Script
Tragic Story with Happy Ending
Daytime - outdoors, countryside
Blank screen
Opening credits
Over the screen a light texture begins to appear.
The camera moves away and tree tops can be seen from below
The camera moves round and down until it captures a rural lanscape. The camera stops still on this image.
On the horizon a small dot is approaching, accompanied by a deep rhythmic sound with an ever louder beat : BOOM boom, BOOM boom ... it is the main character, a girl, who arrives by bike pedalling energetically towards the camera.
Her eyes move up towards the sky and one notices a faint sad smile on her face.
The girl carries on pedalling towards the camera and the camera moves straight towards her chest as if it were about to penetrate her heart which we see beating frenetically in tune with the rhythm that we can still hear.
Close-shot of the bicycle wheel that is turning at breakneck speed.
Subjective camera shot over the landscape which spreads out before the bicycle.
We approach a small town.
The people turn round to observe the little girl as she comes into the town.
Outdoors – daytime. Local neighbourhood.
Close-up of the girl’s face
The slight smile that we had seen before has now disappeared from her face to be replaced by a look of deep concern.
At the same time people are turning round in her direction with looks of displeasure.
The camera moves from the looks on the people’s faces when the girl passes by to the point the girl has reached with her bicycle.
Medium close-shot of the girl as she arrives home.
Indoors – daytime, the girls’ house
The camera follows her and move upwards showing her course with a high angle shot
The girl, still running, pushes the door open and then shuts it in our faces (camera), leaving us in the dark.
Indoors – night, the girl’s bedroom.
The camera moves out from the darkness and we can see the bedroom.
From the window we can see it has grown dark.
Close-shot of the girl. She is looking very down.
She bends over to look at her chest and touches the area of her heart and covers her face with her hands in despair.
Extreme close-up of a piece of furniture in the room.
The objects on it are shaking to the beat of the rhythmic noise which we have been hearing since the beginning of the film, which is the beat of her heart : BOOM boom, BOOM, boom …
Once again the girl, shrunken up and nested on her bed, is in despair.
With a speedy gesture she picks up the corners of the sheets and hides under the blankets as if to smother the noise of her heart and at the same time hide herself from the world.
A window lights up in the silhouette.
Indoors – night, a neighbour’s bedroom.
A neighbour suddenly wakes up in a daze because of the noise of the heartbeat. He tries to escape the noise by pressing a pillow over his ears.
Indoors – night. Girl’s bedroom.
Through the window of the girl’s bedroom we can once again see the silhouette of the houses where the lights are being turned on one by one.
Indoors – night, bedroom of other neighbours.
An elderly couple covers their ears with their hands, stunned by the noise.
Indoors – night, girl’s bedroom.
Once again we can see the silhouette of the houses in the town where more and more lights are being turned on.
Long shot of the girl’s room distorted by a wide-angle where we see her on her bed twisted up in despair.
Indoors – night, first neighbour’s bedroom.
The neighbour in his pyjamas kneels on his bed and opens the window in a fury.
Outdoors – night, first neighbour’s bedroom.
The neighbour, dishevelled and obviously annoyed, appears at the window crying out protests, shouting and waving.
Outdoors – night, middle of the street.
The dogs in the neighbourhood gather in the street in front of the girl’s house and excited at the noise of the heartbeat and the general excitement, bark and howl furiously in the direction of the window.
Outdoors – night, other windows.
More neighbours appear at their windows and verandas, upset and apprehensive, whispering to each other, in the direction of the girl’s house.
Outdoors – daytime. Street.
There is a general murmur. The people have stayed at their windows and verandas the whole night accompanied by the ceaseless barking of the dogs and the noise of the heartbeat.
Outdoors – daytime, street.
Meanwhile the day dawns with the same shot. The dogs are still barking. The people finally leave their homes and approach the girl’s house.
Indoors – daytime. Girl ‘s house.
We can hear someone knocking at the door. A shadow, followed by a hand opens the door. On the other side on the street are standing all the neighbours irate and with dark rings round their eyes, after a night without sleep, preceded by the furious dogs.
Outdoors – daytime, street.
The girl leaves the house and also visibly tired and downcast and with a timid voice and serious look she tries to explain to the people the reason for her problem, wildly throwing her hands about at the same time.
