Lady in the Van: The Screenplay - Softcover

Bennett, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250089743 ISBN 13: 9781250089748

Verlag: Macmillan USA, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

The screenplay edition of the major motion picture adaptation, starring Maggie Smith, of Alan Bennett's acclaimed story "The Lady in the Van." This edition features an introduction by director Nicholas Hytner (Miss Saigon, The History Boys), and a new preface and film diary by the author.

From acclaimed author and playwright Alan Bennett, whose smash hit The History Boys won a Tony Award for Best Play, comes the screenplay of The Lady in the Van-soon to be a major motion picture starring Dame Maggie Smith.

The Lady in the Van is the true story of Bennett's experiences with an eccentric homeless woman, Miss Mary Shepherd, whom he befriended in the 1970s and allowed to temporarily park her van in front of his Camden home. She ended up staying there for fifteen years, resulting in an uncommon, often infuriating, and always highly entertaining friendship of a lifetime for the author.

Read the screenplay of the film destined to be among the most talked about of the year, and discover the unbelievable story of one of the most unlikely-yet heartwarmingly real-relationships in modern literature.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Alan Bennett has been one of England's leading dramatists since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. His work includes the Talking Heads television series, and the stage plays Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, and The Madness of King George III. His play, The History Boys (now a major motion picture), won six Tony Awards, including best play, in 2006. In the same year his memoir, Untold Stories, was a number-one bestseller in the United Kingdom.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

The Lady in the Van

The Screenplay

By Alan Bennett

Picador

Copyright © 2015 Forelake Ltd.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-250-08974-8

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Notice, 
Foreword, 
Preface, 
Film Diary, 
The Lady in the Van: The Screenplay, 
About the Author, 
Also by Alan Bennett, 
Copyright, 

CHAPTER 1

The sound of squealing brakes, then a car crash.

FADE IN

EXT. COUNTRY ROAD. DAY. (1960)

A country lane c. 1960 with MISS SHEPHERD at the wheel of a van barrelling along, her face set and anxious. Distantly we hear the sound of a police siren (or bell it would be in 1960). She pulls the van into a side road or clearing and waits, ducking behind the seat as she sees the police car pass the end of the road. MISS SHEPHERD rights herself, checks the side of the van. Wipes her hand on it. Blood. She crosses herself. Then starts up the van and drives off the way she has come.

As she turns the corner, we see that the police car has stopped at the end of the road. A solitary policeman, UNDERWOOD, gets out of the car and watches the van disappear.

ROLL TITLES over —

INT. CONCERT HALL. NIGHT.

A glamorous pianist in a décolleté evening gown (along the lines of Anne Todd in 'The Seventh Veil' c. 1947) playing some bravura piano concerto.

As the titles end, so does the concerto, and we hear ALAN BENNETT in voice over and cut to —

INT. 23 GLOUCESTER CRESCENT. STUDY. DAY.

ALAN BENNETT at his desk, writing.

ALAN BENNETT (V.O.)

The smell is sweet, with urine only a minor component, the prevalent odour suggesting the inside of someone's ear. Dank clothes are there too, wet wool and onions, which she eats raw, plus what for me has always been the essence of poverty, damp newspaper.

The sound of the lavatory flushing. ALAN BENNETT looks towards the toilet door.

ALAN BENNETT (V.O.) (CONT'D)

Miss Shepherd's multi-flavoured aroma is masked by a liberal application of various talcum powders, with Yardley's Lavender always a favourite, and currently it is this genteel fragrance that dominates, the second subject, as it were, in her odoriferous concerto.

MISS SHEPHERD comes out of the lavatory, pulls down her skirt, and leaves through the front door. We see something of the inside of the house and its contents, still at this date, c. 1976, fairly uncluttered.

ALAN BENNETT (V.O.)

But as she goes the original theme returns, her own primary odour now triumphantly restated and left hanging in the house long after she has departed.

Out of the window we see Miss Shepherd's van parked in the drive and MISS SHEPHERD herself rearranges some plastic bags beneath the van. She is tall and though her changes of costume will not be described in detail, she is generally dressed in an assortment of coats and headscarves but with a variety of other hats superimposed on the headscarves. Old raincoats figure, as do carpet slippers and skirts which have often been lengthened by the simple process of sewing on additional strips of material. She is about sixty-five.

ALAN BENNETT

(at the desk, speaks)

Tell her.

As he watches through the window, A.B. — his other self — comes out of the house.

EXT. 23 GLOUCESTER CRESCENT. DAY.

A.B. approaches the van.

A.B.

(at the van)

Miss Shepherd. In future I would prefer it if you didn't use my lavatory. There are lavatories at the bottom of the High Street. Use those.

MISS SHEPHERD

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Macmillan USA
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1250089743
• ISBN 13: 9781250089748
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 242
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Picador; https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador; ; Units 1 & 2 Chater Court; Market Deeping; Lincs; PE6 8AH; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland