Feature screenplay · Reading sample
Pentimento
9-page opening sample. Full screenplay available privately on request.
Sample text is displayed for reading only. No public PDF download is provided.
1
1.
FADE IN:
INT. COURTHOUSE BATHROOM - DAY
A white sink. Water runs over a pair of young hands.
The hands are clean. Still, MIA MARDEN, 18, scrubs them as
if something remains under the skin.
Long dark hair falls over her face. Black oversized hoodie.
Black trousers. Heavy boots. A beautiful face hidden like
evidence.
She looks at herself in the mirror. Doesn't recognize the
girl there.
Mia keeps washing. The water turns cold.
JUDGE (V.O.)
Given the defendant's age at the
time of the offense, and the
mitigating circumstances presented
by the court-appointed
psychologist, the court sentences
Mia Marden to probation and two
hundred and forty hours of
community service under social care
assignment.
Mia turns the tap off. The clean hands remain in the basin.
A court bracelet of cheap paper circles one wrist. She peels
it away. It tears badly. A white strip remains against the
skin.
INT. VERENA'S CAR - DAY
Rain on the windshield. Mia in the passenger seat, hood up,
a plastic court folder on her lap.
VERENA MARDEN, 51, drives. Elegant. Controlled. A forensic
pathologist with the face of someone who has learned to
respect silence more than grief.
Both women look forward.2
2.
VERENA
You were lucky.
The windshield wipers scrape the glass.
MIA
You always talk like I killed
someone in your hospital.
Verena's jaw tightens.
VERENA
You killed someone in my house.
Mia looks at her. Verena regrets saying it, but not enough
to take it back.
MIA
Your house.
Verena keeps driving.
Mia opens the court folder. The first page is stamped in
three places. Her name appears eight times before Stefan's
appears once.
She closes it.
INT. VERENA'S APARTMENT - KITCHEN - EVENING
An apartment with the same pathology as Verena: clean
surfaces, exact edges, nothing left where it fell.
Mia drops the court folder on the kitchen table. Verena
removes her coat. Mia opens the refrigerator, stares, closes
it without taking anything.
Verena sees the placement sheet half out of the folder.
VIKTOR ARDEN. Private care assistance. Former Professor of
Restoration and Conservation.
Verena's hand stops over the page.
Only a beat.
Then she slides the sheet back under the others and aligns3
3.
the folder with the edge of the table.
Mia does not see.
VERENA
Your appointment is at nine
tomorrow.
MIA
I know how clocks work.
VERENA
That has never been the issue.
Mia takes a glass from the cupboard.
MIA
Do they teach that sentence in
medical school?
VERENA
No. Mothers improvise.
Mia almost laughs. Almost.
INT. SOCIAL SERVICES OFFICE - MORNING
Small office. Too much paper. A dying plant turning toward a
window it cannot reach.
TESS HALE, late 30s, probation officer, practical without
performing warmth, checks a file across the desk from Mia.
TESS
Private care assistance. Three
hours a day, five days a week.
Groceries, reading, correspondence,
light housework, cataloguing if he
asks.
She slides the placement form across.
TESS (CONT'D)
His name is Viktor Arden. Former
professor of restoration and
conservation. Progressive central
vision loss.4
4.
MIA
Why me?
TESS
Because most people refused. And
because he requested someone who
can read.
MIA
He requested?
TESS
He agreed to participate in the
program. That is not the same
thing.
Mia studies the address.
TESS (CONT'D)
One more thing. Don't test him.
MIA
Why?
TESS
Because he won't react the way you
want.
Mia looks up.
MIA
How do I want him to react?
TESS
Like everyone else.
Tess closes the file.
TESS (CONT'D)
If the placement is unsafe, you
call me. Unsafe. Not boring. Not
insulting. Not strange.
MIA
Those are different categories?5
5.
TESS
Professionally, yes.
EXT. VIKTOR ARDEN'S HOUSE - LATE AFTERNOON
A narrow street on the edge of the city. Old trees. Black
iron gates. Rain still trapped in the branches.
The house is severe. Beautiful, but airless. A place cleaned
of accident.
Mia checks the address twice before pressing the bell.
