black Irish, but oddly bookish looking. He's trying hard to look like a rocker, but his leathers are too expensive, it's all a costume like hers. This is beginning to have the quality of a sexual fantasy. He carries a heavy leather shoulder bag and, at the moment, has the determined expression of an alley cat about to kill something small and defenseless. He follows Leslie along 80th Street and into the park. She looks back once and he lets the distance between them increase. She walks along a concrete path up over a hill in back of the museum, perhaps a 100 yards in front of him. As he follows her, 2 UNHOLY LOOKING 3RD WORLD MUGGERS bounce out of the bushes, muttering jubilantly, and begin to slouch after her with malignant intent. They do not have the wit to look behind them. David steps off the concrete onto the grass so that his boots wont make a sound. He shifts his shoulder bag to his left hand so that it wont make a noise by slapping against him. He pulls brass knuckles out of a back pocket and begins to run, a low crouching run. He's good at it. He's had some kind of training because he does all this soundlessly. He comes up behind the 2 muggers and still they haven't noticed a thing. HE does a basic karate move, known as a skipping reverse punch', and catches the 1ST MUGGER in the back rupturing his spleen with his brass-knuckled fist. The 1st mugger falls over with a sharp intake of breath. The 1st is down before the 2nd has turned. David kicks him in the knee and then reverse punches him in the Adam's apple with the brass knuckles and the entire weight of his body behind it. The 2nd mugger is gone like a blown candle. It's all over in a second, but Leslie has turned around in response to the sound effects. With a theatrical look of horror, She begins to run. Through plan or panic, She runs deeper into the park. David curses wearily and takes off after her. She's a jogger, but not a sprinter and he runs much faster than she does. She hears his steps getting closer and she dives in among a thicket of trees. She tries playing motionless, hoping to be invisible in the dark, but they're both panting by now. She cant control her breathing and he is tracking her by the sound. She hears him coming closer and grunting with triumph. They play hide and seek among the trees. There's something oddly childlike about this, but her eyes are wide and rolling with terror. She doesn't have the presence of mind to scream or, perhaps, she's just too out of breath. Then David steps from out of the darkness behind her and throws an arm around her neck. DAVID Open. Open your mouth. Obediently, she opens her mouth, perhaps, a little too wide and he inserts a gag. But something is a little wrong. It's a soft rubber strap gag of the kind sold in sex shops for people who like this kind of thing. He buckles it tightly at the nape of her neck. She wriggles in his grip, She gurgles and stamps her foot indignantly, but she offers no particular resistance. Perhaps, she's too frightened. Then he grips her by the shoulders and slowly guides he down to the grass. He pulls her hands over her head and fastens them together behind a small tree. But he uses fleece lined leather handcuffs. This is beginning to look suspiciously over prepared. He checks that he has her fixed securely then climbs on top of her and languorously rapes her. He�s on his knees, almost sitting up. She�s on her back with her knees pulled up to her chest and bracing her boots against his shoulders. As they make love he turns his head and gives her boot a sly, loving lick. When he's done with her body, he opens his shoulder bag, takes out a bottle of Margot and opens it with a corkscrew. He sets it to one side then gestures for her to turn her head. She does and he removes the gag and handcuffs, tidily putting them away in his bag. She doesn't make a sound. She sits up, elbows on her knees and her face in her hands. Her hair has come undone and it falls over he face. He sits staring at her in silence. She's not about to move. She's not about to say anything. For the 1st time, he doesn't know what to do next. Not worried, not guilty, just baffled. DAVID Are you alright? She's still panting slightly. She says nothing. She wont look at him. Her only reaction is to brush some hair away from her face, but it immediately falls forward again. DAVID Leslie, are you alright? LESLIE Why did you open the wine first? DAVID It needs to breathe. LESLIE And I dont? DAVID I just work here. LESLIE That is true. He holds up the wine. DAVID Want some? (NO ANSWER) Your mouth must be dry. (NO ANSWER) You want to tell me what's wrong? (NO ANSWER) I have this recurrent fantasy about doing a slow tango with a mountain lion wearing blue lipstick and violet eye shadow. LESLIE I dont believe you. DAVID Just trying to start a conversation. LESLIE I believe that. DAVID Then tell me what's wrong. LESLIE Nothing. It was perfect. All the little surprises, all the moments when it was almost out of control, everything that makes it real. More detailed