The English Patient Page #2

KIP:

Hey! Hey! Stop! Hey!

HARDY:

Don't move! Stand ABSOLUTELY STILL!

Hana stops. Hardy gingerly follows her footsteps.

HARDY:

(as he approaches)

Good, that's good, just stay still for me

and then we're going to be fine.

He arrives at Hana. Then grabs her. He'd like to slap her face.

HARDY:

What are you doing?! What the bloody

hell do you think you're doing?

By way of an answer she looks at the ground ahead of her feet. Jan's

BRACELET lies in the mud. Hardy bends down and collects the mangled

bracelet, presses it into Hana's hands.

11EXT. VILLAGE. DUSK.

The CONVOY is threading through A RUINED VILLAGE, passing the souvenirs

of war. An overturned vehicle now used as a game by some children,

dejected refugees tramping along the side of the road. From the end of

one of the buildings are hanging HALF A DOZEN CORPSES, strung upside

down with crude placards denouncing, in Italian, their collaboration

with the Nazis.

12INT. RED CROSS TRUCK. CONTINUOUS.

Hana sees all this as she sits blankly inside the truck, the Patient

swaying alongside her. She puts out her hand to steady him.

13*.EXT. CONVOY SITE, ITALY. DUSK.

THE CONVOY is making a PITSTOP. The trucks are silhouetted in a line.

Hana helps lift the Patient's stretcher onto the ground. She bends to

him.

HANA:

Do you need something?

The Patient nods. Hana gets up to prepare MORPHINE INJECTION from a

small kit. Mary arrives. Touches Hana gently, conscious of her grief

for Jan's death.

MARY:

Are you okay? Oh God, Hana, you were

like sisters.

HANA:

(sighs angrily)

We keep moving him - in and out of the

truck. Why? He's dying. What's the point?

MARY:

Well, we can't hardly leave him. Do

you mean leave him? We can't.

Hana has settled down beside the Patient's stretcher. She draws

herself up against the night. On the hill above, she can see the

outline of A SMALL MONASTERY in the moonlight. She's crying, her face

a frozen mask.

HANA:

I must be a curse. Anybody who loves me,

anybody who gets close to me -

or I must be cursed. Which is it?

The Patient laces her fingers into his crabbed hand.

14EXT. THE MONASTERY. DAY.

Hana is investigating the MONASTERY OF ST. ANNA, wandering through its

overgrown gardens, past a pond. What sanctuary it seems to offer.

15*.INT. THE MONASTERY LIBRARY. DAY.

Hana explores via a gaping hole in a LIBRARY where the walls have

collapsed from shelling. The garden intrudes, ivy curls around the

shelves. Bloated books lie abandoned, and there's a PIANO tiled up on

one side. Hana presses the keys through the filthy tarpaulin which

covers it. Everywhere there are signs of a brief German occupation.

15a*.INT. MONASTERY CLOISTERS. DAY.

Past the Library is a CLOISTERS, drenched with silver light.

15b*.INT. THE MONASTERY STAIRS. DAY.

Hana goes upstairs, negotiating a huge VOID in the stone treads two

thirds of the way up.

15c*.INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.

She comes across a small CHAPEL, with the remains of murals and an

altar pressed into service by the Germans as a table. Hana finds an

old bed, and a mattress.

16EXT. THE MONASTERY GARDEN. DAY.

Hana comes out, passes a DRY WATER TROUGH. She hears a rustling on the

gravel and turns to see A TORTOISE ambling towards the trough. On cue

there's A GURGLING SOUND. THE HANDLELESS PUMP IS SUDDENLY GUSHING,

splashing water everywhere. The Tortoise, clearly arriving for this,

enjoys a welcome shower. Hana goes to the trough, dips her hands into

the water. Looks around her, and makes a decision.

17EXT. CONVOY SITE. ITALY. DAY.

The Convoy is in the final stages of loading up. Oliver passes the

vehicles, deep in dispute with a determined Hana, who is carrying some

sacks of rice.

HANA:

The war's over - you told me yourself.

How can it be desertion?

OLIVER:

It's not over everywhere. I didn't mean

literally.

HANA:

When he dies I'll catch up.

Oliver hovers as Hana adds the rice to a small cache of provisions,

then lays another blanket over the Patient.

OLIVER:

It's not safe here. The whole country's

crawling with Bandits and Germans and God

knows what. It's madness. I can't allow it.

You're not, this is natural - it's shock.

For all of us. Hana -

HANA:

I need morphine. A lot. And a pistol.

OLIVER:

(clutching at straws)

And what if he really is a spy?

HANA:

(impatiently)

He can't even move.

OLIVER:

If anything happened to you I'd never

forgive myself.

Hana nods. A tiny smile. Oliver shrugs helplessly.

OLIVER:

We're heading for Leghorn. Livorno the

Italians call it. We'll expect you.

18*.INT. THE MONASTERY. DAY.

TWO SOLDIERS are helping Mary and Hana carry the Patient into the

monastery. Hana indicates the stairs.

HANA:

Up there.

They struggle up the stairs, one of the Soldiers gasping as he narrowly

avoids falling into the void in the stairs. The cot almost tips up, at

which the Patient SUDDENLY SPEAKS, his voice cracked and rasping, but

still clearly aristocratic.

THE PATIENT:

There was a Prince, who was dying, and

he was carried up the tower at Pisa so he

could die with a view of the Tuscan Hills.

Am I that Prince?

Hana laughs.

HANA:

Because you're leaning? No, you're

just on an angle. You're too heavy!

Mary laughs. They reach the landing. Hana kicks open the door to the

CHAPEL.

HANA:

In here.

18a*.INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.

Hana lets Mary take the weight while she goes to the bed and pulls away

the drapes, sending up a cloud of dust. They lower the Patient onto

the bed. She turns to the SOLDIERS.

HANA:

Thank you.

She shuts the door on them, leaving Mary staring aghast at the room,

its faded frescoes, its mold, its chaos. Hana smiles, opens a shutter

to let a fierce envelope of light into the room.

HANA:

Good.

She goes to Mary and hugs her.

19*.INT. HANA'S ROOM. THE MONASTERY. DAY.

A smaller upstairs room completely bare. As Hana tugs off her uniform,

she looks out of the window to see the departing Convoy. A cotton

dress goes on over her head and she emerges looking suddenly younger

and rather fragile. THROUGH THE DAMAGED FLOOR OF HER ROOM SHE HAS A

VIEW OF THE PATIENT BELOW HER. SHE LOOKS AT HIM. NOW SHE HAS SCISSORS

AND STARTS TO CUT OFF HER HAIR, NOT AGGRESSIVELY, BUT IN A GESTURE OF A

NEW BEGINNING.

19a*.INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.

HANA walks down to the Patient's Room and stands in the doorway. The

Patient turns his head to her. He's grinning. He puts up a thumb. On

the track a song begins: Some Other Time.

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