VONLENSKA 1
Vonlenska is a film created out of a piece of literature (a novella with the same name). The fact that the work was not originally conceived as a screenplay is likely to be why it is a dramatic piece with strong poetic currents, its rhetoric turning on screen into evocative images that need to be understood as short visual poems that are full of meaning.
Vonlenska tells the story of three characters, each of whom has lost a loved one, who are now collectively living through a period of sadness and solitude. The chance acquaintance of these characters through living in the same apartment block leads to their lives intertwining with one another to the point where the isolation in which they are living turns into companionship, and little by little evolves into feelings of friendship and love.
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Vonlenska is a film that deals with losing and finding, remembering and forgetting, and falling out of love and back into it. It is about a period of change in the lives of its three characters in which things both come to an end and are also yet to begin.
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INDEX LOGLINE _____________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 4 SYNOPSIS ____________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 4 THE TWO MAIN THEMES _________________________________________________________ PÀG. 5 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE __________________________________________________________ PÀG. 6 •
ACT ONE __________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 6
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ACT TWO __________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 7
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ACT THREE ________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 8
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CREDITS __________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 9
THE CARACTERS ______________________________________________________________ PÀG. 10 •
HARALDSON ______________________________________________________________ PÀG. 10
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ALEC ____________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 12
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EIR _____________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 14
LOCATIONS __________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 16 SYMBOLIC ELEMENTS __________________________________________________________ PÀG. 21 REFERENCES ________________________________________________________________ PÀG. 23 •
FILM REFERENCES _________________________________________________________ PÀG. 24
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MUSIC REFERENCES ________________________________________________________ PÀG. 27
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LITERARY REFERENCES______________________________________________________ PÀG. 28
SCRIPT (FIRST SCENE) _________________________________________________________ PÀG. 29
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LOGLINE A girl, a boy and an old man live in the same Reykjavik apartment block. All three are living through a period of sadness and solitude, each having lost a loved one. Their chance meeting allows their isolation to turn into companionship, friendship and love.
SYNOPSIS Mr Haraldsson, an ex-poet who for no apparent reason stopped writing and who is now the concierge of a rundown apartment block in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, has just suffered the death of his wife. Alec is a young man who has decided to leave the Antipodes to get away from his ex-girlfriend and forget
about her. Eir’s boyfriend, a well-known musician with whom she was deeply in love, has just left her. These are the three main characters of the story. None of them seem to be interested in what the future holds, with each of them prevented from moving forward through permanently living in their traumatic pasts. However, gradually, and thanks to the Demiurge-like role played by Mr Haraldsson in Eir and Alec’s lives, a nascent love story between the two young characters unfolds – even though the ex-partners of both remain a constant presence in their minds – as their paths cross in the apartment block or take trips around the city together. These excursions serve to both bring the protagonists closer together and set off a slow process of them discovering their personalities. Meanwhile, following the arrival at the apartment block – and so to its concierge, Mr Haraldsson – of letters from Eir and Alec’s V
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ex-partners looking for a reconciliation with their exes, an unintentional mix-up involving Mr Haraldsson returning the letters to the wrong senders makes it impossible for the two couples to meet up again, which in turn opens up the possibility of a new relationship forming between Eir and Alec. The old man’s death marks a turning point in the relationship between Eir and Alec. Having been brought together by him, they become closer and travel to Höfn to fulfil Mr Haraldsson’s dream that he never managed to do in his own life: seeing the aurora borealis. This is the setting for the climactic scene of the story. As a final coda, an epilogue tells the story of the ‘collateral damage’ caused by the return of Eir and Alec’s ex-partners’ letters, accidentally to the wrong partner, which meant that the couples were unable to meet again.
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THE TWO MAIN THEMES Solitude brought about as a direct result of lost love is Vonlenska’s central theme. A grandfather who has recently lost the love of his life, and a boy and a girl who have just gone through break ups from their previous relationships are the three main characters who, apparently trapped by the past and their memories, all seem to share little inclination for carrying on. However, bit by bit, this very solitude causes these characters to come together and turns into companionship and ultimately love. Moreover, the three characters are the only inhabitants and neighbours of the apartment block in which they are living.
