The script is also
available on the net:
http://www.crownedanarchist.com/dejavuscript.doc
http://www.crownedanarchist.com/dejavuscript.htm
Please read the
treatment and the report on the Net:
http://www.crownedanarchist.com/dejavu.htm
http://www.crownedanarchist.com/dejavureport.htm
Download the doc
versions:
http://www.crownedanarchist.com/dejavu.doc
http://www.crownedanarchist.com/dejavureport.doc
www.crownedanarchist.com rm@crownedanarchist.com
A successful and rich philosophy teacher who is paid to think and
publish books by a renowned university is experiencing Deja Vu at an alarming
rate. He turns all his attention into understanding the phenomenon but as he
thinks some more he gets to uncover something really wrong with his existence.
His Deja Vu episodes no longer reflect reality. Events and people are changing
everyday, contradicting his previous memories of the events. Understandably it
makes him question not only his sanity but also the normal flow of time and the
reality we have all come to believe in.
One of the ways to explain
Deja vu is if we have actually lived those moments before. Somehow we must have
gone back in time and relived the same events as if in a time loop. Through
Deja vu we can remember having lived those events before and we can change what
is to come. If we had many Deja vu episodes and could drastically change our
future when we go back in time, then tomorrow I could be a theoretical
physicist instead of an author. This is the basis of this film.
I suggest the story takes
place in a few days and everyday life is different from the previous day. Henry
will be a philosophy teacher for the first day and then he will become
successively a medical doctor, a parapsychologist, a theoretical physicist and
a psychic medium. This should give us the chance to analyze what is Deja vu
from different perspectives.
The idea here is that the
future, the past and the present are always in movement. As a result one day we
are a philosophy teacher and the next day we can be a medical doctor as it is
possible to change the future whenever we go back into the past and are aware
of the future. Yet, everything seems fine and we don't question this
fluctuating timeline. We don't completely remember having lived in the future
(except through deja vu, intuition and feelings).
Deja vu is what will get
Henry to understand that something is not right, that perhaps yesterday he was
not a medical doctor. He remembers events from a different past and can even
predict the future to a certain extent, a future very different from his actual
life. As he struggles to understand what is going on, he will speak to his wife
and colleagues about Deja vu, trying to explain them, wondering if perhaps he
is crazy and suffering from hallucinations.
At the end he will be a
theoretical physicist explaining Deja vu via Einstein's Relativity and Quantum
Mechanics. He will not know exactly what is going on, if perhaps people are
trying to deceive him to prevent him from thinking and reaching conclusions about
the mechanics of existence. He will look for a way out and might find one
somehow…
So the story will start
slowly, our man will have some Deja vu and will try to change things, so it is
different from his Deja vu. This is all he will do at first. He will get
interested in the phenomenon because he will have four Deja vu in the same day.
He will talk about it to his class after his second experience.
His fourth Deja vu episode
will show him that something is not right. What he remembers is not what is happening.
His wife will not be or say what his Deja vu is telling him. Moreover he will
get to know something about his wife that there would be no way for him to
know. This should be a freaky experience, not only he remembers that his wife
is not what she says she is, but on top of it he knows things about her he
should not know, things he would have seen in the Deja vu.
So in a way the Deja vu is
a powerful vision as it is right, he has now a clairvoyance gift, he knows
things through some sort of sixth sense. But at the same time he does not want
to give credit to the Deja vu as the person is clearly not who he remembers her
to be. So he does not know what to make of it.
The next day his life has
changed. We follow him and we understand that he is no longer a teacher of
philosophy as he was able to change the future somehow when going back in time
and reliving the same events.
Our philosophy teacher
needs to experience Deja vu and I thought of an interesting way to represent
that on the screen without looking too much like the Matrix, Groundhog Day or
The Truman Show. I feel I came up with something new that has never been done
before and should be quite interesting on the screen.
The teacher will actually
live just before - or while it is happening - a Deja vu episode that will or
will not correspond to reality. The way to show the Deja vu will be a split
screen. We will have two realities playing simultaneously. Sometimes one of the
screens will become full, then the other one will take over. It would show that
two realities are playing out at the same time and sometimes they are
identical, sometimes they are different, and sometimes they are identical but
out of sync.
Of course, as soon as you
realize that you are experiencing Deja vu and that you mention it, you can no
longer be doing what the Deja vu shows on the second half of the screen. At
that point your reality differs from the Deja vu, especially if you do try to
change the events so you don't repeat the same actions over and over again. You
feel trapped in a time loop and you are looking for a way out. And by doing
everything differently, you might just get out of it (or so you think anyway).
The thing is, if you were
to have many Deja vu you could change your life dramatically in comparison with
what would have actually happened. As our teacher is an extreme case and
experiences Deja vu many times a day, he gets to change his life to a point
where even him would not recognize it a few days later. The Deja vu at that
point shows us what would have happened if he had not changed anything in his
life because of the Deja vu (so it becomes a Jamais vu or Never seen before).
