This Is For Me

FADE IN:

.

EXT. WALKER’S APARTMENT - 1938 - DAY

WALKER EVANS (34), a petite yet lofty figure, both refined and coarse, cleans his eye glasses in the third story window of a New York apartment.

He surveys the street in his typical lofty, aloof manner.

.

EXT. NEW YORK - 92ND STREET - 1938 - DAY

The view is blurry until he puts on his glasses.In the street below a STORE CLERK snaps a rag to disperse a group of BOYS drawing indiscreetly

in the condensation of his storefront window plastered with posters.Not satisfied Walker takes off the glasses to clean once more.

Down the street a young, WOMAN steps off the curb as a speeding 1937 Buick runs the light. She hops backward clutching her leather

portfolio. She responds with a Bronx cheer and an inappropriate gesture.

.

INT. WALKER’S APARTMENT - 1938 - DAY

The constantly smoking and gesticulating poet, JAMES AGEE(30), the impassioned contradiction of Walker with scruffy hair and broad

shoulders waves around one ofthe photographic prints he’s arranged like a game of solitaire on the kitchen table. Agee holds a portrait of JANE.

.

INT. JANES NEW ORLEANS APARTMENT - 1936 - DAY ^B&W SEQUENCE^

Walker looks down the barrel of a gun.

.

PAUL NINAS V.O.

Take her with you. Take her, or

get out and never speak to her

again.

.

INT. WALKER’S APARTMENT - 1938 - DAY

A car on the street backfires. It rattles Walker. He puts his prints back in a tidy pile.

.

AGEE

Is she still married?

WALKER

Yes.

.

He gently pulls the print from Agee’s grasp.

.

AGEE

Correspondence?

WALKER

Not a word in two years.

.

Walker sticks the print in the stack and returns to the window.

.

EXT. NEW ORLEANS CEMETERY - 1935 - DAY ^B&W SEQUENCE^

JANE NINAS (22), pensive and distant, appears upside down in Walker’s 8x10 camera as she sketches in a book on the steps of a mausoleum.

When she pauses lost in thought, Walker snaps the picture. He peeks out from behind the fabric of his large format camera to gaze at her.

.

INT. WALKER’S APARTMENT - 1938 - DAY

.

AGEE

How do you like the glasses?

WALKER

Getting used to them.

.

Agee attempts to see what is distracting his friend.

.

AGEE

What is it?

WALKER

I’m expecting a visitor.

AGEE

Stryker give you permission to use

the Alabama photographs?

WALKER

Arrangements have been made.

Hopefully I’ll get final word

soon. They want me to start making

selections.

AGEE

I’ve changed the title of the book

again, “Let Us Now Praise Famous

Men”.

.

Walker straightens his shirt.

.

WALKER

Bible?

AGEE

Ecclesiastes 44:1 ...adds an air

of divinity.

WALKER

It’s a far sight better than

“Three Tenant Families”.

.

Walker straightens his tie.

.

WALKER

She’s here.

AGEE

Who?

WALKER

A potential protege.

AGEE

Where did you find her?

WALKER

She found me. Please behave.

.

KNOCK on the door.

.

AGEE

I am nothing if not chivalrous.

WALKER

Yes, I’m well aware.

.

Walker opens the door to HELEN LEVITT (25) the confident and matter of fact woman seen down the street.

.

WALKER

Helen?

HELEN

Yes.

WALKER

Come in. It’s nice to meet you.

.

Walker extends his hand. She shakes with confidence.

.

HELEN

Likewise.

WALKER

This is my dear friend, James

Agee. Helen Levitt.

AGEE

Hello.

.

Agee pulls a chair out for her.

.

WALKER

Something to drink?

HELEN

That would be nice, thank you.

WALKER

I have beer.

HELEN

I love beer.

WALKER

Jim.

.

Walker motions Agee to the balcony. Helen puts her leather portfolio on the table. Agee opens the window and pulls a bottle, from a bucket.

