VELVET GOLDMINE
Todd Haynes
Story by
Todd Haynes and James Lyons
Screenplay transcribed by KATE (AKA [RHPS] Magenta) of Moulin Goldmine
~The lyrics are not in the screenplay, but can be found here~
* Though a labour of love, this script took quite some time to painstakingly and accurately transcribe for your benefit. You may use it for personal purposes,
but DO NOT REPRODUCE it anywhere else on the net *
* Although what you are about to see is a work of fiction,
it should nevertheless be played at maximum volume *
FEMALE NARRATOR
(British)
Histories, like ancient ruins, are the fictions of empire. While everything forgotten hangs in dark dreams of the past, ever threatening to return.
Sad mists of music rise as we FADE UP TO:
EXT. A GALAXY OF STARS – NIGHT – 1854
We descend, music building.
A falling star soars across the sky and explodes in lavender sparks. Purple mists clear to reveal the rooftops of a storybook Dublin.
EXT. OLD DUBLIN – NIGHT – 1854
A luminous green spaceship is just making its ascent, leaving a trail of pink smoke.
In one grand synthetic WHOOSH the spacecraft disappears into the sky.
EXT- WILDE RESIDENCE – NIGHT – 1854
We descend upon a lamp lit street of Gregorian townhouses.. A light appears in the lower part of one building. Its door opens and a Housemaid steps out. She discovers a small bundle at her feet. It’s a baby.
HOUSEMAID
Lord’n heaven-
She lifts it into her arms and looks up to the sky.
The last green traces of the spacecraft’s eerie glow can be seen through the clouds.
Madame Wilde! Richard! Come. Quickly!
A Male Servant appears with a lantern, followed by Mrs Wilde, a lean, middle-aged woman in a robe. They surround the Housemaid and her miraculous find.
CLOSE ON the Baby. Mrs Wild opens the blanket and reveals a luminous emerald pin, ornate and antique, clasped to the infant’s pinafore. Music rises as we:
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. CLASSROOM/IRISH BOY’S SCHOOL – DAY- 1862
TRACK past the ruddy-cheeked faces of eight year old school children standing and stating their future ambitions.
SCHOOL CHILDREN
I want to Be a Farmer. I want to be a Barrister. I want to be a Truck Driver.
Settle on the last child in the row, a solemn tow-haired boy whose seriousness is betrayed only by the cherry-redness of his lips. A hand-made name card hanging from his neck reads ‘Oscar Wilde’.
EIGHT YEAR OLD OSCAR
I want to be a pop idol.
He wears the emerald pin on his lavender cravat. It sparkles.
FAST CUT TO:
EXT. ENGLISH SCHOOLYARD - DAY – 1955
SUBTITLE- ‘One hundred years later...’
The camera soars over the Schoolboys fighting in a crowd. It isn’t immediately apparent that a century has passed, and the child being beaten is not the young Oscar Wilde but a designated ancestor.
Seven year old dandy Jack Fairy is being bashed to smithereens by fellow classmates, as others circle the massacre, throwing in kicks for good measure. The school bell rings and the young ruffians scurry off, leaving the boy face down in the yard.
In CLOSE UP Jack lifts his head and looks around. He examines his skinned knuckles and notices something shiny between two flagstones. He digs between them and loosens the small object. Rubbing off the dirt, he reveals Oscar’s pin.
CUT TO:
EXT. COUNTRY ROAD – SUNSET – 1955
Crane over little Jack walking home over artificial cobblestones and a setting sun. Music swells as we hear:
FEMALE
(voice-over)
Childhood, adults always say, is the happiest time in life. But as long as he could remember, Jack Fairy knew better.
INT. JACK’S PARENTS’ BEDROOM – DUSK – 1955
Very CLOSE ON young Jack as he walks through the dark of his parent’s room to his mother’s vanity. He clasps the emerald pin to his shirt, stops in front of the mirror and looks up.
CLOSE ON the mirror: Jack’s lip is still bleeding. He touches it. Gently, he rubs the blood over his lips like lipstick. There is music and faint sparkles in the air.
FEMALE
(voice-over)
Until one mysterious day, when Jack would discover that somewhere there were others quite like him, singled out for a great gift. And one day...
His eyes flash back to his reflection.
...the whole stinking world would be theirs.
Jubilant guitars (‘Needles in the Camel’s Eye’/Brian Eno) as we swish to the mirror where young Jack, is laughing victoriously: ZOOM-IN.
MAD CUT TO:
EXT. STREETS OF LONDON – TWILIGHT – 1974
A cluster of feet, scrambling down the streets of London, teetering on mountainous footwear. The boys and girls of glitter rock are rushing excitedly over the Waterloo Bridge, across the Strand, down Wellington Street, all to see their favourite glam star perform at the Lyceum Theatre.
OPENING CREDITS
A Cluster of painted faces cram for space in front of a chrome bank building doing last-minute make-up and hair; they hurry off as we PAN UP to where someone has scrawled in lipstick: LAST MIRROR BEFORE MAXWELL!
The five skinny specimens scurry on, passing other platformed-heeled skinnies as they go. Malcolm, Ray, Pearl and Billy of the London trash-band The Flaming Creatures struggle to run in their outfits and Arthur follows in the pack.
A lean face watches them as they pass. He turns away. It’s Jack Fairy, late twenties, gaunt, striking, with old rouge hollowing his face. Arthur turns momentarily, recognizing Jack, then continues.
Some other passing glitter kids spot him as the as they pass. Song continues as we:
CUT TO:
EXT. LYCEUM THEATRE – TWILIGHT – 1974 – ‘NEWSREEL FOOTAGE’
Outside the theatre we ZOOM PAST a long line of Glitter Boys and Girls; super-foxes and she-bitches, ziggies, iggies, shags, queens, straight kids dressed up as queers, all anxiously awaiting the first glimpse of flam-rock idol Brian Slade.
But, looking closer, there is something dark bruised beneath the flash. Some kids look into cameras we TRACK UP, past their faces, to the name on the marquee.
We hear:
BBC VOICE:
(off-screen)
Tonight the streets of London are ablaze in sparkle make-up and glittering frocks as the boys and girls of the current glam-rock craze pay tribute to their patron saint, pop-star Brian Slade and his space-age rock persona, Maxwell Demon.
CUT TO:
INT. DRESSING ROOM – LYCEUM THEATRE – NIGHT – 1974
TV Monitor: BBC Reporter stands out side the Lyceum Theatre.
CLOSE ON Brian Slade (aged twenty five), dressed as ‘Maxwell Demon’: his hair bright blue, his face an eerily effeminate mask. He is looking up at the TV screen through the mirror (quiet music beginning), before returning his attentions tot a chessboard in front of him.
BBC VOICE
(off-screen)
A palpable whir of anticipation can be felt outside London’s Lyceum Theatre as fans await the final show of Slade’s smash world tour.
A young woman with a Maxwell Demon haircut, Shannon, is shaking a can of hairspray. Brian closes his eyes as she sprays.
CLOSE ON Brian’s hand moving a knight.
Security around the performer has tightened following a recent BBC interview in which he admitted to premonitions of being assassinated on-stage.
Shannon’s spraying stops. Brian glances up to her in the mirror.
BRIAN
Turn it off.
Shannon flips off the set. There’s a loud knock at the door.
A Man’s head pops around the door, the sound of the PA pours in.
MAN
Brian? Time.
CUT TO:
INT. LYCEUM THEATRE – STAGE – NIGHT – 1974
A HANDHELD shot follows Brian as he is whisked to the stage, large ornamental feathers are attached to his outfit. Another Assistant with a Maxwell Demon haircut hands him a lit cigarette and a glass of red wine on the way. The PA bellows thunderously throughout the hall.
ANNOUNCER
Ladies and gentlemen...The Lyceum Theatre in cooperation with Bijou Music is proud to present...
On-stage large fans are turned on, as stage hands begin blowing white feathers into the air. The roar of the audience builds.
A crowd swarms in front of the stage. Arthur is carried away from his friends in the surge. He looks back anxiously, catching sight of someone in the aisle.
A dark figure is slipping through the darkness toward the stage.
...straight back from their fantastically successful European Tour...Maxwell Demon and The Venus in Furs!
Thunderous applause as the band breaks into an intro to ‘The Ballad of Maxwell Demon’.
On-Stage: Brian walks theatrically on stages and faces the crowd, under blue lights and a storm of feathers.
Brief shots in slow motion:
Auditorium: Arthur catches sight of...
...a shiny object being pulled out of someone’s coat and aimed at the stage. It’s a gun.
Arthur’s eyes grow wide. It fires.
Brian is catapulted into the air, his chest exploding in blood. He slowly sails back to the stage.
TRACE INTO Arthur, looking back to the gunman.
A dark figure vanishes amid the sudden panic as a chorus of sights takes over all sounds.
Very CLOSE ON chessboard. A knight takes a queen.
DISSOLVE TO:
Newspaper headline:
SINGER BRIAN SLADE SHOT ON-STAGE
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. LONDON STREET – MORNING – 1974
Arthur stands at the door of his flat reading the headline. He looks up to the grey skies over head. The sad, plaintive introduction to ‘Hot One’ begins.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. ROOFTOP – DAY – 1974
Very CLOSE ON a young Crew-cut Boy, gazing up to the clouds with tears in his eyes. We hear his internal whisper:
CREW-CUT BOY
(voice-over)
Put out the torches!
Hide the moon!
Hide the stars!
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. MONTAGE OF FACES – DAY – 1974
TRACE past three young Punks, looking up to the skies with open mouths.
New Your City Drag Queens, squinting into the sun.
Two teenage Girls in London, eyes closed.
As we hear:
FEMALE NARRATOR
(voice-over)
For once there was an unknown land, full of strange flowers and subtle perfumes, a land of which it is joy of all joys to dream, a land where all things are perfect and poisonous...
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. LONDON CONCERT HALL – STAGE – NIGHT – 1972
As the song’s intro comes to an end and we descend, landing on:
A glistening CLOSE-UP of Brian, electric skin-tight purple space suit and blonde/magenta hair, as he starts to sing: ‘Hot One’.
Promo film: Brian portrays Maxwell Demon, the tragic space hero, while Trevor, his sexy lead guitarist, ablaze in silver sequins, fronts the cosmic back-up band. The combination of camp theatricality, melodic melancholy and searing guitar creates a strange mix: erotic and violent but elegantly detached at the same time.
Song continues as the screen suddenly flares white.
MONTAGE (ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE): GLITTER KIDS – 1972
The chorus resumes under a slightly hokey Narrator, as we return to the promo film with a crude but hip montage of seventies London: shots of young people sporting glitter clothes and hairstyles.
NARRATOR
...It appears today’s youngsters have fashioned a whole new bent on the so-called sexual liberation of the flower power set. The long hair and love-beads have given way to glitter make-up and platform shoes and a whole new taste for glamour, nostalgia and just plain outrageousness!
CROSS FADE with following ‘on the street interviews’.
EXT. LONDON STREETS – DAY- 1972
HANDHELD TRACK past the painted faces of young Glitter Kids along the Carnaby Street, Sloan Street, Kings Road etc.
EXT. LONDON STREETS – DAY – 1972
An Old Woman and Middle Aged Man stand in front of a church.
REPORTER
Is London not shocked?
OLD WOMAN
London’s...improving.
MIDDLE AGED MAN
Well, I think it’s a disgrace, parading around all ponced-up like a pack of bleeding woofters. Bloody hell, what’ll they think up next?
EXT. LONDON HUSTLER STREET – DAY – 1972
TRACK with Brian dressed like a space tart, sashaying down a street full of Hustlers and Drag Queens.
Brian walks directly into the arms of a Sailor in white and kisses him firmly on the mouth.
NARRATOR
(voice-over)
And heading up this flash stampede is none other than pop giant Brian Slade, who’s stylish escapades have paved the way for a whole new breed of performing artists. From Curt Wild and The Flaming Creatures, to Jack Fairy and Polly Small. Thanks to Slade, today’s youngsters are singing a whole new tune.
EXT. LONDON STREETS – DAY – 1972
Now, a teenage glitter couple: the Young Guy talks as his Girlfriend nods in agreement.
REPORTER
So you’re saying you’re bisexual?
YOUNG GUY
Yeah, I like boys, I like girls. They’re all great. There’s no difference is there? ...Mr BBC.
EXT. CONCERT HALL – DAY – 1972 – PROMO FILM
Trevor, Brian’s lead guitarist, is being interviewed in front of a small crowd of screaming fans.
TREVOR
(on screen, then voice over ‘Imaginary Theatre’, then on screen)
Rock music has always been a reaction against accepted standards. And homosexuality has been going on for centuries. At the moment having a ‘gay’ image is the ‘in’ thing, just like a few years ago it was trendy to wear a long grey coat with a Led Zeppelin record under your arm.
INT. (IMAGINARY) THEATRE – 1974
CLOSE ON a hand sliding onto Arthur’s crotch. Swish up to Arthur, who sees a sleazy Old Man leaning over, smiling faintly.
Back to the promo film.
EXT CONCERT HALL – DAY – 1972
Curt is interviewed.
CURT
Everyone’s into this scene because it’s supposedly the thing to do right now. But you just can’t fake being gay. You know, if you’re gonna claim that you’re gay you’re gonna have to make love in gay style, and most of these kids... just aren’t going to make it.
That line, ‘Everybody’s bisexual’, that’s a very popular thing to say right now. Personally, I think it’s meaningless.
CARD:
A decorative, bright pink card reads:
‘Meaning is not in things but in between them.’
-Norman Brown
INT. LONDON CONCERT HALL – STAGE – NIGHT – 1972
Brian completes the final chorus of the song, ending in a crescendo. But, just as the house explodes in cheers, the sound and image freeze.
A beat of silence, before:
NEWSPAPER:
A newspaper flies into frame with a blast of music. The headline reads:
‘SLADE SHOOTING A HOAX’
INT. LONDON CONCERT HALL – STAGE – NIGHT – 1972
CLOSE ON Brian confiding to camera.
BRIAN
(a thunderous whisper)
I knew I should create a sensation gasped the Rocket, and he went out.
FREEZE FRAME:
Image burns and is pulled from the screen. White screen.
INT. SCREENING ROOM. (NEW YORK HERALD) – DAY – 1984
CLOSE ON Arthur’s eyes, as he listens to a conversation, still deep in thought, after watching the promo newsreel footage.
MALE VOICE
Alright, Lionel. You can turn it off now.
We hear other voices in the room; one or two other figures stand.
FEMALE VOICE
I don’t get it.
MALE’S VOICE 2
What don’t you get? It was a stunt. The guy fakes his own murder.
FEMALE VOICE
Yeah, but why?
MALE VOICE 2
Publicity
LOU
Arthur?
SWISH PAN to Adult Arthur, a journalist for the Herald. He looks up.
Any recollection?
ARTHUR
Of what?
LOU
This – Slade fellow?
ARTHUR
(non-committal)
What? He’s a...early 70’s glam rock singer
MURRAY
Told you we could count on Mr Old-Time Rock and Roll!
He and Mary snicker.
ARTHUR
(tuning to Lou)
Count on me for what?
(to Lou)
I thought I was on the Reynolds trip.
LOU
Well you are. But the President isn’t due till the eighth and we need a piece for the Weekender now.
ARTHUR
(quiet, facetious)
Great.
LOU
Aw, now, look. Next week is the tenth year anniversary of the whole shooting stunt incident. I’d like you to find out what happened. Where he is today. ‘What Ever Happened To Brian Slade?’ Okay?
