(Male Announcer reads text on screen)
(Musical jingle)
(gentle acoustic music)
- And my publisher, he won't return my calls,
so, (snickers) I had to check in with you.
Well, is it doing all right?
Over there, is it selling at all?
- No, it's not, Lenny.
I'm sure that's why they're not returning your calls.
I had talked to Mike at the agency
and he said that McClelland & Stewart
they will not publish your book in the US.
It's their loss.
They don't even have the balls down there
to publish a provocative novel.
- Yeah, you have to be very charitable with these people,
and they haven't read anything.
They wouldn't know Joyce if he crawled up
inside of their ass and laid an egg, you know?
- Fuck 'em, right? (chuckles)
- So, it's really not selling at all?
Really, it's not...
I thought maybe in some kind of a fringe
PhD section of Montreal, at least, it would...
I mean, I really rely on this book and...
- Hey, Lenny, Lenny, come on, listen to me.
Might be a slow burner, you know?
It'll pick up.
- So, you don't feel I'm a bad writer, right?
- No, I'm telling you the truth.
I believe in you.
I believe in us.
- It's just hard, you know, this game is very...
It's, it's...
- Lenny... - It's brutal.
You know? It's brutal.
- Lenny, just stay sane and continue writing, all right?
(phone line beeping)
(phone line buzzing)
(tense music)
(tense music continues)
(sentimental guitar music)
(sentimental guitar music continues)
(sentimental music)
(sentimental music continues)
(bell chiming)
(relaxing guitar music)
(relaxing guitar music continues)
(speaking in foreign language)
(relaxing guitar music)
- Good morning. - Good morning.
(relaxing guitar music)
(speaking in foreign language)
- They're putting up phone wires.
- Maybe if my book sells any copies,
we could afford to have our own.
- Our own phone!
That would be cool.
- Very grown up.
- [Marianne] (chuckles) Yeah.
- Play something.
- For my audience of two?
- [Marianne] Mm-hmm. Your biggest fans.
- My only fans.
(sentimental guitar music)
♪ I'm a bird ♪
♪ On the wire ♪
♪ The men were working on telephone wires ♪
(speaking in foreign language)
♪ And now you're tired of this song ♪
- (cheering and clapping) We want more.
More songs.
- Really, that's all I have.
- Well, it was beautiful.
- I should really get to work.
- Oh, why don't you write in here and we can go out?
- It's much easier for me to write outside.
(birds twittering)
- Just remember to drink water.
Lots of water. - Okay, Marianne.
- [Marianne] And put a hat on, please,
because you were out there 12 hours yesterday.
(chuckles)
- Hello. - Hello.
- You out shopping?
- Yeah, I just picked up some groceries.
- I'm just about to walk to Kamini if you wanna join me.
We can maybe go for a swim or something after.
- Yeah, sure.
- Yeah.
- What are you going to Kamini for?
- I'm going to go and see a man about a cargo boat.
We're leaving.
- What? What?
When? Why?
- You know, because we're slowly dying here.
Because we both know how easily
we can wound and hurt each other
and I guess we always try to avoid that.
George is leaving in a month,
and when he's found a place to stay, we'll join him.
When I first got here,
I mean, it was like the first time in my life
that I didn't feel like an outsider.
I'd managed to build a life
and find the time to care for my family and write.
And we were pretty much the first foreigners on the island.
Fifteen years later, they're everywhere.
I'm starting to feel like an exile myself.
And all these new ones, none of them,
they don't want us here.
- No, you don't mean that.
You and George, you are this island.
You hold the whole community together.
- Oh, God, we barely hold ourselves together, dear.
(waves lapping)
I grew up like this.
We lived kind of remotely and we were pretty poor,
but we had the beach,
and it was this kind of combined nursery and playground.
- Did you always know that you wanted to write?
- My mother wrote poetry.
She used to tear it up and throw it in the fire.
But I guess I get my particular,
meaning from her.
What did you wanna do?
- Actress. (snickers)
- I can see that.
- It's too late now, though.
- No, nothing's too late.
You should do it.
(waves lapping)
How is Leonard?
I haven't seen him for a long time.
- Well, he's writing most of the time, so.
- [Leonard] Cunt, fuck.
There's nothing there.
