Brooklyn Page #11

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 50.

65 CONTINUED:
65

EILIS:

No.

MISS FORTINI:

Then keep him. There isn’t another

Italian man like him in New York.

She smiles at Eilis and moves on.

66 INT. DINING ROOM, MRS KEHOE’S HOUSE. NIGHT 66

Eilis is sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of

spaghetti in front of her. There is a fork and spoon on

either side of the bowl. Opposite her are Patty and Diana.

Eilis goes to pick up the cutlery. Diana gestures at her to

stop.

DIANA:

Hold it. Remember You’re getting

off easy, because we haven’t got

sauce.

PATTY:

Yeah. You have to remember that the

sauce flies everywhere, so take it

slowly.

DIANA:

I’m gonna say “Splash” every time I

see problems.

PATTY:

Good idea.

EILIS:

(smiling)

Can I start now?

PATTY DIANA:

Go. Yep.

They watch intently as Eilis grapples with the twirling. All

three girls are staring at the spaghetti, lost in

concentration. Eilis allows the spaghetti to fall off the

fork and back into the plate.

DIANA:

(loudly)

SPLASH!

Eilis and Patty jump and then giggle nervously.

DIANA:

You just splashed his mother, and

his father, and the walls...

(CONTINUED)

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66 CONTINUED:
66

Eilis makes a despairing face.

PATTY:

Let’s go again.

67 EXT. RIVERBANK. DAY 67

A spring day in Ireland. Rose is sitting by the river,

reading one of Eilis’s letters and eating an apple.

EILIS (V.O.)

I suppose the most important news

is that I have a boyfriend. He

isn’t as important as Bartocci’s

and my night classes, I know that.

But I want to tell you everything

that’s going on. Please don’t

mention it to Mummy, though. You

know what she’s like.

68 EXT. CINEMA. NIGHT 68

Eilis and Tony have just been to see ‘Singin’ In The Rain’.

They emerge from the cinema radiant; Tony in particular has

clearly loved the film.

69 EXT. STREET. NIGHT 69

Tony is earnestly trying out some of Gene Kelly’s dance moves

while Eilis watches.

EILIS (V.O.)

He’s decent and kind, and he has a

job, and he works hard. We go to

the cinema on Wednesdays and he

takes me to Father Flood’s dance on

Saturdays.

69A EXT. RIVERBANK. - DAY 69A

Rose reading avidly.

EILIS (V.O.)

I think of you and Mother every

single day. But Tony has helped me

to feel that I have a life here. I

didn’t have, before I met him. My

body was here, but my life was back

in Ireland, with you. Now it is

halfway across the sea. So, that’s

something, isn’t it?

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70 OMITTED 70

71 INT. STAIRWELL. EVENING 71

Eilis and Tony are climbing the stairs to Tony’s apartment..

Tony is talking animatedly and a little nervously.

TONY:

Oh and I’d better warn you about

Frankie.

EILIS:

He’s the little one.

TONY:

Yeah. He’s eight going on eighteen.

He’s nice and he’s smart, but he’s

been talking and talking about all

the things he’s going to say to

you.

EILIS:

What sort of things?

TONY:

We don’t know. Could be anything.

I tried to pay him money to go out

and play ball with his friends, and

my dad has threatened him, but I

think he’s looking forward to

causing trouble so much that he’ll

happily take a beating. This is us

here.

TONY:

Ready?

Eilis nods. He’s making her nervous.

72 INT. TONY’S APARTMENT. NIGHT 72

Tony’s apartment is tiny, and Eilis appears somewhat wedged

in around the dinner table. Tony has two older brothers,

Laurenzio and Maurizio, as well as kid brother Frankie. His

mother and father are young - much younger than Eilis’s

mother.

The atmosphere around the table is polite and warm. It’s not

a question of Eilis having to impress the Fiorello family -

they want to impress her, too, or at least the adults do.

They understand that she is important to Tony, and Tony is

important to them.

Eilis is doing her best with her spaghetti, which is covered

in a rich, deep red sauce.

(CONTINUED)

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MRS FIORELLO:

Hey, how did you learn to eat

spaghetti like that?

Eilis pauses before confessing.

EILIS:

I’ve been taking lessons.

The family look at her, delighted.

LAURENZIO:

Lessons? Like, in a class? You can

do that? Maybe I could teach it.

EILIS:

No, no. Diana, who lives in the

boarding house with me... She

cooked me some spaghetti and made

me try and eat it without making a

mess.

MR FIORELLO:

What do you eat in Ireland? Just

Irish stew?

EILIS:

Not just. We...

FRANKIE:

So first of all I should say that

we don’t like Irish people.

There are general cries of outrage around the table.

Maurizio, who is sitting next to him, cuffs him on the top of

his head.

FRANKIE:

(outraged)

We don’t! That is a well known

fact! A big gang of Irish beat

Maurizio up and he had to have

stitches. And because all the cops

round here are Irish, nobody did

anything about it.

Eilis looks at Maurizio for confirmation. He looks

embarrassed.

MAURIZIO:

There are probably two sides to it.

I might have said something I

shouldn’t, I can’t remember now.

FRANKIE:

No, because they beat you up.

(CONTINUED)

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MAURIZIO:

Anyway, they probably weren’t all

Irish.

FRANKIE:

They just had red hair and big

legs.

Mr Fiorello stands up and leads Frankie away from the table

and out the door by his ear.

TONY:

All I can say in his defence is

that he’s the only one of us who’ll

get a college education.

LAURENZIO:

If he keeps his mouth shut.

MRS FIORELLO:

Tony tells me you go to college.

EILIS:

Oh, just night classes. I want to

be a book-keeper. I like working in

the shop well enough, but I don’t

want to be there forever.

Frankie re-enters the room, with his father right behind.

FRANKIE:

(parrot-fashion)

I’m sorry, Eilis. I’m an idiot. Oh,

I’m a rude idiot.

His brothers applaud and laugh. Frankie makes a face at them

and sits down at the table.

Later. They are eating scallopini, on their own, with no

vegetables, Italian-style.

MAURIZIO:

So has Tony offered to take you to

Ebbett’s Field when the season

starts?

EILIS:

(to Tony)

You like baseball?

More laughter around the table.

MAURIZIO:

(incredulous)

He never mentioned the Dodgers? Not

even once?

(CONTINUED)

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FRANKIE:

You know why? Too much of this.

He makes a lewd kissing noise. Tony rolls his eyes. Eilis has

the good grace to laugh.

LAURENZIO:

Anyway, you’ll have to go to

Ebbett’s Field if you want to see

him in the summer.

EILIS:

They’re that important to you?

TONY:

Put it this way. If our kids end up

supporting the Yankees or the

Giants, it would break my heart.

The family laughs, but Eilis can only manage a small smile.

“Our kids”? Suddenly Eilis sees that their future is all

mapped out, as far as Tony and his family are concerned.

Frankie is watching her complicated reaction.

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