The people’s rage turns to incredulity and then compassion. They exchange looks, shake their heads and murmur into each other’s ears:
A movement of the camera shows us her course and we see her leave the village towards the fields.
Outdoors – daytime, countryside
She looks sad and desperate as she pedals energetically.
It starts to get windy throwing her hair all over her face.
The camera moves upwards to a close up from her face to the sky which casts over with ever darker clouds.
Heavy drops of rain start to drop and lightning crosses the sky.
The sounds of thunder are heard together with the sound of the heartbeat.
The girl continues to pedal against the wind, beaten by the rain.
We see her come out of the countryside leaving the storm behind her.
The camera moves up and we see the sky dark with rain and clouds.
The rain calms down and little by little the clouds become lighter, scantier and the sky starts to clear up and turns white and clean.
A bird crosses the sky.
Outdoors –daytime, the window of the girl’s bedroom.
Her gaze follows the bird while she eats a biscuit.
She smiles and breaks a piece of the biscuit into crumbs.
She stretches out her hand on the window sill and waits while still gazing at the sky, anxious and curious.
The bird comes into view and rests on the window sill.
Then little by little it approaches her hand.
It builds up enough courage to peck at a few crumbs and move off.
It comes back again, gains the courage and starts to eat the crumbs from her hand even allowing her to stroke it.
When the crumbs are over the bird chirps but does not fly away, as if it were asking for more crumbs.
Close-up of the girl’s face who smiles contentedly.
Indoors – daytime, girl’s bedroom.
She picks the bird up with both hands and lets it loose in the air so as it can fly, so as it can go.
The bird leaves by the window and the camera follows it with an aerial viewpoint over the street.
Outdoors – daytime, street
In the street we can see people carrying out their daily tasks marking their activities to the sounds they produce :
The lady who walks in the street marking her steps to the sound of her heels CLACK, clack, CLACK, clack
The grocer who is adding up on his till: TING, ting, TING ting
The street sweeper : Swoosh, swoosh, SWOOSH, swoosh
Children playing football: THUD, thud, THUD, thud
The old lady walking by with her shopping trolley CLICK, click, CLICK, click pushing her little dog by the leash.
When the dog passes by the girl’s bicycle leaning against the wall it pees against it.
The curious thing was that all these people’s movements, all their gestures, all their activities took place, without their understanding this, to the rhythm of the noise of the girl’s heartbeat, as regular as clockwork: BADUMP, badump…
Without realising it they have incorporated the sound of the heartbeat into their lives.
Once again we see a long high angle shot over the street.
It slowly starts to get dark.
The camera moves down and we see people beginning to give up their rhythmic activities and go home.
Outdoors – night, street
It gets dark and we can see the silhouette of the houses with their lights on.
Some lights are being turned off.
Indoors – night, bedroom of elderly neighbours.
In the semi-darkness of the room the couple sleep peacefully snoring to the rhythm of the girl’s heartbeat.
Outdoors – night, street
In the silhouette of the houses in the town one by one the lights are being turned off.
Indoors – night, another neighbour’s bedroom.
This neighbour is also sleeping calmly.
Outdoors – night, street
The dogs are sleeping in the street
The environment is calm
The heart thumps deafly over the town as if safeguarding that life will continue its normal pace and take on its normal course.
All the houses are drowned in the deepest darkness
Indoors – night, girl’s bedroom
She is asleep
Suddenly her body shivers under the blankets, waking her up.
She is not frightened at this. She looks up over her shoulder to her back, smiles and goes back to sleep.
The passage of time
Time passes
It gets dark, dawn breaks, the light forces the shadows to follow the same course every day.
Indoors – daytime. Girl’s bedroom
We see her leave her bed and we follow her steps.
She goes into the bathroom and draws the curtain.
Indoors – daytime, bathroom.
She turns on the tap, takes a shower.
She smiles while she washes herself and lets the water run down her back.
She turns off the tap, picks up a towel and wraps herself in it.
She leaves the bathroom and comes into the bedroom. The camera follows her.
In her hand she is holding a comb.
Indoors – daytime, girl’s bedroom.
She stops in front of the window and combs her wet hair.
She looks towards the sky.