than I ever could have imagined it. DAVID But? LESLIE You were supposed to leave me tied to the tree, all night abandoned. DAVID You didn't want that. You wanted to pretend that it was going to happen, but you didn't really want it. Not really. LESLIE Artists must take risks. DAVID But they sacrifice other people, not themselves. She opens her shoulder bag and takes out 2 wine glasses wrapped in tissue. LESLIE That part makes sense. But I believe that for this to be great art you must feel that you have something personal at stake. DAVID Your theories aren't my problem No, your theories are my problem. She's about to answer when he hears some thing we dont. He gestures her to be quite, that someone is coming. He reaches into his shoulder bag and takes out a very ratty looking .38 belly gun. Clearly, he's brought everything but a Boy Scout Manual. LESLIE Oh, it's just lovers. DAVID No, they're coming too slow, they expect trouble. 3 MORE MUGGERS come out of the bushes. MUGGER You dont want to get hurt, right? DAVID That's right. David shoots him through the head with the .38. It's an explosive bullet and pieces come off his head like petals from a flower. The other 2 muggers turn and run. David unapologetically shoots them in the back. LESLIE We better go, the police will be here. DAVID They cant tell where the shots were coming from, not with all the echoes off the buildings. LESLIE Let's go home. DAVID Yes. They walk back the way they came. The left shoulder of her dress has been torn and the bra strap broken. Her left breast falls out. She tucks it back in then leans against him to hold it in place, arms around each other's waists. There are 4 COP CARS WITH WHIRLING LIGHTS. They're parked around the 2 muggers he'd knocked out. Their faces are covered. Apparently they're dead. A COP shines his flashlight on David and Leslie. He sees an Upper East Side couple and loses interest. Leslie hides her face in David's neck. LESLIE How horrible! COP You shouldn't be in the park at night, it's too dangerous. DAVID Thank you, Officer. I keep telling her that, maybe now she'll believe me. They walk away but, after they get 20 yards, Leslie begins to giggle. She clings to him tighter and buries her face against him, but then he begins to giggle too. Then her laughter exploded out of control. The cops hear it and turn to stare. Three cops snap their flashlights on them. Her left breast has fallen out again. David pushes her away and slaps her very hard. DAVID It's alright, Officer, She was just getting hysterical at the sight of... He gestures at he corpses and two of the three flashlights are turned off. COP The park closes at midnight. You're trespassing. Bring her over here, I want to talk to her. DAVID Please, Officer, She's hysterical already. COP Alright, but get her home. His flashlight goes out too. David and Leslie walk out of the park onto 5th Ave. She's rubbing her cheek and looking at him thoughtfully. Clearly, she has an idea. As always, it will be a very bad idea. DAVID Can it wait until morning? It's late and I'm very tired. NO ANSWER LESLIE That�s all? that�s all there is? DAVID That�s all. LESLIE (contemptuous) You cant beat rape and murder for a cheap date. An ANGEL IN A STIFF TERRACOTTA ROBE floats by on an updraft. Her face is an unhealthy yellow and her wings are newsprint gray. She holds a stone tower in her arms. It looks like cheap concrete. LESLIE Who the fuck was that? DAVID It�s Saint Barbara of the thunder. She�s been de-canonized and her cult suppressed. You cant blame her for being pissed. INT> SEMINAR ROOM (BRIGHT) David keeps nodding out. THE PROFESSOR is staring at him in distaste. The professor is white as a mime; He is paunchy and has a receding hairline; his face is all nose. He is a mess and, clearly, never looked any better. He is wearing an unpressed business suit. The seat of his pants is down to his knees. PROF David, when was the last time you had any sleep? DAVID I'm sorry. It's mono. You're sleepy all the time. PROF The longest lasting case in history. DAVID It does that. It's like malaria, you're never really rid of it. The professor decides to ignore him. POV pulls back. MOS we see a series of visuals whiz by on a video monitor, but too many too fast. It looks the visual pysch test in PARRALAX VIEW. It freezes on some creepy pornography by Balthus. PROF That is one purpose of Art, of course. DAVID No, you�re missing it. PROF David... DAVID Picasso bought a house in southern France in 1945. He bought it by painting a still life of it and trading the painting for the house. Because a Picasso was worth more than what it was a picture of. PROF Thank you David. I�m facing a difficult decision about you and you�re making it easy. DAVID He did what artists have been trying to do since they were drawing antelope on the walls of caves. He got control of a thing by making a picture of it. He's the first one to make the magic work, PROF. That's another purpose of Art. DAVID No, the only purpose: Power. CHEN, a squat shrewd looking Chinese