Anna Karenina Page #35

KITTY (CONT'D)

And bring the perfume bottle in the outside

pocket of my handbag.

She goes back into the room and doesn't return. Levin, humbled, goes down

the stairs.

INT. GUEST ROOM, POKROVSKOE--DAY

Nikolai has been stripped. Masha washes his body. Kitty enters with her

arms full of clean linen.

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LATER:

Nikolai lies naked in clean sheets. Masha hauls him up into a sitting posi-

tion. Kitty puts a nightshirt over his head. Nikolai protests feebly.

KITTY:

I'm not looking.

Masha and Kitty pull the nightshirt over his body. Kitty pulls the sheet up

over him. Masha adjusts the fresh pillow. She combs his hair (and beard).

LATER--NIGHT

Nikolai lies quietly in a neat bed in the neat room, with medicine and

water jug, etc., tidily by the bed. Masha keeps vigil by candlelight, holding

his hand, singing to him quietly.

NIKOLAI:

(WHEEZING)

I'm going . . .

INT. BOYS' ROOM, POKROVSKOE, SAME TIME--DAY

Levin comes into the room he shared with his brother. The room has been

abandoned for years . . . two bare beds, a washstand, a wooden chest. It

contains a jumble of books, shoes, a pair of skates.

Levin hears sleigh bells arriving.

EXT. THE HOUSE, POKROVSKOE, SAME TIME--DAY

The sleigh draws up, bringing a Priest.

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INT. GUEST ROOM, POKROVSKOE--DAY

Levin, feeling out of place, is at the washstand. He notices there is a prettily

wrapped new cake of soap. He picks it up and puts it to his nose.

Masha and Kitty are kneeling by the bed. The Priest bends over Nikolai

holding up an icon in front of Nikolai's face and murmuring the prayers.

Levin, embarrassed, puts down the soap and comes forward and kneels too.

LATER:

Nikolai is at the point of death. Levin stares, torn between the mystery

and the lack of mystery, the ordinariness of the body finally wearing out.

The death rattle comes. Masha kisses the dead hand. The Priest continues

to murmur. Kitty takes hold of Masha's hand. Levin stares into Nikolai's

face:
if this is death, what is life?

LATER:

Nikolai lies dead, candles burning at his head and feet.

INT. DINING ROOM, POKROVSKOE--DAY

Levin counts money, for the services of the Priest . . . who is eating bread

and soup.

LEVIN:

Thank you, Father . . . and how much . . . ?

He offers a handful of paper money.

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PRIEST:

At your benevolence. It is a custom, not a

levy, Your Excellency . . . Jesus overturned

the money-tables outside the temple, but . . .

He shrugs and puts the money away, and returns to his soup.

EXT. GRAVEYARD, POKROVSKOE--DAY

The snow is almost gone. Nikolai's grave has flowers strewn on the mound.

EXT. THE HOUSE AND YARD, POKROVSKOE--DAY

Pava's yearling and several more calves, delirious with release, mill through the

yard with the herd, to pasture, with a Herdsman and Laska urging them on.

Masha is leaving, alone behind the Coachman. She sits quietly and doesn't

look back. Levin and Kitty watch her drive away.

KITTY:

You're such an expert on love, Kostya . . .

why didn't you know it when you saw it?

INT. GOVERNMENT BUILDING, SAME TIME-- DAY

Lydia hurries along grand deserted hallways. She knows her way. A door

ahead of her opens and a dozen Politicians and Civil Servants carrying

portfolios cross her path, with Stremov at the centre of their unheard conver-

sation. Stremov is smiling, triumphant.

Lydia expects to see Karenin among them. She hurries on to the door they

came from.

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INT. COMMITTEE CHAMBER, SAME TIME--DAY

When Lydia enters, Karenin, alone in the chamber, is sitting immobile,

defeated. He starts gathering his papers. Lydia comes to him. Her agitation

explained, she takes an opened letter from her bag.

LYDIA:

Alexei, they're back! Here in St. Petersburg!

She has written to me.

Karenin accepts the letter and reads it.

KARENIN:

To you? . . . I think I don't have the right to

refuse . . . It's the boy's birthday . . .

LYDIA:

My friend . . . you would be blowing on the

embers of a fire which must be allowed to

die . . . Let me write to her.

EXT. TOY SHOP, ST. PETERSBURG--DAY

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