Save the Cat! Goes to the Indies

by Salva Rubio

  Our first subgenre, Pet Love, refers to that strong, primal connection between a man or an animal with a non-human species. Mainstream cinema has plenty of films to show for this (picture any boy + dog / horse / whale / dolphin / alien / etc., flick), but indie cinema also has its share, as in My Dog Tulip, Best in Show or our chosen film, Kes (boy + kestrel) from British auteur Ken Loach.

  Professional Love, our second subgenre, centers on unlikely couples in the workplace or business environment who are usually forced into partnerships by the job they have to accomplish together. In Hollywood films, cop duos are the classic example, led by Lethal Weapon, but our independent realm is also full of these stories, although in a more realistic setting — from France’s super-successful The Intouchables to Euro-period pieces like A Dangerous Method by David Cronenberg, to intimate works as charming as Kaurismaki’s Drifting Clouds. Still want your share of cops? Watch Hot Fuzz and die laughing!

  And there is, of course, Rom-com Love. As Blake put it, these are stories where two people “are just too blockheaded to realize they’re perfect for each other.” Hollywood specializes in these, but international writers and directors have also told many stories of romantic love in a fun, quirky, yet passionate way — so independent and European filmmakers, audiences and indeed lovers must be as blockheaded as Americans! Consider the unexpected indie hit Once or Richard Linklater’s real-time trilogy starring and co-written with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, from which we have chosen Before Sunrise.

  We’re not done yet! There’s the Epic Love subgenre, in which two lovers, friends or acquaintances have to confront external sweeping events like wars, catastrophes, political changes or moral standards to be together, such as in The Reader (Nazism and German guilt), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (the Holocaust), Hiroshima Mon Amour (WWII) and even friendships, as in The Last King of Scotland.

  We’ll conclude with Forbidden Love stories, in which our protagonist’s own condition (be it racial, sexual, age difference, opposing families, etc.) separate our lovers, as in Let the Right One In, The Graduate, My Beautiful Laundrette or our chosen example, Blue Is the Warmest Color.

  Keep in mind that, as in most films, there is a “love story” lurking in the background, many times in the shape of a B Story, which makes it easy to mis-categorize many films as Buddy Love stories. But a true Buddy Love will have these three critical components:

  First, we need an incomplete hero, someone whose life is in a perpetual Stasis=Death moment. To be whole, they will need something else that another person will bring. So, many times, the “side A” of our buddy team is calm, steady and even boring, like cold serious scholar Carl Gustav Jung in A Dangerous Method or plain-as-vanilla teenage student Adèle in Blue Is the Warmest Color.

  How can you “complete” them? Easy: create a counterpart who will fill those gaps. As a writer, you should not only develop your duo as different as possible, but as complementary too. The “side B” of our team is usually quirky, unique and often bizarre, especially when placed next to the hero. As in many a traditional “meet cute,” we immediately think they couldn’t be more unalike... but love will just take time to bloom. In many cases, the counterpart is the theme-propellant B Story Character and will know more about life and love than our protagonist. Compare our aforementioned examples with their respective counterparts Sabina (hysterical, masochistic, sex-obsessed patient) or Emma (blue-tinted hair, aspiring artist).

  How can two people be meant for each other yet not realize it? The reason, and what we need next, is a complication, a situation that both “keeps them together and forces them apart.” It can be their own condition (social, sexual, economical, etc.) or an outer menace or situation: a patient/doctor relationship (A Dangerous Method), a vampire/possible victim link (Let the Right One In), marital status (Once), sexuality (Total Eclipse) or poverty (Montparnasse 19). In each of these cases, the two are tied together by the event or situation that is keeping them apart! Whether they overcome the complication or not is what keeps us watching.