On the window panes we see the reflection of a flock of birds which are flying.
Outdoors – daytime, sky.
This flock of birds in formation, which are probably migratory birds, are beginning their journey and fly across the sky of only a few light clouds.
Indoors – daytime, girl’s bedroom
We see the girl with her back to us in backlight. She is still and is looking through the window.
Outdoors – daytime, town
Wide-shot of the street.
We see the people carrying out their activities to the same rhythm as before.
In the sky, the flock of birds fly away.
We can see the tiny silhouette of the girl at her window.
Over the town hovers the noise of the heartbeat like an aura.
Everything seems perfect.
Indoors – daytime. Girl’s bedroom
The girl’s silhouette is still at her window. She drops the towel she had wrapped round her after her shower.
She opens the window energetically and continues to look outside.
Outdoor – daytime, street
The people outside carry on their everyday activities to the rhythm of the girl’s heartbeat.
The children carry on playing football: THUD thud, THUD thud.
The grocer adds up his bills and on the till display we can see numbers : 4… TING, ting, 3…TING, ting, 2… TING, ting, 1…TING, ting
Indoors –daytime, girl’s bedroom
At this exact moment, suddenly as if it were an explosion, we see two wings spread out on the back of the girl’s silhouette.
And it is also at this exact moment that we cease to hear the noise of the heartbeat and are drowned in profound silence.
Outdoors – daytime, Street
At the time we cease to hear the noise of the heartbeat, the whole street becomes chaotic: TING, PLOP, the keys of the grocer’s till jump off. The display shows zero.
CRASH! The children’s ball goes out of control and breaks a shop window!
CRACK! The lady’s heels come off and she almost breaks a leg.
VROOM! The old lady’s wheeled shopping bag and all her shopping she had inside it roll down the street…
POW! The street sweeper’s broom breaks!...
The catastrophes occur one after the other like a cascade.
Something that sustained time ceased to exist.
Indoors – daytime, girl’s bedroom
The girl climbs up to the window sill, she stops for a second and then jumps.
We see her legs disappear from the upper part of the window.
Then …. Nothing.
Only silence, the window is open and empty and through it we can see the clear bright sky.
Outdoors – daytime, Street
In the street people are still stunned and do not understand what has happened.
The street sweeper bends over to pick up his broken broom from the ground.
When he does this he understands there is a strange moving shadow and his eyes and mouth open in amazement.
The camera starts to move out and all the inhabitants of the town are looking up at the sky, completely astounded.
We can hear a general murmur of amazement and the surprise is present in everyone’s eyes.
The camera continues to move out and we see the people becoming smaller and smaller, clouds begin to appear and the image of the small town becomes vague like a distant dream with increasingly blurred lines until it disappears completely.
The brightness increases as we continue to move upwards and the images become almost transparent.
Finally the only thing that is left is the bright white screen.
Final credits
Outdoors – daytime, street
The street sweeper tries to find the rhythm in his work he felt before.
To no avail, he gives up in despondence.
Credits.
Indoors – night. Bedroom of lady with the heels.
The lady turns the light on.
There is a profound silence.
Dishevelled and despondent she looks at the camera, takes some pills, drinks water and lies down again, trying in vain to get some sleep.
Credits.
Outdoors – night, street
A dog all rolled up sleeps in the street,
Suddenly it opens its eyes and raises an ear.
It lets out a little bark of enthusiasm and waits with its face in the air.
But the answer it gets back is only one of silence.
Disappointed it drops its ears and lies down again.
The End.
Blank screen
Opening credits
Over the screen a light texture begins to appear.
The camera moves away and tree tops can be seen from below
The camera moves round and down until it captures a rural lanscape. The camera stops still on this image.
On the horizon a small dot is approaching, accompanied by a deep rhythmic sound with an ever louder beat : BOOM boom, BOOM boom ... it is the main character, a girl, who arrives by bike pedalling energetically towards the camera.
Her eyes move up towards the sky and one notices a faint sad smile on her face.
Voice-over narrative :
Once upon a time there was little girl whose heart beat faster than other people’s
Once upon a time there was little girl whose heart beat faster than other people’s
The girl carries on pedalling towards the camera and the camera moves straight towards her chest as if it were about to penetrate her heart which we see beating frenetically in tune with the rhythm that we can still hear.
