Gordon Roback
Forum Replies Created
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Roback Profound Dialogue Assign 15 Part 2
Build Meaning Over Multiple Experiences.
What I learned: Using the same line in a different context adds depth and irony to the situation.
1.The three lines:
One G-d and so many enemies
It was a surprise to me. Why shouldn’t it be a surprise to you?
When I finish my book it will be heaven on earth.
2. I have already covered the arcs for the first two bon mots.
When Fanny complains of being overworked because she is doing everything and Moses sits in his little office and does nothing he tells her” When I finish my book it will be heaven on earth.
When they are starving Moses tells her” When I finish my book it will be heaven on earth.”
When the boycott is over and the red squad of the RCMP seizes his book which has just been published Fanny tells her husband, “When you finish your book it will be heaven on earth” This is when she informs him that from now on they will sleep in separate rooms.
3. I covered the first two lines in Assignment one. I covered the third line is question 2.
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Roback Profound Dialogue Height of Emotion Assign 15 Part 1
What I learned: Repeating certain lines of dialogue in key scenes can make a powerful scene even more powerful and profound.
Five most exciting scenes: (Questions 1,2 and 3 combined)
a. Brick flies through window of hut in Poland
Fanny looks outside – sees Poles murdering Jews. Mother comes up behind her and closes shutters – One G-d and so many enemies
b. Fanny confronts Mother after her wedding night.
Her mother replies “It was a surprise to me. Why shouldn’t it be a surprise to you.”
c. Fanny looks out window at locals in Beauport who go to church but no longer shop at the store. She says to her children “One G-d and so many enemies.”
d. The locals gather outside the store at night holding torches. “One G-d and so many enemies.”
e. Fanny returns with baby Joe after the St. Jean Baptist parade. Her husband looks at her with disgust. Fanny says, “It was a surprise to me, why shouldn’t it be a surprise to you.”
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Roback Deliver’s Irony Assign 14
What I learned: Ironies abound in my story and I am grateful to the course for reminding me to bring the ironies to the forefront.
1. See my response to question two.
2. Five Ironies
1. Fanny left Poland to find freedom and equality but in Quebec she found another Poland.
2. In many ways Quebec is worse than Poland since they may murder you in Poland but at least they let you make a living. In Quebec, with the boycott, Fanny and family are left to starve.
3. The only two educated men in the village (who speak Latin and Hebrew and who have been to Europe) are Moses and the priest and they aren’t talking to each other.
4. While other peoples came to the new world to find religious freedom the situation in Quebec is forcing Fanny and her children to reject all religion.
5. The ultimate irony is that Fanny discovers Quebec is not Poland and Jews are not murdered for standing up for themselves.
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Roback Delivers Insights Through Conflict (Assignment 13)
Lesson Learned: The conflict between Fanny and her husband mirrors the conflict between the old ways and the new, between living a traditional Jewish life and adapting to the culture of the new country.
1. The overall conflict is between becoming settled in the new country
but not losing your identity or your religion in the process. This is a fine line that every immigrant faces.
This is even more difficult when the host culture appears backward to
Forward looking people. As fanny tells the priest when he wants her to
Send her children to a Roman Catholic school, “I want to prepare my children for the 20<sup>th</sup> century, not the 12<sup>th</sup>.”
The reality was that the French Roman Catholic school system was backward, compared to the English Protestant system. In the English school the children were taught science and math. In 1900 in Quebec there were perhaps five French Canadian engineers in the whole province.
2.
1. Fanny tells her father she doesn’t want to get married.
Her father tells her life with a scholar will never be boring.
She tells him, If you like him so much, you marry him.
He tells her either marry him or go and good luck. Fanny is stuck in the old ways.
2. A neighbor gives Fanny a blanc mange (like a white jello mold).
Fanny immediately throws it on the manure pile.
Lea, age 3, knocks on the woman’s door and says, “Vien voir ce que mama a fait a votre blanc mange. (Come see what my mother did with your blanc mange).
Lea leads the woman to the manure pile and sure enough, there is the gift she just gave Lea’s mother.
The woman knocks on Fanny’s door and throws a fit.
Fanny tries to explain. Lard. Lard. Pig fat. Not kosher.
No lard. Milk. Egg whites. That’s all.
Fanny is embarrassed.
3. Moses asks his wife why she is no longer wearing a wig?
Fanny says that that was fine in the old country, but this is Canada.
Moses says that she is breaking tradition.
Fanny says, “Tell me where it says in Torah that women have to cut their hair short and wear a wig.
Moses says, exasperated – do what you want.
Fanny gives Nathaniel a razor for his 13<sup>th</sup>
birthday (bar mitzvah).Moses says, What are you doing?
Fanny says she wants her oldest son to fit in.
Moses points out where in the Torah it says you can’t shave your beard.
Fanny says she doesn’t care. If Moses wants to look like a greener, that is his privilege, but their son will look like a Canadian.
Moses
forbids her to let the youngest child participate in a Catholic religious
procession. Thou shall have no
false G-ds.Fanny informs her husband John the Baptist wasn’t a god.
The event is important to the locals – so why not. She’ll watch the baby to
Make sure no harm comes to him.
Moses says no good will come of it. You’ve done a lot of dumb things. This is just the latest in a long line of dumb things.
Fanny says it is like before an election, everyone is either a blue or a red but after the election everyone goes back to being who they are. The St. Jean Baptist parade is like that.- he’s the patron saint of Quebec..
Moses says, The next thing you’ll be telling me is that you want to go to mass and eat pork.
