Savage Grace (4) Some good people come from there. AZRIEL No, some good people escape from there, that’s different, and Graham wasn’t going to escape. O’JOHN Could we skip ahead a little? AZRIEL So, he sold his soul to the Devil. He thought he did. O’JOHN I’ve heard the story. AZRIEL Really? O’JOHN Even as those stories go, it doesn’t make sense. Why give him a soul just to buy it back? AZRIEL Mr. O’John, I don’t know if you’re crazy or you think I am, but she didn’t give him anything. She did a parlor trick with white butterfly and tricked him into signing away his life. O’JOHN But the way he played… AZRIEL He believed in it so it worked. O’JOHN Oh. AZRIEL She kept him broke. He paid her. He thought he had a contract with the Devil, 7 years as a superstar. Then, as the years went by, he began to look for a way to weasel out. He collected priests, witches, warlocks, astrologers, anyone who said he could get him out of it. He made a lot of funny deals with a lot of funny people, thinking he had nothing to lose. 7 years go by and, surprise, the Devil doesn’t show up. But he’s got all these funny people looking for him. O’JOHN And you’re one of the funny people looking for him. He looks over his shoulder at the secretary. He looks her up and down, leaning back over the seat to look at her legs O’JOHN (continuing) How about you, Angel Eyes? Cute boots, so glossy they look like they’d glow in the dark. (She smiles and looks embarrassed) Want to fuck? SECRETARY I’d like to, but I cant. O’JOHN Why, is it sewn up? SECRETARY It’s vulgarity like that that drives women into the arms of other women. O’JOHN Can I watch? The car comes to a screeching halt. AZRIEL You can walk the rest of the way, Mr. O’John, you can see the sign from here. O’JOHN You’re easy. She points to the sign of an Hungarian restaurant. AZRIEL So are you, I know where to find your cat. She’s on the 2nd floor. Octobrina, that is. Octobrina is on the 2nd floor. Keep in touch. He gets out of the car and walks to the corner. There’s a neon sign on the 2nd floor: Octobrina, Chiropractor and advisor. He turns on something in his shoulder bag and walks up the stairs. INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE OCTOBRINA’S APT. The waiting room looks like that of a psychiatrist’s office. He drops his bag and leans it against the leg of a chair, then OCTOBRINA comes out of the inner office. She cocks an eyebrow at him then takes his right hand in both of hers. She drops it in disgust. OCTOBRINA Gun calluses, you’re a cop. What do you want? O’JOHN You could be a fortuneteller with an act like that. OCTOBRINA I could. What do you want? O’JOHN Savage Grace. No, I don’t want to find him, I don’t think I’d live past it, but I’m being paid to ask. So, where is he? Octobrina jumps in the air and begins to scream. O’JOHN (continuing) Everyone says that. I was just leaving. He walks out down the hall, sits down on the stairs and lights a cigarette. He puts it down on the edge of the step and watches it burn. When it’s all ash, he walks back to Octobrina’s door and knocks. O’JOHN (continuing) I forgot my shoulder bag. She opens the door and flings it at him. When he is safely in a cab on 2nd Avenue, he opens his bag and takes out a min-tape recorder. It’s still recording. He stops it and presses the re-wind button, then he plays it back. There’s the sound of a phone being dialed then Octobrina’s voice OCTOBRINA (V.O.) Daddy, they know he’s alive. They’re looking for him to kill him…No I don’t know who. He cuts it off, re-winds and plays it again this time at slow speed and jacked into a small electronic device. It counts the clicks and registers the digits of the phone number in glowing green numbers. INT. O’JOHN’S OFFICE (DAY) He’s on the Net typing in the phone number he got from Octobrina. The machine says it’s the number of a psychiatrist named Denesh on West 117th Street. MEG I have to go open up the shop. O’JOHN It’s a little early for anyone to want an aphrodisiac. MEG It’s exactly the right time. Then switches on a DVD player. It shows Savage Grace doing an American Express commercial. SAVAGE GRACE No one knows my face, that’s why I always carry the American Express Card. MEG Where’d you get that? O’JOHN It’s on file. Everything’s on file. Is that his voice or did they have an actor dub him? MEG No, that’s him. And who’s that? pointing to the computer display. She was calling her psychiatrist? that’s another age, another culture. O’JOHN So is Savage Grace. He rewinds and replays the video. This time he records it. SAVAGE GRACE Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt, but this is Savage Grace. MEG What now? He looks up to see that the BAIL JUMPER GIRL from Vito’s office has walked in. Her face is still black and blue, but less swollen. GIRL I don’t mean to interrupt, but I came to turn myself in. I escaped. O’JOHN My office hours are from 11:30 to 6:00 as you can see quite