I intended to make a film, Anne Among The Living. I worked on it for a year and a half. We were very advanced in preproduction with many people involved, but the money could not be raised. The funders found it too experimental, too ambitious and risky.
Anne Among The Living -a diagnosis
(The Experience of Anne)
BLACK SCREEN:
VOICE OF ANNE Don’t worry. No one will know how you made love to me. Only me.
FADE IN:
INT. Husband’s mother room - DAY A frail, elderly Lady (82) is laying on her deathbed alone. Door opens and a man comes in. He is around fourty years old, broad-shouldered. We don’t see his face clearly. He wears khaki pants and a blue shirt tucked in. It’s her son, MACIEJ. MOTHER awakes and recognises him, smiles and reaches out her arms. He goes to her, sits down, puts his arms around her and his head on her chest and weeps. She puts her hand on his head and strokes his hair.
EXT. City Streets - DAY ANNE (28), German is out exploring the city. It will be her new hometown for some time. She is Maciej’s wife. They just arrived in Poland. She walks through the streets eagerly with her photo camera.
INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY Anne enters a super market to get a few things. As she is choosing which bread to take, a middle-aged WOMAN in a big fur coat, comes up to her, very close.
WOMAN You know what, you are really really ugly.
Anne is shocked and just looks to the floor and pretends nothing has happened, looks around to see if anybody else heard it. She looks at the woman, who just keeps staring at her. Anne walks away. She quickly gets a few more items, goes to the register to pay, still feeling the gaze of the woman and still shocked with the approach.
EXT. STREET/BUS STOP - DAY Anne rapidly leaves the super market and jumps on a bus that stops near by.
EXT. WOODS - DAWN Anne is running in the woods, a big house behind her. 4-5 people are chasing her. She runs like she is running for her life. It is a birch tree forest and we get a sense of the many trees she passes, shaping an abstract pattern as she runs. Sound abstract rather than real.
INT. STAIRCASE - DAY Anne, Maciej and their son – PIOTR (2) are coming back to their flat, moving some stuff in, walking up the long staircase. The camera goes up vertically in a straight calm line, as they move up the stairs, talking noisily and all seems nice. Piotr is full of energy, loud and excited. They all seem excited. As they approach their flat, the door next door opens slightly ajar. Anne sees a pair of eyes looking at her.
VOICE OF THE TALL MAN: I met her a few years back. It was a bright sunny day, and she was sitting alone in the park. I remember looking at her from a distance and how her shoulder-length hair would brush up against her soft pale neck in the wind. I walked up to her and put my hand on her shoulder and talked to her. I whispered in her ear. It was a great moment. I remember she smiled at me, and I smiled back and something happened. I knew she felt it, and I knew that I could help her, if only she would let me. And she did. I became her friend, and she knew she could lean on me always, and when she needed me, I would be there for her. God, I needed a friend too.
INT. DARKROOM – DAY In the dark room, arranged in a small room in the flat, Anne is developing images of her flat, her husband, her son. We see the images and the silhouette of her. She studies carefully the images she has made.
INT. FLAT - DAY Anne walks out of the darkroom into the flat and we see the flat as it is. Anne and Maciej are organising the flat, cleaning, hanging lamps and unpacking.
EXT. COURTYARD - DAY Anne takes out the trash. She notices a man with a dog. The man bends down to the ground on his knees and crawls around as if looking for something. As Anne approaches, she realises the man is blind and that he is looking for the dog’s shit, so he can pick it up with a plastic bag. Anne stands looking at him for a while, the man not noticing her presence, and the black dog running freely around. She bends down and takes the man’s hand and guides him to the shit. The man “looks” up at Anne, and “looks” at her gratefully. Anne walks back. She bumps into a very tall man who brushes up against her. She looks back over her shoulder at him as he walks away in his long heavy coat. He looks back and smiles at her. She smiles back.
INT. STAIRCASE - DAY Anne enters the staircase, and the door slams behind her, a gust of wind whirls through from the slam of the door and it violently sets her hair and clothes in motion as she is standing still with her hand on the railing feeling the wind move through her.
MONTAGE SEQUENCE:
Anne is preparing dinner in the kitchen. She has a small TV she watches while cooking. She is watching this programme on mass cover ups about alien war. We hear the American narrator’s voice. Close ups of the TV screen, the black and white abstractions are intercut with Anne’s gaze, her looking out the window, the chopping of vegetables, her eyes. Then we see close up of the tall mans eyes watching the same programme. We get a vague sense of his space, his flat.
The tone here is light and comical and pensive as if everybody listens to the outrageous theories and contemplates and wonders, but in a very caricaturist way.
INT. KITCHEN - DAY Anne, Maciej and Piotr sit down to eat, tone still light. They are discussing Maciej’s Mother and her illness. He is emotionally distraught about it and feels like Anne does not understand. She is preoccupied with her images and photographs. Piotr is eating with full appetite and seems to be entertaining himself. Anne mentions that she would like to go out tomorrow exploring and go and see his mother. ANNE I feel like I know her, although I don’t
ANNE’S MONOLOGUE SEQUENCE:
INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT
Anne quite close, is talking (at times the monologue will turn to voice over). We see her eyes, we hear the sound of splashing water. The image is steamy and the camera moves around in her face. Close-ups of the mirror reflection of her. Her eyes gazing into the camera - into the mirror, in a way.
ANNE (Clearing her throat) Ahm, and when I, we touched each other the first time, it was as if we were reaching through, like we had always touched each other, but this was the first time, it was happening in this physical world. It was just this thing that had been waiting to happen for such a long time. It overpowered me so strongly that I did not know how to handle that, deal with that or think about it or…continue it. I didn’t know how to continue it. I didn’t know how to take it further.
INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT Husband is cleaning up and moving about.
ANNE (cont’d) I didn’t know how to…aaah…ppphhh…move it into the next day, you know…Monday Tuesday, Wednesday. I didn’t, I couldn’t translate it into everydayness. I did not know how. Ehm..That scared the shit out of me. When I looked into your eyes, kind of the first time I really talked to you, I saw something so beautiful, and I saw everything. Everything all at once.
