The Face of an Angel Page #4

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Are you hiding people from him,

or don't you know as much as you pretend?

Cedric Bapupa is a friend of mine.

If you want to meet him, I can set it up.

Yeah, for a price.

Always a price for everything.

Do you think you are the only one

allowed to make money from this story?

You're not a guy whose life

was ruined by it.

- Quite a character.

- Yeah.

His blog had stuff on it

that nobody else knew.

We all had to read it

every day to keep up to speed.

He has the time and he knows everybody,

and he also has money.

He rents out rooms all over the city.

Really cheap. Almost squats.

And they say he deals drugs on the side.

- Handy man to know.

- Yeah.

Sometimes I think he might

actually be the killer.

When we were covering the trials,

somebody decided that Joe and I

were having an affair,

and they put it on the Internet.

It was just an easy way of attacking

somebody who wasn't on Jessica's side,

but I think it was Edoardo.

It wasn't true,

but I had to tell my husband.

We're separated now.

"The man who lies asleep

will never waken fame,

"and his desire and all his life

drift past him like a dream,

"and the traces of his memory

fade from time like smoke in air

"or ripples on a stream."

- Hi.

- Hey.

This seat taken?

Pretty view.

Yeah.

What's this? Oh, bit of light reading.

Calls itself a comedy,

but not that many laughs.

- Are you in heaven or hell?

- Inferno.

I have to go back to Rome.

I have the kids this weekend.

Lucky you.

Okay, have a good one.

- Bye.

- Bye.

Hey. It's me, Thomas.

- Hey, Thomas!

- I'm in your bar, but you're not here.

I'm at a party. Not much of a party,

but... Do you wanna come?

I thought it wasn't any good.

It's your typical student party, so...

- Then I have to come.

- Okay, great!

- For research.

- Good.

- Hey.

- Hey.

Mr. Director.

- You can call me Thomas.

- 'Course.

So, this is your comeback film.

Hope so. How do you know?

I looked you up on Siena's Burning.

Do you know the blog?

Yeah. Don't believe everything you read.

'Course. Only the good things.

Here it is. Come on.

- This is Thomas.

- Hi.

- Thomas, everyone. Everyone, Thomas.

- Hey.

- Do you have a lighter?

- Yeah.

Hey.

What are you doing here?

Come with me.

- I'm tired.

- Come.

How can you make a movie

about the murder

if you haven't even seen

where the killing happened?

- Listen, it's late.

- No time like the present.

Strike while the iron's hot.

Don't you know your English sayings?

This is the window they entered.

Don't throw stones

if you live in glass houses.

Come on, it's empty.

If you were here that night,

you could have saved her.

That's what everyone dreams.

This is Elizabeth's room.

She was found by the wardrobe.

Look what they didn't find.

This is the knife that killed her.

But the police never even looked

under the wardrobe.

They didn't even look

under the f***ing wardrobe.

- You all right?

- Yeah.

I'm sorry. That's my after work one.

I always go better with the dob.

- Let me take you home.

- It's all right.

Come on, it's like a maze out there.

- What are you studying here?

- Italian literature, culture and cinema.

It's very serious.

It's a whole four hours every morning.

I mean, it's...

it's an excuse, to be honest.

An excuse to be here

and have fun for a year.

It's a pretty good one.

- Aren't you having fun?

- Yeah. I always have fun.

Even at work?

Yeah. I mean, come on,

I do make a mean mojito.

Do you?

Put a bit too much rum in,

and watch everyone get drunk.

It's good for tips, too.

Here we are.

Delivered back to your hotel

safe and sound, as I promised.

Thank you.

- All right, auf Wiedersehen.

- Auf Wiedersehen.

You may follow me, and I will guide you,

and lead you from here.

But if you want to see the blessed,

then a spirit worthier

than I must lead you.

"Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

- How's Bea?

- She's good.

And Katherine, I saw she was nominated

for an Emmy. Very impressive.

Must be hard,

seeing her face everywhere...

Can we talk about something else?

- You guys were so good together...

- Please, come on.

How come we're not talking

about The Face of an Angel?

How's it going?

Everyone is asking me about the script.

- Have you worked out who did it?

- It's not a whodunit.

Just teasing. Carlo and Jessica and Joseph

did it. That's why they're in prison.

For now. There's so many angles.

How to organize it

in a meaningful way...

It's important that it's a story

based on truth.

But I wanna do something

that transcends them,

which is not just

a simple reconstruction.

Thank you.

Carry on.

I was trying to see if it's possible

to use the shape of...

Dante's Divine Comedy

as the shape of the film.

After all, it's a three-act structure.

Hell, purgatory, heaven.

Happy ending. It's perfect, really.

Are you being serious?

Dante was in love with a beautiful

Beatrice, and then she died.

Heartbroken, he goes in search of her,

but he also goes in search

of a meaning to life and death.

Listen, Caroline's commissioned you

to make a true crime thriller.

Are you really saying you're trying

to write a medieval morality tale?

No, no, no. It would be modern.

And it would deal with the case.

It would just follow

the shape of the poem,

because the story, the real story,

is too hard. It's too brutal.

The poem is really a dream, a nightmare.

Dante is a man in the middle

of his life who lost his way.

Strayed off the narrow path, and finds

himself back in a deep, black forest.

You know, lots of the stuff in the poem's

actually classic horror movie stuff.

The return of the repressed.

They want to make a film

about two teenagers

- and a murder that can't be solved.

- I know.

And now you want to give them a script

about a middle-aged man who's lost his way.

- How much have you written?

- Not much.

Good, then you haven't wasted

too much time.

Thomas, you're too young

to have a mid-life crisis.

It's been four years.

They really want this film.

Give them something they can make.

- Please.

- Yeah.

Exterior, Tuscan countryside. Day.

Jessica is sitting on a train.

She's outgoing, confident, attractive.

Elizabeth makes the same journey.

Jessica arrives first.

Elizabeth, a few days later.

She's quieter, calm, thoughtful.

They both find a room in a house

on the edge of the medieval town.

They're both full of hope

and excitement for the year ahead.

How's the script going?

Not.

Missing your daughter?

Well, I'm seeing her now,

but I'll be back in a moment, sir.

Okay. Okay, Bobby.

- Ciao.

- Ciao.

- Hey.

- Hi. I thought you might like this.

- It's one of my articles.

- Thank you.

Strange, when I think of A Face

of an Angel, I always think of Elizabeth.

- But you all mean Jessica.

- Yeah, we all use that line for Jessica.

Jessica is like a film star,

blank canvas.

- Somewhere we project our fantasies onto.

- She's the story.

Guilty or not,

that's all anyone wants to read.

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