Fanny says, Being a good neighbor is not forgetting who we are and what we believe. If you want to hide in your office go right ahead.
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Roback Profound Assign 12 – Part 2
What I learned from this assignment: I think I am on the right track with the script.
Poland – father refuses to bow before picture of the czar – cops beat him up and take him away while he protests, “In Canada a free man does not bow to anyone.”
Father kicked out of jail – mother says – You sure showed ‘em
Father packs – leaving – Poland will never see me back
Mother appears before a rabbinical court – a husband you have to follow over the ocean
Pogrom – terrified Fanny sees Poles murder Jews
Fanny follows mother and two brothers and sister – just missed boat
News – boat they missed sank
In hold of boat – all wet and sick – tossed by waves
Arrive in Canada – crowd gives immigrants bananas – they eat them peel and all – to the amusement of the crowd
First night in Quebec City – a woman knocks on the door – father goes out – Mother says – You are doing business on T’ish Abov?
12 year old Fanny marries 29 year old man
Husband corners her – takes off her clothes
Next morning – livid look at mother – you could have warned me – it was a surprise to me, why shouldn’t it be a surprise to you?
They cut Fanny’s beautiful hair off – make her wear a wig (so she won’t be appealing to other men) She looks ridiculous.
Rabbi gets job – problem is Fanny. 12 year old talking to older women “Tell me dear, why are you so fat?
Fanny starring at woman – Is something wrong with your neck?
Elders of congregation let him go – problem with your wife and her big mouth
Arrive in a small town – enormous church – the size of a cathedral
Fanny gives birth in a stable because no one will rent them a room. Now you know why your God was born in a stable
Kids – dressed like little space men – go out into cold on way to school
Snack of fresh bread cut into cubes and puddle of maple syrup
Moses reading in front of the fire while family huddle under blankets listening
Lea tells younger kids Marxist story in the morning
Priest asks why are you sending your children to a Protestant school when there is a Catholic school across the street?
Fanny tells priest – I want to prepare my children for the 20<sup>th</sup> century, not the 12<sup>th</sup>.
Moses tells her – better a bad lie than a hard truth. You really insulted the Priest
Priest tells congregation – don’t buy from the Jews
Fanny goes to load shelves in store – still full of canned goods
We give credit – scum of the town load up with stuff – sign their x, a smirk on their face.
Someone throws a rock through the window
Fanny tells Moses – we have to do something – God will provide – Fanny tells husband – When Moses saw the burning bush it wasn’t standing in front of him – he had to turn to see it – got to make an effort
Fanny goes to see lawyer. Nothing legally can be done to end the boycott
Fanny goes to see Bet Din in Montreal. Not going to ask the Cardinal to intervene.
Fanny goes to Harvard to get advice from Moses’s brother. He tells her, Send the kids to the Catholic school. It is all about the tithe. They want money. If you have a problem and it can be solved with money, it is no longer a problem, it is a cost.
Family starving
Moses assures Fanny, When my book published – make a lot of money
Eldest son goes off – be a lumberjack – his pay keeps them alive
Fanny refuses to cut her hair and wear a wig– let her hair grow back
Fanny refuses to take chickens to Quebec City so rabbi can certify them as kosher
Moses fails to collect money for goods given on credit – Fanny has to go
St Jean Baptiste day – parade outside store. A drunk French Canadian mocks the parade. Fanny rolls the shades down.
Priest tells congregation – Jews showed respect –while one of our own didn’t
People more friendly to Fanny – she does not know why
Fanny brings food to sick neighbor – does not go unnoticed
Kid breaks window – turns and runs into Moses who slaps him across the face
That night – French Canadians gather outside store with torches priest there – Fanny thinks they are going to be murdered
Father of kid forces kid to kneel before Fanny to beg forgiveness – pays small amount down for window – this is not Poland
Next St Jean Baptiste parade – want baby Joseph to be baby in procession – Moses says no – Fanny says yes
Baby Joe in procession
Priest ends the boycott
Red squad raids the store – seizes book – thinks Moses is Trotsky since both wrote a book called “A Guide To Modern Life.”
Nathaniel returns home from from bush – now a big strong man. Fanny very happy.
Lea burns father’s Talmud and leaves town
People come to store – Fanny is admired and befriended by the locals
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Roback Profound Assign 12 Part 1
What I learned: This is the essence of film making and script writing – finding images that convey emotional truth and move the story forward.
Profound moments in Seabiscuit
Hold baby in kitchen – the future
Son dies – death of the future
Wife leaves – end of the dream of happiness
Goes to Mexico – looking for happiness
Horseback riding with future wife –feeling of happiness returns
Father leaves – gives Red bag of books – his legacy
Owner meets Smith around fire – why he saved horse – knows a lot about people
Smith sees Seabiscuit – love at first sight
Owner buys Seabiscuit – cheap
Horse fighting four men – Red fighting four men – put them together
Smith puts goat with seabiscuit – throws him out
Smith puts dogmeat horse with Seabiscuit and it calms him down
Seabiscuit wears Flash Gordon colours – homage to dead son
Red beaten by jockey and loses race – He loses sight of the big picture.
Red going to dump the books – decides against it.
Red asks Owner for money – gives it to him without a fight. Red is accepted.
Seabiscuit wins seven races –against who asks Smith
Seabiscuit wins against Man of War – the little horse that could and did
Red has supper with owner and wife – surrogate son
Red hurts leg – seabiscuit hurts leg. Looks like both are screwed
Both mend – Red gets seabiscuit going again –
Other jockey going to ride seabiscuit – unkindest cut of all
Owner gives Red a chance to ride Seabiscuit against his better judgment.
