MEMORY
OF WATER (The Memory of Water? A Memory of Water?)
(excerpt from English outline of a project-in-progress, February 15, 2003, Toronto)
NOTES:
INTERCHANGEABILITY:
Depending
on the country of production, the details of the event of "The French
May" organised by the French Consulate can be replaced by an event "Retrospective
Cinema Canada" organised by Telefilm Canada. Eric Rohmer can be replaced by a Quebecois film master.
VISUAL
TREATMENT:
The
idea may be to shoot the Prologue and Epilogue (1st and last scene) in Digital
Video (flat washed metal quality) and the rest in Film (probably more 16 or
Super 16 than super-slick 35mm, especially to cut together with the
possibly-16mm news footage of the time).
TRIMMING DOWN :
Coloured paragraphs MAY BE out ???
Highlighted
passages : KEY to revelations and atmosphere.
1.
To use only 1 voice, not 4 stories.
2.
All the present-tense told in
Voice-Off’s and still photographs or staccato images instead of dramatic sequences, only scenes in the past are enacted ?
CHARACTERS :
MELANIE : Main character
MIMI : Her sister, maybe unnecessary
JADE : Unseen in Part One – rich
family girl turns material girl in 1997
ELAINE : Poor family girl turns into
Christian mom
NANCY : Free creative soul turns into
subdued Chinese wife
JULIEN: love interest, object of search
and quest
DAMIEN : first sexual interest Part One
LAWRENCE : Denouément of the above in Part Two
FATHER/MOTHER :
Part One
GRANDMA :
Part Zero
ELAINE’s
brother JACK : Part One proletariat hero : unnecessary ?
NANCY’s
brother CHRIS : Part One westernized boy turns Chinese
revolutionary : unnecessary ?
ANN :
Part One, other
European pen-pal, unnecessary ?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROLOGUE (5 min) Under opening credits
June 1997
VOICE-OFF of MELANIE
(behind her voice, the dull insistent sound of a downpour):
"I have arrived in Hong Kong
since May, 1997. The "French
May" organised by the French Consulate is featuring a programme of films
« Paris-Hong Kong 1967-1997 ».
I am responsible for this selection, having been spokeswoman for French
cinema for the last 10-odd years. I am to elucidate and illuminate these
foreigners, namely the cinephiles of Hong Kong.
I am supposed to defend the French national colours, which I have been
hired to do, all these years, at varions odd places on the globe, without it
ever having brought me back to my native soil. »
(pause)
(behind her voice, Prince Charles'
voice is heard over the sounds of rain, we are obviously watching a real-time
relay of the Handover Ceremony:
"Britain is both proud and privileged to have been involved with this
success story, proud of the British values and institutions that have been the
framework for Hong Kong's success. Proud
of the rights and freedoms which Hong Kong people enjoy.")
VOICE-OFF of MELANIE continues:
"We left Hong Kong for Canada
in 1967. It is as though my memories of
Hong Kong begin in the year 1967. Before
that, there were only fragments, like waves rushing to the shore, returning
from time to time. First of all there
was this house on Tai Hang Road, with its vast cement terrace and the forced
garden on it full of hibiscus flowers and bamboo trees and grapevines. Behind the house, there was a small
"jungle" of wild papaya trees which no one bothered to take care of. The enclave was too wild to be reached by us
children and we spent a great deal of time longingly looking at the papayas
rotting on the trees.
It was while we lived in this house
that Mother, at the request of Father, took over from him to manage our family
business of construction materials. She
turned its near-bankrupcy status around by working with mainland China,
something that was considered risky both commercially and politically at the
time. As it turned out, her decision
paid off handsomely. »
IMAGES: The terrace of the old house on Tai Hang
Road, still in the style of three-storeyed Hong Kong mansions of the 1950s,
gradually transforms from a blooming garden to a working open-air-factory. Women from the neighbouring shantytowns
stooped over sheets of mosaics imported from mainland China, and re-pasted the
missing pieces . Other women, two by
two, were coming out of the house carrying large pots of freshly-cooked
rice-glue.
VOICE-OFF of MELANIE continues:
"Since the liberation of Hong
Kong from the Japanese occupation, my parents' company rapidly expanded with
the construction boom. We were exclusive
representatives of Chinese mosaics which all the new buildings needed. These mosaics, arriving in sheets, often had
pieces missing. The lack of quality
control of mainland Chinese production, however, is more than compensated by
its low prices. Especially since my
parents found the solution in terms of inexpensive labour, having to look only
across the street from our house, to the women from shantytowns on the hill who
were only too happy to come and work without having to cross town and country
to some faraway labour site. »
IMAGES: Continuation of the images before...the
women going to and fro from the house with full or empty pots of glue. CAMERA follows one of the groups of 2 women
as they carry the empty pot back into the kitchen in the large family house. In
the corridor separating the front to the back part of the house, MELANIE's
grandmother, dressed in a traditional black Chinese top, has her arms wrapped
around an old Radiofusion radio blasting Cantonese opera, her almost-deaf ear
glued to the loudspeaker. Young MELANIE
enters for her piano practice. She asks
her grandmother to accompany her saying that she is afraid to be in the piano
room alone. Her grandmother replies:
" I'll come as soon as I finish this Opera piece, it's sung by Red Thread
Girl, she sings so well ! The
doctor said to me this morning that there wasn’t much time left for me down
here . Well, as long as I can listen to
Opera songs until I go !"