Close ups of the husband’s eyes peering at the TV – packing away dinner, gazing at Anne in the bathroom.
ANNE (cont’d) Like time and space all became now…and…(clearing her throat again and coughing some)…. and then I tried to look further. And I knew I could not see it all. Some voice was saying, there is no way you can see it all, so just let go. So I decided to let go.
INT. MOTHER’S ROOM - NIGHT
Mother, on her deathbed is also looking at the TV, her side turned, she looks fairly lucid as if she is almost listening to Anne talking or watching her talk.
ANNE (cont’d) But I already knew… the second time I looked. What I saw really scared me even more. Because I saw…that from now on we could only destroy each other, because it was so…big…and powerful. That neither of us would be able to deal with it. We would only be able to kill it from now on, more and more each day. It was just that very moment that was our whole life. Everything that came before or came after didn’t matter. I realised this, I knew this.
INT. KITCHEN/ LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The husband finds a piece of cake in the fridge, takes it out of its wrapping. It is a luscious layered cream cake, couple of days old. He finds a bottle of red wine, opens it and drinks a glass quickly. We see the red liquid being gulped down. At the same time, he is seemingly enjoying the cake and eats rapidly, while just moving about in the kitchen/living room, gazing out the window. After quickly eating the cake, he lights a cigarette, opens the door to the balcony and the wind blows open the curtains… He smokes the cigarette standing half-inside, half out on the balcony.
ANNE (cont’d) And it made me so sad… like full of sorrow...(sobbing)… full of sorrow…
Close up of tears strolling down Anne’s face.
ANNE (cont’d) Of not being able to hold on to anything. Only being able to feel for a moment (still sobbing) as if life was just falling through my hands like grains of sand. Like I was just losing and losing and losing everything. Time. I felt time. I felt death. I looked into your eyes and I saw death and I saw destruction and I saw evil…
Close up of Tall Man’s eyes looking wide open, alert and sad. INT. STAIRCASE/FLAT/BATHROOM - NIGHT Slowly and steadily, the camera moves up the staircase, as if it was a POV of someone’s walking up the stairs. The camera moves all the way up, enters the flat, moves around, as if having its own presence. It watches Anne, as she is bend over Piotr in the bathtub. It observes the husband at the open door.
ANNE (cont’d) That was what was on my mind. That was why I couldn’t…. that’s why I couldn’t be normal with you the day after. That’s why I could not just chitchat about the weather, a book, our family… god knows what…It didn’t matter. It just didn’t fucking matter. It was already gone. We weren’t listening anymore.
Sniffling silence for a while.
The camera moves back to the bathroom, slowly revealing that Anne is giving Piotr a bath. The happy boy is enjoying the bath. Now, the monologue functions as a voice-over, rather than Anne talking. The voice goes deeper and stronger.
ANNE (cont’d) The first night I spent at your place. I was sitting in the window. It was a very windy morning. And I remember just staring into the trees, looking at the wind in the trees. It was so strong. At the same time, I could not hear the wind. I could only see it…
The husband is still standing in the wind from the open balcony door, smoking and gazing out into the night, the wind softly touching his face.
Anne and Piotr are splashing with the water and having fun and laughing in the bathroom.
ANNE (cont’d) Aaah… (Finish sobbing) I know I am emotional…dramatic…. right now, maybe…its just another, another one of those meetings…maybe it was all in my head. There is a good chance that that might be the case. You just wanted to sleep with me and see what it was like. You did and… ppphh… maybe it disappointed you a little bit. That, I don’t know…it wasn’t what you imagined…
Anne and Piotr start making funny faces in the mirror facing the bath tub. Anne draws funny faces on the steamy glass and Piotr is enjoying the moment and also catches a glimpse of his own mirror image in the mirror. They continuously make funny faces.
ANNE (cont’d) And then…yeah…that was it…that was it…out the door…moving on…moving on…honestly I don’t know if you are beautiful or what it is I see. I don’t know who you are. I don’t love you. I don’t want you. I don’t need you. I don’t see you at all. There was a life before you and there will be one after.
Smoke from Maciej’s cigarette is blown out of his mouth and into the night of the open door. Maciej looks at the smoke leaving him, enjoying the moment.
Throughout the monologue, we realise that she is giving Piotr a bath. When she is finished talking, it is as if she comes out of character and as if she was rehearsing for a play.
Maciej is keeping an eye on Annne and Piotr from the living room and enjoying their togetherness. He makes comments once in a while and is somehow part of it. The light from the bathroom is warm and cosy and the steam fills the cold flat with warmth.
EXT. VIEW FROM THE COURTYARD TO THE FLAT - NIGHT Outside visuals, we see the light coming from the bedroom window. The wind blows in the street, we feel the contrast of the cold outside with the warm, coloured insides.
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Anne in front of the mirror brushing her hair. Maciej tells Anne the story about how when he was a child his mother told him that if he stared long enough into the mirror the devil would appear. And that he used to do that all the time and wait and wait for him to appear and then he would, and he would run to his mother.
MACIEJ I stared for hours and hours, waiting and waiting and then, he’d come. And I would run to my mother eyes glowing, ‘I saw him, I saw him, I saw the devil!’ She’d laugh. ‘Boruta!!!’
INT – UNIVERSITY - DAY Maciej is giving a lecture at university on some archaeological subject in front of a big crowd of students. Anne is coming in at the back. She has Piotr with her. She is smiling, and Maciej smiles back, although a little apprehensive.
She comes to sit at the front, Maciej is a little distracted. We see them exchanging glances as if he knows she is trying to be supportive, and she shows him that she is being supportive by sending him encouraging signal. She appears slightly manic.
Piotr on her lap being very hyper, also affected by his mothers energy.
The husband goes on with the lecture talking a little on the subject. As he talks, we start to hear Anne making a low monotone humming sound as he talks. Every time he stops, she stops. This increases and we see the husband getting more and more frustrated and Anne just looking innocently around, as if not understanding what’s going on. He sends her a very angry look and she stops doing it, looks down in embarrassment and leaves.