Love, a subject which in this story is handled in a way that is rarely seen in films. The traditional tale of boy meets girl - boy loses girl - boy gets girl back plays no part here; in this story the usual steps of love and two people getting to know one another do not take place. Instead, the story takes place exactly at a point that exists between two loves, which is to say: boy/girl leaves girl/boy
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– boy/girl is alone – boy/girl meets girl/boy. This idea allows a phase of falling out of love and periods of solitude and finding love again to be explored, with a particular focus on the human capacity to overcome old loves that at first seem irreplaceable, yet, when least expected, someone comes along who, little by little, ends up filling the void left by the person who left.
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DRAMATIC STRUCTURE Although Vonlenska’s plot development does not correspond to what is usually understood to be the classical structure of the steps of falling in love, it does have a conventional and clearly cinematographic narrative structure due to the visual style in which the story is narrated, in spite of it originally being a literary work.
ACT ONE The film begins with a highly poetic sequence. Alec (one of the three protagonists) walks through the coldness of Reykjavik in search of a phone box, from where he makes a call to his exgirlfriend. This sequence is highly symbolic and a metaphor for the film in general, partly because it presents its context – the cold, the white and the silence, the three most significant elements present throughout the story – and partly because the isolated space of the phone box, a bubble in which nothing more than what happens inside of it has any importance, is a metaphor for the whole story. Two further sequences are linked with this one to introduce the other two main characters: Eir being left by her ex-boyfriend, a violinist, and the elderly Mr Haraldsson’s obsession with his Hasselblad, a key object in this character’s life which gradually helps us to understand him better. V
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First turning point: The three characters (Eir, Alec and Haraldsson) meeting one another in a bar one evening shows us the initial relationships they have with one another. Eir and Haraldsson know each other a little, but Alex doesn’t know either of them. Haraldsson getting drunk is the event that brings the two younger characters (Eir and Alec) together, as the two take the old man back home, at which point they discover that they are neighbours, something that until this moment they did not know.
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ACT TWO Deliberately constructed with a slow but constant rhythm, the main body of the story is punctuated by a range of encounters and excursions involving the three main characters, such as a whale-watching trip, a Christmas dinner, some fireside drinks, a trip to the Blue Lagoon and a supper in the dark. These encounters allow the characters, with their measured words and their lengthy silences, to get to know each other little by little. In spite of their slow pace, through these activities the relationships between the characters become tighter knit as time goes by, so that the solitude that the three share in the end turns into a very warm companionship.
This second act does not contain any moments of great turbulence that turn around the destinies of the main characters that are usually expected from the thick of a plot. However, a mix-up of two letters sent to Eir and Alec by their ex-partners, which the elderly Haraldsson decides to return to their senders but accidently sends each one to the wrong expartner, does change the destinies of the two other main characters.
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Second turning point: Haraldsson, tired and pining strongly for his beloved late wife Kristjana (who died two years previously) dies. It is not known if he committed suicide, though the open window of his dining room and the fact that he froze to death seem to suggest that he did. His death is a highly poetic one, not least because the character dies with a book of Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry frozen into his hands.
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ACT THREE After seeing the slow development of Alec and Eir’s love, which until now was not explicit, with their relationship seeming more like a nascent friendship, Haraldsson’s death brings them closer together. Moreover, with the two unaware that their ex-partners tried to contact them, it seems by this point that the two have forgotten their pasts and will finally decide to start living for the future.
Climax: To say goodbye to Haraldsson, Eir suggests to Alec that they go to Höfn to see the aurora borealis, which was Haraldsson’s dream. There, and as a climax, we will see the end point – or rather, the beginning – of their love story: their first kiss (in the purest classical ‘made in Hollywood’ style).
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Epilogue: After what seems to be a very conventional ending, in the form of the couple’s kiss, the film has an unconventional finale. It is a final coda that could have been left out, but which we have decided to include because it emphasizes the conclusiveness of the main story. The sequence takes place in Prague and involves the meeting/misunderstanding involving the ex-partners of Alec and Eir. Due to Haraldsson’s mix-up with the letters (which we don’t know was intended or not) the expartners will never meet up with the main characters, who will never know that Grace (Alex’s ex) and Ian (Eir’s ex) had asked them for one last chance.
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CREDITS This final part, included so that those who want to see it can, and those who don’t will not miss any of the story, shows Eir and Alec in Barcelona together. It simply confirms a love story that has just begun.