Young MELANIE is visibly taken
aback. "Never mind coming with me,
grandma" says she, " I can go alone."
GRANDMA laughs loudly with her broken voice,
shaking the cigarette held in her ancient wrinkled fingers. " Are you afraid of Grandma? Don't be stupid, Grandma is not a ghost yet
!" She shuffles her way to the
living room with the young Mélanie, who is not at all reassured.
INTERIEUR OLD FAMILY
HOUSE. Summer
evening. The large entrance hall, beyond
its iron-grilled door, is divided into 2 sides.
One is a dining room for the family, the other is a dining room for the
servants (the cook and the cleaning-servant), and the driver who is staying
for dinner this particular evening. The
family is at table. MELANIE's mother is
taking a few pieces from each dish and having MELANIE send the plate over to
the servants' table. At the family table
are the parents, MELANIE (14) and her younger sister MIMI (12), each
accompanied by a "Governess". Of the
ordinary chatter during dinner this evening, MELANIE's mother seems very
excited about the upcoming move to a new home overlooking the south-end beaches
on Repulse Bay Road. " During the
Japanese occupation," says she, " we had to dig up roots to fill our
stomachs. How could we ever imagine that
one day we'd be living on Repulse Bay Road?
How could one imagine, seeing us the way we live here, that we're so
rich nowadays?" The Governesses, as
well as the servants at the other table, seem to murmur in unison something
both flattering and approving of Mother’s comments.)
VOICE-OFF of MELANIE continues:
"It was the first time I heard
my mother talk about their new status of the « nouveau riche » class,
and the tone of pride in her voice. This
old house was the witness, year after year on the same date, of the anniversary
banquet of the founding of my parents' company.
It was the history of their social ascension."
IMAGES,
cut from every angle, of the comings and goings of guests of these banquets
over a 10-year-period.
Photo-montage also of still pictures
of the obligatory path to social ascension in Hong Kong : the charity
balls, the Rotary Club speeches, the cutting of ribbons, the giving and
receiving of flowers at some Women’s Social Club.
VOICE-OFF of MELANIE continues:
"Of this new home in a
brand-new residence overlooking Deep Water Bay, my mother simply said,
"we've finally made it after so much hardship". Although she was considered one of the
super-modern women in Hong Kong at the time, she had no qualms bringing a Feng-Shui
master to look the place over.
(IMAGE : of the view from the 8th floor balcony of the Repulse Bay
home, overlooking a great expanse of sea, scintillating in the afternoon sun.) The Master said to her, " The Feng-Shui
of this apartment is very good indeed, madam, flanked by the mountains, facing
the sea. It would be better, I advise
you, madam, to be prepared for an old age away from your birthplace, Good
fortune, but faraway." From that
moment on, my mother knew that she would have to become a ghost in a foreign
land. »
VOICE-OFF of MELANIE continues:
"The other thing which
tarnished my mother's joy at this time, was my grandmother's refusal to change
her living quarters once more. And
mother, who was so proud to offer this exterior sign of wealth to her mom like
a gift, was very disappointed. "
IMAGES
continue. MELANIE is looking through a
crack in her bedroom door slightly ajar, her parents are at the entrance hall
of the house talking with some police officers who have come to announce the news
of the death of her grandmother in the hospital. MELANIE's Governess is with the parents, she
has her arms around Melanie’s mother.
"My mother was never lucky in her life," says MELANIE's
MOTHER, reflective, " she was the Concubine and she never had a single day
of happiness.")
(pause)
Gradually the voice of the last
governor, Chris Patten, takes over from Prince Charles :
"This is a Chinese city, a very Chinese city, with British
characteristics. No dependent territory
has been left more prosperous, none with such a rich texture and fabric."
The sounds of the crowd's ovation,
many banging their feet on the aluminium stands in form of applause. This sound goes on for a while, as the images
flow with shots of the new residence in Repulse Bay, peaceful, at dusk, birds
returning to nests in the hillside trees all around.
After a few moments of silence...
VOICE-OFF of MELANIE continues:
"A certain Doctor Jacques
Benveniste proved, by pure accident during the course of his research on
ultra-sensitive allergic systems, the phenomenon called
"high-dilution" which was re-christiened the "Memory of
Water" by the media.