I was lost on the road to Larissa,
the straight road between the cedars.
You thought I was a man of roads
and you loved me for being such a man
But I was not such a man
I was not such a man, I was lost.
I was lost on the road to Larissa.
I was lost
I was not such a man
I've never been a man
Cunt, cunt, fuck, fuck.
- I feel like I shouldn't be saying this,
but I think he's obsessed.
He doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep.
I try but, you know, I can't get through to him.
And he works early in the morning,
and then he just comes home late at night, and he's just...
Yeah. I don't know.
- Well, how long has that been going on?
- A month?
Longer, a little longer, maybe. Yeah.
- How's your son? Where is he?
- He's with our neighbour.
She looks after him one day a week,
which is my day off. (chuckles)
- Oh, yes. It's one day off.
- It's okay.
- Careful not to lose your identity, Marianne.
- What do you mean?
I'm...
I'm me.
- I'm just saying, don't buy into what society feeds you,
which is to...
You know, that a woman's job is in the home.
I don't know, I've spent my life, you know,
bound by my three little children and George
just working, working, writing, writing, writing non-stop.
And, you know, I find time to do a minute of writing
or something creative here.
And amongst the breakfast and lunch and dinner
and cooking and laundry and cleaning, and I just,
I just think it's death to any woman
with ambition or talent.
- Well, what do you think you would have done
or would it have been very different
if you didn't have children?
- Yes. (snickers)
I love them, but
I don't know.
I think most women are lying when they say they enjoy it.
I think they just,
they just say that because that's what's expected of them.
And I'm a better writer than George.
But I've managed to create nothing.
I mean, maybe the idea of this Australian female novelist,
the idea of Charmian Clift,
but really it's just a bloody joke.
- And so, now that you're going back to Australia,
what do you wanna do, what?
- I think I'd like to try writing
for television and film.
What do you want to do?
- Just recently, this,
there's a clothing brand in Athens
and they asked me if I wanted to model for them.
So they're gonna do the photo shoot here on the island
and I'm gonna be a model. (chuckles)
- Well, that's exciting.
- Mm.
(utensils clinking)
(uptempo guitar music)
♪ Four o'clock in the afternoon ♪
♪ And I didn't feel like very much ♪
♪ I said to myself ♪
♪ Where are you, golden boy ♪
♪ Where is your famous golden touch ♪
♪ I thought you knew ♪
♪ Where all of the elephants lie down ♪
♪ I thought you were the crown prince ♪
♪ Of all the wheels in Ivory Town ♪
♪ Just take a look at your body now ♪
(speaking in foreign language)
- Leonard.
♪ And a voice in the mirror cries ♪
♪ Hey, prince, you need a shade ♪
♪ And if you can manage ♪
♪ To get your trembling fingers to behave ♪
♪ Why not unwrapping ♪
♪ A stainless still razor blade ♪
♪ That's right, it's come to this ♪
- Hi. - Hi.
♪ Yeah, it's come to this ♪
♪ And wasn't it a long way down ♪
♪ It's just the dress rehearsal rag ♪
♪ It's just a dress rehearsal rag ♪
♪ It's the dress rehearsal rag ♪
- Why do you hate my blood?
Why?
Why do you hate my blood
You fuck.
- Leonard?
Anyone home?
(footsteps thumping)
How's it going? You all right?
It's looking a lot of writing there you're doing.
- I've been working on this scene,
and I realised punctuation's some kind of prison.
So, I'm going and going.
I hear you.
What?
That's bullshit.
That's bullshit!
You think I wanna do that?
You think I wanna eat your friend?
Fuck you.
Fuck you, you fucking bitch!
Fuck you!
- Which one's-
- I thought we had an understanding, you fucker!
You fucker!
- Which one's the problem?
- They're all the fucking problem. (screams)
- Here we go.
Let's get rid of the daisies. - These fuckers!
- Yes.
Let me. - These fuckers!
- Let me take charge.
(thumping) Fucking got 'em!
- Fuckers!
Fuckers!
- So you've given up on the
three-page-a-day then routine, eh?
- I haven't given up,
I do more than three pages a day.
- Yeah? - Yeah, yeah.
- What are you on? - 17.
- 17? - Yeah, 17.
