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L'"Usine A Scénarios"

La dernière sur cette page... For the rest of the abstracted synopses down below, please write here. This writer is available for work either on my -or on others'- synopses. I offer a long bilingual editorial experience (twelve years) at "Le Monde", with various assignments in TV and radio.

Most of the linked "revised versions" have been developed since, and posted on a professional cinema industry site. If interested by any synopsis, gizzas a bell for the revised complete version, bearing in mind that even the developed versions you will track down are mere blueprints. This writer is available for treatments, developments, suggestions, rewrites and brainstorming sessions. This page is not dedicated to George Taylor out of Channel Four. Melt-Banana; Terrence Malik "The Thin Red Line"; best film of 2003 : "Springtime In A Small Town"; "Lilya 4-Ever"; "Secretary"; "A Touch Of Zen" (1975); "La Course du lièvre à travers les champs"; "George Washington"; "Static"; "In The Mood For Love"; "Vendredi soir"; "A nos amours"; the moon, the heir... of nothing in particular; Pirandello; McLuhan; Paul Auster; Bérurier Noir; Rod Chandler; Peter Strickland; Nilufer Acar; Edwige Fenech; Tinto Brass; Roland Topor; Dario Argento; Steve Albini; subsidize Frederick Wisemann!

Update June 006: "The War Against The Shadows", an old project under intense revision and development. Parts 1, 2 and 3. Under construction (dialogue, etc.)

"The Circles" (Fade To Black) -August 2005, see here. Ever-widening circles regarding a writer's fantasies. Or are they! (fantasies, that is.)

A teenage goth girl is bored to death in a small, sunny, minimalist town at the end of the materialistic eighties (...) One night, in the usual boisterous pub, she gets chatted up by a would-be rock impresario (...). Surprisingly she takes up his offer to front his band of assembled losers...

"Kraftwerk In Space, Or The Wonderful And Utterly Made-Up Story Of Tangerine Dream"; here.

a nostalgic look at the seventies West Germany under the pretence of a musicography of Tangerine Dream, in which the trio change the course of European history. The kind of "rockugraphy" that hasn't been conceived before ...as you will discover. With guest appearance by Pink Floyd cast as "Motorhead"; "ah such fun we are having" and so on.

Dr. Fradge is a respected radio pop psychiatrist who dispenses much needed advice to a tough sleazy city. (...) But privately (...) the man is a tyrant to his children, and abusive towards his wife (...) As he mentally -and increasingly physically- abuses social inferiors, he is able to analyse his own actions... Starting idea : contrast bewteen public life and public good; and private evil / real personality. So what if great public figures are nasty individuals in private ? Do their personal shortcomings really matter, when balanced with the good they generate ?

A news-crew reports on the imminent accidental murder of a Spanish immigrant in a suburb, and interviews the victim, his family and his future murderer, a young slacker who will attack him out of boredom, drunk. Complete with (fake) commercial breaks.

The film starts with the story of a young man, contemplating crashing his car after getting dumped by his girlfriend. Cut to an ordinary looking office where this problematic destiny is dealt with by bureaucrats: but every option upsets the general balance of the "sector" being computed. Rewind, fast-forward, re-editing, chance ratio manipulation... How will the original protagonist fare, under the guidance of an increasingly irritated celestial clerk? "The Truman Show" from the other side.

"The Shadows Revolt!" -old one, redrafted here. Plot easy enough, an obvious killer idea for Spielberg or Cameron to adapt. Featuring Scarlett Johansson, obviously.

"Ichi The Killer 2" cf. here "Ni The Slaughterer" -sequel to "Ichi Koroshiya" by Takashi Miike. Tout en finesse évidemment. w.o.r.l..d. 2003 Loig

Another post-modern metaphysical comedy about pre-determination Vs. freedom. Nemo decides to go and watch a film. The movie's plot shows a husband discovering his wife "in flagrante delicto". Coming back home, he too discovers his wife in bed with her lover. (...) As he recounts his story leading to this decision, he realises that all his latest tribulations seem to have been foretold... Soundtrack full of film lines open to interpretation.