Close-shot of the bicycle wheel that is turning at breakneck speed.
Subjective camera shot over the landscape which spreads out before the bicycle.
We approach a small town.
The people turn round to observe the little girl as she comes into the town.
Outdoors – daytime. Local neighbourhood.
Close-up of the girl’s face
The slight smile that we had seen before has now disappeared from her face to be replaced by a look of deep concern.
At the same time people are turning round in her direction with looks of displeasure.
The camera moves from the looks on the people’s faces when the girl passes by to the point the girl has reached with her bicycle.
Medium close-shot of the girl as she arrives home.
Indoors – daytime, the girls’ house
The camera follows her and move upwards showing her course with a high angle shot
The girl, still running, pushes the door open and then shuts it in our faces (camera), leaving us in the dark.
Indoors – night, the girl’s bedroom.
The camera moves out from the darkness and we can see the bedroom.
From the window we can see it has grown dark.
Close-shot of the girl. She is looking very down.
She bends over to look at her chest and touches the area of her heart and covers her face with her hands in despair.
Extreme close-up of a piece of furniture in the room.
The objects on it are shaking to the beat of the rhythmic noise which we have been hearing since the beginning of the film, which is the beat of her heart : BOOM boom, BOOM, boom …
Once again the girl, shrunken up and nested on her bed, is in despair.
With a speedy gesture she picks up the corners of the sheets and hides under the blankets as if to smother the noise of her heart and at the same time hide herself from the world.
Narrator
This has caused her great suffering
she did not know how to escape,
because in addition to the suffering caused by her heart
it made a lot of noise and bothered people …
Shot of the room window through which we can see the houses of the town at night.she did not know how to escape,
because in addition to the suffering caused by her heart
it made a lot of noise and bothered people …
A window lights up in the silhouette.
Indoors – night, a neighbour’s bedroom.
A neighbour suddenly wakes up in a daze because of the noise of the heartbeat. He tries to escape the noise by pressing a pillow over his ears.
Indoors – night. Girl’s bedroom.
Through the window of the girl’s bedroom we can once again see the silhouette of the houses where the lights are being turned on one by one.
Indoors – night, bedroom of other neighbours.
An elderly couple covers their ears with their hands, stunned by the noise.
Indoors – night, girl’s bedroom.
Once again we can see the silhouette of the houses in the town where more and more lights are being turned on.
Long shot of the girl’s room distorted by a wide-angle where we see her on her bed twisted up in despair.
Indoors – night, first neighbour’s bedroom.
The neighbour in his pyjamas kneels on his bed and opens the window in a fury.
Outdoors – night, first neighbour’s bedroom.
The neighbour, dishevelled and obviously annoyed, appears at the window crying out protests, shouting and waving.
Outdoors – night, middle of the street.
The dogs in the neighbourhood gather in the street in front of the girl’s house and excited at the noise of the heartbeat and the general excitement, bark and howl furiously in the direction of the window.
Outdoors – night, other windows.
More neighbours appear at their windows and verandas, upset and apprehensive, whispering to each other, in the direction of the girl’s house.
Outdoors – daytime. Street.
There is a general murmur. The people have stayed at their windows and verandas the whole night accompanied by the ceaseless barking of the dogs and the noise of the heartbeat.
Outdoors – daytime, street.
Meanwhile the day dawns with the same shot. The dogs are still barking. The people finally leave their homes and approach the girl’s house.
Indoors – daytime. Girl ‘s house.
We can hear someone knocking at the door. A shadow, followed by a hand opens the door. On the other side on the street are standing all the neighbours irate and with dark rings round their eyes, after a night without sleep, preceded by the furious dogs.
Outdoors – daytime, street.
The girl leaves the house and also visibly tired and downcast and with a timid voice and serious look she tries to explain to the people the reason for her problem, wildly throwing her hands about at the same time.
Girl
The truth is that I am a bird,
But I am in the wrong body
That is why my heart beats so fast, it’s a bird’s heart…
But I am in the wrong body
That is why my heart beats so fast, it’s a bird’s heart…
The people’s rage turns to incredulity and then compassion. They exchange looks, shake their heads and murmur into each other’s ears:
People
Poor girl, she’s just simple!...