INT. Tall Man’s flat - DAY Tall Man is pacing again and again up and down the room. He goes to the wall, puts his head against the wall to listen. We hear faint sounds from the bedroom on the other side. Muted sounds. This muted sound continues into the next scene.
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Anne and Maciej are having sex.
Muted sound gradually goes into normal-real sound.
They are making love and she has to stop him, because it hurts her. It becomes clear that she is not enjoying it, but she is trying all she can to enjoy it. In the end, she starts to cry, and she has to stop. She cannot enjoy it despite the attempt.
CUT TO: Outside view of bedroom window for a brief moment.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
Suddenly Anne’s voice changes.
ANNE The Tall man is in the closet, the Tall man is in the closet.
MACIEJ What are you talking about?
Maciej is half laughing and half frightened. He gazes towards the closet, the wardrobe. She looks up into the ceiling but points to the closet.
ANNE The Tall man is in the closet.
Maciej slaps Anne across the face in confusion, her body all stiffened, she has a smile on her face. Her eyes look vivid. He gets panicky. Goes to the wardrobe and starts emptying it out, as if looking for signs of “the tall man”.
While he is in the frame, we see a tall shadow passing by.
It is barely noticeable. He turns around. Anne is sitting up looking at him compassionately.
ANNE What on earth are you doing, have you lost your mind?
He looks around the room.
MACIEJ Something weird is happening. Something is going on with you.
INT. Mother’s room - NIGHT Anne, wearing the very red lipstick, walks in to the Mother’s room with a tray of food. Some soup. Sits quietly down. The mother is quite lucid. They smile gently at each other. There is a nice calm atmosphere in the room, peaceful. Anne looks peaceful. She starts giving her the soup spoonful by spoonful. They look at each other, as If studying one another. Again very smiling. Anne starts to sing a song quietly – the mother joins in… Lyrics: (Anne) She lost her way Coming home Now she is astray Not coming home
My God its cold The devil is on to me
(Mother) She made a friend Coming home Now she is a bend In the road
(Visuals again of the blind man looking for the shit of his dog…)
(Both together) My God, its cold Release your hold The devil is on to me
(Image cuts to the husband and Piotr in the flat at home – they sing along too. (Piotr is humming))
My God its cold Sped into old Its been foretold The devil is on to me The devil is on to me
INT. living room - DAY Maciej and Piotr are waiting for Anne to come home; Maciej is gazing out the window. He is briefly on the phone. He is stressed out. Suddenly he sees Anne coming out of a car with the Tall Man. They laugh and The Tall Man is elegantly opening the car door for her and escorting her into the building. Maciej does not know what to do with himself and goes to put on some dramatic music and cut some vegetables. He is angry and confronts Anne with this anger.
MACIEJ Who was this man? Where have you been? Poland is not England, Anne… It is unpredictable here!
ANNE What are you talking about? What man? I was feeling dizzy. You know how I sometimes gets these dizzy spells, and suddenly someone was there helping me.
MACIEJ You could have called me.
ANNE Well I was not feeling well and could not think… I found this old lamp shop. The light was so beautiful and I went in there, but somehow I started to feel dizzy…
MACIEJ
Do you consider ME, and the pain I am going through…did you ever for one second stop to think of anybody but yourself and your endless photographs?!
ANNE You, you, you and your old rotting mother…boohoo…life is tough…oh my, my mother is dying, like ALL people do at some point. Lets turn out lives completely upside down, not care about anybody but my own pain and loss. Poor me, poor little me, and you talk about care…You don’t even know what that means.
Anne sexually flirts in her contempt and we see the Maciej’s frustration and anger, he slaps her, and he graps her and touches her up, she laughs at him.
CUT TO: Visuals of the corridor outside the bedroom, we hear some violent commotion and we hear the husband crying, sobbing.
CUT TO:
INT. living room - DAY Maciej is surprised with Anne’s change of tone and expression. Anne goes into a strange seizure-like mode and moves her body in a strange way. She collapses to the floor, and the husband’s anger turns into fright and worry. He kneels to the ground, grabs Anne and holds her, hugs her. She slowly comes back into consciousness.
ANNE Who is he?
They sit on the floor for a moment hugging each other. The camera moves further and further away and makes their entwined bodies look like a rocking sculpture placed carefully in the room.
ANNE Who is he?
MACIEJ I love you. I love you Anne. I love you.
He keeps repeating it to her and to himself.
INT. Bedroom-darkroom – NIGHT. It’s late in the evening. Anne and Piotr are sleeping. Maciej goes to look in the dark room to see what Anne is working on. He sees pictures of the flat, himself, Piotr and the lamp shop interiors that Anne mentioned earlier, abstractions of light.
While he is contemplating, we start to hear a banging very loud sound coming from next door.
The sound is consistent and disturbing. The husband starts to get agitated. Piotr wakes from the sound starts crying. He goes to pick up Piotr. Anne seems to sleep right through it.
CUT TO: Mother is sitting up in her bed, looking alert.
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRCASE – NIGHT With Piotr on his arm, Maciej goes to knock on the neighbour - Tall Man’s door. There is no answer. He tries to peak through the keyhole but can see nothing. Then he tries to look through the crack under the door and manages to see a little, glimpses of a dimly lit flat. The sound is consistent. Maciej puts Piotr down on the floor. Piotr is quietly observing his fathers actions. Maciej is desperate to find out, what is going on and keeps pounding on the door frantically and trying to see. Very suddenly Anne appears from the back.
ANNE What the fuck are you doing?
She looks cold, disgusted and angry with his behaviour and him crawling around on the floor. Anne has in the meantime picked up Piotr from the stone cold floor and is holding him close.
Maciej is so startled that he falls back, loses his balance, when she appears.
The sound has stopped.
Anne leaves with Piotr. The husband remains sitting on the floor baffled.
INT/EXT. Living room/balcony - NIGHT Anne goes to the living room, sits with Piotr in her lap, switch on the TV and watches. The husband goes to the balcony to smoke a cigarette. He is exhausted, stands in the dark and watches Anne in the light from the TV, through the window as he smokes.