Supporting secondary themes to the main story If earlier we outlined the main objectives of the story as an analysis of solitude and the earliest stages of love (between Eir and Alec), one of Vonlenska’s secondary themes is how its characters handle their past relationships (Grace and Ian as well as Eir, Alec and Haraldsson). They have all experienced loss and are trying to
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recover from it, without really knowing what the best way to forget or recover is. The different characters attempt it variously through a letter, a photo, an empty violin case, death or silence; and in the end the poetic justice handed down by Haraldsson leads to the main characters being unaware of the apologies of their ex-partners and the possibility of getting back with them, in favour of a new love story.
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THE CHARACTERS
HARALDSSON (70 years old, Icelandic)
1st option
MAX VON SYDOW (Sweden)
2nd option
STELLAN SKARSGARD (Sweden)
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3rd option
BRUNO GANZ (Germany)
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Haraldsson is a man of around seventy. Physically he is elderly and of a normal stature, a touch slim and not particularly tall. He has short, white hair and is always unshaven. Looking at him one would think that he does not take particularly good care of himself, with the little hair on his head unkempt. He always wears corduroy trousers, and when he is working he also wears heavy boots so that his feet do not get wet from the snow, as one of his daily tasks is to clear the snow that frequently builds up outside the doorway of the building that he takes care of as its concierge. Very often he also wears a very old anorak, which he sometimes combines with another, more brightly coloured one. His clothes are patched up and the buttons of his shirt are often poorly sewn on. Although he is not physically very polished, intellectually he is. We do not find out about this until later on in the story, but Haraldsson used to be a university professor who specialized in French literature. For this reason he is often
seen reading, and the concierge station (his workspace) is full of the great classics of French literature (Proust, Balzac, Nin etc.). He also used to be a poet, and moreover a rising star in Icelandic literature, but because he did not want to compete with Kristjana, his wife, he decided to leave the way clear for her and work as the concierge of the apartment block where he lives. He is still passionate about literature, though from his invisible position at the concierge station, it is not outwardly obvious. His decision to abandon writing is proof of his feelings for Kristjana, his wife and the great love of his life. He would do anything for her, and since she died he often gets drunk just to see her, even if it is only in the form of hallucinations. His life is now no more than waiting to die so that he can be with her again, since there is no longer anything left that ties him to the world; in the meantime he keeps himself occupied with the little adventures he has through living with Eir and Alec, the new tenant.
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The fact that he gave up the life of an intellectual to take up the humble post of concierge – and also do it with pleasure and dedication – is most symptomatic of his personality. At all times he lets it show that he is a man who is happy doing what he does, and he never seems to have any ambition other that let time pass until the day comes when he is reunited with his love. Due to the friendship that he forms with Eir and Alec, Haraldsson has paternal feelings towards the two young people that he has never experienced before, having never had any children or any family members other than his wife. And although his hiding and returning of the letters from Eir and Alec’s ex-partners may seem to have been motivated by bad intentions, it is essential to understand it as having been borne out of kindness and his desire to protect his “new” friends by stopping them having their hearts broken again.
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THE CHARACTERS
ALEC (29, Catalan)
1st option
2nd option
QUIM GUTIÉRREZ (Catalonia)
ROGER COMA (Catalonia)
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MARC CLOTET (Catalonia)
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Alec is a young man of average stature and is on the slim side and dark. He does not look as though he attaches much importance to his appearance, although he is physically attractive and interesting without corresponding to the typical features of classical male handsomeness. He usually wears t-shirts with designs and features that suggest they have been bought in different countries across the world, although as a result of the cold of Reykjavik he often dresses in woollen jumpers and jeans. It’s clear that he is neither used to nor prepared for handling low temperatures, and indeed on more than one occasion through his gestures we can see that he is feeling the cold.
With regard to his professional life, Alec studied translations and interpreting and is fluent in Catalan, Spanish, English and French. This has allowed him to travel extensively, although his real reason for leaving Barcelona was his desire for a change of scene and his belief that he would find happiness elsewhere. He fulfilled this last objective when he arrived in New Zealand and met Grace, a girl who he was in a relationship with for two years, with the couple living in New Zealand during this time. Their break-up hit Alec very hard, making him make radical changes in his life, and ultimately leading to him trying to get as far from Grace as possible. It turned out that the furthest point from Grace and the Antipodes was Reykjavik, where he arrived in a state of distress and confusion. In spite of his language skills he firmly intends to cut himself off in his own isolation and not come into contact with anybody, a situation that changes, even though he did not intend it to, when he meets Eir and Haraldsson. V
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Alec is a character with great sensibilities. This is demonstrated in part through his love of cinema and literature, something that gives him common ground with Haraldsson. It is worth highlighting that although Alec is not an especially shy character, he does seem to be that way at the start of the film; this is because his personal situation (living through a breakup) and his environment (intentionally moving to an unknown country) lead him to adopt a reserved and distant attitude towards the things and people that he is beginning to encounter. Very slowly, and in the final part of the story, his personality comes to the fore and he opens himself up to others, displaying touches of humour that the viewer has not come to expect from this character. He communicates with the other characters in English.
