The Watcher and others

"In The Shadow / The Guardian Angel / Below The Surface / Night Patrol / The Watchman / Someone To Watch Over You"

The setting: “Cicily High”, one of these oft-paraded American colleges in "Buffy" / "Pump Up The Volume" territory: white teeth, jocks, lockers, short skirts etc.
Travelling shot along a college corridor; camera zooms in on an air duct, then travels to a glass door with blinds lowered. More travelling shots alongside the corridor up to a utility closet. Inside the closet: a sweets wrapper on the floor, the sign of a past presence. But then another chewing-gum wrapper is dropped. Slight zoom-out reveals feet, legs. Someone is present, silently watching the unsuspecting students and general goings-on a few meters away.

Opening credits: Underworld the "Crazy Cazy Crazy" song from the "Second Toughest" album (use of Underworld's subtle melancholy atmospheric tracks throughout the film).

The usual strident bell ring. One-take travelling shot a la “Donnie Darko”: starting from the closet; then taking in the students leaving the room, running around, exchanging high fives and so on; to doors that open, windows that get closed; teachers climb upstairs; youths run outside; all the way to corridors now emptied of human presence. Relative silence. Then a door opens and a small, by and large inconspicuous man in overalls appears, carrying cleaning equipment. He may also be limping slightly.
A member of staff, in a badly ironed white shirt and tie: “Ah Krazinsky, here you are! We need you down the philosophy department, there’s a door that’s come off its hinges apparently… Some miscreant had a dialectical exchange of opinion with his teacher. So if you could be so kind, my good man -Right away Mr. Kieslowski”
“Kacwinsky, Sir”
“That’s it, Kawinsky. If you could see to it, we don’t to create a health hazard do we… (the perils of philosophy!)”
“No Sir, we don’t”

To fetch some tools, the odd jobs man has to cross a crowded square outside: contrast between his almost apologetic demeanour and the rich stylish students', who ignore him (he has to change direction twice to avoid them walking straight into him). Kacwinsky (played by Vince Prutt Taylor) is thus established as a “nobody”. The headmaster passing by gives him another order regarding toilets to fix (“Ah, Mr. Kazowski, just the man we were looking for (ha ha). Could you see to the ladies’ washrooms please? Looks like one of the cubicles has to be fixed illico presto –thank you ever so much my good man.”). Tellingly, the headmaster doesn't get his name right either (he never will: cue amusing variations throughout the film).

The man gets to his quarters, which allows us to read his name on a label on the door: “Jordi Kacwinsky”; fetches his box of plumbing tools.

Jordi knocks on the toilet door a few times, coughs loudly, no reply. He gets in and gets to work in one of the cubicles, looking sheepish. As he works in the girls' toilets (a private place to which no man should have access, except an inconspicuous servant like him whom nobody pays attention to), some students turn up. He freezes and hides.
He overhears the girls bitch about some newcomers, boast about drugs, sex, etc.

Then another girl (who was glimpsed in the first scene) comes in and gets mocked by the snobs about her clothes. She locks herself up in a cubicle next to his to cry discreetly. The other girls tease her about her alleged infatuation with a Jock type who clearly belongs to their clique and not hers. After a while, they leave.

Kacwinsky’s reaction during the exchange: confused, embarrassed. At first he gathers his tools and thinks of leaving, but this would betray his presence in what is an off-limits place. So he decides to wait instead, mortified; ends up listening. What he hears disturbs him greatly (he may drop a tool at some stage).
He waits for a long time after all of them –including the bullied girl- are gone. It’s getting dark outside by now.
He eventually exits the bathroom, finds the school corridors empty; goes home.

Presentation of his house. From his movements from one room (kitchen) to the next (his bedroom), we establish that he lives alone, in a cramped crummy flat. He takes off his work clothes, folds them carefully. Sits down to eat a cheap, pitiful TV dinner, staring into space. (Quiet synthethiser music or guitar à la Thurston Moore "Heavy"). The camera pans to reveal his private world: video collection of "Buffy", "My So-Called Life", Britney Spears, etc.; "Catcher in the Rye" somewhere, "Rule Of Bones". (The audience must by then wonder what this creep's motivations are: sexual? criminal? In any case, he can be described as a lone "weirdo" by society's standards.) This is a man ill at ease with bright lights, who seems content to sit in the half-light: orange lights falls obliquely over his wall opposite the window (soundtrack: end of The The "The Twilight Hour"). Morose mood.

With lines from the girls’ scene being replayed over the soundtrack, we understand that the thinks about their conversation.
He finally shakes himself up, having come to a decision. He picks up a school photobook from a carton box well-filled with such year-books, and stares at the girl's photo (we thus discover her name: “Clementine Kerner”). He also looks up the offenders mentioned: “Must be Shawna ...Murdoch, Vicky... Brash, yesss…hmm…"; thinks it over. Then he reaches inside a drawer and fishes some keys out. It is night-time outside.
He goes back to the college. Thanks to his keys, he enters an office; accesses files on a computer. End of the scene: we can’t see what he keys in.

Aerial panorama. Dawn looms over the city: lights are turned on in houses here and there, some people set off to work in the deserted streets as cleaners, factory workers and so on -each with the flag of their country of origin appearing over their heads: Guatemala, Mexico, Chile, Vietnam, Palestine, Poland...

A few days later, the three bullies are summoned to the headmaster office and notified that they are under suspicion of theft, which could get them expelled if found guilty of the alleged offence.
Baffled, the three girls protest their innocence; they argue that, surely, they have been set up: the headmaster (or disciplinary officer in charge) informs them that some of their personal belongings (such as an ear-ring gone missing recently, this sort of thing) have been recovered near the place of the theft (money that was destined for the science lab). They are indignant.

“Well, if you have nothing to fear… why don’t we go check? Out of professional conscience.”
He marches them to their lockers -where the loot is duly discovered.
The girls' initial arrogance ("Sure, right, any time, I dare you, go ahead, make my day you maggot! Who do you think you are, do you know who I am? This is gonna cost you, I’ll sue you for deformation of character!" and so on) is replaced by slack-jawed astonishment: “What the, I don’t understand…”

Hovering in the background is the silent Kacwinsky, who is then told: “Ah Kofildsky, here you are! Just my luck -Could you please empty these ladies’ lockers, take down these revolting pictures inside… (Eminem indeed!) and pack them up for further inspection, there’s a good man. Out out out! Off you go. Oh and do change the locks, will you. Right away.”

A crowd gathers to stare at the three girls who have turned crimson with embarrassment.

Then, two "jocks" who used to hang out with the girls and came to their defence in a similarly arrogant way, experience some weird mishaps. They lose crucial pages in their notebooks; the tyres of their flash sports cars go flat; the elastic in their basket-ball shorts is loosened (causing them to lose their shorts: i.e. publicly ridiculed -the worst disgrace for them) and so on and so forth.
Kacwinsky is often seen passing by in the background, which nobody takes any notice of.

