Written and filmed during my university course in 1996, “La Mechanique” is the tale of a recovering heroin addict coming to terms with his surroundings. The main character, STONE, has had a habit for a while and wants to get off it, so as a gesture to his long term girlfriend, HEATHER, he starts to take Methadone. Sitting in his messy, damp, bed-sit he starts to believe his girlfriend is having an affair with a doctor from the Methadone clinic. The tablets he is taking start to have side effects and send him into unconsciousness. Whilst he is unconscious STONE starts to have realistic dreams in which he is a “Two-bit” Private Investigator in the nineteen thirties called FARREN.
INT. DINGY OFFICE. LATE AFTERNOON.
TITLE CARD : SOHO, 1935
A man is asleep behind a desk covered in junk, a cigarette is burning away in the ash tray, The man has a trilby hat over his face and his feet up on the table amongst the rubbish. We PAN round the room to see a half-glass door, the writing on the door is backwards but we can see it says “S FARREN, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR”. A shadow appears behind it and someone knocks on the door. FARREN starts and removes his feet from the table rapidly, losing the hat off his face as he does so.
FARREN
Yeah, come in it’s open.
The door opens and a woman steps in, she is wearing a long slim fitting dress with a shawl.
ELIZABETH
Farren right, P.I. my names Elizabeth Cage, I wish to hire your services. Can I sit down?
FARREN
Sure, go ahead.
He retrieves his hat and places on top of the pile of junk on his desk.
Sorry about the mess, I’ve got a lot of cases to wrap up.
ELIZABETH
It certainly seems that way Mr Farren.
She pulls an empty bottle of whiskey out of the pile of rubbish on the desk. Farren looks uneasy.
Can you spare a little time for me? I want you to find my husband for me, he’s disappeared.
FARREN
O.K. Mrs Cage I’ll take your case. When did you last see your husband?