Red rides Sea biscuit to victory
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Roback Profound Screenplay Assign 11
What I learned
Both techniques are new to me and both are excellent devices to illustrate the transition from the old ways to the new ways. I especially like the image of Fanny letting her long, curly blonde hair grow out as a symbol of her movement away from the “old ways”.
Things that should work but don’t in “Story of a Girl”
Pray for the boycott to end. Nothing happens <div>
<div>
See a
lawyer. Nothing can be done. In English Canada anything that is not
forbidden is legal. In Quebec
nothing is legal unless it is permitted.See the
Bet Din in Montreal. She wants the
chief rabbi to intercede with the Cardinal to get the priest to call off
the boycott. The chief rabbi
assures Fanny that the Cardinal does not get up in the morning and asks himself,
“What good thing can I do for the Jews today?”See
Abraham, the Harvard Professor – He tells her to send the children to the
Catholic school. The issue isn’t
being part of the community, the church wants a tithe of 10%. It’s all
about MONEY.F
Fanny
sees if she can get the priest fired.
He is the son of the Cardinal’s best friend.Living Metaphors
Fanny
refuses to shave her head and wear a wig. She lets her long curly blonde hair grow
out.</div>Fanny
refuses to take chickens to the rabbi in Quebec City to certify they are
kosher.For
Nathaniel’s bar mitzvah, Fanny gives her son a razor, breaking the
biblical injunction against letting your beard grow.After ten
children her husband can sleep alone.
She is DONE.She wants
to open the store on the Sabbath.
Moses says absolutely not.</div>
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Addendum: Rather than the kid bowing before the little girl to apologize for spitting on her, the kid should have been caught after breaking the store window and he apologizes to Fanny.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by Gordon Roback.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
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Gordon Roback Profound ending Assign 8
What I learned from this assignment is to venture out of my comfort zone and try an ending I had not thought of when I first envisioned writing the script.
1 The Profound truth is that l to live in a community you need to be part of the community but it is okay to honor your key values.
2. Fanny continues to observe the tenets of her religion but by learning French she is able to communicate and befriend the locals. She shows them respect and they reciprocate.
3. Not only does Fanny and family survive the boycott but they are stronger as a family as a result.
4. Through the film Moses and the Priest communicate in Latin and Hebrew. The ironic but inevitable end is that the Priest offers Moses a job as a Latin teacher in the catholic school Fanny refused to send her children to.
5. The final image is of Fanny beaming with pride in a classroom of the school she would not send her children to as she watches her husband teach Latin to the wild children of the neighbourhood who break her windows.
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Gordon Roback Profound Assignment 9 Part 2
I am still working out the kinks in the story. The lesson I learned from this assignment is to look at the situation from the pov of the Priest. Rather than being evil and oppressive, he is genuinely hurt by Fanny’s refusal to send her children to the catholic school. Since she makes it very clear she does not want to be part of the French Catholic community he tells his flock not to “encourage the outsiders.” Giving the priest a bit of humanity will give depth to the story and the conflict.
The old way
Fanny is basically an indentured servant as a wife. She looks after the home, looks after the children and looks after the store.
The new way
As the children get older they take on more responsibility for running the home and the store. However she continues to observe the rules of kashruit.
The old way
Fanny has nothing to do with gentiles.
The new way
Fanny gets to know the customers and likes them. They reciprocate and seek her advice about child rearing. Unlike her husband she learns French. The children learn French on the street, playing with the local kids. They learn English in the Protestant school
The old way
Fanny has no use for the Catholic Priest.
The new way
Fanny treats the local Catholic customs with respect, even while continuing to avoid them.
The old way
She does what her father tells her to do, then what her husband tells her to do.
The new way
When they are facing starvation during the boycott she seeks practical solutions, while her husband does nothing, counting on G-d to intervene.
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Roback Profound Assignment 9 Part 1
What I learned: Point counter point. Action, reaction. The problem with 12 Angry Men is that it is too on the head. What I am aiming for in “Story of A Girl” is more subtitle. My goal is to tell the story and show the growth of the main character through images. But it would be useful to have a character filter the story and the lessons learned. Perhaps this is the role of the grandson, who is listening to the stories and trying to make sense of what happened, from his six year old perspective.
Old ways Challenge
Jurior 3 Talk over nothing That is what juries do
#3Slap these kids down before they #8 Kid’s mother died at 9
Make trouble Was in an orphanage for a year while father
In prison
#10The kid’s a dangerous killer. You #8 – Kid’s been knocked around a lot
Could see that. A beating every day
#7You couldn’t change my mind if you Agrees to talk for an hour
Talked for 100 years
#10 I’ve lived among them all my life #9 You think you were born with a
You can’t believe a word they say monopoly on the truth?
They’re born liars
#2He looks guilty #8 Onus of proof on the prosecution
Defendant doesn’t have to open his mouth
#3 man in apt below heard “I’m gonna
Kill you. Then heard body drop. Ran to
Door to see kid fleeing. Irrefutable facts
#4 Kid said he went to the movies but couldn’t
Remember title or who was in it.
No one saw him enter or leave theatre
#10 Eye witness to the murder – woman #8 Through the windows of a passing train
Across the way – She’s known him all her If you don’t believe the boy, why believe the woman?
Life – She’s one of THEM too.
#6 Motive – fight earlier that evening. #8 Kid has been hit all his life – not a sufficient motive
Father hit the kid twice. Kid left
#7 Kid is five for five. Threw rock at #8 – Tough life. A lot of beatings.