Arthur looks away, shaking his head.
ARTHUR
And naturally you want me for this because I’m the resident Brit, right?
LOU
No.
Arthur stops.
I want you because you remember.
A smooth ZOOM IN to Arthur’s face..
CUT TO:
EXT. NEW YORK PANORAMA – DAY – 1984
The burnt-out remains of New Your City and the subtitle:
NEW YORK CITY, 1984
1984 New York is a decadent, seventies vision of an apocalyptic future a bombed-out, expressionistic city from which most people, wealthy or white, have already fled.
Melancholy music.
EXT. NEW YORK STREETS – DAY – 1984
Arthur walks home through a blue-gel twilight. Pulling out we reveal a grey industrial landscape, emptied of colour and life. A small line of National Guards Patrol the Area.
ARTHUR
(voice-over)
Some meaningless prank, a decade old. Why was it suddenly up to me to figure out when clearly there was something, something from the past spooking me back? I didn’t realize at the time that it was you.
Rising in the distance, we hear the rumble of a crowd and the echoey bass of stadium rocker Tommy Stone’s song ‘People Rockin’ People’ over a loud speaker. A Man’s voice follows, massive with echo.
MALE VOICE
Thank you Transelectric and CRA. Micro Atlanta and Dupree for their generous support.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. COURTHOUSE – NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
TRACK OVER the heads of a crowd of mostly kids, gathered around an enormous screen. Tommy Stone, a bleach-blonde corporate superstar, is being simulcast from a distant stadium filled with bleach-blonde fans.
Music continues louder.
TOMMY STONE
(on large outdoor TV screen)
Thanks to President Reynolds’ Committee for Cultural Renewal for making this broadcast possible and thanks to you, the three billion viewers tuning in right now on global satellite...YEAH!
CLOSE ON: Arthur as the booming telecast fades and he descends the subway stairs.
INT. SUBWAY STAIRS – NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
A dark figure whisks by.
The man passing, a sinewy character in his late thirties, flashes a cool glance at Arthur before rushing out of sight. (We don’t know it yet but this is Curt Wild.)
Very CLOSE ON Arthur, struck as the road of an oncoming train rises with the music.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. SUBWAY – NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
A packed subway car, gnarled with damage and black with graffiti, flickers in and out of the darkness.
We hear:
CHILD’S VOICE
‘Yesterday upon the stair
I saw a man that wasn’t there’
A small Black Child in a Tommy Stone mask, is reading to her mother from a book,
BLACK CHILD
‘He wasn’t there again today
How I wish he’d go away.’
CLOSE ON Arthur listening. He turns and looks out his window.
Arthur’s reflection through flickering glimpses into passing trains and faces looking out.
ARTHUR
(voice-over)
Ten years. Ten years and the world had changed so completely that the life I led in England seemed like someone else’s life. Someone else’s story. Anyone’s but mine.
Out of the melancholy score, a song from the past begins to rise.
(‘Avenging Annie’/Andy Pratt).
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. PASSING STREETS OF SUBURBAN MANCHESTER – DAY – 1973
MALE TEACHER
(off-screen)
‘There were times when it appeared to Dorian Gray that the whole of history was merely a record of his own life,’
EXT. SCHOOLYARD – MANCHESTER SUBURBS – DAY – 1973
Three Kids in glitter-rock gear are running late to class, laughing and tripping on their flashy footwear. One of them is the Glitter Boy.
MALE TEACHER
(off-screen)
‘not as he had lived it in act and circumstance, but as his imagination had created it for him, as it has been in his brain and in his passions.’
INT. CLASSROOM – MANCHESTER – DAY – 1973
Teenage Arthur watches the kids through his classroom window. He returns his attention to his meticulous rendering on an exercise book of Brian Slade as Maxwell Demon.
The off-screen voice of the Teacher continues with the music.
TEACHER
‘He felt that he had know them all, those strange, terrible figures that had passed along the stage of life, and made sin so marvellous and evil so full of subtlety.’
Suddenly Arthur looks up. Music stops. His Teacher is looking right at him. ‘Coz I love You’/Slade begins.
‘It seemed that in some mysterious way, their lives had been his own...’
Music rises in volume with:
CUT TO:
INT. RECORD STORE- MANCHESTER – DAY – 1973
We TRACK past the display of recent releases: Spinners, Gilbert O’Sullivan, The Carpenters, etc.
Teenage Arthur searches pensively for a certain release. Then he spots it.
CLOSE ON the Brian Slade album, The Ballad of Maxwell Demon.
He gingerly reaches for a copy.
Arthur turns solemnly and begins approaching his Brother, who is standing with two Friends by the cash register, arguing over boy bands.
Arthur approaches his brother who stands with a friend chatting to another behind the counter.
Arthur Stands opposite his brother.
ARTHUR
Can you lend us two quid? I got money at home.
BROTHER
You must be mental.
ARTHUR
Please. I swear I’ve got it.
BROTHER
Piss off!
ARTHUR
Thanks.
BROTHER
...what’s it for?
ARTHUR
Nothing.
BROTHER
Give us it here. Let’s have a look.
Arthur’s brother grabs the album out of his hands.
Bloody Nora!
Music rises as Arthur’s brother shows the record to his friends.
Our kid’s one of them pansy rockers!
FRIEND 1
Fuckin’ hell!
FRIEND 2
(pointing to the record)
He’s a fucking poof, that one there.
Arthur is completely confused.
ARTHUR
No he’s not.
FRIEND 1
That’s naff!
FRIEND 2
That’s naff.
BROTHER
(to Arthur)
You’re disgustin’ - you know that?
CLOSE ON Arthur, cheeks flushed with instinctive shame. Music rises.
EXT. ARTHUR’S STREET – MANCHESTER – AFTERNOON – 1973
CLOSE UP TRACK with Arthur as he lumbers home, deep in though, trying to figure it all out. Slow pan down reveals the record under his arm.
EXT. ARTHUR’S HOUSE – MANCHESTER – AFTERNOON – 1973
Continuous crane up as Arthur approaches his house and hurries in, slamming the door behind him.
CUT TO:
A series of brief, CLOSE SHOTS:
INT. ARTHUR’S BEDROOM – MANCHESTER – DAY 1973
Arthur jams the door with a chair.
Album cellophane is peeled and crumpled.
A shiny record is slid out of its sleeve and placed on to a turntable.
The needle drops and glides into its groove, filling the room with a glorious, anticipatory hiss.
‘Hot One’ begins.
Arthur opens up his new copy of the Melody Maker.
CLOSE ON the newsprint pages. Arthur turns to a fold-our spread on Brian Slade’s stage persona Maxwell Demon.
TRACE along a wall covered in glam posters and clippings, sketches and keepsakes. Arthur, dressed in a plaid jacket, is just leaving.
INT. ARTHUR’S LIVING ROOM – MANCHESTER- DAY – 1972
Arthur slips out of his room and down the stairs of his house.
His parents, Mr and Mrs Stuart, sit frozen in front of the TV. They turn in unison as Arthur slips out the door.
ARTHUR
I’m just going out for a minute.
EXT. ARTHUR’S HOUSE – MANCHESTER – DAY – 1972
Arthur stashes his jacket in the bushes and takes off down the road.
EXT. MANCHESTER STREETS – DAY – 1972
Arthur has a ‘cool day’ walking downtown Manchester in his skin-tight chest hugging blue small t-shirt, with cherry picture on front, and sparking buttons/badges attached.
A small group of brightly clad Glitter Kids stand around a bench smoking and ignoring everyone around them.
The one boy in the group, previously seen running late for class, glances over checking out Arthur.
CLOSE ON Arthur:
FAST CUT TO:
INT. SUBWAY CAR – NEW YORK – DUSK – 1984
Adult Arthur staring out of a subway car, stopped at a station. Arthur looks out on to the station platform. The doors begin to close. Suddenly Arthur realizes what stop it is and scrambles for the door.
Music rises (‘The Fat Lady of Limbourg’/Brian Eno) with the sound of a seventies news broadcast:
NEWSCAST
(voice-over)
Today in London officials confirmed that the February 5th shooting of singer Brian Slade at London’s Lyceum Theatre was a publicity stunt, mounted by the singer’s company, Bijou Music Limited.
NEWSPAPER ON MICROFILM
A 1974 headline reads:
‘BRIAN SLADE SHOOTING A DECLARED A HOAX’
TRACK IN to story below, subtitled:
‘BETRAYED FANS STRIKE OUT’
INT. NEWSROOM LIBRARY – NIGHT – 1984
Slow TRACK IN to Arthur reading the story, colourless in the negative light.
NEWSCAST
(voice-over)
Manager Jerry Devine announced today that his company meant ‘no harm in their escapades’, that it was intended solely as ‘entertainment’....
The sound of the newscast cross-fades with that of Jerry Devin, Brian’s Manager.
EXT. BIJOU OFFICES – DAY – 1974 – NEWSREEL FOOTAGE: HANDHELD
Devine speaks to a camera crew as he walks from his car up the steps of his Chelsea office building.
DEVINE
Very unfortunate and sad that, in this day and age, an artist’s quest for artistic freedom should cost him his career.
CUT TO:
INT. WEST BERLIN CAFÉ – DAY – 1974 NEWSREEL FOOTAGE
Curt Wild is being interviewed by a German television crew in a modern Kaffee Haus. Beside him sits Jack Fairy.
INTERVIEWER
(off-screen)
Warum, denken Sie? Warum –
TRANSLATOR
(off-screen)
Why do you think?
Subtitles read: CURT WILD – JACK FAIRY – WEST BERLIN
CURT
(irritably)
I dunno..I dunno, it got too big I guess. It got too schizoid, you know? I mean...he thought he fucking was Maxwell Demon in the end – you know? And Maxwell Demon...he thought he was God.
BACK TO:
INT. NEWSROOM LIBRARY – NIGHT – 1984
Music continues as Arthur scans through another roll of microfilm.
A montage of headlines:
‘BRIAN SLADE SALES PLUMMET’
‘BRIAN SLADE UK TOUR CANCELLED’
‘SINGER BRIAN SLADE SCHEDULED TO HOST TEEN POPSWOP AWARDS’
‘SINGER BRIAN SLADE CHARGED WITH COCAINE POSSESSION’
DISSOLVE TO:
Reference book:
We follow Arthur’s finger as he scrolls down a periodicals listing for Brian Slade. After 1974 references are scarce. Arthur’s finger stops at the last date: September 1977.
He looks up, pensive. Music is suspicious.
We hear:
MALE VOICE
(off-screen)
Brian Slade? Oh yes.
Briefly:
BEDROOM – DAY – 1969
Grainy image of two men having sex in morning light – one of them is Brian.
FAST CUT TO:
INT. CITY HOSPITAL, NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
CLOSE ON the unshaven face of a fifty-three-year-old Cecil Drake, Brian’s first manager, remembering.
CECIL
Quite well.
Arthur stands opposite with a notepad.
...Once upon a time.
With that Ceil pivots around in his wheelchair and takes off down the narrow corridor of the decrepit city hospital.
Arthur scurries after, calling out as he goes:
ARTHUR
So?
CECIL
Yes?
ARTHUR
What was he – what was he like?
CECIL
Who’s that – Brian?
ARTHUR
Yes –
Cecil makes a sudden turn off near the elevators. Arthur turns and follows.
CLOSE ON Cecil facing a dirt window, suddenly quite still.
CECIL
(quietly)
Like nothing I’d ever seen before.
Arthur stands behind, watching him.
And in the end...like nothing appeared.
A quiet draw of music pulls Arthur on to a seat opposite.
SLOW TRACK into Cecil, recalling a quotation:
He was elegance, walking arm in arm with a lie.
Music grows.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. BRIAN’S BEDROOM – BIRMINGHAM – DAY – 1956
Slow TRACK past the face of an angelic seven-year-old boy, combing his hair in the mirror with steely concentration. Brian Slade, immaculately dressed, puts down the comb and stares at his perfect reflection.
CECIL
(voice-over)
His real name, in fact was Thomas, and his father owned a small tiling business in suburban Birmingham. But Brian never cared much for the suburbs and, as a young boy, had the rare fortune of spending a summer in London with his aunt –
CUT TO:
INT. MUSIC HALL – LONDON – NIGHT – 1956
TRACK along the floorboards of a last-legs music-hall, where a smoky vaudeville act is glimpsed through fringed curtains and footlights.
Brian is creeping along the rim of the orchestra pit, observing show and backstage antics alike.
CECIL
(voice-over)
- a figure of some ill repute in the Slade family, after she married a cockney in the ‘entertainment field’ and followed him off to Deptford.
Backstage, Brian spots his fat, moustached Uncle, the director, ordering people around in a sweaty huff.
Brian settles into a sliver of light and watches the rest of the performance with intensity.
The wiggly, over-painted Singer (a man dressed as a dame stuffed into a bustier), is belting out a saucy number.
CUT TO:
INT. BACKSTAGE – MUSIC HALL – NIGHT – 1956
A comedian with zany-sound effects is heard in the distance as Brian tiptoes up a dark stairway.
At the top of the stairs he spots a dressing-room door, partly open. From inside, he hears the sound of a woman in distress.
Cautiously, he approaches. He peers in through the crack.
All we see is a woman’s red-nailed hand pushing against a large man.
Brian inches the door open for a better view.
INT. DRESSING ROOM – MUSIC HALL – NIGHT – 1956
His fat Uncle, in CLOSE UP, spots him and winks. Quick zoom out: revealing him seated on a dressing room table, pants open, with the head of the Transvestite Singer between his legs, in the throws of fellatio.
Brian stares in shock.
CECIL
(voice-over)
Brian’s tender introduction to the theatrical underworld would leave a dramatic impression.
His Uncle blows the boy a little kiss.
Brian’s eyes bulge. We hear a high-pitched, Little Richard squeal.
WILD SWISH PAN TO:
INT. SLADE LIVING ROOM – EVENING – 1956
With a musical bang, Brian (aged seven) slides into frame, dressed in a black pompadour wig and make-up – as Little Richard. He performs ‘Tutti Fruiti’ in his own piercing falsetto, singing the song with its ‘original’ lyrics, and playing up each sexual innuendo with broad, Little Richard gestures.
BRIAN
(sings)
A wop bop a lu bop a wop bam boom (etc)
At the end of the song Little Brian finished with a saucy bang (pelvic thrust).
FAST CUT TO:
INT. STONE LIVING ROOM – EVENING – 1956
Brian’s Parents, Gran and Brother sit watching , dumbstruck, as ‘Do You Want To Touch Me (Oh Yeah)’/Garry Glitter begins.
CUT TO:
EXT. BIRMINGHAM STREET – DAY – 1965
Brian Slade (aged sixteen), the perfect, mod, is in the midst of deep-mouth kissing his perfect Mod Girlfriend. He wears a tailored jacket, tight trousers, and has a puffed bouffant – dyed and lacquered.
As the finish, she asks:
MOD GIRLFRIEND
So what are you, a mod or a rocker?
BRIAN
Six of one, half a dozen of the other, really.
Brian winks, pecks her on the cheek and we pull out. The Mod Girlfriend gets on her bicycle and rides off. Brian waves goodbye and turns, joining two other Mod Boys, leaning against a wall, posing with cigarettes.
A pack of uniformed Schoolboys are passing.
CECIL
(voice-over)
Taking their cue from Little Richard, the swank London mods – short for modernists – were the first to wear mascara and lacquer their hair, the first true dandies of pop – and known to just about any indiscretion where a good suit was involved.
