Do Artichokes Look Like Sea Anemones or An Excess of Superimposed Realities ?

Do Artichokes Look Like Sea Anemones or An Excess of Superimposed Realities ?

Written by Florian Luthi 2018

Contemporary Art Practice, Moving Image Tutor: Chris Fite-Wassilak Word count: 11’457

Do Artichokes Look Like Sea Anemones or An Excess of Superimposed Realities ?

Written by Florian Luthi 2018

Contemporary Art Practice, Moving Image Tutor: Chris Fite-Wassilak Word count: ??

« What is a symbol ? It is to say one thing and mean another? Why not say it right out ?

For the simple reason that certain phenomena tend to dissolve when we approach them without ceremony. »1

E. Wind

3

INTRODUCTION

As a starting point, it was part of one of my video’s project to deconstruct the elements of a narrative video : the sound (soundtrack), the writing (script) and the (moving) image(s) (shooting). I wanted to question this idea of « deconstruction ». What happens if chaos is more present, if the work comes closer to a feeling of catastrophe, if the story tells something that seems incomprehensible at first sight, but that actually empowers the aura of the artist’s work ?

Then the narrative space (telling fictional stories) becomes a main focus and I have been interested in artist’s works like Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno and Jesper Just (to name but a few) for a long time. Especially the different works linked to cinema or at least with a narrative aspect.

David Lynch’s work is also present in the following dissertation as an inspirational director, mainly for his capacity to lose the audience in the maze of his movies and the apparition of symbolic images close to the feeling of « reality », even if he is a famous director and part of the very specific Hollywood cinema.

From this point, I did some research about the following topics, trying to keep a holistic point of view and work in constellation with all of the different subjects : acting in theater and/or in cinema, limitations of reality, limitations to create a movie (Dogme95), chaos, reenactment, remake, the representation and what cannot be represented, the role of the audience, the role of the actor/actress, the relationship between film directors and their actors/actress, concrete poetry, online and offline scenarios, the narrative as a moving image or as a photographic image, and finally, the impact of digital technology and the internet on the physical world and temporality.

The following dissertation is written as a script playing with its own rules and form, in a free and personal interpretation standing far away from academic writing (that I try to avoid as much as possible). I also took the liberty to reuse an existing script and to add it to mine, in order to multiply the possibilities of my « stories » through the references and the characters themselves as a sort of interconnected language.

Indeed, I have the feeling that my work or the final result is more faithful to myself in this format, and that I do not have the ability to formulate clear and precise thoughts. Thus, I prefer to swallow topics to the point of not being able to go on and then, to expel these subjects in a new form, to give birth to a new beginning and see what happens.

4

At the end of the research and when I was really writing the text on a deeper level, I started drawing some sort of « circles of Hell » similar to the ones of Dante’s Inferno. Mine have been thought more in the way of « screens » as windows than deadly sins. Screens, which play with boundaries between dreams, the physical and the virtual world.

I wrote my bachelor thesis around the topic of « tragedy » in its vast form, from classical Greek tragedies to its more absurd forms in literature. In the end, it has taken the form of a play resembling Beckett’s « Waiting for Godot ». Therefore, there probably is a remainder of it in the following writing and it is maybe good to keep this in mind during the reading, even if the result is completely different from what I had previously written.

Please sit in front of your screen. Turn it on. Press the “play” button or let the play button be pressed for you. Get lost in the maze. Tony, Blue and the Double of Naomi Watts will take care of you… or not…

5

FADE IN: EXT. AN ISOLATED ROAD — DAY It is 3 p.m. Gold is sitting in front of a blue car. A salty breeze is playing on the radio. The sound has a smell of crystal. The driver’s side window is rolled down.

FADE TO: Travelling along fields of blooming artichokes. Close-up to his confident hands on the wheel.

LOUD NOISE OF INSECT’S STRIDULATIONS. The car stops abruptly. Gold seems to be in a state of shock. Close-up to his face from the outside of the front glass of the car. The sea is reflected through it. His scared gaze seems to be looking everywhere at the same time. The NOISE OF INSECT’S STRIDULATION does not stop and intensifies.

CUT TO: INT. BLUE’S ROOM - DAY The camera mixes some close-up of Blue’s face and some wide shot of her studio where she is painting. It is a dialogue between her face, the brush and the canvas. Blue is painting a very flamboyant landscape next to the window.

A soft late afternoon light fills the room and her fingers accompany it on the canvas. Specks of dust are sparkling around Blue. She is thinking about warm sand on her feet and the feeling that it procures.

The position of the sun changes suddenly. A beautiful scarab comes in through the slightly opened window. A new and golden sound fills the whole room. Blue keeps painting, lost in her thoughts. The insect flies around Blue following the gesture of her brush and finally lands on her eyes. The scarab’s wings caress them. Blue looks surprised, but she appreciates this strange moment. Then, the beetle flies away just the same way it entered the room.

6

LOUD GUST of wind, then NOISE of sheets of paper, flying away.

Blue stops painting and stands in front of her work for a couple of seconds holding her brush in the air. Suddenly, she begins to destroy her composition in an act of madness.

A big hole appears in the middle of the canvas. She continues to tear it. Her face is a mixture of beauty and madness. Her hair looks blonder than at the beginning of the scene. Close-up to her face. Tears are running down her cheeks. The next shot shows the big hole in the painting.

CUT TO: INT. AN ALMOST EMPTY ROOM A man, in his early forty, is sitting in front of a TV screen. He is wearing an elegant dark suit. The room is almost empty. We can only see a wooden chair and a small lamp on the floor. The images on the screen are flashing very fast and in a very regular and repetitive way. The man seems to be asleep as a result of watching the blinking screen for too long in front of him. Soaked by hours of stories and images he is having a deadly nap. Slow travelling through the room from right to left. During the camera’s movement some red spots are emerging on the floor.

CUT TO: Zoom into the screen (as if we were the old man’s eyes).

Suddenly the blinking stops and a very clear picture appears on the TV screen. A sort of fake room (fairly similar to the one where the old man was sleeping). In the middle of the space, a man is sitting in a comfortable chair. There is a small table without embellishment, a glass filled with a red liquid on it and a bowl of buttered popcorn. It is quite dark in there but there is enough light to imagine other rows of chairs behind him.

CUT TO: INT. THE CINEMA ROOM A man is sitting in front of the camera. Close-up to his

7

The poets are supposed to liberate the words — not chain them in phrases. Who told the poets they were supposed to think ?

Poets are meant to sing and to make words sing.

Writers don’t own their words. Since when do words belong to anybody ? I The final movie will be seen uninterrupted, so why should reading the script for the first time be any different. II

facial expression. Different colored reflections of moving images come to light up his face. They are very attractive and painterly at the same time. He’s eating some popcorn and seems to be fascinated and hypnotised by what he is watching. Zoom in to his hand grabbing some popcorn, followed by a close-up to his opened mouth filled with the puffed cereal. The brightness of the screen in front of him continues to illuminate his theatrical face. Suddenly, his fat fingers grab an other popcorn from the paper box.

It is a blue one. Zoom in for a closer look. The man is eating the blue popcorn without any regard to it. Sometimes the lights reveal other people in the dark room. We zoom in to his head again. The viewer can see the reflections on his face suggesting a sea landscape and hear the following dialogue coming from the movie in front of him.

THE MOVIE (location can’t be seen) A MALE VOICE (off camera, in the movie) Can you see me ?

A FEMALE VOICE (off camera, in the movie) Yes, but you’re just a blur like your car in the ocean.

GOLD (a male voice) It reminds me of your eyes. I lost them.

BLUE (a female voice) I don’t want to remember. Not now.

GOLD The memories can’t be erased.

BLUE The sand is delicately warm here.

My feet remember the wind...

GOLD Then the storm that ripped everything in its path.

9

...

BLUE

Small silence between both of them.

GOLD We could drive until the green ray appears.2 BLUE Dive into your depths.

GOLD Let’s do this. For once.

BLUE One last time. I may want to remember. ...

GOLD

INT. THE CINEMA ROOM Wide shot of the scene. The man is now standing and he has some pieces of popcorn around his mouth and on his shirt.

There are tears streaming down his face, but he is smiling.

The eyes have turned red and swollen. He keeps looking at the screen as if he was part of the movie, fascinated by it, consumed by it.