Film starts : a panicked cop calls for support, he doesn't know what is going on, the whole town has erupted (as can be glimpsed in the background). Cut to opening credits (B-movie fifties style) : "So-and-So proudly presenting.... the Riot !!" musique du générique : T.A.T.U. "not gonna get us", in Russian naturellement. / Saturday afternoon in a small town's main pedestrian street. Teenagers showing off their latest clothes and piercings, shoppers going about their business of wasting money. (...) A small incident in a shop (..) degenerates and (...): the whole population starts smashing everything up (...) This film asks whether there is any redeemable feature to vandalism and answers ipso facto, it questions the individual's fundamental entitlement to blah blah blah. Inspired by god-forsaken Reading (come nucular bomb, come), where people tear off their ankle ligaments in the street and people just... walk by, oblivious to the person writhing on the ground in agony next to them. "A hundred different ways to dismantle a car / a shop". Or "how to deliver an immediate response to temping employment agencies, courtesy of Mister Zippo and his little friend the chainsaw". Music by the Damned "Smash It Up" and tons more by the likes of Lard, Conflict, Ministry, Public Enemy, Melt-Banana, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Aphex Twin. A film for Takashi Miike; or an animated fantasy. "Copyrighted" to Loig LumpenProletariat Thi Karen O' Van 2003.

An outrageous comic's ascent to fame : a woman from the North. Outspoken, brash, a heavy drinker, rather plain physically, too honest for her own good, and ultimately self-destructive. She makes a stand and silences the fat bastard main star (...) Her tactic : turning the table on her accusers. (...). As she multiplies her public stunts, her fame grows but (...) But this notoriety does not exactly amuse the other political candidates who accuses her of (...)

Lonely maintenance man Jordi Kacwinsky works in this crowded US college. He is a nobody, and (...) he overhears that Valentine is bullied (...) He decides to help this girl (...) From this premise, we witness Jordi going on about his trivial life in daytime, and patrolling the college at night : nice blue atmospheric lights, nice ambient music (...) Jordi, as he goes along on his mission , gets more inventive, and starts planting mikes or even cameras. (...) Silent fluid blue scenes of him patrolling the corridors become more and more structured...

"The Corrections", or "Blueprint (version .0)". Revised version here. Interactive "Memento" meets "Donnie Darko".

Danny is a teenage schizophrenic who has been adopted by a family (in-joke / sequel to "The Shining" !)(...) put on medication by doctors who fear he may be haunted by the memories of this tragedy. But how serious is his condition, in reality ?

The ending : variable DVD options, which the viewer can select; different titles : "Blueprint (Version .0)" is the open-ended, starting, version that allows for different interpretations. (...) "Blueprint (Version .1)" : Danny is the culprit, who can't help himself. But (...) instead, he actually... "Blueprint (Version .2)" : he is the fall-guy, a victim of the others who (...) .

Story of a serial rock fan, devoid of a personal life, in a depressing pedestrian uninspiring environment (...) who chooses to follow various groups passionately, as he grows up. (...) (Sordid sex, drugs, throwing up, egomania scenes.) He gets injured: bed-bound for a while, (...) starts writing to fan-clubs (...) His private shrine grows (...).

Comments. Based on autobiographical elements (...) A study of rock groupies is long overdue : male or female. Cf., also, the "Otaku" syndrom in Japan (...)

(...)Admiring the cemetery, the visitor suddenly comes across a gang of youth misbehaving; they are suddenly chased by a motorcycled dark figure in a cape who roughs them up and drags them out of the grounds (the stranger acts as a stand-in for the audience). The figure then reappears out of nowhere, startling the witness (...) (Delayed entrance). (Western style credits at this stage : about a good twelve minutes into the film, some Morricone grandes orgues à la "Fistful Of Dollars" to introduce the hero). The visitor scampers away, his hair turned white.