He realises there is someone standing on the other balcony in the dark. His face, his eyes express fright.
Black out.
CUT TO: Anne’s POV, Maciej returns from the balcony with a changed look on his face. He looks briefly at Anne, then goes off to bed.
INT. Corridor-bedroom - NIGHT Form the corridor, the camera slowly moves closer to the bedroom, and we see a glimpse of a naked Anne sitting on the bed, with the husband in her lap, him sobbing and her stroking his hair. She looks into the room with an empty expression.
CUT TO: Close-up of Anne staring into the broken mirror, the figure of the sobbing husband in the background on the floor, no sound. Anne looks expressionless and starts combing her hair.
EXT. courtyard - DAY Morning comes. The blind man is walking his dog again. This time, he is just sitting on a bench, while the dog is running around. It is a nice bright morning, flocks of birds hovering above.
INT. bedroom - DAY Maciej wakes up in the bed in the morning next to Anne, who is sleeping. He crawls underneath the duvet and lies for a while studying her sleeping…then he moves closer to her and holds her. The image and sound is very muffled and intimate, many close ups. The camera is under the covers.
We hear a child’s footsteps. Suddenly Piotr comes crawling through the covers too.
Maciej wonders where he came from and gets up to figure out what is going on and how he got there. He comes to no conclusion and goes to the kitchen with Piotr to put on some coffee.
The phone rings – its from the nursing home. They want him to come.
INT. mother’s room - DAY Quiet nursing room. Maciej is sitting on her left and an old, frail, thin body of his mother is lying on the bed. He is holding her hand. He is talking to her.
During the session, he undresses her and starts washing her carefully, she stares emptily into the ceiling. It is impossible to determine whether she is aware or not, uncomfortable or not with the situation. It is a tender moment.
MOTHER Oh I am scared, because I have to walk through the woods to get home.
Maciej is asking her about her knowledge of the Tall Man and the neighbour. Waiting and hoping for a response.
MOTHER Be careful with this one son.
CUT TO: Small vignette sequence: stills from the flat, pictures that Anne took, Piotr alone in the flat at twilight, running around exploring. A very quiet moment.
CUT TO:
INT. TALL MAN’S FLAT - NIGHT Music, Tall Man and Anne in a dance, he lets her head fall backwards and he is holding her in a dance pose. His figure looks like a shadow of an animal bending over his prey, devouring it, and she is letting it happen. The TV is running behind them muted. He turns his face to the camera and says.
TALL MAN Anne begins to disappear sometimes. She comes to see me. We spend hours and hours together. We hang out, as they say. She trusts me and she tells me about her fears, dreams and doubts. I think she is looking happier and a smile is starting to appear on her face.
INT. restaurant - NIGHT Anne and her husband at dinner in a very upper class restaurant. They are sitting at a round table with two of the husband’s professor colleagues. They are discussing the husband’s future career at the university and subjects of archaeology. Anne is dressed up in a white dress, her black hair falling beautifully on her shoulders. She is sitting very upright and being very polite.
At first she is charming the professors, but then slowly as the dinner progresses, Anne starts to behave strangely. She starts to spill some food first, just slightly, apologising for her behaviour. Suddenly she eats the contents of the ashtray and pretends nothing has happened. Then we see her smearing the food on her face instead of hitting her mouth. It gets increasingly worse and she looses it completely. The two professor colleagues look at her in shock, wonder and embarrassment. The husband looks at her in anger and embarrassment. The scene culminates and is cut at its culmination.
INT. kitchen - NIGHT Anne and her husband at home, sitting at the kitchen table. She is looking down to the floor. He is looking at her. He looks angry. This is a prolonged moment of silence, where nothing is said.
INT. bedroom - DAWN The husband asleep, Anne awake, seen from the ceiling. She is looking at him. The first rays of light come through the window.
INT. piotr’s room - DAWN Anne standing looking at piotr for a while. He is asleep.
INT. staircase - DAWN Anne on the stairs going down – intercut with her walking up.
INT. staircase - DAWN
The door to the next door flat opens, as we see Anne going outside looking up and taking a deep breath.
INT. Mother’s room - DAY Anne walks in. Mother gets upset, when she sees her. Anne smiles mildly at her.
Mother is letting go into death – abstract imagery.
LETTING GO SEQUENCE:
EXT. FOREST - DAWN
ANNE (V.O.) All my life, I have had dreams that I have done something horrible. Really horrible. I have the memory of knowing and I feel also the qualities of the horror on my body, but I do not remember the acts themselves. Sometimes I see the remains of my acts, and I know I did it. I carry a mark of guilt, and even though nobody would expect these sides to my personality I always know that eventually my guilt will reveal me, sooner or later. And I dread the humiliation and the revelation. Oh, the horrors I have seen.
Anne’s followers finally have caught up with her. It is a violent moment, where these 5-6 people have to restrain her, and she is kicking and screaming like a wild animal. A close up of her face letting go and accepting she is caught. CUT TO: Camera moves through the hallway up the stairs and into the flat around and into the flat. A phone call – the husband awakes alone in the flat.
VOICE ON THE PHONE Your mother has passed away.
MACIEJ Thank you.
He hangs up.
We see the shade of Maciej singing a song…. fade into credits.
The husband’s song:
“I met a girl, we shared a night, a night of passion. Her head’s not right, But she survived among the living.
What the hell are you doing? I’m asking you. What the hell are you doing? It’s not right.
I felt her touch, A special feel A dream, a nightmare This girl is hurt, But she survived Among the living
What the hell are you doing? I’m asking you. What the hell are you doing? It’s not right.
She touches me I look at her, I feel her pain, I feel her fear It isn’t fair what you have done. Is that your way? Is that your point? You’re so unfair And power mad. You’re doing this only because you can. I’m telling you to let her go
What the hell are you doing? I’m asking you What the hell are you doing? It’s not right. What the hell are you doing? Let her go. What the hell are you doing? It’s not right.