CUT TO BLACK:

OUT. A GREEN GARDEN - DAY Still shot of a man with a blonde beard in the middle of some olive trees, green plants, roses and white flowers. He stands in front of the camera with a lots of garden hoses in his hands. Water goes everywhere very slowly next to him and even on him.

The scene lasts for forthy-nine seconds.3 CUT TO:

10

INT. FILM STUDIO There is a fake sunny light illuminating THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS in the middle of the film studio. It is hot.

The film crew is nervous, because they are running out of time. In the background, not far away from the actress, a big green screen is hanging on the wall. She is walking from right to left, pretending to kick some small pebbles on the road.

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS (with a lazy voice) I’m waiting for the green ray.

THE FILM DIRECTOR Cut ! It was nice, maybe your facial expressions and the tone of your voice were too ghostly… She is lost in the landscape but still alive. Remember that !

So, let’s take a final shot for today otherwise we’ll see this green ray for real.

The camera crew is laughing after his words. THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS returns to the starting position and the whole scene is playing again. As she walks for the second time, she pretends to see something strange on the road, something unusual.

A short silence.

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS (less lazy than before) ...I’m waiting for the green ray...

THE FILM DIRECTOR Cut ! That was great ! Thanks everybody for today, you were perfect. I’ll see you tomorrow at 3 p.m. to record the first scene of the movie. The one with the blue car.

Everyone is applauding and congratulating one another.

CUT TO:

11

INT. THE CINEMA ROOM Wide Shot opposite to the precedent. We can see the man with the popcorn from the back. On the left of the stage and in front of the screen there is an orchestra. They are playing the soundtrack of Scarface 4 called « Tony’s Theme » where Tony is repeatedly shot, but continues to taunt until he is fatally shot from behind by a shotgun blast. His limp body falls into a fountain below, in front of a statue reading « The World is Yours ».

They stop playing.

Wide shot of the room again. The camera is back in front of the man who was crying with his popcorn. We can see him distinctly now. He is not alone anymore. The light reveals the room better than the first time and the outlines of a movie theater appears. Lots of people are standing in front of their seats looking at the screen. In a very strange atmosphere, the audience as a whole begins to speak. They repeat exactly the same words as those they are watching.

It looks like a sort of a choreographical reenactment of the movie itself.

GOLD Do you know what I’m thinking right now ?

THE AUDIENCE (at the same time as GOLD) Do you know what I’m thinking right now ?

No.

No.

BLUE THE AUDIENCE (at the same time as BLUE)

GOLD Do you want to know ?

THE AUDIENCE (at the same time) Do you want to know ?

Tell me.

12

BLUE

Tell me.

THE AUDIENCE (at the same time)

GOLD I remember the first time we met.

I remember your eyes in mine, the wind quickly followed by the storm.

THE AUDIENCE (at the same time) I remember the first time we met.

I remember your eyes in mine, the wind quickly followed by the storm.

BLUE Can you tell me that while crying ?

Can you express the same attitude as Hayden Christensen in the picture of Sam Taylor-Wood’s book 5 when he’s in tears ? I like the feeling of this image.

THE AUDIENCE Can you tell me that while crying ?

Can you express the same attitude as Hayden Christensen in the picture of Sam Taylor-Wood’s book 5 when he’s in tears ? I like the feeling of this image.

GOLD (trying to cry) I remember the first time we met.

(Pause). It’s not easy to find this sadness in my voice.

THE AUDIENCE (trying to cry) I remember the first time we met.

(Pause). It’s not easy to find this sadness in my voice.

Try again. Better !

BLUE

THE AUDIENCE Try again. Better !

13

GOLD (crying and with a very sad voice.

Tears appear in his eyes) I remember the first time ... we met.

THE AUDIENCE (crying and with a very sad voice too.

Tears appear in their eyes) I remember the first time ... we met.

BLUE (abrubtly) Too much empathy ! You mustn’t act ! 6

...

THE AUDIENCE (stop acting)

GOLD Am I a photographic model ?

It’s only an image !

THE PUBLIC (after Gold) Are we a photographic chorus ?

It’s only an image !

The camera shows consecutively THE AUDIENCE (same wide angle shot than before), then GOLD in tears (close-up to his face) and finally BLUE who is giving some indications on how to play the scene (close-up to her face too).

BLUE (bossy) Follow my instructions !

Back to the face of GOLD. GOLD (a little confused) Where is the camera ?

Panicked, his eyes are looking for the camera. Back to the wide shot of the audience in the cinema room.

14

THE AUDIENCE (singing) camera eyes screen data

We are the We are the We are the We are the Recording Uploading Downloading Algorithming Faking Dancing Lighting Everything Cinemating Ing Ing Ing

THE AUDIENCE begins a very strange dance in the cinema room, by raising their arms and jumping on the spot.

It might look like a session of aerobic on youtube. They repeat the song twice.

BLUE (entering with a fast pace into the cinema room) I said too much empathy !

She gets her machine gun out and points it towards the audience.

A phone rings in the assembly and a woman realizes that it is her phone. She slowly takes it from her pocket and answers. A male voice says something indistinctly. Slowly, we can hear the beginning of a famous dramatic music.

This sound is getting louder and pushier. The music stops abrubtly, leaving a strange and silent atmosphere. Wide shot of the scene again. Blue is standing, arms straight.

Time is suspended on her fingers. Without warning and with an extreme violence, Blue shoots THE AUDIENCE. Then, she goes back from where she came.

CUT TO:

15

OUT. A SMALL BOAT - DAY Close-up on a man and a woman who, apparently, look like GOLD and BLUE. They are on a boat in the middle of the water, wearing some yellow raincoats. They are talking to each other.

GOLD Is she in reality or is she in fiction ?

BLUE Her family’s in reality, and she’s in fiction.

GOLD But isn’t fiction real ?

AN EXTERNAL VOICE Can we have a close-up to BLUE’s face ?

A bit closer ? Yes, here we are.

If we are a little bit attentive, we can recognize some slightly similar facial features as Naomi Watts now. Yes, it could be her, as strange as it may seem. So BLUE subtly becomes THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS in this scene.

BLUE and/or THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS Why ?

GOLD Well, you can see it in the movie, right ?

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS Of course.

GOLD Well, then it’s just as real as reality… Because you can see it too, right ?

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS Bullshit. 7 CUT TO:

16

INT. AN ALMOST EMPTY ROOM A phone rings outside the room. Slow travelling from the man sitting on the sofa to the floor and finally to another dark room. The phone rings again. Next to the phone there is a young man with a particularity. His face is very red and he slowly illuminates the darkness of the room with this reddish purple coloration. The camera keeps moving and gently comes closer to the young man. The phone rings one more time. The camera moves extremely close to the young man and we see that the color of his face is changing into a normal skin color as if he knew the chameleon’s secret.

A long and strident ring can be heard. The young man takes the phone very safely and quietly. He slowly brings it to his right ear. Suddenly his face becomes red and a little upset again.

THE YOUNG MAN (on the phone) Are you scared ? Do you like being scared ?

CUT TO BLACK:

OUT. OF A GLASS BUILDING - DAY A little girl is standing next to the glass wall. Her eyes are looking at her reflection in the window. The camera does not move. It is a still shot. There is nobody else in the concrete street and the walls of the city are covered with a bluish tint. The kid is on her toes, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a jacket, which are exactly the same color. She is holding a small stone in her hands, a dark and angular one, and she is hitting the glass in front of her. She is doing it with a melodious and repetitive rhythm. The sound is hypnotic. It is impossible to know if she want to attract someone’s attention or if it is only a kind of childish game. The hammering is echoing against the glass and concrete walls of the various buildings of the street. 8 Long tracking shot alongside the glass building. The camera is moving up. It is difficult to look inside, because the reflections are hidding it. After a while, a man equipped for rock-climbing and with a yellow safety helmet appears on the image. He is cleaning the big windows with a

17

It isn’t just a need and a desire to create, but, primarily, a mean of survival. III Sartre suggested that an invented image can never bring about a new emotion, it can only rainforce an existing one V …thinking about the reenactment, knowing that it was continuing, constantly, on a loop. Sometimes I really concentrated on each moment, each manoeuvre. VI

telescopic stick. The water is flowing and then, in one swift, the man removes it with his tool, leaving only a few drops of water on the surface. The light is playing with them and sometimes a twinkle occurs. Geometric forms are created by a combination of the worker’s movements and the reflection of the evening sky on the building.

