Daily Dialogue — October 7, 2012

RACHEL (quietly): Why would he do this..?
STEPHAN: Because he couldn’t handle it. I told him we had to deal with it and he couldn’t handle it. He thought it was all going to come out and he panicked…

He trails off, thinking about what happened down on the road. Rachel stares at him. His previous words have just sunk in.

RACHEL (Suddenly): Deal with it? (Beat) What does that mean? Deal with it?

Stephan stares at her.

RACHEL (CONT’D): What did you tell him to do?
STEPHAN (Simply): I told him to find Vogel. I told him to finish it.

Rachel stares at him. She stands up, starts to walk away, comes back, slaps him hard across the face.

RACHEL (quiet rage): Did you know he’d been ill? Did you…? You knew, didn’t you? You killed him. YOU killed him! You knew he wasn’t strong enough…
STEPHAN (overlapping): FUCK DAVID! I don’t want to hear about David! David took the coward’s way out!
RACHEL: You could have left it alone! It’s an old man in a hospital! You said — nobody will believe it! No-one will notice!
STEPHAN: There’s a journalist.

This stops her.

STEPHAN (CONT’D): A Ukrainian. He’s heard about it and he’s going to interview Vogel. (Beat) Then it all comes apart. (Beat) We don’t have the name of the hospital. You have to find out where he is.

Rachel stares at him.

RACHEL: What are you talking about?
STEPHAN: David’s taken himself out of the equation. (Indicating his chair) I can’t do it. You’re the only one left.
RACHEL: Are you insane?
STEPHAN: We can’t…
RACHEL: I’m not…Look at me! I’m not capable of…This is insane. I can’t do this.
STEPHAN (Beat. Simply): You have to, Rachel. Because for thirty years you’ve been taking the credit for it.

— Rachel (Helen Mirren), Stephan (Tom Wilkinson), The Debt (2010), screenplay by Matthew Vaughn & Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan, based on the movie “Ha-Hov” written by Assaf Bernstein & Ido Rosenblum

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=5Djnz

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is All Is Lost, suggested by Teddy Pasternak who also recommended The Debt.

Trivia: Tom Wilkinson and Ciarán Hinds had both worked previously with Helen Mirren on the TV hit series Prime Suspect. Wilkinson in season 1, and Hinds in season 3. Hinds had also worked with Mirren on The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover.

Dialogue On Dialogue: All Is Lost is often All About Pressure. This scene has it in spades.