- That's a lot of material.
- [Leonard] Yeah.
- In a day.
You using anything for that?
- If you must know, the flowers still feed me little lines
but we all benefit from the earth.
- I mean, besides the flowers, are you using anything?
(footsteps thumping)
- Why would you ask me that?
- 'Cause I'm your friend.
I mean, I couldn't do a page count like that.
- Well, you know I'm Captain Mandrax.
So, like Mandrax, I always have.
- Why don't you come inside with me for a bit, eh?
The energy will come back, Leonard.
You're on a roll, mate.
- Mm.
- Come on.
It's too hot for me.
Come on, mate.
Let's go.
(glass clinking)
You know, what I'm trying to say to you, Leonard,
is don't kill yourself, mate, because it's just a book.
- Yeah, I know. (snickers)
Thank you.
(chuckles) I'm officially no longer promising,
and I do promise a lot.
So, you know, I don't know.
- You're talking to a man
who's been writing books he doesn't care about
for the last 20 bloody years.
- And would you do it differently, really,
if you'd do it again?
- Oh, I don't know.
I got to be a writer.
I've been pretty lucky with the family,
there's Charm and the kids, despite everything.
(breathes deeply) The war saw me travelling.
I was in 64 countries as a newspaper man.
Went to China, Gobi Desert.
Worked in the States, England.
Ended up here.
Nah, I don't think I'd change much.
(cigarette crackling softly)
You know, when we came here, me and Charm,
we had a dream
and Yeah, for a while, things were pretty good.
But now, I'm married to a full-blown alcoholic
and I'm sure she'd say the same of me.
I'm gonna try to write that book.
Bestseller. Important one.
Give it one last crack
and finish it here.
Go home and polish it.
- What's it, what's it about?
- Sort of a personal examination.
Starting with my childhood,
I'm gonna place myself in the narrative, you know,
see where it leads.
All those faceless young men coming home
from the First World War,
trying to make sense of it as a kid.
That's what it's about.
Yours?
- Mine is really a sexual exploration.
It's a love triangle where there's no love.
You know, I'm hoping that the reader falls into the pages.
So, it's really a relationship of four.
There's lots of sex, there's lots of thoughts about God.
It's my examination of myself.
- So, you're going the Crest commercial route then, are you?
(Leonard chuckles)
(coughs uncontrollably)
Fuck!
It's okay. Just give us a moment.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Fuck.
Now, this is important.
As writers, it's our duty to the reader
to give them a happy ending
because life doesn't bloody have one.
It's fucking sickness, regret, decay,
a few pleasant memories if you're lucky.
And that's it.
So, it's up to us to give the reader
a happy ending once in a while.
Can you do that for me?
- I'll have to have an ending first.
- Well, yes, but do it for me, Leonard, please.
(sniffs) Come here.
- I just wish you wouldn't leave.
- Come here.
I'll tell you what.
I'll stick around for another month
if you promise to try not to kill yourself, all right?
Because it's only a bloody book.
Do you understand me? (lip smacks)
All right.
Now you drink some water and you get some shade.
(tense dramatic music)
Thanks for the water.
(tense dramatic music)
♪ I stepped into an avalanche ♪
♪ It covered up my soul ♪
♪ When I am not this hunchback that you see ♪
♪ I sleep beneath the golden hill ♪
♪ You who wish to conquer pain ♪
♪ You must learn ♪
♪ Learn to serve me well ♪
(tense guitar music)
(tense guitar music continues)
♪ You strike my side by accident ♪
♪ As you go down ♪
- Leonardo.
(book thuds)
(speaking in foreign language)
You know where to send?
My friend, are you? (clapping)
(melancholic music)
(water splashing)
(water burbling)
(melancholic music)
(exhales sharply)
(thuds faintly)
(melancholic music)
(melancholic music continues)
- See his eyes.
Yellow and bloodshot.
Symptoms of kidney failure.
Move him, he'll die.
I'll try to restore all the electrolytes he has lost.
I've given him water salt.
- So he's going to be okay?
- Don't know.
(sombre music)
(waves lapping)
- [Leonard] Nothing left to do
when you know that you've been taken.
Nothing left to do when you're begging for a crumb.