The glares are swaying in a very attractive dance. The camera continues to rise. It slowly lets the scene of the overlapping colors escape from the window. Far away we hear the noise of a stone against a window. The camera stops in front of a big room, which looks more like a bedroom. Two women are talking to each other. One is lying on the bed and she is crying. The other one is standing with her back turned and her arms crossed.

CUT TO: INT. ENTRANCE OF A HOST HOUSE A forty-three years old man wearing a very expensive black satin suit is standing at the top of a horse-shoe shaped stairway. We can distinguish that first buttons of his white shirt are open and a gold necklace is shining on his chest.

We look at this scene through a third-person perspective.

The man has a heavy weapon and is shooting all over the place, and at the same time, he is yelling at his enemies, who are trying to kill him.

TONY You need an army you hear!

An army to kill me !

There is a lot of blood everywhere. The man is killing a lot of people by firing on the men downstairs.

TONY Ha ha ha !! You whores, you scum, I piss on your faces !!

Ha ha ha !! 9 Finally, someone coming from behind with a shotgun shoots him in a huge deafening blast. The man with the expensive suit falls into the indoor swimming pool below. The water slowly becomes darker to finally turn into a terrible bloodred color. The camera moves off TONY to catch the reflection

19

of the lit sculpture on the surface of the still waters.

It reads: « THE WORLD IS YOURS ». And so, for the brief moment, it was.

CUT TO BLACK:

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM A woman is lying on a bed. Her eyes are closed and there are many electronic wires and electrodes, which lead her head to a lot of different machines in the pale room. We can hear some BIPS and other electronic sounds. The camera gently leaves the sleeping woman and focuses on a dark window. There are two human shapes behind the glass. They are wearing white medical coats and talk indistinctively to each other about the sleeping woman lying in the room in front of them.

The camera stops in front of the stained glass. The image is unclear. It is a mixture of the reflection of the sleeping woman and the two characters behind the glass.

If we freeze the image for a couple of seconds we are able to distinguish the shape of a flower created by the two superposed images. It is an abstraction of the representation that we can see as viewer of the scene.

The dark glass could be a real window glass or the lens of the camera reflected in the window. It is difficult to figure out on which side of the window we are. The light that comes through the glass transforms the perception of the reality of the scene. It is like a prism in the middle of the room. A crystal’s prism, which is constantly moving, rotating and transforming the belief of (y)our vision. It does not change the interpretation of the sounds in the room. We can clearly hear the two men talking.

FIRST DOCTOR Do you have the scan’s results from last night ?

SECOND DOCTOR Yes. They just came in. Look !

FIRST DOCTOR Which part of the night is this one ?

20

SECOND DOCTOR I think it’s the REM 10 sleep.

FIRST DOCTOR Her brain was very active during that sleep cycle. More than usual, don’t you think?

SECOND DOCTOR Yes, it’s usually the case during the dreaming phase, but yesterday it was abnormally active. I don’t know why.

FIRST DOCTOR Me neither. Let’s have a look at the other scans.

SECOND DOCTOR Yes. There was a peak of activity when we began to recite the list of colors, I believe. What do you think ?

FIRST DOCTOR You’re right! Interesting… Especially after these three words:, blue, gold, horses…

SECOND DOCTOR We will see how it goes tonight.

CUT TO: OUT. SQUARE HOUSE - DAY A squared house in ruins appears in the middle of a calm and windy hill. It is apparently the end of a summer day in a Mediterranean area. The sound of the waves can be heard not so far away. There are three main « holes » on the house. Two for the eyes on the first floor and the door for the mouth, which opens to the grass full of crickets.

LOUD NOISE of someone laughing very strangely. A laughter with an uncomfortable feeling goes on as if the house itself was laughing.

CUT TO:

21

INT. OF A LUXURIOUS CAR The driver is as muscular as the security employees that we can find at the club’s entrances. He seems to be cramped in this car. His head is too high up, almost touching the soft ceiling, the end of the roof and the beginning of the windscreen. He has a calm face. His big hands are grabbing the steering wheel with absolutely no nervosity at all. He looks a little bit sad. He is listening to « La Callas », in his own words, because he really likes the sound of her voice. He said it in a very innocent tone, murmuring with sincerity. NOISE of a closing car’s door. Someone goes into the car behind the driver, but the camera stays focused on him. The person at the back of the vehicle opens a bag or a purse. Noise of a zip.

CUT TO: OUT. A SUNNY ROAD - DAY THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS is walking next to a rough road.

A few small pebbles are rolling on the grass after her.

It is around midday. The sun is strong. If we have a quick look above her head, it is possible to see its zenithal position. The grass is too green. It does not seem real.

The woman is wearing some city clothes that do not really match with the lanscape around her. There is a sense of anachronism there. It feels like she oddly is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A dented white car passes next to her at low speed. Someone is lying in the trunk of the car with a camera and he is shooting something in front of him. THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS stops walking and looks behind her to contemplate a white horse strolling down the path. It is slowly following the car, swinging its mane from time to time. The astounded woman does not really react to what is taking place in front of her. Maybe the most surprising thing is that at a certain moment, the horse’s head makes a strange movement from right to left, repeated several times in a row, exactly the same nod in a kind of distorted reality.

No one notices the woman during all this time, as if she was only a shadow somewhere on the neon green grass. The car gets smaller and smaller, now running across the horizon, and a second horse joins the scene. It is a white-

22

grey one too. THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS follows the second animal closely and the strange procession goes on the long road in a sweltering heat. Chirping of crickets can be heard near the road, but there is a wrong note. A noise, which is ringing false. Not an obvious one, but a subtle hitch, like if the cellist pinched the ropes of his violin too hardly.

CUT TO: INTERMISSION blank eyes browsing from left to right trying to remember the first word of the page from right to left spelling aloud cleansed again and again remembering the second after the black cleansed cleansed again two times never forget the first word after the beginning of the red curtain drop the day from the beginning to the endless soliloquy lulled a pleasant warmth in the third line of my belly standing comfortably repeat repeat after me after the previous word the one you cannot forget because the red dusk is coming after the almost last hours of the day full of lines of eyes everywhere but the black cut to a strange feeling of loneliness to be alone closed behind the lips and unseen letters a blur like your car yes it’s not like me and the lullaby from the left and quick to the blinking right frightened by the ocean the cleansed the terrible cleansed of the ocean the end of the blue of the beginning of the play dust in my mind stairs up and down back to the popcorn blackout in front of you but the hidden words stay cleansed in my mind cut to black again never stop talking in the front of the lonely crowd alone close-up to my mouth and darkness everywhere except the white teeth and black and white melody echoes in the velvet around the black and the word cleansed I knew that white in the middle of the play cutting to black again ice cream in all bright hands and right sorrow to all left mannerisms and silent popcorn bombing and struggling with themselves in my mouth applauding at the very end of the ocean the one you can finally release the exhausting body and the last magnificent words the very last one expel from the right the left the right again the lips the mouth from the inside to the outside these last words expected by everyone by every enchanting eyes closed by the night clapping the nearby moon like a blur in an circle ocean ice creamy especially in the so close front row almost touching the dripping words along the lonely stage full of black eyes standing in front of me

23

and my words becoming a new voice a new emotion cut to an unspoken garish black and white to recite the entire page of words until the thousands ones learnt by heart sung on the front of my mouth appears green and smooth embracing the flashing world my word in your plural shape ringing the bell and black again CUT TO: INT. ENTRANCE OF A HOST HOUSE A forty-three years old man wearing a very expensive black satin suit is driving an old car. He is listening to Flashback FM on the radio. It is in the middle of the song called : « Tony’s theme ». 11 TONY is getting out of the car and climbs up the stairs of a flat. He enters a big room with fourteen people inside. They are all sitting around the table, except for one person, who is on the ground with broken porcelain everywhere around her. She has a gun in her hands. The camera switches to a third-person view. Tony gets out of this room and climbs up to the third floor where his apartement is situated. Police sirens can be heard and are coming closer to the building with sounds of cars.

The police surrounds the house and blocks off the street.

Through the apartment’s back entrance, THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS (with tears streaking her cheeks) arrives from downstairs. She points the gun at TONY, but doesn’t pull the trigger as she hears police sirens approaching.

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS Tony, they’re coming, the police...

They’re after you. They’re gonna get you, Tony.

TONY Why didn’t you shoot, Nicolina, huh? Why didn’t you shoot?

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you’re me and I’m you. It’s always been that way (They hug).