A long silence.
The gate BUZZES open.
INT. VIKTOR'S HOUSE - ENTRANCE HALL - LATE AFTERNOON
Wax. Cold stone. Old paper. Something chemical underneath.
Everything is immaculate. No family photographs. No shoes
abandoned by a door. No coat placed carelessly. No softness.
VIKTOR (O.S.)
Close the door properly.
Mia turns.
VIKTOR ARDEN, 64, stands at the end of the hall. Tall. Lean.
Salt-and-pepper hair, thin glasses. A face sharpened by age,
not weakened by it.
His pale eyes focus slightly beside her rather than directly
at her. A slim cane rests against his leg, not like a
weakness. Like punctuation.
VIKTOR (CONT'D)
You are late.
MIA
By four minutes.
VIKTOR
Then you understand the charge.
He walks away. Mia follows because apparently that is what6
6.
has been decided.
INT. VIKTOR'S LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS
High ceilings. Heavy bookshelves. A black piano. Paintings:
portraits, saints, women in shadow. No television.
A chair waits opposite Viktor's armchair.
VIKTOR
Sit.
Mia stays standing.
VIKTOR (CONT'D)
Or stand. It will only make you
tired.
She sits.
Viktor places a folder on the small table with exact care.
VIKTOR (CONT'D)
Groceries twice a week. Reading
when required. Letters when
dictated. No smoking inside. No
touching the paintings.
A pause.
VIKTOR (CONT'D)
No entering my study without me.
MIA
Is that where you keep the bodies?
Viktor looks toward her. Not offended. Almost curious.
VIKTOR
Do you always announce your fear as
sarcasm?
Mia looks away.7
7.
VIKTOR (CONT'D)
Here we will not discuss what you
did. Unless you begin to lie about
it.
MIA
I don't lie.
VIKTOR
Everyone lies. The question is
whether the lie has taste.
He holds out a key. Mia doesn't take it.
MIA
You're giving me a key?
VIKTOR
I am giving you responsibility.
Don't sentimentalize it.
She takes the key. Their fingers do not touch.
Viktor turns his head slightly toward the hallway.
VIKTOR (CONT'D)
Your left boot is wet.
Mia glances down. Both boots look wet to her.
MIA
You really can't see?
VIKTOR
Enough to know the left one is
wetter.
INT. VERENA'S APARTMENT - MIA'S ROOM - NIGHT
A small dark room. Cigarette ash in a mug. Clothes on the
floor. A mirror turned toward the wall.
Mia sits on the bed, Viktor's key in her palm.
Verena appears in the doorway. The chaos offends her
silently before she speaks.8
8.
VERENA
You need to take this seriously.
MIA
I killed a man. I think everyone
agrees I took something seriously.
Verena goes still.
VERENA
His name was Stefan.
MIA
I know his name.
VERENA
Then use it.
Mia's voice drops.
MIA
Did he use mine?
Silence. Verena cannot answer.
Mia smiles faintly. Not a victory. A wound showing teeth.
Verena leaves. Mia turns the mirror back toward herself.
She studies her face until it becomes unbearable, then turns
it away again.
INT. VIKTOR'S KITCHEN - LATE MORNING
White tile. Steel. Glass jars labeled by hand. A kitchen
designed by someone who distrusts packaging.
Mia unpacks groceries while Viktor sits at the table,
listening.
VIKTOR
You bought the wrong apples.
MIA
They're apples.9
9.
VIKTOR
They are decorative.
He takes one, turns it in his hand.
VIKTOR (CONT'D)
Beauty is often useless at the
table.
MIA
You say that like beauty owes you
dinner.
He almost smiles.
VIKTOR
Bring the book from the living
room. Green spine. Third shelf.
INT. VIKTOR'S LIVING ROOM - DAY
Mia sits with an old book in her lap. Viktor opposite, eyes
closed.
MIA
"The visible is merely the skin of
the invisible--"
VIKTOR
Stop.
Mia stops.
VIKTOR (CONT'D)
Again.
MIA
Why?
VIKTOR
Because you read as if the sentence
has insulted you.
Mia exhales.End of sample.Full screenplay available on request.