DAY ONE
Hi. This is Niels. Did l wake you up?
l just thought l'd let you know it's all on the disk.
l thought l'd start making a printout.
Oh, about 4:OO.
Yeah, l'll do that.
Yes. l'll start right now.
THE COP AND THE WHORE A SCREENPL
A what? ''A screenpl''?
Listen, you know what?
lt iust stopped dead.
l think you ought to come over here.
Take me to Store Kongensgade.
lf you keep driving like this, you'll soon owe me money.
Arizona? What did you say? l can barely hear you.
Yes. No, no, don't wory about it.
When are you coming home?
Okay, l'll cook you dinner on Saturday.
Right. Great. No, no.
l'll make something special. It's for you, Lars.
Lars just came in. l'll let you talk to him now.
See you on Saturday.
lt's Claes in Arizona.
ls this the film consultant? How nice.
We just finished it. We're making a printout now.
We assume you're going to pick it up on Saturday.
lt was no problem finishing it on schedule.
About 200 pages. 21 5-21 6 pages.
We'll probably shorten it a bit. Yeah, we'll probably do that.
Compress it a little.
Just a few cuts.
Anything can happen.
Have a nice trip and we'll see you ...
We'll see you on Saturday.
Great, Claes. Niels sends his regards. Good-bye.
l checked the disk.
There's nothing left.
Not much for him to pick up.
Damn!
- What's Claes doíng over there? - He bought a wíndbreaker.
- Another one! - He's got a wíndbreaker fetísh.
THE COP AND THE WHORE
How the hell did we start this stoy?
Was the whore in ...
Was she in the opening scene?
l really can't remember how it started.
l vaguely remember the ending.
The middle of the film is foggy. But the beginning ...
Actually ...
... l didn't much like ''The Cop and the Whore''.
lt had its good moments.
Name one.
l'd like if we ...
lf we ... wrote something more dynamic.
A fateful coíncídence -
- can often be so síníster and fantastíc ín character -
- that one ís tempted to draw apparently logícal, -
- but actually unfounded conclusíons.
Duríng the course of fíve days, -
- the manuscrípt of ''Epídemíc'' was created and wrítten down, -
- ín and around thís apartment.
That an actual epídemíc was approachíng duríng those days, -
- and that íts outbreak would coíncíde wíth -
- the completíon of the scrípt, was one of these coíncídences.
Fathers left their children.
Wives left their husbands. Brother left brother.
For the disease attacked both through breathing and sight.
And thus they died, and no one could be induced to buy them at any price.
Family members dragged their dead to open graves -
- without the benefit of clergy, eulogy, or tolling of bells.
Throughout Siena, mass graves were filled with victims.
l, Agnolo di Tura, called ''The Fat One,'' -
- buried my five children with my own hands.
Some were covered with such a thin layer of dirt -
- that dogs dug them up and devoured the bodies.
This describes the atmosphere.
Normally, there were funeral processions ... for the wealthy, -
- and there were tolling bells, and the priest said mass.
Now such ceremonies were forbidden in many places, as were bells, -
- for the constant tolling would cause even greater anguish, -
- and perhaps greater sickness.
For purely religious reasons, -
- as a form of protection against evil spirits, -
- a cross was marked on the door to guard those inside.
Later, a cross came to mean the house was infected.
Thus people were warned off.
The great plague of 1 348 saw harsher methods employed.
When the first victims were found outside Milan, -
- Archbishop Bernabo Visconti ordered -
- all plague-infected houses to be sealed up with bricks -
- and with the families inside.
Thus Milan escaped the plague.
Three families were sealed in to die of plague and hunger.
So Milan avoided the plague because it isolated itself -
- from other plague-ridden cities?
Yes, but it was hit that much harder when the next plague came.
CERTIFICATE OF DEATH E. MESMER, PHYSICIAN
The archives stored here under these arches -
- are Denmark's memoy.
Let's see if we can find you something interesting.
The walls are probably not what you'd expect to find in such a place.
That's saltpetre coming out of the walls.
lt comes from the wall itself, -
- probably because the ground is so damp.
ln the old days, before we understood the problem, -
- some of the staff were afraid to come down here, -
- especially in the dark, -
- because of the strange sounds, the small pops, -
- which could be heard when the saltpetre cracked off more plaster.
lt's a kind of wall disease.
l bought a goose to pickle ...
