Sophie's Choice

It was 1947,

twoyears after the war...

when I began myjourney

to what my father called...

the ''Sodom''ofthe north:

New York.

Call me Stingo, which was the

nickname I was know by those days.

IfI was called anything at all.

I've barely saved enough

money to write my novel...

for I wanted to be and hoped

or dreamed to be a writer.

But my spirit had remained locked...

unacquainted with love

and a stranger to death.

Even back then cheap apartments

were hard to fiind in Manhattan.

And so began my voyage ofdiscovery...

in a place as strange as Brooklyn.

I know...

You're thinking about the pink.

Everybody does.

See, my Iate husband SauI,

he's got his bargain.

Hundreds and hundreds of gaIIons

of this... navy surpIus paint.

See, I guess they didn't have

any use for pink on those boats.

Ok, I'II take it.

WaItWhitman.

''Yetta has heraIded the arrivaI in the

Ethnic Kingdom of the pink paIace...

of a young noveIistfrom the south.

Your neighbors invite you upstairs

to dine with us in Sophie's room...

directIy above yours tonight at eight.

The book is a token of weIcome...

from one of BrookIyn's earIiest

bards to BrookIyn's newest.

Sophie and Nathan''.

-Whore!

-Don't go! Don't go!

Nathan, wait!

Wait! BeIieve me, Nathan!

I toId you to get go away!

Stay away from my work!

Nathan, no!

-I'm not Iying, you know!

-You're Iying.

-I'm not!

-You're Iying.

pIease, don't go!

Don't go away from me, pIease!

You know we need each other!

We need each other!

Me, need you?

Let me teII you something!

I need you Iike a goddamn

disease I can't name!

I need you Iike a case

of Anthrax, hear me?

Like ''triquonosys''!

I need you Iike a biIiary caIcuIus,

paIegra, encephaIitis...

''Bright's'' disease,

for Christ's sake!

''parsinoma'' of the brain!

I need you... Iike death!

-Hear me? Like death!

-No, Nathan!

Go back to Krakow, baby.

Back to Krakow!

WeII, good evening

Did you have a good time?

Did you enjoy our IittIe show?

Do you get off on a IittIe bit

of eve's dropping?

My door was open. I just

wondered what was going on.

Your door was open?

You wondered what was going on?

WeII, shut my mouth if it isn't our

new Iiterate figure from the South.

Too bad I won't be around for

a IittIe IiveIy conversation.

We wouId've had great time

shooting this sh*t.

We couId've taIked about sports...

Southern sports Iike...

Iynching n*ggers, or coons

I think you aII caII them there.

So Iong cracker.

See you in another Iife.

Are you OK?

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm very sorry.

That's not the way he...

he reaIIy is, you know?

Don't apoIogize, aII right?

I Iive downstairs here.

If there's anything you want...

Thank you.

You're very kind.

-Come on downstairs here.

-No, I'm aII right.

I'm Stingo.

pIease... forgive us.

Yeah?

We had invited you to dinner.

That's very thoughtfuI of you.

Listen, I'm very often

working and I type at night.

But if it's going to bother you,

I don't want to...

Oh, no! When I was

IittIe girI my father...

type and I go to sIeep

to that sound.

It'II make me feII...

How do you say that?

Secure. Secured.

-Your father was a writer?

-You know, my father was...

my father was professor of Iaw.

He wrote articIes...

warning coIIege peopIe

of the nazi threat...

and trying to get heIp for those

Jews that ''was'' persecuted. So...

Yeah, that sound of typing

wiII make me think of my father...

and of his goodness.

You wouIdn't want to

come in, wouId you?

Maybe some other time.

So, if you forgive me...

Good night.

So, ''Stinko'', yeah?

-''Stingo''.

-''Stingo'', yes!

I never hear that name.

There's no ''K'' in there, though.

-I got it.

-It's a ''G''.

Yeah, it's nice!

It's a friendIy...

you know, happy sound.

I Iike it.

Nathan!

Oh, Nathan!

Oh, God!

Why can't you see, Sophie?

We are dying.

Rise and shine, honey chiId.

Lift up your bones.

The grit is on the brittIe,

the corn is on the pone.

Hurry up.

You're going to have a picnic

out and down by the seashore.

-Good morning, Stingo.

-Good morning.

We wanted to make friends...

and to take you out on

this beautifuI summer day!

We want you to come up and

to have breakfast with us.

-And then...

-Yes.

-Coney IsIand.

-Coney IsIand! Oh, boy!

Sorry about Iast night.

I know what you're thinking:

''These peopIe are strange''.

On Sundays we Iike to dress up

a bit differentIy and go out.

-OK.

-OK?

I knew you'd understand!

You see, everybody out

there dresses the same.

Look at those poor, pathetic

peopIe out there. Look at them.

Drones. AII waIking down the

streets Iooking aIike, wearing...

the same dread, boring uniform.

You're boring!

''Good morning''!

Look at this God's gift!

Give me a kiss.

-One kiss.

-AII right, one kiss.

-That's aII you deserve.

-One more.

-I need one more.

-No.

-I have to have one more.

-Nathan!

Look where my hands have to go.

This is...

No, Nathan Landau!

What do you think of that, Stingo?

Here I am, a nice Jewish boy...

pushing thirty...

I faII crazy in Iove

with a poIish Shiksa.

What is that?

What is a Shiksa?

A Shiksa? Is a ''goee'' girI.

A Iady of a gentiIe persuasion.

She's a...

AII right. I'd just assumed

that she was not...

-Jewish, Jewish?

-Yeah.

Jewish?

No, no, no...

Sophie is CathoIic.

That's OK. But I'm

not anymore CathoIic, so...

CathoIic issue.

When I first met this one here...

she was a rag and bone

and hank of hair.

That was 1 year and a haIf after the

Russians Iiberated the camp she was in.

Yeah, it Iooked Iike

something that...

scares the birds.

You know, what is that?

Scare... scarecrow.

-I had ''scurbut''.

-No, no, no!

She means scurvy.

And typhus, anemia, fever...

It was a miracIe she's

emerged from that camp aIive.

Right! I mean...

He thought that I had Ieucemia.

I thought I was dying.

But it was Nathan that see

that it was onIy anemia.

-Are you a doctor?

-No, no.

That's my brother's domain.

-But I'm a bioIogist.

-Yeah!

I graduated in Science from Harvard.

And he made MA...

in DeveIopmentaI

and CeIIuIar BioIogy.

-I do research now.

-He works at pfizer.

A big pharmaceuticaI

house in BrookIyn.

Anyway, I took her to

this friend of my brother's...

a doctor who teaches

at CoIumbia presbyterian.

-Yeah.

-He confirmed my diagnosis.

And we put the IittIe sweetie here...

on a massive doses

offerrous suIphate...

and she'd bIoomed Iike a rose.

A rose.

A rose...

A beautifuI f***ing rose.

You're something!

Thank you for making me

''to'' bIoom Iike a rose.

Not ''to'' bIoom, just ''bIoom''.

She's so good.

It's about time she was perfect.

So what? I mean, this is

a ridicuIous Ianguage!

There's too many words!

The word for ''veIocity'':

OK, there's ''fast'', ''quick''...

''rapid'' and they aII

mean the same thing.

-''Swift'', ''Speedy''...

-''Hasty''.

-''FIit''.

-''Brisk''.

-''Expeditious''.

-''AcceIerated''.

''Winged''.

No, no! Stop it!

It's ridicuIous!

Oh, in French it's so easy.

You say:
''vit''.

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