[_____V_____]

changes from the original story

“the scar” is a pretty short story, so i made quite a few changes/additions to flesh out the film:

1. The movie will be strictly lindsay-focused. In the book, the reader is present for jack’s mugging. Since i want the camera to follow lindsay around, this, instead, will appear off-screen, which hopefully will also build more mystery around the occurrence. I think that, in order to accomplish this, we will need a stream-of-consciousness voice over from the lindsay character almost constantly so that we can be just as trapped as he is in his confused, paranoid mind. When i think of voice over, i think particularly at the beginning of eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, the mumbling stream-of-consciousness of joel – muttering, mumbling, confused, and ultimately unhappy.

2. Building lindsay’s character – the story implies a lot of what i wrote out above about his character, so fleshing it out was necessary to create a truly colorful character piece. Also, while the book hints to lindsay’s obsession with his book (which i named the fall above; the book does not have a name in the story), so in the movie i imagine seeing him return to the cliff scene over and over again – in dreams and also in the movie’s intense moments. There are more obvious embellishments too, where i plan on “starting” the movie prior to where we come in on the story, in order to build lindsay’s character before he actually sees the scarred jack.

3. Absurdity – the story hints at certain elements of the absurd, but i would like to expand on them a bit more in the movie. In essence, i want lindsay to become not only a main character, but an unreliable narrator – while you feel his fear and uncertainty, i also want you to doubt what you see with your eyes… i want the audience to be uncomfortable and never feel quite safe because lindsay, himself, never feels quite safe – we are not entering into a safe place here, not in lower brichester, nor in the mind of lindsay. When i mention the “absurd,” i again think of how the possession of david o’reilly weaved the horror of david in with the almost absurd, yet believable visions of his monsters and demons – i want lindsay’s visions of the cliff, as well as the scarred jack to be on the line of the absurd – are we living in a world where these horrible things can honestly happen? Or is it all in his head?

4. The confrontation – in the story, when lindsay goes to the rossiters (after he has been asked not to), a man comes out of the house. I changed “the man” to a “policeman” to emphasize that no one is safe, even with the police. Also hopefully this will add to the absurdity (what world do we live in if the police will let something like this happen?). Also, in the story jack goes along with lindsay to the abandoned house at the end. In the adaptation, i add a chase, hopefully to add to the heightened confusion that lindsay feels.

plot summary

the movie opens in a dream sequence: A beautiful cliff’s edge, and a woman in flowing skirts held at gunpoint by a masked man. Lindsay run towards the man, catches him, and the two hurtle off the edge of the cliff. Lindsay wakes up panting in a sweat in his bedroom. There is a picture on the wall behind him of the same cliff we saw in his dream – the type of picture that appears to be torn out of a nature or natural geographic magazine and taped to the wall. The book the fall is open on lindsay’s chest. It’s worn from many readings. Lindsay’s bedroom is shabby – an alarm clock with the minute hand broken off. Above his desk is a cheap calendar with the days crossed off, with wednesdays and thursdays circled. We can see that it’s a wednesday. Next to the calendar are photographs taped on the wall with scotch tape – a few photographs of just harriet, a photograph of harriet and her two children, douglas and elaine, a photograph of harriet and jack on their wedding day, a creased photograph of harriet as a child of 12 holding lindsay as a baby.

Lindsay’s apartment is bare and disheveled. He eats a can of pasta for breakfast, pulls on a sweatshirt, and heads out to work. He walks down a few streets to the bus stop - lower brichester is as described above, but less threatening during the day. At the bus stop, lindsay fixates on a particular broken-down house while school girls start to congregate. While waiting for the bus, a teenager starts to harass the girls and lindsay stares, but is too scared to intervene.

We follow lindsay through his day – he takes the bus to a super market, where he bags groceries. Lindsay is clearly uncomfortable in his skin as customers interact with him. In the evening he takes the bus to the rossiter’s for his wednesday night dinner. Lindsay spends time with the children, reading them stories about knights in shining armor rescuing princesses. At dinner he tells jack and harriet about how, at the bus stop, school girls are getting harassed but there is no police presence to help them. Jack’s response is “well, lindsay, why don’t you step in?” which shames lindsay. Harriet goes upstairs to put the children in bed and jack joins her. Lindsay walks to the stairs to listen to their conversation – harriet chides jack for his comment to lindsay and jack says that lindsay complains too much about the violence in his area but doesn’t make the effort to move out. Lindsay is frustrated and wishes that he could somehow impress them and that they looked up to him instead of him looking up to them.

At the bus stop, waiting for the bus to take him home, lindsay is amongst a group of people, one of them a man with his hood covering his face, on the bus ride on the way home, lindsay thinks that the same man, with the hood, looks like jack, but with a scar on his face, from his cheek bone to his jawbone. Lindsay fixates on the man, and when they both get off at his bus stop, the man walks to the broken-down house, where he is greeted by another man with a grey mask covering his face, lindsay is horrified and paranoid and confused – it’s hard to tell if what he sees is actually happening or if it’s in his head. On the walk to his apartment, he thinks he sees the plaid skirt of one of the schoolgirls peeking out of a dumpster, but he hurries on.

The following evening, lindsay meets jack in the pub and tells him about how he thinks he saw a man that looks exactly like him, but with the scar on his face. Lindsay also says that the original german folklore concept of the “doppelganger,” if you saw someone who looked like you, that meant that you were going to die. The conversation becomes awkward and jack tries to laugh it off, but it’s obvious that he’s annoyed with lindsay’s choice in conversation.

On the way home, lindsay obsesses over the scarred man, worrying that something is going to happen to jack. He repeatedly asks himself, “who’s going to take care of the children if something happens?” at his bus stop, he focuses on the broken-down house, which has bags of garbage out front, but there is no one there. There’s the ominous sound of broken glass and the sound of a fight breaking out. Lindsay sees a police car that is idled, but there is no police presence.

That night, lindsay has the same cliff dream, except this time the masked man has a scar running from his cheek bone to his jawbone. Again, lindsay wakes up sweating.

The following day, lindsay receives a call from harriet. Jack’s jewelry shop was broken into over night. No one was hurt, though the display cases were broken and the police are investigating.

Lindsay’s next visit to the rossiters is tense – jack is upset about the jewelry break in and seems to have less patience than usual about conversation. Lindsay recommends that jack reads the fall to take his mind off of things, and describes the scene on the cliff. Jack dismisses it, saying that lindsay has recommended that story repeatedly and that nothing can take his mind off of the break-in. He says that the police are doing nothing about it. He is angry and storms upstairs. Harriet follows after him, lindsay overhears them talking through jack’s frustration and about how he doesn’t want to see lindsay for a while. Harriet of course presses him to keep their thursday night meeting at the pub to get jack’s mind off of the break in. Lindsay feels guilty and helpless. He’s frustrated and is convinced that it was the scarred man who broke into the shop. However, he does not think that the rossiters will believe him if he tells them about the scarred man. He knows that he told jack, but wonders if he should tell harriet about it – would she believe him? Harriet always believes him, but is this too much?

Upstairs, jack embraces harriet – he pulls her close and they kiss deeply. They hold each other and kiss, jack disrobes her and pulls her down to the bed, where they begin to make love. Suddenly, jack’s face becomes the angry face of the scarred man and harriet begins to scream. She screams as he forces himself upon her… and lindsay wakes up in a sweat. He’s in his room and is unsure how he got home. Wednesday is crossed off, so he must have gotten home somehow.

(tbc.....)