The Great Gatsby Page #11

GATSBY:

Its a remarkable little camera--

latest design.

While, nearby, a butler in a boat stands watch over aspinning gramophone and bottles of champagne...

DAISY:

You do know, I’m a champion golfer,

don’t you? Here, I’ll show you how

its done.

CRACK! Daisy cuts a marvelous swing, snapping a club in two!

She falls into Gatsby arms...

Nick films...

67.

GATSBY:

She looks like she could be on the

cover of Vogue, don’t you think...?

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. GATSBY’S CASTLE - GRAND BALLROOM - EARLY EVENING

Gatsby and Nick trail behind Daisy, crossing the ballroom.

Daisy, champagne in hand, spots the soaring ballroom organ.

DAISY:

Oh...! Its beautiful.

GATSBY:

Its a custom Wurlitzer.

DAISY:

Can anyone play it?

GATSBY:

Klipspringer can.

(to his footmen)

Someone wake Ewing!

Daisy twirls round, overjoyed...

DAISY:

Music! And we can dance all night!

GATSBY:

Ewing’s a symphonic genius, he can

play anything...!

Daisy runs up the stairs and calls down...

DAISY:

Then I demand a Charleston!

Gatsby gazes up after Daisy, and confides in Nick...

GATSBY:

(as if in a dream)

She makes it look so splendid,

don’t you think old sport?

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. GATSBY’S CASTLE. GATSBY’S BEDROOM - EVENING

Nick and Daisy follow Gatsby into the bedroom...

68.

Gatsby bounds ahead, starting up a spiral stair... He throwsopen a massive cabinet, revealing a prism of suits, dressing-

gowns, watches and ties.

GATSBY:

I've got a man in England who buysme clothes...!

He playfully tosses Daisy a boater-hat...

GATSBY (CONT’D)

Something for the lady...

Then he begins yanking down shirts and tossing them over therail to Daisy...

DAISY:

I’ve never seen anything like it!

GATSBY:

He sends over a selection at the

beginning of each season...

DAISY:

Jay!

With ever-increasing enthusiasm!

GATSBY:

These are silk! Linen! Indian

flannel! Egyptian cotton!

Daisy, intoxicated, leaps on the bed, arms outstretched...

DAISY:

No, Jay... you’ll ruin them!

(to Nick)

Nicky! He’s a madman!

More and more and more shirts float down...

The rumble of distant thunder.

CLOSE ON:
Daisy. TIME SLOWS AS shirts flutter, like giantsnowflakes, down toward her. Slowly, quietly, her mirthtransforms to sobs... She hides her face in shirts...

Gatsby eases down the stairs and nestles beside Daisy, takingher tear-streaked face in his hands...

GATSBY:

What is it?

69.

DAISY:

It’s just... It makes me sad,

because...

Daisy glances in Nick’s direction...

GATSBY:

Why?

DAISY:

...because...

A suspended moment; Daisy is incapable of speaking her heart.

NICK (V.O.)

Five lost years struggled onDaisy’s lips. But all she could

manage was...

DAISY:

It’s just... Because I've never

seen such beautiful shirts before.

GATSBY:

If it wasn't for the mist we could

see the green light...

DAISY:

What green light?

GATSBY:

The one that burns all night at theend of your dock.

As Gatsby and Daisy stare out across the bay...

NICK (V.O.)

Possibly, it had occurred to Gatsbythat the colossal significance ofthat light had vanished forever.

Now, it was once again just a greenlight on a dock. His count ofenchanted objects had diminished by

one.

Nick, impelled to remind Daisy and Gatsby of his presence,

emerges from the shadows and descends the spiral staircase.

He holds a photo of an elderly man in yachting costume...

NICK:

Who's this? Your father?

70.

GATSBY:

No, no.. That’s Mr. Dan Cody, old

sport... He's dead now. He used tobe my best friend years ago.

Daisy joins Nick at the bottom of the steps. In the photowith Cody, also in yachting costume, is a young Gatsby...

DAISY:

(teases)

You never told me you had apompadour... or a yacht.

Gatsby hastily plucks a scrapbook from a row on his desk...

GATSBY:

I want to show you something...

Look, here's a lot of clippings,

about you.

They admire a scrapbook together.

DAISY:

(touched)

You saved my letters...

GATSBY:

This was my first photo of you.

As Daisy flips through and pulls out an old letter of hers,

we hear her reading the letter in abstract VOICEOVER:

DAISY (V.O.)

We cant lose each other and let all

this glorious love end in nothing.

Come home, I’ll be here waiting andhoping, for every long dream of youto come true... Come home Jay...

BBBRRRNNNGGG! The phone shrills.

GATSBY:

Excuse me.

Gatsby crosses the room, snatches up the receiver, and turnsaway... He lowers his voice.

GATSBY (INTO PHONE) (CONT’D)

Well I can't talk now old sport...

As the timbre of Gatsby’s voice darkens we PUSH CLOSER.

GATSBY (INTO PHONE) (CONT’D)

I said a small town.

71.

ECU:
Gatsby’s eyes narrow.

GATSBY (INTO PHONE) (CONT’D)

He must know what a small town is.

BOOOOMMM! A storming wind bangs open the French windows!

As Nick moves to shut them, he glimpses Gatsby...

GATSBY (INTO PHONE) (CONT’D)

(frightening)

Well, he's no use to us if Detroit

is his idea of a small town...

Gatsby rings off abruptly, and catches Nick’s eye - a tense

moment - which Gatsby banishes with that electrifying smile.

We hear the distant, jaunty sounds of a pipe organ...

GATSBY (CONT’D)

Ah, Klipspringer! He must be awake!

Shall we?

INT. GATSBY’S CASTLE - GRAND BALLROOM - DUSK BECOMING NIGHT

Daisy, wearing a flowing robe and heels, dances a Charlestonwith Nick.

An elaborate picnic, complete with candelabras and a mountainof cushions, is laid out on the floor. There, Gatsby sits,

looking on, flush with joy.

Slowly though, Gatsby’s expression turns introspective. As hewatches Daisy dance, memories flood back to him...

DISSOLVE TO:

FLASHBACK.

AN ARRAY OF MEMORIES AND IMAGES DISSOLVE ONE INTO THE OTHER:

Gatsby and Daisy, five years ago, about to kiss; a handwritten

letter; a gathering storm; the green light...

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. GATSBY’S CASTLE - GRAND BALLROOM - NIGHT

Hundreds of candles flicker in patterns. As a slow,

melancholic waltz plays, Gatsby and Daisy dance,

enraptured...

72.

DAISY:

(whispers)

I wish I had done everything onearth with you. All my life.

Gatsby holds her closer.

DAISY (CONT’D)

I wish that it could always be likethis...

GATSBY:

It will be...

Across the room, Nick, exhausted and drunk and unnoticed,

stands to leave. At the ballroom doors he turns back and

glimpses Gatsby and Daisy, in a universe all their own...

NICK (V.O.)

If only it had been enough forGatbsy, just to hold Daisy...

The towering doors close.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. GATSBY’S CASTLE - BEDROOM - NIGHT

Gatsby stands at his window, staring into the night.

NICK (V.O.)

But he had a grand vision for hislife, and Daisy’s part in it.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. SANITARIUM - NICK’S ROOM - END OF WINTER - DUSK

Nick is writing at his desk...

NICK (V.O.)

It wasn’t until the end of that

summer, on the last night I sawGatsby, that he told me of the lifehe had dreamt for himself since he

was a boy...

INT. SANITARIUM - DOCTOR’S OFFICE - END OF WINTER - DUSK

Nick stops his reading, and, very slowly, admits...

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