Youth Page #16

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MISS UNIVERSE:

Of course! I’ve got my whole life

ahead of me, and I want to be an

actress. I don't want to just rely

on my beauty.

JIMMY TREE:

(chuckles) What else do you watch?

Cartoons?

Miss Universe stiffens a little.

MISS UNIVERSE:

Whatever I want.

JIMMY TREE:

Brava, Miss Universe!

71.

MISS UNIVERSE:

(now very serious) You know

something, Mr. Tree?

JIMMY TREE:

What?

MISS UNIVERSE:

I appreciate irony, but when it is

drenched in poison, it is drained

of its force and reveals something

else.

JIMMY TREE:

What does it reveal? Tell me.

MISS UNIVERSE:

Frustration. Yours, in this case,

not mine.

JIMMY TREE:

(leaning forward, nervous) I'm

frustrated, Miss Universe?

MISS UNIVERSE:

I'm happy I took part in the Miss

Universe pageant. Are you happy you

played Mister Q?

Jimmy Tree has no answer for her.

Embarassment washes over the whole group.

Jimmy extends a hand to Miss Universe, as if to acknowledge

defeat. But Miss Universe doesn’t shake it. She walks away.

Mick smooths his hair with the palm of his hand as Jimmy

looks on.

Watching Miss Universe as she quickly disappears, Mick, to

break the chill that has descended...

MICK BOYLE:

How unbearable the insolent

ostentation of youth is.

FRED BALLINGER:

In particular if the person

listening is no longer young.

MICK BOYLE:

(laughing) That woman should be

stabbed to death, I mean stabbed!

Fred turns to look at Jimmy who has gone back to watching the

horn ensemble. And he says a touch of irony.

72.

FRED BALLINGER:

She's not at all stupid, Miss

Universe.

Jimmy, without looking at him, replies immediately.

JIMMY TREE:

Not at all!

They both break out in big smiles.

Lena watches Miss Universe walk across the garden, that

peculiar look in her eye that women have when watching

another woman. And when Miss Universe disappears from view,

Lena does something: she turns ninety degrees and looks

squarely at the mountaineer, who, naturally, is looking at

her. His eyes are sparkling like never before.

41. EXT./INT. (MUSIC VIDEO) CAR. DAY.

(The whole scene is shot and edited in the style of a music

video).

Music so funky it would make a corpse dance:"Can't rely on

you."

A luxury car - a Maserati - races along a sun-kissed mountain

road. Julian is driving. A splendidly made-up Paloma Faith

appears in the backseat. She is the one who is singing. She’s

wearing sexy lingerie and moving her body in the most

sinuous, sensual manner. A totally different Paloma from the

dull, anonymous woman we saw earlier. She flicks her tongue

in Julian's ear and he howls with pleasure. Down on all

fours, she moves like a panther in the back seat, upping the

eroticism with every gesture. Slithering like a snake, she

slips out the open window and climbs gracefully onto the

roof, singing the whole time. She gets to her feet and dances

on top of the car, as sensual and sexy as before.

The only reason she doesn’t fall off the roof of the moving

car is because we are very clearly in the unreal world of

music video.

Julian leans out of the window and watches her from below,

turned on and moaning like a fool. He leans so far out of the

car trying to grab her that he has to hold the steering wheel

with his foot.

The car swerves, but there’s no danger: we’re in a music

video.

Julian climbs back into the driver's seat to avoid an

accident.

He fixes his eyes on the road, but is not for long: Paloma

now appears on the front windshield.

73.

Slowly, she slithers down the windshield onto the hood.

Pressing her body against the glass, she winks at him, makes

eyes at him, shows him her tongue and everything else as she

rolls onto the hood, the car still tearing along at 120mph,

the wind in her hair.

With an acrobatic move, Paloma finally climbs through the

window again and is back in the car.

She sits next to Julian. He wants to touch her, but she coyly

prevents him, increasing his desire. She’s been singing the

whole time, but now she pauses the song for a moment and

says.

PALOMA FAITH:

Now watch what I'm going to do for

you!

She opens the glove compartment and produces a sex toy the

likes of which has never been seen before.

A huge black rubber ball studded with menacing metal,

luminescent stingers. It’s impossible even to imagine what

you could do with it.

PALOMA FAITH (CONT’D)

Watch this, honey.

And the spiked, luminescent ball slowly disappears beneath

her body, but just then...

JULIAN:

Holy sh*t!

42. INT. FRED BALLINGER’S SUITE. NIGHT

... DARKNESS.

A woman’s scream shatters the music and everything else.

Alarmed, Fred Ballinger switches on the lamp on the night

stand. Lena awakens with a start, as if from a nightmare.

She’s sweating, panicked. She can’t breathe.

FRED BALLINGER:

Lena, what’s wrong?

Lena is gasping for breath. She slowly comes back to reality,

her breath returning to normal. She reassures her father.

LENA:

Nothing, nothing. It was just a

dream.

FRED BALLINGER:

A nightmare?

74.

LENA:

Let’s say somewhere between the

two. It’s over now.

Fred turns off the light. Half-light. Lena slowly settles

down, but she can’t fall asleep. They have their backs to

each other. After a while she asks.

LENA (CONT’D)

As a man, how did Miss Universe

seem to you?

FRED BALLINGER:

An unbelievable disappointment.

Lena is greatly cheered by her father’s remark. Then, after a

pause.

LENA:

Daddy, I have to tell you

something... personal.

FRED BALLINGER:

Tell me, Lena.

LENA:

Julian’s an ass. Because I’m really

good in bed.

FRED BALLINGER:

I know.

LENA:

What do you mean... you know?

FRED BALLINGER:

You’re my daughter. And, in all

modesty, I was a wonder between the

sheets myself.

Slowly but surely, once their embarrassment has faded, they

start sniggering in the dark, each on his own side of the

bed.

43. INT. CRAFT SHOP. DAY

A shop full of souvenirs and local crafts made of wood.

Fred roams around, glancing at the stuff on the shelves, but

without much interest.

Jimmy Tree goes over to the cash register and - proud at

having found it - presents a briarwood walking stick, very

similar to the one we saw the South American using. The sales

clerk starts wrapping it.

75.

Jimmy is waiting when the pale, thirteen-year-old girl from

the hotel appears at his side. Pink circles around her eyes,

making her seem not scary exactly, but vaguely pained.

She bites her nails nervously as she stares at Jimmy, who

senses her presence and so turns to her.

She stares unabashed at him, long and hard enough to make

Jimmy feel embarrassed, and then says confidently.

PALE GIRL:

I saw you in a film once.

JIMMY TREE:

So you liked Mister Q as well?

PALE GIRL:

No, I saw you in that film where

you play a father who never knew

his son and meets him for the first

time in a highway diner when the

son’s already fourteen.

Jimmy turns to stone. He mutters.

JIMMY TREE:

But nobody saw that movie!

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