DAY mO - ''THE LINE''
And then l'll boil it and bake it.
l also bought some truffles.
l don't know how l'll use them just yet.
l've also got a fish l'll cure.
All for Saturday's dinner.
Niels.
l understand you've settled on bubonic plague.
Nice boil!
''And no matter how hard and firm the boil might seem, -
- it could, to the victim's great surprise, rupture unexpectedly -
- and spill forth a two-colored puss.
lt was startling that the colors didn't mix -
- but came out together, -
- by God's will, -
- without compounding into a third color.''
Seems to me l've seen that in a tube of toothpaste.
l don't know if you can still get it. It was called ''Signal''.
lt was just like ordinay white toothpaste, -
- but there were thin red stripes in it, too.
So you got a two-colored stripe when you squeezed the tube.
You mean that boils function on the same principle?
Yeah, why not?
The weather report for the second day of screenwrítíng -
- promísed north-easterly wínds and the fírst frost of wínter.
Many blamed the weather -
- for the wave of neck aches that came.
Others thought they had symptoms of ínfluen_a.
Headaches were nothíng new to the authors.
They often came ín the wake of ídeas.
One detail l'd like to include is that after he leaves the city -
- it should burn behind him. l really think it ought to.
After he leaves the city, -
- that's when the disease first starts to spread, -
- because he brings it with him in his doctor's bag.
Okay, let's start. Shall we call it ''ln the City''?
Or perhaps just ''City''? ''ln Town.'' Vey good.
And about here, l think we ought to have ''Fortification''.
That will be hard to read. ''Fortification''.
And here we'll work our way out to the countyside.
What else is there?
Oh, yeah, about here, about two-thirds of the way ...
Here we need some drama. Please write ''Drama'' there.
lt's iust that ...
That's when the audience will think about leaving ...
- So we've got to ... - Put in some drama!
And this is .. Right here, ''Wag''.
''Wag tann.''
- If you don't mind. - No. What's it mean?
Well, these bacteria which are moving closer, -
- and which we refer to constantly, -
- ought to be accompanied by strains of Wagner.
The overture to ''Tannhäuser''. In the beginning he's an idealist.
So, if we write ''ldeal'' in the beginning ... Not a bad idea.
Right. We write ''ldeal''.
We also ought to write ''Revelation'' here.
Maybe iust ''Rev''.
So basically this boils down to the young idealist -
- who leaves the fortified city, which is sealed -
- because of suspicion of disease somewhere nearby.
And we can use the painted crosses we talked about, -
- and people are imagining illnesses.
But the first real victim of the disease -
- ought to be the far-sighted nurse, don't you think?
Clearly the doctor is somehow spreading the disease.
Without him and his idealism ...
- There's no disease. - There would be no problem.
An arrow. Revelation leads to some religious ending.
lsn't it about time we had a beer?
Yeah, let's have a beer.
A film ought to be like a pebble in your shoe.
Cheers.
Krüff is here.
Ask him what kind of wine we should drink on Saturday.
Talk to him about it.
Some people can't drink wine without a candle on the table.
Some people can't live without a candle -
- when they drink good wine. l'm one of them.
lt probably should have been decanted first.
- The bouquet is great. - Yes. Vey fine, indeed.
- It's also vey precise. - Yes.
lt's a ... It's from Marquis d'Angerville ...
Probably a ''Clos des Ducs''. There are snails on it!
lt's leaking.
Usually it's difficult to pour from a bottle like this.
Not this time. But it's hard to see where the sediment is sitting.
Now, if one chose this one -
- as the red wine for the main course ...
One's better off than if one chose it as a white wine!
Yes, of course.
lt would have to be a great deal older for that.
Superb wine! It's a shame that some was wasted.
Yes.
lf we start with a white wine and then have this, -
- which white wine would you recommend?
Oh, l suppose ...
There are two choices: either a ''Puligny-Montrachet'', -
- or a ''Meursault'' or a ''Meursault Santenots'', -
- because d'Angerville also makes a ''Meursault Santenots''.