I intended to make a film, Anne Among The Living. I worked on it for a year and a half. We were very advanced in preproduction with many people involved, but the money could not be raised. The funders found it too experimental, too ambitious and risky.
Anne Among The Living -a diagnosis
(The Experience of Anne)
BLACK SCREEN:
VOICE OF ANNE Don’t worry. No one will know how you made love to me. Only me.
FADE IN:
INT. Husband’s mother room - DAY A frail, elderly Lady (82) is laying on her deathbed alone. Door opens and a man comes in. He is around fourty years old, broad-shouldered. We don’t see his face clearly. He wears khaki pants and a blue shirt tucked in. It’s her son, MACIEJ. MOTHER awakes and recognises him, smiles and reaches out her arms. He goes to her, sits down, puts his arms around her and his head on her chest and weeps. She puts her hand on his head and strokes his hair.
EXT. City Streets - DAY ANNE (28), German is out exploring the city. It will be her new hometown for some time. She is Maciej’s wife. They just arrived in Poland. She walks through the streets eagerly with her photo camera.
INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY Anne enters a super market to get a few things. As she is choosing which bread to take, a middle-aged WOMAN in a big fur coat, comes up to her, very close.
WOMAN You know what, you are really really ugly.
Anne is shocked and just looks to the floor and pretends nothing has happened, looks around to see if anybody else heard it. She looks at the woman, who just keeps staring at her. Anne walks away. She quickly gets a few more items, goes to the register to pay, still feeling the gaze of the woman and still shocked with the approach.
EXT. STREET/BUS STOP - DAY Anne rapidly leaves the super market and jumps on a bus that stops near by.
EXT. WOODS - DAWN Anne is running in the woods, a big house behind her. 4-5 people are chasing her. She runs like she is running for her life. It is a birch tree forest and we get a sense of the many trees she passes, shaping an abstract pattern as she runs. Sound abstract rather than real.
INT. STAIRCASE - DAY Anne, Maciej and their son – PIOTR (2) are coming back to their flat, moving some stuff in, walking up the long staircase. The camera goes up vertically in a straight calm line, as they move up the stairs, talking noisily and all seems nice. Piotr is full of energy, loud and excited. They all seem excited. As they approach their flat, the door next door opens slightly ajar. Anne sees a pair of eyes looking at her.
VOICE OF THE TALL MAN: I met her a few years back. It was a bright sunny day, and she was sitting alone in the park. I remember looking at her from a distance and how her shoulder-length hair would brush up against her soft pale neck in the wind. I walked up to her and put my hand on her shoulder and talked to her. I whispered in her ear. It was a great moment. I remember she smiled at me, and I smiled back and something happened. I knew she felt it, and I knew that I could help her, if only she would let me. And she did. I became her friend, and she knew she could lean on me always, and when she needed me, I would be there for her. God, I needed a friend too.
INT. DARKROOM – DAY In the dark room, arranged in a small room in the flat, Anne is developing images of her flat, her husband, her son. We see the images and the silhouette of her. She studies carefully the images she has made.
INT. FLAT - DAY Anne walks out of the darkroom into the flat and we see the flat as it is. Anne and Maciej are organising the flat, cleaning, hanging lamps and unpacking.
EXT. COURTYARD - DAY Anne takes out the trash. She notices a man with a dog. The man bends down to the ground on his knees and crawls around as if looking for something. As Anne approaches, she realises the man is blind and that he is looking for the dog’s shit, so he can pick it up with a plastic bag. Anne stands looking at him for a while, the man not noticing her presence, and the black dog running freely around. She bends down and takes the man’s hand and guides him to the shit. The man “looks” up at Anne, and “looks” at her gratefully. Anne walks back. She bumps into a very tall man who brushes up against her. She looks back over her shoulder at him as he walks away in his long heavy coat. He looks back and smiles at her. She smiles back.
INT. STAIRCASE - DAY Anne enters the staircase, and the door slams behind her, a gust of wind whirls through from the slam of the door and it violently sets her hair and clothes in motion as she is standing still with her hand on the railing feeling the wind move through her.
MONTAGE SEQUENCE:
Anne is preparing dinner in the kitchen. She has a small TV she watches while cooking. She is watching this programme on mass cover ups about alien war. We hear the American narrator’s voice. Close ups of the TV screen, the black and white abstractions are intercut with Anne’s gaze, her looking out the window, the chopping of vegetables, her eyes. Then we see close up of the tall mans eyes watching the same programme. We get a vague sense of his space, his flat.
The tone here is light and comical and pensive as if everybody listens to the outrageous theories and contemplates and wonders, but in a very caricaturist way.
INT. KITCHEN - DAY Anne, Maciej and Piotr sit down to eat, tone still light. They are discussing Maciej’s Mother and her illness. He is emotionally distraught about it and feels like Anne does not understand. She is preoccupied with her images and photographs. Piotr is eating with full appetite and seems to be entertaining himself. Anne mentions that she would like to go out tomorrow exploring and go and see his mother. ANNE I feel like I know her, although I don’t
ANNE’S MONOLOGUE SEQUENCE:
INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT
Anne quite close, is talking (at times the monologue will turn to voice over). We see her eyes, we hear the sound of splashing water. The image is steamy and the camera moves around in her face. Close-ups of the mirror reflection of her. Her eyes gazing into the camera - into the mirror, in a way.
ANNE (Clearing her throat) Ahm, and when I, we touched each other the first time, it was as if we were reaching through, like we had always touched each other, but this was the first time, it was happening in this physical world. It was just this thing that had been waiting to happen for such a long time. It overpowered me so strongly that I did not know how to handle that, deal with that or think about it or…continue it. I didn’t know how to continue it. I didn’t know how to take it further.
INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT Husband is cleaning up and moving about.
ANNE (cont’d) I didn’t know how to…aaah…ppphhh…move it into the next day, you know…Monday Tuesday, Wednesday. I didn’t, I couldn’t translate it into everydayness. I did not know how. Ehm..That scared the shit out of me. When I looked into your eyes, kind of the first time I really talked to you, I saw something so beautiful, and I saw everything. Everything all at once.