One of the two Jocks suspects his mate of secretly setting him up and turns on him: “What I don’t get is how... That’s it! Only you knew my timetable! It’s like I’m being shadowed everywhere I go and only you could know all my details! You’ve stitched me up haven’t you?” (attacks him mercilessly) “’Not so pretty now, are you!!”
A furious fight ensues, encouraged by the naturally sadistic locker-room and cafeteria dwelling witnesses (“Whey-hey! Come on, geddim, kill ‘im! Come on ya big fag, fight! Fight, fight, fight!”).
The winner ( the local US football player star) risks getting severely disciplined, but after an intervention from the gym teacher is told to (only) take a few days off.
The coach advises him on his return that he is no longer welcome at school; the young man is shocked ...but the coach explains that should he ask for a transfer, he will be granted one. The headmaster is only too happy to grant him a pass in a flash in order to spare the school’s recently battered reputation.

The other guy who has been publicly beaten up keeps a low profile from now on, sporting huge bruises on his face (his nose clearly broken).

At the same time, a mild-mannered detective (think R. Duvall in “Fallen”), “Kuper”, is contacted by the girls' rich families to investigate.
He listens to their impassioned complaint: “we’ve been set up, it’s so obvious, how could we ever care for such a paltry sum of money –Who do they think we are, we spend this amount on our morning coffee alone!”). The girls protest their innocence, naturally supported by their WASP families.
The detective keeps his calm and listens to them, mildly protesting

“Now calm down here, let’s not lose our collective heads and see what might have happened... I sense some hidden agenda here… Have you been quarreling with anyone recently?”

“Quarreling with who? We don’t even associate with these inner city types! Ha! I would like to see any of them taking on us!”.

Despite their arrogance, he can't help sensing that they are telling the truth. He half-guesses that something is afoot; his age old instinct tells him that someone has indeed conspired / interfered to get these obnoxious harpies out of the way, but he chooses to keep his hunch to himself.

A few days later. Kuper suggests to the families that, all things considered, they may want to close the book and not draw too much attention to their daughters' cases. He points out that, surely, they themselves must be half-conscious of the fact that their offspring are no angels... Gasp of indignation. He backs this up by explaining that if there has been some conspiracy taking place, then it must have been motivated, no?
To which the parents instantly clam up, blatantly aware of some indiscretions better kept confidential.The detective’s bluff has worked.  After consorting among themselves, the families agree to drop their case against the school. No charges are pressed.
...but the detective has given the audience a clear indication that he has sussed out the situation. (Adding an element of risk to Jordi's existence: the watcher gets watched too. Suspense: will the cop blow the whistle?)

As he leave the headmaster’s office during one of his visits, Kuper adds (in a Columbo manner): “Oh. By the way, I was thinking... I couldn’t help noticing you have CCTV around the place…”
Administrative locutor: “Ah yes, the cameras. I’ll let you in on a little secret, most of them are actually fake. Deterrent effect, you see.
-What do you mean?
-They don’t actually have any film in them, or they’re not connected. They just… look as if. But the kids don’t need to know; ‘keeps them on their toes, like. … And most of all is budget-friendly.
-Right-so. Just how many are disabled?
-Hmm, I don’t have the exact figures, probably... half of them? The main entrance isn’t, for one. Or the car-park. In fact, there must be one… over there… (pointing offscreen). This one must be connected –I’ll go and check with our security team. Could be of interest?
-Why yes…it might be. If you be so kind. I would love to take a look if that’s possible; you never know, something may have got caught on tape… Secret for secret since you’ve told me, you’d be surprised to hear of the number of other fake cameras supposedly guarding residences or keeping an eye on motorists. So many things are not what they seem, so many people pretending... But anyway. Who’s in charge of your security here?
-That will be Mr… er, he’s a “foreign national” see -strange name, he has. Never had any complaint about him though, does his job discreetly, reliable. Keeps himself to himself. Mr…. Zardan that’s it. I’ll introduce you. He’s a good lad. You see, our mind-frame at Cicily High has always been to... this is a small college, a respectable one, we pride ourselves on our good reputation, the excellent discipline
-Most of the time.
-Well yes, the excellent discipline in evidence most of the time. Nothing ever happens around here, these are good kids –at least most of them- so we never really had to invest in powerful security.
-So far so good, and long may it continue. But could I meet Mr. Zardan? I take it he’s in charge of maintaining audio-visual records?
-Oh yes, he must do, I understand he looks after them, yes. To be honest, this doesn’t exactly fall within my remit -I am more of a public relations representative myself so…- I’m not entirely positive, but I would imagine he does, in fact I’m sure he does. Somewhere in his cavern. Er, in his office ha ha! I’ll get you an introduction at the earliest convenience. Unfortunately he’s not in right now, comes in after-hours.”
Conversation goes on as they walk off.

Regular but short mentions / glimpses of the discreet detective will occur throughout the film.

The bullied girl, Clementine, is rid of her tormentors, and visibly happier now. She doesn't realise that all these incidents might be connected,
and doesn't pay attention to Kacwinsky who, clumsily, tries to attract her attention and make contact a few times (slight element of comedy here as he always fails miserably).

The pretext of Clementine's story is maintained throughout the film (Hitchcock's "McGuffin" style); maybe Jordi secretly comes to her rescue a few more times. Crucially, she and the other beneficiaries never suspect a thing.

Kacwinsky is now aware of her and her –painstakingly hidden- vulnerability. She gets about with the fixed smile of someone who pretends that everything is fine. He tries to address her, but never quite manages. He takes an interest in her; in fact is in danger of becoming infatuated with her as he starts to take photos of her secretly.

But as he takes pictures with a tele-objective, he also discovers more cases of personal problems all around (plot catalyst). He becomes more sensitive to what goes on secretly all around him.
Freeze-frame camera shots and close-ups reveal details of all sorts of scenes going on simultaneously in the distance (subjective camera from the witness’s perspective, as it were). “Hasn’t everyone got a story…” he murmurs at some stage.

From being her "shadow", he moves on to protect other (variously vulnerable) students, such as:
helping someone to find precious documents at the library after these got hidden away by ultra-competitive swots;
intercepting invitations to seminars / concerts / film premieres, and redistributing them to deserving introverts rather than forwarding them to uninterested show-offs;
reassuring a closet gay teenager by sending him a letter explaining that "you are not alone, there are lots of people out there like you. You shouldn't be ashamed of what you are, look up and embrace life, don't give up and one day youll meet someone just right for you -but it's up to you to make the first step for yourself and accept yourself, the rest will fall into place and follow".
He may also reallocate resources heading for the "football" team to science nerds.

He grows in confidence himself, and can be seen having a smile to himself once back home at night. He starts making notes in a diary, keeps statistics, maybe pins  incriminating photos in his own register of misdemeanours. He keeps washing his hands, even though he doesn’t keep a very tidy house.

He is also able to catch up on what's been happening (who's being abused / bullied) by reading the obscene graffiti in the boys' toilets that he is regularly ordered to wash off.
Pretending to be annoyed, the usual sarcastic administrative member of staff never fails to call him over in a humiliating manner: "Ah, Kazzy my good man, sorry to bother you again but guess what... That's right, toilet duty again! One of our brightest and finest has apparently been very -and I mean very- naughty in our otherwise resplendent washroom… Please see to it. Right away."
He pretends to find the task moderately degrading, but at the same time soon learns how to use the messages to keep abreast of the latest goings-on. He even has a laugh when discovering a graffiti about the member of staff in question (“Oliver Dickso goz to lapdancing clubz” or something loke that).