One pretty Tow-haired Boy, busily winding a bright gold watch, lags behind the rest.
Brian notices him pass.
The Tow-haired Boy stops and looks over his shoulder at Brian.
CUT TO:
INT. BRIAN’S BEDROOM – BIRMINGHAM – Day – 1965
CLOSE PAN UP Brian, slipping the gold watch into his pocked and removing his tie. His eyes are fixed on something below him.
Full shot: Brian stands opposite the Boy, spread out on his bed, face down and bare-bottomed.
CECIL
(voice-over)
Style always wins out in the end.
Brian’s tie drops to the floor.
Freda Payne/‘Band of Gold’.
CUT TO:
INT. SOMBRERO CLUB – LONDON – NIGHT – 1971
A Drag Singer lip-syncs with the song, on a small club stage draped in gold spangles.
CECIL
(voice-over)
For Brian, the mods were a glamorous call to arms - or at least, to London, where, three years later, at the Sombrero Club in Kensington,
Cecil sits with two middle-aged gay friends at a table.
I would hear him sing for the very first time.
The Singer finishes and the club cheers. Packed to the gills; the streaming club swarms with the finest of London trash and glamour.
Everything, it seemed, started at the Sombrero. No club in London had more notorious sway. And there, at the centre of it was Brian’s American wife, Mandy, who’s dramatic transformation to London party girl was a constant source of amusement to us all.
MANDY
You all know me – subtlety’s my middle name. It’s as subtle as the piece of skin between my vagina and my anus – ooh la! la!
(laughter)
Now what’s that called, I can never quite remember...No man’s land? Oh gosh – my geesh, dah-ling! Now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls – and whomever else may be in the house this evening...
The club starts to clap and cheer.
It is my supreme pleasure to introduce all you lovely little minxes here tonight to the Sombrero Club’s prettiest star – and my most shimmering hubby! – I give you Brian Slade!
Brian walks out from the shimmer of spangle drapes, swathed in satin and pearl like a pantomime damsel. His hair at this point is long and reasonably straight.
He and Mandy kiss and raise their joint hands: the perfectly androgynous, bisexual couple of the seventies. Music begins as Mandy walks off and Brian steps to the mike, performing ‘2HB’/Roxy Music.
Cecil stares in quiet, amorous shock while his companions make the customary cracks.
FRIEND 1
Ooo, varda Mistress Bona!
(Subtitle reads: ‘Say have a look at “Miss Beautiful”!’)
FRIEND 2
Varda the omie palome!
(Subtitle: Have a look at the homosexual!’)
FRIEND 1
A tart, my dears, a tart in gildy clobber!
(Subtitle: ‘A slut, mates, a slut in fancy clothes!’)
Cecil is captivated.
CECIL
Who is he?
Friend one is suddenly at one ear.
FRIEND 1
Some scrubber my dear, I do assure you.
With Friend 2 at the other.
FRIEND 2
But not that scruffy, as I last recall.
FRIEND 1
Ooh, you’re wicked.
Cecil tosses a smirk at both of them and stands. He straightens his blazer and heads off towards the stage for a better view.
Cecil’s friends watch him go, incredulous.
FRIEND 1
She won’t be home tonight.
(Subtitle: ‘He won’t be home tonight.’)
CECIL
(voice-over)
So I introduced myself. Told him I was developing my own management company, and on the look-out for new talent. He introduced me to his wife, asked me what sign I was, and before the week was out – we were signing contracts.
Brian catches sight of Cecil and gives him a little smile.
You see, Brian believed in the future.
Music rises over:
CUT TO:
MONTAGE (ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE): LONDON HIPPIES
We see footage of late sixties hippie culture.
CECIL
(voice-over)
He despised the hypocrisy of the peace and love generation and felt his music spoke far more to its orphans and its outcasts. His revolution, he used to say, will be a sexual one.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. OUTDOOR CONCERT – SOUTH-WEST ENGLAND – DAY – 1971
We TRACK over a mass of grungy hippies, gathered for an all-day concert, staring at the stage with perplexed expressions.
CECIL
(voice-over)
But in 1970, rock audiences bred on Credence Clearwater and the Beatles were not entirely sure what to make of this particular brand of revolt.
On-stage, under a large red canopy, Brian performs a song (‘Sebastian’/Cockney Rebel) on acoustic guitar, in a scarf and with a white face, still with long hair. Wearing a long purple velvet dress and matching sueded boots, he sings with far greater affectation than before. For a moment it appears as if he’s become Jack Fairy.
CUT TO:
INT. HOSPITAL – NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
CECIL
Somehow he got it into his head that he had to perform in a frock – Don’t ask me why. I mean, I thought it was a bit naughty, a bit of a giggle, but...
RETURN TO:
EXT. OUT DOOR CONCERT – DAY – 1971
Cecil and Mandy watch from the audience. In front of them a Hippie is joined by his Hippie Friend.
HIPPIE FRIEND
Who’s this geezer, then?
HIPPIE
Some shirt-lifter from Birmingh’m.
Hisses from the audience, followed by a few shouts.
AUDIENCE
Get the fuck off! Cut the shite! Bugger off, you woofter!
Brian struggles to finish, glancing over to Cecil in the audience.
BACKSTAGE – OUTDOOR CONCERT – LAST DAY – 1971
Mandy is a gush of enthusiasm as she and Cecil trail Brian, who quickly collects his belongings. Hard rock on the PA billows from the stage.
MANDY
Darling, darling you were faaabulous! Every bit! I was beaming- truly – like someone’s mum. And they adored you! The whole lot – transported!
BRIAN
(to Cecil)
Transported! – We went down like a fuckin’ knackered lift!
CECIL
Brian, I tell you, I think it’s simply a matter of presentation, and with the proper back up-
BRIAN
Back-up! What happened to Judy Garland!? What happened to all your bloody torch song rubbish!?
CECIL
I know, I know, in a cabaret, but in the context of a rock show, I can see now it’s a bit more dodgy. But the act is there. The act was there, wasn’t it? All it needs –
Blaring from the stage, the Announcer’s voice on the PA:
ANNOUNCER
(off-screen)
Next up, all the way from New York City-
CECIL
(as Brian storms from the backstage tent with his things)
Brian!?
ANNOUNCER
(off-screen)
- lead singer and founder of the greatest garage band know to mankind...– CURT WILD!
CUT TO:
EXT. OUTDOOR CONCERT – NIGHT – 1971
Brian, Mandy and Cecil are walking out as a deep, brooding guitar begins and a man's singing scream from on stage is heard.
Brian can’t help but look.
On-stage, a dark figure appears. Track in music rising
Briefly:
INT. HOSPITAL – NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
Arthur looks up at Cecil, CLOSE.
CECIL
(to camera)
Curt Wild.
FAST RETURN:
EXT. OUTDOOR CONCERT – STAGE – NIGHT – 1971
Lights and a bold of guitars ignite the stage (‘TV Eye’/The Stooges.) Curt Wild, aged twenty-five, clad in no more than black leather pants, lifts a can of oil into the air and starts covering himself with it’s contents.
Brian has stopped, stricken by what he sees. Slow TRACK IN.
Curt throws the oil away and begins rubbing his glistening body and groin along to the words.
CECIL
(voice-over)
Curt Wild, Founder of the influential garage band, The Rats –
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. WOODS – MICHIGAN – NIGHT – 1946
Dark hand-held glimpses of wolves moving in a pack, close to camera.
CECIL
(voice-over)
- came from the aluminium trailer parks of Michigan - though rock folklore claims far more primitive origins.
EXT. OUTDOOR CONCERT – STAGE – NIGHT – 1971
CLOSE ON Curt as he lifts a huge jar of gold glitter into the air and begins to slowly shower himself, top to bottom, with the sparkling substance.
Intercut between Curt’s glitter raining and the following shots.
Brian, his attention rapt. Rack to Cecil, behind him, noticing.
TRACKING over the audience, tightening in waves. They runt restless and noisy, fighting amongst themselves, throwing things.
Curt responds by giving them the finger.
CECIL
(voice-over)
According to legend, when Curt was thirteen –
Briefly:
EXT. TRAILER HOME – MICHIGAN – DAY – 1960
Curt’s half naked Brother and Sister play in the backyard, spraying each other with water, causing their clothes to cling tightly – and all for the benefit of thirteen -year-old Curt, who sits watching.
CECIL
(voice-over)
- he was discovered by his mother in the family loo, at the ‘service’ of his older brother -
FAST RETURN TO:
EXT. OUTDOOR CONCERT – STAGE – NIGHT – 1971
- and promptly shipped off for eighteen months of electric shock treatment.
The audience roars through.
Curt unzips his tight leather pants thrusting his pelvis to the crowd, he jumps around to face the band, letting the pants fall to his ankles, revealing everything.
He bends over and moons the crowd, then looks through the gap between his legs.
Standing back up, he faces the crowd giving them a front on view of his glistening and glitter covered naked body. Grinning and laughing at their varied shouts, he gives them the finger with both hands, while proudly thrusting forward his pelvis, then beckons them with a ‘bring it on’ gesture of his hands.
Finally he jumps to the ground, and then stands, deliciously sliding his leather pants over his rear, back to rest on his hips.
CUT TO:
INT. WAYNE COUNTRY SANITARIUM – MICHIGAN – DAY – 1960
Doors swing open to the psych ward and we whisk through.
Curt, strapped down to the travelling gurney, hooked up with electrodes, comes to a sudden halt. He looks up at:
His family (Ma, Pa, Brother and Sister), all looking down at him.
CECIL
(voice-over)
The doctors guaranteed the treatment would fry the fairy clean out of him.
Curt’s brother gives him a wink.
But all it did was make him bonkers –
EXT. OUTDOOR CONCERT – STAGE – NIGHT – 1971
CECIL
(voice-over)
- every time he heard electric guitar.
A guitar amp is turned up full volume, making a sound mimicking that of a doctor turning on a electro shock device.
The audience roars in delirium. Someone throws a paper torch on to the stage and all the oil goes up.
Surrounded in flames, Curt shrieks victoriously, glaring at the audience.
Brian stands in complete awe of the spectacle before him.
All at once he goes running off the edge of the stage, leaping into the swarm of spectators (and crowd surfs).
SUDDEN CUT TO:
EXT. PARK HILLSIDE – SUNRISE – 1971
Quiet. Brian looks out at the dawn.
He sits with Mandy on a grassy hill, near the concert grounds.
BRIAN
(quietly)
They despised him.
Cecil’s eyes open from half-sleep, leaning against a nearby tree.
MANDY
(also quietly)
Yeah. But when you’re abused like that...you know you’ve touched the stars.
CLOSE ON Brian against early morning skies.
BRIAN
I know. I just –
Mandy looks at him.
(softly, as if to himself)
- just wish it’d been me. Wish I’d thought of it.
Quiet waves of music: Mandy is touched by his confession.
MANDY
(tenderly)
You will, luv. You will.
ZOOM IN as Brian turns. He looks at her as an upbeat glam song begins (‘The Ballad of Maxwell Demon’/Shudder to Think), the first to tell the story of a tragic space hero named Maxwell Demon.
CUT TO:
LONDON ROOFTOPS – DUSK - PAINTING
In a Disney CLOSE-UP Curt Wild winks to camera, and turns. ZOOM OUT as he leaps into a chimney-stack against a painted backdrop.
The ZOOM continues, revealing the rooftop vista in a gilded frame and hanging in an empty white space.
INT. WHITE SET
The ZOOM OUT is joined by a TRACK which reveals Brian, dressed as a pink and blue nineteenth-century dandy, viewing the painting behind a red velvet rope. When revealed, he turns to camera and starts to sing.
In CLOSE UP he plucks the pink rosebud from off screen and sings a verse of the song to it. It blooms in his hands.
He steps back from the painting and begins to ‘mime-walk’ on, staying in place while the view in the painting passes.
Swish to:
EXTREME CLOSE-UP a tiny Victorian dollhouse on a white pedestal. Fast ZOOM OUT reveals Brian standing beside the pedestal, now full-size.
INT. DOLL HOUSE DRAWING ROOM
Through a veil of sequined gauze, a shimmering creature looks up. It’s Brian, dressed as the green alien. We follow as he creeps past the mist of gauze into the light of the room. Suddenly he jolts.
One enormous Brian glares through the window.
Brian the alien slithers across the black and white check floors of the elegant drawing room and disappears behind a door.
INT. DOLLHOUSE BEDROOM
Brian the alien surprises and inflatable doll husband and wife in bed whose arms fly up when they see him.
EXTREME CLOSE-UP: he gives a look to camera.
In a hi-speed master (á la Clockwork Orange) Brian rapes the wife doll and then the husband.
CLOSE ON: Brian’s eyes, blinking through the bedroom, window.
As the song describes Maxwell Demon’s rise to stardom we intercut Brian’s eye blinking through the window with the following vignettes in COLLAGE ANIMATION:
INT. WHITE SET
EXTREME CLOSE-UP of a long match being struck and lighting a cigarette. Fast ZOOM OUT reveals life-size Brian inhaling from an enormous cigarette holder as he tosses the matchstick on to the dollhouse. It goes up in smoke.
INT. DOLLHOUSE
Through the flames, Brian the alien is grinning, jamming on his guitar.
FAST CUT TO:
INT. RECORD STUDIO – CONFERENCE ARENA – DAY – 1972
Music holds on a row of faceless Execs (seen previously in the ‘Imaginary Theatre’) facing camera in smoky darkness. (One of them we now recognize as Arthur’s boss, Lou.) We hear the sound of one person clapping. Everyone looks over. Swish pan to:
Jerry Divine (mid-thirties), seated alone with a cigar. He wears an Italian ‘fro’ with fat mutton chops.
DEVINE
(extending his hand)
Nice stuff.
Brian’s gloved hand shakes it. Zoom-out reveals him in a three-piece business suit.
BRIAN
Thanks
DEVINE
Devine. Jerry Devine. Personal management. I’m interested.
BRIAN
Oh, well – thank you – but I’m afraid I already have management. He’s –
DEVINE
Not in my opinion.
Cecil smiles and waves from his seat.
The truth is you have talent. That’s plain. But it doesn’t really matter what a man does in his life. All that really matters in the end is the legend that grows up around him. Now today you’re a talented singer. That’s alright. But I could make you a star.
Cecil’s eyes bulge. A quiet swell of music begins beneath (the intro to ‘The Whole Shebang’/Grant Lee Philips).
CECIL
(standing, angrily)
And just how do you propose to do that?
DEVINE
I will tell you, sir...
Devine pushes up a shirt sleeve and places his elbow on the railing before him, his other hand joustingly on his hips.
When you pin me.
Murmurs from the crowd as Cecil bolts up from his chair.
CECIL
Well I have never in all my life –
Cecil looks around helplessly for defence.
Everyone just stares at him, music rising softly. Zoom in to Brian, furthest away, who looks down.
CLOSE ON Cecil, his heart broken. Fast track to Devin, poised in the spotlight behind him.
DEVINE
May the best man win?
We punch into the chorus of ‘The Whole Shebang’.
CUT TO:
INT. TV STUDIO – NIGHT – 1972
Brian performs the song on Top of the Pops, his entire band dressed in sparkling outfits.
BBC VOICE
(off-screen)
Earlier tonight on the popular chart show Top of the Pops, newcomer Brian Slade performed his hit single ‘The Whole Shebang’ –
PULL OUT TO REVEAL:
INT. LONDON PUB – EVENING – 1972
TRACK along the line of blokes at the bar, staring up at the telly.