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THE CHARACTERS
EIR (26 years old, Icelandic)
1st option
2nd option
INGRID BOLSO BERDAL (Norway)
MINKEN TVEITAN (Norway)
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VIKTORIA WINGE (Norway)
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EIR (26 years old, Icelandic)
it’s a very special occasion. When she does she uses very soft tones, which complement her natural beauty very well.
Eir is a simple girl. She has a fragile appearance, and is thin and of a normal height (she is neither tall nor short). She is blonde and has pale skin. She has pretty features without being stunning. Her appearance perfectly matches the ideas of a typical Nordic girl (pale and with long and fine blonde hair).
She has a cheerful and easy-going character, although initially – just like Alec – we see her as being sad and subdued after suffering the most devastating sort of break-up possible when her boyfriend, a violinist, left her without giving a warning or explanation.
She always wears leggings and baggy woollen jumpers that she makes herself, and always wears fairly unfeminine boots. She never wears jewellery, but she does always have accessories such as hats and scarves made from coloured wool. She almost never wears make up, unless
She doesn’t really do anything specific for a living, other than jobs that allow her to get by (for example, working in a restaurant from time to time, although we don’t ever see her working as a waitress; or restoring old furniture and making jewellery and clothes to sell). She enjoys leading an easy life that is free of complications beyond paying the monthly bills, even though this means not having many luxuries, and also that she has never been
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outside of Iceland before. Nevertheless, she takes pleasure in the little, everyday things of life such as music, and she is a big fan of the group Sigur Ros. She is more of an extrovert than Alec and has a very good relationship with Haraldsson (he and she communicate in Icelandic). As for her ex-partner, the two have an unequal relationship, with her being more in love than he was. Overcoming her sadness, she gradually becomes closer to Alec, a relationship that she encourages, more so than he does, through small gestures, which will undoubtedly result in a healthier relationship (one of equals), unlike the one she had with Ian, her ex-boyfriend.
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LOCATIONS It’s no accident that the film almost entirely takes places in Reykjavik (Iceland), with this location being selected because contextually it offers a perfectly symbolic setting for the situation of the three main characters. The harshness of the cold, the poetic whiteness of the landscape, the hermetic qualities of the Icelandic language and the inevitably introspective way of life created by the near-arctic weather conditions are what make Iceland the place that best encapsulates the state of mind of Vonlenska’s three protagonists.
REYKJAVÍK Within the cut-off bubble that is the city of Reykjavik (in which, apart from the streets, we see a square, an apartment block, its concierge
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station, a library and a bar), the characters make three important outings that are central to the development of the story, to the following places:
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WHALE-WATCHING BOAT
BLUE LAGOON
This excursion adds meaning to the plot because whales symbolize timidity, profoundness and inner self, characteristics shared by the three main characters, who almost never come to the surface and allow themselves to be seen, preferring instead to live in a state of introspection and restraint.
The trip to the Blue Lagoon takes place at a fairly advanced point in the plot. It marks a point where the characters begin to feel more comfortable with one another and start to be more forthcoming about themselves. The Blue Lagoon is a park
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– almost a theme park – that offers hot, thermal water in the midst of Iceland’s polar coldness. The idea is that this is the oasis of companionship that the three characters have found in the middle of their trying personal situations.
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AURORA BOREALIS At the end of the film, after Haraldsson has died, Alec and Eir go to Hรถfn, a village in Iceland that is a very good spot from which to see the Aurora Borealis, to say goodbye to Haraldsson, who had previously
said that it was his dream to see it before he died. Since he is no longer able to see it, Alec and Eir do it in his memory. The spectacular colours and magic of the aurora borealis are the ideal scene for the
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final action, in which Eir and Alec finally decide, with a final kiss, to put a full stop at the end of their old relationships, and to turn the page and start a new chapter together.