Teacher, stole car, father beat him regularly
#7Kid fast with a knife. Two knife fights. #8 Father used his fists on the kid.
A mugging.
#3 His kid hit him at age 16 #3 That was how he raised his kid – to hit – to fight
#4 Slums are breeding grounds for
criminals
#10 – kids from the slums are real trash #5 I’ve lived in a slum all my life
Maybe you can still smell the garbage on me?
#8 The defence lawyer let too many things #10 If lawyer let things go it was because he knew the
Go – not a good lawyer answer – wouldn’t help kid’s case
#8 boiled down to two witnesses #8 kid’s lawyer should have challenged them
Against the kid Maybe they were wrong. People make mistakes
#3 Switch blade knife unique #8 Pulls out another just like it and throws it into the desk
#4 Kid claimed his switchblade knife
Fell out of a hole in his pocket.
Reality – he wiped the blade clean of
Fingerprints
#10 He’s a common, ignorant slob. He #5 He’s too bright to yell “I’m going to kill you.”
Don’t even speak good English.
#10 I know how these people lie. It’s
Born in them.
They don’t know what the truth is!
And lemme tell you, they don’t need
any real big reason to kill someone
either! No sir!
You know, they get drunk… oh they’re very big drinkers, all of ’em, and bang, someone’s lying in the gutter. Oh, nobody’s blaming them for it. That’s how they are! By nature! You know what I mean? (shouting it violently) Violent!
I’ve known a couple who were okay, #4 (quietly) If you open your mouth again I’m going to split
but that’s the exception, you know your skull.
what I mean? #8 And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth
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Gordon Roback Profound Screenplay Assignment 10 Challenging the old ways
Lesson learned: When my grandmother told me when I was a child that if G-d lived on earth the peasants would break his windows, she knew what she was saying from first hand experience.
The old ways as the norm.
The Polish model for Jews was for Jews to live separate and apart from the majority culture.
The biblical dietary and religious requirements to live a Jewish life were so stringent that it kept Jews living within their own communities. They spoke their own language (Yiddish), operated their own religious courts and expressed themselves through their own culture. The Poles didn’t have much use for the Jews except as merchants, bankers and tax farmers. Jews were banned from the professions and could not own land outside their communities (the pale). Every once and a while the Poles would murder Jews because they were more financially successful than they were. It was a way to keep Jews in “their” place. The reason so many Jews embraced the progressive politics of the communists was because the new society offered equality and opportunity.
The world my great grand parents and grandparents found in Quebec was very much like Poland circa 1900. The vast majority of French speaking Quebecers were farmers and small merchants. The Roman Catholic church not only controlled the spiritual life of its members, but also the educational system and the social services. The French Canadian elite were notaries, priests and politicians.
On top of this was the English community in Quebec, who were predominantly protestant and progressive. While the Roman Catholic church was stuck in the middle ages the English were open to the advances of the 19<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup> century. Their English schools taught engineering and science and mathematics. The large industries in Quebec were owned and controlled by the English (and Scots and Irish) and the language of work was English. The English community was connected to the rest of Canada, Britain (and her empire) and to a lesser extent to the United States. Many of the English who settled in Quebec were United Empire Loyalists who left or were driven out of the US. after the revolutionary war because of their loyalty to the Crown.
Two million French Canadians moved to New England to work in the mills and the mines. These people were essentially lost to French Quebec. Their children grew up speaking English and they intermarried with the locals and the immigrants and became Americans in the process.
Elsewhere in North America the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe learned English and integrated into the predominant English speaking culture. While there were quotas against Jews in the ivy league universities and country clubs and upper management of key industries kept Jews out, America and English Canada was far more open to Jews than in Poland. Jews were free to practice their religion, the professions were open to them and a free market economy permitted Jews to succeed on the basis of merit and hard work.
This happened everywhere in North America except in Quebec. Both the French and English communities kept the Jews at a distance. The Jews of Quebec were content to form their own community, operate their own schools and their own social services in Montreal. Since English was the language of trade and science, the Quebec Jews spoke English. But since Jews also dealt with the French as merchants they also spoke French. In fact, the Jews served as a bridge between the English and French in Quebec, or as Hugh MacLennan said, between the Two Solitudes.
As the only Jewish family in a very conservative, French speaking Roman Catholic town, my Jewish grandparents were torn between dealing with the locals and attempting to live a Jewish life separate and apart from them.
This battle is not ancient history. The battle is still going on. Last week the Canadian parliament created a new playing field where English speaking people living in Quebec will have to speak French at work. The one opposing vote in the whole of parliament came from the representative from the predominately Jewish riding of Mount Royal in Quebec.
This is why this screenplay is so difficult for me to write.
Fanny is dealing with two sets of “old ways”.
The first problem is that her father made a deal with her husband that Fanny would operate the store, look after the home and look after the children while her husband could focus on writing his “responsa”. Responsa were questions about how to live a Jewish life in a modern world. So while Moses is doing nothing to make a living or raise his children he is telling Jews (via a newspaper) how to live. It takes her a while, but she challenges this arrangement. The issue that forces her to grow is that the Priest ordered boycott against the store is forcing them into starvation. Moses’s attitude is that God will provide. Fanny realizes God helps those who help themselves.
The second problem is dealing with the outside French Catholic community. Because she is so stupidly honest about not sending her children to a French Catholic school and instead sending them to an English Protestant school an hour away by train, the Priest orders a boycott of the store. In essence, his position is: if you don’t want to be part of our community our community is not going to support your livelihood.
