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IntroDark, funny, surreal, tragic and luscious are just some of the words to describe The Italian Girl, a screenplay based on the book by one of the best novelists of the 20th century, Booker-winning author Iris Murdoch.The screenplay is a gothic study of freedom of self and suocating family ties, greed and fear, predatory lust and oppressed dependency — mixed into a tragicomedy meringue that is both exhilarating and fatal. The true nature of power and control is intimately challenged in an intoxicating, deep and witty story, which is full of twists and shocks. 2

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The death of the tyrannical Lydia and the missing Will open Pandora’s box of sex, lies, and greed as the household ghts for a share of the spoils. However, 7 long nights and 7 full moons fester a consternation that Lydia’s ire has been awoken, and her malevolence will return.Logline4

The Arrival: Newcastle to Embleton, 20 June, 9.45 pmIt is 1964, an old gothic rectory on an isolated Northern bay is a home to the Narraway family, frozen in time. Estranged son Edmund has returned for the funeral of his tyrannical mother Lydia, he plans to go back on the rst train. He ran away years ago, persecuted for his homosexuality—gagged and electrocuted by the state. He escaped everyone—the courts, the police, Lydia and even himself. The Return: Embleton to Kings Cross, 21 June, 5.45 pmAt the funeral, he is surrounded with the rest of Lydia’s captives: Otto—his alcoholic, unfaithful brother, pleading for Edmund to stay; Isabel—the imprisoned, desperate sister-in-law begging him to take her away; and their daughter Flora—forced to bear a dark secret, asking him to help her break the law. The Delay: 21 June, 5.40 pm ticket exchanged | Next train, 27 June, 12.45 pmMaggie Magistretti, the Italian Girl, the family servant, babysitter, seamstress, cook, and the matriarch’s invisible and silent lover observes her new hapless masters and mistresses grappling to hold onto their tatty privilege as their universe crumbles at the hands of the apprentice and provocateur David Levkin, joyfully steering the family ship towards the jagged rocks. However, an even greater disaster rapidly approaches, prophesied by his sister, the mysterious Elsa. The Captivity: Ticket cancelled, 27 June, 12:40 pm, 1964Synopsis5

The Old Rectory6

EDMUNDI was stupid to come.I should have come earlier when shewas ill, earlier when she wanted me.After all, she was my mother.But to come now, that she was dead, was a mere self-punishment.ACT 11 EXT. OVERGROWN FRONT GARDEN - NIGHT7

By Writer & Producer Tatevik AyvazyanI was living in Oxford in 2006 and while browsing in a second-hand bookshop, not far from where Iris Murdoch used to live, I came across some of her novels. The Italian Girl was one of them, and it stayed with me. And moving forward a decade and discussing books with the director Garo Berberian, for potential lm adaptations, it immediately came to mind with its incredible relevance to today, twisted plot, vivid visual language and fantastic characters. Emotions & Pistol Shots8

The adaptation of The Italian Girl has elements of black comedy, gothic horror, period piece and family drama, sprinkled with Shakespearean and Greek tragedy elements. It has the dark depths of Dostoevsky stories of redemption and Chekhovian elegant, theatrical precision. The Italian Girl had more than 70 editions since 1964The Italian Girl is a condensed, intense, full-avoured and nuanced story of captivity and freedom, shameful secrets and hidden lusts, punishment, and redemption. Like the novel, the screenplay is also based in the 60s and illustrates that the issues in the story are relevant today—abortions, women’s rights, homophobia, immigration and more. 9

We developed new narratives to highlight important social issues and adapt our characters to explain their connections and dependencies (Lydia’s predatory relationships with her maids); create a new backstory (David and Elsa Levkins, immigrants eeing the USSR); and introduce ashbacks (Edmund’s conversion ‘therapy’); dreams (Otto’s surreal fear of his mother) and mystical elements (Elsa foretelling tragedies). All these allow us to reveal the true nature of some of our characters and also add a playful yet prophetic strand about the continuing grip of the tyrannical Lydia on the household, her allegedly demonic presence even after death. Iris Murdoch10