They try to escape down the back stairs, but their way from the hideout is blocked by the police. TONY chooses a rifle

24

for THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS from his gun-rack arsenal of weapons. Exhilarated by her devotion, he laughs maniacally after showering the cops below with repeating gunfire and daring them to kill him.

TONY Hey !! look at them monkeys there !

They think they’re gonna have TONY…, ha!! Look, Nicolina, see. Steel. All steel. Solid steel. No one can get in here! Ha, ha !! Hey, Nicolina, you and me, ha ? We show ‘em. We’ll lick ‘em all, the North Side, the South Side. We’ll lick the whole world !

Ellipse in time.

Nicolina stays in the building while Tony goes out. The police is firing at him in a terrible blast of deflagrations.

Then, the armed forces jump into the breach hurry into the crowded room filled with the rubbles of an upper class meal.

The policemen arrest the woman lying on the floor, then leave from the same place they entered. The camera moves up and away from the sprawled body of TONY toward the flashing electric sign: «THE WORLD IS YOURS. Red spots are covering the dark satin suit. Blood is flowing down the road, soaked up by the bluish grey concrete.

DISSOLVE TO BLACK:

The words « Game Over » appear on the screen. The background is still black with a white typeface for the title. This frozen image is shown for a while.

CUT TO: OUT. ROAD - DAY A man in his early forties is wearing an expensive black suit. It is TONY again. He is driving a police car listening to the V-Rock station on the radio. The camera switches to a third-person view. The health points are full in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. He is tearing up the surface of the main highway. It is his own free world again.

CUT TO:

25

INT. OF A LUXURIOUS CAR THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN is sitting at the back of the car. She is wearing a gorgeous green dress and talks to a man in front of her. The view of a mountain landscape moves through the passenger window on the side where she is sitting. The car stops in front of what seems to be the entrance of a hotel in a small village. A crowd of journalists and paparazzis comes very close to the glass of the car. Flashlights crackle. The sound of the flashes is very noisy. THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN plays the role of a kind actress who is devoted to her fans. She smiles fictitiously through the window.

THE DRIVER I wouldn’t go up there if I were you.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN I know the mountain well.

THE DRIVER I doubt I will get away with my life.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN It’s a very nasty drop.

THE DRIVER Is there another way ? 12 THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN gets out of the car. The crowd comes very close to her and the flashlights keep crackling in a strange and rhythmical tempo. She walks very confidently in the direction of the hotel’s entrance. The camera stays on her face with some extreme close-ups and there are some very strong flashes too. The camera follows her in a slow travelling. The scene reminds of the famous red-carpeted steps, but this one seems to be shot in the middle of the mountain.

When the actress comes in the hotel someone shouts « cut ! » and all the technical staff begins to work in the middle of the film studio. The monitor’s screen stays black and blank for a while. THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN comes back from the hotel’s entrance, which is in fact a simple cardboard wall. The camera is not recording anymore. THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN crosses the film set. She is off. All the staff is in its element and no one is paying any attention to

26

her. She is walking and looking at her phone at the same time.

She enters her dressing room and shuts the door. It is late, she has had a big day. She lights up a cigarette and pours some red wine into a nice crystal glass. The actress stares at herself in the mirror. The dressing room is flooded with a yellow and smoky light. This moment is beautifully sad and she takes a mental picture of it, to remember it in a near future. She has a sip of wine. The glass is embracing her red lips wrapped by the reflections of the light inside the liquid and the smoke around her.

The phone is ringing next to her. She does not look surprised and she just sits there a little longer. Then, her hand slides in her bag and THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN picks up the phone.

There is a silence.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN Hello... Hello... ?

Midnight blue nearby …

OTHER PERSON ON THE PHONE

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN Hello yellow you.

OTHER PERSON ON THE PHONE (with a strange voice)

let the bluebird drinks its indigo wings

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN (smoking) I wouldn’t say no, you know that…

OTHER PERSON ON THE PHONE

Endless crystalline liquid caresses

27

Its kinetic dynamism, the very fact that film was a moving picture, and its fantasy, that is, its effort less manner of conjuring up a world of strange and unexpected happenings, vividly read and yet without logic or meaning, a world normally accessible only through dreams or hallucinations IX

my poisonous Hades THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN (smiling) I’d love to...

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN dips her lips in the almost empty glass.

A silence.

OTHER PERSON ON THE PHONE Strawberries lips sparse of champagne THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN Did you find the box... ?

OTHER PERSON ON THE PHONE swinging by the eye of the nightfall THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN Yes, the blue box ! You know… ?

...

OTHER PERSON ON THE PHONE (breathing heavily)

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN But... Who’s on the phone...? Hey... ?

A long silence.

OTHER PERSON ON THE PHONE It’s me... Love story in the city of dreams...13 THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN (feeling panicked) What ? I’m going to call the police…

A silence.

29

THE OTHER PERSON ON THE PHONE hangs up.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN puts her cigarette out on the plate in the shape of a flower and hangs up the phone too.

She is not feeling very well, because of the conversation she just had on the phone. She looks in the mirror again, to make sure she is real, and not an impostor. She touches her face with her hands. Her reflection smiles at her, with a presumptuous smile surrounded by thousands of flashes around her shadow. She changes her clothes and puts on a beautiful green dress. Then, she leaves the dressing room and closes the door after her. The film studio is completely empty now. It is quiet, deserted and dimly lit. Her eyes seem to suggest that it is not normal. The blonde girl is looking for someone in the big studio.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN Hello ? Is there anybody ? ... Hey ?

A long Silence.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN Hey ? ... Where are you, people ? ...

A long silence again.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN What’s going on here... ?

She hears a sound of footsteps in the background and after a while a door slams.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN Hey ! ... Hey ! Who’s here ? ...

Silence.

The woman becomes really frightened at this point and she is taking the direction of the exit with a fast pace. She is opening the glass door and walks out of the studio in a hurry. The door closes behind her. She enters a vast lit up room. Someone who looks like THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN is lying on the bed, wearing a bright green crumpled dress.

Both women have rays of sunshine in their hair.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN (coming on the stage)

30

You’re awake...

CUT TO: INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR Two doctors are speaking to each other in a long corridor painted in a pale green shade.

FIRST DOCTOR How’s it going with 16 ?

SECOND DOCTOR Not bad. I’ve introduced a new loop.

I’m still waiting for the results.

What about 16/9 ?

FIRST DOCTOR We are in the emotional phase, more specifically in the sadness phase.

Hello sadness, as she said. 14 SECOND DOCTOR It will be interesting to notice the emotional changes after that, especially with her love feelings.

FIRST DOCTOR Yes, exactly ! Artificial intelligence and love. Haha ! I love it !

SECOND DOCTOR Haha ! Ok... I have to go back to her to see if everything is ok.

FIRST DOCTOR Me too... See you later...

Bye...

SECOND DOCTOR

We follow the first doctor who is entering a room. The door closes after him, but we can catch a glimpse of someone lying on the bed. It is a blonde woman. She asleep in a word of dreams. Then, the camera follows the second doctor, who has walked to a closing door. There is a glass window.

31

We can see what is happening in the room. The doctor is standing in front of a lying woman and he is talking to her in a calm manner with a strange opened blue box the size of football. She is as blonde as the first one and tears are running down her cheeks.

SECOND DOCTOR (to 16) You won’t remember who you are.

CUT TO: OUT. AN URBAN STREET - DAY Wide shot of an urban street. People are walking on the pavement. They all have a white and squared face. They are looking at their smartphones and they seem completely absorbed by it. We can hear different characters talking to themselves in a binarian language.

FIRST CHARACTER (not gendered) 0100100001100101011011000110110001101111 SECOND CHARACTER (not gendered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

32

SECOND CHARACTER 010010010010000001100011011000010110111 000100000011000010110001101100011011011 1101101101 FIRST CHARACTER 01100011011011110110111101101100 15 Both of them launch an application on their phones and they begin to caress the glass with their fingers. They make some bubbly sounds and their faces pass from white to bright red and vice-versa. The camera focuses on them for a moment.

Then, it slowly begins to move with a robotic manœuvre in some very fast and accurate back and forth mouvements, to finally jump in the pixelated sky.

CUT TO: INS. GLASS BUILDING The red light of the camera turns on. A blonde actress enters the room precipitately, running towards the window.

Another actress with blonde hair too is lying on the bed.