Some girls keep writing messages on mirrors with their lipstick; the school warns them not to continue, but they do. Kacwinsky is called upon with the presumed offenders in attendance. While they watch and laugh at him, he suddenly turns round, dips his wash cloth in a toilet, and cleans the messages off. Shocked silence; end of the inscriptions.

Kacwinsky gradually tools up and starts planting microphones in order to record what's going on (even at the infirmary or the psychologist's office). He consults the administration’s computer files.

He thus comes across the case of a student who fell pregnant and is terrified of her family's reaction. The adviser she confides in is an anti-abortionist Christian fanatic who grossly misrepresents the option of having an abortion. Kacwinsky provides the girl with more objective leaflets, giving her the choice of making an informed decision: he drops them in her locker, inside an official envelope from the adviser’s office.

We witness Jordi going on about his trivial life in daytime, all hunched up and discreet -and then patrolling the empty corridors at night more confidently: blue atmospheric lights and ambient music (Philip Glass: "Truman show", Japan's track for the classic film "Static", Brian Eno: "Down This River"). Helicopter shot of the college, blue-lit and surreally shining in the middle of the dark rough neighbourhood.

Jordi is caught one day reading a foreign paper or listening to a foreign song by a foreign languages teacher (“Hey, I recognise that!”). He is almost befriended by this new substitute teacher: “Clare” (played by Marisa Tomei). She, too, belongs to a "minority" and –for one- asks him about his family / origin etc. She's the first person to "engage" and listen to him in the film. Stunned by her unexpected attention, he starts to mumble. But she perseveres and, gradually, he starts to come out of his shell, getting a bit more animated. As he starts to open up (telling her about his likes and dislikes), her boyfriend unexpectedly turns up and takes her away. She is delighted to see him, and cuts their conversation short just as she was about to ask Kacwinsky an important question: "Oh remind me next time, there was something I needed to ask you about...". Cutting her in, her carefree boyfriend barks “Come on pet, let’s go!”. He drags her away.
Of course, there will never be a next time. (One of these might-have-almost-been moments, with 3 or 4 emotions racing through his mind / on his face.)

He tries to approach her again (in an empty corridor after class one evening) but stops before attracting her attention. (Could be shot in a manner reminiscent of a psycho-stalker tracking a girl: from behind, thereby throwing another "red herring" to the audience who might then expect to witness a slasher movie style assault on the female character.)

He returns home by bus: shots of exhausted, working-class people on their way -either back from or to- work. Contrasting shots of discarded celebrity magazines strewn about the seats. Soundtrack: use of Coldplay "Stars".

Jordi gets more inventive and better equipped as he goes along on his new found mission: he starts planting cameras that he borrows from the IT department under the pretence of fixing them (after setting them wrong himself, of course).
Short scene in which he carries one of these mini-cameras in a corridor and stops in front of the girls' toilets (on one of his evening rounds). He appears to be pondering something unsavoury... Fade to black: we won't see, and won’t know.

In one instance, Jordi walks down a corridor in a shopping mall. A fairly attractive girl catches him glancing at her and comes up to him, all brash, using her charm: "Hey, Mister, sorry to bother you, but would you have one dollar twenty-five by any chance? For the parking," He declines, horrified, and walks off. She just laughs at him.

One day, almost absent-mindedly fast-forwarding through the day’s recordings, he comes across a racist bully's incriminating threats on tape: “Yo, rag-head, talking to you! Yes, you! We didn’t build this country for your job-grabbing kind! Go back to the Middle Ages where you belong, we don’t want your kind here! Clog up our health services and sponge off our taxes –I don’t think so! Well you can stuff your computer up your ass monkey-boy! This is the real book of the jungle, ape-boy! And stop your fuckin’ wailing or else it won’t be just your teeth that you’ll be counting on the floor but your hairy sisters too! We know where you live, we’ve seen your tribe about town, now get this: you are NOT to talk to Tina, you hear? You do NOT – EVER- talk to her is that clear? She’s my girl and you… repulse her. ”
Incensed, Jordi consults the classes timetables and seat arrangements. Indian name, another Indian name, an English-sounding name… He consults photos and discovers who this Tina is, as well as her boyfriend.
He calls the thug and replays his rantings back to him, over his mobile phone.

The youth is driving as he takes the call. Startled by the recording, he loses his concentration and misses a corner, driving into a wall. (The audience might at this stage start to wonder whether the avenger is not going too far; cf. the "Last Supper".)
A few (Hispanic) people gather around the wrecked car, unsure of what to do. Then the driver stirs up and shouts at them: "Won't you fuckin’ maggots help me out? Call me an ambulance, you bunch of Pakis! An ambulance! Hear me? You greasers speak English, call me an ambulance, my leg’s broken!"
The crowd scatter, leaving him to wail –his mobile phone has been shattered in the crash. “Somebody calls an ambulance you morons!” he is left to rage impotently.

The detective reappears to investigate this case.
Some "Jocks" ambush him and accuse him of a cover-up, telling him that there is something definitely going on, something fishy. They relate to him what has happened (i.e. the recording). Recognising him as the detective who looked into a similar matter previously, they remind him of the recent weird occurrences taking place in the college. Kuper answers that “This may be the case but as a matter of principle, I could not possibly comment. Now gentlemen, if you could kindly let me pass…”
But they corner the softly spoken man, and push him about until he finally snaps:
"Now you listen to me boyo, I've had quite enough of you now so don't you jab your finger at me and push me around like I'm your favourite Mexican maid -Don't you give me attitude like you are some kind of superior human being, OK? You’re no student, you have no right to think of yourself as above your station, the only reason you're here sonny is your ability to kick a ball in the air and ram-raid some other steroid bloated meat-head, ‘get it? So stop trying to impress me and let me do my job. ... And fuck off my face."

Kacwinsky bonds up at night with the building security guy: Mr. Zardan (another society leftover: old , handicapped, possibly foreign, ideally played by J. Mahoney out of "Frasier"). They clearly get on well, even if in a mutually respectful, guarded manner.
“Hi there. ... Mr. Kacwinsky.”
“.. Mr. Zardan.”
He explains to the other man, who seems not too bothered anyway:

"You might wonder why I’m around so late, it’s just I had some repairs to take care of… and I can never sleep; it's so hot at home and it’s cool in here…"
”Yeah, I know. I know what you mean. This place is like a second house, right? … One could get used to it.” (pause) “…I don’t suppose you would care for a cuppa coffee…”
“I don’t suppose I wouldn’t...”
“Great. I may have some cookies too.” (pause) “I’ve got to finish my round first, though. Rules and regulations. That’s what we get paid for, going by the book. I was thinking, maybe you might like to join me, given you’re…”
“’d be a pleasure.” (they carry on with his round)
“You know Kacwinsky, I’ve seen you before. ... In the corridors. That’s fine with me. In a way you and I are part of the furniture…” (pause) “Us and Maria too. You know, the cook. And the cleaning staff of course.”
“Most certainly, the cleaners. It’s like a family.”
“That’s right, we are these kids’ second family.” … “And at night we have the place to ourselves.”

