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Niki Wurster Visit our Movie Scripts Page screenplay 451: http://www.geocities.com/~screenplay451/ Mao Guangqin 2 0 2000-01-22T12:04:00Z 2000-01-22T12:04:00Z 15 15409 87834 Pumpkin Software 731 175 107866 9.2504 1 21 0 0 Basquiat Sc
Annina starts noticing all the work around her. Gina hands her a stack of
drawings.
ANNINA NOSEI (CONT'D)
These are great.
GINA
Aren't they?
ANNINA NOSEI
How much for these five?
GINA
You should talk to him
about this.
Annina contains her excitement.
ANNINA NOSEI
(continuing to stare at the work)
Um... Do Rene and Jean
have a contract together?
We see Jean in the bathroom looking at himself in the mirror with a
bird's nest on his head.
ANNINA NOSEI (CONT'D)
I'm interested in
showing Jean's work.
GINA
I really think you
should talk to him about this.
Jean pops out of the bathroom.
BASQUIAT
When?
ANNINA NOSEI
How about right now?
She opens the door.
Unnoticed, Gina starts for the
bedroom.
(calling back)
Be ready in a minute!
CUT TO:
THE
DOOR SLAMS
As Jean exits with Annina.
INT. TAXI – DAY
Jean waits in a taxi in front of Benny's apartment.
BASQUIAT
Honk the horn again,
will you please?
The DRIVER
obliges. The back of the cab is loaded with all his belongings. Boxes piled
with junk. Bags of new painting supplies.
Benny emerges from his building and
jumps into the cab.
BASQUIAT (CONT'D)
(annoyed)
You're late.
(to cabby)
One-fourteen Prince.
The cab pulls out. Jean lights a joint. and smokes it furiously. He
doesn't pass it to Benny.
BENNY
What's the rush, John
Henry?
BASQUIAT
I ain't John Henry.
BENNY
Good.
BASQUIAT
What's your fuckin'
problem, anyway?
Benny holds out his hand for the joint.
BENNY
(inhaling)
I don't really have any
problems.
BASQUIAT
Good. What do you have?
BENNY
What's your fuckin'
problem? You get a girlfriend and a little attention and then start acting all
uppity with me.
BASQUIAT
(mortified)
'Uppity?' Like as in
'uppity nigger?'
He snaps his finger for the joint back.
BENNY
That's not how I meant
it.
(beat)
For all you know, you
might just be a flash in the pan! You can never tell.
BASQUIAT
Hey fuck you! I deserve
this shit. You're just jealous 'cause it ain't happening to you!
The cab stops for a red light. Benny gets out. He doesn't say a word.
Jean doesn't look at him. The cab sails off.
EXT. ANNINA NOSEI GALLERY – DAY
It stops in front of the gallery. From outside, we see Annina conversing
on the phone. She looks up and opens the door for him.
INT. STAIRWELL – BLACK.
Off screen we HEAR Jean walking down the stairs.
ANNINA NOSEI
I've got to find the
switch.
INT – BASEMENT, ANNINA'S – DAY
Annina flips on a light.
ANNINA NOSEI
Here it is.
Jean looks around him. He's in a large, empty cement-floored room lit by
fluorescent lights.
INT. BASEMENT, ANNINA'S – (LATER) –
DAY
Jean bends over, beginning several
canvases. He pours paint on them – kind of like photographs we've seen of
Jackson Pollock. We HEAR Miles Davis' "Flamenco Sketches."
INT – BASEMENT, ANNINA'S – DAY (LATER)
GRANDMASTER FLASH'S "WHITE
LINES" fills the room.
The walls are covered with
half-finished, unstretched CANVASES. Two or three more lie on the
floor.
He works like a maniac, buzzing back
and forth from one painting to another, adding figures, crossing out words, all
the while smoking and eating cookies. The crumbs fall onto the paintings. He
walks on them.
Every so often, he refers to a book of
DaVinci drawings. Torn pages litter the floor beneath the book.
We hear someone THUMPING down the stairs.
It's Rene. A PUPPY follows him.
He dumps a huge load of paint supplies, art books, and carryout ribs. The
puppy sniffs around happily, licking at Jean and walking over the paintings,
wagging his tail.
He stops the tape player and inserts
some Persian music.
Jean empties some foil-wrapped bags of
coke. He cuts a line of coke on a foil plate.
Rene starts reading from a poem he's
evidently written:
RENE
3rd night I called him
'boy'
He sed "don't call
me 'boy'" "Well
Then don't call me
'Boss'" That
Was the end for us and
I've
Been seeing him for 2
1/2 years.
