a short history of original thought in New Zealand – screenplay (short)
the cemetery of principle, part 2 (link to part 1)
EXT. FEDERAL ST. ENVIRONS — MORNING
Our man, BERNARDO, hurries across Federal Square, radio mic in place!, in front of us: he is aware of the cumbersome nature of our apparatus but keen to show us something.
BERNARDO
There’s something I want to show you! …
He waves us on.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Come on!
He’s excited.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
This way!
We descend the steps out of the square, beside the fountain.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
This isn’t bad! …
He indicates the fountain.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
No foam today!
We pause a second.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Hey!
He waves us on.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
This way!
He looks up at the buildings on either side, without slowing his pace. We’re headed for Albert St.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Yes. This is the way! … Hurry up! … Smell anything? …
He doesn’t turn around.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
My imagination.
He enunciates.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Fec-und!
He sniffs.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
No. Nothing.
He turns to us.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Come on!
EXT. ALBERT ST. ENVIRONS — CONTINUOUS
We’ve reached Albert St. We’ve stopped, waiting to cross. BERNARDO rocks on his heels, hands in pockets, pleased.
BERNARDO
Cross! …
He heads out in front.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Not far now!
We follow him up Albert St. He gets ahead of us. Stops. Waits for us to catch up.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
That’s it!
As soon as we reach him, he’s off again.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Come on!
He waits and beckons us.
We’ve reached the spiral stair descending into the alley.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Close now! … Watch your step! … It’s steep.
He stops at the bottom.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
That’s the way!
He stands in the middle of the alley, holds his hands palm up to show we’re here and looks around, satisfied.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Yes?!
He nods at us.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Yes?! … Mmmm?!
EXT. THE ALLEY — CONTINUOUS
He waits for us to respond.
BERNARDO
This is it. … So…
We watch him.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
You see!
We don’t see.
He nods, encouragingly.
He stops nodding. He looks at us as if he can’t quite hear what we’re saying. He pauses.
He starts to shake his head.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
You don’t…
He starts to nod again.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
This is where it happened.
Pause.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Yes!? … Yes!! … This is where our maestro here got mugged!
Pause.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
SMACK! over the head with a four-be-two… For a lousy jacket, yes? A pair of shoes. Hightops. Weren’t they new? … Huh?
He turns away slightly, ignoring the lack of response.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Well. I remembered. And I brought you here!
A long pause. BERNARDO somewhat crestfallen, walks a short way away.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
What do you mean?
Pause.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
What do you mean, It wasn’t here!?
EXT. THE ALLEY — CONTINUOUS
BERNARDO
Of course it was here!
Pause.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
How do I know?
Pause.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
How do I know?! I brought you here, didn’t I?!
Pause.
BERNARDO goes as if to hit us.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
SMACK! … Right here! … On the ground! … Out to it!
Pause.
He walks away, thinking.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
I wouldn’t have brought you here if it wasn’t here. I wouldn’t have bothered.
Pause.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
No!
Pause.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
No!
He approaches us.
He makes a final frustrated:
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
NNNNNNNnnnnnnnnggggggg!
And storms away.
CUT TO:
EXT. QUEEN ST. — LATER
We catch up with BERNARDO in Queen St. We hear him first. He’s whistling. He’s across a lane of traffic from us. We keep level with him as he walks.
He ducks into the entrance to the lower Queen St. Asian Foodhall.
INT. ASIAN FOODHALL — LATER
We’re sitting at the table when BERNARDO comes back with his noodles on a tray.
He looks at us with complete indifference and slurps his noodles. He makes a point of continuing to eat noisily to the very last drop.
CUT TO:
EXT. CEMETRY — LATER
Time has passed. BERNARDO has relaxed back into his old fun-loving self. He’s forgiven us.
He walks around looking at gravestones.
BERNARDO
A history…
He corrects himself, he says slowly, seriously:
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
A short history of original thought in New Zealand.
He falls down laughing at his own joke.
We follow him further into the cemetry.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Our own stories. In our own words.
Pause.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
Will they be stories? … Will they be words? …
Pause.
BERNARDO (CONT’D)
When we’ve finished with them?!
He laughs.
His laughter is cut off.