The other man doesn't seem to suspect a thing. He just does his rounds out of habit, a beaten man. They do them sometimes together, happy just to hang about together without needing to engage in constant chat. The two men keep an eye on various CCTV cameras, share midnight snacks, and usually end up watching films on the antique telly in his dusty office.
Silent pictures of romantic films with glamorous film stars watched by these two lonely men in a dingy office, munching on junk food. In a later scene, Jordi brings cookies to the old man, the kind he prefers.

He suggests to the night-guard:
“How would you feel about getting more CCTVs? What with the recent incidents…”
“How do I feel about it? You know how I feel, same answer as everytime: they’ll never cough up, you know how they go about things. You don’t think I already submitted the idea? The only working one they ever agreed to replace is the one at the entrance. ...It was ten years old already. The definition was terrible but they had this contract with the supplier. Who happened to be somebody’s brother. Yep, the main entrance, a couple of corridors, and the car-park -that’s about it. They don’t want to invest in the rest of the building. “It’s not of the highest priority” so I’ve been told. “Not of the utmost importance”… You bet I asked already, these cameras are as old as Mathusalem! I did ask, my friend. ...But they’d rather have me on 5 dollars an hour, as if it made more financial sense –Crazy!”
“It’s as if the kids didn’t qualify for “the highest priority”.”
“For sure they don’t. Or at least those who don’t own their own car.”
“But we could ask.”
“Sure we could ask. ... But I wouldn’t hold my breath. The football team has priority; always had, always will. As for the petty thieving and routine bullying... It’s like in the army: there’s an acceptable rate of losses. We haven’t reached it, so… Well, not publicly yet.”
“It’s the same the world over. It takes a tragedy for people to take notice.”
“Right you are. And we haven’t had a proper one yet.”

Later, Zardan mentions to Jordi, almost absent-mindedly:
“By the way. You know, this detective ...came round the other day, the Brash girl case… Said he wanted to review the CC tapes or something”
Jordi, trying to sound uninterested: “Oh yeah? …Did you give them to him?”
“Nah, not yet. Couldn’t locate them right away. Said I would look for them… For all I know, they may have been taped over, such is the budget… “
The two men shared a disillusioned laugh.
“In any case, these girls wouldn’t be so stupid as to ignore the cameras would they…I know they’re walking catalogues, but even so…”
“Huh”
“And what would it show anyway? Them putting some stuff inside their own lockers? Hardly a crime is it, let alone seen from a distance.”
“True, that.”

The silent fluid blue scenes of Kacwinsky patrolling the corridors become increasingly structured, as well as longer. He may for instance enter class-rooms, look at the chairs wistfully, even caress them. Now with voiceover (his voice) explaining: "Someone has to watch over the kids..." “Someone has to be step in when society doesn't..." "Someone has to toil in the shadow so that others may flourish in the light" in a dream-like wander that
gets brutally interrupted by the shrill electric bell: sudden cut to day-scene where he finds himself (immobile) surrounded by the teeming youth going about their hectic business, oblivious to his presence (as if he had fallen asleep inside the premises at night) possibly in a fast-motion blur.

Scene in which an adult rages impotently at his computer; an Oriental and an Indian kid sort it out for him, to the (teacher?)’s relief:
“Ha ha er… yes of course, it was the er… Powerswitch-thingie, I knew that –Testing, I was only testing! I’m glad to see some people here do pay attention to my classes eh...”

The detective finally catches up with Zardan.
“Ah, Mr. Zardan. At last. How are you doing Sir?”
“Why, not too bad thank you. And yourself?
“Very well, very well. Listen, there’s a question I’ve meant to ask you for some time. I understand that, as the school’s Security Officer” (they share a wry smile at the pompous title) “you have access to the administration’s files. Would that be correct?”
“Well… yes… sure, most members of staff do..”
“Not all of them.”
“OK maybe not all of them.”
“You see, what I would like to check is whether… anybody… recently for example, would have accessed the files of the Brash girls and their acolyte…”
“Well. I imagine any staff may have done so, for all sorts of administrative reasons -let alone that kerfuffle…”
“Oh no doubt about that. But my concern was: are these files readily available to anyone? I would imagine not. And therefore, in order to access them, the end-user would have to identify him -or her- self, right?”
“Well, sure, I should think so. That’s what passwords are for…”
“Well, it’s not so much the passwords I might be interested in, but the I.P.”
“Beg your pardon?”
“The IP, the computer’s signature. Anyone going through the system leaves their address as it were. And the date and time of access, probably. There must be a way to retrieve them, right?”
“Well, gee… I’m not sure I’m too familiar with this whole techno-mambo… All that jiggery pottery… I’ve only been trained to perform the very minimum of tasks required to operate the video system for example. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to –er- retrieve these IP things…”
“Ah.”
“But listen, if you’re serious about it, I’d suggest you go and talk to the technology teacher, the I.T. guy, you know. That lot were called Maths teachers back in my days…”
“Of course. Of course, what an inspired suggestion, I definitely will. I don’t suppose he’s available right now?”
“We can go and check if you want. There must be three or four of them anyway (leading him to an office), let’s go check the staff room, you’ve got all their timetables, contact numbers…” (walking off)

Kacwinsky can be seen walking round the corner in the background; he stops and walks back to an office. As Kuper and Zardan get to the IT department (with the old man clearly dragging his leg) cut to close-up of fingers furiously typing away.

“Ah Mr. Charmsky, here you are…” : somewhere in the distance, Zardan is heard introducing the detective to (presumably) the IT teacher. The detective can be seen explaining something to the teacher and the three men sit down to a desk, log on a computer. Cut back to a PC screen, onto which pupils’ files appear. More furious typing. A disc is slipped in. Back to the three men who, after a moment of waiting, are seen staring at the screen in amazement.
Charmsky: “Huh. How weird. It’s not responding. See? No response. It’s just stuck. Frozen. Stuck. Let me… Alt Control Delete… huh. … No response. See, this is what happens when a system is overloaded with multiple requests, it gets... confused. It can’t process them all at once. All we can do is wait. … No. No. ... Still not responding.”
Kuper: “What could be causing this?”
Charmsky: “Crikey I don’t now, this is weird. Could be a virus, could be conflicting applications open at the same time. As I said, could be multiple requests would be my guess but... There’s no reason why it should be subjected to multiple queries. ... I’ll have to reboot then. Looks like I need to reboot but if I do that, the problem is, it will wipe out the system’s history. Huh.”
He looks hesitatingly at the detective.

Kacwinsky’s home, evening time. He dumps his daily recordings; a huge pile gathers on his table, next to a VHS copy of the film “Static”. Kacwinsky has now so many audio and video tapes to go through that he whimpers when he realises how many hours he has to inspect.
“So much to sort, so much evil to keep in check…”
First he plays excerpts of a board meeting where the officials discuss attracting more sponsors for the school thanks to the US football team; then he forwards it, and again, and again -every time he stops the tape, they are still discussing finances. He ejects the audio tape and selects another one. This one, done in the gym, caught someone boasting to his mates about some nasty recent incident. The man claims he used one of his "wonder pills" to get inside a girl's knickers. The girl in question, whom he explicitly described as being naive and vulnerable, reminds Jordi of Clementine: his gaze falls on her photos. The more details the man gives about her, the more she seems to fit the profile: she is an English student, fresh from her small town (Redding, Washington). This gets Jordi's full attention. He stops cooking to play the tape again. Then realises that whatever he has been cooking has burned.