So eveything's kept in the family, so to speak.
This ''Volnay Clos des Ducs'' is better than it looks.
l'm vey interested in epidemic diseases.
Wasn't there a plague -
- that attacked the grapevines in France -
- a few hundred years ago?
ln certain cases, -
- an ''Auslese'' can be attacked by noble rot.
The wídow of Dr. Thanísch.
She was once marríed to a doctor.
He grew great wínes.
l was once told -
- by a waiter at ''Lasserre'' in Paris ...
He told me that -
- there had been a plague of some kind in Bordeaux.
lt didn't affect the bottles themselves, -
- but the grapes on the vine.
lt wasn't really a plague.
lt was a kind of vine pest.
''Phylloxera.''
l think it was called ''Phylloxera vastatrix''.
But it devastated French wine production for years, right?
Yes, ''Phylloxera'' is the pest of all pests in that regard.
lt also did ...
... some good.
Among other things, talented winegrowers ...
DAY THREE - ''GERMANY''
What are you doing?
We're taking a trip to Germany.
l thought you'd be writing.
One, mo, three ...
four, five, six ...
seven, eight ...
...nine, ten.
We're driving through some of the worst areas in Europe.
Or perhaps the most interesting.
All Europe's industy is gathered here -
- in big splotches on the map.
We'll drive through Dortmund and Essen ...
Duisburg, Krefeld ...
Krefeld ...
Neuss, Düsseldorf.
We'll also be going through Remscheid, Solingen ...
Leverkusen ... Leverkusen.
That's the headquarters of Bayer Chemical.
And from there we'll continue down to Cologne.
Our friend Mesmer is on his way out -
- to the disease-ravaged Europe.
l think it's about time for him ... to meet somebody.
l think l'd like to suggest ...
... that our friend here ...
... meets a theologian.
We've discussed the length of various educations.
The fact that ...
The study for specific occupations must be vey short -
- in a society where one can only plan a few hours ahead -
- because the disease spreads at record speed.
Let's suppose that this theologian has studied for an hour and a half.
That gives us a chance to poke fun at religion.
And the educational system, too.
That way we can get -
- a little humor into this tragedy.
During the plague, people died in a matter of hours -
- and were buried quickly.
ln the rush, some people were buried alive.
lt might be a good idea -
- if Mesmer's girlfriend, the nurse, met this fate.
That would fit in with Mesmer's mission.
On the thírd day, the bactería were íncubated ín the soíl.
The cítíes could be dívíded ínto _ones by degree of ínfectíon.
Modern transportatíon helped spread the bactería quíckly.
ln just a few hours, the germs reached new parts of the globe.
Niels.
''Signal Plus.''
''Effective Prevention.''
''Clinically proven.''
Thanks.
Now we'll reveal eveything.
The secret.
lt's quite firm.
l'll make ...
... an incision here.
- Tough tube, huh? - l'll cut down like this.
Vey tough indeed. Maybe that's part of the secret.
We open it up here, and we can now see -
- that there are no stripes inside.
The white stuff is down here, and the red is up here.
And how do they combine?
lt looks like a nozzle.
There's a nozzle in which the white stuff pulls -
- the red stuff along with it out through the opening.
- And that's the stoy of ''Signal''. - ''Plus''.
l think l know what to call the disease.
- Good evening. - Your passport, please.
DAY FOUR - ''THE HOSPITAL''
- Where's Niels? - He's at the hospital.
Did he forget to tell you?
But l don't think ... l don't think he'll be long.
He made the appointment ages ago.
- What's the matter with him? - Don't ask me.
- You don't know what's wrong? - No, l'm afraid l don't.
- Is it his head or his legs? - l think it's his head!
Thíngs were stíll quíet at the hospítal on the fourth day.
The daíly routíne was stíll functíoníng smoothly.
Nothíng was yet amíss.
What's the matter?
l had some small gromhs that were itching and getting bigger.
l've had them for some time. They had to be removed.
lt had to be today. l'd forgotten completely.
l'm not vey happy about getting sliced open.
l fainted when l saw the scalpel.
He cut deep. He really did.
Well, if you feel up to writing something ...
Okay. l've certainly got the time.
- And the inspiration. - Oh, yes.
