The English Patient Page #6

ALM�SY

(gloomily)

Which means we're in the wrong place.

Alm�sy speaks with a slight but unmistakable European accent.

D'AGOSTINO

Why?

ALM�SY

Would you stockpile water near to an

Oasis? There can't be a natural spring

within fifty miles of here.

FOUAD:

Or they didn't know of one.

BERMANN:

So, it may not be Zerzura, still

incredible.

D'AGOSTINO

(nodding, delighted)

A pottery hill!

ALM�SY

A wild goose chase.

MADOX:

(firmly)

No.

Alm�sy gives him a look. But Madox will have none of it.

MADOX:

No. Now we look in the other places.

We're eliminating.

The unmistakable buzz of AN AEROPLANE distracts them.

MADOX:

Good, and here comes reinforcements.

21a*.EXT. BASE CAMP AT POTTERY HILL. DAY.

LATER and a smart new aeroplane, a STEERMAN, makes a smooth landing on

the flat desert. The expedition team drives over to meet the arrivals.

Alm�sy is not with them. He's walking, apparently not so enthusiastic.

A young, kissed and newly-married couple emerge from the plane. They

are GEOFFREY AND KATHARINE CLIFTON.

And it's immediately clear that Katharine is the woman in the plane-

crash at the beginning of the film.

Madox makes all the introductions. Hands are shaken, hellos all round,

as the couple disembark in their leather flying gear. Geoffrey removes

his helmet and, in what we will come to know as an ubiquitous gesture,

produces a bottle of CHAMPAGNE and sets off the cork with a flourish.

CLIFTON:

I hereby Christen us the International

Sand Club!

22EXT. BASECAMP AT POTTERY HILL. LATE DAY.

The party is in the shade of the tents. Alm�sy joins the group. Madox

nods over to the Clifton plane.

MADOX:

Marvelous plane. Did you look?

CLIFTON:

(beaming at Alm�sy)

Isn't it? Wedding present from

Katharine's parents. I'm calling it

Rupert Bear. Hello. Geoffrey Clifton.

MADOX:

We can finally consign my old bird

to the scrapheap.

Alm�sy smiles and walks on towards the others.

D'AGOSTINO

Mrs. Clifton - Count Almasy.

KATHARINE:

(smiling, offering her hand)

Geoffrey gave me your monograph when

I was reading up on the desert.

Very impressive.

ALM�SY

(stiff)

Thank you.

KATHARINE:

I wanted to meet a man who could write

such a long paper with so few adjectives.

ALM�SY

A thing is still a thing no matter what

you place in front of it. Big car, slow

car, chauffeur-driven car, still a car.

CLIFTON:

(joining them and joining in)

A broken car?

ALM�SY

Still a car.

CLIFFTON:

(hands them champagne)

Not much use, though.

KATHARINE:

Love? Romantic love, platonic love,

filial love - ? Quite different things,

surely?

CLIFTON:

(hugging Katharine)

Uxoriousness - that's my favorite kind

of love. Excessive love of one's wife.

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