clearly on the door. Come back after lunch. GIRL I had nowhere else to go. O’JOHN My advice is to get a cat. GIRL Are you alright? O’JOHN The biggest mistake you can make is coming home to an empty house. You have someone who loves you and depends on you and you begin to live your life a little differently. GIRL My God, what have they done to you? He looks at her for the 1st time and recognizes the bruises. O’JOHN Oh, yeah, I remember you. He reaches into his jeans pocket and hands her a wad of money without counting it. O’JOHN (continuing) That’s 1,500, a little less. That will get you to the Canadian border. Then just stay out of trouble. She takes the money in both hands, almost praying with it. GIRL Why are you doing this? O’JOHN It’s so damn melodramatic, almost anyone would help you. GIRL No, they wouldn’t. Why? I have to know. O’John just shrugs. GIRL (continuing) If there’s anything you want. She walks toward him with a practiced swing of her hips, but he shakes his head. GIRL (continuing) I will pray for you. O’JOHN That’s cool, but do it somewhere else. Right now, I’m busy so, if you’ll excuse me? She points to the DVD case and the name on the spine. GIRL They’re going to kill him on Friday. Savage Grace. O’JOHN Vito told you that? GIRL I heard him say it on the phone. and she leaves very quietly. MEG Find him. O’JOHN What the fuck for? MEG He’s my brother and you’re going to save his life. O’JOHN I knew there was some reason. and she slams out of the office. O’John checks his computer again for the address of Denesh. EXT. A MONSTROUS OLD PILE LIKE THE DAKOTA (DAY) O’John checks the address, has some words MOS with the DOORMAN and takes the elevator up. He finds the door. It has a polished brass plate that says Dr. Manfred Denesh PH.D. He rings the bell. DENESH Who is it? in a muffled voice without opening the door even a crack. O’JOHN stands to one side of the spy hole and starts his tape recorder. TAPE RECORDER Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt, but this is Savage Grace. DENESH throws open the door, takes one look and staggers back 10 ft. There are 2 huge black leather swivel chairs. He collapses into one of them. O’John sits down in the other. It takes a moment to realize that DENESH IS THE FAT MAN FROM HIS DREAMS, but looking much older. INT. DENESH’S APT. (MITTEL EUROPA) There’s a slick silver water decanter beside him. He pours a little into a glass and flicks a few drops into Denesh’s face. The man comes around and looks at O’John with awe. O’John smiles at him reassuringly like a Norman Rockwell doctor. O’JOHN Tell me about it? I swapped memories, remember. I don’t know shit. MOS Denesh starts talking urgently with a lot of arm waving. POV wanders around the room. There’s a rhinoceros head on the wall. It winks lewdly. SMASH CUT TO: MCU OF THE DOUBLE WINDOW OF DENESH’ LIVING ROOM The drapes are half drawn. Outside a subway train roars by full of skeletons in 16th century Spanish armor. The subway train has flaming arrows sticking out of it. SMASH CUT TO: MCU OF O’JOHN IN THE BLACK LEATHER ARMCHAIR and talking straight into the camera. O’JOHN On 2nd thought, to Hell with it. He told me nothing worth the trip. It’s like trying to explain Viet Nam. Everything’s contradicted by something else. All that ingenuity wasted The whole long twisted trail ending nowhere. I’m out of here. POV pulls back and O’John gets up to go. DENESH Let me hear your voice again, your true voice one more time. O’John takes out his mini-recorder and rewinds the tape. He presses the start button and Savage Grace says “Excuse me” one last time. Denesh runs for his desk and fumbles out his gun. O’JOHN (V.O.) The only safe place to stand was where he was aiming at. He gets it into a lopsided two-handed grip and starts blazing away. Pockmarks explode from the plaster, pictures fly from the walls, books leap from the shelves and Louis XIV figurines tip-toe across the shelf in response to the vibration. O’John walks away unconcerned. Denesh is convinced that it’s black magic and stares open mouthed as O’John exits. INT. MEG’S APT. (EARLY EVENING) Meg is wearing a frilly apron as though it were a flag and making a salad, consulting cookbooks and shredding various kinds of vegetable. She adds the dressing, tosses it and serves herself a small portion. She tastes a forkful and smirks with delight at her own cleverness. The doorbell rings and she puts down her fork to answer it. She opens the door and O’John walks in. O’JOHN Hi. and leaves her there holding the door. He walks across the room, picks up her plate of salad and begins eating it. MEG May I finish my salad? O’JOHN I thought you were done. MEG Why did you think that? O’JOHN You weren’t eating it. MEG I wasn’t eating it because I as answering the door. O’JOHN That would explain it. and he flops down on the couch that hadn’t been there the day before. MEG You’re really making yourself at