TELL ME ABOUT LOVE, FRIEND

Adapted by
Ilianna Ntouvli

Poem by
Anthony Anaxogorou

The Maidstone Studios

Vinters Park,
Maidstone,
Kent,
ME14 5NZ

INT. BEDROOM - MORNING

Couple looking at each other, lying in a bed.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Wed seen each other in the ugliest
forms...
FLASHBACK
Couple arguing. Female, Violet - mid 20s, throwing items
across room directed at Male. Male, Tom- mis 20s, gets
furious - starts shouting.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Fighting, broken-nosed, laughing
with bloody gums and torn skin...
Suddenly one of the items hits him.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Wed seen each other heartbroken,
drunk somewhere, gripping the neck
of a bottle...
In shock she stops. Looks down and starts crying.
VIOLET (V.O.)
As if it were our own suicidal
fault.
Tom goes across room stepping on bed to catch her and calm
her down. Kissing her in tender way. She kisses his wound.
They lie in bed.
VIOLET (V.O.)
I had seen him sleep, assured that
nobody could ever hurt him...
Tom asleep on her, as she strokes his hair slowly.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Alive in his dream...
Tom shuffling around - still asleep, having nightmare.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Positive that a nightmare could be
shaken off or that a good thought
could be prolonged...
Tom screaming in his dream, shuffling around. Violet holds
him tight to her, strokes his cheeks, shushing him, until he
calms down.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Just to be remembered until
tomorrow...

2.
Couple playing around, giggling, laughing, tickling each
other.
Lying in bed, Violets head leaning on Toms shoulder as they
talk.
VIOLET (V.O.)
He had seen me topless, skinny,
saying he wished ribs were
stronger.
(V.O. overlaps with
dialogue)
TOM
I wish ribs were stronger.
Tracing her ribs.
VIOLET (V.O.)
...that he wished he could trust
them
(V.O. overlaps with
dialogue)
TOM
I wish I could trust them...
Tom looks solemnly into the distance, as if remembering
something painful from the past. He suddenly closes his eyes
and drops his head to Violets stomach, hugging her tight,
quietly sobbing.
VIOLET (V.O.)
But he couldnt... neither could I.
VIOLET LOOKS INTO CAMERA.
VIOLET (V.O.)
...neither could I.
FADE OUT.
EXT. BACK YARD - NIGHT
Party environment. Group of people partying, stumbling
around, dancing, drinking some more.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Years later we were sitting with
the many who were with us in a
crackled yard...
Violet at the drinks/snacks table, looking at crowd of
partygoers in melancholy- daydreaming. She is suddenly pulled
by a friend of hers in to the dancing crowd and they start
swaying to the beat.

3.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Where the smell of sweat was always
the same and the noise was always
an industry of chainsaws.
As she looks around, she spots Tom in a drunken state. She
freezes.
VIOLET (V.O.)
He had returned from disappearing
again, looking different when he
drank...
Tom stumbles around the place, looking helpless.
C/U TOMS EYES CLOSING AND OPENING- FADED.
Tom rubs face as if trying to sober up.
VIOLET (V.O.)
His eyes would fall over more
frequently like he was trying to
leave himself in a place of
hopeless sobriety.
Not realising Violet was present, he tries to talk up some
girls- slurring his words, trying to keep himself up in the
drunken state he is at.
VIOLET (V.O.)
He spoke with painful slabs muscled
to his tongue, each word I would
chase down some old hawkish
street...
Violet still looking at him in sympathy.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Just as I did before.
She heads towards him - determined. Grabs him by his arm and
wraps it around the back of her neck trying to support him,
wrapping her other arm around his waist - taking him inside
the house.
VIOLET (V.O.)
In a time that favored the shape of
days we spoke about the way of the
world its calamity, its misfortune
and all those unsponsored backs we
once knew.
INT. KITCHEN
Violet fills a glass of water and gives it to him- trying to
sober him up.

4.
VIOLET (V.O.)
There were never questions as long
as answers had a sound, there was
brilliance in his eyes, stardom in
his drunkness.
Tom raises hand to her face. She flinches but he starts
stroking the side of her face.
VIOLET (V.O.)
I could see again the genius I
called friend up until I asked him
for his thoughts on LoveTOM
Its unflowering wreckage
abandonement and thin gambling.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Chucking the last pool of liquor to
the back of his throat he bowed the
glass and walked clear out the
place leaving nothing but me
behind.
Violet goes in for a kiss. She lands a peck, after a few
seconds he ABRUPTLY pulls away as if shocked by electricity.
Grabs a bottle he finds on kitchen counter and starts
chugging the remains of the liquor inside. Puts bottle back
down on counter and leaves.
Violets lets out a small sob, trying to register what just
happened.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Now I sit hurting some struggles
later somewhere unknown to him in
an age of untempered concerns,
worries of a different texture.
Tears start trickling down her cheeks.
FLASHBACK
INT. BEDROOM - MORNING
Couple lying on bed. Toms head on Violets chest, tracing
circles around her belly button.
TOM
Wars still happen...
VIOLET (V.O.)
He was right about that.

5.
TOM
Books are forever weapons...
VIOLET (V.O.)
He was right about that too, but I
miss his happening troubles, those
chattering chipped teeth that spoke
in a universal currency...
Couple kiss, then lean their foreheads against each others.
INT. FRONT HALLWAY
Violet coming in to house, finding letter on floor. Picks it
up and heads upstairs to her bedroom.
VIOLET (V.O.)
Yet just the other day a note
arrived addressed to the younger
me, a me only he still had, it was
hand written , defiant in the age
of model binary.
INT. BEDROOM
She sits on bed. With shaky hands she tries to open letter.
VIOLET (V.O.)
I read plainly as if it had
discovered for itself the shortest
response to my most lasting
concern...
Once opened, she starts reading.
SLOW ZOOM TO WRITING ON PIECE OF PAPER.
TOM (V.O.)
Forgive it all.
Tearful, Violet looks up into camera and attempts to wipe the
tears that have now trickled down her rosy cheeks.
FADE TO BLACK.