Shallow Grave Page #2

DAVID:

Just serve.

ALEX:

In the same fashion as chess.

DAVID:

What?

ALEX:

Chess. Chess is often used as well.

DAVID:

Will you shut up and play.

ALEX:

You're a bad loser.

DAVID:

I haven't lost yet.

Alex serves.

INT. SQUASH COURT. EVENING

The squash-court door opens and David walks out past Juliet as

Alex stands behind, jabbing his finger at him.

ALEX:

Defeat, defeat, defeat-- sporting,personal, financial,

professional, sexual, everything. Next.

Juliet walks in and closes the door.

INT. SQUASH COURT. EVENING

Inside the squash court Alex is about to serve.

ALEX:

Did you know --

JULIET:

Just serve.

Alex serves.

INT. JULIET'S CAR (A MINI). NIGHT

Alex sits in the back, drinking.

Juliet is driving. David sits beside her.

ALEX:

I wasn't trying to win.

There is no response from Juliet.

ALEX:

(continued)

I don't want to devalue your victory, but I just want you to

know:
I wasn't trying to win.

DAVID:

Victory is the same as defeat. It's giving in to destructive

competitive urges.

ALEX:

You learn that in your psychotherapy group?

DAVID:

Discussion group, Alex, discussion.

JULIET:

I thought you stopped going.

ALEX:

Yeah, he had one too many of thise urges. You of all people

should know that.

Alex leans close to Juliet. Juliet brakes abruptly and, as Alex

flies forward, elbows him in the chest.

ALEX:

(continued)

God, you two are sensitive. All I'm doing is implying some sort

of sordid, ugly, sexual liason. Why, I'd be proud of that sort of

thing.

JULIET:

Maybe you should go, Alex.You'll meet someone wonderful.

ALEX:

For my life? At a discussion group? I think not.

JULIET:

For the flat.

ALEX:

No. Be someone else like him. One is enough. And what happened to

that girl, that friend of yours, the one that came round. I liked

her. I really felt we had something. She could have moved in. We

had chemistry.

JULIET:

She hated you --

ALEX:

Well, she had problems --

JULIET:

-- more than anyone she has ever met. In her whole life.

ALEX:

-- I'd be the first topoint that out. In all kindness I would.

But, like they say, you know, she's got to want to change, hasn't

she?

INT. STAIRWELL. DAY

Outside the door of the flat Hugo rings the bell and waits.

Juliet opens the door. Hugo is in his early thirties, tall, dark

and bohemian in appearance.

JULIET:

You must be Hugo.

HUGO:

You must be Juliet.

JULIET:

Would you like to come in?

HUGO:

I'd be delighted.

Hugo walks in and Juliet closes the door quite deliberately

behind him.

INT. VACANT ROOM. DAY

Hugo looks around, pleased at what he sees, while Juliet watches

him. He sits on the edge of the bed.

HUGO:

It's nice.

JULIET:

Would you like to see the rest?

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

Hugo is seated on the sofa, Juliet sits opposite on an armchair.

JULIET:

What do you do?

HUGO:

Well, I've been away for a bit, travelling, that sort of thing,

and now I'm trying to write a novel.

JULIET:

What's it about?

HUGO:

A priest who dies.

JULIET:

I see.

HUGO:

Yeah. Well, maybe I'll change it.

JULIET:

No.

HUGO:

Yes, I mean, who wants to read about another dead priest? It's

about some other guy, some guy who's not a priest, who doesn't

die. You see, it's better already.

JULIET:

Writing seems easy.

HUGO:

It's a breeze.

The telephone begins to ring out in the hall. Juliet does not

move and at first says nothing. Hugo looks at her and towards the

door leading to the hall. After several rings, Juliet speaks.

JULIET:

Do you think you could answer that?

HUGO:

The telephone?

It continues to ring.

JULIET:

Yes, the telephone, but if it's for me, I'm not in.

HUGO:

You're not in.

JULIET:

No.

HUGO:

All right.

Hugo stands up. The ringing continues.

INT. HALL. DAY

Hugo lifts the phone. He turns to face Juliet and looks her in

the eye as he lies on her behalf.

HUGO:

Hello. Yes. Who's calling please? Well, I'm sorry, but she's not

in right now. I don't know. Would you like to leave a message?

Hugo replaces the receiver.

HUGO:

(continued)

It was some guy called Brian.

JULIET:

Did he sound upset?

HUGO:

A little bit. Is that good or bad?

JULIET:

It's an improvement.

The telephone begins to ring again.

HUGO:

Shall I answer it?

JULIET:

No, just leave it. He knows I must be at home. I'm working nights

this week.

The telephone continues to ring.

HUGO:

Working nights?

JULIET:

I'm a doctor.

HUGO:

And he's a patient of yours?

JULIET:

No. But he needs treatment.

HUGO:

For what?

JULIET:

A certain weakness.

HUGO:

The human condition.

JULIET:

You know about it?

HUGO:

I write about it?

JULIET:

And that's not the same thing?

HUGO:

No, but like all novelists, I'm in search of the self.

INT. KITCHEN. MORNING

Juliet, dressed and fatigued, sits at the table sipping a coffee.

Alex is also seated at the table, but wearing an old dressing-

gown and munching at cornflakes while he reads a newspaper and

talks at the same time. An array of other papers is spread over

the table.

ALEX:

Has he tried down the back of the fridge? I mean, that's where I

normally find things.

JULIET:

He seemed like a nice guy, Alex.

Juliet gets up and leaves the kitchen. The soundof a bath running

is heard.

ALEX:

I'm not saying he didn't seem like a nice guy. All I'm saying is,

it's a bit strange, and this search for the self, and what he's

on about, you know.

Alex hears the mail falling through the door and stands up to

leave the kitchen and get it.

JULIET:

(calling from outside)

He didn't seem strange, Alex.He seemed, you know --

INT. BATHROOM.MORNING.

Juliet watches the bath fill.

JULIET:

...interesting.

INT. KITCHEN. MORNING

Alex considers her reply.

ALEX:

Interesting. Interesting.

INT. HALL. MORNING

Alex is walking through the hall to the door,muttering

interesting' to himself. As he passes the phone starts to ring.

He stops and lifts it.

ALEX:

Hello. No, she's not in. No. No. No. No ideas.

Alex replaces the reciever and walks on to the door.

JULIET:

(from the bathroom)

Who was it?

ALEX:

I don't know. He sounded Swedish. Do you know any Swedish men?

Maybe it was just the emotion.

Alex picks up the mail and looks through it. As he does so,David

emerges from his room, dressed for work.

ALEX:

(continued)

What do you think?

DAVID:

About what?

ALEX:

About this guy, this Hugo person.

DAVID:

I don't have time.

ALEX:

I'm only asking what you think.

DAVID:

I don't have time to discuss it now. I don't care so long as he's

not a freak.

David opens the door. Alex hands him an envelope.

ALEX:

This is for you. It's your mother's handwriting, so I didn't open

it. I don't like reading about your father's constipation.

David snatches the letter and leaves, closing the door.

Alex walks back across the hall, opening one of the letters and

reading it quickly.

JULIET:

(calling from the bathroom)

So we'll meet him, then?

ALEX:

What? Oh, yeah, sure, if you want. I tell you, every letter this

guy writes to you is the same: they all begin like pure love and

descend into open pornography. I dream of your thighs, the soft

touch of your white skin leading me in desire, while I, aroused

and inflamed --'

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