This disturbs Jordi so much so that, back at work the next day, he actually ignores his usual administrative tormentor’s sarcastic order to go and clean some toilets again -to the man’s astonishment and public embarrassment. The member of the administration is left to talk to himself in the corridor, surrounded by –obviously laughing- teenagers: “But but… Koziewicz…? Did you hear me? Me? Kowiezik? Mister Kowiezik? I’m –like- asking you... to... er…”

But Jordi walks on, sorting out his set of keys and going through his notebook all the while.

He investigates who the voice on the tape belongs to. Eventually identifies the "date rapist" through the time and date of the recording (who was having a gym lesson at that time / in that place).
Note: it would be more original if the thug was not the stereotypical nasty "WASP" type but from another group (i.e. evil springs from all places). Jordi is enraged; walks up and down his room agitated, visibly pondering punishment for the Rohypnol “date-rapist”.

The next days. Jordi hangs around the school car-park, checks cars until he identifies and follows the one driven by the youth caught on tape. Kacwinksy follows the flash car to a sports centre in his own ragged vehicle.

Underground car-park. Jordi slips under the youth’s vehicle. He sets about sabotaging the brakes. Footsteps sound effect. Looking up, he discovers two legs in front of him. Kacwinsky gingerly pulls out of under the car and ... discovers (meets for the first time?) detective Kuper, who's appeared out of nowhere.

Detective Kuper: “I believe you know I am. ... You may want to hear me out Mr. Kacwinsky. See, we are constantly faced with choices in life.

Take this moment. I could choose to see that you are about to engage in… a rather drastic course of action that may very well amount to attempted manslaughter in some people's minds. ... Some folks are not always aware of life's complexities. But as for you and me on the other hand, it is quite conceivable that we both know about young Todd's... unsavoury activities.  

Now there is such a thing called The Law. The Law steps in when miscreants overstep the mark. The Law prevails when said miscreants’s misdemeanours can be proven. Do you get me Mr. Kacwinsky? If that despicable young man were to suffer the consequences of an undeniably premeditated accident he would then become a victim. He would then enjoy the full recourse of the Law against the perpetrator of his car sabotage. ... So not the best course of action then. Two wrongs don’t make one right.

Now let me suggest this, Mr. Kacwinsky: you get back underneath this car and see that it doesn’t suffer clear mechanical tampering".

The detective explains that he has been on the young man's case for a while (remember the previous, unexplained, appearances: recap of brief cameos). He explains that the alleged rapist is suspected to have already operated this way with a number of girls, Clementine's being but the latest case. The detective assures Kacwinsky that he will nail the rapist legally but needs to go by the book.
Nothing must ever be explicit in this scene, but it is clear that Jordi is offered absolution for his small services; he just won't be allowed to get away with more radical acts of retribution (such as sabotaging the rapist’s car). "Now, you are free to do whatever you feel you have to, Mr. Kacwinsky ...but if I were in your position..."
And the detective steps back into the darkness, leaving Jordi to reflect on the situation.

Another day at school, in fact the end of term. We see Clementine full of confidence, laughing with friends, walking down the main corridor. Jordi is tempted to pass her a handwritten message; he half-trudges up to her and... stops in front of her. She looks at him, surprised and uncertain, smiles briefly, and then moves on.
“Good-bye…” he murmurs. He has understood that he shouldn't tell her about his involvement and, instead, watches her leave, finally happy. Teachers also leave in high spirits, his usual tormenting superior giving him a cheery punch on the shoulder: “Have a nice summer, eh Kinski! You can start having fun now, end of another boring year, your torturers are gone!”

Turning the screw: another zoom out reveals the other old night-watch man also watching the departing kids with an inscrutable face from high up in the loft. (Suggestion that he may have been up to the same tricks as Kacwinsky in his own time ...and may have even "passed the baton" down the generations, or may have even been aware of Jordi’s activities?)

The car-park gradually empties over the end credits, and the last image shows Kacwinsky locking the gate. The End.

End credits music: Johnny Cash "The Man Comes Around".

Comments
The different settings (college daytime vs. college at night; institution microcosm vs. town outside; Jordi's own room) must be shot in dramatically different lights. In a way, the college at night is a shelter, a cocoon -hence narcotic-like milky white lights during the travelling shots, in stark contrast to the frantic life outside. Daytime town-life to be portrayed through faster edit cuts.

Importance of ambiguity. I realise that this calls for a more difficult course of action, but one way of presenting this story would be to preserve some sort of ambiguity as to the protagonist’s true motives, rather than go for the easy option and paint Kacwinsky as a clear hero. (Which remains, of course, an entirely valid option, should the director prefer to play it safe.) Doubts could remain about this man, who is after all obsessed with teenage girls. Possible murkier motivations may be hinted at. It's always good to take the audience in different directions and multiply the angles of analysis so as to frustrate them eventually ...and give them something to wonder about.
Social overtones: all the cleaners, security and menial workers are foreigners. The film ought to suggest that a lot of what's going on, most of what happens under the surface of everyday life, is only made possible by the selfless and unacknowledged dedication of the proletarian working class.

In a scene, we hear bits of dialogue from John Waters's "Pecker": “thank you for showing me that life is nothing if you're not obsessed”. Dialogue: "things are always better than they seem." Composer Cliff Martinez. Song: “Sweet Treat” by Smog.

Casting: Harvey Keitel as the mild-mannered detective? Or the worn-out type in the Nolte / Duval mould. The excellent Vince Prutt Taylor as Jordi. John Mahoney as the janitor.

The film could even be turned into a pilot for a more heroic, formulaic, TV series, in which Jordi secretly performs acts of rescue at every episode (like "Hulk" or "The Invaders").

Copyright Loig Thivend 2000.

"Blueprint (Version.0)"  

Start: Carnival time, a young man is holed up at the control centre of a dam which he threatens to blow up and flood his hometown down below. (Shot of the "Twin Peaks" waterfall?) "I know they're out there" he informs the camera (as he talks to the authorities negotiating with him via CB radio) "and this time, they're for real". The story is told as a flash-back: how did he end up here? (cf. bizarre black and white comedy with R. McDowell “Lord Love a Duck”.)

A football game. A kid runs with the ball, encouraged by his team-mates who call him "Psycho". Corner.  As he rises to head the ball, he is pushed onto the crossbar and gets knocked out: head injury; he is taken to hospital. As the teenager comes to in a haze and experiences brief glimpses of recollection (such as being trolleyed about under hospital corridor lights), a flashback reveals Danny to be a teenage schizophrenic who has been adopted as a child, after an early tragedy whose details he hasn't been given. He has been put on medication by doctors who fear he may be haunted by the memories of this tragedy. (Film leitmotiv to mark the situation: every time he feels weird, a little tune comes on and he takes a pill.)

A doctor is called upon to do a check-up shortly after his football (i.e. soccer) incident. The doctor, who is unaware of Danny's medicated condition (a conjunction of the teenager being half-conscious and the accident having taken place away from his home-town) performs a blood test. She finds nothing wrong with him per se, except for the chemicals used in his prescribed pills. The supply teacher explains to her Danny's case, but this doesn't pacify the doctor who remarks that the pills may have counter-effects -and even contribute to hallucinations.

