by Paul Auster. Final script
Pol dobija zadatak da napiše božićnu priču za časopis. Međutim, ima samo 4 dana i nijednu ideju. Požali se Ogiju koji mu kaže da ima pun džak božićnih priča i da će mu pomoći, ako mu Pol plati ručak. Sledećeg dana dva prijatelja se sastaju u restoranu… Svake godine u vreme Božića obavezno na nekoj TV prikazuju Smoke. Tada se prisetim kako je Oster nekad bio genijalan.
PAUL
(Settling in)
So. Are we ready?
AUGGIE
Ready. Any time you are.
PAUL
I’m all ears.
AUGGIE
Okay.
(Pause. Thinks)
You remember how you once asked me how I
started taking pictures? Well, this is the
story of how I got my first camera. As a matter
of fact, it’s the only camera I’ve ever had.
Are you following me so far?
PAUL
Every word.
AUGGIE
(Close-up of AUGGIE’S face)
Okay.
(Pause)
So this is the story of how it happened.
(Pause)
Okay.
(Pause)
It was the summer of ’seventy-six, back when I
first started working for Vinnie. The summer of
the bicentennial.
(Pause)
A kid came in one morning and started stealing
things from the store. He’s standing by the
rack of paperbacks near the front window
stuffing skin magazines under his shirt. It
was crowded around the counter just then, so I
didn’t see him at first….
AUGGIE’S face dissolves into PAUL’S. Black-and-white footage begins: we
see AUGGIE acting out the events he describes to PAUL. This scene
exactly duplicates the events shown earlier in Scenes 2 and 3 — with
one difference. The thief is now ROGER GOODWIN, the same person who
beat up PAUL in Scene 54, the same person whose picture AUGGIE has just
noticed in the newspaper. The events unfold in silence, accompanied by
AUGGIE’S voice-over narration.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
But once I noticed what he was up to, I started
to shout. He took off like a jackrabbit, and by
the time I managed to get out from behind the
counter, he was already tearing down Seventh
Avenue. I chased after him for about half a
block, and then I gave up. He’d dropped
something along the way, and since I didn’t
feel like running anymore, I bent down to see
what it was.
We see AUGGIE chasing the kid, giving up, and bending down for the
wallet. He starts walking back to the store.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
It turned out to be his wallet. There wasn’t
any money inside, but his driver’s license was
there, along with three or four snapshots. I
suppose I could have called the cops and had
him arrested. I had his name and address from
the license, but I felt kind of sorry for him.
He was just a measly little punk, and once I
looked at those pictures in his wallet, I
couldn’t bring myself to feel very angry at
him….
We see AUGGIE examining the pictures. Close-ups of the pictures.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
Roger Goodwin. That was his name. In one of the
pictures, I remember, he was standing next to
his mother. In another one, he was holding some
trophy he got from school and smiling like he
just won the Irish Sweepstakes. I just didn’t
have the heart. A poor kid from Brooklyn
without much going for him, and who cared about
a couple of dirty magazines, anyway?
Cut to Jack’s Restaurant. The WAITER arrives at the table with their
orders.
WAITER
Here you go, boys. Two corned beef sandwiches.
Two ginger ales. The fast way. The simple way.
(He leaves)
PAUL
(Putting mustard on his sandwich)
And?
AUGGIE
(Taking a sip of his drink)
So I held onto the wallet. Every once in a
while I’d get a little urge to send it back to
him, but I kept delaying and never did anything
about it.
(Puts mustard on his sandwich)
Then Christmas rolls around, and I’m stuck with
nothing to do. Vinnie was going to invite me
over, but his mother got sick, and he and his
wife had to go down to Florida at the last
minute.
(Takes a bite of the sandwich, chews)
So I’m sitting in my apartment that morning,
feeling a little sorry for myself, and then I
see Roger Goodwin’s wallet lying on a shelf in
the kitchen. I figure what the hell, why not do
something nice for once, and I put on my coat
and go out to return the wallet… .
