 |
 |
    |
|
|
|
| [Lindstrom and Oberon exit.] | |
| [Cohn enters. Oberon and Lindstrom exit. Arzner does not see Cohn.] | |
| ARZNER: | [making a frame with her hands] Print it, please. One take. [laughing] One take. |
| [Arzner walks toward a screen, tries to walk into the screen. She cannot. Arzner wails, pulls down the screen, but the light from the projector bears down on Arzner. She picks up the screen, looks into it as if looking into a mirror.] | |
| ARZNER: | Am I in here? |
| [Cohn opens Arzner’s camera and rips out the film, destroying it. Arzner takes the destroyed film in her hands.] | |
| ARZNER: | We call it a picture show, but it’s so many pictures. You can’t count them. Pictures as small as your eye, spinning. Evidence of the speed of light. [she cries, pulling lengths of film between her fingers, staring into the blackened, exposed film] Three seconds. Her hair is black and someone has to touch it, because I cannot. Four seconds. Her legs are as long as the screen can hold. Her skirt is grey and green. She’s running. Like me. Twelve seconds. A hard slap. Someone will kiss the skin where it’s hot, because I’m not allowed. Twenty seconds. A close-up of her face. Perfect. She’s got one eye closed and one eye open. Her face is crying. She knows me, she spells out my name with her tears. |
 | |
| COHN: | You’re fired. |
| ARZNER: | [crying, showing a length of film to Cohn] In this scene, she makes me happy. |
| COHN: | Dotty, stop, please. I should dig my own eyes out. |
| ARZNER: | [frames Cohn’s face with her hands] I tried to walk into my own movie, Harry. I got caught. |
| COHN: | You need to rest. Come back in a few months and start a new picture. |
| ARZNER: | No, I’m leaving. Really leaving. It’s over. [filming her surroundings with her hands] This is a good location for fade to credits. The shade is gorgeous … black … unforgiving, friendless black. |
| COHN: | Aw, Dotty, why don’t you slug me or something? [laughs uncomfortably] |
| ARZNER: | [drops hand camera] I’m not in this scene. |
| [Cohn exits. Theme music from the radio show builds. Arzner pulls the cardigan she wore in the Prologue over her shoulder. She rests her face against the shiny reflection of the tabletop. The red ‘On Air’ light clicks on over her head.] | |
| VOICE-OVER: | Please join us next week when Westinghouse Radio Theatre and the 1955 Cadillac Convertible proudly present You Were Meant To Be a Star, with your host, Miss Dorothy Arzner. |
| [The ‘On Air’ light clicks off.] | |
| ARZNER: | [staring at reflection] I know you. [laughs] May you forever remain a secret. I’d rather I did. |
| END |