Nothing left to do when you've got to go on waiting
and waiting for the miracle to come.
I dreamed about you, baby.
It was just the other night.
Most of you was naked, ah, but some of you was light.
And the sands of time were falling
from your fingers and your thumb,
and you were waiting for the miracle.
You were waiting for the miracle to come.
(sombre music)
There's some feeling I'm chasing,
I'm not sure what it is,
but I've tried recreating it hundreds of thousands of times.
I figured one more journey around these painted walls
and I'll get there.
(sombre music)
(sombre music fades)
- When will you know?
I mean, "The Favourite Game"
is that you would get the numbers soon, right?
(sombre music)
I mean, come on, you can't lose with those reviews.
(sombre music)
Leonard?
(birds twittering)
(glass clinking)
(birds twittering)
(lips smacking)
Hi!
- You look beautiful.
- You don't look so beautiful at the moment, but hi.
- Leonard.
Hi.
Welcome back to the living.
I am Doctor Papas.
How do you feel?
- Oh, terrific.
(Doctor Papas and Marianne chuckles)
I've been worse.
- I doubt that.
(Marianne giggling)
(lips smacking)
- Welcome back.
(lips smacking)
- [Doctor Papas] Your friend is gonna be okay.
- [Goran] Yeah?
- Just keep him off drugs and out of the sun. (snickers)
Or maybe just buy him a hat.
- (chuckles) Yeah.
I think the latter would be easiest.
(speaking in foreign language)
(glasses clinks) - Thank you.
- Where's Micro?
- He's at the neighbours.
They said that he could stay there until,
until we knew.
- Until we knew what?
- Until we knew if you would get better.
- It was that bad, huh?
- Doctor said 50-50.
- I wanted him to say I had 4% chance of living,
but I rose up.
- Well, maybe we should, you know,
talk about the things that come before death.
Because at least I'm happy you're not dead.
So, what do you wanna do?
What's on your bucket list?
You have a life.
What's, you know?
- I'd like to write something that sells copies.
That's it.
- What about you?
- I wanna stay here and have a family with you,
and see them grow up on the island.
(bird chirping)
(sheets rustling)
Will you speak in my funeral?
(Leonard chuckles)
I mean it.
(Leonard laughs)
- I think we've established I'm not going to outlive you.
It's not going to happen.
- You never know.
- Oh, I know.
- Mm-hmm.
You should get some more rest.
Leonard, be careful.
I will go and get Junior and we can just-
- I'm really okay.
I'm really okay.
(gentle acoustic music)
- Don't get out of bed.
Stay there.
(gentle acoustic music)
(gentle acoustic music continues)
- [Leonard] You know, I wrote a poem about you
before I even met you.
Before anything here.
- Well, do I get to
hear the poem?
- Whenever I happen to see her
I forget for a while
that I feel ugly in my own eyes for not winning her.
I wanted you to choose me
over all the other men that you know
because I feel destroyed in their company.
I have often prayed for you like this.
Let me have her.
(Marianne chortles)
- Well, you have me. (laughs)
- Do I?
- I love you.
- Really? - Mm-hmm.
(both chortles)
(cart rattling)
(cart thuds)
- Young love.
- (chortles) Hello, George.
- Now that's something to write about.
(Marianne laughs)
- You don't know what you're talking about.
I really, really, really wish you wouldn't do this.
I'm afraid we have to, love.
We've kind of reached the point where we need to go back,
sort of become the people we used to be.
Oh, yeah, we're having a bit of a farewell drinks party.
Well, not really a party, probably more like a wake
but Saturday at Douskos, if you're around.
It'd be nice to see you there.
- We will try to be there
but Leonard really needs to rest, so we'll see.
- All right. Rest up, mate.
- You look great, man.
- You're a liar, but a charming one, Leonard.
(phone ringing)
- Wait.
(crowd chattering)
(speaking in foreign language)
Leonard, telephone.
- [Leonard] Okay.
- It's.
- All right.
- There.
(footsteps thumping)
- Hello? - Hey, Lenny?
Hey, it's me.
- Oh, hi, Irving. How you doing?
- [Irving] I read your book.
- Oh, man, just throw it out, you know, set it on fire.
It was really-
- No, no, no, Lenny,
it's the best writing you've done so far.
