The English Patient Page #3

20*.EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. 1938. LATE DAY.

THE SONG CONTINUED IN THE DESERT where we find the singer - PETER

MADOX, a weather-beaten man who is working on the guts of an BATTERED

TIGER MOTH AEROPLANE. His face is blackened with oil. A second

European, ALM�SY, stands beside him, holding tools and a section of the

camshaft. Madox yanks out a perished rubber hose and holds it up for

Almasy to inspect. Behind them is an ENCAMPMENT - some camels foraging

in the meager scrub, half a dozen black tents of the BEDOUIN: guides

and servants to the Alm�sy/Madox Expedition. It's 1938 and the whole

continent is full of such expeditions, competing with each other,

pursuing lost treasures, sources of rivers, hidden cities.

D'AGOSTINO, the team's Italian ARCHEOLOGIST, drives towards the plane

in one of the expedition's adapted FORD MOTORCARS. He gets out

carrying a large earthenware WATER JAR. He looks very pleased with

himself as he shows the jar to Alm�sy and then passes it to Madox.

D'AGOSTINO

Thirsty?

MADOX:

(sniffing inside)

What's this?

D'AGOSTINO

Don't drink it!

He reaches for the jug, then pours out a little sludge - it's a

brackish and stinks. Madox makes a face.

D'AGOSTINO

I can't guarantee the vintage, my

friends. I just dug it out of the hill.

Madox and Alm�sy have seen many such jugs.

MADOX:

Excellent. That's terrific, D'Ag.

(to Alm�sy, of a tool)

Toss that up, would you.

D'AGOSTINO

(mischievously)

There are some others.

21EXT. POTTERY HILL. DAY.

THE BASE OF A HILL SEEMS COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF POTTERY JARS.

D'Agostino emerges over the brow of a dune, leading Madox and Alm�sy.

The other members of the team are already there - BERMANN, a German

PHOTOGRAPHER and FOUAD, EGYPTOLOGIST from Cairo.

MADOX:

(to Alm�sy, astonished)

My God, look at this!

They bend to touch the jars, literally hundreds of them, mostly broken,

piled on top of each other. Bermann approaches them, carrying his

tripod.

BERMANN:

Incredible, Hmm? Quite incredible.

D'AGOSTINO

I've never seen anything like it. There

would have been enough water here to

serve an army.

ALM�SY

(gloomily)

Which means we're in the wrong place.

Alm�sy speaks with a slight but unmistakable European accent.

D'AGOSTINO

Why?

ALM�SY

Would you stockpile water near to an

Oasis? There can't be a natural spring

within fifty miles of here.

FOUAD:

Or they didn't know of one.

BERMANN:

So, it may not be Zerzura, still

incredible.

D'AGOSTINO

(nodding, delighted)

A pottery hill!

ALM�SY

A wild goose chase.

MADOX:

(firmly)

No.

Alm�sy gives him a look. But Madox will have none of it.

MADOX:

No. Now we look in the other places.

We're eliminating.

The unmistakable buzz of AN AEROPLANE distracts them.

MADOX:

Good, and here comes reinforcements.

21a*.EXT. BASE CAMP AT POTTERY HILL. DAY.

LATER and a smart new aeroplane, a STEERMAN, makes a smooth landing on

the flat desert. The expedition team drives over to meet the arrivals.

Alm�sy is not with them. He's walking, apparently not so enthusiastic.

A young, kissed and newly-married couple emerge from the plane. They

are GEOFFREY AND KATHARINE CLIFTON.

And it's immediately clear that Katharine is the woman in the plane-

crash at the beginning of the film.

Madox makes all the introductions. Hands are shaken, hellos all round,

as the couple disembark in their leather flying gear. Geoffrey removes

his helmet and, in what we will come to know as an ubiquitous gesture,

produces a bottle of CHAMPAGNE and sets off the cork with a flourish.

