We are the Dead

First draft of a scene for a short film based on George Orwell's 1984.

Scene: Capture Flashback (pp. 118-119, 180-185)

Scene opens in the coffee shop, Winston is looking at the war efforts on his phone.  A voice singing begins to fade into and take over the sounds of the café, a ruddy and rough voice of a prole woman.

Song: “They sye that time ‘eals all things, They sye you can always forget; but the smiles an’ tears acrorss the years, They twist my earstrings yet…”

(Shot changes into the scene inside their apartment)

Julia: You can turn around now!

(Winston turns to see Julia with a painted face, “not very skillfully done, but Winston’s standards in such matters were not high”.  He takes her into his arms and smells her violet perfume)

Winston: Scent, too!

Julia: Yes, dear, scent, too.  And do you know what I’m going to do next?  I’m going to get hold of a real woman’s frock from somewhere and wear instead of these bloody trousers.  I’ll wear silk stockings and high-heeled shoes!  In this room I’m going to be a woman, not a party comrade.”

           

            (As he embraces her his face is filled with adoration.)

Song: It was an ‘opeless fancy, It passed like an Ipril dye, But a look an’ a word an’ the dreams they stirred, They ‘ave stolen my ‘eart awye…

           

            (His face slowly changes as he hears the song.)

Winston: Do you remember the thrush that sang to us, that first day, at the edge of the wood?

 

Julia: He wasn’t singing to us, he was just singing to please himself.   Not even that, he was just singing.

 

Winston: The birds sing, the proles sing, but the party does not sing (He slides from her arms and moves over to the window, looking off into the distance).  You know, I have never heard a party member sing alone or spontaneously.  It would just seem slightly “unorthodox”,  a dangerous eccentricity, like talking to oneself… Perhaps it is only when people were somewhere near the starvation level that they have anything to sing about.

 

Julia: (giggles, and walks towards him placing her hand on his shoulder from behind)  Winston, you are beginning to talk nonsense.

 

Winston: (continues to look out the window)  It’s curious to think that the sky is the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here, in Oceana.  And the people under the sky are also very much the same�"everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another’s existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same�"people who have never learned  to think but are storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that will one day overturn the world.  If there is hope, Julia, it is in the proles!

 

Julia: (Embraces him from behind and leans her head on the back of his shoulder) And maybe we can share in that hope, if we just keep alive in mind what they keep alive in body, pass on the secret doctrine that two plus two make four.

 

Winston: (turns around to hold her in front of him) Theirs is the future; we are the dead

 

Julia: We are the dead.

 

            (They lean in to kiss, but just before their lips touch…)

 

Voice: You are the dead.

 

(looks of icy fear flash across their faces, they spring apart looking around wildly)

 

Voice: You are the dead.

 

        (They turn to the picture on the wall)

 

Julia: It was behind the picture

 

Voice: It was behind the picture.  Remain exactly where you are.  Make no movement until you are ordered.

 

        (a snap can be heard as though a catch has been turned back, and a crash of breaking glass as the picture falls to the floor, revealing the tele screen behind it.

 

Julia: Now they can see us.

 

Voice: Now we can see you.  Stand in the middle of the room.  Stand back to back.  Clasp your hands behind your heads.  Do not touch one another.

 

(They obey, shaking and terrified, unable to scream, unable to cry.  The sound of boots can be heard coming up the stairs, the focus is on the door knob as the sound of a key fitting into the lock and turning the latch. They stand trembling as men in black suits enter the room.  One walks over to Winston and kicks him in the ankle, nearly throwing him off balance.  The other smashes his fist into Julia’s solar plexus and she doubles over)

 

(Another, lighter step can be heard on the stair, and a smaller man in brown suit enters the room, with a sharp  glance at Winston he says…)

 

Voice: Take them away!

           

            (focus is on Winston with Julia in the background; a black bag is shoved over her head and shortly after another is brought down over Winston’s head and the shot goes dark)

End Scene.

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

I'm in the process of scripting a short film for George Orwell's 1984. This scene is a splicing of two scene in the novel front the pages listed at the top, taken from the "1984 Commemorative Edition". I would appreciate input, and creative and constructive criticism on two levels: First, if you have read the book please tell me what you think of the scene and if there are any glaring mistakes of not being true to the essence of the novel or other things that are missing from this scene that are vitally important. Secondly, if you have not read the book please tell me what you think of it as a scene in and of itself, the short film will not be all encompassing and will not explain a lot of things, so elements will be present that make no sense to the person who has not read the book.

The short film is designed to be in a flashback style where the present is very near the end of the story and the body of the film is viewed in hindsight in a series of flashbacks. The goal will be to make it enjoyable, though mysterious, to those who have not read the novel, but also to add key ideas and themes that will be understood by those who have read it.

Please be as specific as possible.

Thanks!