[Quick Summary: In 1933 Los Angeles, a down-on-his-luck author is struggling to write his second novel, and meets a girl.]
I've not mastered how to write an entire script only with two characters in a room.
Frankly, I run out of things to write about, and then rely too much on distractions like guns, car chases, explosions, etc.
However, writer Robert Towne* seems to thrive - even specialize - in the dynamic between characters. He makes it look so easy that I forget we've hardly moved.
What does he do that's so special? I think it's the way he makes the interior life seen. Motives and desires spit and crackle. I can't turn pages fast enough.
For example, in the scene below:
- The protagonist Bandini is a starving writer. He has one last nickel.
- He enters the coffee shop to buy one last coffee with cream.
- The waitress gives him curdled milk which ruins his coffee.
- He's insulted until he sees her shabby shoes, which don't match her uniform.
- He starts to laugh at her, silently. She sneers at him.
- What comes next? His surprising actions are shocking...then mocking.
- I was impressed at the creativity to express outwardly whatever was inside of Bandini. Towne likely had to make things up, since the novel is in the first person.
- Also, I was impressed at Towne's ability to capture the chemistry, the fine line of passion and hate between the characters. It's the uncertainty that's captivating.
INT. COLUMBIA BUFFET
...BANDINI: Maybe you don't know any better. Maybe you're just naturally careless. But if I were you I wouldn't be seen in a Main Street alley in those huaraches.
Bandini spits this last word out himself.
THE WAITRESS
stands trembling under the starched stiffness of her smock, her fists writhing in her pockets.
WAITRESS: I hope you die of heart failure. Right there in that chair.
Bandini tries to laugh, but it's hollow The waitress' dark eyes are flashing once more. She waltzes away and stands in front of the bar again, looking insolently back at Bandini.
BANDINI
the smile still on his face, grows red and sweaty. He tugs at his tie, trying to loosen it, but it won't loosen He grows more frantic, desperately pulling at it like it's a noose strangling him Then, utterly without warning he clutches his chest, and collapses, his head smacking the tabletop. The thick sludge in the coffee cup shakes like jello.
THE WAITRESS
is appalled. The bartender looks accusingly at her. She mutters something in Spanish and hurries back over to the table, frantic.
WAITRESS: --it wasn't my fault, I didn't do nothing I swear to God, I just asked him if he wanted more coffee, young fellow, you there, say something, please!..
She's now trembling with terror and guilt. Bandini's not moving. Then slowly he rises to a sitting position. The sneer is back on his face.
BANDINI: You can dish it out, but you can't take it, can you?
He points to the nickel on the table top.
BANDINI: You want the nickel?
He overturns the coffee cup on it. The brown sludge spreads across the table and starts to trickle onto the floor.
BANDINI: Then mop it up.
He rises insolently out of the chair, and walks to the door. There he turns and gives the waitress a salute of farewell.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Here, Towne makes the characters' inner life visible. Bandini and the waitress liked each other, but were covering up shame and embarrassment with cutting hostility.
How did Towne craft the scene? He created a situation where they have to intersect. It helps that each character stands in the way of the other's goal.
ex. Bandini interrupts her job. She ruins his enjoyment of his last morsel of sustenance.
Ask the Dust (2006)(3/30/93 draft)
Directed and written by Robert Towne
Adapted from the novel by John Fante
*Towne was known mostly as a writer, but also directed about four other films. Towne wrote and directed this film, which was also his last film.
** EXTRA: I hope these words from Mr. Hackmuth, Bandini's editor, will encourage you, as they did to me:
HACKMUTH'S V.O.: --p.s. As to your anxieties about your limited experience with life in general and women in particular, it is alas, a truism that author's generally have less experiences than other men, this owing to the incontestable fact that you simply can't be in two places at once, Mr. Bandini. Either you're in front of the typewriter writing or you're out in the world having experiences. Therefore since you need to write and you need to have experiences to write about - you have to learn to do more with less. And doing more with less is, in a word, Mr. Bandini what writing is all about -