She’ll die soon…
The girl who we see in the background realises she hasn’t been understood, drops her head, runs to her bicycle and starts pedalling as fast as she can. Poor girl, she’s just simple!...
She’ll die soon…
A movement of the camera shows us her course and we see her leave the village towards the fields.
Outdoors – daytime, countryside
She looks sad and desperate as she pedals energetically.
It starts to get windy throwing her hair all over her face.
The camera moves upwards to a close up from her face to the sky which casts over with ever darker clouds.
Heavy drops of rain start to drop and lightning crosses the sky.
The sounds of thunder are heard together with the sound of the heartbeat.
Narrator
So she left them and ran away
For her tears to mix with the raindrops
And also so as they would not feel angry towards her if they found out that
The cause of the rain was her sadness.
For her tears to mix with the raindrops
And also so as they would not feel angry towards her if they found out that
The cause of the rain was her sadness.
The girl continues to pedal against the wind, beaten by the rain.
We see her come out of the countryside leaving the storm behind her.
The camera moves up and we see the sky dark with rain and clouds.
The rain calms down and little by little the clouds become lighter, scantier and the sky starts to clear up and turns white and clean.
A bird crosses the sky.
Outdoors –daytime, the window of the girl’s bedroom.
Her gaze follows the bird while she eats a biscuit.
She smiles and breaks a piece of the biscuit into crumbs.
She stretches out her hand on the window sill and waits while still gazing at the sky, anxious and curious.
The bird comes into view and rests on the window sill.
Then little by little it approaches her hand.
It builds up enough courage to peck at a few crumbs and move off.
It comes back again, gains the courage and starts to eat the crumbs from her hand even allowing her to stroke it.
When the crumbs are over the bird chirps but does not fly away, as if it were asking for more crumbs.
Close-up of the girl’s face who smiles contentedly.
Indoors – daytime, girl’s bedroom.
She picks the bird up with both hands and lets it loose in the air so as it can fly, so as it can go.
The bird leaves by the window and the camera follows it with an aerial viewpoint over the street.
Outdoors – daytime, street
In the street we can see people carrying out their daily tasks marking their activities to the sounds they produce :
The lady who walks in the street marking her steps to the sound of her heels CLACK, clack, CLACK, clack
The grocer who is adding up on his till: TING, ting, TING ting
The street sweeper : Swoosh, swoosh, SWOOSH, swoosh
Children playing football: THUD, thud, THUD, thud
The old lady walking by with her shopping trolley CLICK, click, CLICK, click pushing her little dog by the leash.
When the dog passes by the girl’s bicycle leaning against the wall it pees against it.
The curious thing was that all these people’s movements, all their gestures, all their activities took place, without their understanding this, to the rhythm of the noise of the girl’s heartbeat, as regular as clockwork: BADUMP, badump…
Without realising it they have incorporated the sound of the heartbeat into their lives.
Narrator
But as she insisted in continuing to live
People lost interested,
Getting used to the noise the heart made
They ended up by holding it in contempt
And then by forgetting it.
People lost interested,
Getting used to the noise the heart made
They ended up by holding it in contempt
And then by forgetting it.
Once again we see a long high angle shot over the street.
It slowly starts to get dark.
The camera moves down and we see people beginning to give up their rhythmic activities and go home.
Outdoors – night, street
It gets dark and we can see the silhouette of the houses with their lights on.
Some lights are being turned off.
Indoors – night, bedroom of elderly neighbours.
In the semi-darkness of the room the couple sleep peacefully snoring to the rhythm of the girl’s heartbeat.
Outdoors – night, street
In the silhouette of the houses in the town one by one the lights are being turned off.
Indoors – night, another neighbour’s bedroom.
This neighbour is also sleeping calmly.
Outdoors – night, street
The dogs are sleeping in the street
The environment is calm
The heart thumps deafly over the town as if safeguarding that life will continue its normal pace and take on its normal course.
All the houses are drowned in the deepest darkness
Indoors – night, girl’s bedroom
She is asleep
Suddenly her body shivers under the blankets, waking her up.
She is not frightened at this. She looks up over her shoulder to her back, smiles and goes back to sleep.
Narrator
So no one understood
The transformations her body underwent
With time.
