[Quick Summary: Leda (40), an Italian literature professor, vacations by the sea alone, and encounters a young mother whose life mirrors her own past.]
This script really impressed me because the writer's voice is very confident:
1) ECONOMY OF WRITING. The script includes just enough information (not too much or too little) to understand the character and his/her motives.
ex. Early in the script, Leda willingly moves her lounge chair and books because a cute guy offers to get her out of the sun.
Later, she refuses to move her things when a family asks her to switch seats. In other words, she can be accommodating, but only when she wants to.
2) UNDERSTANDS CINEMATIC LANGUAGE. The writer really understands how an image can convey more than dialogue, and knows how to use it.
In the scene below:
- Leda has just arrived at the seaside and is shown to her room.
- Notice how the writer used the environment (beam of light, darkness, pillows). One could say it's just laying out the facts. However, visually/cinematically, it could be also foreshadowing things about Leda internal world.
INT. SEASIDE APARTMENT, BEDROOM - NIGHT
Leda turns off the AC, pushes back the curtains and opens the window. She takes a breath of fresh sea air.
She turns off the lights and lays on the bed in her clothes.
THE BEAM OF THE LIGHTHOUSE EXPLODES OUT OF THE DARKNESS. Filling the room with light.
INT. SEASIDE APARTMENT, BEDROOM - MORNING
Leda wakes slowly. She has covered her head with two pillows to avoid the beam from the lighthouse.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: In the scene above, Leda takes a fresh breath in --> then a beam of light crosses the screen. It's a metaphor: new air in --> the truth comes out.
That's confidence in one's visuals and that the audience will get it.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
by Maggie Gyllenhaal
Based on The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
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