50/50 (2011), written by Will Reiser http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZEJTJSZQQs INT. KATIE’S OFFICE – CONTINUOUS The office is small, cold and emotionless – with stacks of psychology books and files strewn about. An attractive young woman, KATIE (24), sits behind a desk reading a file while she eats a rather messy sandwich. Katie takes her job very seriously, but has not quite mastered the art of speaking without sounding like a rigid grad student. Katie looks up as she takes a bite of her sandwich. KATIE: (mouth full of food) Can I help you? ADAM: I have an appointment with Dr. McRae. Katie puts down the sandwich, rises from her seat and puts her hand out to shake Adam’s. KATIE: Please call me Katie. ADAM: (confused) You’re Dr. McRae? KATIE: Katie McRae. You were expecting someone else? Katie wraps up her sandwich and puts the rest away. ADAM: Aren’t you supposed to be like sixty-five and wear earth-toned sweaters? KATIE: (slightly defensive) Why? Did someone say that’s what I look like? ADAM: No, no, no. I was just expecting someone older. KATIE: Sorry to disappoint you. ADAM: So, how old are you? KATIE: Twenty-four. ADAM: Twenty-four? What are you like Doogie Howser? KATIE: Who? ADAM: Doogie Howser… Off Katie’s blank look. ADAM: (CONT’D) …The teenage doctor. KATIE: Does he work here? This scene marks the beginning of three story/character arcs: Adam goes from denial, thinking he is fine mentally, to having a nervous breakdown and realizing he is not fine after all. Katherine goes from being confident that she can handle her new job to accepting that it was too much for her to handle. It is also the beginning of their relationship that goes from professional to personal during the course of the film. It all culminates in this scene that was featured during the confessions of love theme week.

I love this example from Moonrise Kingdom that I recently watched and am currently re-reading the screenplay for. It is, coincidentally, also a flashback which is, going back to a discussion from last week, a very effective use of the tool, as we see how Sam and Suzy first meet: INT. DRESSING ROOM. EVENING Sam moves down a dark corridor. Voices murmur. He pokes his head around a corner. A rack of choir robes and cassocks blocks his path. He slides two of them apart and looks through at: Five eleven-year-old girls in black leotards sitting on a bench in front of a mirror framed with light bulbs. They talk quietly and fix their make-up. They all wear wings on their arms and beaks on their heads. Suzy sits among them in black feathers. Sam stares at her. He steps into the light silently. Suzy sees him in the reflection. The other girls turn around quickly, covering themselves. Sam removes his cap and takes another step forward. His eyes dart briefly among the other girls. He says to Suzy: SAM What kind of bird are you? Suzy hesitates. She looks to the girl next to her, who says in a bossy voice: BOSSY GIRL I’m a sparrow, she’s a dove, and -- Sam does not look away from Suzy as he interrupts, pointing: SAM No, I said, “What kind of bird are you?” The other girls all look to Suzy. Pause. SUZY I’m a raven. Suzy lifts her beak slightly higher on her forehead. The other girls look annoyed but transfixed. The bossy girl frowns. BOSSY GIRL Boy’s aren’t allowed in here. Sam does not look away from Suzy as he answers quietly: SAM I’ll be leaving soon. Sam points down at Suzy’s lap. One of her hands is wrapped in a bandage. SAM What happened to your hand? SUZY (pause) I got hit in the mirror. SAM (taken aback) Really. How’d that happen? SUZY (shrugs) I lost my temper at myself. Sam is deeply intrigued by this. The other girls look puzzled. Suzy presses her hair back off her face. She watches Sam nervously. SUZY What’s your name? SAM Sam. What’s yours? SUZY I’m Suzy. Sam nods with his eyes still glued to Suzy’s. Suzy bites her fingernails. The bossy girl rolls her eyes. BOSSY GIRL It’s not polite to stare. Sam holds up his hand for the bossy girl to stop talking. Mrs. Lynn steps into the doorway. MRS. LYNN Birds! Ready? Mrs. Lynn does a double-take. She snaps at Sam: MRS. LYNN Who are you? Where’d you come from? Go back to your seat. Sam hesitates. He spits the mint into a trash can, ducks out through the clothing rack, and is gone. A skinny girl dressed as an owl watches Suzy while the other girls hurry to their feet. She says quietly: SKINNY GIRL He likes you. Sorry about the formatting, but I couldn't get it do to what I wanted. However, I think it is a fantastic scene as it tells us how they first met and introduces the start of their love story in that innocent and irreverent way that children have of looking at everything in the simplest of fashion. From the query about the bandage, to the final comment "He likes you" we know we are seeing "flirting", but masterfully written and delivered through the eyes of the innocent. It's a wonderful scene in a beautiful film.

