As mentioned before, the approach I wanted to take to create the whatever was to happen between B2 and Girl was that of Godard’s and Wong’s, the only approach that gave me the confidence enough to do it. I did not however put all my faith on that one approach. I did try to write the script, try to imagine what would happen between these characters at night time in the city, but I found it extremely difficult, mainly for one reason, that is I had no clue who was to play the Girl character, and simply could not imagine what they would do or how they might behave. The initial idea for the script between B2 and Girl when I tried writing it was this:
- B2 sits on the Leeds City Museum steps drinking wine. Depressed Girl who evidently has been crying just minutes ago, walks past the city museum and asks for a cigarette from B2.
- B2 gives her a cigarette and she joins him sitting down whilst she smokes her cigarette.
- Girl talks and talks and talks – *of what was never solidly decided.*
- B2 almost never speaks, but only smokes and listens, doesn’t seem to pay much attention to the Girl either, but he never goes away or asks her to leave.
- *B2 and Girl go and have take-away food together*-Optional
Having no solid script but a few lines of description of what B2 and Girl were going to do was one the main reasons I took so long to approach anybody for the role of Girl, because without a clear idea of what they might have to do, or how much time they might have to spend, I had no confidence that anybody would accept my request for a arduous and potentially time-wasting favor. Ruta and I approached Sofie to ask if she would be the Girl character because we thought her Hong Kong background would be appropriate and add to the role. Thankfully she agreed, even without a full script, or anything close to a script at all. We explained to her how we wanted to film it ; I wanted to write the script with the actors, borrowing from their ideas and personality as much as we could, to create characters that were as natural as possible, to experiment and to be unique.
Through many meetings, and watching films of Godard, Wong Kar Wai, and other directors together, here are some of our notes:-
zenkhyeooi 