CLIFTON:

I hereby Christen us the International

Sand Club!

22EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. LATE DAY.

The party is in the shade of the tents. Alm�sy joins the group. Madox

nods over to the Clifton plane.

MADOX:

Marvelous plane. Did you look?

CLIFTON:

(beaming at Alm�sy)

Isn't it? Wedding present from

Katharine's parents. I'm calling it

Rupert Bear. Hello. Geoffrey Clifton.

MADOX:

We can finally consign my old bird

to the scrapheap.

Alm�sy smiles and walks on towards the others.

D'AGOSTINO

Mrs. Clifton - Count Almasy.

KATHARINE:

(smiling, offering her hand)

Geoffrey gave me your monograph when

I was reading up on the desert.

Very impressive.

ALM�SY

(stiff)

Thank you.

KATHARINE:

I wanted to meet a man who could write

such a long paper with so few adjectives.

ALM�SY

A thing is still a thing no matter what

you place in front of it. Big car, slow

car, chauffeur-driven car, still a car.

CLIFTON:

(joining them and joining in)

A broken car?

ALM�SY

Still a car.

CLIFFTON:

(hands them champagne)

Not much use, though.

KATHARINE:

Love? Romantic love, platonic love,

filial love - ? Quite different things,

surely?

CLIFTON:

(hugging Katharine)

Uxoriousness - that's my favorite kind

of love. Excessive love of one's wife.

ALM�SY

(a dry smile)

There you have me.

23INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. THE MONASTERY. MORNING.

The morning floods into the room. The Patient lies, lost in the

desert. Then a sudden CLATTERING NOISE disturbs him.

24INT. STAIRS, THE MONASTERY. DAY.

Hana is dropping armfuls of books into the cavities of the damaged

stairs, and with others, she is improvising new steps. The heavy

volumes are perfect for treading on.

25INT. LIBRARY. DAY.

Hana comes in, gathers up another armful of books and carries them out

to continue her stair repairs.

26*.INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.

Hana enters.

THE PATIENT:

What was all the banging? Were you

fighting rats or the entire German army?

HANA:

I was repairing the stairs. I found a

library and the books were very useful.

Hana shrugs. She's attending to him, pulling back the sheets, plumping

up the pillows. He's short of breath.

THE PATIENT:

Before you find too many uses for these

books would you read some to me?

HANA:

I think they're all in Italian, but I'll

look, yes. What about your own book?

THE PATIENT:

(reluctant)

My book? The Herodotus? Yes, we

can read him.

Hana picks up the book and hands it to him. Then she starts rummaging

in her pockets.

HANA:

Oh - I've found plums. We have plums

in the orchard. We have an orchard!

She has peeled a plum and now slips it into his mouth.

THE PATIENT:

Thank you.

His mouth works with the pleasure of the taste, a little juice escaping

from the mouth. Hana mops it up.

THE PATIENT:

The plumness of this plum.

A noise, GURGLING sound, disturbs them.

THE PATIENT:

What's that?

27INT/EXT. THE MONASTERY. DAY.

Hana comes through the Cloisters into the garden as the gurgling

increases. She's in time to catch the TORTOISE arriving once again in

the WATER TROUGH just as it starts to gush with water. She shouts up

to The Patient's open window.

HANA:

Water!

(bends to the Tortois)

You hear it, too, don't you!

28INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.

Close on the HERODOTUS. The Patient opens its cover, held together by

leather ties. Loose PAPERS, PHOTOGRAPHS, HAND-DRAWN MAPS AND SKETCHES

are all collected between the pages. He claws at some water-colors

which appear to be based on CAVE PAINTINGS - figures, dark-skinned

warriors of the stone age, some with bows in their hands, others with

plumes in their hair - arranged in abstract patterns uncannily like

those of Matisse. Some appear to be swimming, another is diving. Then

the Patient loses control of the papers and the whole parcel SPILLS to

the floor with a crack.

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