How can he change his life
like this, why would he suddenly be someone else tomorrow or that the people in
his life are no longer what they were supposed to be? Why this multiplication
of different timelines? Good question and important answer for this film.
You see, a Deja vu
indicates that somehow we are in a time loop. We live a linear existence up to
a point where we go back in time. Could be hours, could be days, could be
years. When we go back in time we usually live a very similar timeline unless
we get a glimpse of the future, unless we remember something perhaps traumatic,
like clairvoyants and mediums can do. At that point you can change the future,
you can change who you are, you can influence everyone in your timeline to the
point that they too take different decisions.
On this timeline, if you
were to have another Deja vu episode when in fact it is the first time that you
are living this new timeline, it could tell you instead what was happening in
the previous timeline, before you went back in time. This is what is happening
here. Both Deja vu and changing the future come from this time loop that brings
you back into the past.
Though this could be a
normal physical phenomenon, we will make it more interesting by adding another
mysterious knowledge to be gained from this phenomenon. Something more
spiritual. Understanding this about the existence will give the chance to our
teacher to understand much more about the universe we live in.
In my idea we don't repeat
the same events over and over again. But from one Deja vu to the other Henry's
reality will change. In his Deja vu people will have different functions,
different job titles, are no longer there, etc. Though he will clearly remember
having lived this before, in time what he will feel that he experienced is no
longer happening in real life. Then, to his horror, he will change, though he
will not remember that everything in his life has changed. Only via the Deja vu
will he get to understand that he has already lived this life before but he was
not a doctor, he was a teacher.
So this is a good twist
about Deja vu that differs from reality, making our character question the
mechanisms of existence. At one point what Henry will be experiencing is no
longer a Deja vu (already seen) but a Jamais Vu (never seen before). He will no
longer recognize his reality and actions. He will feel lost because he will remember
having lived this in a different way. And while he will try to understand what
is going on, he will experience Presque Vu (almost seen), as if the explanation
was within his grasps and yet escaping him. He needs to find a way out of these
time loops so his life is no longer switching from one timeline to another.
This said, in order to be
different from Groundhog Day, he is not going to wake up on the same day every
day. He will not relive the same events over and over again. The way to make it
look good is that he will appear to live a normal linear life in which he will
remember that he has lived that before, and eventually that he lived it
differently and that people are no longer who they were. In any case I don't
intend to do another cheap version of Groundhog Day. I have a mystery to expose
and to understand: Deja vu, and the story is a mean to get some answers.
There will be Deja vu
episodes just before and while the real events are taking place, to remind him
of another reality while his life is going berserk. Normally he should not be
aware that everything has changed slightly from one day to another. The idea is
that life is not linear or chronological, even it changes everyday though we
are usually unaware of this fact. The Deja vu in this context will help him
understand that something is not right with reality, that things are changing
even though his memories do not contradict anything from one day to another.
The way I explain how this
is possible is via a fluctuating timeline due to the effects of relativity and
also via the Many-worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. For more details
please read my report about Deja vu available on my website.
This film will have a slow
start so the viewer can get into the story before losing patience, and I will
try to be as evident as possible so they won't lose it, but it is something
special and different. Cinema is in great need of more complex stories and this
is it. All right, all right, I will try to make it easy to understand, but the
viewer will need to be ready to accept that one day our teacher is a doctor.
One day he is married and the other he is not. Not only that, all this will not
seem weird to our teacher, he will accept all these changes as if nothing
happened, like if yesterday he was not someone else. Only through Deja vu will
he get to understand that something is not right, that yesterday he was not a
doctor. The day is not repeating itself, but every day is different even though
we continue on some sort of linear and chronological timeline.
So at first only small
changes, and then big ones. Just like in dreams, new universes every day that
appear completely logical at the time, only to be dismissed as illogical when
we wake up.
Introduction. First Deja Vu. Day 1. Early
morning. Home hardware store
The film starts in a home hardware store
where Henry Williams, a slightly eccentric philosophy teacher at a renowned
university, is waiting at a counter for some help. He is late for his class, he
cannot wait any longer and impatiently asks the clerk to speed up a bit. While
he waits he sees a 4 year old child wandering around the shop.
This first scene is about Henry
experiencing his first Deja vu which will give him the chance of saving a young
child from having a fatal accident.
Henry williams
(While waiting at a counter.)
I need two dozen screws. You know the ones
that go into the ceiling and get stuck there?
Clerk
I don't know what you mean, sorry.
HenrY WILLIAMS
They're like little Vs that snap into a
hole you previously made in the ceiling. Then it holds there and you can
suspend a plant or something...
CleRK
You really intend to hang 24 plants from
your ceiling? Where do you live, in an institution?
HeNRY WILLIAMS
Don't worry about that...
ClerK
(We see the kid in the background running around.)
I've only recently started here, after
failing my degree, so I'm not exactly an expert "in weird screws that go
into the ceiling". I'll have to ask my supervisor.