She seems to have been there for a long time, barely awake after she cried. The flat is glossy with a big bay window directly exposed to the sun’s rays. It is warm in the room.

In the background, the summits of the city’s towering buildings appear through the large glass. The camera’s focus switches from inside to outside views from time to time.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN You’re awake... I think I misunderstood you. I thought you knew Tony and that’s why you were here. I just talked to him on the phone and he was afraid that the police would come to arrest him.16 THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS starts crying harder and bows down, covering her face with her hands.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN Nicolina ?

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS (crying harder)

33

I’m... sorry. I ...

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN’s heart softens.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN What is it Nicolina ?

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS (still sobbing) I’m...I’m... oh no... I thought when I woke up... I thought sleep would do it...

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN kneels down in front of her.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN What’s wrong ?

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS (crying) I don’t know who I am.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN What do you mean? You’re Nicolina Ome. THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS (crying) I’m not. I don’t know what my name is.

I don’t know who I am !

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN looks down at the purse next to Nicolina Ome’s dress. She picks it up and hands it to THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS. THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN This is your purse. Your name must be in your purse.

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS takes the purse with sudden trepidation. She hesitates. Something is worrying her.

She looks at THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN for help.

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN You want to know don’t you?

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS I... yes, but... I...

34

THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN Open it !

THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS slowly unzips the purse. The pressure of its content force the mouth of the purse open as the zipper breaks, and reveals what will later be known to be $125,000.00 cash in hundred dollar bills. 17 Both THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS and THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN almost stop breathing. They look at each other, then back at the money. 17 THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS takes the massive wad of bills out of the purse and sets it on the bed. She reaches back inside and comes up with the only other remaining item in the purse ... A blue key. THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN sees THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS’s expression change to a kind of horror. (note: This blue key is made of very fine heavy metal and does not look like a door key).

In the distance there is a repetitive tapping sound that may come from the basement of the building, but it oddly resonates through the glass of the windows. It is a crystalline tune with bluish highlights.

CUT TO: INT. OF A LUXURIOUS CAR The camera is shooting from the inside of car. The DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN gets out of the vehicle. The crowd comes very close to her and the flashlights keep crackling in a strange and rhythmical tempo. She walks very confidently in the direction of the hotel’s entrance. Sound of a slammed door from the opposite side of the car that THE DOUBLE OF NICOLE KIDMAN just left. Sound of a closing door. The person is taking exactly the same place that the actress just left. The car engine starts again and the car leaves the crowded place that sparkles with a thousand fires.

A mountain landscape appears through the windows. It difficult to see the passenger at the back, because the camera is showing the driver’s face to us. Nobody speaks.

The driver turns the radio on. We can hear a jingle sound from the V-Rock radio station, then he switches to Flashback FM where the famous Tony’s theme tune is playing, but he quickly changes to another one and finally, a soprano

35

voice resonates inside the vehicle. Sometimes, blonde hair emerges in the rear-view mirror. It is enough to recognize THE DOUBLE OF NAOMI WATTS, sitting at the back. Her vivid green dress fits the shape of the dark leather seat. She has a delicate purse in her hands and she is looking into the distance, her soft gaze filled with some incomprehensible thoughts. She says a few inaudible (to the audience) words to the driver. His confident hands are holding the wheel.

We can see some tears flowing down behind his glasses in which the sea is reflected from afar.

CUT TO: INT. HOSPITAL ROOM The woman is now awake and she is sitting in her bed. She still has lots of electrodes and wires on her head. She looks frightening like that. The camera looks at her face very close. Her eyes are lost in the distance. The two employees with medical coats are standing on each side of the bed, looking at her. It is impossible to see their faces, but we can guess that they have hairy arms. They ask her about the dreams she had on the previous night.

She speaks distinctively with a distant voice, but with long pauses after every sentences. She does not seem to be present in the room. It sounds more like a reminiscence of an old memory, a sort of ghostly and immobile moment.

THE WOMAN It was not a pleasant dream. I dreamt I was at a family dinner party. A bloody big dinner party. I couldn’t understand why I was there. I wasn’t related to anyone.

I didn’t know anyone either. It was a dreary gathering. Bloody hell, it was depressing.

I didn’t understand why, but I got the feeling it was my fault. I felt it was up to me to lighten up the atmosphere, do something funny.

I thought, I’ll do the tablecloth trick, even though I’d never done it before.

There was a hell of a lot of china that came off the table with the cloth. Good God. The police came, and there was a trial. I was charged with gross negligence, disregarding someone else’s property. The worst thing you could do, they said. 18

36

The two medical hands write all the monologue in their notebooks without interrupting her. One of the two doctors presses the red button on his iPhone to stop the recording when she stops speaking. The camera shows us the notebook of one of the doctors. A written fragment of description of what is taking place is visible on the screen. The camera reaches to the notebook and shows us what the doctor wrote. We zoom to his last sentence: « and shows us what the doctor wrote. » It is impossible to see if the text continues or not in the notebook.

CUT TO: INT. THE CINEMA ROOM The camera moves slowly from right to left on the faces of the musicians. The orchestra is playing a tune which sounds like a swarm of crickets. The sound is very similar to the noise of the insects. It is easy to imagine the nature and the wild grass behind the rank of musicians.

The noise of the wind is added to the primary sound and the image of some branches on a sunny day comes in mind, like a sweet dream or a soothing memory.

THE CONDUCTOR (shouts) Stop the crickets sound ! Begin the imitation of eaten popcorn and a noise of crumpling fabric. The musicians begin to play the two sounds requested in a very realistic style.

A moment passes.

THE CONDUCTOR I need the sound of a running car and then, many flashes. Wait ! Ok, and right now a slam of car’s door. Perfect !

You’re good guys… And in 3 – 2 - 1 ... let’s play another door slam. Great !

A moment passes.

Wait.. stop, stop it ! Who did a wrong note ? I guess, it comes from the cellist...

It is the first and last time. ! Is that

37

Film had successfully usurped the portrayal of the « real » without the distractions of odors, dust, noise, chaos and insupportably high production costs in redaction to the numbers of potential viewers. VII … namely the reality can be articulated and reproduced VIII

clear ? We’re not supposed to stop like that otherwise they will have some problems with the live screening and then they’ll fire me.

CUT TO: LARGE INT. ROOM - DAY After a short crackle on the screen, the image is transformed into a wide still shot with a big room and a large table in the middle. There are fourteen people sitting around it. The plates are abundantly filled and we can see the smoke coming out from the porcelain pot at the center of the table. Everyone is looking straight. Nobody speaks and they are all waiting for something, but the viewer has no clue as to what it is. The image appears as a photograph, still as a frozen image, but we can see the fourteen people breathing and blinking sometimes.

The scene stays like this for a while creating suspense about the continuing or stopping image. At one point, we have the sensation that the scene is a short loop or a glitch. But suddenly a woman, who is one of the guests, stands up and goes very slowly around the table to finally stop at the end of it. She waits there for a long time without moving. Then she takes the tablecloth with her two confident hands and she pulls it sharply. The woman falls to the ground with all the dishes in a terrible sound.

None of the others guests make a move around the table.

They sit quietly at their place like if nothing happened. 19 CUT TO: INT. HOSPITAL ROOM The woman has just woken up. She looks terrified and is sweating a lot. Her hair is confusedly arranged and the two doctors have to calm her down. She is disorientated and does not know where she is, exactly as if it was the first time that she ever woke up in her life.

THE WOMAN I remember… I remember… It was red... and red. Everywhere... Red. Curtains too.

39

Red, Red... Red. THE TWO DOCTORS (confused) Calm down! Calm down! You are in a hospital Madam. Everything is fine now.

Just calm down. Yes, like that, it is fine. Everything is fine...

THE WOMAN (loud) RED, RED, R-E-D...

She screams and collapses, unconscious. The two doctors leave the room. The camera lets us see the back of the two doctors’ heads in a slow pan from the left side of the room. They have monkey’s heads.

CUT TO: OUT. A BLACK SCREEN AND A SUNNY ROAD Someone presses the play button on the screen with the mouse cursor. The video opens with some subtitles on a black background. No sound.

Its images were so powerful, it was like being hypnotized.

I was one of the insatiables.

The ones you’d always find sitting closest to the screen.

Why did we sit so close?

Maybe it was because we wanted to receive the images first, when they were still new, still fresh.

Before they cleared the hurdles of the rows behind us.