Thanks.
l told Palle we were writing a horror stoy.
He said you were welcome to go down and visit him.
He's down in Pathology if you're interested.
lt's a nice offer.
Are you squeamish about dissections? Don't you want to?
l'm not sure about this.
l think it'd be vey interesting, -
- but unfortunately l can't go myself.
l iust can't do it, Niels.
lt's not for me. No!
Take the elevator to the basement. There's a traín.
Get on ít and ask for Pathology.
A gown ...
A cap and a mask.
lt's in there to the left.
Apparently there haven't been any symptoms, -
- nOf afe any bodily functions impaired.
We only recently noticed glandular tissue changes, -
- primarily in young people.
The first was the day before yesterday.
Yesterday we had 1 2.
Today we've also had a few cases of these tissue changes.
We call it ''granula''.
l could choose to examine the lymph nodes in the groin -
- but l'll make the incision behind the sternocleido.
lf we have another case here, we ought to find something there.
We don't usually do autopsies wearing mask and gloves, -
- but this is a new phenomenon.
lts nature is unknown to us, so we have to take precautions.
l'll make an incision here.
Thank you. Hold here.
Take a look at this.
Two nodules the size of a pea. Maybe a bit smaller.
These are the largest we've found up until now.
See, it's quite soft. There you are.
DAY FIVE - ''THE DINNER'' (The Girls from Atlantic City)
The authors had done what they could on the last day.
They had ínvented an íncurable dísease, descríbed íts spread, -
- and based theír work on the su_eríng of others.
The pages were fíIled.
l saw a movie, ''The King of Marvin Gardens''.
lt took place in Atlantic City. Seems to be an exiting place.
And so l thought l would ...
l'd get someone to write a book for me.
l'd like to see Atlantic City, but l can't afford the trip.
But l'd like to know something about it -
- through knowledge by description.
Descriptions from others who lived there.
l wanted to write about America in a way similar to Kafka.
His uncle supplied information about it.
But l'd do it by letter.
And then ...
So l chose a limited area like Atlantic City -
- and wrote the local papers.
l pretended to be about 1 6 years old in my letters, -
- and l got appropriate answers, -
- mostly from girls between the age of 1 3 and 1 6, -
- who wrote me lots of letters.
Really a lot of girls.
About 70 of them.
l answered them all using teenage handwriting.
l had to take copies of my letters.
Then l asked her ...
And l got a detailed description of a Hershey bar.
But you had to stop writing at one point, didn't you?
Yeah. It got to the point where l couldn't continue.
lt was too much after they'd described their carpet 1 7 times.
l had only iust begun writing her.
ln her first letter she wrote me that she was coming to Copenhagen.
She found my telephone number and called.
l met her at her hotel.
She was travelling through Europe with her aunt.
She was 14 but looked like she was at least 25.
She had a little black mustache, you know?
And l had to sit there and ...
They asked me questions like l was 1 6, so l had to act accordingly, -
- telling them about my school, my homework, and all that.
lt was a little embarrassing.
lt wasn't much fun. We sat in the lobby.
On this hotel furniture, -
- right next to the guy who gives out the keys.
We talked, and the aunt watched us like a hawk the whole time.
l styled my haír to look a Iíttle younger.
But ít really got to be too much, so l saíd to them ...
- Hi, Claes. Come in. - Thanks.
We're sitting in there.
- Can l take your windbreaker? - No, thanks.
We'll start with a champagne, a ''blanc de blanc'' from Salon.
- Cured coalfish. - What did you say?
- Cured coalfish! - Sounds great.
Well, cheers! And welcome home.
- Cheers. - Thanks.
Terrific, huh?
You know, it's not a script in the traditional sense.
This is the written result of a year and a half's work?
- Uh ... yeah. - Twelve pages?
Well, consider it as ...
As a technical description of the film's plotline.
The film's skeleton?
We thought we'd present the film -
- in a less traditional manner.
- We've planned a surprise. - What kind of surprise?
We've invited some people over -
- who can help us put the script in its right perspective.
Well, okay. l'm not against it.
Just let me say, we've invested a lot of money in this, -
- and l've invested a lot of trust in you guys, -
- and there's the board of directors -
- who run the film industy in this little county.