  What about our classic love triangles? They are covered in what we call the three-hander, in which the hero or heroine “leaves the wrong guy for the right one.” And what if both characters change their ways to be together? This dual arc is called a two-hander by Cat! -lovers. And you’ll never believe it, but if the story deals with two couples, we call it... a four-hander ! I bet you didn’t see that one coming (I wouldn’t have, for sure). And a last piece of (love) advice from Blake: most of the time, “it’s usually the girl who knows it’s true love and the guy who doesn’t have a clue.” In my case, that is absolutely true, too!

  LOVE YOUR BUDDY, WILL YA?

  So you want to write about two people who are as different as can be, yet you think must end up together? Then this genre is for you! Here’s your recipe for a great story:

  First, take an “incomplete hero,” someone who seems to be missing something from his or her life (spiritual, ethical, physical) but doesn’t seem to realize it at first.

  Mix him with a “counterpart” that dares to be all that the hero doesn’t even think to be, and behold how well they complement each other... although they wouldn’t admit to it.

  Spice things up with a “complication,” an inner or outer situation that both joins them together and keeps them apart.

  Now relax, call your best buddy or buddette, and watch the following movies together! You may fall in love, even if he or she is into mainstream cinema — and we know that hurts!

  KES (1969)

  Life in a mining village in 1969 England surely was tough, much more so for a kid who doesn’t seem to properly fit in his environment. With an estranged father, a distracted mother, an abusive brother, bullies at school and an environment where not many people appreciate him... this is the kind of situation in which one needs a friend the most! Even if the friend is a hawk.

  Kes, based on the 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines, is an early example of the social realism that has defined the long career of British auteur Ken Loach, and it’s stood the test of time. Barely 50 years have passed since kids were treated like Billy Casper was, and we are still left to wonder what has changed today for many underprivileged children.

  This film is also a fine example of “Pet Love” stories, in which the primal bond (and the “complication” that joins and separates them) between man and animal bring each other to completion. After the film’s tragic ending, we know that training Kes has changed our hero’s life forever, which gives us hope for his future.

  Faithful to its social intent, the film also becomes a denouncement of the situation in industrial British society during the ’60 s, focusing on an educational system that berates children for not fitting

  in, while Billy himself shows (and learns) that with care, dedication and respect, one can educate and befriend even the wildest bird in the sky without taking away any of its freedom.

  BL Type: Pet Love

  BL Cousins: My Dog Tulip, Wiener-Dog, Truman, A Boy and His Dog, Beginners

  KES

  Based on the novel by Barry Hines

  Adaptation by Barry Hines and Ken Loach and Tony Garnett

  Directed by Ken Loach

  Opening Image: Our “incomplete hero,” Billy Casper (David Bradley), is woken up in the early morning by his cruel half-brother Jud. Billy does not even try to confront Jud, but just takes his verbal abuse and demeaning treatment.

  Theme Stated: “Another few weeks, you’ll be up with me [in the mines... Now] they wouldn’t have a weedy tw*t like thee,” says Jud in his hard Yorkshire accent. Right now, no one thinks much of Billy, but he will show everyone how talented he can be.

  Set-Up: We see Billy in his everyday life. He gets up early in the morning to work as a paperboy, and we soon notice some of his things that need fixing. For example, he claims he doesn’t steal anymore, but he shoplifts a bottle of milk for breakfast. He is also co
nstantly reprimanded, such as when he cuts corners at work or trespasses on someone’s property. Billy is never praised or given positive reinforcement, not even in class, where he seems to have problems focusing. Instead of being helped, he is scolded. We know that if his life stays the way it is, Billy’s opportunities will evaporate, a Stasis=Death situation for a youngster.

  Catalyst: At minute 12, his friends invite him to go “nesting” the next day, that is, looking for birds’ nests. He’s the only one who shows up, and while wandering through the woods, he spots a magnificent bird: a kestrel.

  Debate: Billy tries to get nearer, but he’s stopped by the landowner. However, they talk about the bird and Debate if it can be trained, as the breed is especially difficult to deal with. This is our “complication,” and it sounds, thematically, like Billy himself. Can a boy with no knowledge of birds train a kestral? Billy tries to get a falconry book from the library, but even in this place of free culture, it is difficult for him to access the book... so he has to steal it, showing that he still needs to change. To make matters worse, his brother laughs at him when he returns home. No one supports Billy. Will he succeed?

