Brooklyn Page #6

ROSE (V.O.)

We talk about you every evening, of

course. We want to know everything.

I’m sure you’re busy, but even if

your letters were two hundred

pages, they wouldn’t be long enough

for your mother. Take care of

yourself. Love.

39 INT. BARTOCCI’S. DAY 39

Eilis at her counter. Her customary look of timidity has been

replaced by something altogether more despairing, and as she

serves a customer, she is quite clearly struggling for

composure. Miss Fortini watches from a distance. The customer

takes her purchase and leaves. Miss Fortini walks up to her.

MISS FORTINI:

Is it your time of the month?

Eilis shakes her head.

MISS FORTINI (CONT’D)

So what is it?

Eilis cannot stops the tears. She shakes her head again.

MISS FORTINI (CONT’D)

You cannot carry on like this. You

must either cheer up, or pretend to

cheer up. Take some time off now.

Go and sit in the staff room.

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 25.

40 INT. STAFF ROOM. DAY 40

Eilis sitting on her own in the large, shabby staff room,

full of overflowing ashtrays and coffee-cups with lipstick

rings on them. She’s still holding her glass of water.

Dorothy, her colleague, comes in.

DOROTHY:

I forgot something.

She rummages, in a desultory fashion, through a pile of

newspapers and magazines on a table.

DOROTHY (CONT’D)

I heard you pulled a stunt. Nice

work if you can get it, sitting on

a chair in the staff room sipping a

glass of water.

The door opens, and Miss Fortini comes into the room with

FATHER FLOOD. Father Flood is bearded, pleasant-looking,

clearly trustworthy. He smiles warmly at Eilis.

FATHER FLOOD:

I’m so sorry, Eilis. This is all my

fault.

Eilis looks at him, surprised. Father Flood is about to

continue, but he looks at Dorothy first.

FATHER FLOOD (CONT’D)

Would you give us a moment? Thank

you.

Dorothy leaves, throwing Eilis a look. Miss Fortini notes it.

FATHER FLOOD (CONT’D)

I’d been led to believe that you

didn’t need looking after. Franco

Bartocci said you were doing great

here. Ma Kehoe said you were the

nicest lodger she’d ever had...

Eilis smiles.

FATHER FLOOD:

What?

EILIS:

Ma Kehoe!

Miss Fortini, observing the slight uplift in Eilis’s mood,

slips out of the room.

FATHER FLOOD:

Don’t ever call her that to her

face.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014

CONTINUED:

FATHER FLOOD (CONT'D)

But I’d forgotten just how bad it

feels to be away from home. Do you

spend every second thinking about

giving up here and going back?

Eilis nods vehemently.

FATHER FLOOD (CONT’D)

But at the same time, you know you

can’t, because there’s nothing

there. It would be the end of you.

She says nothing.

FATHER FLOOD (CONT’D)

I have enrolled you in a night

class. For book-keeping. Brooklyn

College, the best there is. It

will be three nights a week, but

you’ll get a good qualification at

the end of it. And I’ve paid your

tuition for the first semester.

Eilis looks at him wonderingly.

EILIS:

Why?

Father Flood smiles.

FATHER FLOOD:

“Why?” Not, “Thank you”?

Eilis looks stricken.

EILIS:

I’m sorry. Thank you. But...Why?

Father Flood thinks for a moment.

FATHER FLOOD:

I was amazed that someone as

clever as you couldn’t find proper

work. I have been here too long: I

forget what it’s like in Ireland.

So when your sister wrote to me

about you, I said that the Church

would try to help. Anyway, we need

Irish girls in Brooklyn.

EILIS:

I wish I could stop feeling that I

want to be an Irish girl in

Ireland.

26.

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 27.

40 CONTINUED:
40

FATHER FLOOD:

All I can say is that it will pass.

Homesickness is like most

sicknesses. It will make you feel

wretched, and then it will move on

to somebody else.

Eilis thinks about this, and nods decisively.

41 INT. BROOKLYN COLLEGE. NIGHT 41

Eilis listening to a lecture in her night class. She’s

absorbed, anxious, furiously taking notes. She is the only

woman in the class; the men are all either Jewish or Italian.

The lecturer, MR ROSENBLUM, is in his forties, bespectacled,

and wearing a skull-cap. He’s animated by his subject, but

it’s clear that most of the class are despairingly perplexed.

MR ROSENBLUM:

Now, Taylor versus Standard Gas Co

is one of the most important

corporate cases decided in the

Supreme Court in the last twenty

years. This was the case

responsible for the Deep Rock

doctrine, so it’s maybe the biggest

milestone in parent-subsidiary law.

In public utility integration

proceedings alone...

He stops, looks at his students, to emphasise the point he is

making.

MR ROSENBLUM (CONT’D)

.. literally thousands of investors

may be affected by its application.

We see a close-up of Eilis’s pad: she’s underlining the words

‘literally thousands’.

42 INT. BROOKLYN COLLEGE - CORRIDOR. NIGHT 42

Eilis is sitting outside the lecture room on a wooden bench,

while the other students stretch their limbs and yawn. She’s

eating a sandwich. A young Jewish man is sitting a few feet

away from her, doing the same thing. He looks at her.

YOUNG MAN:

Did you understand any of that? I

mean, a single word?

Eilis, eating, shakes her head, covers her mouth with her

hands, laughs.

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 28.

42 CONTINUED:
42

EILIS:

He’s not even reading from a book.

He just knows all this.

He stands up.

YOUNG MAN:

Let’s hope the next hour is easier.

He smiles at her and goes back into the hall as Eilis crams

the last remaining crust into her mouth.

43 INT. DINING ROOM, MRS. KEHOE’S HOUSE. EVENING 43

Dinner time, all the girls and their landlady, the usual

formation. Miss McAdam, the battle-axe from Belfast, is

holding forth.

MISS MCADAM:

One of the things that ruins

Christmas in America is the turkey.

It all tastes of sawdust.

MRS KEHOE:

So that’s one cheese sandwich for

Miss McAdam, and extra turkey for

everyone else.

The girls snigger; Diana brays.

MRS KEHOE (CONT’D)

Ladies, please. Eilis, Father Flood

told me about your Christmas plans.

DIANA:

Oh, you’re not serving lunch to the

old fellas who’ve got nowhere to

go, are you? He asks us every year,

and we always say no.

SHEILA:

You’re a saint, Eilis. They smell

awful.

PATTY:

Sheila knows how they smell because

that’s where she goes husband-

hunting.

Diana brays again.

MRS KEHOE:

As I cannot stand to hear Diana

laugh again, I would appreciate it

if you kept your witticisms to

yourself, Patty.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

44

45

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 29.

CONTINUED:
43

MRS KEHOE (CONT'D)

It’s a marvellous thing you’re

doing, Eilis. A Christian thing. I

wish there were more like you. I’ll

be doing some of the cooking

myself.

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