student is frantically signaling David to shut up. PROF But other artists could have done that, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock. Peggy Guggenheim would have given him the Washington Monument if he�d asked for it. He didn�t, he was trying for something else. DAVID And we know what. Jackson Pollock would jump on anything, men, women, dogs, anything that slowed down as it went past. It was every girl�s ambition to sleep with a boy who had slept with Jackson Pollock. THE OTHER STUDENTS giggle, including Chen. he chuckles then rolls his eyes, sticks his tongue out of the corner of his mouth and draws a finger across his throat. PROF The approach to Al Mu^Tas^im. Then all art is elitist. DAVID I leave the elitist argument to small boys looking for a brand new reason for not taking a bath. PROF OUT! He points to the door and David leaves. He looks around the room, making it clear that he has re-established control. PROF (to Chen) Bring him back. CHEN He wont come. PROF Talk to him. CHEN All right, but who�s going to talk to you? PROF OUT! Chen widens his eyes in innocent surprise, but says nothing and leaves. POV follows him out the door and down the hall. PROF (V.O.) Which brings us to Magical Realism. It�s become a sales gimmick like calling the Lower East Side the East Village. Any Latino with the DT�s is called a Magical Realist. Originally, it meant something very different. painting the ordinary as if it were something fantastic. Like, well, like Radziwill for example. CU of the painting THE COSMOS CAN BE DESTROYED BUT NOT HEAVEN by Radziwill and it is knockout. It�s a very ordinary scene of a harbor, but something is slightly wrong with the perspective and it is as spooky as hit. POV pulls back to show that it is a mural on the wall of the cafeteria. INT. GRAD SCHOOL CAFETERIA (DAY) It�s all chrome and white tile, it feels like a cancer hospital. There are no fluorescent purple tumors, but everyone is vivid and grotesque with the 1000 yard stare and no longer entirely human. David is standing in line with Chen in front of the cashier. CHEN I�ve heard of people being out of class in grammar school, but in grad school. DAVID Well, yeah. They take their trays and look for a table. David has 3 long thin loaves of French bread. When they sit down he starts twisting them into animal shapes. WALLPAPER: The voice over dialogue doesn�t have to be intelligible, they simply have to be there as background noise. (V.O.)#1 Chaos Theory does not say that. It can look random, but it isn�t. You cant get random effects out of a deterministic system. (V.O.)#2 If that were true then you couldn�t generate a table of random numbers, but you can. (V.O.)#1 It looks random� (V.O.)#2 It tests out random so, it is random. You�re appealing to a distinction without a difference. (V.O.)#1 You�re becoming a morale problem. There�s no answer. Chen begins to eat a giant pastrami on rye. CHEN No, it's not incompetence. To fuck up this completely, it has to be deliberate. DAVID Yes. A FRENCH PROFESSOR walks by with his pants held up by a rope. HE carries a tray with 8 cups of coffee. FRENCH PROF Is too difficult do mathematics. DAVID Like criminal law with an imaginary client and a real judge and jury. The French professor nods fatalistically and wanders off. CHEN Why? Why did you say that to him? DAVID I don�t know, I felt like it. (V.O.)#3 The male organ does not respond to messages. It responds to signals and the hornier you are, the more blurred the signals can be. They show that with pigeons. He starts out making love to a stuffed pigeon then to a block of wood and finally he�s doing his mating dance to a shadow cast on a wall. I think we�ve all done that one. (V.O.)#4 yeah, but you cant get into that on a first date. CHEN have you ever heard paranoid schizophrenia defined as a desperate search for meaningful experience? DAVID I�m not schiz. CHEN You�re not?! DAVID Schizophrenics don�t fall in love. FRENCH PROFESSOR (indignantly) I beg your pardon! CHEN Who do you love? DAVID Well, no one right now, but I�m pretty nice to my cats. CHEN What about Leslie? She's rich. DAVID You Chinese are a very practical people, but somehow it looks better on you. CHEN What about Sarah the nurse? DAVID She's doctor. CHEN Even better. DAVID She�s just having one more experience. If I got serious, she�d run screaming. (V.O.)#5 SUN AND STEEL? It�s about swords- manship, literary style and his own body, but the way he tells it, it�s all the same subject. The question is not why did he kill himself, but how did he manage to put it off for so long. DAVID Coffee? He stands. CHEN Sure, why not? (V.O.)