The story is told by Edmund, a somewhat bitter and awed narrator, giving us at times funny, at times dark insights of his thoughts, whilst being outwardly disingenuous about his real feelings and motivations—he politely sits at his mother’s funeral, fantasising about shaking his relatives o his sleeve ‘like insects’. While he’s the storyteller, The Italian Girl (like the title suggests), is a story of women. All 5 women of the house are oppressed in dierent ways—whether it’s because of their sexuality, economic status, lack of education, unwanted pregnancy or simply being a foreigner. But they all know what they want, whether it’s freedom, money, or as one of the characters puts it, emotions and pistol shots. Writing together, director Garo Berberian and I deeply enjoyed putting our characters under the microscope, fully developing their personalities, and revealing their fears and passions. Our script weaves together entertaining and seductive storytelling with sharp, unapologetic and timely political and social commentary, on a backdrop of a visually striking, isolated house, with every room serving as a stage for a dierent sort of drama. Emotions & Pistol Shots11

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Iris Murdoch is one of the best British writers of the 20th century, a fabulous, exciting novelist, who has been nominated for the Booker Prize seven times, winning it for her The Sea, The Sea. In 2023, the Booker Prize statuette was named Iris, after her. She’s much loved in Ireland too, with her 100th anniversary recently celebrated with a release of postage stamps. 13

The Hallway14

There is a huge TIGRESS reclining at the base of the staircase, under the shadow of Lydia’s portrait. She is scouring the hallway, guarding her mistress’ domain.12 INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT – OTTO’S DREAM SEQUENCE15

EDMUND I had never really left Lydia. Lydia had got inside me, into the depths of my being, there was no abyss and no darkness where she was not. She was my self-contempt.ACT 1 5 INT. LYDIA’S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS16

Lydia’s Bedroom17

Overview18

It’s June 1964, and Edmund Narraway, an engraver, returns to the North for his estranged tyrannical mother’s funeral. Expecting inheritance and a swift return to London, Edmund however is trapped in the aairs of the household, consisting of his enfant terrible brother Otto and his overdramatic wife Isabel; Elsa—the prophetess and Otto’s lover; Flora – Edmund’s desperate niece; the silent Maggie, the Italian Girl – his mother’s lover; and the provocateur and apprentice David Levkin, the axe holder and a self-proclaimed Lion prowling the grounds of their estate.Edmund is entangled into a web of intrigue, becoming an unwilling observer of Otto’s, Isabel’s and Flora’s aairs with brother and sister Levkins; both mother and daughter getting pregnant, and Flora’s traumatic illegal abortion. As they search for the will, Edmund’s desire to return to London is as much about his distaste for his relatives as for the fear of resurrecting the tortured memories of his past, repressed love at a time of criminalised homosexuality and bitterness towards his cold-hearted mother Lydia. Chaos ensues after the revelation of the lost will, resulting in a literally and metaphorical explosion and house re, causing innocent Elsa’s death. David reveals his real face and the truth about his past before disappearing, and pregnant Isabel gets what she always wanted – a child that she can call her own, the lost Spencer painting and freedom. And while the remaining Narraways are arguing with Maggie over the ownership of the burned house, Edmund fantasises about escaping the family, the door opens, and there is a silhouette in the frame.‘’These were the old June smells, the wet midsummer night smells, the sound of the river and the distant waterfall, an owl hooted, slowly, deliberately, casting out one inside the other its expanding rings of sound’’.19

Isabel’s Room20

ISABEL I shouldn’t have bothered you like this, you’d better get back to your good life. It’s just that I’m caged, I’m bored.I want emotion and pistol shots.ACT 211 INT. ISABEL’S ROOM - DAYIsabel’s Room21

Project InfoBased on the 1964 Iris Murdoch novelFeature-length English languageGothic tragicomedy Main themes: family secrets, traumatic childhood, homophobia, illegal abortion, female oppression, lust, xenophobia, redemption22

Project InfoBased on the 1964 Iris Murdoch novelFeature-length English languageGothic tragicomedy Main themes: family secrets, traumatic childhood, homophobia, illegal abortion, female oppression, lust, xenophobia, redemption23

The Kitchen24

Flora seizes Maggie by the wrist and jerks her forward, grabbing her hair with one hand and the scissors with the other. She shears Maggie’s braid at the nape of the neck, dropping the oblong knob of hair on to the table where it unravels into a black snake.There is silence.34 INT. KITCHEN - EVENINGThe Kitchen25