Danny has been eaves-dropping the whole time. The doctor's reservations get him wondering whether he is not being set up / overdosed against his will. He confronts his foster parents once back home. The adoptive parents naturally deny interference, blaming the town doctor for the potentially controversial prescription; they explain that no drug is without its side-effects, and point to the amount of chemicals one can find in everyday industrial food (example of the prevalence of additives present in our daily life -quick reference to “Safe”). Taking them at their word, Danny starts to compulsively check the labels for everything, and discovers the genuine amount of chemicals we absorb every day without noticing. (Filmed like the shooting-up scenes in "Requiem For A Dream" + with a nod to the monologue at the end of Jarman's "Blue" regarding medicaments side-effects).

"Don't tell me I'm a schizo, I know I am!" he replies at some stage. But is he, really? He may think he is, because of what he is told. Other catch-22 red herring when he starts having doubts as the story progresses: the more he denies (being truly unbalanced), the more deluded / defensive he comes across to people around him: it’s a no-win situation.

Some elements corroborate his misgivings: scene in which Danny hears shrill disturbing noises that sound like a girl crying in pain outside his window; he goes and investigates, only to discover that these come from birds. Same idea later: turns out to be cats fighting in the back alley. Maybe he's just a bit hypersensitive; still, he could have sworn... His family laugh at his concern and jumpiness. Which only gets him even more unnerved: what if it had been someone in distress for real? With everyone assuming it had to be a false alarm, that person would have been left to fend off for herself. But by the time he thinks of this answer and returns to confront the parents in the living-room, they have already disappeared (from the room they were in only a second ago): ?? Uncanny moment as the house turns out to be empty. He has to wait until dinner to deliver his answer, by which time everyone has forgotten -or pretend to have forgotten- about the incident. His would-be killer retort falls flat.

Travelling shot following him through the shopping mall, conveying his anguished point of view: subjective camera, fish eye; whispers all-round which he tries to decipher, imagines are directed at him (cf. "Wings Of Desire" / start of U2 "Zoo Station"). But nothing seems to make sense: the front-page headlines on the daily newspapers are all trivial (Kylie Minogue's arse, Liam Gallagher's front teeth, and so on). He comes across a small gathering in the street: turns out to be people watching golf or cricket on a TV in a hi-fi shop window. Meanwhile, he can feel CCTV cameras following his progress down the main street; undercover security spies in big shops pretending to be customers trail him. He makes his way back home: curtain twitching all along the way.

Home unexpectedly early, he walks in on his half-naked foster sister in the bathroom. He apologises, but the incident troubles him. After spending some time sitting on his bed in silence clearly going over the incident, he slyly sneaks back to steal a few glances of her showering, unaware.

Danny gets caught spying on his foster sister by her brother -who keeps it to himself.

A few days later, neighbourhood girls complain of a "peeping tom" who spies on them in their bedrooms, hiding in a tree with binoculars. They come to dread -and anxiously look for- the telling sight of the two little circles of reflected light in the night. Danny is seriously confused: doesn't remember acting this way …but at the same time is not sure, having been in an almost similar position. He desperately wants to believe he can differentiate between his fantasies and his actions; surely he didn’t “act upon them” as his psychologist suggests. The doctor puts it to him that maybe he has progressed in his voyeurism after what may have been a genuine accident, and now he simply wants to bury his secret, doesn't want to admit it to himself. Fantasy sequence follows, in which Danny imagines doing various things. The would-be help session makes it worse in Danny’s mind, what with the psychiatrist sowing more doubts in his patient's mind; declares it an “open case” -which aggravates Danny's insecurity / diffidence. The doctor adds as an excuse that everyone has fantasies and is even capable of chronically developing fantasies –despite now wanting to admit up to them (possible fantasy sequence here, this time featuring him slaughtering his assistant nurse or whatever). The man concludes the session by feeding him more pills to relieve his stress. Reference to genuine statistics at this point: American teenagers medication rates. Danny walks out, ever more confused, imagining every passer-by to be looking at him in a funny way.

Lying in bed one night, Danny feels a presence: someone has entered his bedroom, and is moving silently towards his bed. Paralysed by fear, he dares not move, tries to glance at the figure that is doing something behind him (atmospheric music); as the figure finally leaves the room, Danny manages to whisper "I know what you're doing". We may never know what exactly happened here, or it will be revealed according to the different endings to the film. (Ref. to "Under The Volcano", my favourite scene in the novel.)

In English class, they study a passage from "The Corrections"; the teacher asks for comments on the characters. The pupils are typically clueless, coming up with lazy, worthless, obvious contributions, sniggering about the incontinent old character; Danny gets annoyed by their amorphous contributions, and explains that the father figure, more than just suffering from early dementia, exhibits all the characteristics of paranoia: he acts as if someone was watching over his shoulder and constantly passing comments on his actions. The other pupils laugh at him: "Hey schizo, here we go!" (words to that effect) The teacher intervenes and ponders about Danny's theory, takes it up, expands upon it, finally deciding it doesn't quite add up. As the pupils leave the class-room, he / she apologises to Danny. (We may think at this juncture, and so does Danny, that he / she is apologising for the other kids’ behaviour.) A couple of nights later, as Danny surfs the Net for reviews of the book in order to write an essay, he comes across an audacious post on a forum repeating his very ideas. At first, he is overjoyed: has he found a kindred spirit? ...but the article turns out to be signed by his teacher. As he confronts the teacher about it during the next class, no-one comes to his support, or even remembers him being the author of the theory.

Danny loses it and storms off in a corridor. He feels the gaze of the others at every corner –even though they may not have been talking about him. Still, he feels scrutinised and commented upon. He steps up to one of the pupils: "Did you say something to me? Eh?" The other kid, scared (and probably innocent), backs off, denies it. But Danny insists: "Don’t lie to me, I heard you, I heard something, I could have sworn you said something about me ... are you sure you didn't?"

Danny also feels at odds with other people / his family: scene in which he watches Lars von Trier's "The Idiot" in company (with the rest of the class: cinema course, the teacher uses the film as an example of improvisation and hands-off directing). He’s the only one not to laugh at what the others treat as a comedy. Other audiences similarly find Harvey Keitel in "Bad Lieutenant" funny to his dismay. In one such scene when he experiences radically diverging differences of opinion with his family, the mother goes "Oooh Danny, Danny what are we going to do?" and the two-faced brother adds "oh yes Danny boy, what are we going to do with you?" -note the difference, announcing his future fate as a possible fall-guy. Danny goes back to his room to listen to "Pink Floyd The Wall".

One day in town, he tries to enter a shop, and is told that he can't by some security guys at the door. They don't want to explain why, just tell him he can't do so right now. But tomorrow, he will be allowed, for sure; today... is just impossible, something's up, sorry. He is forced to back off and witnesses, from a distance, the express refurbishing of the shop: trucks turn up, outfitters replace everything in a hurry. Later that evening, he passes by the shop: it has been restored to its original style.

