Before Midnight Page #5

STEFANOS:

So just like Deja Vu.

JESSE:

Yeah, except all the time.

STEFANOS:

Ah.

JESSE:

Right, that's the thing, right?

Everything she takes in. Breakfast,

a newspaper, a movie. She's convinced

she's encountered it already.

30.

STEFANOS:

So that's a real condition?

JESSE:

Yeah. It's called persistent deja...

It's real but I can't pronounce it.

The men chuckle.

JESSE:

Then there's these two other

characters with facial recognition

extremes. Like there's this one guy

and he can't recognize his wife of

twenty years. He looks at himself

in the mirror and he feels this

disconnect with that man he's looking

at. Then the other character is the

opposite, middle-aged housewife with

a categorical exacting memory of

every face she's ever seen; so she

lives in a big city but to her, it's

a small town. Like, a taxi drives

past and she thinks 'Oh, that's the

driver who dropped me off at Place

de Vosges three Christmases ago.'

And some old lady walking on the

street, she thinks; 'Oh, she sat two

seats down from me on the Metro last

year.' So, everyone she meets,to

her feels intimate and connected.

STEFANOS:

Well, I'm just like the first guy.

Like I feel connected to nothing

most of the time, man.

We see Patrick's grandson, Achilles, and girlfriend, Anna,

come walking by, just from the beach. Anna slaps his butt

playfully before heading indoors while Achilles joins the

guys.

JESSE:

Oh, Achilles! Anna! Hey, you guys.

PATRICK:

Hey, look at this kid. He's having

the best summer of us all.

ACHILLES:

Hello, Pappou.

STEFANOS:

So you were saying... there's three

characters, right?

31.

JESSE:

No, it's not just three characters,

it's a whole group of people. It's

like, I'm working on a chapter right

now about a young Greek man named

Achilles.

ACHILLES:

Me?

JESSE:

Well, he's named after you. And

this guy is caught in a loop where

all he sees is the transient nature

of everything, right? Like he looks

out to sea and thinks of the day

it's gonna be dry and littered with

fossils.

STEFANOS:

Well... I dunno. It sounds a little

pretentious to me.

JESSE:

Ah, no-no-no. It won't be

pretentious, I promise. No, it's

gonna be funny. Really funny. He

picks up a book and he immediately

wonders:
Who's gonna be the last

person to read this?

STEFANOS:

And that’s funny?

All laugh.

ACHILLES:

Sometimes I kind of think like that.

STEFANOS:

Well, okay, so he doesn't get excited

about tits, cars, booze, nothing.

He just thinks about death.

JESSE:

Well, not so much death, right?

It's just like transformation, you

know. Like he's seeing too far into

the future.

STEFANOS:

Okay.

32.

PATRICK:

I like this idea for a novel. But

you should add a character of an old

man like me - a poor sap who can't

remember what he had for breakfast,

but he can still hear the song that

was playing when Sheila Campbell

danced topless on the bar at Jury's

when he was 14 years old.

JESSE:

That'll work.

STEFANOS:

Okay. You have these people lost in

time, right ok? But what's the

connection? Are they going to have

sex? Don't you need something like

that?

JESSE:

It's not time that they're lost in,

right? It's like perception. That's

the deal. No, I'm thinking of setting

the whole novel at a movie. Like,

every character in some way comes in

contact with the film 'On the

Waterfront.'

(to Achilles)

Have you seen "On the Waterfront"?

He's not sure until Stefanos tells him the Greek title.

ACHILLES:

Oh, with Brando!

JESSE:

Yeah.

ACHILLES:

Uh-huh.

JESSE:

Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, the first

chapter of the book is opening

weekend, Times Square, 1954. That

old lady, with perpetual deja vu

walks into the matinee screening,

right? Except the whole time she's

thinking:
haven't I already seen

this?

STEFANOS:

Yeah.

33.

JESSE:

Right. And then another chapter is

a 1979 Paris film studies class.

Then we have a Kazan retrospective

in Munich, 1993.

STEFANOS:

Well, man, that is time. How is

that not time?

JESSE:

Yeah, it's time but, it's more

perception. You don't like it.

STEFANOS:

I think it's going to be too long.

They laugh.

PATRICK:

Well, I like it. Don't listen to

him - he makes bicycles. Send it to

me in galleys.

JESSE:

Will do.

EXT. PATRICK'S HOUSE - AFTERNOON

All five kids are playing a game together somewhere on the

property.

INT. KITCHEN - AFTERNOON

Ariadni, Stefanos, and Celine are in the kitchen, preparing

the meal.

CELINE:

In France we stuff the tomatoes with

tomatoes and the peppers with peppers.

ARIADNI:

Oh, really? Because we use the same

stuffing for both, because of the

way it reacts differently, in terms

of taste. Oh, and Celine, make sure

you don't stuff them too much because

of the way it overflows in the oven

later and gets kind of nasty.

CELINE:

Okay okay, yeah.

STEFANOS:

You're doing fine, Celine.

34.

ARIADNI:

And especially don't listen to

Stefanos here because he's never

made this dish before, or any other

dish for that matter.

He takes her knife.

CELINE:

(Laughing)

Okay.

STEFANOS:

You know, I mean...

ARIADNI AND STEFANOS

(Yelling, Speaking

Greek)

STEFANOS:

Let go of me,

(Greek)

Let go of me!

ARIADNI:

(in Greek)

Stefanos, why are you taking my knife?

Stop stealing people's knives. Here

is a knife perfectly good for what

you're doing.

STEFANOS:

(in Greek)

Sweetie, I cannot cut with this little

f***ing knife.

CELINE:

Are you guys fighting, with knives?

Okay, stop it! Stop fighting with

knives.

ARIADNI:

We're not fighting. We're

negotiating.

Anna enters the kitchen and goes over to the refrigerator.

CELINE:

Okay, negotiating, that's what you

call it? Wow,

(in French)

Negotiating with knives.

35.

ARIADNI:

(in French)

Exactly.

CELINE:

(In French)

Not bad.

STEFANOS:

This is a system that we have.

CELINE:

Wow, so you found a system that works

for you.

ARIADNI:

Mm-hm.

CELINE:

I thought it was called a

relationship. But I like "system",

that's pretty good. That's ready,

right?

Ariadni walks over and takes a drag off his cigarette.

STEFANOS:

That's ready.

Celine takes a platter of appetizers and begins to leave.

CELINE:

(to Anna, in French)

And you, what's your system?

Anna gestures oral sex.

CELINE (CONT'D)

(in French)

What about this system?

Celine puts her tongue between her fingers by her lips.

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