HenRY WILLIAMS
For god's sake, I'm late! I have to teach a
class in 15 minutes! Please, screws that go into the ceiling, to suspend
things, it can't be that difficult!
ClERK
(Leaving.)
Let me speak with my supervisor...
HenRY WILLIAMS
(While the clerk disappears on to the shop floor. Henry is talking to himself...)
Finally... just go, it's your mission, find
me screws for hanging stupid plants! What can be so hard to understand, 24
screws, when you're sooo late!
I'll have to come back, I know I'll have to
come back... I'll just have to come back after school... crazy idea to believe
I could buy 24 simple screws before my class starts... and people wonder why we
become neurotic.
(Shouting.)
It's madness! 24 simple screws! Why can't
anyone help me! Where's the supervisor! Where's the manager? This home hardware
store is filled with incompetent people! If I was that stupid in my job, I
would have been sacked years ago!
The first Deja vu starts, the screen splits
into two. On the left hand side of the screen Henry shows an interest in the
child, he's not sure why. He asks him to come over, wants to know if he's lost,
wonders where his parents are. He tells him to be very careful.
On the right screen however, where Henry
hasn't asked the child to come over, we can see Louis pretending to be a plane
running around the shop with his arms stretched out. He gets dangerously close
to a pedestal sink on demonstration. We can see him put his little hand over
the sink and the whole thing crashes down on top of him. The screen returns to
one frame after that.
As Henry will have seen what was going to
happen in the deja vu, in real life he will be able to prevent the accident.
RIGHT SCREEN (deja
vu)
LouiS
(Tugging on Henry's trouser leg.)
Who are you talking to?
HenRY WILLIAMS
What? Just get lost... I'm waiting for my
screws...
LouiS
You're screws.
HeNRY WILLIAMS
Yeah, go away! I'm going to be late!
LOUIS
(Leaving to go towards the pedestal sink that will fall on him with
disastrous consequences.)
You're crazy!
HenRY WILLIAMS
Yeah, yeah... I've seen just about
everything today... It's just my day! Where is that guy?
(Witnessing the pedestal sink falling over Louis.)
Oh my God! Careful! Oh dear, now I'll be
really late!
LEFT SCREEN (real
life)
Louis
(Tugging on Henry's trouser leg.)
Who are you talking to?
HeNRY WILLIAMS
Oh, who are you? What's your name? I know
you, I recognize you from somewhere, don't I?
LouiS
My name is Louis. I am 4 years old.
HeNRY WILLIAMS
(While Louis is walking away.)
That old, he? No, no, no, don't leave, come
here.
LouiS
(Coming back.)
What do you want?
HenRY WILLIAMS
Are you lost?
LOUIS
No. Are you? You seem lost...
HeNRY WILLIAMS
Yes, most of the time... listen, where's
your mom and dad?
LoUIS
I don't know...
HeNRY WILLIAMS
You should go and find them right now.
LOUIS
Why?
HenRY WILLIAMS
Because it's dangerous to be on your own at
your age.
LOUIS
OK.
END OF SPLIT SCREEN
After Henry has finished speaking to Louis,
the child runs straight towards the sink which, in this reality, has not fallen
yet. The clerk is back and asks Henry if this is what he wanted. When he sees
Henry fascinated by the child, he asks if everything is OK.
ClerK
Here, I found these screws for you. Are
they what you wanted?
HenRY WILLIAMS
(Looking at the child instead of the clerk.)
Wait a second... look at that kid...
ClERK
(Impatient.)
What's wrong?
HeNRY WILLIAMS
Something terrible is about to happen...
ClERK
What, you've seen my supervisor? You've
already complained about me?
HeNRY WILLIAMS
No, you moron. That little boy, something
horrible... I have a bad feeling...
ClERK
(Ironic.)
Oh... a bad feeling...
Suddenly we get a close up of Louis' little
hand reaching out for the sink, and Henry's hand at the very last second
preventing him from touching the side of the sink. Suddenly the parents of
Louis arrive on the scene and are not pleased that a stranger has touched their
child. Henry apologizes but explains to the supervisor now present that this is
very irresponsible to have such a dangerous installation in a shop.
Father
Hey you! Don't touch my kid!
Mother
We could sue you for that!
HenRY WILLIAMS
Really? I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know
just yet the extent of my crime.
Father
You pervert!
Mother
Child abuser!
HeNRY WILLIAMS
Wow! Calm down! I just saved your child
from a horrible accident!
Supervisor
Really?
HeNRY WILLIAMS
Yes! It is pretty irresponsible to have
such an installation! It could have killed Louis!
Father
You know his name?
Mother
(Taking her mobile phone out.)
That's it, I'm calling the police! They
know what to do with people like you! Straight to the electric chair!
HenRY WILLIAMS
This sink will fall any second now! It
would have killed your child! Are you all crazy?
SupeRviSOR
(Laughing.)
This is madness, this is not going to fall,
it's been there for days!
(The sink falls by itself.)
Oh...
HenRY WILLIAMS
There, you see?
SupervISOR
This is magic...