The phenomenon in question consists
of diluting a product in water to such a point that the final solution contains
only water molecules. Now with the
ultra-sensitive systems that the Doctor was using, he discovered that this
highly-diluted substance provoked a reaction as if the initial
« foreign » molecules were still present in the water. Water, in other words, kept a trace of the
molecules present at the beginning of the dilutions.
(pause)
At the beginning of dilutions.
(pause)
It was in 1967.
1967. April.
Summer came early that year. In
April, the air was already stifling hot."
TITLES :
« THE MEMORY OF WATER » etc etc…
HONG KONG, APRIL 1967
KAI TAK AIRPORT, AFTERNOON
Through the large bay window we see
a Cathay Pacific flight taking off.
MELANIE'S MOTHER, preparing to leave for Canada, is being seen off by
the main employees of her company of which she is president. MELANIE's FATHER, MELANIE (14) and her sister
MIMI (12) are present. MELANIE is tall
and thin, looks older than her age, her glasses keep slipping to her nose and
her hair is a trifle too short. MIMI is
still a little girl compared to her sister.
The family's chauffeur is waiting nearby as MELANIE's MOTHER gives
last-minute instructions to her staff.
She asks everyone to be particularly vigilant as the social movement
involving factory workers in the past few months has created an unstable
economic and social climate in Hong Kong.
MELANIE'S FATHER tries to lighten the atmosphere with a few jokes in bad
taste. In
the busy exchange of pleasantries between employers and employees, MELANIE's
MOTHER has little time to devote to her daughters and manages only to wish them
the best for their school’s Fundraising Day the week after. MIMI laments in her child’s way that the book
of tickets to be sold for the Fundraising Day is still full…a detail that the
mother was not aware of. Their father
chides them for taking her time at a moment like this, but one of the
employees, a middle-aged lady with experience in the matter, explains that it
is a booklet of tickets children are supposed to sollicite their relatives and
acquaintances to buy in order to raise funds for the school. Mother asks the Chief Accountant present to
buy off all the tickets of the booklet with her private account.
As the group of employees
submissively and politely watches the plane become a small dot in the sky,
MELANIE and her family move away to the chauffeured car. MELANIE looks behind her to cast a last
glance at the departing plane. On
returning, she crashes into a young European couple intertwined together, kissing,
embracing, saying goodbye. The boy is
French-looking, with curly hazel-coloured hair. The girl is blonde, frail, soft-looking. He is leaving, she is staying. Some of the
company employees whisper disapprovingly about the exhibitionistic ways of the
Westerner, MELANIE’s father answers with a crude joke, much to his daughter’s
embarrassment. She looks away, and in
leaving, watches the young couple again,
fascinated and wistful.
NIGHT. HOME REPULSE BAY ROAD.
The elegant white buildings where
MELANIE lives are perched on a hill overlooking Deep Water Bay on the south
side of Hong Kong. It is a 4-bedroom
apartment with a back section for the servants' rooms. MELANIE shares a big bedroom with her sister
facing their father's, while the "Master's Bedroom" was occupied by
her mother before her departure, an extravagant room decorated in the French
Rococo style, popular among the rich in Hong Kong at this period. A 4th room is used as a Japanese-style study
by their mother.
In
the room that MELANIE shares with MIMI,
she is writing at her desk on some Chinese manuscript papers. Under the glass top of an office metal desk
is a collection of newspaper clippings of films, dance, art news of those
years: Margot Fonteyn and Nureyev in « Romeo and Juliette », Melina
Mercouri in « Never On Sunday », George Chakiris in « West Side
Story », all cut-outs from pages of "Life" magazineOn the radio,
Bob Dylan is singing "The Times They're A-Changin'", presented by the
popular DJ Tony Orchaz. MIMI is already asleep.
From
the window, MELANIE sees a shadowy figure coming out of the building and
entering a white open-roofed MG. She
puts her pen down, unable to concentrate, and opts to watch the car and the
European man instead. Restless, she moves through the corridor into her
mother’s room, catching a glimpse of her father in his room listening to
Chinese radio news. MELANIE stares out
of the bay window overlooking Deep Water Bay.
The white car can now be seen beneath street lamps on the road, gliding
in and out of trees, in the direction of the beach.
The
music has changed. Tony Orchaz is now
presenting the theme of the new French film which has been the talk of the
town: "A Man And A Woman". In
his typical exuberant style, Tony Orchaz is humming the "cha ba dou ba
dou" along with the song. Suddenly,
an abrupt change of volume of her father's Chinese news program drowns out the
music altogether. There is the report of
a strike in a cement factory by workers protesting about an incident between
Chinese workers and 2 Australian engineers earlier in the day. Some of the Chinese workers were allegedly
aggressed, physically, by the engineers.
MELANIE, after listening for a few seconds, turns back towards the
window, but the car has disappeared from her view.
... (à suivre) ...
(excerpt from English outline of a project-in-progress, February 15, 2003, Toronto)
