The Script is written by Vincenzo Mistretta, predominantly adapted from "Medea", a play by Franca Rame, and "The Medea", the Euripedes Greek Tragedy. It also includes added scenes.
EXCERPTS  FROM  THE  SCRIPT


EXT. / A SHORE NEXT TO WOODS / DAY

Tight on MEDEA's face. In the background is the green of trees and vegetation.

MEDEA

"I saved you, and everyone knows it.
And I myself betrayed my father and
my home. Showing more willingness to
help than wisdom, This is how I
behaved to you."

"And you reply by discarding me like
a worn out rag for a younger lover."

THE SOUND OF WAVES BEATING AGAINST THE SHORE. MEDEA looks off screen to her left.

 


 

INT. / A THEATER STAGE / DARK

The stage is all black and empty with the exception of a white sheet hanging from a rope stretching across the stage...

CHORUS B, after hearing CHORUS A speak out, walks over to the sheet and stands in front of it facing the audience. The white sheet is back lit and chorus B becomes a silhouette. As CHORUS B walks across Chorus C and Chorus A move from the corners of the stage and sit on the ground at center stage facing Chorus B with their backs to the audience. CHORUS B begins speaking as if preaching to the two other women.

CHORUS B

"We approve the anthology and anything that
gives it validity. A proposal that exceeds
the limits allowed doesn't exist, and a
totalitarian point of view is accepted
as righteous."

 


 

INT. INSIDE THE RESTAURANT. DAY

Two BUSINESS WOMEN are sitting across from each other waiting for their dinner at a small table for two next to the window. They have their drinks in front of them, two glasses of wine, red for BUSINESS WOMAN(1) white for BUSINESS WOMAN(2) , who is writing notes in a planer while BUSINESS WOMAN(1) is caressing the stem of her wine glass with her fingers. Her chin is resting on the palm of her other hand, and she is looking down at the glass of wine. She stops caressing the wine glass, looks over at her partner and says;

BUSINESS WOMAN(1)

"Don't you see that our society is organized for this kind of liquidation? Like Piranha's, you know those tiny fish in the rivers of Brazil that attack unsuspecting swimmers by the hundred and with swift little nibbles clean the person up in a few minutes, leaving only a clean skeleton.

BUSINESS WOMAN(2) continues to write in her planer. BUSINESS WOMAN(1) is now getting more animated, using hand gestures and changing the tone of her voice.

BUSINESS WOMAN(1) (con't)

"Well, that's what their organization is. You're asked,‘do you want a good clean life? Like everybody else?'. You say yeah of course. How can anyone say no? Then the response is ‘OK you'll be cleaned up. Here's a family, a job, and organized leisure activities'. And the little teeth attack the flesh, right down to the bone. "

 


 

Top

 

 Medea - A Film based on a play by Franca Rame and the Greek Tragedy by Euripides.
Written, Directed, and Produced by Vincenzo Mistretta

web page created by  ©The Ricecooker Productions
last updated 11/10/02