So no one understood
The transformations her body underwent
With time.
The passage of time
Time passes
It gets dark, dawn breaks, the light forces the shadows to follow the same course every day.
Indoors – daytime. Girl’s bedroom
We see her leave her bed and we follow her steps.
She goes into the bathroom and draws the curtain.
Indoors – daytime, bathroom.
She turns on the tap, takes a shower.
She smiles while she washes herself and lets the water run down her back.
She turns off the tap, picks up a towel and wraps herself in it.
She leaves the bathroom and comes into the bedroom. The camera follows her.
In her hand she is holding a comb.
Indoors – daytime, girl’s bedroom.
She stops in front of the window and combs her wet hair.
She looks towards the sky.
On the window panes we see the reflection of a flock of birds which are flying.
Outdoors – daytime, sky.
This flock of birds in formation, which are probably migratory birds, are beginning their journey and fly across the sky of only a few light clouds.
Indoors – daytime, girl’s bedroom
We see the girl with her back to us in backlight. She is still and is looking through the window.
Outdoors – daytime, town
Wide-shot of the street.
We see the people carrying out their activities to the same rhythm as before.
In the sky, the flock of birds fly away.
We can see the tiny silhouette of the girl at her window.
Over the town hovers the noise of the heartbeat like an aura.
Everything seems perfect.
Indoors – daytime. Girl’s bedroom
The girl’s silhouette is still at her window. She drops the towel she had wrapped round her after her shower.
She opens the window energetically and continues to look outside.
Outdoor – daytime, street
The people outside carry on their everyday activities to the rhythm of the girl’s heartbeat.
The children carry on playing football: THUD thud, THUD thud.
The grocer adds up his bills and on the till display we can see numbers : 4… TING, ting, 3…TING, ting, 2… TING, ting, 1…TING, ting
Indoors –daytime, girl’s bedroom
At this exact moment, suddenly as if it were an explosion, we see two wings spread out on the back of the girl’s silhouette.
And it is also at this exact moment that we cease to hear the noise of the heartbeat and are drowned in profound silence.
Outdoors – daytime, Street
At the time we cease to hear the noise of the heartbeat, the whole street becomes chaotic: TING, PLOP, the keys of the grocer’s till jump off. The display shows zero.
CRASH! The children’s ball goes out of control and breaks a shop window!
CRACK! The lady’s heels come off and she almost breaks a leg.
VROOM! The old lady’s wheeled shopping bag and all her shopping she had inside it roll down the street…
POW! The street sweeper’s broom breaks!...
The catastrophes occur one after the other like a cascade.
Something that sustained time ceased to exist.
Indoors – daytime, girl’s bedroom
The girl climbs up to the window sill, she stops for a second and then jumps.
We see her legs disappear from the upper part of the window.
Then …. Nothing.
Only silence, the window is open and empty and through it we can see the clear bright sky.
Outdoors – daytime, Street
In the street people are still stunned and do not understand what has happened.
The street sweeper bends over to pick up his broken broom from the ground.
When he does this he understands there is a strange moving shadow and his eyes and mouth open in amazement.
The camera starts to move out and all the inhabitants of the town are looking up at the sky, completely astounded.
We can hear a general murmur of amazement and the surprise is present in everyone’s eyes.
The camera continues to move out and we see the people becoming smaller and smaller, clouds begin to appear and the image of the small town becomes vague like a distant dream with increasingly blurred lines until it disappears completely.
The brightness increases as we continue to move upwards and the images become almost transparent.
Finally the only thing that is left is the bright white screen.
Final credits
Outdoors – daytime, street
The street sweeper tries to find the rhythm in his work he felt before.
To no avail, he gives up in despondence.
Credits.
Indoors – night. Bedroom of lady with the heels.
The lady turns the light on.
There is a profound silence.
Dishevelled and despondent she looks at the camera, takes some pills, drinks water and lies down again, trying in vain to get some sleep.
Credits.
Outdoors – night, street
A dog all rolled up sleeps in the street,
Suddenly it opens its eyes and raises an ear.
It lets out a little bark of enthusiasm and waits with its face in the air.
But the answer it gets back is only one of silence.
Disappointed it drops its ears and lies down again.
The End.