#6 The problem is I don�t have Jungian dreams. INT> HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM (OVERLIT) DAVID walks up to a desk with a NURSE behind it. Over it is the sign 'TRIAGE' in neon lights. It flashes on and off. DAVID Dr. November, please. NURSE Fill out the form, please. DAVID Dr. Sarah November, have her paged, please. NURSE Fill out the form, please. DAVID I'm a personal friend. NURSE Then you're not a patient? DAVID Well, yes, that too. NURSE Please fill out... DAVID I dont want to kill you. Sarah catches sight of him from the angle of a corridor and starts to run toward him. She stops then strides over fast. SARAH David, what are you doing? He takes her by the arm and marches her away. DAVID I have to talk to you. NURSE He hasn't filled out the admission form. SARAH (over her shoulder) It's alright. David sees an empty examination room and half shoulders her into it, pressing himself against her. He seems to be trying to avoid touching her with his hands. He follows her in and closes the door with deliberate slowness, elbowing it shut. He takes off his shirt without opening his fists. His back is covered with welts. She kisses them. SARAH This is not my idea of an ideal relationship. He opens his fists. His hands are covered with blood. You're not bleeding. DAVID It isn't my blood. SARAH I dont want to know about this part of your life. DAVID Do you have any fantasies?Sarah? SARAH You asked me that. DAVID I'm asking again. SARAH When I was 7 years old, I cried when I learned that there were no unicorns. DAVID That's why I'm here, to cry about unicorns. SARAH Is she dead? DAVID Practicing poses in front of a mirror, last I saw. SARAH Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning. DAVID Why do you play these dumb games? SARAH That is hilarious, coming from you DAVID DAVID There's an end of semester party,she wants to meet you. SARAH Sure, why not? INT> MET. MUSEUM (DAY) The Primitive Art Exhibition. David and Leslie are in front of a display of Oceanic masks. David makes the sign against the evil eye. Leslie smiles in surprise. LESLIE It seems innocent enough to me, almost childlike. It is, compared to her. David decides against saying it. DAVID All History is a conspiracy to generate Afghan statues, Venetian paintings, African masks, Siberian nose flutes, Grecian urns, Egyptian cosmetic pots! And with no other purpose except that I have to memorize them. LESLIE Then quit. It's no strain to support you. You cost less than a cat. DAVID I guess I�ll have to, they refuse to throw me out. And then do what? LESLIE And stay away from Sarah. DAVID You been talking to Chen? LESLIE He called a few times to see if you were there. They pass a series of Trobiand Island totem poles. They stop in front of an Egyptian mummy case. LESLIE The ultimate in Bondage. DAVID Would you settle for a movie and a pizza? LESLIE It's worth a try. INT> MET. MUSEUM (EVENING) The Equestrian Court. They're looking at a KNIGHT IN ARMOR ON HORSEBACK. It looks dandified and jubilantly homicidal. LESLIE How can you find that beautiful? DAVID I'm a criminal. Leslie looks at her watch. LESLIE Time to go. INT> DESIGNER"S SHOWROOM (BRIGHT) A fashion show. It's in an auditorium and the atmosphere is that of a high school musical. The clothes are sober and suburban in mild and inoffensive colors. In compensation, THE MODEL's make up is desperately surreal. The models wear box-like face masks of scarlet satin and clusters of wildly curling hair pinnings that look like broken springs. Jeweled beading has been glued to their cheeks in squiggly lines. Their lipstick and nail polish are black and shiny as patent leather. David studies all this as though it were primitive art which, of course, it is. INT> DESIGNER"S SHOWROOM (FILM NOIR LIGHTING) David and Leslie at another fashion show. They're seated in the front row. Evidently, she is a customer of some importance. The models are dressed in the military whore style of 1979: spiky boots and skirts split to the thigh, and a Garbo-esque masculinity that's progressively more menacing. The models have enormously padded shoulders that make them huge, vaguely frightening figures striding along to martial music, giving angry glances to one side and then the other. David and Leslie smile at each other. At the moment, they're feeling very in tune. Then comes A MODEL WEARING A LEATHER AND SATIN VERSION OF SWAT ARMOR. Even David and Leslie are puzzled. INT> MODEL�S DRESSING ROOM (BRIGHT) Leslie is picking up ONE OF THE MODELS. They seem delighted with each other. Leslie buys the model's entire costume for her and she leaves with them. INT> 3RD FLOOR WHITNEY MUSEUM (NIGHT) David, Leslie and the model enter from the elevator. He�s carrying a bowling bag. They pass an empty pedestal. He puts a crumpled paper bag on top of it. They walk a way. Behind their backs a crowd quickly assembles, staring at the paper bag with intense concentration. A SECURITY GUARD appears and moves the spectators away from it/ GUARD Please don�t touch the exhibits! The model giggles, David smiles. They turn a corner. He opens a door and shoves the model inside. He and Leslie follow. There is a loud thump and they emerge minus the model. The pass a Nancy Grossman bondage head on a chest high pedestal. Leslie sweeps it into her shoulder bag and David opens the bowling bag, takes out the model�s head wearing an enormous leather strap gag and places