She is the one to get a legal opinion. (Nothing can be done) She is the one to go to the Jewish community in Montreal asking for their help. (You think the Catholics get up in the morning wondering what good they can do for the Jews today?) She is the one who goes to Harvard to get advice from Moses’s brother, her brain trust. He tells her to send her children to the French Catholic school. His theory is that the Priest wants them to pay a tenth of their income to the church. It is about money, not culture. He also advices her to go the boss of the local priest. This leads her to go to see the Cardinal, asking for his intervention to get the local priest to end the boycott.
She is also the one who interacts with the locals. She is the one who speaks broken French. The irony is that Moses speaks Hebrew and Latin to the Priest but can’t talk to the locals in their broken French.
Fanny is also the one who has to go among the French people to attempt to collect money from them for goods sold on credit. This is an uphill battle which forces her to grow in self confidence. But if she doesn’t collect the money owed they will starve.
It is Fanny’s growing tolerance of French Canadian customs which facilitates the end of the boycott. By permitting her baby to be used as St Jean Baptiste in their religious parade the Priest realizes that the Jews are making an effort to go along to get along.
When Moses slaps a French Canadian kid who spit on his youngest daughter the locals gather in front of the store with torches. Fanny thinks they are going to be murdered. Instead the father of the boy forces him to kneel in front of Lottie to beg forgiveness under the watchful eye of the Priest. This is when Fanny realizes this is not Poland.
When Prime Minister Laurie comes to Beauport, he speaks to the people from the balcony above Fanny’s store. This wins the respect of the Liberals (like the Democrats)
in the crowd.
The script ends with the boycott removed. Women come to the store not just to buy groceries but to ask Fanny’s advice on how to look after children. As the mother of ten Fanny has learned a lot the hard way. So in the end she is respected and admired by the locals and in turn she likes them right back.
The irony is that the book Moses promises will solve all their financial problems (A guide to modern life) is seized by the red squad of the RCMP. They confuse his book with a book with the same title by Leon Borenstein (Trotsky) who looks a lot like Moses.
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Gordon Roback Profound Endings Assignment 8
My big lesson from this assignment is to make the Priest more active in the scene where the father has his son ask forgiveness. This makes sense because responsibility for your actions and forgiveness are issues off prime concern to Priest. Prior to this assignment the two threads of Fanny’s problems (hostility from the farmers and hostility from the Priest) are woven together. To me this is a big step forward.
1.Profound Truth?
My profound truth is that in the old country (Russia, Poland) a Jew was a second class citizen. He couldn’t own land nor go to university and he was limited as to where he could live. However Canada offers full citizenship and equality under the law.
How will the profound truth be delivered at the end?
The script opens with Fanny (age eight) witnessing a pogrom in the old country. The locals were distant at best and often hostile and sometimes murderous.
After Fanny’s youngest child plays St. Jean Baptiste in the local’s religious parade the Priest calls off the boycott against the store. The script ends with young mothers asking Fanny advice about how to raise children. It shows that she is accepted and respected.
Moses slapped a kid who spit on his youngest daughter. That night a crowd of French Canadian farmers assemble in front of the store holding torches. Fanny thinks this is not going to end well – a Polish ending. Instead the father of the boy who spit on Lottie in the company of the Priest forces his son to bow before the eight year old girl and beg her forgiveness. At that moment Fanny realizes that this is not Poland.
2 The priest is the changing agent. He is moved that the Jews respect his religious procession while one of their own (a drunk French Canadian) hurls curses at the Priest and mocks the true faith
The ending shows that Canadians of very
different world views can co-exist and respect each other (at least in
public).Given how
rigid the Priest is in his world view it is surprising but satisfying that
he comes to the defence of the Jews since he was responsible for the rift
and the boycott.When one of
the French Canadian mothers embraces Fanny for her good advice we see that
Fanny is accepted and respected. -
Gordon Roback Connection with the Audience Assignment7
Lesson Learned: If you don’t care about the main character and walk through the film in her shoes the film is not going to work.
The main character is Fanny (Fagil) <div>
Relatability–
As an eight year old she witnessed the Poles murdering Jews. This scared her for life. We can relate
to someone with a childhood trauma who goes through life waiting for the
locals to turn on her at any time for the flimsiest of reasons.Intrigue – arriving in a new country – coming off the gangplank not knowing what to expect. The locals gave the “Greeners” bananas. Since the immigrants had never seen bananas before they ate the fruit, skin and all, to the great amusement of the crowd who showed up for the arrival of every ship carrying immigrants.
Empathy – Fanny is married off at 12 to a 29 year old man. The wedding night comes as a complete surprise to her. The next morning she confronts her mother and asks why she didn’t tell her what to expect. The mother replies, “It came as a surprise to me, why shouldn’t come as a surprise to you?”
Likability – When the Catholic Priest asks (circa 1910) why she is not sending the children to the French Catholic school across the street and instead sending them to an English Protestant school an hour away by train (in 40 below weather) Fanny replies, “Because I want to prepare my children for the 20<sup>th</sup> Century, not the 12<sup>th</sup>.
</div>
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Gordon Roback The Profound Screenplay Assignment Six
What I learned. I started “The Story of a Girl” about ten years ago but was only able to get half way through.
The mini-movie structure gave me the tools to restructure the story so I can finally finish writing the screenplay.
1. Fanny goes from an innocent girl in a savage land to a capable young woman in another land which is less savage
2. Fanny is the transformational character. Her husband, the towns people and the priest are the change agents
3. Mini movie structure
1-15 Fanny witnesses a pogrom in Poland. She journeys with her family to Quebec City, Canada. In the new land she is lost because she speaks neither English nor French.
