Something Else

madmenworld:

rizmatiz

This was one of my favorite moments of anything, ever. It is the essence of great visual storytelling, telling us a great deal about Peggy without her character uttering a single word.

madmenworld:

Pete:  “I’m sorry…I’m in the wrong room.”

Beth:  “But you can still visit.”

Pete:  “But I’m here to visit my friend.”

Beth:  “Please…please, keep me company.”

(Pete sits down.)

Beth:   “What’s wrong with your friend?”

Pete:  “He, uh…he got involved with another man’s wife.”

Beth:  “And that put him in the hospital?”

Pete:  “From the complications.”

Beth:  “Why did he do it?”

Pete:  “Well, all the regular reasons, I guess.  He needed to let off some steam, he needed adventure, he needed to feel handsome again.  He needed to feel that he knew something, that all this aging was worth something because he knew things that young people didn’t know yet.  He probably thought it would be like having a few tall drinks and feeling very, very good and then he would go back to his life and say, that was nice.”

Beth:  “But then he got sick?”

Pete:  “When it went away, he was heartbroken.  And then he realized everything he already had was not right either.   And that was why it had happened at all.  And that his life with his family was some temporary bandage on a permanent wound.”

Beth:  “Don’t worry.  They’ll fix him up here.  They’re very good.”

Pete:  “He’ll be fine.”

(Pete gets up to leave.)

Pete:  “Well, it was nice to meet you.”

Not only was this scene movingly written, but I also just realized it looks like an Edward Hopper painting. I’d call that win-win.