it on the pedestal instead. It�s dripping blood. THREE TOURISTS turn the corner and stop to stare at it. The head blinks. Leslie screams. DAVID It�s so life-like. The tourists chuckle at her innocence and David steers her away toward the stairs INT.CHEQUER CAB (NIGHT) David and Leslie are sitting in the back, holding hands and looking out opposite windows. There is blood on their shoes and under their fingernails. Each of them has a black prostitute kneeling between their legs giving oral sex. DAVID Marcel Duchamp said it, but we actuall y did it. LESLIE Do you think we should get a motorcycle? DAVID No, I had one for a year and it didn't kill me, they cant be any good. LESLIE We're sure to be identified from all those video cameras. DAVID No one was ever identified from a video tape or there'd never be a successful bank robbery. But the designer, we left with his model. He saw us, he'll turn us in. LESLIE No, he wont. I'm far too good a customer. DAVID You're sure? LESLIE Positive. DAVID That's sad, in a way. LESLIE I know. Poverty turns men into animals. They ride off into the night. INT> FACULTY LOUNGE (BRIGHT) The decor is vintage 1938 science-fiction. The French math professor walks by, his pants held up by a rope, and carrying a tray with 8 Blood Marys. FRENCH PROF. Is too difficult do mathematics. He sits down and starts drinking with enthusiasm. David, Chen, their art history professor and an MD PHD named PETER are sitting shoulder to shoulder on a couch. They look grim. They're not party people. Peter is wearing a white lab coat over a $1,500 suit. Chen is playing with the I Ching, tossing the coins on a coffee table. CHEN I'll tell your fortune. DAVID I dont want to be reminded. PETER Sounds like he's getting ready to off himself. PROF No, he cant stand to live in doubt so, he's convinced himself it's hopeless. DAVID Are you trying to say it�s not? PROF David, if you were hopeless, I wouldn't hate you. At least, not quite as much as I do right now. Sarah prances up. She's wearing a long flouncy flowered dress and her hair is up in Brunhilde braids. She looks ready to serve beer at the Nuremberg rally. SARAH. I'm going back to med school next year. I might as well be a specialist. I just dont know if I can handle it. DAVID Everyone comes back steadier after having been away. SARAH I hope. PETER And what specialty will you take? SARAH Pediatrics. PETER Really?, what field? SARAH I just dont know yet. PETER Boy, did you just avoid walking into a trap. SARAH Practice. She walks off with a 1940' mix of hauteur and invitation, flirting over her shoulder in the Lauren Bacall manner. PROF I really dont see what you're complaining about. DAVID It's boring. PROF It's supposed to be. Mark of a well planned life: no surprises. CHEN Did you ever hear the old Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. DAVID Chen, Old Buddy, someone has to be the one to tell you: It isn't Chinese, it's from a Bogart movie. THE SAME Sarah has run head on into Leslie. LESLIE Darling, your braids are beautiful, but they must take so much time. SARAH They give me an air of authority. I find that useful. I'm a doctor. LESLIE Yes, I know, and I envy you. SARAH Working an 24 hour shift? LESLIE You have real problems, you dont have to invent imaginary ones to keep yourself interested. SARAH You are my real problem. LESLIE No, dear Heart, I am not. I am not your enemy. I think he should be courting a young girl. It's traditional. And I defer to you. SARAH I'm sure that we can go on being exquisitely polite to each other for years. But I give lousy head. LESLIE All right, forget it. David and the group watching Sarah and Leslie. DAVID I keep expecting something to happen. PROF Boredom is a splendid antidote to fear. DAVID And fear is a splendid antidote to boredom. PROF David, you are enormously irritating and the worst part of that is that I don�t think you mean to be. But, if that's what you believe then that it is what you must do. DAVID Courage is the last resort of the incompetent. Less risk, more options. CHEN These clich�s are good for nothing but working yourself into a fit. DAVID It's not a clich�, I just thought of it. CHEN Because you�re thinking in clich�s. DAVID You want to get deported? PROF But he's right. I did some academic espionage once. Another man was in danger of publishing before me. It was a simple matter of finding his day off and when his secretary went off to lunch. I took the keys out of her desk, rifled his office and was back on the street in 10 minutes. DAVID What happens if you get caught? PROF It didn't happen so, I cant say. The only thing wrong was that I didn't have a story to tell. It occurred to me that, if these things are competently planned, there's no risk. And without risk there can be no adventure. Consequently, adventure is a sign of incompetence. DAVID And having no story to tell is a mark of success? PROF Yes. Success is always simple. It's only defeat that's endlessly complicated.
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