Close ups of the husband’s eyes peering at the TV – packing away dinner, gazing at Anne in the bathroom.
ANNE (cont’d) Like time and space all became now…and…(clearing her throat again and coughing some)…. and then I tried to look further. And I knew I could not see it all. Some voice was saying, there is no way you can see it all, so just let go. So I decided to let go.
INT. MOTHER’S ROOM - NIGHT
Mother, on her deathbed is also looking at the TV, her side turned, she looks fairly lucid as if she is almost listening to Anne talking or watching her talk.
ANNE (cont’d) But I already knew… the second time I looked. What I saw really scared me even more. Because I saw…that from now on we could only destroy each other, because it was so…big…and powerful. That neither of us would be able to deal with it. We would only be able to kill it from now on, more and more each day. It was just that very moment that was our whole life. Everything that came before or came after didn’t matter. I realised this, I knew this.
INT. KITCHEN/ LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The husband finds a piece of cake in the fridge, takes it out of its wrapping. It is a luscious layered cream cake, couple of days old. He finds a bottle of red wine, opens it and drinks a glass quickly. We see the red liquid being gulped down. At the same time, he is seemingly enjoying the cake and eats rapidly, while just moving about in the kitchen/living room, gazing out the window. After quickly eating the cake, he lights a cigarette, opens the door to the balcony and the wind blows open the curtains… He smokes the cigarette standing half-inside, half out on the balcony.
ANNE (cont’d) And it made me so sad… like full of sorrow...(sobbing)… full of sorrow…
Close up of tears strolling down Anne’s face.
ANNE (cont’d) Of not being able to hold on to anything. Only being able to feel for a moment (still sobbing) as if life was just falling through my hands like grains of sand. Like I was just losing and losing and losing everything. Time. I felt time. I felt death. I looked into your eyes and I saw death and I saw destruction and I saw evil…
Close up of Tall Man’s eyes looking wide open, alert and sad. INT. STAIRCASE/FLAT/BATHROOM - NIGHT Slowly and steadily, the camera moves up the staircase, as if it was a POV of someone’s walking up the stairs. The camera moves all the way up, enters the flat, moves around, as if having its own presence. It watches Anne, as she is bend over Piotr in the bathtub. It observes the husband at the open door.
ANNE (cont’d) That was what was on my mind. That was why I couldn’t…. that’s why I couldn’t be normal with you the day after. That’s why I could not just chitchat about the weather, a book, our family… god knows what…It didn’t matter. It just didn’t fucking matter. It was already gone. We weren’t listening anymore.
Sniffling silence for a while.
The camera moves back to the bathroom, slowly revealing that Anne is giving Piotr a bath. The happy boy is enjoying the bath. Now, the monologue functions as a voice-over, rather than Anne talking. The voice goes deeper and stronger.
ANNE (cont’d) The first night I spent at your place. I was sitting in the window. It was a very windy morning. And I remember just staring into the trees, looking at the wind in the trees. It was so strong. At the same time, I could not hear the wind. I could only see it…
The husband is still standing in the wind from the open balcony door, smoking and gazing out into the night, the wind softly touching his face.
Anne and Piotr are splashing with the water and having fun and laughing in the bathroom.
ANNE (cont’d) Aaah… (Finish sobbing) I know I am emotional…dramatic…. right now, maybe…its just another, another one of those meetings…maybe it was all in my head. There is a good chance that that might be the case. You just wanted to sleep with me and see what it was like. You did and… ppphh… maybe it disappointed you a little bit. That, I don’t know…it wasn’t what you imagined…
Anne and Piotr start making funny faces in the mirror facing the bath tub. Anne draws funny faces on the steamy glass and Piotr is enjoying the moment and also catches a glimpse of his own mirror image in the mirror. They continuously make funny faces.
ANNE (cont’d) And then…yeah…that was it…that was it…out the door…moving on…moving on…honestly I don’t know if you are beautiful or what it is I see. I don’t know who you are. I don’t love you. I don’t want you. I don’t need you. I don’t see you at all. There was a life before you and there will be one after.
Smoke from Maciej’s cigarette is blown out of his mouth and into the night of the open door. Maciej looks at the smoke leaving him, enjoying the moment.
Throughout the monologue, we realise that she is giving Piotr a bath. When she is finished talking, it is as if she comes out of character and as if she was rehearsing for a play.
Maciej is keeping an eye on Annne and Piotr from the living room and enjoying their togetherness. He makes comments once in a while and is somehow part of it. The light from the bathroom is warm and cosy and the steam fills the cold flat with warmth.
EXT. VIEW FROM THE COURTYARD TO THE FLAT - NIGHT Outside visuals, we see the light coming from the bedroom window. The wind blows in the street, we feel the contrast of the cold outside with the warm, coloured insides.
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Anne in front of the mirror brushing her hair. Maciej tells Anne the story about how when he was a child his mother told him that if he stared long enough into the mirror the devil would appear. And that he used to do that all the time and wait and wait for him to appear and then he would, and he would run to his mother.
MACIEJ I stared for hours and hours, waiting and waiting and then, he’d come. And I would run to my mother eyes glowing, ‘I saw him, I saw him, I saw the devil!’ She’d laugh. ‘Boruta!!!’
INT – UNIVERSITY - DAY Maciej is giving a lecture at university on some archaeological subject in front of a big crowd of students. Anne is coming in at the back. She has Piotr with her. She is smiling, and Maciej smiles back, although a little apprehensive.
She comes to sit at the front, Maciej is a little distracted. We see them exchanging glances as if he knows she is trying to be supportive, and she shows him that she is being supportive by sending him encouraging signal. She appears slightly manic.
Piotr on her lap being very hyper, also affected by his mothers energy.
The husband goes on with the lecture talking a little on the subject. As he talks, we start to hear Anne making a low monotone humming sound as he talks. Every time he stops, she stops. This increases and we see the husband getting more and more frustrated and Anne just looking innocently around, as if not understanding what’s going on. He sends her a very angry look and she stops doing it, looks down in embarrassment and leaves.
