Excerpt: William Goldman's
Adventures
in the Screen Trade.
p.182
CUT TO
HARPER, out of bed now. He goes to the blank tv set,
turns it of f. Now he moves to the window, lets the
shade fly up. WE CAN SEE his of ice more clearly now--it
doesn ' t look a bit better.
CUT TO
HARPER, still in his underwear, running water in the
sink, splashing it on his face, coming to life.
CUT TO
THE TINY KITCHEN AREA. He's shaved now, wears pants
and a short-sleeved shirt not tucked in. A tie is draped
around his neck. There is a hot plate, water is boiling.
Beside the water is a Chemex-type coffee maker. He takes
a paper filter, folds it in half , folds it one more
time, puts it into the Chemex. Then he takes a coffee
can, pours coffee into the filter-
-- only the can's empty. No coffee left. Unhappily
he stands there a moment, looks down-
CUT TO
A WASTEBASKET. He lifts the lid. Inside is yesterday's
coffee filter, the used grounds still there.
CUT TO
HARPER. He hesitates a moment, then reaches into the
wastebasket, takes out the used filter and old coffee
grounds, puts them into the Chemex, and as he starts
to pour boiling water in-
CUT TO
A FILLED CUP OF BLACK COFFEE. HARPER stands beside
it, shirt tucked in now, tie tied. He picks up the cup,
takes a swallow--and then the horrendous taste of the
stuff registers; it is like something you might drink
in the Black Hole of Calcutta. He puts the cup down,
walks past a framed photograph of a pretty smiling woman
close to his age, kind of salutes the picture as he
moves round a corner. |
