By Alan Smithee
ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS

INTERIOR: Bare room lit by a single bulb. Two men, A and B, are sitting opposite each other, wearing white shirts.

B:  I want strong, artistic images. Go ahead.
A:   I’m thinking… breastmilk. A man is asleep with his mouth open. An arc of breastmilk hits him in the face. We wonder why…

CUT TO: Arc of milk hits a sleeping man in the face

B:   No...
A:   Okay. Tits. Think tits.

CUT TO: Rush of breast images

B:   No... No...
A:   Okay. A policeman goes undercover. But he’s complicated. He likes to wear women's clothes. He’s a connoisseur of bras…

CUT TO: policeman putting on a bra

B:   No… No… No. This is not artistic.
A:   What about Salvador Dali in a Chien Andalou. He used a pig. We use a fish.

CUT TO: Razor blade cutting across a fish eye

B:   No.
A:   Okay. Two men in a room. They have an argument. One : "I give to you of my best and you always say no … because all you want to do is humiliate and reject me….

B:   Is this Francis Bacon?
A:    (He produces a gun)
B:   What?
A:   Ars longa vita brevis, man…

A aims the gun at B. A’s hand recoils and there’s the crack of a gunshot. A red stain grows on B’s white shirt, just over his heart. A and B stare at it in horror.

CUT TO: close up of a scrubbing brush. Pull back to reveal A scrubbing the stain on B’s shirt.

A:   I’m just so sorry. I didn’t know it was loaded.
B:   This was clean on today, man. Clean on.

FADE TO BLACK.

 

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