Monday October 7, 2002

Monday, October 7, 2002

Monday October 7, 2002

Filed under: General — m759 @ 3:50 am

Music for R.D. Laing

In honor of the birth in Scotland on this date in 1927 of R. D. Laing, author of The Facts of Life, this site's music is today taken from the classic film "The Piano."

Laing

From the 1991 4th draft of Jane Campion's screenplay for
"The Piano":

FLORA
Tell me about my real father.

ADA nods and strokes FLORA's hair from her face. FLORA leans back.

How did you speak to him?

ADA signs to FLORA who watches in love with all the stories of her mother and unreal father.

                         ADA (subtitled)
               I didn't need to speak, I could
               lay thoughts out in his mind
               like they were a sheet

                         FLORA
               What happened? Why didn't you
               get married?

ADA continues to sign, her hands casting odd animal-like shadows on the newspapered walls.

                         ADA cont.
               After a while he became
               frightened and he stopped
               listening.

Later….

                         STEWART
               (slowly)
               She has spoken to me. I heard
               her voice. There was no sound,
               but I heard it here (he presses
               his forehead with a palm of his
               hand). Her voice was there in
               my head. I watched her lips,
               they did not make the words,
               yet the harder I listened the
               clearer I heard her, as clear
               as I hear you, as clear as I
               hear my own voice.

                         BAINES
               (trying to understand)
               Spoken words?

                         STEWART
               No, but her words are in my
               head. (He looks at BAINES and
               pauses.) I know what you think,
               that it's a trick, that I'm
               making it up. No, the words I
               heard were her words.

Comments (2)

2 Comments

Love. In all it’s terror, and beauty, and mystery.

Ah … now I’ve become all melancholy. When I read this in my daily digest, I wasn’t as affected because of the lack of sound.

And here, in these written words, in the meaning of the words, I can FEEL them because of sound. And that is love too, yes?

Comment by oOMisfitOo — Wednesday, October 9, 2002 @ 6:21 pm
Yes.

“…or hears the sound

of lovers calling loved ones in the rain.”

Comment by m759 — Wednesday, October 9, 2002 @ 6:38 pm

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