Director’sStatementDirector Garo Berberian 26

Cinematography: The majority of the lm’s scenes will be shot on 35mm lm with medium format prime analogue lenses allowing for softness, deep renditions of colour and bokeh giving an authentic 1960s quality, graded to have the look of beautiful deep hues and textural colours. We would shoot the daytime scenes on Kodak 5207 250D, a ne grain lm and nighttime scenes on Kodak 5219 500T for a grainier and grittier look.Places and Spaces - The Colour Palettes:When we were writing the script, my co-writer Tatevik Ayvazyan would always reect that the interaction between the characters and their distinct places and spaces was akin to a doll’s house or a revolving stage as in a theatre production. Each character in the lm, except Edmund and David (who are the only characters that frequently move between places), has their distinct zones. Like Peter Greenaway in his The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, we have a distinct colour palette for each space. In addition, the palette for certain spaces like the house and garden changes according to the time of day and emotion.27

The house and hallway at night have the air of a traditional backdrop for a Gothic horror: blacks, browns, deep reds. Possessed, cursed, and malevolent, they reect the invisible presence of Lydia. During the day the house and hallway become an empty shell, revealing its unloved and uncared reality, worn and tarnished, washed out tobacco-stained oak panels, frayed faded blues and yellows of old and damaged William Morris wallpaper, devoid of a sense of life or spirit.The Garden is also equally varied between night and day. At night the Garden has a mystical air, an uncertainty for the audience—both malevolent and benevolent. Its colour palette has the darkest greens, browns, and blues separated with vortexes of silver mist reecting what we see in a perennial full moon for each of the 7 nights. By contrast, during the day the garden is a haven of life, lush greens and yellows, chocolate browns, and bright blues with warm tones from the sun, like a painting by Henri Rousseau. It is the protectorate from the harsh wind and waves of the grey North Sea, where the waterfall and black obsidian beach play key roles for our characters’ a place to escape, consummate illicit relationships, the place where dark memories are resurrected. In addition, Otto’s workshop reects the colours of his stonemasonry, greys, blues, and greens; Isabel’s bohemian bedroom is deep velvet red, bright orange28

and turquoise, William Morris green and purple. Maggie’s kitchen is blues and browns from the Dutch tiles, and black and white Tintoretto oor, all tinted with golden light emanating from the charred black range.Flashbacks and Dream SequencesEdmund’s dark nightmares will be shot on grainy black and white 16 mm lm with Cyan lters, removing the red light and giving the eect of old Black and White lm, to increase texture in skin tones and contrast in general. These dreams reect the horror of his mental, emotional and physical torture due to being prosecuted because of his homosexuality and his feeling of abandonment by his mum. We will be using vintage lenses and shoot on Double-X lm stock. Otto’s dreams are about Lydia and her dominance over him, reected very much in his character with comical metaphors of escaping from tigers and snakes, phoning the police for help but always failing whilst being distracted by cake and sweets. Otto’s dreams will have a vibrant colourful palette of the 1940s, with sh eye lenses. Elsa’s ashbacks are an important part of explaining her and her brother’s past, like many aspects of the narrative we are initially unsure what is truth or fantasy, shot on colour lm but bleach bypassed at the development stage creating reduced saturation and increased contrast to add to our surreal aspect of her memories. Director Statement29

ArtArt is used as a visual metaphor throughout the lm, a backdrop during interplay between our characters, at times political, at times a celebration of life and realisation of mortality and death. In addition, we have developed the use of art further, as a key plot device used as a MacGun in the form of a valuable lost Stanley Spencer painting. MusicWhilst we will be using commercial music mixed with a score, we feel a contemporary approach with tracks across the last 6 decades will work very well. 30

Director StatementStanley Spencer, Fire Alight (1936)31

Looking for the Will, Otto starts looking through Lydia’s trunk.In amongst the letters, he finds a box containing erotic photographs and playfully thrusts a picture of a naked man in Edmund’s face. He reels back with a painful flashback of his electroshock therapy.ACT 229 INT. WORKSHOP - DAYOtto’s Workshop32

Otto’s Workshop33

22 INT. SUMMERHOUSE - CONTINUOUS Elsa picks up a PACK OF TAROT CARDS from the table, she spins around and sits cross-legged on the floor, shuffling vigorously.ELSAYour left hand is your feminine side, the seat of intuition and closer to your heart controlled by the right side of the brain. In ancient times they believed the left hand was controlled by the Devil.The Supernatural34

The Supernatural35

Whilst Edmund is our lm’s protagonist, all of our 6 other main characters appear as an ensemble cast. The lm’s main characters’ personalities range from duplicitous, vulnerable, scheming, resigned, desperate and innocent and not in isolation, and bar one — Elsa, they have all got one thing in common, their self-interest. They have rich and clear idiosyncrasies in how they use language: sometimes humorous or shallow, at other times sophisticated and deeply philosophical; Our individual characters’ story arcs are serpentine, changing over the eight-day timeline, leaving the audience with the uneasy feeling that nothing is quite what it seems. Tarot cards add an element of the supernatural, but also a way of forcing our initial perceptions about each of the characters and their attitudes to be challenged as we put them in a dierent light.Characters36

