Brooklyn Page #9

PATTY:

There. That’s better. Now you don’t

look like you’ve just come in from

milking the cows.

EILIS:

Is that what I looked like?

PATTY:

Just a bit. Nice clean cows. Let’s

go.

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 39.

57 INT. PARISH HALL. NIGHT 57

Eilis is standing with Patty and a group of her friends,

including a young man with heavily oiled hair who is teaching

Eilis the steps to the dance that is currently happening on

the dance floor. She is slightly distracted by a young man

staring at her and smiling, a little distance away. This is

TONY - dark, attractive, white teeth, muscular. She ignores

him and carries on with her lesson. When she looks back, he’s

still staring, still smiling.

YOUNG MAN WITH OILY HAIR

(shouting over the music)

Maybe we could have a dance later?

EILIS:

I’m sorry?

YOUNG MAN WITH OILY HAIR

A dance? Later?

EILIS:

Oh. Sure.

He smiles and leads Patty onto the dance-floor, flirtatiously

enough to suggest that it was Patty he was interested in all

the time. The moment he’s gone, Tony makes a move.

TONY:

Are you here with that guy? The one

who was teaching you to dance?

Unlike just about every other man at the dance, Tony is

American.

EILIS:

No.

TONY:

So would you dance with me?

EILIS:

I’m not sure he taught me anything.

TONY:

Doesn’t matter. The secret is to

look as though you know what you’re

doing.

EILIS:

Ah. I wish someone had told me that

years ago.

He leads her into the middle of the other dancing couples,

and they start trying to pick up the steps. It is apparent

that Tony can dance, but he doesn’t want to show Eilis up, so

he assumes her levels of incompetence and uncertainty.

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 40.

57 CONTINUED:
57

Later. Tony and Eilis are dancing cheek-to-cheek - not

smooching, but clearly relaxed in each other’s company. Over

Tony’s shoulder, Eilis catches Patty’s eye. Patty makes a so-

so face. Eilis ignores her.

TONY:

Where do you live?

Eilis pauses, and then decides it’s OK to tell him.

EILIS:

Clinton Street.

TONY:

Yeah? That’s on my way home. Can I

walk you?

EILIS:

I’m going to say yes, then I’m

going to tell you why.

He laughs.

TONY:

So I don’t get the wrong idea?

Eilis pauses again. It wouldn’t be the wrong idea. It just

wouldn’t be the only idea.

EILIS:

I suppose so. Is there a girl in a

leather jacket sitting on her own

on the bench over there?

Tony moves so that he can look discreetly. The camera picks

out Dolores, sitting on her own, picking at her fingernails.

TONY:

(incredulously)

You don’t know her?

EILIS:

I do. She lives in my boarding

house, and she’s awful. If I leave

with you, I’m sure she’d

understand. You’d be rescuing me.

TONY:

I get it.

Tony smiles a lot, winningly and unaffectedly.

EILIS:

She’ll be OK, won’t she?

TONY:

Sure she will.

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 41.

58 EXT. STREET. NIGHT 58

Eilis and Tony walking through the dark streets of Brooklyn,

huddled against each other for warmth. They walk in silence,

and then Tony blurts out

TONY:

I’m not Irish.

EILIS:

You don’t sound Irish.

TONY:

I need to make this clear: no part

of me is Irish. I don’t have Irish

parents or grandparents or

anything. I’m Italian. My parents

are, anyway.

EILIS:

So what were you doing at an Irish

dance? Don’t the Italians have

dances?

TONY:

Yeah. And I wouldn’t want to take

you to one. They behave like

Italians all night.

EILIS:

And what does that mean?

TONY:

Oh, you know.

EILIS:

No.

TONY:

(mumbly)

Hands.

EILIS:

Too many of them?

TONY:

I think it could seem that way, if

you were a girl. Listen, I want

everything to be out in the open. I

came to the Irish dance because I

really like Irish girls.

EILIS:

And I was the only one that would

dance with you?

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 42.

58 CONTINUED:
58

TONY:

Oh, no, it wasn’t...

EILIS:

Oh, so you danced with loads of

others?

Eilis is teasing him, and Tony knows it, but he’s not as

quick as she is. He tries to formulate a response, gives up,

grins again.

They arrive at Mrs Kehoe’s house.

EILIS:

This is me.

TONY:

Can I take you next week? Maybe get

something to eat first?

EILIS:

I’d like that. Good night.

She smiles warmly at him, and goes into the house without

kissing him.

59 INT. DINER. NIGHT 59

Eilis and Tony getting something to eat first, before the

dance. They are eating in a cheap diner, with formica-topped

tables. They’re waiting for their food.

TONY (O.S.)

So...What do you do when you’re not

working?

She thinks.

EILIS:

Well. There’s school. Just, you

know..Brooklyn College. I’m

studying book-keeping.

TONY (O.S.)

You want to be a book-keeper?

EILIS:

I want to be an accountant one day.

But, yes, book-keeping first.

TONY (O.S.)

Wow. Is it difficult?

EILIS:

I’m talking too much. Tell me about

plumbing.

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 43.

59 CONTINUED:
59

TONY:

You know enough about plumbing

already.

EILIS:

I don’t know anything.

TONY:

You know that taps drip and toilets

get blocked and that’s all you need

to know. I don’t know anything

about book-keeping.

Suddenly it is as if Eilis has been switched on, and the

following comes out in an unstoppable, unbroken stream.

EILIS:

There’s a lot to it. There’s all

the maths, of course, but that’s

not so complicated. The double-

entry system, that takes a while to

get used to. And we study company

law, too, and that terrifies

me.(Fades) So we had to read about

an insurance company that went

bankrupt in the 1930s, and all the,

the legal issues that...

Later. Tony is finishing off his food and listening. Eilis’s

food goes untouched, although several times her loaded fork

almost makes it to her mouth.

EILIS:

(her voice fading in)

...she plays golf, and she’s really

good at it. And if she’d been at

the dance last Saturday, then I

don’t think you’d have looked at me

twice, because Rose is beautiful.

Tony has finished - his plate is clean.

TONY (O.S.)

I’m worried you haven’t eaten

anything.

EILIS:

(smiling)

Too busy talking.

60 INT. DINING ROOM, MRS. KEHOE’S HOUSE. EVENING 60

The girls eating their supper in a mysterious silence. Patty,

Diana and Sheila are finding it hard not to giggle. Mrs Kehoe

puts down her knife and fork in disgust.

(CONTINUED)

'Brooklyn' YELLOW Script Dated 24th April 2014 44.

60 CONTINUED:
60

MRS KEHOE:

What is the matter with you girls

now?

PATTY:

Nothing the matter with us, Mrs

Kehoe.

She looks steadily at Eilis.

MRS KEHOE:

Is this all because Eilis has found

herself a young man?

DIANA:

(mock-surprised)

Eilis’s got herself a young man? We

didn’t know. She won’t say anything

about him.

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