Scenes establishing the "NecroMaster", as he goes about his business (...) to a glorious soundtrack of classical music mixed with Goth punk. Flanked by a pet raven for good measure. Physically outstanding, possibly gigantic (contre-plongée shooting), otherworldly looking : maybe wears long, raven black hair, dressed in black leather and tuxedo (shades of Dave Vanian). He leads an isolated life, away from the local community who keep him at a distance (depositing weekly food outside the fantasmagoric gates of the domain), even though the villagers all recognise his artistry and competence. Scene in which he strolls down the street, crowds of shoppers parting to let him through. (Visual light-effect à la "Kairo" to set him apart).

(...) (...) Collective guilt, which the funeral director took on, to assume power at the funeral ground. (...) Curious about his lifestyle, she hangs around and spies on the charismatic funeral director loner. Cue : more night-scenes depicting him roaming his facteur Cheval-meets-Gaudi kingdom, talking to the dead, arranging things, redistributing flowers among the poor -to great music. He is aware of her presence, thanks to his raven who comes to perch in his shoulder (and use of reflections showing her behind him). ... (silence) he can't reveal his true nature (...) he was here when popes ruled the Western world and unleashed the Inquisition. Speaking ever slower, he explains : (...) But it's not the end. (...)

Unashamed Gothic loner fantasy. Vague / composite echoes of the Italian film "Dellamore", "The Lighthouse At The End Of The World", the Australian film in the desert with one of the INXS guys, "Choke", "Highlander", "L'Arrache coeur", "The Garden"-D. Jarman, "Kissed", "The Sweet Hereafter", "Le Grand Bleu", "The Sandman" comic, and many more. Choice : either he starts the film not knowing his true nature and ends up like Jack in "The Shining" (having found his spiritual home, or realising with horror that he is doomed), or he is ...different from the start. In other words : either an adventure with him as hero, or a mystery with him as object of the protagonist's curiosity. Soundtrack : The Pixies "I've Been Waiting For You"; Kosheen "I Want It All", end of David Bowie "Seven Years In Tibet", Siouxsie "The Last Beat Of My Heart".

Further twist. Possibility of a mix, in the middle, with another story of mine (as a non-related / non -sequitur subplot a la "Mulholland Drive" / Godard) : "The Leisure Of Death", in which an entrepreneur proposes to his clients to experience a night with the dead (three levels available on offer : camping in the cemetery, sleeping in a church, or being locked in a funeral monument), even though he also acts as a security guard for the municipal cemetery against the grave robbers (...) which also came to me in a dream. Copyrights : 180 Cave Men 2001 / Under The Big Black Sun Of A Long Dark Summer 2002 / w.o.r.l.d. 2003.

Film starts with some young people having a party, drinking, smoking, dancing, etc.. Rough Dogme style filming. Small chat, flirting, gossip, this sort of thing for about thirty minutes. One of the character falls out with her boyfriend, and drinks some more. She pops a pill. The agressive dance music is turned up. Then, the protagonist doesn't feel too well, and tries to climb the stairs to the bathroom, to some people's amusements.

Then the screen turns to black. Silence. Bluish shapes emerge gradually, as does sound : as if underwater. Half-formed shapes flicker in slow motion, a bit like in a lava lamp. Trippy ambient music a la Young Gods / Brian Eno. At times, repetition, as if stuck in a groove. Memories of a visage. And so on for fourty minutes : audio / visual experience. Could finish with paramedics reviving the character. Possible influences : "Girlfriend In A Coma" , "2001", "Blue", Young Gods "Summer Eyes". Copyright w.o.r.l.d. 2003

Logline: God and the Devil do battle through a series of film-scenes magically brought to life. A screenwriter and his emblematic companions try to fight their way through the escalating madness.

One business man type (played by Nick Cave, because Nick-Cave-Is-God) comes back home after work; greeted by his servants, who serve him his dinner. He looks tired, preoccupied with his business, and they wait on him deferentially, in silence. Every now and then, his phone rings: "Yes. Peter... huh. Well... I see... let them wait around a bit, I'll deal with it tomorrow. Thank you." (...) Cut to the butler, who selects and loads a film into the projector. Then he requests his master 's presence, and goes: "Your film is now ready, anytime you want... Our Lord." and as he turns, we see a pair of angel wings on his back. The white haired business-man sits down to enjoy His movie, and stares at us.