  Break into Two: We meet Billy’s mother, who has no problem with her older son betting at the races and with whom she discusses their latest flirtations. Billy isn’t really listening to them, as he is immersed in reading, entering a world of knowledge which will take him into Act Two.

  Fun and Games: Billy finds his own Fun and Games while reading, but as director Ken Loach is famous for his portrayal of the middle class and their environment, we also get a glimpse of the Fun and Games of a typical Saturday night. It is soon made clear that the adults do not exactly behave like grownups. Billy’s mother is right when she says maybe he could have a chance with another kind of education, but she doesn’t seem too keen to provide it. That night, Jud arrives home drunk and while he sleeps, Billy insults and pretends to hit him, not daring to actually do it... yet. He flees from home, steals the kestrel (aptly named Kes) from the nest and starts raising him, fulfilling the promise of the premise about “a boy and his hawk.” We begin to see a different Billy — focused, in control and calm. Indeed, the bird “complements” him! At school, he attends PE, where another grownup (their teacher) behaves like a bully and even cheats at soccer to win the match.

  Midpoint: Billy suffers a “Midpoint defeat” when the teacher sees him trying to go home without taking a shower. Billy is forced to get naked and shower with cold water, suffering further humiliation in public. Soon after, during another collective assembly, A and B Stories (represented by teachers, as we will see) cross as a girl reads Matthew 18, 10-14: “Never despise one of these little ones, I tell you,” and tells the parable of the stray sheep. Stakes have been raised about the children’s future, but no teacher seems to grasp that there are many stray sheep among them, like Billy.

  Bad Guys Close In: Things start looking even worse for our protagonist when he is caught daydreaming about Kes and forced to visit the Headmaster’s office, setting the tone for this beat. It is announced that the youth employment officer will visit them soon, a symbol of the sad future these boys face. None of the teachers seem to care for them, as they will soon be out of school and working in manual labor, yet the Headmaster physically punishes him and some other innocent pupils, ironically saying, “You are the generation that never listens.”

  B Story: Our B Story, similar to The Black Stallion, the “Pet Love” example provided in Save the Cat!® Goes to the Movies, comes late. In this case, it pertains to another teacher, Mr. Farthing, who not only lets Billy speak about his hawk in front of the whole class (allowing him to show his passion), but also defends our protagonist from a bully and, soon after, goes to watch him training Kes. “Hawks can’t be tamed,” Billy tells him, maybe talking about himself, “they’re manned. It’s wild and it’s fierce and it’s not bothered about anyone.” Aren’t young kids the same?

  All Is Lost: Billy’s stealing tendencies return, and he spends the money Jud had given him for betting on food. Billy sees Jud coming to school and knows he will get a beating if he is caught.

  Dark Night of the Soul: Billy tries to find some place to hide, but even as he sneaks into a warehouse, he knows that soon he will be caught.

  Break into Three: A and B Stories cross as no teacher seems to care for him, and when the ruthless headmaster finds Billy, he makes him go to the employment officer, the symbol of his impending “adult” life outside of school.

  Finale:

  Gathering the Team: Looking distracted and alone, Billy summons his strength as he goes to see the employment officer.

  Executing the Plan: Billy attends the meeting and pays no attention whatsoever to the officer, since he appears to be worried about something else. In this important life moment, it seems that it is the officer who is deciding Billy’s future, although Billy succeeds at resisting working in the mine, like his brother.

  High Tower Surprise: Billy runs to check Kes’s barn. The bird is not there, so he starts looking for him everywhere. Billy realizes he is in even deeper trouble when he discovers that his brother would have made a small fortune if he had used the money Jud gave him to properly place the bet.

  Dig, Deep Down: He “digs, deep down,” returning home to confront his family. Jud confirms that he killed Kes in retribution, and Billy finds the kestrel’s body in a trash bin.