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THE APARTMENT BLOCK The apartment block in which the three protagonists live, on Eyrarland street (not quite in the city centre, but close to it), is quite run down. The block has only three residents: Haraldsson, Eir and Alec. The building looks grey, solitary and not well looked after. Of the three flats, we see that of Haraldsson, which will be the typical old person’s flat – with old furniture, flowery curtains, porcelain plates and books everywhere (because Haraldsson and his wife are both avid readers and former university professors) – and also that of Eir, which is more modern, but also simple and with only a couple of basic pieces of furniture. This location will require a concierge station, since this is Haraldsson’s job and the place where some of the action takes place. It will be a wooden concierge station with a table and a chair in it, with books and mail on the table, as during the day Haraldsson reads books and receives the mail.
The following link, in addition to being for a video containing Sigur Ros’s music, also shows a building that is very similar to the one inhabited by the main characters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwBi_Cmw5yE
PHONE BOX The phone box is a very important element as it is the place where the film and its story begin. It cannot be a particularly modern phone box, and needs to be from the time when phone boxes were like glass cubes that could be completely closed. The phone box is the only point of contact between Alec and his past life. V
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PRAGUE Prague has been chosen because, bearing in mind the distance between Reykjavik and New Zealand, it sits somewhere between these two cities. Furthermore, the choice of Prague was also based on a desire to find a romantic and warm setting. Its history, colours and architecture make it an ideal place for the hypothetical encounter that Eir and Alec’s ex-partners believe they are going to have. Only two locations within Prague will be seen. Firstly Old Town Square will be used as it is known for being one of the city’s main tourist sites,
and given that the two characters that go there in the film are themselves tourists, it makes sense to use this location. The other reason for choosing the Old Town Square is because it is the site of the Cathedral’s astronomical clock, which is known across the world for its complex design and its beauty. Bearing in mind that the film ends with the sounds of bells as the clock strikes quarter past seven, this time being the deadline for things to either be fixed or not for the two former couples, it will be interesting for this clock, with all its history,
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to sound out the final point in the story of the two love stories that will never be possible. Another location in Prague is the Charles Bridge, which holds significance because Grace writes her letter to Alec on the back of a photograph taken on the bridge; at the end of the film Ian (the ex-boyfriend who erroneously received the letter) disappointedly and sadly crosses the bridge because Eir did not make an appearance, as had been arranged in the letter (that she did not write).
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SYMBOLIC ELEMENTS The fact that this is a minimalist piece in terms of its plot, characters, script and production does not mean that it is not full of small details and motifs in the form of a range of recurring objects that appear as the film develops, providing it with depth and meaning. Here are some examples:
THE VIOLIN CASE
ROMEO Y JULIETA CIGARS
When Ian (Eir’s boyfriend), leaves he takes everything (including the violin) with him, except for the case. Eir holds on to it as her only hope that sooner or later he will come back for it. We see this object repeatedly, and it is a metaphor for a couple’s story that is not by any means closed. The day when Eir, after always having it out in sight, decides to keep it at the bottom of the wardrobe – a way of saying that she has stopped thinking he will come back – is a significant one.
The cigars are one of Haraldsson’s reminders of his and Kristjana’s wedding. The legendary Cuban Romeo y Julieta brand has not been chosen by chance, with these two figures representing the romantic ties between the old couple. Moreover, the moment when Haraldsson offers the cigars to Eir and Alec is a way of foreshadowing the slow love story that will develop between them in the future.
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HASSELBLAD
HARALDSSON’S SHOVEL
THE SNOW
This medium-format camera made by Hasselblad is another important object that appears throughout the story. It is a childhood memory that has been with Haraldsson all of his life, which was given to him by his father when he was young and which he used to get to know Kristjana. When Haraldsson dies, he tells Eir and Alec that they can keep it, as a pretext for saying that if he was able to use it to fall in love, then perhaps they could too.
The snow shovel is an object that we always see next to the main door. It is a very important element as it warns us, in a defining moment, of Haraldsson’s death. Throughout the film, the shovel, wet from the snow, is a recurring image, as is the sight of Haraldsson clearing away snow from the doorway. Consequently, the day when we see the shovel dry and untouched, it is clear that something out of the ordinary has happened, because Haraldsson has not used it.