BBC VOICE
-dressed in platform boots and wearing glitter eye make-up. A spokesman for the show, known for showcasing pop’s brightest stars, says they’ve been deluged with calls all evening.
TRACK ends on Cecil, sitting over a cocktail in the corner. He watches the broadcast solemnly.
CECIL
(*pre-lap *dialogue from the ensuing scene heard before the cut)
The next day every schoolgirl in London was wearing glitter eye make-up. And I was out of a bleeding job.
CUT TO:
INT. CITY HOSPITAL – NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
Cecil shakes his head with a distant smile.
CECIL
And that, as they say, was that. I would not hear another word from Brian – or any of them for that matter – ever again.
ARTHUR
Have you got any idea what ultimately happened to him? Where is he today?
Cecil just shrugs.
CECIL
Last I heard he’d returned to Birmingham, but this was – three years ago? Four? No, I’m afraid I can’t help you there. Looks as if it may be unavoidable.
ARTHUR
What’s that?
CECIL
The ex. I’m afraid. But then ever story needs a contrary opinion, and with Mandy you’re guaranteed excess of both.
FAST CUT TO:
INT. DIVE CLUB – NEW YORK – LATE DAY – 1984
A bolt of music strikes a dirty marquee: ‘APPEARING NITELY – THE DIVINE MISS MANDY SLADE’
Arthur walks past the bartender, approaching a lone figure bent over a table, the only person in sight.
ARTHUR
Miss Slade?
Mandy slowly lifts her head and squints at him.
MANDY
Yeah?
ARTHUR
I’m Arthur Stuart – from the Herald? We spoke on the phone?
She looks at him blankly.
I really just have a few questions I wanted to ask. It shouldn’t take long.
Nothing.
Do you mind if I – sit down?
MANDY
It’s a free country. Sort of.
Arthur sits.
The Bartender stands staring at Arthur as Mandy sits staring into her drink.
ARTHUR
What’re you having?
She looks up at him.
MANDY
Scotch. Rocks.
ARTHUR
(to Bartender)
Make that two.
The bartender drags off, mumbling.
MANDY
Gee. You must be after some damn exclusive copy.
ARTHUR
It’s a piece on Brian Slade?
MANDY
(dryly-sarcastic)
No kidding. What- sort of a memory jog kind of thing?
ARTHUR
Yeah...Well it’s been, um, ten years since the whole false shooting incident.
MANDY
Oh And what a fake it was! Tricking us all in the end with such an authentic demise.
ARTHUR
His career, you mean? I mean, do you have any idea what happened to him, where he is today?
MANDY
Can’t you just, you know, run him through the files? Punch in the name?
ARTHUR
Not exactly.
Mandy starts opening up a fresh pack of cigarettes.
MANDY
Because, honestly darling, I haven’t spoken with Mr Slade in – seven years, at least.
ARTHUR
Seven years. Wow.
MANDY
Wow, yeah. At least – Smoke?
ARTHUR
No. Thanks.
MANDY
No, right after everything crashed we- we split...And Brian, he just –
Se lights a cigarette and takes a drag.
-became someone else.
She turns to Arthur and exhales.
(a distant smile)
But then he always was.
The opulent strains of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony begin over
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. SOMBRERO CLUB – NEW YEAR’S EVE – NIGHT – 1969
We follow an elegantly dressed couple through a boisterous wind as they approach the doors of the club. Leaves swirl through the air and the man’s cape billows as the doors of the club swing open. The teenage doorman, Cooper, greets the couple and they enter.
Then Cooper, the doorman, turns to camera:
COOPER
That’ll be ten bob to you, mate.
REVERSE ANGLE reveals Brian, aged twenty-one, looking every inch the London hippie with a mass of blond curls and jewellery. He gives Cooper the money and a quick once-over before stepping into the club. We follow as ‘Get in the Groove’ by the Mighty Hannibal rises.
INT. SOMBRERO CLUB – NEW YEAR’S EVE – NIGHT – 1969
Brian descends through pink and purple light, taking it all in. A swirl of colour as we pan across the room to Mandy, close, laughing and smoking with friends.
In the corner, glowing in coloured lights, a light-up dance floor is pumping with dance.
Mandy glows in a sparkling silver dress. Then all at once she spots him.
Brian, scanning the club catches sight of her.
Mandy quickly returns to her friends, laughing, smoking,.
Brian watches.
MANDY
(voice over)
It was New Year’s Eve 1969: the start of a new decade, -
Brian watches Mandy amid a flood of hugs and kisses.
-and everywhere you went there was this sense of the future, the feeling in the air that anything was possible.
A sudden crash of symbols and dimming of lights directs everyone’s attention to the club’s entrance upstairs.
A spotlight is spun around, followed by a luxurious swish pan to:
The top of the curving staircase. There, aglow in shimmering silver, Jack Fairy, the Sombrero’s reigning star, is making his entrance. He nods regally and begins to descend, flanked by and equally studded entourage: Micki, a pretty boy with afro and fur trimmed jacket, Angel, playful dyed red head with silver angel wings, and Cooper previously seen at the door. A quiet swirl of music accompanies.
See, Jack Fairy had also come to London in the swinging sixties.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. POSH HOTEL LOBBY – EVENING – 1967
A black silk scarf falling to the floor (music continuing)
A delicate hand with nails of black enamel and a menagerie of rings reaches for the scarf. We follow it up past the lithe, velvety figure of Jack Fairy, who wraps the scarf elegantly around his neck and fastens it with the emerald pin.
MANDY
(voice-over)
And on winding roads, in crowded clubs or hotel bars - this shipwreck of the streets, rehearsed his future glory. A cigarette tracing a ladder to the stars.
EXTREME CLOSE-UP of Jack opening a small compact.
Zoom out from mirror, Jack looks up, closing his compact and standing.
Everyone in the lavishly decorated nineteenth-century hotel lobby stares as Jack walks proudly across the room.
Three Waiters appear watching him from the distance.
WAITERS
Maricon, épicčne, sexe douteux...
Suddenly Jack glances up.
A Gentleman in the foreground turns to camera and confides:
GENTLEMAN
Le Vice Anglais...
FAST CUT TO:
INT. SOMBRERO CLUB – NEW YEAR’S EVE – NIGHT – 1969
CLOSE ON someone kissing Jack’s hand. Fast ZOOM OUT to:
Jack, soft and slightly SLOW MOTION, engulfed at the foot of the stairs. A sexy hustler, dressed as a 1930s sailor, finishes kissing his hand and Cooper presents him with a long-stemmed rose. But there is an undertow: the eerie intro to ‘Ladytron’/Roxy Music begins to rise.
MANDY
(voice-over)
I needn’t mention how essential dreaming is to the character of the rock star.
Brian, very CLOSE. Suddenly someone shrieks, breaking the spell. Mandy bursts through bodies with open arms.
Jack, darling!
FAST CUT TO:
INT. DIVE CLUB – NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
Mandy, CLOSE.
MANDY
Jack was truly the first of his kind. A true original, everyone stole from Jack.
FAST RETURN.
INT. SOMBRERO CLUB – NEW YEAR’S EVE – NIGHT – 1969
Mandy has her arms around Jack and her tongue down his throat. He pulls away and she laughs, pulling him into the club. As she turns, she spots:
Brian – FAST ZOOM IN – still staring through the crowds. Closer on Mandy, as Jack looks over as well, also seeing him.
Brian, CLOSE, music building. He spots the emerald pin, dangling from Jack’s ear. We hear
MANDY
(voice-over)
But from the moment Brian Slade stepped into our lives, nothing would ever be the same.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. SOMBRERO CLUB – NEW YEAR’S EVE – NIGHT – 1969
Brian’s face slowly approaching, through the crowds.
MANDY
(voice-over)
It was his nature.
Brian’s voice is heard singing with the music:
BRIAN
(singing; off screen)
You’ve got me girl on the runaround,
runaround/Got me all around town
You’ve got me girl on the runaround
And it’s getting me down, getting me down
We TRACK (slight SLOW MOTION) through bodies to where Mandy stands dancing/chatting with Jack and company. Suddenly she turns and sees:
Brian approaching. The lights and set begin to change: the dancing slows and everything but Mandy and Brian dim and recede.
Brian takes Mandy’s hand and instantly they are surrounded by a cool midnight snowfall. The club has vanished into the surrounding darkness, and as he begins to sing to her, we begin a slow TRACK around them.
BRIAN
(singing)
Lady/If you want to find a lover
Then you look no further
For I’m gonna be your only
Searching/At the start of the season
And my only reason/Is that I’ll get you
The song breaks into a driving bridge as we:
CUT TO:
INT. SOMBRERO CLUB – NEW YEAR’S EVER – LATER – 1969
Mandy, in the midst of the teaming dance floor, turns to Brian, standing opposite (lights and action having returned to normal).
BRIAN
(shouting over the music)
Do you jive?
Mandy nods, smiling, and they start to dance.
FAST DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. FOREST – NIGHT – 1970
CLOSE ON a raven, blinking in the cool moonlight. We descend through a snarl of black branches to a moonlight forest where Brian resumes his tender serenade.
BRIAN
(singing)
I’ll find some way of connection
Hiding my intention
Then I’ll move up close to you
TRACK continues into Brian’s face.
I’ll use you and I’ll confuse you
And then I’ll lose you
But still you won’t suspect me
He kisses her.
Mandy closes her eyes.
MANDY
(voice-over)
So I married him.
FADE TO:
INT. MANDY’S BEDROOM – NIGHT – 1970
Music continues through a brief sixties style montage (much double exposure, focus racking, etc). Mandy and Brian make love like two androgynous creatures in Mandy’s candle-lit room.
FAST CUT TO:
INT. SOMBRERO CLUB – MEN’S LAVATORY – NEW YEAR’S EVE – 1969
The flutter of an eyelash (Jack’s) thick with mascara.
We hear a door open, sounds pouring in. Jack’s eyes flash over.
Fast rack to Brian, standing near the door, reflected in the mirror. Quiet music begins.
A series of CLOSE, DISSOLVING SHOTS:
Jack resumes touching up his face in the mirror as Brian slowly approaches.
Jack’s eyes meet Brian’s in the mirror.
Brian stops as the mirror, turning from Jack’s reflection to Jack. He kisses him hotly on the mouth and withdraws.
Jack stares into Brian’s eyes. He returns the kiss. Brian presses into him.
Suddenly - the door opens.
Jack turns.
Brian is gone.
FADE TO BLACK
T-Rex’s ‘Cosmic Dancer’ begins in darkness
INT. MANDY’S BEDROOM – NIGHT – 1972
Slow circle around Mandy and Brian as she finishes painting his face: the lids of his eyes are blue, his cheeks pink with blush, his lips a frosty magenta, hair neatly cropped.
MANDY
Times, places, people. They’re all speeding up. So to cope with this evolutionary paranoia strange people are chosen who through their art can move progress more quickly.
Brian looks up.
Mandy holds his glance.
(voice-over)
It was the most stimulating and reflective period of our marriage.
WIDE SHOT of Brian and Mandy kissing on the bed.
RACK/DISSOLVE TO:
INT. SOMBRERO CLUB – MEN’S ROOM – NEW YEAR’S EVE – 1969
Jack in the mirror feels for his earring and realizes the emerald pin is gone.
Through rising music (‘We Are the Boys’/Pulp) we hear:
BBC
(pre-lap)
Thank you and welcome, pop pickers, to Pick of the Pops. I’m Davy Rocket and we have a very special show for you today, dedicated to one of pop’s blazing new talents, and one who’s been holding a virtual reign over the British charts for a startling record breaking, eighteen-month-span. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the incomparable Brian Slade – or should I say, Maxwell Demon?
Cheers spill over.
FAST CUT TO:
INT. GALA RECEPTION HALL – LONDON – NIGHT – 1972
And explosion of flash bulbs over a sweep of music.
Brian Appears through the shimmer, ablaze in white light. He wears the emerald pin on a black velvet choker/scarf. Below, a small ocean of press (Reporters, Photographers) are shouting ‘Brian! Brian!’
JERRY
Yeah, the, uh, bloke at the front.
REPORTER 1
Brian! Why the make-up?
BRIAN
Why? Because rock and roll’s a prostitute! It should be tarted up! Performed! The music is the mask, while I, in my chiffon and taff – well –
(quite camp)
- varda the message!
INT. STUART LIVING ROOM – SUBURBAN MANCHESTER – EVENING – 1972
Teenage Arthur sits on the floor glued to the telly.
His Mother and Father sit behind him (exactly as we last saw them), watching without expression.
REPORTER 2
(on TV)
What about your fans? Aren’t they likely to – get the wrong impression?
BRIAN
(on TV)
And which wrong impression is that?
REPORTER 2
(on TV)
Well, that you’re a blinking fruit!
On-screen there is uneasy laughter and a SHAKY PAN to the press gallery.
VERY CLOSE ON Arthur, breathing in the electronic waves.
BRIAN
(on TV)
Well thank you, sir, and no, it doesn’t concern me in the least.
Arthur tries to peek at his parents without moving his head. Their faces are stony.
I should think that if people were to get that impression of me, the one to which you so eloquently refer...
SLOW TRACK into Brian on monitor.
...it would not be a wrong impression in the slightest.
Suddenly Arthur leaps in front of the set, shrieking at the top of his lungs like a lunatic.
ARTHUR
That is me! That is me! That that that is me!
CLOSE ON TV.
BRIAN
(on TV)
I mean, everyone knows most people are bisexual.
Arthur’s Mother and Father are blank-faced, frozen solid.
Arthur looks back at them, back in front of the TV set (where he has actually remained the whole time).
REPORTER
(off-screen)
I was –
BACK TO:
INT. GALA RECEPTION HALL – LONDON – EVENING – 1972
Shaky PAN to another Reporter
REPORTER
(off-screen)
- I was under the impression that you were married and living with your wife in North London –
Mandy looks around, anxiously.
Brian continues in the glare of the lights.
BRIAN
I am married, quite happily, in fact. I just happen to like boys as much as I like girls. And since my wife feels pretty much the same about such things...
Lights and TV cameras flash to Mandy, who wiggles her tongue at Brian.
...I should think we’ve been able to make a fairly decent go of it so far.
Brian winks at Mandy before – complete pandemonium.
The audience, frozen in utter perplexity. One reporter gets up and leaves.
JERRY
Alright, any more questions? Okay, thank you very much.
Mandy looks up at Brian, as the distant piano opening to ‘Virginia Plain’/Roxy Music is heard.
[NOTE: the several scenes following which accompany ‘Virginia Plain’ should be played with tremendous speed and energy.]
MANDY
(voice-over)
For the first time in Brian’s life, he was simply telling it like it was. Did he realize what he’d actually done? How could he have? I mean today, there’d be fighting in the streets. But in 1972...it was more like dancing.
VERY CLOSE ON Brian as we:
DISSOLVE TO:
Fame montage:
INT. NEWSPAPERS (IN BLACK AND WHITE) – SET – 1972
Dropped into frame, their headlines read:
A STAR IS BORN – AND HE TWINKLES!
GAY STUNT AT SLADE SHOW
ALL THAT GLITTERS – IS GAY!
INT. RECORD STUDIO – CONFERENCE ARENA – DAY – 1972
Camera speeds past a Busby Berkley-style row of proffered contracts and lands on the final one – the most elegantly drawn.
Swoop out from Jerry Divine and Cecil Drake arm-wrestling it ends as Devine wins and stands, the champion. His free arm in a fist, held in the air.