16-30 At the age of 12 she is married off to a 29 year old scholar and her father sets them up operating a store, the only Jews in a French Canadian town. Her husband does nothing, she operates the store, cooks and cleans and looks after the children. She learns to speak broken French. Her two older brothers help her set up the store. Moses, her husband, calls them the high grade moron and the low grade moron. He is busy writing a book about how to live a Jewish life in a non Jewish world.
31-45 The Priest asks why she sends her children to a Protestant school in Quebec, an hour away by train, when there is a Catholic school across the street? Fanny says she wants to prepare her children for the 20<sup>th</sup> century, not the 12<sup>th</sup>.
46-60 The Priest launches a boycott against the store.
Business radically declines. The high grade moron suggests offering credit – the locals are only too happy to take stuff and sign their mark for goods received.
Moses is busy writing his book. All their problems will disappear when he is finished, he promises.
61-75 They are starving. Fanny goes to Quebec City to talk to a lawyer, to Montreal to talk to the Bet Din and to Harvard to ask advice of Moses’s brother, the Professor. No one offers helpful advice. Her husband, the ineffectual scholar, is content to go down with the ship, all the while promising all will be well when he finishes his book. Meanwhile the locals are becoming increasingly more unfriendly. The Jewish expression “If G-d lived on earth the peasants would break his windows” turns out to be all too true. They have come to a new land and they have found another Poland.
76- 90 Nathanial, the oldest son, drops out of school at 14 to become a lumberjack and his paychecks keep them alive. The oldest daughter is adopting anti bourgeois communist views and the locals are becoming even more hostile as Moses attempts to collect the money the farmers owe for goods received.
Fanny has to do the collecting because she speaks some French and she has to become a ballabusta (a formidable housewife) to collect.
91-105 Moses slaps one of the farmer’s kids when the kid spits on his youngest daughter. That night the farmers gather in front of the house and Fanny thinks there is going to be another pogrom and they are going to be murdered. Instead, the father of the kid who spit on Rachel makes him kneel before the little girl and beg forgiveness. Fanny discovers this is not Poland – after all.
105-120 Fanny gives birth to a beautiful blonde baby boy and the locals ask if he can play St. Jean Baptiste in their annual parade. Fanny says yes and the locals are taken with the blond baby in a world of people of Norman and first nations stock. A new priest comes to the Parish and he calls off the boycott. Customers now come to the store and the debtors pay off some of their debts. Nathaniel can quit his job as a lumberjack and return home. Fanny discovers that her woman customers seem to like her and they ask her advice and are happy with her answers. Meanwhile her husband publishes his book. Rather than being on easy street the book is seized by the RCMP because Trotsky wrote a book with a similar title which preaches worldwide revolution.
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Gordon Roback The Profound Screenplay Assignment Five
What I learned: The big breakthrough for me came with the new ending where Monroe plans to launch a class action lawsuit against the Insurance company using Frank’s case as a precedent. I had originally planned to end with an ironic ending where after four years of litigation and a major victory of a new record in punitive damages the $3 billion a year insurance company is basically given a minor ticket. This will give the audience more satisfaction to think that Monroe will now hit them for hundreds of millions of dollars.
For Scorched Earth I’ll use the action gradient.
Monroe
agrees to take the case and at first it is exciting. Then his office isturned upside down as he prepares for a six week trial. He rushes to court only to have the lawyers for the insurance company ask and receive an adjournment for no reason other than to delay him. He experiences both anger and frustration as the trial is put off for another six months. Needless to say, the clients are really upset.
Once they get into court in what becomes an eight week trial the high priced lawyers for the insurance company really give him the gears. He wonders if he can pull it off. They are Rhodes scholars and he graduated last in his class and they constantly belittle and insult him. Then the jury awards him everything he asked for and more and he feels elation.
However, the layers for the Empire GTA Insurance company plan to appeal which means further delays and more work. This pops his bubble.
The clients bicker among themselves and then the marriage falls apart. Margaret announces she is withdrawing from the litigation, leaving Monroe in the lurch. After everything he sacrificed and all the work he invested in the case it is all going to fall apart. Monroe sells the timber on his only asset in order to buy Margaret out so the case can continue.
The legal gunslingers send their paperwork for the upcoming trial and they have found two cases which will blow Monroe out of the water. In a panic he visits his old law professor who tells him to stop thinking like a cop and think like a lawyer. The precedents have weight but they are not fatal to his case. There are other cases which support his position.
Monroe argues before the Court of Appeal and the $1 million jury award for punitive damages is reduced to $100,000. This is a real blow. However the Appeal court rejects the insurance company’s request for a voided jury verdict and a new trial. The award for the full amount of the insurance coverage plus a special separate award for his legal costs still stands. And the Court split two to one on the reduction in punitive damages decision.
A hotshot lawyer meets with Frank (the client) and tells him Monroe is out of his depth arguing before the Supreme Court. Frank tells the high priced lawyer he is sticking with Monroe. How do you tear up a handshake? Monroe feels a lot better discovering that Frank has faith in him.
The gunslinger lawyers request the Supreme court eliminate the order for punitive damages and order a new trial. They warn that if the punitive damages award is allowed to stand many current policy holders will not be able to get fire insurance and those that do will pay far higher premiums.