Scene in which he thinks he heard something; fast rewind; same scene as seen by the other protagonist (cf. "Lola Rennt" / Brett Easton Ellis "The Rules Of Attraction"). Thanks to his switch of perspective, we the audience can see that Danny was actually wrong in his reading of the scene: he misunderstood what the other person had said.

Language lesson scene: in many languages, the teacher explains, meaning often depends on a subtle inflection on a particular syllable (ex. “I am mad about it”). Perception is as important as expression, otherwise the message gets distorted. She explains the communication parameters to a largely uninterested classroom -except for Danny. This issue of perception (and the multi-angle presentation of it) will reoccur later, in more dramatic circumstances and with heavier consequences. At home, Danny overhears a furtive conversation between his parents about his childhood: something that ended in tragedy... By the sound of it, his natural parents did not die in a car accident as he had been told.

Back at school, computer literacy course. He is repeatedly confronted with the message "This command is illegal". "-What d'you mean, illegal?!!" he rages. The teacher comes to his desk, shows him how to execute the command: it works fine; as soon as he tries to do it on his own, the same infuriating message beeps up. He breathes very hard, trying not to lose his temper and throw the machine out of the window: brief sequence showing him destroying the equipment (which turns out to be a mere fantasy). He then wonders: is someone messing with his machine while his back is turned? He spots that the capital letter key has been pressed (which invalidates the function he is required to execute): did he press it by mistake, or did the kid next to him play a prank upon him? He decides to move his desk away from the rest of the class, and sit with his back to the wall -which only compounds the other pupils’ perception of him.

Argument in one scene, in which he demonstrates that even surveillance cameras are not the be-all and end-all: they are not all-reliable when it comes to proving something as footage can be re-edited. As soon as a level of mediation is created, it opens the door to possible manipulation. Images can be touched up, recordings can be altered, and he concludes "perception is everything."

At night, at home, the family watch the programme "Candid Camera": the prank presented is the one he witnessed, involving innocent customers being told to come back an hour later (to pick up their order / photos / or laundry) …only to return to a different shop. The family find the victims' bafflement hilarious, whereas Danny goes through several emotions. Funny music; he turns round and is now surrounded by different people, in a different house; blinks: surroundings back to normal.

In another instance (seeking reassurance phoning a social service) he is repeatedly put on hold, with the same cheery Vivaldi "Four Seasons" jingle that drives him mad "Do not put me on hold!" Once eventually connected, he gets transferred from our department to the next by cheery operators who couldn’t care less ("How may I help you today? I'm afraid you have the wrong service, who exactly did you want to speak to / We appreciate your custom and value your comments, please hold on / Thank you for holding / Have a nice day!"). He eventually hangs up in a rage.

Other subplot development to build the overall story all the way to the finale: after the peeping incident with his sister, struggling to contain himself / feeling guilty, he takes to roam the streets at night. On his outings, he finds refuge in the empty swimming-pool, sleeping on the upstairs floor on the gym mats. (First, because an empty swimming-pool at night makes for great setting, and second because it introduces a hint / conveys the aquatic allegory of madness. His story started with him as a child found wandering in the snow, i.e. vast amount of (frozen) water; the story concludes with him on top of the dam, with huge amounts of water ready to burst through).

His routine at school: waits for all the other pupils to enter before walking in on his own (shot as in scene from "The Sixth Sense"). Shot from a distance, travelling through long empty corridors.

He gets a haircut at some stage -which accounts for the change of hairstyle in the first scene and indicates the passing of time.

Danny falls out with teenage fans of Marilyn Manson / Eminem whom he declares to be a joke: perfect examples of wind-ups with no serious agenda, fakes who don't know anything about proper suffering and alienation but are cashing out on easy targets without making any stand where it really matters. He denounces their posturing, as opposed to not necessarily visible / genuine anguish. Doing so, he distances himself from other candidates for teenage rebellion who, from then on, don't want to side up with him (as they might have been tempted to do prior to this scene). The so-called teenage rebels give up on him; prefer to leave him to it, more preoccupied with their "Goth" make-up and forthcoming Saturday night parties Importantly, their exchanges had started promisingly.

Danny investigates what genuinely happened to his biological parents; searches though his foster family things. Talking to himself in a trance, he explains excitedly to his imagined "double" that he had always felt there was a big secret weighing upon his shoulders... (cinematography reminiscent of “Donnie Darko” here). He discovers documents in a carefully hidden box; holds them to the light. Could this be the answer to his existential angst? He uncovers the truth: his demented father Jack killed his mother in a hotel he was looking after over the winter and then froze to death (in-joke here). He is crushed. Stares at the Social Services certificates, shell-shocked. He now understands his foster parents' reluctance to tell him the truth, why they kept him in the dark all along. He realises that there is more to them, and that they were not necessarily being evil -but were in fact trying to protect him from the truth (subtle reference to "Oedipus" this time).

Meanwhile (audacious camera crane movement from over one house-top to the next), the investigation into the peeping tom (the "McGuffin" device to propel the story forward) draws to a conclusion, and police officers come back to interview him one more time.

Going over his hazy memories / checking his diary, Danny convinces himself he can't have been where the maniac struck at the time of the offence ...or was he? Nobody believes him (framing: he is surrounded by questioners / parents). He starts to doubt himself after a while. Finally lost for words and feeling boxed in / set up (importance of framing here), he excuses himself off to the bathroom to get some pills -but his pills bottle is empty. Carnival music through the open window, which he takes as a signal. In a right state, he climbs through the window triumphantly, and runs away.

After an initially exhilarating run through the streets, he comes to the realisation that he doesn't know where he's headed to; can't return to the house which he scrutinises from a distance (police cars activity shown going on there). He tries to take refuge in his favourite haunt the swimming-pool, but discovers that the police have been alerted and lie in wait for him there (i.e. someone must have told them about his secret shelter). Roaming the streets (to the sound of the funfair's cheery music -Nick Cave "The Carny"?) he is surrounded by people having fun; then moves on to backstreets, lanes, finally follows the canal to end up at the dam. Forcing his way in, he sets off an alarm that brings the police round. The stand-off begins.

For once, he feels in control: sense of power over the community. He clings to his parents' photos; threatens to blow up the dame; resists the temptation to open the floodgates. He taunts the police over the radio: how can they possibly not know that he doesn't have dynamite / the means to blow up the dam, are they ready to take this chance? Maybe he is bluffing, maybe he isn't. He is in his element: in an in-between zone that oscillates between the ability to cause damage and the desire to defuse the situation; threat vs. safety valve. For once he feels that he has the upper hand ---whereas the other party can only pine for certainties, hang on his words. He turns a spotlight on the crowd (i.e. him safe in the dark and them exposed under the light). The camera pans to the various protagonists of the story: the parents, teacher, pupils...

The ending: variable DVD options, which the viewer can select according to the different film titles:

-"Blueprint (Version .0)" is the open-ended version that allows for different interpretations. The two other versions can be obtained by selecting the different endings available on the DVD version: create your own definitive version if you want a clear culprit.

-"Blueprint (Version .1)": Danny is the voyeur culprit who couldn't help himself. But ending the film on a suicide would be too easy: instead, and in a wink to "Lost Highway", he actually... resurrects. The film ends with the main, successive scenes played backwards fast (as in "Donny Darko"), all the way to the starting / ending point showing him at the dam, except that we are now looking at a different person who  walks away, to the spectators' stupefaction (parting to let him walk through) –complete with Balamentesque music and blue halo light.