MANHATTAN, written by Woody Allen (1979) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VaEEK-3Qc YALE (Chuckling, to Ike) How are you? (To Tracy) Hi. IKE Okay, good. That's so funny. We were talking about-you know, we're-we're all gonna go to that Shakespeare in the Park thing this weekend. See if we can go ahead and do that. YALE Oh, yeah, right. (Mary Wilke walks through the doorway and stands beside Yale) I wanna do that. (Turning to Mary) Issac Davis and Tracy. MARY (Shaking Ike's hand) Well, hello, hi. IKE Hello, how do you do? How are you? MARY Nice to meet you. IKE You, too. You, too. TRACY Hi. IKE (Chuckling nervously) We were downstairs at the Castelli Gallery. We saw the photography exhibition. Incredible, absolutely incred­ible. TRACY Oh, it's really good. MARY Really, you liked that? Yale sighs, not participating in the conversation. IKE The-the photographs downstairs . . . MARY Yes, downstairs. IKE (Overlapping) . . . Castelli Gallery . . . great, absolutely great. (Pausing) Mm-hm, did you? MARY Huh? No, I-I really felt it was very derivative. To me, it looked like it was straight out of Diane Arbus, but it had none of the wit. It was- IKE (Interrupting) Really? Well, you know, we-we didn't like 'em as much as the-the Plexiglas sculpture, that I will admit. I mean, it- MARY (Interrupting) Really, you liked the Plexiglas, huh? IKE You didn't like the Plexiglas sculpture either? MARY (Sighing) Oh, it's interesting. (Shrugging) Nah, I-uh, I, uh, tsch. IKE It-it was a hell of a lot better than that-that steel cube. Did you see the steel cube? TRACY (Overlapping) Oh, yeah, that was the weirdest. Ike laughs nervously. MARY Now, that was brilliant to me, absolutely brilliant. IKE The steel cube was brilliant? MARY Yes. Uh, to me, it was-it was very textural. You know what I mean? It was perfectly integrated and it had a-a-a marvelous kind of negative capability. The rest of the stuff downstairs was bullshit. Whenever I'm inclined to write the beginnings of relationships in my scripts, I always harken back to this scene. Not exactly the start of a beautiful friendship. In fact, before these two couples part ways for the day, I believe Isaac states that he'd like to "knock her teeth in." (Takeaway - don't disparage Bergman around Woody) Not too long after, Ike and Mary are indeed an 'item.' I'm sure we'd all love to believe that romantic relationships begin with rainbows and flutes and unicorns and faeries. But the reality is they often begin much like this...raised brows, nervous laughter, awkward silences.

ANNIE HALL (1977) Directed by Woody Allen, Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman Alvy packs his tennis gear. Annie enters. ANNIE: Hi!… hi! Hi! ALVY: Oh, hi. Hi. She laughs, finding no other words. ANNIE: Well… bye! She CRINGES, tries to EXIT. ALVY: You play very well. ANNIE: Oh yeah? So do you! Oh God, what a dumb thing to say, right? I mean, you say 'You play well' and right away I have to say 'You play well'… ha-oh God, Annie. Well… oh well! La di-da! La di-da, la la. Yeah… She TURNS for the door again. ALVY: You want a lift? ANNIE: Oh why? You got a car? ALVY: Me? No, I was gonna take a cab. ANNIE: Oh no, I have a car. ALVY: You have a car? I don’t understand, so if you have a car, then why did you say 'Do you have a car?' like you wanted a lift? ANNIE: I don’t, I-geez, I don’t know, I wasn’t… it’s, I got this VW out there. What a jerk-yeah… Would you like a lift? ALVY: Sure. Which way are you going? ANNIE: Me? Oh, downtown. ALVY: Down? I’m going uptown. ANNIE: Oh, well you know I’m going uptown too! ALVY: Well you just said you’re going downtown. ANNIE: Yeah well, umm but I can go uptown too. I live uptown, but uh, what the hell! I mean it’ll be nice having company, you know? I mean, I hate driving alone. Dialogue Takeaway: Dialogue is Woody Allen’s strong suit, and it certainly shows here. Right off the bat, we can gather from Annie’s seemingly throwaway lines that she’s a nervous wreck. But more importantly, she’s a nervous wreck about Alvy – perhaps the perfect antithesis of a suave heartbreaker who’d typically make girls crumble like Annie does. And that says a whole lot about Annie’s character. What’s even more interesting is that Annie blames herself for the miscommunication regarding the cab, but it is in fact Alvy who creates the confusion by offering a ride he can’t give her. He blurts that out, by the way, because – as Allen demonstrates by closing the same zipper for a whole minute – he’s just as nervous as Annie is.

Video Link for ANNIE HALL scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edlek25l3z4