The Supreme Court reinstates the $1 million award in punitive damages and rejects all the other motions. The case is front page news across the country and Monroe is flavour of the month. But to Monroe it is a pyrrhic victory since a million dollar fine is barely a speed bump to a three billion dollar a year corporation with profits of $700 million a year.
Monroe decides to rustle up the many other clients who were intimidated into accepting a pittance of their fire insurance coverage and hit the insurance company with a class action lawsuit using Frank’s case as a precedent. .This will knock the wind out of the insurance company’s sails since the quantum will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And Monroe will get 1/3 of the award.
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Roback The Profound Screenplay Assignment 4
What I learned from this assignment. My concern is that I may have too many players which may defuse the tension. All of the elements from “The Dead Poet’s Society were already in my screenplay with the exception of the high priced lawyer scene. Cameron initially refuses to help Frank because he did not have any money shows up after the Court of Appeal debacle. He tells Frank that Monroe is out of his depth and for ½ of the punitive damages he’s willing to carry to case to the Supreme Court. Frank refuses to abandon Monroe. You are asking me to do to Monroe what the insurance company did to me. Cameron, the high priced lawyer, says he has been finding loopholes in contracts for 35 years and he’s damn good at it. Frank asks, “How do you tear up a handshake?”
Transformational logline
1.When Franks house burns down and the insurance company will only pay half the coverage his only option is to seek justice through the courts. With the help of a burned out lawyer who was once a cop they take on a three billion dollar a year corporation.
2. Ross Monroe is the change agent. He convinces Frank to fight, knowing it is going to be an uphill battle against overwhelming odds. Monroe’s problem is that he still thinks like the cop he used to be and to win he has to grow as a lawyer. This is especially difficult for him because one of the legal gunslingers he is up against was a law school classmate who points out that Ross graduated at the bottom of the class. Monroe tells Frank that “they” may be smarter than us but that does not make them right. Monroe may have all the guts in the world but to win he has to grow as a lawyer. He is the kind of guy who stops to ask for directions when he is lost, so he accepts the help of his secretary, his associate lawyer, his investigator and a former law professor. They give him to tools he needs to win. He also draws on past experience when he had to shoot it out with a bank robber with a shot gun in the streets.
3. The transformable character is Frank. He fights the insurance company the only way he knows how and loses his wife’s love in the process. He remains loyal to Monroe, even when a big time lawyer offers to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. The problem is that he is unable to forgive his daughter for offending his honour.
Cindy, working as a stripper, has been disowned by her father even though it is her money that keeps her parents alive during the years of litigation. Margaret does not tell Frank where the money is coming from. Cindy sits in on the courtroom battles and tells Monroe she wants to become a lawyer. Monroe encourages her to pursue her dream, but Frank will have nothing to do with her. This leads to a split between Frank and Monroe at the end. A further irony is that even with total victory and a million dollars in punitive damages (half of which goes to Monroe) he is not much ahead of where he would be had he accepted the 50 cents on the dollar offer at the beginning since land prices have gone up.
4. The Insurance Company and their high priced lawyers are the agents of oppression. Not content to rely on court room chess moves, the insurance company bugs Monroe’s office, drives away his clients and banker and attempts to bribe him to back off. The irony is that a million dollar slap in the face in punitive damages is but a speed bump to a three billion dollar a year corporation with profits of $700 million a year.
5. . The betraying character is Margaret, Frank’s wife. Margaret is reluctantly drawn into the litigation but even though there is no other option she is a wet blanket. Finally, after splitting from Frank, after the court of appeal setback, she announces that she is withdrawing from the litigation because life is too short and she wants to get on with her life. Monroe agrees to buy her out and wishes her well.
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Roback Assignment Three – The Profound Screenplay
What I have learned: I don’t know if I am on the right track with Monroe’s character arc from beginning to end. I finished a first draft last night and the story works for me. Monroe’s tragedy is that he has gone from innocence to experience. When asked after a major legal victory if he would take the case again he says yes, but he realizes he does not like how Frank (the client) treats the major people in his life (his wife and daughter).
Even though he makes $2 million from the case, to Monroe it is a pyrrhic victory.
The transformational Journey
This is the weak link in my script.
As the story opens Monroe thinks like the cop he used to be before going to law school.
Since his clientele as a criminal lawyer are criminals he doesn’t judge people by what they are accused of. He doesn’t really care what the judge’s rational was in deciding a case, all he cares about are finding cases that work for him, that provide the precedents that will get his clients acquitted. He does not suggest to clients what they should do with their money because it is not his place to do so and he has learned that clients don’t like him making suggestions. So, as the film opens Monroe is pragmatic in dealing with people but otherwise his sense of right and wrong is black and white. His working motto is “hate the sin, not the sinner.”
At the end of the screenplay Monroe is not so magnanimous about other people’s failings. After working for four years to get Frank Donaldson what is owed to him from a ruthless, heartless and predatory insurance company, Monroe does not like the way Frank treats his wife (now ex wife) and his (stripper) daughter. He goes all out to get justice (and the money that is his due) for Frank, but at the end after a major legal victory, he does not have to associate with Frank outside of the courtroom. As he evolves from thinking like a cop to thinking like a lawyer Monroe becomes far more selective in who he will take on as a client and who he will spend his free time with.
What is the problem? The problem is that where Monroe ends in the arc of his story is where he should begin and where he begins is where he should end.
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Gordon Roback The Profound Screenplay – Assignment two
What I learned from this assignment is that what I thought was the profound truth of the story I want to tell leads to deeper and more profound truths the deeper I go.
Give us your three decisions.
