October 7, 2002

  • Music for R.D. Laing


    In honor of the birth in Scotland on this date in 1927 of R. D. Laing, author of The Facts of Life, this site’s music is today taken from the classic film “The Piano.”









    Laing



     

    From the 1991 4th draft of Jane Campion’s screenplay for
                         “The Piano”:







                             FLORA
                   Tell me about my real father.

    ADA nods and strokes FLORA’s hair from her face. FLORA leans back.

                   How did you speak to him?

    ADA signs to FLORA who watches in love with all the stories of her mother and unreal father.

                             ADA (subtitled)
                   I didn’t need to speak, I could
                   lay thoughts out in his mind
                   like they were a sheet

                             FLORA
                   What happened? Why didn’t you
                   get married?

    ADA continues to sign, her hands casting odd animal-like shadows on the newspapered walls.

                             ADA cont.
                   After a while he became
                   frightened and he stopped
                   listening.

     

    Later….

     

                             STEWART
                   (slowly)
                   She has spoken to me. I heard
                   her voice. There was no sound,
                   but I heard it here (he presses
                   his forehead with a palm of his
                   hand). Her voice was there in
                   my head. I watched her lips,
                   they did not make the words,
                   yet the harder I listened the
                   clearer I heard her, as clear
                   as I hear you, as clear as I
                   hear my own voice.

                             BAINES
                   (trying to understand)
                   Spoken words?

                             STEWART
                   No, but her words are in my
                   head. (He looks at BAINES and
                   pauses.) I know what you think,
                   that it’s a trick, that I’m
                   making it up. No, the words I
                   heard were her words.

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