Before they had been relayed back from row to row, spectator to spectator, until worn-out, the size of a postage stamp, they returned to the projectionist’s cabin.

Maybe, too, the screen really was a screen.

It screened us from the world. 20 Then the video goes on with what seems to be the rear window of a car. A horse is walking behind the car,

40

following it slowly. The video is playing normally but sometimes some glitches appear on the screen. The video rewinds and plays and comes back and plays again. The horse stops, but the car continues, leaving the horse behind at a certain distance. A second horse comes from another road a few meters behind the first one. The screen goes back again and the horse is still walking behind the car like at the beginning. The video is playing normally, but again, it comes back one more time.

It is like if the image was exhausted. All the soul of the video is used up frames after frames. A pop-up window appears in a corner of the video. It is written that you can subscribe to this channel, you just have to click there, if you are interested. Then the two horses stay on the road and slowly become smaller and smaller.

Simultaneously, the car continues to move forward and finally the video cuts to black abruptly, letting only visible the remaining pop-up window. 21 But then multiple pop-up windows appear on the screen. The mouse cursor tries to close them one after the other, unsuccessfully.

The screen is submerged by dozen and dozen of windows. We can see the contents of some of them. All the videos are arranged in the same way as « Grosse Fatigue » 22.

WINDOW 1 A nice and strong hand is touching the wheel of a luxurious car. A silver shirt cuff is visible close to the right border of the screen. Its shape is quite similar to a strange flower, but it is difficult to recognize which one is it. We understand that the car is moving through the movements of the driver’s arms. A voice coming from the back of the car is speaking to him. It is not audible, but apparently, it is a female voice. The camera stays focused on the hands of the man. In the background of the image, we can distinguish a fuzzy landscape of mountains.

WINDOW 2 This pop-up window comes on the top of the first one and slightly moves to the left. The story of the first popup window continues. On the second one, there is a blonde girl standing in a glamorous bathroom and talking about the benefits of some beauty creams. Naomi Watts herself in her private washroom is presenting the glow, the delicious and lovely creams, serums and soft masks that she likes to use on her skin. She has a very sensitive one and she knows

41

very quickly if the product can irritate her or not. She stands close to the mirror wearing an ordinary shirt with some blue stripes. At some point of the video, we can hear her very well.

NAOMI WATTS ...It smells really good and it’s got Baobab in it. And just warm water again, and that gives you a deep cleanse. I love this in the shower. Oh Joanna Vargas, lovely Eye Cream. I love all of her products, and her facials. She’s a genius... 23 This video continues and another one just pops up next to it.

WINDOW 3 A black background appears on this one and after two or three seconds the title « Do artichokes look like sea anemones ?» appears on the screen. The typeface used for it is Gotham Medium. A widely used sans serif digital typeface. A large amount of the material of Obama’s campaign was created with Gotham and for the federal election campaign of the Autralian Labor Party in 2016 as well. The mouse’s cursor clicks on the title and then a serie of Wikipedia pages about the symbolic of artichokes emerges without giving enough time to the viewer to read it. 24 WINDOW 4 A new window springs in front of the last one. Smaller this time, making way to see the desktop icons. The video shows something unclear, but close to a 3D image. It is moving in a circular way. Slowly, our eyes discover some dark purple digital leaves. Then it becomes less purple, lighter. Something more pearlescent, like one of those surprising butterflies, almost blue. The whole shape and its colors move seductively along the 4th window. The blue changes into purple again and turns lighter and lighter.

It is more a light yellow now and gradually the color turns into a tasteless dark green. The colors move as strangely bright as the skin of a cuttlefish or the tentacles of an underwater flower. Very enigmatic and fluorescent at the same time. The movement of the camera goes backwards. The relief of a sort of vegetable is identifiable. The leaves are folded up one above the others like an endless fractal

42

pattern. In fact, that is definitely one. One with some hay in the middle. The artichoke is cut in its length in the same way than this famous picture of a nautilus representing the golden ratio. The image is obviously a digital one, a fake one, but resembling enough according to the brain. We are able to recognize an artichoke, which unexpectedly looks like a sea anemone due to its flower on the top.

WINDOW 5 This new window opens next to the last one without touching it. Interior of the luxurious car again. It is another point of view than the 1st Window. This shot is more cinematic, at eye level, but it is still impossible to see the sitting person at the back. A nice photographic light falls over the face of the driver. It is almost night.

Sometimes the headlights of others cars illuminate the right cheek of the man. He is calm. Nobody speaks in the car. The only sound comes from an opera singer through the speakers. An acute, soft and haunting voice lulls the two occupants of the vehicle, engulfed by the darkness. The screen is now full of small windows. The 5th Window starts again from the beginning. It is a loop.

Interior of the luxurious car again. It is another point of view than the 1st window. This shot is more cinematic, at eye level, but it is still impossible to see the sitting person at the back. A nice photographic light falls over the face of the driver. It is almost night. The headlights of other cars illuminate the right cheek of the man as he has some bright tears. Sometimes he looks in the rear-view mirror. Nobody speaks in the car. The only sound comes from an opera singer through the speakers. An acute, soft and haunting voice lulls the two occupants of the vehicle, engulfed by the darkness. The voice resounds as an old echo of the past. The screen is now full of small windows. The 5th Window starts again from the beginning. It is a loop.

Interior of the luxurious car again. It is another point of view than the 1st Window. This shot is a really cinematic one, at eye level, but it is still impossible to see the sitting person at the back. Only a green and delicate piece of clothes touches the blurry foreground. A cloudy photographic light falls over the face of the driver. It is almost night. The first raindrops fall on the windscreen.

Sometimes the headlights of other cars illuminate the right cheek of the man. He is calm, but teardrops are running

43

down his cheeks. Drops of water are merging with the tears through the window. Sometimes he looks in the rear-view mirror where a blonde woman takes shape.

THE WOMAN (In a reassuring voice) It doesn’t matter who I am.

The driver switches the radio on and an acute, sad and haunting voice rustles through the speakers. It lulls the two occupants of the vehicle, engulfed by the vast night.

The voice resounds as an old echo of the past.

An overwhelming music accompanies the two red lighthouses, which become smaller and smaller. The screen is now full of small windows. The 5th Window starts from the beginning again. It is a loop. An increasingly desperate loop. 25 WINDOW 6 The sixth window opens next to the fifth window. At first glance, everything looks the same as Window number five.

Both videos are playing at the same time, but then the sixth window changes a little bit the placement of the camera and recording equipment appears on the screen. All this scene is taken with a little distance compared to the previous one. The scene goes on as in the previous windows.

Except at one moment where the driver speaks directly to the camera.

THE DRIVER We could drive until the green ray appears...

CUT TO: INT. HOSPITAL OFFICE The two doctors are talking to each other whilst having a look at their own written notes of the day.

FIRST DOCTOR Do you think we should add a key element in this story ? We didn’t write enough for today, I think...

SECOND DOCTOR I’d prefer some popcorn.

44

FIRST DOCTOR (reflective) Ok, but we still need some colors, don’t we ?

SECOND DOCTOR Digital popcorn ?

FIRST DOCTOR (looking at the SECOND DOCTOR) Let’s have a look at the color scheme.

We have: Pale Dogwood, Niagara, Pink Yarrow, Island Paradise...

A short silence.

Flame, Lapis Blue, Primrose Yellow, Hazelnut or Kale that are available... 26 SECOND DOCTOR Island Paradise, Lapis Blue and Primrose Yellow sound good to me.

FIRST DOCTOR Hum... So, « Lapis Yellow Paradise to Blue Primrose » is a nice new pantone, I guess.

SECOND DOCTOR ...and let’s put the « Island » at the end. It could be a paradise or not.

We will see how it goes... And what about the popcorn ?

FIRST DOCTOR Yes, let’s put the island at the end.

Hum... and why not... So let’s say a blue key made of popcorn ?

SECOND DOCTOR I’m happy with this.

FIRST DOCTOR A box could be nice too. There is always something mysterious with a locked box.

45

SECOND DOCTOR I completely agree.

FIRST DOCTOR Let’s go back to the room to add these new elements to the patient...