I never told you because I always thought your suites
were better than your prose, but this is...
It's fucking authentic.
It's so real. It's like life.
Really, really good.
- Really?
- [Irving] Yeah, yeah.
- It's not just entirely indulgent?
- Well, if it's indulgent,
it's the most indulgent piece of crap I ever read
but I do love it. (chortles)
You know, Louise loved it, Morton loved it.
And my wife, she's fucking into your book, man.
She had her first orgasm on page six.
- Oh, she's never had any good taste, so.
- Because you never had sex with me, Lenny.
You didn't have sex with Mr. Zeus, did you?
Hey, we need you to come back to Montreal
as soon as you can.
- Irving, you're really the only opinion ever
that I've ever cared about.
- Ah, you're just flattering me now.
I wouldn't have told you all this
if I didn't believe in you.
And I'm an honest guy.
I shoot straight from my hairy balls.
I've written poetry that will stand time,
it will survive together with the best of Shakespeare,
Keats, and Wordsworth.
But honestly, I have never written
anything like this, Lenny.
I wish I had.
- I can't tell you how happy this makes me.
- Congratulations. - Really, I'm just-
- But you need to come back here and we have to promote it.
- Yeah.
- [Irving] As soon as you can.
- All right. So long.
- [Irving] All right.
- I'll see you very soon.
- [Irving] Well, I'll be waiting with a few beers.
- Okay.
It was a very nice phone call.
- Yeah? - Yeah, it was from
Mr. Irving Layton.
He quite enjoyed my manuscript.
- He did? - Yeah.
- That's incredible! - Leonard!
- Well, he doesn't like anything.
- Of course he liked it.
I told you. I told you he would like.
- Well, let's celebrate.
I'll get some drinks.
- I'm so proud of you.
I guess some people enjoyed it, you know?
- (chuckles) No.
- Well, I think he said now
that I should return to Montreal,
and we can try and sell it.
He thinks it's a commercial work.
I'm not sure I agree, but he seems to have faith in it.
And Dudek as well and Aviva liked it, too.
Aviva's a tough judge as well.
- She is, but when would you wanna go to Montreal?
- Well, I don't know, you know, as soon as possible.
- What do you mean?
The doctor, I mean, you need, your body needs rest.
You can't just...
You think that you're gonna go on a plane now
in the condition you're in, and go do some big show.
I mean.
- You know, I don't really, I don't enjoy being yelled at
after I've gotten the first good news
I've gotten in quite a long time.
- I'm not yelling at you, I'm just-
- Oh yes, you are.
You're raising your voice on me for no reason.
- You nearly died.
- Well, if the book doesn't sell,
then I nearly died for nothing.
- We're not coming with you,
so if you wanna kill yourself, go ahead.
- Oh, terrific.
- Congratulations.
(crowd chattering)
What's wrong?
- [Charmian] George?
- Yep?
- I think we should do the rest of the packing tomorrow
because we're supposed to be at Douskos in half an hour.
- What? - Are you dressed?
- [George] What?
- I think we should leave that
and do the rest of it tomorrow
because we're supposed to be at Douskos in half an hour.
- Sorry?
Yeah.
Ugh, well, how about a little coffee first, Charm?
You might want a coffee first before we go?
(bell gently chiming)
- Oh, for God's sake, George.
Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you're the one
who needs another drink?
(George clears throat)
(lips smacking)
- You look beautiful.
I think we look beautiful together.
- When are you leaving?
- Um.
Maybe on Monday.
Was that a straight question?
You're interested in my travel plans?
(Marianne snickers)
You know, if you'd like to come with me,
that's absolutely up to you.
- You know that I cannot come back with you there
because I am not one of you.
- Well, I don't know what that means.
I have to sell the book because we don't have any money.
- Oh, okay, so you think that this is about money?
- Of course it's about money.
It's all about money, this is what I do.
I'm a writer.
That's how I'm supposed to make money.
What I do is who I am.
- Oh.
- What? What are these theatrics?
These sounds you're making towards me, what?
- You know, it's just funny,
it's just that Axel used to say the exact same-
- Well, I'm not fucking Axel!
I'm not Axel.
I'm not- - Right now you are.
- What, do I have to get a contract?
