Scene 35 - Bruce Talks to Camera

(This scene begins with scene identifier, clapboard, sync pulse, i.e. standard scene log anyone that has watched the making of a film has seen sometime or other. Scene is shot at an overlook of a northern New Mexico mountain chain. Bruce is in the foreground, standing facing camera. Mary is sitting in the background on a ledge, facing sideways, one leg up on ledge. She has her head leaning against one of her knees. Telephoto shot. The mountains loom large in the background.)

Voice1: Okay, quiet on the set. Sound?

Voice2: Sound ready.

Voice1: Roll sound. Camera?

Voice2: Camera ready.

Voice1: Roll camera. Sync it.

Asst. Camera: Scene 35, take 1. Bruce and Mary... (Clapboard)

Voice1: Hold your pose. Action!

Bruce: In this scene the script resolves all this funny business by having Bruce confront his present situation and confront the past as well. This involves my explaining to Mary that we can't possibly love each other the way her young girl infatuation might lead her to believe. I mean most of the viewers, those that weren't in the bathroom or out buying popcorn, saw the Scene where Carol and Bruce get together and, you know. Well, that was Bruce taking a step in the right direction and the film is about three-fourths over, so we should really go with that, giving the whole story a bit of a bittersweet ending of unresolved love and...

(CUT)

Asst. Camera: Scene 35 take 2. Bruce and Mary.

Voice1: Action!

Bruce: In this scene Bruce explains to Mary that there are many types of love and that up to now we've mistaken one type of love for another. Many types of love don't even have anything to do with the emotions the two of us are feeling and... after a time, she too will realize this. Now I understand that at her tender age she hasn't quite learned the art of masking her true feelings, but one day soon she will learn that this is a part of what it means to be an adult in today's world and, yes, you do know she's only thirteen years old, so she's incapable of really loving someone and Bruce is doing her a considerable disservice going along with all of this business, even cultivating it, so...

(CUT)

Asst Camera: Scene 35, take 3. Bruce and Mary.

(Bruce seated on ledge facing Mary)

Voice1: Action!

Bruce: So how were the ruins at the canyon? Let's hear the real scoop.

Mary: (Smiling, looking down) They were great! So hot in the day. So cool at night. Stars, stars, so many stars. I wished on some. (Looks up coyly) I'm glad I'm back.

Bruce: I'm glad you're back, too.

Mary: It's different here, huh?

Bruce: You noticed that. The air. It's so ethereal.

Mary: You using those big words again?

Bruce: Ethereal. That's the best word to describe the feeling.

Mary: Like heaven?

Bruce: Like heaven.

Mary: Seven eleven. Take me to heaven. Now that we're wed, lie in my bed...

Bruce: Where did that come from?

Mary: It's something Amica and I do. One of us says a sentence and the other one has to answer with a rhyme.

Bruce: So Amica did the Seven eleven bit and you must have contributed the Take me to heaven and the Lie in my bed.

Mary: How did you know?

Bruce: (Just looks at her for a spell) Hey! did you ever go to an amusement park and get off of a ride that made you dizzy?

Mary: Yeah?

Bruce: And things that you know are stationary appear to be moving?

Mary: Yeah...

Bruce: Well, that's what those mountains appear to be doing.

Mary: Yeah?

Bruce: Yeah. It's like they're moving like one big ocean. The tips of the mountains are like little waves. I can even hear the surf.

Mary: Dude!

Bruce: (Continues) Like frozen oceans, those mountain tops.

Mary: Why did you leave your wife?

Bruce: Whoa! Where did that come from?

Mary: Ms. Foley told Carol she though you were lonely.

Bruce: Now where did you intercept this little tidbit of gossip?

Mary: On the stairs.

Bruce: (Long pause, then) Once, once upon a time, I fell in love. It wasn't the first time, nor was it to be the last. But I was at the age that I felt it had to be, well, special, as if love in itself weren't special enough. We decided to promise the world that the love would last forever and a day and that we would find no love greater. Now a promise like this is an idle promise, and I'll tell you why. A person can promise to do or not to do all sorts of things: You can promise to make your bed every morning, to take your vitamins, to brush your teeth, not to touch yourself in public. But love isn't about doing or not doing. It's about feeling. You can't promise to feel a certain way a certain length of time, least of all forever. Well, you can, but it's not something you can control. Such a promise is an idle promise. It's like promising that you'll set all your conscious mind to the task of ensuring an earthquake never again occurs in the state of California. Worse than that, promising to love someone forever, unless you realize the romantic absurdity of that notion, well, it can ruin the future happiness of all involved. Say those feelings just aren't there anymore. All things have a beginning and an end. There's no shame in that. But believing yourself to be a person of strong conviction and dedication, you figure, well, maybe you're not trying hard enough. You refuse to admit defeat, to acknowledge your unhappiness or to have the strength to set about finding it again, no matter the initial pain involved. You wouldn't believe the number of people locked in miserable relationships, going through the motions. "What else is there to do? There are bills to pay. We own a house. I'm a faithful person. And all that talk about happiness, well, maybe it's a little selfish. Maybe people aren't supposed to be happy..."

(Close up of Mary looking at Bruce, trying to visualize)

Bruce: Life is meant to be joyful. In my dreams I was happy. Then I would wake up and the reality of the situation would hit me. See her lying there next to me, just like the morning before and the morning before that. And the reality that my heart was a thousand miles away.

(Long pause)

Mary: Are we going to spend some time together?

Bruce: Yes, Dear.

Mary: Do you think you'd ever dream about me?

Bruce: (Pause) There isn't a situation that I haven't thought about you. Dreams are easy.

(Mary thinks about this. Smiles.)

Fade