CUT TO: INT. AN ALMOST EMPTY ROOM The phone is ringing again next to the young man with his red face. He is sitting on the same chair and does not seem to be angry anymore. He only has a little smirk. Various tubes of cream for body, hands and face are lying on a small glass table in front of him. It smells like Baobab in the room. The floor has a creamy-white color and some symbols in the form of amphibian tentacles, which gives a magical atmosphere to the place. They are printed as a pattern on the floor, replicated almost everywhere, even on the walls. The young man puts his hands on the thighs with a ceremonial gesture. Then, he takes the tubes of cream and empties all of them in a big silver jar.

The movements of his hands are slow, wide and graceful at the same time. His face is still red with some intensity variations. The young man grabs a silver decanter, which contains a red liquid, and he pours the content into the first jar. Then, he joins his two hands, and blends the mixture with a metallic stick for about one minute. Slowly, he places a small white towel in the unusual concoction and then squeezes out the excess of liquid with his two fingers.

The small towel is completely red as a lobster. He puts it on his same colored face and stays like this for a while.

We zoom closer. The fabric becomes thinner and thinner as if it was absorbed by the changing face of the young man.

Still sat on the sofa, he is breathing deeply with his head covered by a new skin, a new mask, which now has more feminine facial features. Its texture is astonishingly smooth, but dreadfully pale... 27 THE YOUNG MAN No more red... !

CUT TO:

46

PARADISE ISLAND CALLED « ROOM TO DREAM » All characters from the script are gathered in the same big hangar in the middle of paradise island. The (golden) driver, the (bluish) double of Naomi Watts and Nicolina Ome, the double (of doubles) of Nicole Kidman and Nicolina Ome as well, the two horses, the conductor and his orchestra, the scarab, Tony (Tony and Tony) with red spots on his shirt, the fourteen guests, the (dead) audience, the popcorn’s man, the soaked gardener, the crickets, the film director and his crew, the young man, the phone, the little girl, the window cleaner with his yellow helmet, doctor 1 and doctor 2, binarian character 1, binarian character 2 and their smartphones, the two dreamy 16 and 16/9 girls, the author(s) 28 All of them have a fine metallic blue key around their neck worn as a necklace. Neon lightings are illuminating the « Room to Dream » lettering at the entrance of this place.

People are queuing to go inside. A high-pitched voice coming from the room is resonating in the entrance. All the glasses of the guests are vibrating as if it could shatter in a sumptuous explosion. It would be a champagne blast.

The double of Maria Callas is wearing an astonishing bright blue dress with a strange box at the back that has a small unusual lock. The audience (dead and alive) is hurrying to come closer to the singer.

She is bewitching everyone with the sound of her voice, even the walls are starting to dance. « The world is yours » is written in several places in different electric colors and it is raining dollar bills. The $125,000.00 that were in the purse are falling down as a shower of green confetti. Sometimes one of the people listed above tries to open the box at the back of the singer’s dress with their blue key, to check if they are dreaming or not, if they are in love or not, if they are alive or not, if they are real or not, but the camera does not stay long enough to watch if the box opens or not. The double of Maria Callas holds the last note for a very long time. The camera moves up and a spectacular deflagration followed by a loud noise of insect’s stridulations can be heard. The blinking electric letters emerge from a cloud of smoke. A cloud of smoke that brings a salty breeze. It is 3 p.m. again. 29 FADE OUT: THE END

47

48

FOOTNOTES

1.

Raoul Ruiz, Poetic of Cinema.1 (Paris: Dis Voir, 2005), p.6

2.

The Green Ray (Le Rayon Vert), dir: Eric Rohmer, 1986.

3.

Exactly the same time as: The Waterer Watered (L’Arroseur Arrosé), dir: Louis Lumière, 1985.

4.

Scarface , dir: Brian De Palma, 1983.

5.

Sam Taylor-Wood, Crying Men (Göttingen: Steidl, 2004), p.32

6.

Pamela Robertson Wojcik, Movie Acting, the film reader (New York: Routledge, 2004), p.20

7.

Final dialogue: Funny Games U.S., dir: Michael Hanecke, 2008.

8.

This scene is inspired by: Servitudes, dir: Jesper Just, 2015.

9.

Final monologue in: Scarface, dir: Brian De Palma, 1983.

10.

Rapid Eye Movement sleep, also called the paradoxical sleep. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rapid_ eye_movement_sleep&oldid=843064035> [accessed 29 Mai 2018]

11.

This is part of the famous theme song of Scarface, dir: Brian De Palma, 1983. It was also featured on the soundtrack of the video game Grand Theft Auto III (2001), on its fictional Flashback 95.6 radio station. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grand_ Theft_Auto:_Vice_City&oldid=846828155> [accessed 21 June 2018]

49

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index php?title=Scarface_ (1983_film)&oldid=846742182> [accessed 1 June 2018] 12.

First dialogue when Grace arrives in the village of Dogville. Dogville, dir: Lars Von Trier, 2004.

13.

Definition of the movie Mulholland Drive by D. Lynch himself. Mulholland Drive, dir: David Lynch, 2002. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/davidlynchs-elusive-language [accessed 1 June 2018]

14.

Françoise Sagan, Hello, Sadness (Bonjour Tristesse, Paris: Julliard.), 1954.

15.

Translation of the binarian dialogue using this source: http://www.binarytranslator.com — Hello.

- Hi. - Wanna have sex ?

- What kind of pixel are you ?

- A blue one.

- I can accom’.

- Cool.

16.

Author’s note: I changed a few words from the original script (Mulholland Drive, dir: David Lynch, 2002.) to connect the story to mine.

17.

Author’s note: this scene is played without taking into account the money in the purse. It does not affect the story. It is only to stay scrupulously faithful to the original text that I chose to leave the money in the bag, but it is pointless.

18.

You, The Living, dir: Roy Andersson, 2007.

19.

Description from a scene in the movie, You, The Living, dir: Roy Andersson, 2007.

20.

Opening of the movie: The Dreamers, dir: Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003.

21.

Rear Window, Florian Luthi, video,3min, 2018.

22.

Grosse Fatigue, Camille Henrot, video, 13min, 2013.

50

23.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta27LPbZ06Y [accessed 3 June 2018]

24.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gotham_ (typeface)&oldid=841367128> [accessed 5 June 2018]

25.

Inspired by the Beaver Trilogy, dir: Trent Harris, 2001.

26.

Pantone’s names.

27.

Replicated of the first scene of the movie: Holy Mountain, dir: Alejandro Jodorowski, 1973.

28.

You are part of the author. Pierre Bayard, Et si Les Oeuvres Changeaient d’Auteurs ? (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 2010), p.155

29.

Inspired by the final scene of the movie: Mister Lonely, dir: Harmony Korine, 2007.

51

BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS Astic, Guy. Twin Peaks: les laboratoires de David Lynch.

Pertuis: Rouge profond, 2008.

Auster, Paul. The Book of Illusions: A Novel. London: Faber and Faber, 2011.

Bayard, Pierre. Et si Les Oeuvres Changeaient d’Auteurs ?.

Editions de Minuit, 2010.

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Paris: Folio, 2014.

Bean, Victoria, Chris McCabe, Kenneth Goldsmith, and Robert Montgomery. The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in the 21st Century. 2015.

Benjamin, Walter. Understanding Brecht. London: Verso, 2003.

Beckett, Samuel. Catastrophe et Autre Dramaticules. Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1992.

Beckett Samuel, Waiting for Godot. London: Faber and Faber, 1978.

Beckett, Samuel. L’image. Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1988.

Beckett, Samuel. Fin de Partie. Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1957 Bille, Stéphanie C, and Céline Cerny. Théoda: Roman.

Lausanne: Plaisir de lire, 2008.

Blanchot, Maurice. L’Ecriture du Désastre. Paris: Gallimard, 2014, ©1980.

Borges, Jorge Luis, Emir Rodriguez Monegal, and Alastair Reid. Borges, a Reader: A Selection from the Writings of Jorge Luis Borges. New York: Dutton, 1981.

Branigan, Edward. Narrative comprehension and film. London: Routledge, 1992.

52

Brecht, Bertolt. Le cercle de craie caucasien ; Homme pour homme ; L’exception et la règle. Théâtre Complet.

Paris: l’Arche, 1969.

Bret Easton Ellis, Glamorama, London: Picador, 2011.

Büchner, Georg, and Michel Cadot. La Mort de Danton; Léonce et Léna; Woyzeck; Lenz. Paris: Flammarion, 2002.

Camus, Albert, Justin O’Brien, and Gustavo Aguilera. The myth of Sisyphus, and other essays. 2016.

Danielewski, M. (n.d.). Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of leaves.