-"Blueprint (Version .2)": he is the fall-guy, victim of a succession of characters who have taken advantage all along. As the ending credits roll, a sequence shows the other characters (including his relatives) framing him for various indiscretions (cf. "Wild Things").

Comments.

Use of funny expressions borne out of the protagonist’s characteristic misunderstanding of situations and his outsider status: "Bomb's your uncle" "just because they're out there doesn't mean I shouldn't be" "laptop bar" "earphones" "on tender hooks", etc.. Not that anybody ever gets it when he tries to make a joke.

"The world is some place you have to trek through, trying to get as little involved as possible. Just a bad patch to endure for a while."

Recurring themes: spying, in various directions and from various characters; scenes shot as if to suggest that he is being followed (paranoia ?) -and maybe he is (as revealed by one of the alternative DVD endings). End: the one occasion when he is the one –literally- looking down on the rest of the community (reverse angle).

Progression: estranged from society at the start, alienated at school, rejected by his foster family, and finally doubting himself. He gets more and more isolated, on what appears to be an unstoppable suicide course.

Time-line: it is important to start the film with a precise annual event so that the story can build up to it, without having to indicate onscreen "three weeks earlier" and so on. It should be a religious / traditional / cultural moment of revelation such as a European carnival (where society's order is supposed to be reversed) or maybe Christmas (when people are supposed to be more convivial). Christmas would be easily recognisable by all viewers, and its choice would accentuate Danny's estrangement from what is supposed to be a fun occasion.

Soundtrack: excerpts from Talk Talk-"Spirit Of Eden" (my favourite album).

Logline: Perception is prescription. Teenage paranoid-schizophrenic Danny is manipulated by different people taking advantage of his condition as they steal his ideas and frame him for acts they commit. ... Or do they? The first interactive "Memento" meets "Donny Darko". 

"The Coup"

Setting: an unnamed South American country (mixture of different nations).

Political tension; a government under pressure. A leading minister gets murdered; then another one, then another dignitary. Past the initial shock, the government calls for a State of emergency. Leading extremist opponents are arrested. Still, the political assassinations continue. Then it's the turn of trade-unionists; their remaining leaders are taken to the Ministry of Interior for emergency talks. They are told to carry out their own internal investigations, what with them being in the best position to find out where this destabilising threat comes from. The regime officials come across as genuinely concerned, and at a loss for answers. The assassinations continue. (The scenes are intercut with dates showing the passing of time over a couple of weeks: "the second day, Thursday".) Things get worse; more and more / gradually more important opponents get arrested. The underground guerilla movement escalates its warfare, apparently in response to this ensuing repression. Opposition members wonder what is going on until one of them uncovers the truth: it has all been a set-up engineered by the powers-that-be from the start. It is the regime who has staged the assassination of (secretly unimportant or potentially dissident) ministers themselves, thereby creating an opportunity to crack down on the opposition.

Ending could see the heroic figure locking himself in television studio to broadcast the truth to the nation.

…Except I hate this kind of happy ending. After he's finished (triumphant music and all), we discover that nothing has been broadcast: the means of communication have been disabled, and only the junta leaders have been watching his testimony, chuckling along.

I was particularly interested in offering a central red herring + a false ending + a dramatic twist that would allow the audience to review the incidents in a different light. Subtle clues should have been sown throughout, that will become telling in retrospect. For ex. a line uttered at some stage about the tactic of striking first and creating an element of surprise.

Mitterrand Machiavel figure. Good deeds (by the military / State side) revealed with hindsight to be anything but disinterested or helpful; acts of kindness (from the common people) that lead to disastrous consequences. Theme of willing or unintended collaboration / facilitation. It will appear in retrospect that the secret service has taken every possibility into consideration before setting the ball in motion.

Glimpse of rows of thick files and substantial numbers of staff working (literally) underground in hangars (echoes of East Germany), the point being that there is a lot of stuff going on that we don't suspect at all. Details such as the chief torturer being a Doctor (cf. Serbia, Rwanda); lower officers being kept in the dark as to the bigger picture; greedy multinationals involved (Chile).

Possible gimmick: action scenes shot as TV footage

Variations on the “networks” theme. Conspirators being "outconspired": just when some characters (trade-unions) feel they have a grip on reality, they discover that they never did (Allende didn't fear Pinochet, because they were both Free-Masons).

Opposition between the beauty of Nature and Man's evil.

"Nena ist wunderbach"

Social comedy about the concept of community and people's attempts at relating to each other; in which every character tries to find existential comfort through communicating with others they see as being in possession of some kind of answer. The roll cast includes: a sincere religious character (mature woman), a computer / Internet genius who spends his nights "surfing" the Web in his room, various pupils and teachers in a local school, a young couple falling in love, elderlies nobody cares about (despite their incredible and unheard life stories), war veterans no-one wants to be reminded of (set in subtle opposition to low-key, creeping racists on the sly that nobody sees for who they are), and so on. The main point being no matter what hardship we encounter at one stage or another in our lives (bereavement, heartbreak, job loss, illness), there is always bound to be someone, somewhere, who's been through it and survived. If only we could contact them and heed their advice...

Ideally set in: a microcosm such as a particular neighbourhood within a larger town where neighbours typically don't know each other. About six or eight sub-plots following on each other like dominoes falling.

"Community" understood as the paradoxical coexistence of different individuals somehow gathered in an apparent unity. Other underlining idea: intelligence sees differences, true genius makes out real unity. The film aims at uncovering how the members of this arbitrary community could surmount their various mishaps if only they behaved naturally towards each other rather than conform to social's mores (cf. "L'Appartement"'s lesson: if any of its characters behaved rationally / normally at any given moment, then the whole conspiracy would collapse). These words were written at the time, i.e. before the age of “social networks”: The fact is there's never been so many lonely people, yet there's never been so much (data) available on the Net: why dare we not open up to each other? How do we miss what we're looking for ?

Tour de passe-passe / choreography: characters with matching personalities / problems / answers pass each other by, without noticing / communicating. Comedy a la the de Broca movies with Marthe Keller / Marcel Aimé / I have been looking for decades for one in particular, that featured a (French) village bought and rebuilt in the USA brick by brick / the masterpiece "L'Honneur perdu de Pédonzigues" / or even D. Thomas's "Under MilkWood".

Structure of film: maybe like "La Ronde" or the Iranian movie “The Circle”, with one character’s story leading to another and so on in a chain. Soundtrack could include Vivaldi's allegro or a waltz (i.e. circular movement).

Happy ending, with one of the troubled protagonists eventually catching up with his or her alter ego (could be a case of “A” being lonely and “B” being ready for a relationsip), thereby setting in motion a chain of events that will solve other people's predicaments. Rather Kieslowskiesque, then.

Soundtrack suggestion: could follow Lambchop's golden "Nixon" album track by track.

Cast: as always, Irene Jacob; W. H. Macy; J. Godreche; S. Kiberlain, J. Goodman in a part that would do justice to his talent (see "True Stories"); B. Crudup... (Copyright Loig Thivend 2000.)