  The Execution of the New Plan: Enraged, Billy fights with his brother, something he did not dare to do at the beginning. We understand that things will never be the same for either of them, and that Billy has started to mature.

  Final Image: Billy respectfully buries Kes, the bird that “completed” him and reciprocally taught him courage, self-esteem and talents no one seemed to believe he had. A quite open-ended film, we are left to wonder about Billy’s future, but we know with certainty that his relationship with the hawk has transformed and completed him.

  A DANGEROUS METHOD (2011)

  Christopher Hampton is one of my personal writing heroes and main influences. It is always a pleasure to study how masterfully he adapts historical themes dealing with complicated, multi-layered characters and real, dark, passionate stories.

  The challenge is especially difficult because that source material often seems too intellectual for big audiences or too quiet to spawn a proper thrilling pace, but Hampton always manages to boost the possibilities of his narrative by placing his characters in situations that are the most extreme and primal of human instincts: sex and death.

  Such is the case with this wonderful film, which deals with the development of psychoanalysis at the beginning of the 20 th century, featuring three key psychologists of the time — Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung and Sabina Spielrein — who walk into the vast, uncharted territory of the mind, where one could only return cured... or irreversibly harmed.

  Just mentioning those three names suggests a love triangle, and we would be correct to anticipate such, but unexpectedly, it is not exactly “the girl” that the two men are after. In a nice twist, it is the respect of the patriarchal figure which Spielrein and Jung desire at the same time they love and analyze each other — which makes their “Professional Love” story flourish among dreams, masochistic relationships, deceit and despair.

  BL Type: Professional Love

  BL Cousins: Hot Fuzz, Drifting Clouds, In Bruges, The Intouchables, Broadcast News

  A DANGEROUS METHOD

  Based on the play The Talking Cure by Christopher Hampton and the book A Most Dangerous Method by John Kerr

  Screenplay by Christopher Hampton

  Directed by David Cronenberg

  Opening Image: Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), suffering from a severe case of hysteria, is admitted to the Burghölzli Clinic in Zürich, in a distressed state — quite different from what we will see at the Final Image. We meet her doctor, Carl Gustav Jung (Michael Fassbender), a man full of lively energy and positive passion for his job... quite the opposite of his pe
rsona at the end.

  Theme Stated: “I’m not mad, you know?” says Sabina. And since this movie deals with the beginnings of psychoanalysis and defining “sanity,” it is also a warning that doctors and patients were walking through uncharted territories... which could cure them or make their conditions worse.

  Set-Up: We explore more deeply our main character, as Dr. Jung is a man of opposites. He has a scientific mind yet is open to believe that supernatural coincidences happen for a reason. He has a lovely, wealthy, pregnant wife, yet among the things that need fixing, he does not really pay much attention to her, instead being obsessed with work. He is obviously the “incomplete hero” whose life needs a jolt. He’d like to meet a certain Dr. Freud and is not bewildered at all when Sabina tells him that an angel speaks to her in German — she is the obvious quirky “counterpart.” But when he leaves for military service (entering a Stasis = Death moment), she relapses into hysteria, showing how much she needs “the talking cure.”

  Catalyst: An opportunity arises for Jung to have Sabina, who wants to be a psychologist, as his aide. They will work together. It is also the “complication” that starts off our “Professional Love” process that will keep them together and, at the same time, pull them apart.

  Debate: Is Jung right in giving her such responsibility? Will she be up to the task? And most importantly: what can happen between them? A chance to set up tension and Debate is laid out during a psychological test, which results in doubts whether Jung’s marriage is strong enough to withstand the temptation. And then, Sabina Debates with Jung about a dream she had, revealing that much of her neurosis derive from a masochistic relationship of a sexual nature.

  Break into Two: Probably inspired by this revelation, Jung decides to meet Freud at his home in Vienna. Jung is about to enter the upside-down world of psychoanalysis, and the B Story Character is around the corner — an influence from which there will be “no turning back.”