INT. Tall Man’s flat - DAY Tall Man is pacing again and again up and down the room. He goes to the wall, puts his head against the wall to listen. We hear faint sounds from the bedroom on the other side. Muted sounds. This muted sound continues into the next scene.
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Anne and Maciej are having sex.
Muted sound gradually goes into normal-real sound.
They are making love and she has to stop him, because it hurts her. It becomes clear that she is not enjoying it, but she is trying all she can to enjoy it. In the end, she starts to cry, and she has to stop. She cannot enjoy it despite the attempt.
CUT TO: Outside view of bedroom window for a brief moment.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT
Suddenly Anne’s voice changes.
ANNE The Tall man is in the closet, the Tall man is in the closet.
MACIEJ What are you talking about?
Maciej is half laughing and half frightened. He gazes towards the closet, the wardrobe. She looks up into the ceiling but points to the closet.
ANNE The Tall man is in the closet.
Maciej slaps Anne across the face in confusion, her body all stiffened, she has a smile on her face. Her eyes look vivid. He gets panicky. Goes to the wardrobe and starts emptying it out, as if looking for signs of “the tall man”.
While he is in the frame, we see a tall shadow passing by.
It is barely noticeable. He turns around. Anne is sitting up looking at him compassionately.
ANNE What on earth are you doing, have you lost your mind?
He looks around the room.
MACIEJ Something weird is happening. Something is going on with you.
INT. Mother’s room - NIGHT Anne, wearing the very red lipstick, walks in to the Mother’s room with a tray of food. Some soup. Sits quietly down. The mother is quite lucid. They smile gently at each other. There is a nice calm atmosphere in the room, peaceful. Anne looks peaceful. She starts giving her the soup spoonful by spoonful. They look at each other, as If studying one another. Again very smiling. Anne starts to sing a song quietly – the mother joins in… Lyrics: (Anne) She lost her way Coming home Now she is astray Not coming home
My God its cold The devil is on to me
(Mother) She made a friend Coming home Now she is a bend In the road
(Visuals again of the blind man looking for the shit of his dog…)
(Both together) My God, its cold Release your hold The devil is on to me
(Image cuts to the husband and Piotr in the flat at home – they sing along too. (Piotr is humming))
My God its cold Sped into old Its been foretold The devil is on to me The devil is on to me
INT. living room - DAY Maciej and Piotr are waiting for Anne to come home; Maciej is gazing out the window. He is briefly on the phone. He is stressed out. Suddenly he sees Anne coming out of a car with the Tall Man. They laugh and The Tall Man is elegantly opening the car door for her and escorting her into the building. Maciej does not know what to do with himself and goes to put on some dramatic music and cut some vegetables. He is angry and confronts Anne with this anger.
MACIEJ Who was this man? Where have you been? Poland is not England, Anne… It is unpredictable here!
ANNE What are you talking about? What man? I was feeling dizzy. You know how I sometimes gets these dizzy spells, and suddenly someone was there helping me.
MACIEJ You could have called me.
ANNE Well I was not feeling well and could not think… I found this old lamp shop. The light was so beautiful and I went in there, but somehow I started to feel dizzy…
MACIEJ
Do you consider ME, and the pain I am going through…did you ever for one second stop to think of anybody but yourself and your endless photographs?!
ANNE You, you, you and your old rotting mother…boohoo…life is tough…oh my, my mother is dying, like ALL people do at some point. Lets turn out lives completely upside down, not care about anybody but my own pain and loss. Poor me, poor little me, and you talk about care…You don’t even know what that means.
Anne sexually flirts in her contempt and we see the Maciej’s frustration and anger, he slaps her, and he graps her and touches her up, she laughs at him.
CUT TO: Visuals of the corridor outside the bedroom, we hear some violent commotion and we hear the husband crying, sobbing.
CUT TO:
INT. living room - DAY Maciej is surprised with Anne’s change of tone and expression. Anne goes into a strange seizure-like mode and moves her body in a strange way. She collapses to the floor, and the husband’s anger turns into fright and worry. He kneels to the ground, grabs Anne and holds her, hugs her. She slowly comes back into consciousness.
ANNE Who is he?
They sit on the floor for a moment hugging each other. The camera moves further and further away and makes their entwined bodies look like a rocking sculpture placed carefully in the room.
ANNE Who is he?
MACIEJ I love you. I love you Anne. I love you.
He keeps repeating it to her and to himself.
INT. Bedroom-darkroom – NIGHT. It’s late in the evening. Anne and Piotr are sleeping. Maciej goes to look in the dark room to see what Anne is working on. He sees pictures of the flat, himself, Piotr and the lamp shop interiors that Anne mentioned earlier, abstractions of light.
While he is contemplating, we start to hear a banging very loud sound coming from next door.
The sound is consistent and disturbing. The husband starts to get agitated. Piotr wakes from the sound starts crying. He goes to pick up Piotr. Anne seems to sleep right through it.
CUT TO: Mother is sitting up in her bed, looking alert.
CUT TO:
INT. STAIRCASE – NIGHT With Piotr on his arm, Maciej goes to knock on the neighbour - Tall Man’s door. There is no answer. He tries to peak through the keyhole but can see nothing. Then he tries to look through the crack under the door and manages to see a little, glimpses of a dimly lit flat. The sound is consistent. Maciej puts Piotr down on the floor. Piotr is quietly observing his fathers actions. Maciej is desperate to find out, what is going on and keeps pounding on the door frantically and trying to see. Very suddenly Anne appears from the back.
ANNE What the fuck are you doing?
She looks cold, disgusted and angry with his behaviour and him crawling around on the floor. Anne has in the meantime picked up Piotr from the stone cold floor and is holding him close.
Maciej is so startled that he falls back, loses his balance, when she appears.
The sound has stopped.
Anne leaves with Piotr. The husband remains sitting on the floor baffled.
INT/EXT. Living room/balcony - NIGHT Anne goes to the living room, sits with Piotr in her lap, switch on the TV and watches. The husband goes to the balcony to smoke a cigarette. He is exhausted, stands in the dark and watches Anne in the light from the TV, through the window as he smokes.
