One Chance Page #4

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PAUL:

I got a job.

10.

ROLAND:

What, that bloody musical down the

community centre?

PAUL:

Mobile phone shop in Bridgend.

ROLAND:

Oh... Well done... So, you’ll be getting

your own place then?

PAUL:

Actually, um, I’ve been saving up for

opera lessons...in Italy.

ROLAND:

You’re twenty-nine years old, Paul.

Singing lessons can wait.

They turn up the path to their home. Paul hesitates a

moment letting Roland go up the steps ahead of him.

Furious, he opens his mouth to speak, but loses his

nerve...

Music is heard - Pavarotti singing “Che Gelida Manina”

from La Boeme.

CUT TO:

AN LP COVER; PAVAROTTI IN FULL CLOWN (CANIO FROM

PAGLIACCI)

INT. PAUL’S BEDROOM - NIGHT

TRACK ACROSS walls plastered with posters and downloaded

print-outs of images from the opera world: The Three

Tenors; Caruso; a program from La Traviata in Rome; and

finally a virtual shrine to Pavarotti, his great hero...

ENDING ON:

A PAIR OF KNITTING NEEDLES

Pointed skyward, quivering slightly in anticipation...

Then slicing and waving through the air as Paul angrily

“conducts” the music as the refrain kicks in.

Gradually, Paul is enveloped and the thrashing needles

slow and subside and finally slip to the ground as,

panting, he stops the record, revealing a muffled BANGING

coming from downstairs.

11.

INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT

As Paul makes his way down the stairs and into the kitchen

where Roland is already at the table.

ROLAND:

Always with the bloody violins. Won’t

shed a tear when they’ve packed and gone.

YVONNE:

(serving dinner)

What do you mean gone? Paul, are you

going somewhere.

PAUL:

Venice.

ROLAND:

Oh no, this singing rubbish has gone on

long enough. He’s got a job, he can get

his own flat.

YVONNE:

Pish-posh.

(to Paul)

Stay forever darling. Here you are.

As she places an enormous plate in front of Paul.

ROLAND:

Christ, Yvonne, He can hardly fit through

the door as it is.

PAUL:

(to Roland)

Look, I get it. I’m never going to be a

professional singer. I just... It’s the

only thing that makes me-- Let me go to

Venice and I’ll move out when I get back.

Yvonne looks at Roland, eyes pleading Paul’s case.

CUT TO:

INT. STIARWELL - DAY

As Paul, gasping and sweating and carrying two moving

boxes, climbs several flights up the increasingly narrow

staircase until he reaches the top floor and the door to-

12.

INT. A TINY STUDIO APARTMENT - DAY

Where he drops the boxes alongside several others. The

room is partially unpacked with his pictures of Pavarotti

and Toscanini already hung with prominence, and his

computer has been set up atop a “desk” made from several

other boxes.

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