EXT. HIGHWAY – ENGLAND – DAY – 1972
Brian and his flashy entourage soar along the countryside in tow convertible limousines, scarves sailing in the wind.
EXT. AIRPORT RUNWAY – DAY – 1972
Brian and company scramble on to the stairway of a charted plane.
EXT. ENGLISH GARDEN – DAY – 1972
Brian and Mandy lounge in sunglasses.
We hear:
DEVINE
(off-screen)
That man out there in the white suit is the biggest thing to come out of England since sliced Beatles. Outside this country – no one knows who the hell he is. You people, you’re going to change all that.
FAST ZOOM OUT reveals Devine in the foreground. He faces camera, addressing his newly formed staff.
TRACE past faces we’ve seen before – Jack Fairy’s old entourage: Angel, Micki, Freddi, and Sombrero doorboy Cooper.
You guys, you’re actors. It’s up to you to change Brian Slade pop singer, into Maxwell Demon, space-age fuckin’ superstar! Nothing fantastic about it. Why? Because the secret of becoming a star is knowing how to behave like one.
COOPER
(a distorted Mickey Rooney voice)
Hey kids, let’s put on a show!
Disturbingly CLOSE ON Devine:
DEVINE
Precisely.
EXT. ENGLISH GARDEN – DAY – 1972
TRACK OUT from CLOSE-UP of Brian aggressively made up, sprayed and varnished by Freddi and company. Brian is dressed in a white satin three-piece, posing for photos with his band in the eighteenth-century statue garden. The sequence has the feel of a silent screen comedy, with Devine as directors in jodhpurs and boots, commanding the company of Photographers and crew. Equipment and dress is strictly twenties.
When Devine shouts ‘action’, the klatch of Photographers explode into shots, their cameras flashing like machine guns.
Brian is riddled with tiny wounds.
DEVINE
( yells)
‘Cut! Cut! Cut! Sort him out’.
His crew inch closer now trying to conceal the pain and blood stains, with make up. Brian looks pained and scared as they approach.
Fast ZOOM OUT reveals the photo hanging on a wall in the brand-new Bijou Music offices. End on a final, classic shot.
INT. BIJOU OFFICES – DAY – 1972
Camera continues through the Bijou offices as the newly assembled staff perform their respective roles with musical comedy flair (song continuing throughout).
We sail past Micki, the glamorous receptionist, rehearsing various company greetings.
MICKI
Bijou Music and Associates, good afternoon...Bijou, may I help you?...Bijou, hello?...
We pass Angel, press attaché , dressed in red. Her walls are covered with glamour magazines from the thirties and forties, and everything on her desk is cherry red: phone, typewriter, telexes, etc.
ANGEL
Slade...Brian Slade...Well, darling only the biggest thing to hit rock since the pilgrims!
Next, they pass Devine in his elevated office.
Manager Jerry Devine is perched behind his desk in wide lapels and clashing patterns, operatic on the phone.
DEVINE
I know it’s unprecedented, I know it’s unorthodox, but, sir, if you want Brian Slade, those are the terms, you may take them or leave them –
Freddi suddenly pops out, addressing the camera.
FREDDI
Yes?
SWISH 360-degrees to Shannon Hazelbourne, a dowdy teenager, who responds automatically.
SHANNON
I’m Shannon Hazelbourne.
FREDDI
Who?
SHANNON
I rang up about the position?
FREDDI
The what?
SHANNON
The position.
(holding up a clipping)
Assistant Clerical Aid?
FREDDI
Oh right! The position! Brilliant! Follow me.
Shannon tries to keep up with Freddi who whizzes into the wardrobe room.
INT. WARDROBE – DAY – 1972
Brian’s (all-hetero) band – Trevor, Reg and Harley – stand frozen in the mirror.
MANDY
Crash! Zounds.
FAST ZOOM OUT reveals them in their new, wildly effeminate stage costumes. Mandy beams as Freddi whizzes by.
We hear:
FREDDI
(off-screen)
Now, Shannon – I realize, of course, your expertise is in the clerical arts, but I was wondering if by any chance you’ve ever worked in wardrobe?
SWISH to Shannon, standing dumbstruck.
...either professionally or –
SHANNON
Umm, no, never.
FREDDI
Fantastic. I think that’s everything.
(extends his hand)
SHANNON
(shaking it, absently)
But, no I – I said I didn’t –
Freddi walks into the main office.
INT. BIJOU OFFICES – DAY – 1972
FREDDI
(announcing to the room)
Everybody?
Everyone looks over.
I’d like to introduce you to our lovely new Wardrobe Mistress – umm...
Song finishes with ‘What’s her name? Virginia Plain.’
SHANNON
Shannon.
FREDDI
Shannon.
Everyone smiles, claps or says: ‘Hello Shannon’. Mandy suddenly looks toward Devine’s office.
We hear:
DEVINE
(off-screen)
Excellent! Yes, Mr Weinberg! Thank you very much indeed. Cheers!
Mighty SWISH to:
Devine slams down phone. Fast pan up to his face, standing victoriously.
Extraordinary!
Everyone turns.
MANDY
What, Jerry – what?
DEVINE
So! Tell me, Master Demon...
Brian walks in from another section of the office.
Who is it you most fancy meeting – in America?
Everyone bursts into cheers. TRACK OUT as Mandy and Cooper linger in the lounge area in front of Devine’s desk, revealing the Bijou office to be a network of adjoining offices, art deco style. Brian remains alone to the side.
MICKI
Yipes.
COOPER
(with a broad American accent)
American?
ANGEL
Bravo, Jerry!
MANDY
Garbo, Brian – pleeeease!
ANGEL
Brando for me.
MICKI
Einstein.
COOPER
Sorry, chickee, he’s dead.
MICKI
Jerry said anyone!
Brian turns to the group. Mandy spots him.
MANDY
Brian...Brian – who?
Silence on Brian.
BRIAN
(awkward ,for the first time yet)
Curt Wild.
(now with confidence)
Curt Wild. I want to meet Curt Wild.
CLOSE ON. Mandy, looking at him.
Slam into Guitar intro (‘Personality Crisis’/New York Dolls).
MANDY
(voice-over)
And meet Curt Wild we did.
CUT TO:
INT. MAX’S KANSAS CITY – NEW YORK – NIGHT – 1973
Brian and Mandy are walking into the dark, narrow club, followed by Devine, Angel, Freddi and Trevor.
On stage, Polly Small, a tough girl singer, belts out a gendy-bendy Beatles cover. She’s backed by a gloriously trashy, New York style glam band.
Rodney, a British rep for the label, leads them to a table in the back.
Brian looks around as well, expectant and anxious, taking it all in. Mandy leans over, pointing out someone.
Andy Warhol seated at the back of the room, accompanied by, James Dean, and Marilyn Monroe.
RODNEY
(off-screen)
There he is.
Brian looks over to Rodney who points, music shimmering.
Dark figures clear frame as we track in to the darkest corner of the club. Reveal a shadowy figure slumped over a table.
CLOSE ON Brian, following Rodney, arriving. Somewhere behind the music we hear.
Mr Wild...Mr Wild?
Curt lifts up his head, squinting up at Rodney. He sits between a beautiful pair of boy and girl Teenage Twins.
CURT
Yeah?
RODNEY
I’m Rodney – from Electra? I have Brian Slade here from England who just wanted to pop over, say hello –
BRIAN
I just wanted to say...I think your music is tops – really, smashing – best of the lot.
Curt looks up at him in a junkie blur.
CURT
Smashing, top hole, jolly old –
Curt’s eyes roll up into his head and he passes out with his head against the wall behind him.
Brian in diffused CLOSE-UP. He has fallen in love.
CUT TO:
INT. HOTEL MEZZANINE- AFTERNOON – 1973
Pan over guests seated for tea at posh New York hotel.
MANDY
(voice-over)
Now at that time, Curt Wild was between management and Brian knew this, of course, and urged Devine to pursue the situation.
We settle on a corner table where Brian and Devine sit with Curt, a black smudge against the crimson and gold interior.
DEVINE
And so if, in that probability, an interest arose in which Brian would serve in some projects – possibly, though not exclusively– as...we’re taking our lead from you here, Curt... possibly as producer on that project – how might that scenario – purely hypothetically– how might that scenario appeal to you at this juncture?
Silence as Curt looks back at them with the innocence of a drowned rat.
BRIAN
What Jerry’s trying to say is do you want to come to London and cut a record?
CURT
Oh yeah – cool.
DEVINE
Very good.
BRIAN
But how can we help you. You must tell us. What do you need?
Underneath the table Devine kicks Brian in the shin. Curt thinks for a moment, then smiles:
CURT
Everything.
Brian smiles.
See, heroin was my mainman. But now I’m on the methadone and I’m getting my act together. You come here and say you wanna help and I say, ‘hey, far out.’
(to Brian, softly)
You could be my mainman.
CLOSE ON Brian through diffusion, watching Curt. There are tiny hearts in his eyes.
MANDY
(voice-over)
It was pretty clear what was happening. It happens every day. But for the world to think it was happening, well...
Pan to Devine, in foreground, tiny dollar signs in his eyes.
That was Jerry’s particular genius.
‘Satellite of Love’/Lou Reed begins:
CUT TO:
Montage of newsreel-style footage begins:
EXT. MOVIE PALACE – NIGHT – 1973
Limousine doors open and Brian and Curt, dressed to the nines, pile out. They are instantly obliterated by floodlights and camera flashes as they stumble up the red carpet, waving to fans like a pair of drunken screen stars.
MANDY
(voice-over)
Right away he started promoting the two of them like a pair of forties starlets on the swoon – a Tracy and Hepburn for the seventies.
Song continues.
CUT TO:
EXT. CARNIVAL – SET – DUSK – 1973
Curt and Brian ride in neighbouring rockets on the Space Spinner ride, reeling over the candy-coloured lights of a travelling carnival. TRACK-IN as Curt lip-syncs to the song and Brian sings the backing arpeggios, his rocket passing Curt’s.
Behind them, the lights of the carnival recede. They are flying away. Pan up to the starry sky.
CUT TO:
EXT. BRIAN’S GARDEN – DAY – 1973
HAND HELD TELEPHOTO shots into Brian’s back garden: Brian and Curt stroll with champagne, eventually catching sight of the camera. Upon doing so, both begin laughing as Curt jumps up and down wildly, and then throws his glass toward the photographer.
The music now becomes tender (‘Diamond Meadows/T-Rex)
DREAMY DISSOLVE TO:
INT. LITTLE GIRL’S ROOM – NIGHT – 1973
PAN PAST a forty-five spinning on a plastic turntable, and come to rest on the soft, lamp-lit CLOSE-UP of a Brian Slade Doll.
Opposite, a Curt Wild Doll stands. A gentle love scene is being played out by the hands and off-screen voices of two young English Girls. The scene is shot romantically, with soft lighting and heavy diffusion.
CURT DOLL
My career was on the skids, mate. And you fished me out o’the muck. You got me back on my feet, you did.
BRIAN DOLL
It was nothing, chum. I wanted to help you make more of that far out sound. I love your music, my son, and I love –
The Brian doll turns away. The Curt doll walks up to him from behind.
CURT DOLL
(softly)
You don’t have to say it, mate.
The dolls turn toward each other and embrace. They slowly, tenderly go down to the floor.
CUT TO:
INT. ST FRANCIS HOTEL – NEW YORK – LATE AFTERNOON – 1973
Thirties-style Singer crooning to camera, pink-cheeked with patent-leather style hair. (‘Bitters End’/Roxy Music):
Three pencil-moustached back-ups, the Champagne Chorus, lean in and sing.
TRACK OUT to reveal the singers amid Bijou’s deliriously posh press soirée. Dressed for a fancy ball, Brian and company lounge and pose for reporters, all elegantly assembled in a gilded banquet room.
The princely Brian holds court on a gold settee, supported by a den of beautiful Bisexuals. We see Curt Wild, Jerry Divine, Micki, Angel, Cooper, Freddi, Shannon, Trevor – and Mandy playing hostess. Everyone is dressed in cream and gold velvet, satin, and sparkling material. Some of the men are in breeches and white stockings. A touch of Louis XIV permeates the room. Reporters, on the other hand, are a dark cluster of black suits.
The song continues as each ‘actor’ answers questions in quoted texts, punctuated by slightly bruising CAMERA FLASHES.
DEVINE
Every great century that produces art is, so far, an artificial century, and the work that seems the most natural and simple of its time is always the result of the most self-conscious effort.
Micki, dressed like Marilyn Monroe as Marie Antoinette.
MICKI
(doing his best Marilyn)
I am not really myself except in the midst of elegant crowds, at the heart of rich districts, or amid the sumptuous ornamentation of palace hotels, an army of servants and a plush carpet underfoot...
Mandy, luminous in platinum curls, puffs from a long cigarette holder.
MANDY
What is true about music is true about life: that beauty reveals everything because it expresses nothing.
FREDDI
The first duty in life is to assume a post. What the second duty is no one has yet found out.
A sudden fanfare and dimming of lights reveals the projected backdrop of a stylized big top. A spotlight flashes on Brian, who catches a whip and top hat thrown to him from the wings. Fast ZOOM OUT reveals Angel in the foreground, reading from a large placard on a stand.
ANGEL
(dressed quite like Columbia from Rocky Horror, she theatrically recites)
The Aesthete Gives Characteristically
Cynical Evidence, Replete with Pointed
Epigram and Startling Paradox, while
Explaining His Views on Morality in Art.
SWISH PAN to the klatch of Reporters, now perched in the rafters, shouting out their questions to Brian. He answers in the style of a circus MC.
REPORTER 1
Brian! Maxwell Demon is the story of a space creature who becomes a rock and roll messiah, only to be destroyed by his own success. Are you saying this is your destiny? Are you Maxwell Demon?
BRIAN
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person! Give him a mask and he’ll tell you the truth!
We see Shannon holding up cue cards for Brian. SWISH PAN to Reporter 2, shouting out:
REPORTER 2
Is it your belief that all dandies are homosexuals?
TILT DOWN to Cooper, holding up cue cards for the press.
BRIAN
Ha! Nothing makes one so vain as being told on is a sinner!
The stadium roars with laughter and applause.
CURT
(off-screen)
Coming through! Coming through!
A spotlight spins around, illuminating.
Curt, squeezing through a throng of fans/reporters, balancing two glasses of champagne on a tray.
REPORTER 3
Tell us, Brian! Are the rumours true that you and Curt Wild have some sort of plan up your sleeve?
BRIAN
Oh, yes. Quite soon actually we plan to take over the world.
Hilarious laughter from the crowds – LOW ANGLE.
CLOSE ON Brian: he wasn’t joking. But to the rescue.
Curt arrives, miraculously unspilled.
CURT
Excuse me, fellas, while I raise my glass to the loveliest man in Europe!
The crowd ‘Ahhhs’ and Curt and Brian smiling broadly, link arms for a toast, cameras flashing.
BRIAN
And they tell you it’s not natural!
Violent laughter from the crowds quickly darkens and distorts. Lights dim as a shimmer of music rises.
FAST DISSOLVE TO:
Curt and Brian, eyelash close.
CURT
(a whisper)
The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.
Curt kisses Brian hotly on the mouth. For several seconds all sound stops. Then:
Bang as camera flashes ignite the screen.
FAST DISSOLVE TO:
BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO – 1973
Curt kissing Brian – under the first slams of ‘Baby’s on Fire’/Brian Eno ~ Sung by Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
CUT TO:
INT. CONCERT HALL – LONDON – NIGHT – 1973
Brian sings on-stage, in Ziggy Stardust-esque space age outfit.