32 years old, 6 foot tall, slim, dark brown hair, brown eyes.Edmund is careful and rigid, fond of well-ironed crisp shirts and suits, looking more like an accountant than an engraver. He was reluctant to return and reluctant to be in the house longer than necessary but is drawn into a sticky web which he has diculty extricating himself from. Opinionated and pompous, he’s the story’s somewhat unreliable narrator. Edmund Narraway 37

34 years old, 6”3 tall, red hair and blue eyes.Otto Narraway is Edmund’s brother. He’s a broad man with exceptional physical strength. His reddish-brown hair is wig-like, very slightly curly, giving him the air of a middle-aged opera singer.On the surface a thoughtful philosopher, he has failed as an artist, husband, son, and father and nds solace at the bottom of a bottle only to nd salvation with the mystical Elsa. Otto Narraway 38

Deceased at the age of 60, 5’’0, petit, grey hair that used to be copper, cobalt blue eyes.Even after her death, Lydia - Edmund’s and Otto’s mother - is still a central character in the lm. Her diminutive appearance belies the true nature of her power and control she extols, very much alive in the household’s minds and dreams, and we are unclear what is real or just a gment of their imagination. Lydia Narraway Characters39

32 years old, 5’6’’, curvy, with thick auburn hair and chestnut eyes.A Femme Fatal, victim, seductress — all these could equally apply to Isabel, Otto’s wife. Isolated from everyone, Isabel has created her own little world within the house—a lush bohemian boudoir, a provocation against Lydia’s spartan rules with colour, music and above all, a perpetual re. Always dressed beautifully, her immaculate appearance belies the truth that she is in fact a victim of circumstance. Isabel Narraway40

16 years old, 5’2’’ tall, slim, a redhead with green eyesYoung, arty, explosive and impulsive, 16-year-old Flora is trendy in the style of the swinging 1960s, with a taste for Mary Quant outts. She stands in stark contrast to the rest of the household, the only one reecting the time in history she lives in. She is desperate but brave, and abandoned by everyone in the house, she goes through an illegal abortion, aware that she won’t have any rights as a single mother. Despite this ordeal and facing more drama and tragedies at home, she grows up in 8 days and in a Shakespearean twist, sticks by her father. Flora NarrawayCharacters41

26 years old, 5’11’’ tall, with blond hair and brown eyes. David Levkin, Otto’s apprentice is the provocateur, the player, and the joker of the lm . Handsome and charming, athletic and well-dressed, David attracts attention immediately: Otto is impressed, Edmund — sexually conicted, Isabel – besotted, Flora is mesmerised. David loves playing dangerously, but his actions have far-reaching eects. David Levkin 42

25 years old, 5’10’’ tall, athletic with metallic hair and graphite-coloured eyes. Like her brother David, Elsa, is a political refugee from the USSR. To some, she’s the fairy, others — the witch, the innocent or the whore who doesn’t belong to anyone or any place. She has a talent for Tarot card readings and prophecies, but just like Troy’s Cassandra, her forewarnings fall on deaf ears. Elsa Levkin Characters43

39 years old, 5’4’’ tall, slightly built, with raven black hair and amber eyes.As the maid of the house, she’s always silent and wears only black.She’s omnipresent in the house, hearing and aware of all the goings on but a series of dramatic events - the discovery of Lydia’s Will and angry Flora chopping hair ponytail o - change everything, leading to Maggie’s transformation, visually and emotionally. Maggie Magistretti 44

6’’2’ tall, light brown wavy hair and brown eyes. Otto’s and Edmund’s talented father is now dead, but his presence and memories are in the house through his own art and an impressive collection of paintings from his contemporaries, including a much-contested Stanley Spencer. JohnCharacters45

House ExteriorLandscape46

LandscapeThe Church47

House Interior48

House Interior49

Artwork50

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Dream Sequences53

Garo Berberian | Writer and DirectorTatevik Ayvazyan | Writer and Producer Email: tatevik@rebelrepubliclms.com | Tel/WhatsApp: +44 7909 966266Contacts 54

Tatevik Ayvazyan | Writer and Producer Noosh B | DesignerEmail: tatevik@rebelrepubliclms.com | Tel/WhatsApp: +44 7909 966266Contacts 55