The snow, more an element than an object, is almost an additional character in the film, because it shapes the behaviour of the characters, who rarely leave home and therefore spend more time with one another. The snow is also very important for the visual and poetic potential that it has throughout, offering the possibility of moments of nostalgia, anecdotes and surprise.
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REFERENCES Some of Vonlenska’s visual and stylistic references come from Asian cinema. There are two specific works which, through their screenplays and aesthetics, have echoes of this story.
Firstly, the love story between Eir and Alec recalls the lovers in Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love, whose love does not reach physical culmination in spite of the strength of their feelings. This is also the case in Vonlenska, though the warm Asian lighting is replaced with blue, white and coldness. However, the intensity of the story is expressed through interiors of the protagonists’ flats, in which the lighting is much warmer.
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The other film recalled by Vonlenska is Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring by Kim Ki-duk. Like Vonlenska, this film also takes place in an isolated setting, and the films are also constructed around a block structuring and share a range of poetic situations with very strong visual impacts.
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Other references contained within the film are more explicit and are mentioned or lived, directly or indirectly, by the characters. These references come from a wide range of genres and forms:
FILM REFERENCES Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story is a film over which Alec and Haraldsson find common ground, with it becoming clear that it is an important film in their lives
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that they enjoy a lot. This choice of film is deliberate, because it contains a sad and nostalgia-filled old man who is analogous to Haraldsson.
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The green light from the moment when Kim Novak transforms into Madeleine in Hitchcock’s Vertigo is referenced in the film’s final kiss scene between Alec and Eir, which is bathed in the green light of the Aurora Borealis. In both Vertigo and Vonlenska these are crucial moments that the viewer has been eagerly awaiting.
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There is a less explicit reference to Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin, which simply takes the form of Vonlenska borrowing the legendary image from Chaplin’s film of the two lovers heading off into the distance.
The desire to use film references to create emphasis is of such importance that in the scene that introduces Mr Haraldsson a reference is made to the tale of Eadweard Muybridge carrying out the first experiments that led to the creation of
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cinema through the experiment he carried out in San Francisco in which he used many consecutive, still photos of a horse trotting to show that a succession of still images could emulate movement, a discovery that led to the birth of cinema.
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MUSICAL REFERENCES Music is also an important part of the film. In fact, the title Vonlenska is the name given by the group Sigur Ros to their invented language. It’s a language made up of phonetic sounds that don’t make any sense or mean anything, with the idea that the ‘lyrics’ of songs sung in this ‘language’ take on the meaning that they suggest to the listener. This is similar to the idea behind the film, in which almost nothing seems to happen but it nevertheless takes on the meaning that the viewer gives to it.
Sigur Ros and Radiohead (who also feature in the soundtrack) are groups which, through their relaxing, temporally prolonged melodies, their slow rhythms and their serious notes, complement the film’s calm and serene ambience very well.
Another musical reference is the song Garota d’Ipanema, whose lyrics are by Vinícius de Moraes and its music by Antonio Carlos Jobim. It appears as a counterpoint in one particular moment in the film, with its warm, Caribbean rhythms, heard at a point when the characters are drunk, serving as a parenthesis that offsets the cold lives of the main characters.
To listen to Sigur Ros: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YEniWGLcWOk To listen to Radiohead: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Ih4bm-91Wq4 To listen to Garota d’Ipanema: http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=aQ7Xwl8dIzQ
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LITERARY REFERENCES There are also some literary references due to the fact that Haraldsson (and also his late wife) was once a poet and is now an avid reader of poetry.
The first literary reference is to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick Dick, which serves as a pretext to bring in the whale-watching trip and to talk about Kristjana, who was a university professor and an expert on Melville.
The other literary reference is to Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry book Illuminations, a result of Haraldsson having been a professor of French literature; the poem A Winter Dream holds a strong connection with Haraldsson’s life situation at the moment when he reads it.