Cut to black-and-white footage: the housing projects in Boerum Hill. We
see AUGGIE wandering alone among the buildings, bundled up against the
cold. At the same time, we hear:
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
The address was over in Boerum Hill, somewhere
in the projects. It was freezing out that day,
and I remember getting lost a few times trying
to find the right building. Everything looks
the same in that place, and you keep going over
the same ground thinking you’re somewhere else.
Anyway, I finally get to the apartment I’m
looking for and ring the bell…
Shot of AUGGIE walking down a corridor in the housing projects;
graffiti on the cinder-block walls. He stops in front of a door and
pushes the buzzer.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
Nothing happens. I assume no one’s there, but I
try again just to make sure. I wait a little
longer, and just when I’m about to give up, I
hear someone shuffling to the door. An old
woman’s voice asks, “Who’s there?” and I say
I’m looking for Roger Goodwin. “Is that you,
Roger?” the old woman says, and then she undoes
about fifteen locks and opens the door….
Shot of a very old black woman, GRANNY ETHEL, opening the door. A
rapturous, expectant smile is on her face. Even though the scene
unfolds in silence, we see AUGGIE and GRANNY ETHEL mouthing the
dialogue that AUGGIE repeats to PAUL.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
She has to be at least eighty, maybe ninety
years old, and the first thing I notice about
her is she’s blind. “I knew you’d come. Roger,”
she says. “I knew you wouldn’t forget your
Granny Ethel on Christmas.” And then she opens
her arms as if she’s about to hug me.
We see AUGGIE hesitate for a second. As he reports the next little part
of the story, we see him giving in, opening his arms, and hugging
GRANNY ETHEL. The hug is then repeated in somewhat slower motion, then
again in slow motion; then again, in very slow motion: then again in
motion so slow that it appears as a sequence of still photographs.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
I don’t have much time to think, you understand.
I had to say something real fast, and before I
knew what was happening, I could hear the words
coming out of my mouth. “That’s right, Granny
Ethel,” I said. “I came back to see you on
Christmas.” Don’t ask me why I did it. I don’t
have any idea. It just came out that way, and
suddenly this old woman’s hugging me there in
front of the door, and I’m hugging her back. It
was like a game we both decided to play –
without having to discuss the rules. I mean,
that woman knew I wasn’t her grandson. She was
old and dotty, but she wasn’t so far gone that
she couldn’t tell the difference between a
stranger and her own flesh and blood. But it
made her happy to pretend, and since I had
nothing better to do anyway, I was happy to go
along with her….
AUGGIE and GRANNY ETHEL enter the apartment and sit down in chairs in
the living room. We see them talking, laughing. Meanwhile, we hear:
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
So we went into the apartment and spent the day
together. Every time she asked me a question
about how I was, I would lie to her. I told her
I’d found a good job in a cigar store. I told
her I was about to get married. I told her a
hundred pretty stories, and she made like she
believed every one of them. “That’s fine,
Roger,” she would say, nodding her head and
smiling. “I always knew things would work out
for you….”
The camera pans slowly through GRANNY ETHEL’S apartment, lingering
momentarily on various objects. Among other things, we see portraits of
Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, family photographs, balls of
yarn, knitting needles. By the time this visual tour is completed, we
see AUGGIE entering the apartment again, wearing his coat and carrying
a large bag of groceries. As described in the simultaneous narration:
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
After a while, I started getting hungry. There
didn’t seem to be much food in the house, so I
went out to a store in the neighborhood and
brought back a mess of stuff. A precooked
chicken, vegetable soup, a bucket of potato
salad, all kinds of things. Ethel had a couple
of bottles of wine stashed in her bedroom, and
so between us we managed to put together a
fairly decent Christmas dinner….
We see AUGGIE and GRANNY ETHEL at the dining-room table: eating the
food, drinking the wine, talking.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
We both got a little tipsy from the wine, I
remember, and after the meal was over we went
out to sit in the living room where the chairs
were more comfortable…
We see AUGGIE leading GRANNY ETHEL by the arm and helping her into a
chair. Then AUGGIE leaves the living room and walks to the bathroom
down the hall.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
I had to take a pee, so I excused myself and
went to the bathroom down the hall. That’s
where things took another turn. It was ditsy
enough doing my little jig as Ethel’s
grandson, but what I did next was positively
crazy, and I’ve never forgiven myself for
it….