In kangaroo court I want
to be
Able to say I never kept
a
Slave. But he tricked me
in
To Tying him up and
busting his
Face. He'll jump up at
my Trial
Yelling 'He wupped me
gud.'
Jean warms the plate 'til the coke
crackles, and then "chases the dragon," sucking the smoke through a
straw.
He offers it to Rene, who refuses. He
lights and hands Rene the joint. Rene takes a hit. Jean takes it back.
Jean starts to work again.
The PUPPY runs
around, chasing after him, getting in his way, running across the paintings.
Jean laughs, playing tag. The puppy gets a hold of Jean's sleeve. It unravels
about ten feet.
While Jean's playing, Rene spots a
painting with the words "Famous Negro Athletes."
RENE
Oh man! That's one looks
famous already.
Without hearing him, Jean walks towards the painting and with a swipe,
paints out what Rene is pointing to.
RENE (CONT'D)
You are a willful boy.
How'm I s'posed to write about you if you keep changing everything?
The phone RINGS...
Jean ignores it. Rene gets it –
RENE (CONT'D)
Uh huhh... Band
practice?
(to Jean)
It's Benny. He wants to
know why you're not at band practice...?
BASQUIAT
(quietly)
Fuck...
(to Rene)
I forgot about that.
He sets his brush down.
Rene hold the phone against his leg.
RENE
Fuck band practice... If
you're gonna be a painter you're gonna have to break a few hearts – you don't wanna
be like Tony Bennett..
BASQUIAT
Tony Bennett... What do
you mean?
RENE
Singing on stage and
painting in your spare time.
BASQUIAT
I didn't know Tony
Bennett painted.
RENE
My point exactly.
Jean picks up the phone... All he
hears is a DIAL TONE.
RENE (CONT'D)
So keep painting.
BASQUIAT
Yes, Boss.
(beat)
If you're so smart, why
are you here with me in this basement?
RENE
You're news. I want the
scoop. I write it down. When I speak, no one believes me. But when I write it
down, people know it's true.
(beat)
There's never been a
black painter in art history that's been considered really important, you know?
BASQUIAT
So what?
RENE
So shut up and keep
painting..
BASQUIAT
(touched)
What time is it?
RENE
5:11.
Jean regards a near-finished painting. He writes "5:11" on it.
He crosses it out and re-writes it, "Rene 5:11." Rene looks pleased.
BASQUIAT
That one's for you.
RENE
Thanks... I'll take it
tonight.
BASQUIAT
I can't. After the show.
Jean continues painting. Rene slumps down onto the floor, happy – a
parasite content to have a host, impressed with Jean's limitless energy. Rene
closes his eyes.
BLACK
INT. ANNINA'S BASEMENT – LATER
Jean is bent over his work. He looks to see a pair of legs. They belong
to Albert Milo.
BASQUIAT
Hey – it's the big A.M..
ALBERT MILO
Rene's been telling me
about your work.
Milo takes his time looking at the
paintings.
Jean continues to work, never wanting
to appear impressed by anyone. He walks on top of the paintings.
ALBERT MILO (CONT'D)
Is this finished yet?
BASQUIAT
I don't know.
When's your show?
BASQUIAT
Not sure. How was yours?
ALBERT MILO
I haven't decided yet.
(beat)
Rene, you wanna come
over to the studio tomorrow. I wanna make a painting of you.
RENE
How about now?
Rene shrugs to Jean. He prepares to leave.
ALBERT MILO
See you at your opening.
Thanks.
Albert and Rene begin to ascend the stairs. Jean continues painting. The
dog leaves with Rene and Albert.
WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.)
Ohhh, Albert Milo, what
a pleasure to meet you.
Jean's brush stops.
ALBERT MILO (O.S.)
This is Rene Ricard.
Jean paints over the words "Rene
5:11."
We hear FOOTSTEPS COMING DOWN THE STAIRS. The woman continues –
WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.)
We're Tom and Cynthia
Kruger – nice to have met you.
JEAN'S POV
We see Annina's legs coming down the stairs.
REVEAL
A man wearing a pin-striped suit and gold-rimmed glasses. The woman is
wrapped in a cashmere shawl.
ANNINA NOSEI (O.S)
Tom and Cynthia Kruger.
BASQUIAT (O.S)
I know.
We SEE that Jean continues to paint, looking
down.
ANNINA NOSEI
This is Jean Michel
Basquiat.
(beat)
You've seen the SAMO
graffiti everywhere. That's his. This is the true voice of the gutter.
As she speaks, Jean squirms. He grabs a banana from a