Their rule is, you've got to have a script -
- of at least 150 pages.
How is it?
l think it's great.
There's nothing better than fresh truffles.
Their scent can fill a home.
Yeah, it's tasty.
l love truffles.
But they have to be fresh.
There are different kinds.
Some sinners put them in cans. Then they're inedible.
That's an exaggeration!
- They lose their taste. - True.
Well ...
Let me tell you something about the film ''Epidemic''.
Or rather, let me explain the ending. Our hero Mesmer has ...
After having travelled around in this infected environment, -
- he's entrenched in this underground cave.
Níels thínks he should make a mosaíc down there.
But that's a detaíl.
But after everyone else around hím has díed, -
- he hídes ín thís cave so he won't fall íll -
- but díscovers that he's the dísease carríer.
And so he breaks out of thís cave -
- by crawlíng along thís long, steep passage and comes up, -
- kneels and thanks God for the lífe whích once had been.
He crawls in a cave, comes out and thanks God?
Yeah.
lt's pathetic at best.
l had expected a little more action.
You know, the classic tragedy -
- where all the main characters finally fall down dead:
''Oh, l'm dying,'' you know?
People die, but it just doesn't happen on screen.
You'd like a bloodbath?
A 1 2-page manuscript and that ending ...
l'm worried.
l'd expected something else.
Well, in films, particularly Danish films, -
- and that's what fate has forced me to work with -
- there are lots of stories where people don't die when they should.
Or fewer people die than ought to.
And there's less blood and fewer screams than there ought to be.
Where things ebb away, right?
As if an evening fog rolled in and eveything disappeared.
We're waiting for our guests.
- Why didn't you tell me? - It was a surprise.
Well, in ''The Plague'', Camus writes about a bookkeeper, -
- a great artist who tried to write a book, -
- and for decades had written the same lines about a horse -
- and he never got any further.
l think you should get that.
This is Gitte and Svend Hamann.
Lars, Claes from the film institute, and Susanne.
lf you'd sit here ...
- And if you'd sit here ... - Thanks.
- Would you like some coffee? - No, thanks.
May we start?
Gitte, iust relax and listen.
Would you all be vey quiet? You must be quiet when we start.
No talk and no movements, okay?
Gitte, relax and look at me.
Just relax. You're closing your eyes. Closing your eyes.
You hear eveything l'm saying to you.
Concentrate on my voice. You hear eveything l'm saying to you.
You think about sleeping. Just think about sleeping.
You slump in the chair. You slump down.
Your head is getting heavy.
You sleep. You sleep.
You sleep deeper and deeper. You are sleeping.
You sleep deeper and deeper.
You're sleeping deeper and deeper.
You feel fine. You relax. All unpleasant noise disappears.
You hear all l say to you, but not what l say to others.
You hear only what l say to you.
Now you are in a deep sleep.
Now listen to me and concentrate.
You have read the words.
Enter the film. Enter ''Epidemic''!
l'm walking down the street.
What do you see?
There are ... people.
They ... they look terrible.
They ...
They ... they're screaming.
They're screaming loudly.
They ... they cy out.
What are they cying out?
They scream ...
... for God, l think.
They cy for help. They're afraid.
And there are rats.
Rats with tails ... such long tails.
Longer than their bodies.
Eveyone walks alone.
No one wants to talk.
They're scared of each other. Scared of infection and death.
They're in terrible pain.
lt ... it hurts me.
On some of the houses ... Iarge crosses are painted.
Because ... there is illness ...
And there may be -
- dead people in there.
Go in the house!
She's covered with boils.
She's lying there ... staring.
The children begin to whine softly.
They're so terribly frightened.
Are there other sick people in the house?
The husband iumps up.
He starts to remove the children's clothes.
They ... they look even worse.
They're almost black.
There are people across the street ...
... who ... who are sick.
The carriage ...
He's throwing people around.
20, 30, 10. l can't count. Just throwing them down.
There are holes eveywhere with ... Iots of ... children ...
Human bodies ...
They're dying in the streets.
They lie eveywhere and ... and die.
What?
Relax! You are leaving the film.
You relax completely. Relax, relax completely.
You leave the film. You leave ''Epidemic''.