Another day in a European capital. A group of film fans have spent the night argueing about horror movies on the Net, one of them prepares to get down to work. Music: "Il est 5 heures, Paris s'éveille". Scenes chronicling the new dawn; more of the same. The protagonist muses: "What I would need would be a killer idea, some story that hasn't been done before... The scenario to end all scenarios." His publisher's secretary rings to remind him that he is due a treatment soon, and he must meet his deadline this time, otherwise... "Sure. Absolutely, I'm on it, in fact I was just re-editing some appendix." he assures her. Hangs up: "Yeah, right... like ghosting someone's work is what the world is waiting for...". He considers his assignment: rewriting, watering down, censoring some author's original work. He sighs despondently, as he surveys the pages filled with red blotches indicating "unacceptable" / "too controversial" / "swearword" and so on. (...) Cut to the spectator (God), who is getting impatient: "Right, when's it gonna kick off? I deserve better than this, me!" He lights up a cigarette. Zoom: doing so, he has ignited a volcano on Earth.

Back to the story: Boris explains that if only he could find the killer plot, just one, the killer story to write up quickly and post on the Net, he'd be sorted, like... for sure. For life. He's been betraying his true calling all along, God knows he didn't want to end up like this, stabbing other authors in the back as it were... The barman listens to him, making the usual aproving mumbles: "Yeah... sure... too right, buddy, good luck, eh..." Boris goes on.

God is getting distracted. He goes to the toilet (or to pour himself a drink). While he is away, a sinister character (whose appearance is to be defined) pops in and eavesdrop; he has a wicked smile and goes: "Oh yes... I see, just you wait son."

Back to the film; the camera turns to show that the barman's face has changed into the mysterious visitor's. God interjects: "Continuity! Tss, editors these days..." The barman cunningly asks his locutor: "Now, you really to come up with the story of all stories? Well maybe you will, maybe you will. And now off you go. So long!" as he turns to serve a group of new customers. Boris leaves the café, and walks down the street. Suddenly, he trips and falls through the open window into a sports car, going round the corner. The car suddenly accelerates and chases another one down the streets: the perfect copy of "Bullitt"/ short blast of the soundtrack. A bit shaken, Boris gets the driver's attention: it's Steve McQueen! Quick montage. Boris is ejected out of the car, as the scenes continues.

Boris comes to, rises, bruised from the pavement, to find himself in the middle of a (...) his new friend. "Er... I don't know, I must admit I never watched it till the end..." Boris replies. "In any case, we must stop this. I must find a way to put an end to this nightmare." By now, night is falling and they come across a motel... Boris vaguely recognises it. They go too fast for him to read the name; a young man comes up to meet them: it's Anthony Perkins out of "Psycho". They leave in a hurry. Cut to a scene of "Night Of The Hunter": "evil never sleeps"(...)

God crosses his legs, now mildly entertained: "Huh". Amusing..." Back to the film: the sinister barman appears and addresses the audience. "Amusing, eh? And how about.. that?" Cut to shots of armies on the move, the monsters from "Startship (Storm)Troopers" galloping towards us, and so on. God stirs up: "Wait a second... I know you, of course, you are... Ha!" More sequences of cinema evil on the prowl. God: "OK Luke, if it's what you want... Game on!"

They find a car (...from "Duel"), and drive away. The "Duel" truck appears; Boris recognises it; they ask him how D. Weaver survived in the movie, and he tells them: they drive up the road, and wait. "Any minute now, this idiot's gonna turn up, and try to crash into us... towards his death! Ha!! I've seen the film!" The truck duly appears, and crashes as predicted. "One-nil!", Boris punches the air. "Next, we what?" (...)

Then the building starts to shake. "Oh dear, what is it now?", they spot the two dinosaurs from "Jurassic Park" in the kitchen, and hide. Then Deverre has an idea: (...) "Hmm... true, but mainly thanks to the screenwriter's miraculous resolutions", Leatitia corrects him. "Let's imagine we could take Deverre up on his suggestion, what could we oppose to these two?" (...) Final scene from the film to follow.