He realises there is someone standing on the other balcony in the dark. His face, his eyes express fright.
Black out.
CUT TO: Anne’s POV, Maciej returns from the balcony with a changed look on his face. He looks briefly at Anne, then goes off to bed.
INT. Corridor-bedroom - NIGHT Form the corridor, the camera slowly moves closer to the bedroom, and we see a glimpse of a naked Anne sitting on the bed, with the husband in her lap, him sobbing and her stroking his hair. She looks into the room with an empty expression.
CUT TO: Close-up of Anne staring into the broken mirror, the figure of the sobbing husband in the background on the floor, no sound. Anne looks expressionless and starts combing her hair.
EXT. courtyard - DAY Morning comes. The blind man is walking his dog again. This time, he is just sitting on a bench, while the dog is running around. It is a nice bright morning, flocks of birds hovering above.
INT. bedroom - DAY Maciej wakes up in the bed in the morning next to Anne, who is sleeping. He crawls underneath the duvet and lies for a while studying her sleeping…then he moves closer to her and holds her. The image and sound is very muffled and intimate, many close ups. The camera is under the covers.
We hear a child’s footsteps. Suddenly Piotr comes crawling through the covers too.
Maciej wonders where he came from and gets up to figure out what is going on and how he got there. He comes to no conclusion and goes to the kitchen with Piotr to put on some coffee.
The phone rings – its from the nursing home. They want him to come.
INT. mother’s room - DAY Quiet nursing room. Maciej is sitting on her left and an old, frail, thin body of his mother is lying on the bed. He is holding her hand. He is talking to her.
During the session, he undresses her and starts washing her carefully, she stares emptily into the ceiling. It is impossible to determine whether she is aware or not, uncomfortable or not with the situation. It is a tender moment.
MOTHER Oh I am scared, because I have to walk through the woods to get home.
Maciej is asking her about her knowledge of the Tall Man and the neighbour. Waiting and hoping for a response.
MOTHER Be careful with this one son.
CUT TO: Small vignette sequence: stills from the flat, pictures that Anne took, Piotr alone in the flat at twilight, running around exploring. A very quiet moment.
CUT TO:
INT. TALL MAN’S FLAT - NIGHT Music, Tall Man and Anne in a dance, he lets her head fall backwards and he is holding her in a dance pose. His figure looks like a shadow of an animal bending over his prey, devouring it, and she is letting it happen. The TV is running behind them muted. He turns his face to the camera and says.
TALL MAN Anne begins to disappear sometimes. She comes to see me. We spend hours and hours together. We hang out, as they say. She trusts me and she tells me about her fears, dreams and doubts. I think she is looking happier and a smile is starting to appear on her face.
INT. restaurant - NIGHT Anne and her husband at dinner in a very upper class restaurant. They are sitting at a round table with two of the husband’s professor colleagues. They are discussing the husband’s future career at the university and subjects of archaeology. Anne is dressed up in a white dress, her black hair falling beautifully on her shoulders. She is sitting very upright and being very polite.
At first she is charming the professors, but then slowly as the dinner progresses, Anne starts to behave strangely. She starts to spill some food first, just slightly, apologising for her behaviour. Suddenly she eats the contents of the ashtray and pretends nothing has happened. Then we see her smearing the food on her face instead of hitting her mouth. It gets increasingly worse and she looses it completely. The two professor colleagues look at her in shock, wonder and embarrassment. The husband looks at her in anger and embarrassment. The scene culminates and is cut at its culmination.
INT. kitchen - NIGHT Anne and her husband at home, sitting at the kitchen table. She is looking down to the floor. He is looking at her. He looks angry. This is a prolonged moment of silence, where nothing is said.
INT. bedroom - DAWN The husband asleep, Anne awake, seen from the ceiling. She is looking at him. The first rays of light come through the window.
INT. piotr’s room - DAWN Anne standing looking at piotr for a while. He is asleep.
INT. staircase - DAWN Anne on the stairs going down – intercut with her walking up.
INT. staircase - DAWN
The door to the next door flat opens, as we see Anne going outside looking up and taking a deep breath.
INT. Mother’s room - DAY Anne walks in. Mother gets upset, when she sees her. Anne smiles mildly at her.
Mother is letting go into death – abstract imagery.
LETTING GO SEQUENCE:
EXT. FOREST - DAWN
ANNE (V.O.) All my life, I have had dreams that I have done something horrible. Really horrible. I have the memory of knowing and I feel also the qualities of the horror on my body, but I do not remember the acts themselves. Sometimes I see the remains of my acts, and I know I did it. I carry a mark of guilt, and even though nobody would expect these sides to my personality I always know that eventually my guilt will reveal me, sooner or later. And I dread the humiliation and the revelation. Oh, the horrors I have seen.
Anne’s followers finally have caught up with her. It is a violent moment, where these 5-6 people have to restrain her, and she is kicking and screaming like a wild animal. A close up of her face letting go and accepting she is caught. CUT TO: Camera moves through the hallway up the stairs and into the flat around and into the flat. A phone call – the husband awakes alone in the flat.
VOICE ON THE PHONE Your mother has passed away.
MACIEJ Thank you.
He hangs up.
We see the shade of Maciej singing a song…. fade into credits.
The husband’s song:
“I met a girl, we shared a night, a night of passion. Her head’s not right, But she survived among the living.
What the hell are you doing? I’m asking you. What the hell are you doing? It’s not right.
I felt her touch, A special feel A dream, a nightmare This girl is hurt, But she survived Among the living
What the hell are you doing? I’m asking you. What the hell are you doing? It’s not right.
She touches me I look at her, I feel her pain, I feel her fear It isn’t fair what you have done. Is that your way? Is that your point? You’re so unfair And power mad. You’re doing this only because you can. I’m telling you to let her go
What the hell are you doing? I’m asking you What the hell are you doing? It’s not right. What the hell are you doing? Let her go. What the hell are you doing? It’s not right.