CLOSE:
Brian turns as Curt Wild bounds on to stage in a rush of energy. He is jumping up and down in true Iggy Pop style He is dressed in tight silver pants and a black top. He hooks up his guitar and gets ready to play. The song continues through the brief montage.
INT. MAGAZINE PRESS – DAY – 1973
We see editions of the ‘kiss photo’ being printed, cut and bound on machines. We see magazines boxed and loaded into trucks.
EXT. NEWSSTAND – DAY – 1973
Boxes are opened by vendors and put on display. Money is handed to vendors and magazines are handed back in exchange.
FAST DISSOLVE TO:
ARTHUR’S BEDROOM – SUBURBAN MANCHESTER – NIGHT - 1973
TRACK OUT from the ‘kiss photo’ in Teenage Arthur’s Melody Maker magazine.
CLOSE ON Arthur, lips moist, entranced.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. HOTEL SUITE – NEW YORK – 1973
A man’s hand takes that of a woman’s leading her past flowing curtains to a moonlit. TRACK OUT to reveal Shannon being led by Devine. She stops.
The dark, richly decorated suite is filled with bodies.
Devine smiles faintly, persuading her in.
CUT BACK TO:
INT. ARTHUR’S BEDROOM – SUBURBAN MANCHESTER – NIGHT – 1973
Arthur turns the page.
FAST CUT TO:
INT. CONCERT HALL – LONDON – 1973
Curt pours over a particularly wrenching guitar solo. He half-smiles when he sees:
Brian, slinking down on his haunches, approaching. When he arrives, he drops to his knees and ‘goes down’ on Curt’s guitar, grabbing on to his ass as he plays the instrument with his teeth..
The audience goes wild, as do the photographers.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. ARTHUR’S BEDROOM –NIGHT – 1973
Arthur’s face, breath CLOSE, staring at the photo of the preceding stage stunt, softly grinding.
VERY CLOSE on his open hand, circling slowly over stretching underwear.
INT. STUART LIVING ROOM – SUBURBAN MANCHESTER – NIGHT – 1973
Mr Stuart looks up angrily from the TV toward the pounding music from Arthur’s room. He glares at Mrs Stuart sitting beside him.
He throws down the newspaper and starts up the stairs.
INT. HOTEL SUITE – NEW YORK – NIGHT – 1973
Two Glam Girls are leading Curt to a corner couch, bringing us to Trevor and Harley, who stand opposite each other shirtless. Angel is going down on Trevor while a Girl Groupie caresses Harley. A Boy Groupie sits beside her watching as Trevor and Harley stare at one another’s bodies, stone drunk.
Mandy is lying in a through of Skinny Boys, her tongue down Cooper’s throat. A Nude Woman with large breasts pulls her away.
MANDY
Thank God – a woman!
Passing over a large red velvet sofa we discover a beautiful Asian Woman in bright-blue feathers undressing a man. She is accompanied by a nude Black Boy who kisses the man while pulling off his tie. The TRACK ENDS on a CLOSE UP of the man. It’s Brian.
All of a sudden he glances up.
Curt stands near a doorway, his eyes on Brian. He has broken away from his captors.
Brian stares back, frozen. The Asian woman tries to kiss him.
Curt just turns, disappearing down the hall.
Brian stares after.
Shannon observes the exchange, standing against a wall with Devine’s head in her breasts.
CUT TO:
INT. STUART LIVING ROOM – MANCHESTER – NIGHT – 1973
Mrs Stuart stands as Mr Stuart pounds on Arthur’s door – off-screen.
MR STUART
(off-screen)
Could you conceivably turn down that blasted....Arthur! Arthur, open this door!
We hear him forcing it open and storming in, shouting.
Suddenly there’s a crash, followed by the screech of a phonograph needle. Mrs Stuart jolts, hurries upstairs.
We follow as she rushes down the hall to Arthur’s door where she stops, looking in.
INT. ARTHUR’S BEDROOM – SUBURBAN MANCHESTER – NIGHT – 1973
Slow ZOOM OUT from Mrs Stuart standing at the door as we hear Mr Stuart growl in low, threatening tones.
MR STUART
(off-screen)
You bring shame to this house. You bring shame to your mother and me. It’s a shameful, filthy thing you’re doing –
(suddenly at the top of his lungs)
DO YOU HEAR ME?!
Mrs Stuart jumps.
Stand up!
Mr Stuart is standing behind Arthur, who slowly stands into frame.
ZOOM ends, revealing a reflection in the dresser mirror Arthur is standing before. His nose is bleeding.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. HOTEL SUITE – NEW YORK – NIGHT – 1973
VERY CLOSE on Brian disengaging from his partners, their eyes opening, their faces looking up. PAN UP with Brian, standing, his eyes fixed on the hallway.
CLOSE ON Mandy, her eyes opening, sensing something. She spots Brian.
Shannon continues staring as Devine’s head comes up and looks over as well.
MANDY
(voice-over)
It’s funny how beautiful people look –
Brian, slightly SLOW MOTION, approaching the hall. He glances back a beat before slipping into the shadows.
- when they’re walking out the door.
FAST CUT TO:
Brief silent shot:
EXT. BUS – MANCHESTER – DAY – 1973.
Arthur boards the bus to London with a single suitcase.
He sits in the back as the bus takes off.
Through the windows he sees his mother running out and stopping diminishing as we pass. Finally, she raises a hand goodbye.
CUT TO:
INT. HOTEL SUITE – NEW YORK – DAY – 1973
In a corner of the room Mandy consoles Shannon who is weeping.
MANDY
Really Shannon, it’s no problem, honestly. I’m not fussed about it, I’m quite open about it. I was having a fabulous time last night myself. Really luv, you shouldn’t upset you so. Brian is a grown man and fully capable of shagging whatever he fancies and exceedingly partial to the practice.
MANDY
(voice-over)
Now: just because someone sees, you know –
FAST RETURN TO:
INT. DIVE BAR – NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
Arthur, jolted back to the present.
MANDY
(facetious)
- two naked people asleep in bed together...it doesn’t necessarily prove sex was involved.
FAST CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM SUITE – NEW YORK – DAY – 1973
Brian and Curt in bed, tangled and naked, dead asleep.
Shannon looks through a crack in the door.
CUT TO:
INT. DIVE BAR – NEW YORK – DAY – 1984
MANDY
It does, however, make for a very strong case.
FAST CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM SUITE – NEW YORK – DAY – 1973
Shannon closes the door and Brian’s eyes open.
MANDY
But you’re a sweet, sensitive darling to be so broken up about it. Brian would be absolutely chuffed to know that you –
Shannon suddenly grabs Mandy’s arm, glaring.
SHANNON
Don’t you ever dare tell Brian – Swear to me you’ll never say a word– ever.
Mandy yanks free. She gets up, rubbing her wrist.
MANDY
I swear. Jesus.
Mandy walks off, confused and a little spooked.
INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR – NEW YORK – DAY – 1973
Mandy stops outside Brian’s door. She takes a breath before quietly turning the knob.
INT. BEDROOM SUITE – NEW YORK – AFTERNOON – 1973
CLOSE ON Mandy peeking in. FAST ZOOM OUT: the room is empty. Mandy sees a note left on the table with her name on it. She opens it.
MANDY
(voice-over, of letter)
‘Sudden change in plans.
Brief holiday, much needed.
Back by Hammersmith.
-B’
FAST CUT TO:
INT. DIVE CLUB – NEW YORK – LATE DAY – 1984
MANDY
That was it. And I knew...my time with Brian, for all practical purposes, as up.
Look I’m sorry. I just wish I could help you more. You seem like a nice guy. I just ahh –
The Bartender glances up. FAST ZOOM/BACK OUT to Mandy in foreground.
-don’t think I have what you’re looking for.
Arthur smiles, looking down.
ARTHUR
See...I think you do actually.
MANDY
(a sly smile)
Oh yeah? And what makes you think so?
ARTHUR
Well that smile, for one thing.
MANDY
Well. Smiles lie.
ARTHUR
Exactly.
Mandy sighs.
MANDY
Listen, once – of course – there was a gorgeous gorgeous time. And we were living our dreams. But you see all that went away – all of it –
(quietly)
- with Curt.
A faint melody rises. Music builds to ‘My Unclean’/Wylde Rattz as slow ZOOMS begin on each of them.
And not even the real Curt. It was the idea of Curt more than anything, this – image. Which, of course, no one could ever possibly live up to. I mean Maxwell Demon, Curt Wild – they were fictions! Somewhere along the way, Brian seemed to get lost in the lie.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. RECORDING STUDIO – LONDON – NIGHT – 1974
TRACK OUT from Curt at the mic in the soundproof booth. He starts to sing, eyes closed.
In the foreground, Brian is revealed watching through the glass, his back to the camera. When Curt doesn’t come in on the next verse, Brian twitches angrily.
BRIAN
Shit!
DEVINE
Cut it!
MIXER
Should I stop it?
Brian turns around, facing Devine and the Mixer who sits behind him at the board.
Curt continues singing.
Brian watches, biting his thumb.
He’s gonna hit the bridge a half-verse early.
DEVINE
Now you’re simply wasting tape.
BRIAN
Alright. Cut it.
The music stops.
Behind Brian, Curt looks up. He starts hollering through the glass but we can’t hear him. Brian is frozen, his back to the booth. The Mixer switches Curt on.
CURT
(on intercom)
What?
Brian turns around to face him.
CURT
What? What, is there a problem?
INSIDE BOOTH:
From Curt’s POV we see Brian. Brian’s response is monitored for Curt but barely heard. Through the glass we can read his lips-
BRIAN
Because you missed your cue.
(looks down, quiet, but now audible)
Again.
CURT
What? What?
CONTROL ROOM
Devine leans into the intercom and chimes in, tersely.
DEVINE
We’re sorry, Curt, but it appears as if you –
CURT
(Curt glares at him through the glass, points to Brian awaiting an answer from HIM.)
What?!!
Brian leans in.
BRIAN
(smoothly)
Curt, we only ask that when you decide to make a change you simply inform us in advance so Eton here is properly prepared, otherwise –
Curt turns violently, thrusting his arm as he curses.
CURT
(on intercom)
What the fuck are you talking about man? – I didn’t make any fucking changes!
Brain walks up to the glass silently.
Brian?-
(jerking away in frustration, throws his head set to the ground)
Fucking mother fucker! Mother fucker, you’re a mother fucker! Fuck you! Fuck you, mother fucker! Fuck you!!
DEVINE
Eton ....Eton, please.
The Mixer switches Curt off. We watch him continue to rave in silence as Brian listens to Devine.
Brian, I’m sort to be the one to tell you this, but what started off as an interesting experiment has quite frankly descended into demeaning wast of your time and mine. I mean you’ve already spent– forty hours studio time –
BRIAN
Thirty-six.
DEVINE
Whatever! Thirty-six hours – on two, three bloody cuts! Brian, you seem to forget, but you’re a very big star now and your time is worth a great deal more than this –
Jerry switches on the intercom and Curt’s shrieks come searing on.
CURT
-fucking space-queen on your fucking high horse! And all your fucking henchmen! – fuck you, fuck you!
Brian switches it off and responds quickly and quietly.
BRIAN
Perhaps it’s time for another little break. Hey fellas? Give us a stretch.
(a wan smile)
Jerry?
Devine stands, coolly.
DEVINE
I can’t risk extending his contract, Brian. I think it’s quite clear why. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
He turns and begins filing out with the others. RACK to Brian in the foreground, watching Curt.
He has begun throwing chairs around the booth. Brian turns away, black in shadows. Everyone has gone but Mandy, who watches Brian from a dark corner.
For a split second his sadness shows. Then his eyes flash up and he sees her.
She looks him in the eye. Then she turns and leaves the room. We follow. As the door shuts behind her, and the sound of Curt’s shouts resume in the distance, a tender instrumental of the previous song rises.
Mandy passes through the shadows, into moonlight.
EXT. RECORDING STUDIO – NIGHT – 1974
Mandy looks up.
The sky is full of stars. Then – suddenly – there’s a crash of doors.
In a massive LONG SHOT Mandy watches Curt come tearing out of a rear door. The third-story window bangs open and Brian’s head sticks out, shouting after him.
BRIAN
Piss off, then! Go on! Back to your wolves! Your junkie twerps! Your bloody shock treatment! And fuck you too!
Mandy watches
Brian watching Curt vanish
MANDY
(voice-over)
When it all came crashing down, I just stood on the sidelines and watched, just like everybody else.
CUT TO:
INT. BRIAN’S OFFICE – DAY – 1974
Curtain parts, revealing Curt below on the street.
He looks up and sees Brian.
EXT. BIJOU OFFICE – DAY – 1974
Brian looks through the window then withdraws. Curt gets into the limo and takes off.
INT. BRIAN’S OFFICE – DAY – 1974
A phone receiver is lifted up. CLOSE ON Brian’s finger dialling a number.
INT. LIMO – MOMENTS LATER – DAY – 1974
The streets of London passing from a car.
Signs for Heathrow Airport approach.
Curt looks out. He squints from the sun.
Flashback to a time Brian and Curt shared together, on the beach. Perhaps when they went on the ‘much needed holiday’ and left Mandy.
CUT TO:
INT. BRIAN’S OFFICE - DAY – LATER – 1974
CLOSE ON Brian’s tight mouth against a phone receiver.
BRIAN
Out. O-U-T.
CUT TO:
INT. BIJOU OFFICES – DEVINE’S OFFICE – DAY – 1974
CLOSE ON Devine’s nose, the phone against his face. Speedy ZOOM OUT.
DEVINE
Well, Brian. I’m afraid that is completely out of the question. You are contractually bound to finish the Maxwell Demon tour as Maxwell Demon –
Mandy stands at the door of his office holding a stack of papers. CLOSE ON Devine.
BRIAN
(off-screen; faintly through receiver)
Jerry, I’m telling you, is just getting far too out of hand – I really don’t think I’ll be able to –
DEVINE
(looking at Mandy)
Brian –Brian – I realize you’re under tremendous strain, but you’ve jut gotta hang on in there and finish...
Mandy slowly turns to go.
- the bloody tour. You hang on in there. I’ll hang on here.
CUT TO:
INT. BRIAN’S OFFICE – DAY
Brian is in total distress. He is not paying attention to what Devine is saying.
DEVINE
(off screen)
And then you can do what you want, OK?
CUT TO:
EXT. STREETS OF KREUZBERG – BERLIN – NIGHT – 1974
Curt walks through an industrial neighbourhood in West Berlin. He lights a cigarette as an elevated train passes in the distance, blinking red and green. Suddenly he looks up, spotting something on the street.
An individual looking remarkably like Brian, dressed as Maxwell Demon, stands with two other flashly dressed individuals.
Curt squints at the spectre, taking a few vague steps in the direction.
The figure turns, revealing himself to be a teenage fan.
Curt, CLOSE, spooked by the misrecognition.
CUT TO:
Shots of the people: men in trench coats, teenagers sitting on the stairs of Piccadilly fountain, Japanese tourists.
Arthur sees a group of Glam Girls stumble into a dark club. He follows.
CUT TO:
INT. LAST RESORT CLUB – NIGHT – 1973
In a cramped London club, Malcolm, Ray, Pearl and Billy of The Flaming Creatures (a cross between Roxy Music and The New York Dolls) perform the current section of ‘Bittersweet’ with raucous intensity.