Ewards, Kathleen A. Acting Out: Invented A Melodrama In Contemporary Photography. Iowa City: University of Iowa Museum of Art, 2005.

Gysin, Brion, William Seward Burroughs, and Jan Herman.

Brion Gysin Let the Mice In. [West Glover, Vt.]: Something Else Press, 1973.

Huyghe, Pierre, Emma Lavigne, Amelia Barikin, Tristan Garcia, Vincent Normand, and David Wharry. Pierre Huyghe. 2014.

Iversen, Margaret. Chance: [Vito Acconci, William Anastasi, Michael Archer ...]. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2010.

Just, Jesper, and Katell Jaffrès. Jesper Just. Paris: Palais de Tokyo, 2015.

Kholeif, Omar. You Are Here: Art After the Internet. 2017.

Lynch, David, and Werner Spies. David Lynch: Dark Splendor: Space Images Sound. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2010.

Lynch, David, and Chris Rodley. Lynch on Lynch. London: Faber and Faber, 1997.

Lynch, David, Barry Gifford, and Serge Grünberg. Scénario Lost Highway. Paris: Cahiers du Cinéma, 2001.

Lütticken, Sven, and Jennifer Allen. Life, Once More: Forms

53

of Reenactment in Contemporary Art. Rotterdam: Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, 2005.

Martin, Carol and Henry Bial. Brecht Sourcebook. London: Routledge, 2001.

McCarthy Tom. Remainder. Richmond, Surrey, Alma Books, 2006.

McLuhan, Marshall, and Jean Paré. Pour comprendre les médias: les prolongements technologiques de l’homme.

2015.

Munier, Roger. Contre l’Image. [Paris]: Gallimard, 1989.

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Feu Pâle / trad. de l’anglais par Raymond Girard et Maurice-Edgar Coindreau. Paris: Gallimard, 1965.

Rancière, Jacques. Les Ecarts du Cinema. Paris: Ed. La Fabrique Editions, 2011.

Ribon, Michel. Esthétique de la Catastrophe: Essai sur l’Art et La Catastrophe. Paris: Ed. Kimé, 1999.

Ruiz, Raúl, and Brian Holmes. Poetics of Cinema. 1, 1.

Paris: Éd. Dis Voir, 2005.

Sarfati, Lise, and Quentin Bajac. Lise Sarfati - She. Santa Fe: Twin Palms, 2012.

Taylor-Wood, Sam. Crying Men. Göttingen: Steidl, 2004.

Wall, Jeff, and Jean-François Chevrier. Essais et entretiens 1984-2001. Paris: Ensb-a Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, 2004.

Williams, Emmett. An Anthology of Concrete Poetry. 2013.

Wojcik, P. R. Movie Acting, The Film Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Woods, Paul A. Weirdsville USA: The Obsessive Universe of David Lynch. London: Plexus, 2000.

Younge, Gary. Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives. New York: Nation Books, 2016.

54

FILMS Bertolucci, Bernardo. The Dreamers. 2003.

Cassevetes, John, Opening Night. 1977.

Cavalier, Alain. Thérèse. 1986.

Cocteau, Jean, Orphée. 2014.

De Palma, Brian. Scarface. 1983.

Harris, Trent. Beaver Trilogy. 2001.

Haneke, Michael, Funny Games U.S. 2007.

Haneke, Michael, Funny Games. 1997.

Hawks, Howard. Scarface. 1923.

Henrot, Camille. Grosse Fatigue. 2013.

Herzog, Werner. Herz aus Glass. 1976.

Herzog, Werner, and Brad Dourif. The Wild Blue Yonders. 2007.

Jodorowsky Alejandro. The Holy Mountain. 1973..

Kiarostami, Abbas. Close-Up. 2015.

Korine, Harmony. Mister Lonely. 2007.

Lynch, David. Mulholland Drive. 2002.

Lynch, David. Lost Highway. 2002.

Lynch, David. Inland Empire. 2009.

Mekas, Jonas. Lost, lost, lost. 2012.

Marker, Chris. La Jetée. 2014.

Marker, Chris. Letters from Siberia. 2014 Marker, Chris. Sans Soleil. 2014.

Rohmer, Eric. Le Rayon Vert. 1986.

Andersson, Roy. You, The Living. 2007.

Smith, Chris. Jim & Andy. 2017.

Trier, Lars Von. Dogville. 2004.

CONFERENCES Burgin, Victor, The Camera Essence and Apparatus, The Courtauld Institue of Art, Somerset House, Strand, London, 23.5.18 ARCHIVES Between Brecht and Beckett, Changing Stages, BBC2, col., 55mins. 3.12.00 Michael Haneke/ Martin McDonagh/ Ari Versluis, The Culture Show, BBC2, col.,55mins. 29.3.08

55

INTERNET RESSOURCES Bjorkman, S. (2004). Lars von Trier on the highs and lows of making Dogville. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/jan/12/1 [Accessed 5 Dec. 2017].

Dellsperger, B. (2013). Brice Dellsperger. [online] Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/user13687930 [Accessed 8 Oct. 2017].

Denson, Shane, and Julia Leyda. Post-Cinema: Theorizing 21st Century Film. 2016 Dunn, M. (2004). Mulholland Drive Screenplay. [online] Lynchnet.com. Available at: http://www.lynchnet.com/ mdrive/mdscript.html [Accessed 8 Jun. 2018].

Filmsite.org. (1999). Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932). [online] Available at: http://www.filmsite. org/scar.html [Accessed 15 Jun. 2018].

Into The Gloss. (2018). Inside Naomi Watts’s Bathroom+Beauty Routine. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta27LPbZ06Y [Accessed 8 Jun. 2018].

Lim, D. (2015). David Lynch’s Elusive Language. [online] The New Yorker. Available at: https://www.newyorker. com/books/page-turner/david-lynchs-elusive-language [Accessed 17 Jun. 2018].

Lumière, L. (1895). L’Arroseur Arrosé. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlbiNuT7EDI [Accessed 15 Dec. 2018].

McCarthy, T. and Daniel, M. (2002). Catastrophe Syllabus] | Earthquakes | Disaster And Accident. [online] Scribd. Available at: https://fr.scribd.com/ document/40893657/Catastrophe-Syllabus [Accessed 29 Jan. 2018].

Peter Szendy (2017). Les Chemins de la Philosphie. [podcast] Le Supermarché du Visible par Peter Szendy.

Available at: https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/ les-chemins-de-la-philosophie/le-supermarche-duvisible-de-peter-szendy [Accessed 4 Jun. 2018].

56

Smith, J. (1976). The Girl Chewing Gum. [video] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/ john-smith-girl-chewing-gum [Accessed 5 Feb. 2018].

Springfield! Springfield!. (2010). Funny Games U.S. (2007) Movie Script | SS. [online] Available at: https:// www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script. php?movie=funny-games-u-s [Accessed 15 Jan. 2018].

Wikipedia contributors, ‘Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 June 2018, 03:59 UTC, <https://en.wikipedia. org/w/index.php?title=Grand_Theft_Auto:_Vice_ City&oldid=846828155> [accessed 21 June 2018] Wikipedia contributors, ‘Scarface (1983 film)’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 June 2018, 16:26 UTC, <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scarface_ (1983_film)&oldid=846742182> [accessed 1 June 2018] Wikipedia contributors, ‘Scarface (soundtrack)’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 13 May 2018, 00:57 UTC, <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index. php?title=Scarface_(soundtrack)&oldid=840932923> [accessed 21 June 2018]

57

APPENDIX

I.

Brion Gysin, Let The Mice In (West Glover: Something Else Press, 1973), p.56

II.

Sydney Lumet, Making Movies (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), p.23

III.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/jan/12/1 [Accessed 5 Dec. 2017].

IV.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/jan/12/1 [Accessed 5 Dec. 2017].

V.

Kathleen Ewards, A. Acting Out: Invented A Melodrama In Contemporary Photography (Iowa City: University of Iowa Museum of Art, 2005), p. 47

VI.

Tom MacCarthy, Remainder (Surrey: Alma Books, 2006), p.168

VII.

Carol Martin, Brecht Sourcebook: a Critical Anthology (London: Routledge, 2001), p.1

VIII. Raoul Ruiz, Poetic of Cinema.1 (Paris: Dis Voir, 2005), p.37 IX.

58

Shane Denson, and Julia Leyda. Post-Cinema: Theorizing 21st Century Film. 2016, p.62