
Big Eyes
FADE IN:
TITLE SEQUENCE:
TIGHT on TWO PAINTED EYES. The pupils are impossibly wide.
Imploring. The watery rims spill a single tear.
We PULL OUT... revealing the eyes belong to a child. A young
girl, fingers clasped pitifully. She's forlorn, alone in a
dirty gray alley. We feel shame. Compassion. Sorrow...
Then -- an IDENTICAL girl SLAPS in front of the first one.
Then another! It's a PRINTING PRESS, the creation of a BLUR
of sad children.
A KINETIC montage! HORDES of gazing WAIFS get lithographed,
bundled:
Huddling in worry. Floating in space. POSTERS.POSTCARDS. BOOKS.
We ZOOM into a MAGAZINE AD: A 1960's era come-on -- "IT'S
KEANE! MUSEUM-QUALITY ART, MAILED DIRECTLY TO YOUR HOME!"
A blizzard of NEWSPAPER ARTICLES: "Meet America's Million-
Dollar Painter!" "Keane Masterpiece at World's Fair"
Painted EYES float by. Haunting... questioning...
Old POLAROIDS:
A family Christmas, a Keane print over themantel. Kids play bumper pool, a Keane print in the b.g.
A blurry black-and-white TV: A talk show HOST holds up a Keane
PAINTING --
MUSIC BUILDS. FASTER. Keane brochures. Catalogs. A flyer:
"Now Open! Keane Gallery"
MORE orphan's faces. Hungry, unblinking, beseeching.
A CRESCENDO -- then -- SILENCE.
"I think what Keane has done is just
terrific. It has to be good. If it
were bad, so many people wouldn't like
it."
-- ANDY WARHOL
CUT TO:
EXT. SUBURBIA - 1958
A nice, orderly tract of post-World War II housing. Identical
rows of little yards. Young MOMS. Scampering KIDS.
Then, a SUBTITLE: "TEN YEARS EARLIER"
2.
INT. HOUSE - DAY
CU on two concerned eyes. The same eyes as the paintings. We
REVEAL they belong to a real girl: JANE, 8. She sits in her
small house -- a typical young family's, spare and
underfurnished.
Suddenly -- Jane's mother MARGARET ULBRICH, 28, rushes through
frame. Margaret is blonde, yearning, fragile. Terribly
upset, she is hurriedly packing.
Margaret throws her clothes in a suitcase.
She shoves Jane's clothes and toys into another.
Margaret barrels through the breakfast nook, which is a mini
art studio -- easel, canvases, paints. She scoops up her
supplies.
Margaret runs to the door -- then turns. The hallway is lined
with her PAINTINGS. Oils and inks of wide-eyed Jane, who
grows from baby to toddler to child. Hastily, Margaret takes
them down, each frame leaving an empty mark on the flowered
wallpaper. Finally she reaches the last spot -- a WEDDING
PHOTO:
Margaret and her HUSBAND, smiling, happy.Margaret peers -- then leaves it hanging. The door SLAMS.
CUT TO:
EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY
Cars roar down an interstate.
Margaret grips the wheel, uncertain. Jane stares. The car is
all loaded up. REFLECTIONS of passing BILLBOARDS drift across
the windshield. Images of perky, happy-fake Americans.
Translation
Translate and read this script in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:
"Big Eyes" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 22 Jan. 2021. <https://www.scripts.com/script/big_eyes_1071>.