Got to show you my fucking birth certificate?
I'm not Axel.
There's a key difference.
I am here.
Your son calls me dad.
- Don't drag my son into this.
Please don't drag my son into this.
- He is already in it!
If we don't get money, then he has no food,
we have no electricity.
We'll have to sell everything.
We'll have to sell the house.
Why don't you try living in the real world,
not this fantasy fucking,
you're like a tourist in your own life.
- Oh, okay, okay!
So you'd rather be a tourist in Montreal,
where all the girls, they just drool themselves,
"Oh, Leonard, the God, the genius, the writer, the poet!"
I don't fucking even know, okay?
I have nothing to do there.
- Don't denigrate what I do
because you've never done anything with your life.
- (snickers) Yeah.
I made a child.
Actually, I made two, but luckily for you and your mom
one of them died, so there's that, you know?
- Okay, splendid.
- [Marianne] Splendid, ugh.
- Well, I'm going to Douskos, so.
- [Marianne] Yeah.
- If you'd like to come, you know, be my fucking guest.
(speaking in foreign language)
- I'm not her favourite person right now.
- She should have learned by now.
- Will you keep an eye on her when I'm gone?
Stop by the house and, you know, check in,
make sure she's, I don't know,
not smashing the furniture.
- Yeah. - All right.
- Of course.
- You think I'm doing the right thing, right?
- Yeah.
- It's work.
(lively music)
(glass clinking)
(lively music)
(speaking in foreign language)
(Leonard sighs)
(lively music)
(crowd chattering)
Can I sit beside you?
- Yeah, please.
- [Leonard] Okay.
- We did have some good times, too.
Yeah, it's really- - They were all good times.
- Really good. - All good times.
- Yeah.
I was always just a bit too old for you.
- I always thought you were too young for me.
- Wow. (chuckles)
(both laughs)
(Charmian laughing)
(crowd chattering)
You've always been so kind. (chuckles)
And everybody else here just hates me.
And I,
I helped every one of them when they got here.
(crowd chattering)
(Charmian sniffling)
- Crying at a party?
- No. - Yeah, you are.
- Leonard. - No, no, no.
Oh.
Now you'll really be crying.
- You do me, you do me one last favour,
you sing me a song.
- I'm not dying, dear. - Please.
- Just going away for a little while.
- Just one song.
- What's the matter?
- I don't know,
I just don't want things to change
and I just want them to...
I just want everything to be the way it was, you know?
- Never is.
That's life, it's change.
That's why it's precious
because it has a finite ending, you know?
You just gotta pick your battles.
You can't bloody win.
- I wish- - But, you know,
you just gotta give it a good go.
- Mm-hmm.
(lips smacks)
- Don't cry, darling.
You're gonna be all right.
- [Marianne] Mm-hmm.
You think so?
- Yes, I know so.
Look at me and old Charm.
If we can make it, you can.
You keep an eye on him while I'm gone.
♪ Like a bird ♪
♪ On the wire ♪
♪ Like a drunk in a midnight choir ♪
♪ I have tried in my way ♪
♪ To be free ♪
♪ Like a worm on a hook ♪
♪ Like a knight in some old-fashioned book ♪
♪ I have saved all my ribbons ♪
♪ For thee ♪
- You all right, love?
♪ And if I ♪
♪ If I had been unkind ♪
♪ I hope that you can just let it go by ♪
(calm guitar music)
♪ And if I ♪
♪ If I have been untrue ♪
(Marianne laughs)
♪ Know it was never to you ♪
♪ Like a baby stillborn ♪
♪ Like a beast with its horn ♪
♪ I have torn ♪
- Come on, everyone.
♪ All my lovers ♪
- Okay.
Goodbye, then.
♪ Who reached out for me ♪
(calm guitar music)
- Bye.
♪ But I swear by this song ♪
♪ And all that I've done wrong ♪
♪ I will try to make it up ♪
♪ To thee ♪
(calm guitar music)
♪ I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch ♪
(calm guitar music)
♪ He said to me, you must not ask for so much ♪
(calm guitar music)
♪ A pretty woman leaning on her darkened door ♪
(calm guitar music)
♪ She cried to me ♪
♪ Hey, why not ask for more ♪
(calm guitar music)