home. O’JOHN I have nowhere else to go. MEG I’m beginning to understand why. O’JOHN I’m sorry. MEG There’s pasta for dinner. The sauce is home made. I added smoked oysters to give the flavor some depth. O’JOHN I said I was sorry. MEG Coffee’s on, if you want some. Jamaica Blue Mountain with some French roast to give it some guts. O’JOHN Oh, alright. He picks her up in his arms and starts to carry her into the bedroom. She grabs his ear and twists violently. He puts her down gently and walks back the length of the kitchen. He sits down at the table and looks at her. MEG You interpret everything physically, you just don’t understand. O’JOHN Tell me what’s wrong. MEG I’m sorry. She grabs a handful of silverware and begins setting the table. O’JOHN Nothing to be sorry about. I didn’t pick up on your mood. It’s my fault. Now, tell me what’s wrong. What was wrong before I came in? MEG Nothing. O’JOHN Are you pregnant? MEG (closing her eyes) Do not say another word. O’JOHN I don’t have time for this. I have to be somewhere at 8. We’ll talk later. MEG But I made dinner! O’JOHN I don’t have that kind of life. Oh, your brother swapped identities with a fireman. MEG Why? O’JOHN I don’t know, why does he do anything? I’ll talk to you later. and he exits. INT. THE GENTLEMAN LOSER (NIGHT) An upper East Side candy store full of foreign fashion magazines. The wall clock says 7:05 ARIEL and IGOR are playing a video game. ABE (the proprietor), ETHAN and O’John are watching quietly. Ethan quits and walks to the magazine rack. He starts reading the Brazilian edition of Vogue. The girl on the cover winks at O’John. A HIGH FASHION GIRL is buying a stack of foreign fashion magazines. The bill comes $146.95. She hands ABE $150. He makes a show of counting the change. The players study the transaction reverently. The girl does a few more pieces of stage business, conscious of being watched. There is a painful silence. Eli tries to turn the mood around. ELI There's this girl, she studies design at F.I.T. There's this fashion show at the end of the term, but she couldn't show her thing because the Fire Department said it was too dangerous. She designed this swimsuit with consisted of a glass Venetian blind front and back and if the model tripped and fell down, she might have killed herself. O’JOHN You need some Quaaludes. ELI What for? O’JOHN So, when you meet someone like that, you can say: Have some 'ludes? ELI (to Ethan) You want some 'ludes? Give him a Quaalude. ETHAN I dont want a Quaalude. O’JOHN I know, but will you settle for it? ETHAN NO! ELI Don’t have any, anyway. A COP walks in to buy cigarettes. Conversation stops. He looks at the players. They look at him. COP How's the sporting life? ELI You dont want to know that, you'd have to make out the forms in triplicate. COP Whadyado? Guys And Dolls in summer stock? He leaves. ETHAN See, that's what I mean. I think every city should have a few New York people with a biting comeback to every remark, reeling through the streets with these crazy ideas in their heads. I think everyplace should have a few of them. It’s an entire city full of them that I object to. ELI Shutup and read your picture book. In walks CANDY, THE CANNIBAL QUEEN. She is sucking on a popsicle in a way too obvious to describe. Her braids stick out of her head like handlebars. CANDY I'm Candy. ETHAN Yes, of course, you are. CANDY Go on, say it. ELI I dont believe this. CANDY Say it! ETHAN If I wanted to buy your love, how much would that come to? CANDY $50 ETHAN For how long? CANDY An hour. ETHAN An hour? you're going to work that long? CANDY I like to. She does things to her popsicle. Ethan passes a hand in front of his eyes. Clearly, he's feeling faint. ELI Brace up, old man, dont show the white feather in front of the natives. CANDY SAY IT! ETHAN Would you like some coke? Men like to pretend that they're not paying for it. May I give you some coke instead? ELI I dont believe this. CANDY Do you have any downs? ludes, seconal, Valium? I can do a Valium anytime. ETHAN Do we have any downs? I guess not. Ah, well, next time. CANDY You could buy my ring for $50 and then give it to me as a present. ELI Ask her if she wants an Indonesian laptop! She tugs at the ring CANDY Oh hell, it wont come off. IGOR Wait a minute, I'll give her $50, but where am I going to take her. IGOR Take her to that motel in Queens they're always advertising over RVR. ABE Naw, take her to the one in Jersey just off the turnpike. Candy is grinning good naturedly. ELI No, take her to the Hilton and use a phony credit card. ETHAN Take her into the men's room at the Silver Star. ELI Take her to my place, I charge you a tenski for an hour. ABE Take her into the phone booth for chrissake. Igor and Candy wad themselves into the phone booth and, after several tries, manage to close the door. Igor starts whining and screaming and mumbling. He starts shouting her name and the name of God and