The
Profound Truth I started off with is “Our society will fall apart if legal
contracts are not honoured and corporations are permitted to run amuck.<div><div>
The deeper truth is that if there are no honest lawyers who are willing to go to bat for poor, honest clients than rapacious corporations will use their power and financial clout to run roughshod over the poor.
The even deeper truth is that corporate bullies must be confronted for the collective good.
Going even deeper, the punitive damages awarded to the client for four years of legal hell need to be substantially increased to deter similar wrongdoing. As is, a million dollars in punitive damages to a billion dollar a year corporation is little more than a slap on the wrist.
2.I hope my
film will make the public aware of just how fragile our society is and
that corporate bullies must be reined in.
This will be accomplished by taking an audience through one person’s
legal nightmare. </div>3. My
entertainment vehicle is to focus on the hardship the plaintiff and his
lawyer went through confronting a three billion dollar a year corporate
bully before getting justice in the courts. The nasty facts of the case are only the
point of departure. The rule of
good characterization is to make things as difficult for the lead
characters as possible.b</div>
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Gordon Roback Assignment Day 1
The
change we witness in Groundhog Day is of Phil going from a self absorbed,
selfish egomaniac to a man who cares about the people in his community and
makes an effort to help how and where he can. The transformational journal is from
jerk to mensch.
Rita is
the change agent. In order to win
her love Phil must become a better man.Phil is the transformable character. As mentioned above he goes from jerk to mensch.
The oppression is the old ways which permits Phil to act and prosper as a jerk.
In the screenplay Phil dumped girlfriend puts a curse on him. This twist is not in the film.
Phil is
somewhat charming and amusing in his insufferable arrogance. We all know people who act like Phil,
even if we don’t approve of them.
What I had not picked up until I watched the film yesterday was how
vulnerable Phil is when he is initially stuck in repeating Groundhog
day. To my surprise, he reached out
to Rita for aid and comfort, but she is so turned off by Phil and his
games that she is completely unsympathetic to his plight. What is not explained is that she and
Larry are also caught in the same time warp but are oblivious to it.
Phil goes
from jerk to mensch as stated above, but it is Rita who is also changed
since she picks up on Phil’s new sense of community responsibility and
responds to it by falling in love with him. What is not explained is why Phil sees
her in such a positive light. She
is cute but not beautiful and is actually kind of boring as a person. Phil sees her as being sweet and loving
but she is ambitious, guarded and we do not see her acts of kindness to
others. In a world of existential
angst, Phil chooses to “believe” in Rita as someone to worship. I thought Nancy was far more
interesting.
Once
trapped in a time warp, Phil sinks into existential despair. If there is
no G-d,or if G-d is bored with mankind because he has seen it all and thus becomes indifferent to man’s plight, and thus there are no rules and we are just going through the motions, than what is the point of it all. Phil’s love for Rita gives him meaning.
The
change for Phil is that he develops an awareness and responsibility for
the people around him, from catching a kid who falls out of a tree to
saving a choking man’s life to trying to save an old man’s life to giving
people joy by making music. In a
way he has evolved from the Roman Catholic emphasis on faith alone to the
Protestant duty of good works and faith in a cold and hostile environment.
For me
the most profound moment of the film was Phil giving the old man mouth to mouth
resuscitation. You really have to
give a damn to blow air into a dying man’s lungs.
The most
profound line of the film was when the nurse tells Phil it was time for
the old man to die. It was his
time. We are all stuck in time
heading in a one way direction that ends with our death. As the Roman’s said, “While we are
living, let us live.”
In true
Christian fashion, Phil is redeemed by love and it is his love for Rita
and her love for him (because of his growth from jerk to mensch) that
enables him to escape the time warp.
Now the new and improved Phil can get on with his life, a life that
includes Rita as his mate.
The
profound truth of the movie is that no man is an island and his success or
failure, his happiness or unhappiness depends on his positive relationship
with others. -
Hello Everyone,
I’ve written a great number of feature screenplays in addition a three books of poetry, two books of short stories and a novel. I am currently finishing my 7th Ross Monroe screenplay about a burned out criminal lawyer in East Vancouver. Monroe was a cop for 20 years and for the final 12 he worked special crimes (murder, kidnapping and armed robbery) before taking early retirement. His then partner, Lee Sing, is now the Vancouver chief of police. Another member of the unit (Abe (Ace) Greenberg) also took early retirement and works as Monroe’s investigator.
Monroe did three years of law school in two years and has been called for 20 years. His current goal is to get out of the cesspool he is working and living in and retire to his 40 acre lot in a rural area.
In the 7th script (Scorched Earth) Frank Donaldson’s house burns down and the insurance company offers him 50% of the value of his house because they are big and powerful and he is destitute and desperate. He turns to Monroe for help because Monroe is the only one who will take the case on a contingency basis. Not only are Frank and Monroe battling a billion dollar a year corporation, but Empire GTA Insurance has access to the brightest and slickest lawyers money can buy. The lawyers proceed to use scorched earth legal tactics on Monroe. To make a long story short, the case goes all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada where eight out of nine judges side with Monroe and make the largest award for punitive damages in Canadian history.
Monroe’s flaw, such as it is, is that he thinks like a cop, not like a lawyer. In order to win the case he has to learn a new way of operating, a new way of thinking. This is where I am as the course on the profound screenplay opens.
I also have another project (half completed) about a British general who few have heard of who changed the course of modern history and whose legacy reverberates to this day. This is the next screenplay and I realize it needs to be more profound even though the facts of what happened are mind-boggling.
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My name is Michael Gordon Roback and I agree to the terms of the confidentiality agreement.