We see AUGGIE in the bathroom. As he pees, we see the boxes of cameras,
just as he describes them.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
I go into the bathroom, and stacked up against
the wall next to the shower, I see a pile of
six or seven cameras. Brand-new, thirty-five
millimeter cameras, still in their boxes. I
figure this is the work of the real Roger, a
storage place for one of his recent hauls.
I’ve never taken a picture in my life, and I’ve
certainly never stolen anything, but the moment
I see those cameras sitting in the bathroom, I
decide I want one of them for myself. Just like
that. And without even stopping to think about
it, I tuck one of the boxes under my arm and go
back to the living room….
We see AUGGIE return to the living room with the camera. GRANNY ETHEL
is sleeping soundly in her chair. AUGGIE puts the camera down, clears
the table, and washes the dishes in the kitchen.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
I couldn’t have been gone for more than three
minutes, but in that time Granny Ethel had
fallen asleep. Too much Chianti, I suppose. I
went into the kitchen to wash the dishes, and
she slept on through the whole racket, snoring
like a baby. There didn’t seem to be any point
in disturbing her, so I decided to leave. I
couldn’t even write a note to say good-bye,
seeing that she was blind and all, so I just
left. I put her grandson’s wallet on the table,
picked up the camera again, and walked out of
the apartment… .
We see AUGGIE bending over the sleeping GRANNY ETHEL and deciding not
to wake her. We see him put the wallet on the table and pick up the
camera. We see him walking out of the apartment. Shot of the closing
door.
AUGGIE (VOICE-OVER)
And that’s the end of the story.
Cut to PAUL’S face. PAUL and AUGGIE are sitting at the table, eating
the last bites of their sandwiches.
PAUL
Did you ever go back to see her?
AUGGIE
Once, about three or four months later. I felt
so bad about stealing the camera, I hadn’t
even used it yet. I finally made up my mind to
return it, but Granny Ethel wasn’t there
anymore. Someone else had moved into the
apartment, and he couldn’t tell me where she
was.
PAUL
She probably died.
AUGGIE
Yeah, probably.
PAUL
Which means that she spent her last Christmas
with you.
AUGGIE
I guess so. I never thought of it that way.
PAUL
It was a good deed, Auggie. It was a nice thing
you did for her.
AUGGIE
I lied to her, and then I stole from her. I
don’t see how you can call that a good deed.
PAUL
You made her happy. And the camera was stolen
anyway. It’s not as if the person you took it
from really owned it.
AUGGIE
Anything for art, eh, Paul?
PAUL
I wouldn’t say that. But at least you’ve put
the camera to good use.
AUGGIE
And now you’ve got your Christmas story, don’t
you?
PAUL
(Pause. Thinks)
Yes, I suppose I do.
PAUL looks at AUGGIE. A wicked grin is spreading across AUGGIE’S face.
The look in his eyes is so mysterious, so fraught with the glow of some
inner delight, that PAUL begins to suspect that AUGGIE has made the
whole thing up. He is about to ask AUGGIE if he has been putting him on
– but then stops, realizing that AUGGIE would never tell him. PAUL
smiles.
PAUL (cont’d)
Bullshit is a real talent, Auggie. To make up a
good story, a person has to know how to push
all the right buttons.
(Pause)
I’d say you’re up there among the masters.
AUGGIE
What do you mean?
PAUL
I mean, it’s a good story.
AUGGIE
Shit. If you can’t share your secrets with your
friends, what kind of friend are you?
PAUL
Exactly. Life just wouldn’t be worth living,
would it?
AUGGIE is still smiling. PAUL smiles back at him. AUGGIE lights a
cigarette; PAUL lights a little cigar. They blow smoke into the air,
still smiling at each other.
The camera follows the smoke as it rises toward the ceiling. Close-up
of the smoke. Hold for three, four beats.
The screen goes black. Music begins to play. Final credits.