Arthur watches. He likes what he hears.
Ray spots him and blows him a trampy kiss.
Arthur blushes.
CUT TO:
EXT. BRIAN SLADE PROTESTS – LONDON – DAY – 1974 VIDEO NEWSREELS
CLOSE ON grainy shot of a Brian Slade poster in flames over the song’s tender finish.
We see albums being burned and thrown into a charred pile. Others burn songbooks, magazines, forty-fives.
INT. BIJOU OFFICES – DAY – 1974
Brian’s face, starring at the monitor, a ghost of his former self.
CLOSE ON his hand rewinding the tape.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. KREUZBERG – BERLIN – NIGHT – 1974
Curt has inadvertently joined a hustler/cruising strip, full of young specimens on the street corners and pulled-over cars. As Curt walks he notices one car beginning to follow.
He smiles to himself, thinking it’s a proposition, and turns the next corner.
The car does the same.
As Curt crosses the street, he slows, trying to get a look at the driver.
Tentatively he approaches it, spooked.
CLOSE ON a car window rolling down and revealing Jack Fairy.
CUT TO:
INT. LAST RESORT CLUB – LATER – 1973
TRACK through the slowed-down remains of the club, most of the clientele subdued with drink. Off-screen, The Flaming Creatures’ late-night banter is heard:
MALCOLM
I don’t believe that there is much of a future to speak of –
PEARL
We’re in a bit of a decadent spiral, aren’t we?
We pass one half-undressed Weimar Woman, evoking thirties Berlin, spread across the tables.
BILLY
Sinking fast.
RAY
Big Brother, baby. All the way.
Reveal Arthur and the Creatures sprawled around a table teaming with empty pints.
Quick SINGLES on each of them:
MALCOLM
Which is why we prefer impressions to ideas –
PEARL
Brief flights to sustained ones –
RAY
Exceptions to types –
BILLY
Situations to subjects –
PEARL
And yourself?
Arthur looks at them a moment.
ARTHUR
Well I’m – I’m just looking for a room at the moment.
CUT TO:
INT. RECORDING STUDIO – LATER THAT NIGHT – 1974
We see Brian’s singing ‘Bittesweet’/Roxy Music.
Brian records his version of the song alone in the darkened studio. He returns to its tender refrain with eyes closed, heart clenched.
In the hallway Mandy moves through the shadows toward the studio, drawn by the music.
Inside a CLOSE TRACK curls around Brian, revealing a perfect tear glittering on his cheek.
CUT TO:
INT. DIVE CLUB – NEW YORK – LATE DAY – 1984
CLOSE ON Mandy.
MANDY
So for one entire day I actually think Brian’s been shot. That the whole thing is real, all his paranoias proven horribly true –
ARTHUR
You mean – no one told you –
MANDY
Nope.
ARTHUR
Why?
MANDY
Forgot.
ARTHUR
Jesus.
MANDY
I mean...I knew it was over. I just didn’t know it was up to me to make it stop.
FADE TO:
INT. BIJOU TOWN HOUSE ENTRANCE – DAY – 1975
We follow Mandy along the hallway leading to the old offices.
At the end of the hall way, we reach the main door. Mandy pushes it open and enters.
INT. BIJOU OFFICES – DAY – 1975
Inside, the office’s musical comedy ambience has turned film noir: shadows engulf the cavernous space where desks are piled with boxes and chairs stacked, overturned or covered in sheets.
She walks through the deserted ‘cubicles’, passing shady remnants of the past.
Against a far wall, the TV monitor is playing more silent footage from the Slade protests.
Mandy looks down.
There, in the far corner of the room on a large mattress sits Brian. Shirtless, he is snorting cocaine off the ass of a nude black girl (Coco), who is dead asleep. On a lone coffee table – the only other uncovered furniture in sight – a mountain of cocaine has spilled over paraphernalia and hundred-dollar bills.
BRIAN
(weak)
Mandy.
MANDY
Hello, Brian.
Brian just stares for a few dumbfounded seconds before offering her the straw.
MANDY
(barely maintaining)
No, thanks.
Mandy stares at him, almost smiling.
Slow TRACK IN begins as she shuffles through her belongings. She produces a folder and holds it out to him.
She remains frozen, arm outstretched.
These are the papers. I believe they’re in order. All you need to do is sign.
Brian watches as she turns and walks across the room to the coffee table.
Mandy sticks the folder into the pile of coke.
So you won’t forget.
Brian stares, his face suddenly open like a child’s.
BRIAN
I already have.
Coco squirms in her sleep, tightening her grip around Brian.
MANDY
Evidently!
With that, Mandy turns and starts out the door. Then all at once she stops and turns to face him.
Fuck you, Brian! Did you ever – for one bloody second in your life want anything more –
(suddenly quiet)
-than this?
Brief pause.
BRIAN
(suddenly lucid)
No.
Mandy looks at him, her eyes filling, with a sad smile.
MANDY
(softly)
Your problem is: ‘You get what you want and do what you will.’
BRIAN
(matching her in a sudden game of quotation)
‘Worlds,’ Mandy, ‘are built out of suffering. There is suffering at the birth of a child as at the birth of a star.’
MANDY
‘You live in terror of not being misunderstood.’
BRIAN
‘Women defend themselves by attacking, just as they attack by sudden and strange surrenders.’
CLOSE ON Mandy, her eyes moist.
MANDY
(more to herself)
‘I lost my girlhood, true. But it was for you.’
Suddenly a rear door bangs open, startling Mandy and waking Coco.
Shannon stands at the doorway, staring at Mandy. Now Brian’s personal secretary, Shannon’s force has grown considerably. Coco opens her eyes and lifts her head.
SHANNON
(professionally irate)
What in God’s name is going on up here? How the fuck did you get up here? Brian, I’m really sorry about that.
BRIAN
It’s alright, Shannon. Mandy was just leaving.
SHANNON
Mandy, if you’d be so kind as to follow me –
Shannon takes Mandy firmly in hand and Mandy recoils, furiously.
MANDY
Let go of me. I’m perfectly capable of making my own –
Mandy goes to leave through a locked door.
SHANNON
I really don’t want to have to call someone –
Brian giggles.
MANDY
Call someone? I’m his wife, for fuck’s sake!
Brian start’s laughing loudly and obnoxiously.
Mandy’s eyes fill with tears. Enraged, she turns and sweeps the pile of cocaine into the air.
Fuck the lot of you!
Briefly SLOW MOTION: Brian, laughing through the white cloud, divorce papers and money that Mandy has just sent sailing through the air.
CUT TO:
EXT. CHELSEA STREET – LATE AFTERNOON – 1975
High aerial view of Mandy streaming from the building and across the street.
Quiet music holds under.
CUT TO:
INT. DIVE CLUB – NEW YORK – LATE DAY – 1984
ARTHUR
(off-screen)
Was that the last time you saw him?
A distant trace of music begins as Arthur looks up from his notes. A slow TRACK IN begins.
Mandy stands, passing Arthur on her way to the bar.
No, but it was the last time we actually ah...spoke.
I saw him again – briefly – a few weeks later. At a concert.
ARTHUR
He was performing?
TRACE IN behind Mandy as the cigarette machine.
MANDY
No. Curt was actually performing. He and Jack Fairy had just finished their Berlin record and Curt was in London playing some gigs. And Brian was there – for a second. I don’t think anyone even saw him.
Music and TRACK coverage as Mandy pushes the button. Her cigarettes drop.
CLOSE ON Arthur.
ARTHUR
Which concert?
Mandy turns to him
SUDDEN CUT TO:
INT. RAINBOW THEATRE – LONDON – NIGHT – 1975
An ominous crash of Organ announces the majesty of the old hall; red velvet curtains curling up beneath its opulent proscenium, framing the stage like a golden crown.
INT. DIVE CLUB – NEW YORK – LATE DAY – 1984
MANDY
It was like a tribute- sort of a farewell concert to glam rock.
INT. RAINBOW THEATRE – NIGHT- 1975
On-stage, through the final projections of glam icons, the silhouette of a looming coffin is revealed against deep purple lights with its lid slowly opening. A beam of golden light rises from the coffin, illuminating a slow cascade of glitter.
The scrim is lifted just as a caped figure emerges, waling into opal light. It’s Jack Fairy, looking as tall and radiant as ever.
Jack resumes begins narration over a rousing applause.
JACK
To save your wild, wild lives
To ne’er your fans embitter
To cease your sad demise tonight
We toast –
SWOOPING IN on Arthur, his face amid the sea of spectators. There’s a panic in his eyes.
FAST RETURN:
INT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ON STAGE – NIGHT – 9175
Music peaks as an enormous banner unfurls like a flame. Its gilded script reads: THE DEATH OF GLITTER SHOW!
A rockin’ Flaming Creature’s song (‘20th Century Boy’/T-Rex) begins.
INT. CREATURES’ FLAT – NIGHT- 1975
Teenage Arthur, CLOSE in the mirror, is making himself up as Maxwell Demon.
The table is strewn with a mess of make-up and magic mushrooms.
The room is filled with pre concert excitement and banter as they all get ready.
ARTHUR
Is this working? Cos I want it blue-er.
I don’t think you should bother I think I should go on stage tonight, instead of you.
FLAMING CREATURE
(hand stuck in the end of his jacket, can’t get it out)
Arthur, come give us a hand with this.
Another band member is trying to help, they fall on the bed.
ARTHUR
Stop moving about...I’m doing me eyeliner.
CUT TO:
INT. WINGS – RAINBOW THEATRE – LATER – 1975
Fast ZOOM OUT from Arthur, dancing wildly in the wings.
In the wings a Roadie puts his hand on Arthur’s shoulder to settle him down.
Arthur turns, embarrassed. He catches sight of:
Three people approaching from backstage: a Musician, a Hip Woman with a clipboard – and Curt Wild. ZOOM IN.
Arthur stares in disbelief.
We hear:
ADULT ARTHUR
(voice-over)
Yeah, I’m trying to reach Curt Wild. I’m a journalist from the Herald.
Swirling music over.
CUT TO:
EXT. NEW YORK ALLEY – TELEPHONE BOOTH – DAY – 1984
TRACK around Arthur in a payphone.
ARTHUR
Yeah – Hi, yeah, I’m...my name’s Arthur Stuart from the Herald. Umm, I was, I was given this number, I was told I could reach Curt Wild, ah, here.
INT. OFFICE – NEW YORK – LATE DAY – 1984
MATCH TRACK around the back of Curt’s head, on the phone to Arthur. He sits at the desk of a small, ratty office.
CURT
Listen... (muttering in background to someone else)
ARTHUR
Yeah? ...Hello? Hello!?
CURT
Listen, I don’t know who the hell gave you this number – but Curt Wild is not available and not interested in granting you or anyone else an interview on this subject – you got it?
ARTHUR
I’m sorry – I was told –
Curt slams down the phone. He looks over to two suits with Government insignias sitting opposite on a tattered couch.
‘Dead Finks Don’t Talk’/Brian Eno begins.
CUT TO:
INT. ARTHUR’S APARTMENT – NEW YORK – LATE AFTERNOON – 1984
CLOSE UP Arthur, standing and looking in the mirror of his apartment. For a few beats he is still. Then, suddenly, we hear the clatter of electronics. Arthur turns.
ZOOM IN to his desk where he is receiving a telex (fax).
HIGH ANGLE: Arthur walks across the room to his desk. His apartment is a crooked, looming container, twice as tall as it is wide. Its few bunker-style windows are strangely high.
EXTREME CLOSE-UP: telex
It reads:
‘NAME CHANGE SEARCH: BRIAN SLADE – REQUEST DENIED’
Arthur pulls out the chair to his desk.
CUT TO:
LATER
Computer screen. Words flash by:
‘FILE REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE SEARCH:
SLADE, BRIAN’
Arthur’s face as he searches, blue in the glow of his computer. The TV blares in the background.
On computer screen: Brian Slade’s real name and birthplace appear:
BRIAN SLADE, born: Thomas Brian Stoningham Slade, 2 January 1948, in Birmingham, Great Britain.
Name change: 16 March 1971 [Brian Slade],
23 January 1979 [ACCESS DENIED].
Arthur glances up from his computer.
TV SCREEN
Shannon, brittle for her age, speaks into a mike. Beside her sits Tommy Stone.
SHANNON
(on TV)
...Due to the overwhelming demand, additional shows are being added whenever and wherever possible.
TRACK IN to Arthur who is stuck, watching.
Suddenly he races back to his computer.
On computer screen, CLOSE UP across Slade’s birth-name:
THOMAS BRIAN PATRICE STONIGNHAM SLADE.
TRACK INTO the names ‘THOMAS ... STONINGHAM’
Arthur stares at the screen.
He looks back at the TV set. FAST PAN/ZOOM INTO TV screen.
SHANNON
(on TV)
Regrettably, Mr Stone only has time for a few brief questions this morning as he is scheduled to catch a plane to Zurich –
REPORTERS
(on TV)
Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!
TRACK INTO screen, as music flares. Tommy Stone bears a marked resemblance to Brian Slade.
CUT TO:
EXT. NEW YORK STREETS – SUNSET – 1984
Music continues as Arthur runs through the rush hour crowds of New York.
INT. NEWS ROOM CORRIDOR – NIGHT – 1984
Arthur races down the shadow hallway to Lou’s office. He knocks.
ARTHUR
Lou? Lou?
He opens the door. It’s dark inside. He hears a sound and looks back to the elevators.
The doors are opening and Lou is getting in.
Lou!
Arthur goes running down the hall.
Lou! LOU!
LOU
I’m sorry, Arthur. I’m late.
ARTHUR
Lou ! I think I’m on to something.
Lou presses a button and the doors open.
LOU
What?
ARTHUR
Something quite big. I think I know who Brian Slade is.
LOU
That story’s been dropped.
ARTHUR
What? Why?
The elevator doors are closing.
LOU
I need you on the Stone show.
ARTHUR
But that’s it–
The doors close.
ARTHUR
What did they say to you? Lou!
A slow build of music begins.
RETURN TO:
EXT. NEW YORK STREET – LATE DAY – 1984
Arthur stares at a poster of Tommy Stone on a bus stop.
CLOSE ON Arthur, staring sadly. Cheerless music begins rising ‘Gimme Danger’/Iggy and the Stooges.
Music builds as we follow Arthur in CLOSE UP, fighting back memories. Finally, he shuts his eyes.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ON STAGE – NIGHT – 1975
Dark, golden glimpses of a sinewy body, moving to the music. The music heard is Curt performing his last song to Brian, a mournful plea for submission. He is dressed only in tight fitting, silver pants and throughout the song he cowers and crawls:
CLOSE TRACK in to Arthur, watching from the wings, surrounded by The Creatures.
Curt sings with tender, ominous restraint, letting loose only at the end.
Mandy, also watches, by herself, from the wings.
On-stage Curt sings with seething intensity.
When the song finally erupts into a swarm of guitars, Curt breaks into desperate thrashes across the stage.
In the wings Arthur sneaks another glance at:
Mandy, watching Curt with a furrowed brow. Suddenly she turns and looks out to the rear of the auditorium.
Arthur follows her gaze.
From the back of the house a figure steps into view, silhouetted against the light of an exit door.
Arthur squints to make it out.
CLOSE, we see that it’s Brian.
On-stage Curt’s thrashing continues. Curt claws at himself and thrashes with desperate emotion, feeling and re-living his pain. The song reaches a peak as the deep blue lights slowly fade to black. Finally he huddles/collapses face down on stage. There is a split second of silence before the crowd explodes.
