INT. CHARLES AND VIRGINIA’S BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING
CHARLES is putting on his tie and fixing his hair while his wife VIRGINIA lies despondent in bed. She looks sickly and unhappy, staring blankly at the wall.
CHARLES
(stroking her hair with a concerned look on his face) Good morning. How do you feel today? (She doesn’t respond)
CHARLES (CONT’D)
Do you hurt? (Virginia nods, Charles walks into the bathroom and returns with a glass of water and a pill which he sets down gently on the bedside table.)
CHARLES (CONT’D)
Try to be cheery today okay? I love you (kisses her forehead, a smile flickers on Virginia’s face and quickly disappears. Charles leaves and Virginia’s eyes linger on the pill.)
CUT TO:
EXT. METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIO- MORNING
CHARLES walks up the road leading into the studio. He looks discouraged and worried. He is smoking. He passes a SECURITY GUARD who allows him to enter.
CUT TO:
INT. METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIO- MORNING
It is the set of the 1935 film Anna Karenina. GRIPS and STAGEHANDS scurry about as THE DIRECTOR yells directions. A MAN with a clapboard steps in front of the camera.
MAN WITH CLAPBOARD
Anna Karenina, Scene 6, take four.
DIRECTOR
Action! (The man with the clapboard claps it and steps out of frame.
(Enter GRETA GARBO and BASIL RATHBONE, fake snow blows around the set)
BASIL (KARENIN)
For some time, I have known that in uniting my life to yours, I have made a mistake. But this I must bear for the sake of my public duty... and for the sake of my child. I believe in marriage as a sacrament. I could not consider myself justified in breaking the ties by which we are bound by a higher power. The family cannot be broken up by a... whim or a caprice.
(Charles is sprinkling uncooked cornflakes in front of a large fan to create fake snow and watching the action intently. He is especially focused on Greta, we see a close up of Greta’s face illuminated by the stage lights.)
GRETA (ANNA)
But it can't go on.
BASIL (KARENIN)
It must. I have stated these views in public, and I will not violate them in private.
GRETA
Then you will not give me a divorce?
(Slow dolly in to Charles’s face as we hear Greta speaking in the background)
CUT TO:
INT. A DINER JUST - JUST AFTER DUSK
CHARLES enters a diner and buys a coffee. As he waits for his coffee he puts another cigarette in his mouth. He notices A WOMAN sitting at the far end of the bar. She has her head covered and is wearing tinted glasses. She is reading a novel. Charles does a double take and realizes it is GRETA GARBO She has an unlit cigarette in her mouth and is fumbling for a lighter. Charles receives his coffee and walks towards her, pulling a Zippo lighter out of his pocket.
CHARLES
Good Read? (Lights her cigarette)
GRETA
It is wonderful, but very sad.
CHARLES
(Lighting his own cigarette) The Russians are sad people.
GRETA
You Americans don’t look so cheerful either.
CHARLES
I guess you’re right. Been in the country long?
GRETA
I know you, (removes glasses) you’re the man who makes the snow.
CHARLES
Among other things. My name’s Charles (shakes her hand) And I know you; that is, I know who you are.
GRETA
Oh you do? And who am I? (In a dramatic russian accent) A Russian aristocrat who is tortured by the love she feels for a man who is not her husband?
CHARLES
Well you had me convinced.
GRETA
Nonsense, my accent is less Russian than yours.
CHARLES
(Speaks a phrase in broken Russian)
GRETA
Very good! You should be my Count Vronsky. You’re better looking than Fredric.
CHARLES
Nah... Better than Basil maybe.
GRETA
(Laughs) Where did you learn?
CHARLES
I sailed with the Merchant Marine for a few years. Spent some of that time in Murmansk.
GRETA
How did you like it?
CHARLES
Like I said, sad people, and not one girl half as pretty as you.
GRETA
From what I’ve heard, that doesn’t stop a sailor. Tell me, (looking at his wedding ring) were you married before or after you took to the
high seas?
CHARLES
Now there’s a story. It was before.
GRETA
What’s her name.
CHARLES
Virginia.
GRETA
And how did the Russian women compare to your Virginia?
CHARLES
(takes a long drag on the cigarette, exhales slowly and smiles) Her smile would have melted all the ice in Murmansk.
GRETA
Well then you should take her out on the town more often. Maybe she could cheer up some of the gloomy faces. But then, you sometimes look a little gloomy yourself.
CHARLES
That’s your job isn’t it? That’s what the movies are for.
GRETA
If that’s the case then I’m afraid this movie will be the end of my career.
CHARLES
You don’t have to make them smile, but maybe if they cry enough about Anna’s tragic story they’ll forget their own for a while.
GRETA
Perhaps. And if people like the movie maybe some of them will decide to read this lovely, sad book. I’ve read it twice. This is my third time.
CHARLES
Tolstoy must be a hell of a writer.
GRETA
Well, he knows something about love.
CHARLES
What does he know?
GRETA
You want to hear my favorite part?
CHARLES
Sure.
GRETA
(Flips through book until she finds a marked page then reads) “I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be.”
(A BEAT)
CHARLES
That’s nice.
GRETA
It is.
CUT TO:
EXT. THE STREET LEADING UPT TO CHARLE'S HOME - NIGHTTIME
CHARLES walks up the road. He arrives at his front porch and as he does the door opens. VIRGINIA steps out, her hands hang at her sides, her face is unreadable. Charles looks up at her and she walks slowly down the steps and embraces Charles. As she does so she begins to weep softly. Charles holds her and strokes her hair, kissing her cheek softly.
(The camera pulls back as Charles and Virginia hold each other on the front porch.)
FADE TO BLACK.