then collapses into gasps and sobs. ELI I suppose that means he's out of the next game. O’John reaches into his pocket for his cigarettes. He comes out with the invitation that he took from Rozzo’s apartment. He stares at it. Obviously it takes him a moment to remember what it. He jams it back in his pocket and walks out fast. ELI (continuing) Don’t take it all so personal, you’ll drive yourself crazy. O’JOHN I have to be somewhere at 8. INT> WHITNEY MUSEUM (NIGHT) There is an exhibit by Duane Hansen on the 3rd floor. These are life like sculptures done mostly in acrylics. The statues are meticulously detailed even to body hair and skin grain. And the models are not idealized so that it takes a while to realize that they're not alive. At the entrance there's A GUARD standing in an authoritative pose, the butt of his .357 magnum leaning out of the holster at you. In front of him is A WALL PAINTER with powerful forearms and a potbelly wearing spattered overalls and standing on a paint spotted canvas. He's holding a large paint roller but has stopped in mid-gesture to stare pensively into space. POV turns to show a PUERTO RICAN WAITRESS with a mole on her cheek the size of a ping-pong ball. She's wearing a pink uniform and she leans to one side poised in a psychotic stance. She's very out of place and on closer inspection turns out to be one of the statues. So are the guard and painter. The set up of the museum is such that you take the elevator to the exhibits on the 3rd floor and then walk down to the permanent exhibits on the 2nd. POV follows A COUPLE on their tour, around the exhibit and down the stairs. On the mid-floor landing is A SEEDY OLD MAN lying on his back with his features clenched in the rictus of angina. His face is purple. He obviously had a severe heart attack and is close to death. The couple we have been following pause for a moment undecided what to do. WOMAN We've got to do something. MAN We cant get involved in this. Dont let it ruin your evening. WOMAN I suppose by the time the ambulance got here.. MAN We have to get out of here, we might be called as witnesses. They scamper away without noticing the TV cameras hanging from the ceiling. INT> WHITNEY MUSEUM 2ND FLOOR A SMALL CROWD is watching the previous scene on a larger TV set and giggling. It seems it was a set up. The seedy old man is a statue too. INT> 3RD FLOOR O’John comes out of the elevator and talks to the guard. O’JOHN Excuse me, but can you tell me what time the museum closes. Excuse me! SOME PASSERSBY giggle. He touches the guard on the arm and discovers that it's a statue. He looks around casually, but it's a typical museum crowd. He unstraps the guard’s holster and lifts out the .357 magnum. It’s the right weight and it takes careful inspection to see that it’s a plastic toy. On impulse, he takes his own magnum out of the shoulder holster and switches guns with the guard Then the other elevator opens and a Denesh enters with Rozzo, Octobrina and several familiar faces. O’John sees them first. He turns, striking a pose, gawking like a tourist at a blank wall. They take him for 1 of the statues and pass without looking closely. O’John waits until he's turned a corner and is about to follow when the other elevator disgorges a 2nd group. They march together as though they were on a guided tour. They’re all unsmiling except for a 20ish FASHION MODEL GIRL laughing delightedly at what she sees. A REAL GUARD thinks they look suspicious and follows them slowly. The guard turns a corner and passes the model girl impaled on an asagai, the short stabbing spear of the ZULUS. Unlike the .357 the spear is real. He takes the woman and the spear for one more exhibit. He looks distracted. There is the faint, steady sound of dripping water. He looks at the floor and sees that the woman is dripping blood. He puts his fingers into it and tastes it. It's blood alright. He falls over with a convulsive heart attack then lays very still. TOURISTS pass by. They take him and the model for statues. TOURIST 1 I like it. TOURIST 2 Well, it is only clever exhibit here. CU TV SET showing ROBERT HUGHES doing an episode of the TV series THE SHOCK OF THE NEW. ROBERT HUGHES Surrealism was not primarily an artistic movement. It was a spirit of revolt that chose art as its instrument. It no longer inhabits art and it may never again, but one day a poltergeist is throwing dishes in the kitchen, the next it shows up in the hall and its very orneriness and perversity are a kind of innocence and, for that reason, a declaration of freedom and of hope. SUSAN SONTAG Are you trying to justify these murders on the grounds of Surrealism? ROBERT HUGHES Au contraire, mon frere, I’m saying that Surrealism isn’t art either. SUSAN SONTAG Then what is it? She catches a gigantic lemon meringue pie full in the face. Back to the guard and the model. O’John turns the corner, takes one
Copyright © 2001 Angel Obregon |