They find themselves in the "Poseidon". Boris doesn't recognise this one, but Deverre does; he explains that they have to climb up, ...or have to invoke another film.

But Boris is getting tired, he wants to go home, and be done with this cinematic madness. It 's getting tiresome, and he reckons they need to reflect why all these movie events are happening for real, why they are caught in them. What brought it about? They must go to the root of the problem, otherwise there won't be any end in sight and will spend their lives fighting, as they casually fend off the attacks of vampires, street gangs, and other nazis. Laetitia questions him, which reminds him of his conversation with the barman. Maybe he needs to transport himself back to that moment ..but he finds out that he can't. His companions offer this explanation: it wasn't in a film, but for real. They are caught in someone's cinematographic fantasy, someone with the power to bring to life all these creatures. This is what/who they have to contend with, face up to. "Are we characters in someone's film? In some scenario?" Boris wonders. But Laetitia probes him, leads him to the right direction: who has the power to bring to life fictitious creatures? (...) Boris realises what Laetitia must have represented, and enquires about Deverre... which tells him that he -the demiurgic author- has the power, he can save "us", i.e. humanity, from boredom and martyrdom. He must recognise his power, that he had in him all along and hadn't exploited; on these words Deverre disappears. Boris is now alone; the landscape then changes to a multitude of chess games taking place all around him: vertiginous vista. "OK, OK, I got the message, I'll do it! I won't sell out, I won't prostitute my pen!" he yells,

His phone rings, his publisher wants to see him. He gets there. Boris goes to argue his case with his editor, all excited about his story. The secretary keeps him waiting, haughtily, and lets him in. He sits down, and the camera reveals the boss: it's the devil, who grumpily asks him: "So, you 'got your rewrite ready yet!"

The fortunes of clubbers in a dismal provincial night-club. Last chance saloon / an education into the rules of flirting for young starters.

Concentric circles : the enthusiastic dancers, the occasional ones, the men mixing on the dancefloors, the men watching from the sidelines, the girls patrolling / drinking, the pathetic DJ in his own self-aggrandising world(...) Various types : the exhibitionist blonde dancer who turns it up when (...) "Plot" directions. Groups establish their territory : women on one side, (...) opine boffin psychologists, "Big Brother" style, analysing the behaviour of the subjects under scrutiny.

The film starts with a short sequence depicting a brutal rape. Then the film goes backward / the tape rewinds (music : the very end of the Beatles' "One Day In The Life"), indicating that what will take place is a film-long flashback.

Credits / Start of the story. Music : Sugababes-"Stronger". The main female protagonist gets up and goes to work. She works for a town council, setting up exhibitions, working at the municipal library, and so on. It is a grim, poor town, where people don't care much for culture. Yellow lights, grey blocks of anonymous flats. The story follows her during her day, dealing with various problems / members of the public, until she wraps up and sets off to go home. The whole plot is geared towards the final scene in which "Isabelle", the protagonist, enters the car-park at the end of the day, where we already know she will get raped.

Idea : by indicating from the start what will happen, and -importantly- what horrible crime, the film conveys an impress of ineluctability / helplessness, and questions the viewer's motives for awaiting / expecting the final crime. It is important to depict the rape graphically (six long minutes / no music on the soundtrack), so as to insist on the violent aspect of it. A rape is a crime of violence, hardly a sexual act per se. In this regard, it would be better to cast a moderately attractive actress rather than a natural stunner; the idea is : the offenders would have attacked regardless of their actual victim's physique. Equally, her character is anything but an important person socailly; she is a put-upon, slightly overworked and underpaid, clerical worker whose daily plight is not recognised, let alone by her assailants who are as common as she is.

