Agnes of God Page #5

37 EXT - CONVENT - DAY

Agnes is happily swinging on a long swing attached to a tree.

DISSOLVE TO:

38 INT - CRYPT - DAY

The Sisters go about their tasks. Then all together they move

to a corner of the room which is laid out with burning candles and

make their devotions.

DISSOLVE TO:

39 INT - CONFESSIONAL - DAY

Agnes is confessing to a rather disinterested Father Martineau.

AGNES:

Last Tuesday, I didn't eat all of my

lima beans... hid them under my

spoon.

FATHER MARTINEAU

Yes...

AGNES:

(very quietly)

I thought... thoughts... about...

FATHER MARTINEAU

Speak up, I can hardly hear you.

AGNES:

(very loudly)

I thought ugly thoughts about Sister

Marguerite.

DISSOLVE TO:

40 INT - MARTHA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Martha is leafing through a sheaf of police photographs of the

sheets and

the waste-paper basket. She puts the photos aside and puffs

thoughtfully on

a cigarette.

DISSOLVE TO:

41 EXT - CONVENT FARM - DAY

Agnes is milking the cow. She pours the milk into a large

churn.

(The singing finishes at this point).

42 INT - JUDGE'S OFFICE - DAY

The same four are in a meeting. This time they are all sitting

except for

Lyon who is standing by the window.

LEVEAU:

Would you tell me why the hell this

is taking so long.

MARTHA:

Look there are a lot of unanswered

questions here.

LYON:

Martha, your job is to diagnose, not to

heal and play detective. Who do you

think you are?

MARTHA:

I know my job. Don't tell me my job Lyon.

My duty as a doctor is to...

EVE:

Martha, you have to make a decision on

her sanity as quickly as possible and not

interfere with due process of law.

MARTHA:

No... no, excuse me Eve. As quickly as

I see fit.

EVE:

The longer you take to make a decision,

the more difficult it will be for us.

MARTHA:

Why?

EVE:

The bishop is breathing down our necks.

MARTHA:

And the sooner she goes to prison, the

better off she'll be?

LEVEAU:

(in French)

???

MARTHA:

I don't believe this. I don't bloody

believe this.

LYON:

Well the bishop will be very upset

about this.

MARTHA:

I'm fighting for this woman's life, not

some bloody bishop.

43 EXT - CONVENT GRAVEYARD - DAY

It is a strange place; all the crosses are identical and very

simple. Martha

is standing. Agnes is kneeling in front of a cross marked with

the name

"Soeur Marie Paul" and the dates she was born, consecrated and

died. Agnes

places some winter flowers on the grave.

MARTHA:

You liked Sister Paul?

AGNES:

She was kind to me. She told me

I was beautiful.

MARTHA:

(crouching down)

What else did she tell you?

AGNES:

She said all of God's angels would

want to sleep beside me if they could.

I liked that.

Agnes makes the sign of the cross, they both stand and start to

move off.

AGNES (Cont.)

She lived here for almost seventy

years. Every day she'd ring the bell,

wake us up, call us to God. She took

me to my secret place.

MARTHA:

Where's that?... I promise I won't tell,

would you take me?

So Agnes takes her.

44 INT - BELL TOWER - DAY

Martha and Agnes enter the bell-tower. Agnes leads the way up

the steep wooden steps. Martha becomes breathless almost

immediately.

MARTHA:

Sister Paul was in her eighties? Did

she climb up here often?

AGNES:

No, only when she felt like it. She

brought me up here last winter and

the next day she died.

MARTHA:

(halting, out of breath)

No wonder... wait... Agnes... Agnes

how do you feel about babies?

AGNES:

Oh, they frighten me, I'm afraid I'll

drop them. They have a soft spot on

their heads and if you drop them so

they land on their heads they become

stupid. I was dropped on my head,

that's why I don't understand things.

MARTHA:

Like what?

AGNES:

(climbing again)

Numbers... you can spend your whole

life counting and never reach the end.

MARTHA:

(following her)

I don't understand them either. Do

you suppose I was dropped on my head?

AGNES:

I hope not. It's a terrible thing to be

dropped on your head.

MARTHA:

Oh, I've got to give up smoking. Agnes

... wait a minute... Agnes slow down.

45 EXT - TOP OF BELLTOWER - DAY

Agnes climbs up through the trapdoor to the bell platform.

AGNES:

She said you could see the whole

world from up here. But it looks

much better far away than it looks

close up.

Martha arrives exhausted.

MARTHA:

Beautiful...

Agnes lies down under the bell.

AGNES:

And sometimes I get under here...

it makes a wonderful sound.

She starts to sing in a beautiful voice and the sound rings in

the bell.

MARTHA:

What happens if the bell rings and

you're under there?

AGNES:

Oh, it's even more wonderful then.

Agnes sings a little more.

MARTHA:

It's like hiding from my mother when

I was a little girl.

AGNES:

Where did you go?

MARTHA:

Oh, no place as wonderful as this.

Agnes... have you ever thought of

leaving the convent for something

else?

AGNES:

No. There is nothing else. Just being

here at night helps me sleep.

MARTHA:

You have trouble sleeping?

AGNES:

I get headaches. Mommy did too...

oh, but she wasn't stupid. She knew

things that nobody else knew.

MARTHA:

What things?

AGNES:

She knew what was going to happen

to me. That's why she hid me away.

MARTHA:

How did she know that?

AGNES:

Somebody told her.

MARTHA:

Who?

AGNES:

I don't know.

MARTHA:

Agnes...

AGNES:

You'll laugh.

MARTHA:

I promise I won't laugh. Who told

her?

AGNES:

An angel, when she was having one

of her headaches.

MARTHA:

Did your mother see angels often?

AGNES:

No.

MARTHA:

Do you?

AGNES:

No.

MARTHA:

Do you believe she really saw them?

AGNES:

(sitting up)

No, but I can never tell her that.

MARTHA:

Why not?

(no answer)

Mmm?

AGNES:

She'd get angry.

Martha moves round close to Agnes.

MARTHA:

Agnes, did you love your mother?

AGNES:

Yes.

MARTHA:

Did you ever want to be a mother

yourself?

AGNES:

I could never be a mother.

MARTHA:

Why not?

AGNES:

Well I don't think I'm old enough and

besides I don't want to have a baby.

MARTHA:

Why not?

AGNES:

Because I don't want one.

MARTHA:

If you did want one, how'd you go

about getting one?

AGNES:

From someone who didn't want to

have a baby.

MARTHA:

Like you?

AGNES:

(suddenly frustrated)

No, not like me!

MARTHA:

How would that person get one if

they didn't want one?

AGNES:

(jumping to her feet)

A mistake...

MARTHA:

Agnes, how did your mother get you?

AGNES:

A mistake... it was a mistake...

MARTHA:

Is that what she said?

AGNES:

(very upset)

If you're trying to get me to say that

she was a bad woman and hated me and

didn't want me but that's not true, she

was a good woman, a saint...

(distorted)

MARTHA:

Agnes, I don't believe you know nothing

about sex...

AGNES:

I can't help it if I'm stupid.

MARTHA:

... that you don't remember getting

pregnant...

AGNES:

Not my fault.

MARTHA:

... and that you don't believe you

carried a child.

AGNES:

I was a mistake.

MARTHA:

What the child?

AGNES:

Everything... I don't have children.

MARTHA:

Agnes...

Martha puts her arm out to Agnes who slaps it away.

AGNES:

Don't touch me like that! You don't

touch me like that, I know what you

want from me, you want to take God

away. You should be ashamed, they

should lock you up people like you.

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