.

WALKER

So what brings you to see me,

Helen?

HELEN

I said on the phone.

WALKER

Why come to me? Why not the famed

Steiglitz or some other better

known photographer?

HELEN

Oh, my interest is street

photography. I recently saw your

work in The Crime of Cuba.

.

Walker gracefully unties the leather strings of her portfolio as Agee pours everyone a beer.

.

WALKER

What camera?

HELEN

A 35mm Leica. Carter Bresson

visited the studio where I work

and suggested I switch from my

Voigtlander.

.

Walker flips through her portfolio.

.

WALKER

He was right. I did a show with

Bresson at the Levy Gallery.

HELEN

Yes, I saw it.

WALKER

These are quite good. Consider

cropping this. Tightening the

frame will draw the eye toward the

child in the window.

AGEE

From where do your people hail,

Helen?

HELEN

Brooklyn.

AGEE

Ah.

WALKER

You have an excellent eye. This

one with the graffiti is

particularly satisfying.

AGEE

Candid, spontaneous, your subjects

appear oblivious to your presence.

These children trust you.

.

Walker lets Agee move in.

.

AGEE

May I? Helen, it speaks to the

quality of your character.

.

Agee takes the portfolio over to a chair and studies it. Helen is drawn to the stack of Walker’s prints.

.

HELEN

Yours?

.

Helen’s hand reluctantly reaches out. Walker motions for her to go ahead.

.

WALKER

I’m preparing a retrospective. It

will be the MoMA’s first solo

photography exhibit.

HELEN

What an honor.

WALKER

It might finally garner me some

recognition.

.

Helen admires a photograph of clouds floating beneath an imposing, forced perspective of the Brooklyn Bridge.

.

WALKER

That was published in Hart Crane’s

book, The Bridge. Have you read

it?

HELEN

No. Can’t say I have.

WALKER

I have copy here somewhere. It’s

quite nearly a poetic masterpiece

.

Walker searches for it on a shelf.

.

EXT. BROOKLYN BRIDGE - 1929 - DAY ^B&W SEQUENCE^

Walker squints into the sun as it silhouettes the Brooklyn Bridge. He carries his camera equipment toward Hart Crane who sits on an

embankment writing. He stops just long enough to look up and greet Walker with a smile.

.

INT. WALKER’S APARTMENT - 1938 - DAY

Walker hands her the book. She opens to the frontispiece photograph.

.

WALKER

He’d planned to use a painting.

When it fell through he asked me.

.

INT. BAR - 1929 - NIGHT ^B&W SEQUENCE^

In a distorted haze a drunken Hart Crane loudly harasses a room full of SAILORS, and smashes a chair.

.

HART

Come on then, you miserable, cock

sucking miscreants.

.

Walker cowers behind a table, terrified. The Sailors drag Crane outside, and beat him.

.

INT. WALKER’S APARTMENT - 1938 - DAY

Helen pulls a loose photograph of Hart Crane from the book.

.

WALKER

How old do suppose he is?

HELEN

I’d say, forty-five?

WALKER

Twenty-nine, a few years older

than you I image. Remarkably self

destructive.

AGEE

He was brilliant.

.

Walker pulls two prints from a box.

.

WALKER

Are you familiar with the work of

Eugene Atget.

HELEN

No. These are incredible. Paris?

WALKER

The original master of street

photography... died in obscurity.

His work would be lost if not for

Bernice Abbot.

HELEN

Her I’ve heard of.

.

INT. WALKER’S APARTMENT - 1938 - DAY

A print of a woman, JANE NINAS sits in front of Helen.

.

HELEN

What a lovely, far away look she

has.

.

Walker tries not to expose himself.

.

WALKER

From a recent job in New Orleans

photographing Antebellum

architecture.

.

Agee glances over to identify the photo.

.

AGEE

(to Helen)

Your complete lack of pretension

is so refreshing. In a single

image you capture a child’s

simplified perspective of our

expansive, overwhelming world.