The story's details, throughout, stress the daily acceptance of violence : teenagers spend their time playing videogames and listening to gangsta-rap / heavy metal; there is cleanly edited war going on on the TV news, complete with spectacular shots of so-called guided missiles hitting their targets; everyone goes for the easiest option as a rule of thumb; at the canteen someone sniggers at the vegetarian option; there is a reproduction of "le Massacre des innocents"on a wall and a shot of the unacceptable "BumFights" video. Cruel narrative game : the protagonist will have several options, during the day / throughout the story, to change her destiny and not end up getting up to the fatal spot (cf. Camus found dead with a train ticket in his pocket) ...but every time, she turns them down (after a moment's reflection / hesitation, which makes it worse). For instance : she is offered a lift, and gets told to go home early, but she insists on finishing her task first, and therefore leaves the building later than she should have. Someone muses about time-travel, at some stage, after mentioning "Donnie Darko". Watching the events unfold knowing their outcome is thereby all the more painful for the audience. Basically, "Isabelle" is a lamb to the slaughter the audience have come to accept from the opening sequence by sitting through the film.

Suggestion : narrating her attackers' story, in parallel to hers, until their destinies eventually collide. The two men are having a dreadful day. Cf. novel by Russell Banks ("The Great Shift", smthg like that). Possible technical gimmick : split screen right at the end, finally merging as they get in contact (cf. "The Rules Of Attraction").

It is important, though, to introduce some elements of hope. There always must be an alternative, so that the story does not turn into an apocalyptic, all sweeping denunciation; a subplot must, en filligrame, show that altruism exists and that good nature should, in effect, be encouraged. For instance, one of the deprived youngsters she introduces to culture by showing him books, shows interest and curiosity (cf. end of "Salo"). 20 April 2003; vaguely inspired by Noé's "Irreversible"-which I still haven't seen and whose plot I don't want to know either.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Scenarios have to deal with identity; potentiality; life as opposed to narration; creating something (art / love / fate) beyond the mere logic of getting born, existing, and dying; predestination and existentialism. Double plots reciprocate our schizophrenic experience as film viewers witnessing an invented plot : boxes within boxes. Personally I'm not too keen on doppelgangers : too contrived, a bit of a gimmick.

Some remarks on narration. On conveying the idea of the world as some multi-directional complex, simultaenously happening, entity. cf; "the thin red line", where the film cuts to observations/scenes of nature in the middle of a human war going on: the anti-tarantino trivia interlude designed to boast how would-be cool his characters are.

it would be more interesting to replace a plot element -such as a murder- within a context, showing how
1) it derives from a succession of conditions
2) it affects the rest
3) it doesn't affect other, unrelated elements that go on. For instance cut to workers on their lunch-break in the park, oblivious to what is happening in our story.

Sense of throbbing community, replacing the pretext of our plot within a more complex, and therefore not necessarily relevant setting (cf. "Nena" synopsis).

The danger of story-telling is to conceive every detail as a relevant part of the story, as completing the puzzle. But real life is not like that! The world out there could not care less what happens to us, only if our own story has interpersonal consequences. It is our subjectivity that assigns an importance to out personal plot; most often, the rest of the world is unaffected and indifferent.
and so, maybe, it would be more realistic to include, in narration, some random, unrelated interludes hinting at the heterogenous nature of -big words- Life or The World.

The structuring of a story gives an edge to every detail; and so the rearrangement of the narration, if it is done in a non-conventional manner, also comes across as some kind of message. For instance, starting with a result and showing as flash-back, how we came to the establishing scene: this can indicate the sense of ineluctability. On the other hand, adopting a more conventional chronological progression could be said to smack of existentialism (your actions define you), or materialism -religious apprehension of this technique, in the case of these religions that percieve human lives as predestined.

Re-establish narration as a distorted portrayal of reality ! (satire, fantasy...)

Autres systèmes narratifs suivront. Ecrivez-moi: Loig7@aol.com.

Film Incohérences (the definitive database on cinématographique cheating)

"Mulholland Drive" plot(s) at last

: Official Sex World Cup Federation : let us recognise sex as a proper sport !

Bonjour à Anushka Marek et Kirsten Dunst, nées le même jour que moi !!!!