Arthur Rimbaud
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FIRST SCENE FROM THE SCREENPLAY ACT ONE 1. EXT. NIGHT. REYKJAVĂ?K STREETS. Alec walks through the snowy streets of Reykjavik. It is also currently snowing. He is carrying a backpack and is much more under-dressed than the only two people he passes by. It seems as though he's not heading in any particular direction. The way he looks at things suggests it's the first time he has seen them. Violin music can be heard (coming from nearby apartment block). Alec stops, trying to work out where the music is coming from. He quickly sees it's from an apartment block with three balconies (the inside of the ground floor and the second flat are lit up, but not the third one). A sign hangs from the second flat's balcony that says "TO LET". A woman (Eir), bathed in a warm light, can be seen walking past the window of the second flat. 2. INT. NIGHT. IN EIR'S FLAT (We don't clearly see the faces Of the characters in this scene at any point; they are only seen in profile or from behind) Eir is just wearing a very fine t-shirt with straps, underwear and socks. She walks on tip toes to avoid making noise. She goes up some steps that lead up to a study, and begins to watch a man (Ian) who is in the corner of the room, playing a violin. He doesn't notice her watching. 3. EXT. NIGHT. REYKJAVĂ?K STREETS Alec takes a book out of his backpack in which he writes down the street and the number of the flat for rent, then tears out the sheet of paper and puts it in his pocket. He puts the book V
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away and carries on walking until he reaches a square. The square is surrounded with trees. In the middle of the square there is a statue and a phone box. Alec stops and then heads towards the phonebox. He goes in. 4. INT. NIGHT. BOX Alec leaves his backpack on the floor in the phonebox. He spends a couple of moments looking outside, watching the falling snow. There is a shelf under the phone with an empty bottle of Brennivin on it. He picks it up, brings it close to his nose, sniffs it and then quickly puts it back where he found it. He opens and closes his fists as though he is exercising his hands. He looks at the list of international prefixes and starts to dial a number that he knows by heart. He accidently presses two numbers at a time because he is wearing gloves. He hangs up the receiver, takes off the glove on his right hand and then dials the whole number. The first dial tone sounds. Nervous with anticipation, he hangs up the receiver, hurriedly picks up his bag and leaves the phonebox. 5. EXT. NIGHT. BOX. Alec walks purposefully, with the single goal of getting away from the phone box, but then he suddenly stops, turns around and heads back towards the phone. 6. INT. NIGHT. BOX Now, and with less of a ritual than the first time, he takes off his gloves once more and dials the number that he knows off by heart. We hear the ringing tone until a voice answers V
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GRACE
Hello?
ALEC
It's me.
GRACE (Silence) ALEC (Silence) GRACE Where are you? I can hear someone whistling. ALEC I'm in Reykjavík. Reykjavík?
GRACE ALEC
Yes.
GRACE (Silence) ALEC Before I left, I took a map and drew a line on it. From your house Reykjavik is the furthest point from you. (In the phone box, under the list of international prefixes, there is a map of V
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the world. Whilst he talks Alec draws an imaginary line with his finger from New Zealand to Iceland.) GRACE
But...
ALEC No, if you think about it, just by going a few kilometres from here, just by going to the next town, I would be a little closer to you again. The number of kilometres would start to go down, and then if I got on an aeroplane we wouldn't be as far away as we are now. GRACE Yeah, maybe. ALEC I know that we said we wouldn't call each other. GRACE (Silence) ALEC That it would be unfair on the other person. GRACE Why all the whistling? V
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ALEC It's the wind. I'm on my own, in a phone box outside. GRACE (Silence) ALEC Before I decided to call you, I thought about what you said to me once, about your grandmother. Do you remember? About how she didn't like it when she was doing things and the phone sounded, and she had to stop everything to concentrate on what the person was saying, without having a choice about it. And, on top of that, if it was about something important, the other person had the advantage of having been able to think about what they wanted to say, the best way to say it, the best arguments and the best time of day for them to call, while maybe she, at that very moment, was holding the phone with washing-up gloves covered in soap. GRACE You're right, I did tell you that. ALEC
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But I don't want this to be like that. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to. GRACE (Silence) ALEC Why don't you write to me sometime? GRACE (Silence) ALEC I'd like to get a letter from you. I could put it in my pocket and read it as many times as I wanted. It'd be like talking on the phone, only in silence. GRACE Why did you call me if you don't mind if I don't talk? ALEC I don't know. Maybe because often during the day I think about what you must be doing, if you're at the cinema, sunbathing on the balcony, or cooking, or whatever... But in the end it's just what I imagine, and knowing that you have the phone to your ear is the most real thing about you that I can have. V
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GRACE Alec, I have to go, okay? ALEC (Silence) One thing.
GRACE ALEC
Yes?
GRACE ...no, nothing... Don't ever go outside without a coat. ALEC Will you write to me? GRACE ...I don't know...
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