CLOSE ON Brian, who slips away.
CUT:
INT. RAINBOW THEATRE – BACKSTAGE - MOMENTS LATER – 1975
In relative darkness, the Roadie is clearing a path for the band to exit the stage, cornering Arthur. Dark, wet bodies crash past.
As Curt comes darting by, Mandy suddenly bolts past the Roadie and grabs him.
CLOSE ON Arthur, cornered by their hug. He hears:
MANDY
That was really beautiful
CURT
Yeah? Thanks.
Houselights come up and Mandy and Curt disengage, speaking quietly to one another.
Arthur looks down, trying to listen inconspicuously.
(quietly)
Did you...?
MANDY
(also quietly)
No I didn’t see him.
Then she turns, catching sight of Arthur.
Curt looks up as well.
Arthur stands caught, a doe-eyed Maxwell Demon.
For a moment, Curt is taken aback by Arthur’s youthful homage.
ARTHUR
(voice-over)
It’s only now, looking back, that I see –
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. RAINBOW THEATRE – LOBBY – NIGHT – 1975
SLOW MOTION TRACK in to Curt, surrounded by colourful figures and painted faces at a packed, post-show reception. Everyone is laughing, drinking and grabbing one another, but the colours have faded, the glitter worn, and a dark, Berlin-style decadence has set in. TRACK ends as Curt looks up, spotting someone from across the room.
MATCH TRACK in to Arthur, squeezed into the corner of the lobby, trapped by Curt’s glance.
ARTHUR
(voice-over)
-how you patched through my walls and entered my life...in waves.
Arthur looks down shyly and back up again.
Curt’s eyes are fixed.
FAST DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE ROOF – 4 A.M. – 1975
CLOSE BACK-TRACK with Arthur as he walks across the dark rooftop. Shadows pass over his face like a ghost.
The music yields to Curt’s deep, internal whisper.
CURT
(voice-over; slow, thoughtful)
Come closer. Don’t be frightened. What’s your name? Your favourite colour? Song. Movie. Don’t be nervous. Are you high?
Arthur whispers his response aloud, half to himself:
ARTHUR
I’m on a button.
FAST DISSOLVE TO EARLIER:
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ROOF – EARLIER – 1975
Wide TRACK IN on Curt, who sits at the far end of the roof watching our approach (Arthur’s POV during his previous walk).
A voice returns but it’s Adult Arthur we hear:
ADULT ARTHUR
(voice-over)
He was waiting for me. I’d followed his signals and slipped away and now –
suddenly –
FAST DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ROOFTOP – LATER – 1975
Curt bursts up laughing, opening a can of beer that sprays all over himself. He sits with Arthur at the far corner of the roof, blushing with giggles.
CLOSE ON Arthur’s face, speckled with beer. Curt looks up.
CURT
Hey –
Arthur follows, just catching sight of:
A falling star.
ZOOM IN ON CURT:
Make a wish.
CUT TO:
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ROOF – LATER – 1975
Music continues as we follow Curt’s hand as it travels to Arthur and lands tenderly on his cheek.
Arthur is pulling off his shirt, standing over Curt who is also shirtless.
FAST DISSOLVE:
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ROOF – LATER – 1975
EXTREME CLOSE-UP of Curt’s hand on Arthur’s bare back, his cool white skin filling the screen. We follow it down.
FAST CUT TO:
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ROOF – MORNING – 1975
Curt laughing as someone (Arthur) watches him pee.
FAST RETURN TO:
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ROOF – NIGHT – 1975
In sweaty CLOSE-UP, Curt sees something in the sky.
CURT
Hey –
Arthur’s eye darts up. He sees:
A luminous spacecraft, like the one that passed over Old Dublin. It swirls over London with a thunderous boom – and vanishes.
All that remains is a sky full of glitterdust.
CLOSE ON Curt’s lips, whispering through the cascade.
A WIDE SHOT of the roof, now awash in stardust, as the white bodies of Curt and Arthur are seen through the sparkles; Curt behind Arthur, gently fucking. A long, slow CRANE Out begins, as music and voices peak.
And see yourself, on-stage, inside-out. A tangle of garlands in your hair. Of course you were pleasantly surprised.
TEEN ARTHUR
(voice-over)
Softly, he said...
ALL THREE VOICES
(whispering- Curt, Teen/Adult Arthur)
I will mangle your mind.
We withdraw as the bodies of Curt and Arthur are engulfed and the artificiality of the set intensifies, warping perspective in the style of Caligari.
INT. STAGE – GRAND BALLROOM SET – NIGHT
The TRACK continues, revealing the bombed-out remains of a grand ballroom, and Brian, turning to the camera, dressed as a bejewelled Maxwell Demon. He begins to sing (‘Tumbling Down’/Steve Harley Cockney Rebel), slowly descending a gnarled staircase as we PULL OUT.
He stops at a half-blown landing just as a tattered chandelier is raised into frame. He mounts the shimmering beast, and finds a wreath of flowers around its cable. As he ascends, he throws flowers out to the ‘audience’ below.
Maxwell Demon, is gone.
FAST CUT TO:
INT. STADIUM SHOW – NEW YORK – NIGHT – 1984
CLOSE ON Arthur’s closed eyes, imagining the previous Maxwell Demon show.
Arthur is in the audience of a Tommy Stone concert, applauding, coming out of his reverie.
Briefly:
INT. STADIUM SHOW – ON-STAGE _ NIGHT – 1984
We see the actual Show: Tommy Stone in glitzy white garb, arms open, receiving applause and bouquets of flowers.
CUT TO:
EXT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN – NIGHT – 1984
Arthur walks out of the theatre to ‘Dead Finks Don’t Talk’/Brian Eno. Fans are rushing past. Up ahead, a small crowd has gathered around the stage door.
There are cheers as Tommy Stone appears.
A huge spotlight is turned on to the door.
Arthur stops and watches.
REPORTERS
Tommy! Tommy! Where did you get the idea for such a spectacular stadium show?
TOMMY
Tell you the truth – it’s a bloody pain in the ass! The whole thing takes six full size rigs or three chartered planes to transport. What can I say? I think big!
Arthur approaches the crowd.
REPORTERS
Tommy! What’s your opinion on the work of President Reynolds has been doing-
TOMMY
Excellent. Excellent. I think he’s doing brilliant work. He’s a – tremendous leader, a tremendous spokesperson for the needs of the nation today –
Suddenly Arthur yells out over the others:
ARTHUR
Tommy! What is your response to the recent allegations connecting you to bisexual pop singer Brian Slade, who staged his own assassination ten years ago this week in London?
Tommy is white.
Reporters swarm as Arthur watches.
Tommy, devoured by Security Men, whisked away. Shannon is suddenly at the mike.
SHANNON
I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, that’s all the questions Mr Stone has time for this evening. Thank you very much –
Arthur, still behind the chaos of Reporters.
CUT TO:
INT. TOMMY’S DRESSING ROOM – NEW YORK – NIGHT – 1984
Music as we follow Shannon and various Assistants escorting Tommy back to his dressing room.
In the background TV news is heard:
TV
Tonight, the Tri-State Area pulls out all the stops in welcoming pop superstar Tommy Stone to Madison Square Garden. Stone is promoting his Grammy-winning release, ‘People Rockin’ People’, to sold-out arenas worldwide...
Tommy is silent then in the midst of a cool panic.
SHANNON
(to everyone in the room, but Brian)
Get Out! Now! Shut the door!
CLOSE ON Shannon, eyes shut, as people clear. When the door closes we hear a squeal like Little Richard’s coming from the TV.
Tommy looks over.
TV SCREEN
The news broadcast of the Tommy Stone concert cuts to a clip. Suddenly Tommy Stone in white tuxedo turns to camera: the younger ‘Brian Slade’ dressed as stone turns back, glaring almost sinisterly, taunting him through the airwaves.
MATCH TRACK into Tommy, looking precisely as if he’s seen a ghost.
Rising music suddenly ends:
CUT TO:
INT. MIDTOWN BAR – NEW YORK – NIGHT – 1984
The door shuts behind Arthur in a dark mid-town bar.
Everyone looks up. There is a strange between-songs silence.
Arthur proceeds, self consciously.
A Tommy Stone song beings on the jukebox. (‘People Rockin’ People’/Shudder To Think) but people in the bar continue staring at Arthur.
He approaches the bar.
ARTHUR
Beer, please.
Arthur notices a group of mostly black Teenagers, decked out in Tommy Stone gear. They whisper to each other. One Teenage Girl starts walking over.
The Bartender hands Arthur his beer, staring all the while at Arthur’s jacket.
Arthur realizes he’s still wearing his press pass and starts taking it off.
TEENAGE GIRL
Excuse me, sir. Are you with the Tommy Stone Tour?
ARTHUR
No. I’m just a journalist. Perhaps you’d like my press pass as a souvenir?
Her eyes widen. Arthur hands her the pass.
TEENAGE GIRL
Thanks, Mister.
She squeals and runs back to show her friends as Arthur turns and walks deeper into the long, narrow bar.
He passes the jukebox, and discovers a second bar in the back: smaller and moodier. A man in a leather jacket is drinking along.
Arthur stops. He can’t believe his eyes.
It’s Curt Wild, folding a Tommy Stone guest pass into origami.
Arthur smiles and starts advancing before even deciding to.
Curt looks up. He just glares.
ARTHUR
You’re Curt Wild.
CURT
(irritable)
Yeah? Who the hell are you?
Brief silence.
ARTHUR
I’m a journalist. From the Herald. You were at the concert?
Curt just stares at him.
It’s just funny because...well, I was just trying to contact you actually. For a story I was doing –
Curt has now turned away.
-about an old friend of yours? Brian Slade?
Curt looks up for a moment, hiding his interest.
Was trying to find out...what actually happened to him.
CURT
Look –
ARTHUR
I mean, before he became –
Curt stops.
Tight on Arthur, peeking up at him.
-such a mystery.
Curt snorts out a sudden guffaw.
CURT
Look, man, I don’t know who you’ve been talking to or what you’re after here, but...
(trails off)
ARTHUR
What?
Curt looks away again..
What?
CURT
Listen – a real artist creates beautiful things and...puts nothing of his won life into them. Okay?
ARTHUR
Is that what you did?
CURT
No.
(brief silence)
We set out to change the world and ended up...just changing ourselves.
ARTHUR
What’s wrong with that?
CURT
Nothing.
(silence)
If you don’t look at the world.
Quiet music under slow PAN past kids gathered at the jukebox, cliques of Tommy Stone fans, conservative, bored. One gay Latino Boy sits braiding a girls hair. End on a huge Tommy Stone poster.
(off-screen)
Well, I guess in the end he got what he wanted.
Curt stands in though another beat before slipping on his jacket and downing his beer.
CLOSE ON Arthur looking up at him with a distant smile.
ARTHUR
That’s quite a – pin you got there.
CLOSE ON Curt’s jacket: the antique emerald pin sparkles green.
CURT
Oh yeah.
ARTHUR
Is it old?
CURT
(examining it)
Possibly. It belonged to Oscar Wilde. Or so I was told by the person who gave it to me.
Arthur’s eyes flash up. The shimmer swells.
This friend of mine who kinda...disappeared...some years back.
Extreme CLOSE-UP of Curt.
(very far-away)
I forget where we were. On a trip. But he says to me, ‘Curt...
FLASH TO:
EXT. BEACH – DAY – 1973
A bleached-out image of Brian and Curt on some beach.
From a great distance, Brian is pinning something on Curt’s shirt.
CURT
(voice-over)
...A man’s life is his image.’
CUT TO:
Brief silent shots:
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ROOF – MORNING – 1975
Urine streaming in a puddle.
CLOSE ON Teenage Arthur watching Curt from behind. The remains of his Maxwell Demon make-up sully his face.
Curt, standing peeing, turns.
BACK TO:
INT. MID-TOWN BAR – NEW YORK – NIGHT – 1984
The emerald pin, rolling loose in the palm of Curt’s hand.
CURT
Here. Why don’t you hang on to it?
FLASH UP to Arthur’s face.
ARTHUR
Me?
CURT
Why not? I’ve had it too long anyway. Go ahead.
Curt puts it in Arthur’s hand. Arthur looks down at it, speechless.
(tenderly)
For your image.
Curt stands up, getting ready to go.
Arthur looks up at him, shaking his head.
Briefly: coins are pushed through slots, jukebox buttons pressed.
ARTHUR
Really. I couldn’t. But thanks.
Arthur returns the pin with a polite smile.
Briefly: a jukebox forty-five drops into place.
Curt takes the pin, pockets it.
The introduction to ‘2HB’/Roxy Music begins on the jukebox.
BACK TO Arthur, CLOSE, who turns toward the jukebox.
The gay Latino Boy Teen recognizes the song.
LATINO BOY
Oh God, I love this song. Do you know this song?
GIRL
I don’t think so.
Arthur turns back to Curt.
CURT
Anyway.
ARTHUR
Yeah.
CURT
See ya around.
ARTHUR
Cheers.
Curt nods with a strange smile and turns. Arthur watches him go. He reaches for his beer and finishes it off – and nearly gags. He spits something out in his hand.
CLOSE ON the palm of his hand: the emerald pin lies covered in beer spittle.
Arthur smiles, looking up in Curt’s direction.
EXTREME CLOSE-UP of Arthur.
ARTHUR
(voice-over)
He called it freedom.
Briefly: Silent shots.
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ROOF – MORNING – 1975
Curt, turning to camera while taking a piss (as before) Arthur, stretched out on the mattress, laughs.
RETURN TO:
INT. MID-TOWN BAR – NEW YORK – NIGHT – 1984
Slow EXTREME CLOSE UP around Arthur’s face, starring into the past.
ARTHUR
(voice-over)
A freedom you can allow yourself.
Arthur glances into the main bar.
Or not.
The first verse begins (sung by Jack Fairy), as Arthur closes the pin in his hand.
JACK
(singing)
Oh, I was moved by a screen dream...
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. RAINBOW THEATRE – NIGHT – 1975
Jack Fairy performs the glam-rock anthem with regal pathos, at the Death of Glitter Show.
Jack stands at the edge of the stage under a single spot.
Arthur stands crushed in a corner, swaying to the music with Ray, Pearl and Billy.
Slow TRACK IN on Mandy, watching from the wings.
We ascend, rising up from the stage, as a mist of glitter begins to fall. We pass the faces of glitter legends, projected onstage: Maxwell, Brian, Curt, Jack, Polly. We continue, rising into the darkness.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. RAINBOW THEATRE – ROOF – DAWN – 1975
We pass through to the roof where it is dawn and snowing. Curt and Arthur are there, hanging out after sex. They turn in our direction but we continue our ascent.
DISSOLVE THROUGH:
A series of shots:
EXT. LONDON STREETS – DAY – 1974
Shots of busy Londoners on their way to work.
MONTAGE OF FACES (FROM BEGINNING)
The three Young Punks, singing along to the chorus.
Two London Girls, arm in arm, singing.
The faces of New York Street Kids, looking up, some sadly, some angrily.
Boy with Crew Cut, eyes closed sings a held note to the skies
LONDON PUB – NIGHT – 1974
The song’s chorus continues through a small transistor radio from which we TRACK, revealing a candle-lit pub during the 1974 miners’ strikes.
TRACK past the warm, flickering faces of Patrons, pints in hand, gazing solemnly toward the music.
HARD CUT TO BLACK:
‘Make Me Smile’/Steve Harley Cockney Rebel over closing credits.
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