The English Patient Page #5

19a*.INT. THE PATIENT'S ROOM. DAY.

HANA walks down to the Patient's Room and stands in the doorway. The

Patient turns his head to her. He's grinning. He puts up a thumb. On

the track a song begins: Some Other Time.

20*.EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. 1938. LATE DAY.

THE SONG CONTINUED IN THE DESERT where we find the singer - PETER

MADOX, a weather-beaten man who is working on the guts of an BATTERED

TIGER MOTH AEROPLANE. His face is blackened with oil. A second

European, ALM�SY, stands beside him, holding tools and a section of the

camshaft. Madox yanks out a perished rubber hose and holds it up for

Almasy to inspect. Behind them is an ENCAMPMENT - some camels foraging

in the meager scrub, half a dozen black tents of the BEDOUIN: guides

and servants to the Alm�sy/Madox Expedition. It's 1938 and the whole

continent is full of such expeditions, competing with each other,

pursuing lost treasures, sources of rivers, hidden cities.

D'AGOSTINO, the team's Italian ARCHEOLOGIST, drives towards the plane

in one of the expedition's adapted FORD MOTORCARS. He gets out

carrying a large earthenware WATER JAR. He looks very pleased with

himself as he shows the jar to Alm�sy and then passes it to Madox.

D'AGOSTINO

Thirsty?

MADOX:

(sniffing inside)

What's this?

D'AGOSTINO

Don't drink it!

He reaches for the jug, then pours out a little sludge - it's a

brackish and stinks. Madox makes a face.

D'AGOSTINO

I can't guarantee the vintage, my

friends. I just dug it out of the hill.

Madox and Alm�sy have seen many such jugs.

MADOX:

Excellent. That's terrific, D'Ag.

(to Alm�sy, of a tool)

Toss that up, would you.

D'AGOSTINO

(mischievously)

There are some others.

21EXT. POTTERY HILL. DAY.

THE BASE OF A HILL SEEMS COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF POTTERY JARS.

D'Agostino emerges over the brow of a dune, leading Madox and Alm�sy.

The other members of the team are already there - BERMANN, a German

PHOTOGRAPHER and FOUAD, EGYPTOLOGIST from Cairo.

MADOX:

(to Alm�sy, astonished)

My God, look at this!

They bend to touch the jars, literally hundreds of them, mostly broken,

piled on top of each other. Bermann approaches them, carrying his

tripod.

BERMANN:

Incredible, Hmm? Quite incredible.

D'AGOSTINO

I've never seen anything like it. There

would have been enough water here to

serve an army.

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