.

Walker amused, lights a cigarette and leans back in his chair. Agee hands her back her portfolio.

.

AGEE

It’s visual poetry. You have a

great deal of talent, Helen.

WALKER

Agreed.

.

Helen beams.

.

INT. WALKER’S APARTMENT - 1938 - NIGHT

The kitchen is darker. The three laugh and finish off the last bottle.

.

AGEE

I must go. My lover awaits.

.

Helen puts out her small cigar and throws back the remains of her glass.

.

HELEN

I should go too. Thank you, for

your hospitality and

encouragement.

AGEE

I’ll walk down with you.

.

The door closes. Walker notices the photograph of HartCrane on the floor and picks it up.

AGEE O.S.

Tell me, Helen, do you play poker?

HELEN O.S.

I adore poker.

.

Walker carefully brushes dirt from Hart’s face.

.

INT. NEW YORK APARTMENT - 1929 - DAY ^B&W SEQUENCE^

Hart Crane with two black eyes and Walker knock on a door. BERNICE ABBOT (31), serious and vivid, answers.

.

HART

Hello Bernice.

BERNICE

Christ, Hart. Well, you won’t be

sitting for me today.

HART

Sorry. I’ve brought someone to

meet you. This is Walker Evans.

.

INT. NEW YORK APARTMENT - 1929 - DAY ^B&W SEQUENCE^

Water drips on black and white tiles from prints of old Paris that hang on a line in Bernice’s kitchen. She checks a few,

taking them down to show Walker.

Walker studies the prints.

.

WALKER

You’re a saint, rescuing these.

No one seems to understand the

magnitude of his genius.

.

A large portrait camera is set up in a makeshift studio behind them. Hart curls up to a nap on her daybed.

.

WALKER

How much of the estate were you

able to purchase?

BERNICE

Roughly thirteen hundred negatives

and five thousand prints.

WALKER

What will you do with them?

BERNICE

Promote him and try to get them

published.

WALKER

I was in Paris the same time you

were. You were working with Man

Ray?

BERNICE

Yes, until I met Atget. He passed

away soon after you left.

WALKER

Wish I’d discovered writing wasn’t

to be my vocation sooner.

BERNICE

(chuckles to herself)

I meant to be a sculptor.

.

INT. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS APARTMENT - 1931 ^B&W SEQUENCE^

Surrounded by darkness a white paper transforms into a B&W photograph in a developing bath. A phone RINGS as tongs

move the paper to the stop bath. Walker ignoring the sound, rests against the wall for a moment and dozes off.

A TIMER alerts him to move the image to the fixer. Walker flips on the light to reveal a

claustrophobic bathroom crammed with photographic equipment and black fabric taped around the door.

He rinses the photograph in the bathtub. A phone RINGS again. Walker slaps the photo against the side of the tub and

reaches outside the door for the phone.

.

WALKER

Hello.

HART V.O.

Save me, Walker. Please save me.

.

EXT. BOAT DOCK - 1931 - DAY ^B&W SEQUENCE^

Walker and Hart Crane step onto a boat landing.

.

WALKER

Change will do you good. While you’re

recovering in Mexico, I’ll be sailing to Tahiti.

We’ll be back here swapping tales before

you know it.

HART

You’re kind to put up with me, Walker.

.

Walker extends his hand. Hart lovingly places his other hand over their clasped hands.

.

HART

Thank you, friend. I’ll write soon.

.

INT. BROOKLYN HEIGHTS APARTMENT - 1933 - DAY ^B&W SEQUENCE^

A well-tanned and red-eyed Walker hangs newly developed prints of Tahiti on a line in his kitchen.

.

EXT. BOAT - 1932 - DUSK ^B&W SEQUENCE^

Hart Crane wearing a long top coat over pajamas and a freshly beaten face sits on railing of a large boat. He stares out into the vast choppy ocean, his eyes well with tears.