EXT. HOTEL PANORAMA – AFTERNOON
We see the marquee for HOTEL PANORAMA and pan to the street as the cab pulls up at the sidewalk. Claudia exits. Dylan doesn’t. She tosses Claudia her bags.
CLAUDIA: Aren’t you gonna come in Dyl? I’m not on for another… (looks at phone) twenty minutes.
DYLAN: No. I’m going home.
CLAUDIA: You sure you don’t want to have a coffee or something? It might be nice to just talk and…
DYLAN: Look. You just want more from me than I have to give, it’s not you it’s me, of course it is actually you—I mean, when I think of my great loves you just don’t measure up and when I think about my passionate love affairs like that one in 2008, you really don’t measure up, I mean that was hot, really hot, and I want fireworks, I want trumpets, I want trumpets or nothing and so compared to trumpets, really you are… nothing.
Claudia is clearly bruised. Stands with her mouth open.
CLAUDIA: That was brutal.
An uncomfortable exchange of looks between the two women.
DYLAN: Call me later, like in a couple of days, and we’ll see.
Dylan waves Claudia off, signals for the cab to drive on.
Claudia stands watching as it pulls away. She quickly types a text to Dylan.
INSERT – CLAUDIA’S CELL PHONE
As she types: I really love you…
BACK TO SCENE
Claudia adjusts her clothing. Rereads the message. A contemplative beat.
INSERT – CLAUDIA’S CELL PHONE
Claudia hits DELETE.
INT. HELEN’S OFFICE – AFTERNOON
HELEN: Hans! Hans!
HANS EBERHARDT (50), creeps in, frumpy and self absorbed, wearing a hideous jogging suit.
HANS: What’s the matter this time?
HELEN: Something’s wrong with Dylan.
HANS: Don’t be a drama queen. She’s fine.
HELEN: She needs me, even if you don’t.
HANS: Not this again.
HELEN: All you do all day and night is jog. It’s ridiculous. We never talk anymore. We haven’t had sex in seventy-four days.
INSERT a flash of Helen, seductive in lingerie, smiling at the foot of a bed in a room filled with candlelight. Pull back to reveal Hans in the bed trying to read his jogging magazine by candlelight. Helen turns on some romantic music, and as she climbs into bed, Hans rolls over and starts snoring.
BACK TO SCENE
HANS: I guess I’ve outgrown all of that.
HELEN: When we met in the seventies at university you were such the horny young man. Always wanting to fuck and suck. And for years Hans, we fucked like bunnies, but now you’re telling me you really have no sexual desire at all?
HANS: None. Not a thought. It’s all too much trouble. (beat) I’ll be back later.
He plugs in his iPod headphones and starts jogging out the door. Helen looks wistfully after him. Runs her hands over her neck, breast and body.
INSERT – HANS AND HELEN
A happier, sexy moment of Hans and Helen dancing sexily to tango music and kissing romantically.
BACK TO SCENE
Helen walks to the window dejected and sees Hans exit the building. Hans jogs down the block and around the corner.
EXT. SUBURBAN STREET – CONTINUOUS
Hans jogs a few meters then looks over his shoulder to see if the coast is clear. He leaps into a fancy convertible with the top down, where A HOT YOUNG WOMAN/DRAG QUEEN proceeds to rub all over his body sexily. Hans turns to the camera and flashes his signature smile.
INSERT – CLOSE ON HANS’ SMILE
A mischievous smile and sparkle of his teeth.
BACK TO SCENE
HANS: Daddy has been thinking about you all day.
Hans puts his arm around her as a SECOND HOT QUEEN drives away.
INT. HOTEL PANORAMA – LATE NIGHT
Claudia mopes at the front desk. JAY (30), laid back but quirky, enters.
JAY: What’s the matter with you?
CLAUDIA: Girl trouble.
JAY: You’re not still dating “the ice queen?” She’s hot and all but…
CLAUDIA: I know, Jay but she just won’t soften up. And what’s weird is that I think I am in love with her. I want to take it to the next level but she won’t let it happen.
JAY: You want to move in together and settle down have babies and live happily ever after?
CLAUDIA: Right.
JAY: Claudia, if I remember correctly, the last time I hung out with the two of you, Dylan was trying to get me to join you guys in a threeway.
CLAUDIA: Dylan likes sex. What’s wrong with that?
JAY: Likes sex?! Bullshit. Claudia, she can’t love and she passes it off as some kind of poly sex-o-mania. She’s not honest and it’s hurting you.
CLAUDIA: I know. And she really wants to… you know… fuck me. Up the ass.
JAY: And? What’s wrong with that? You’re queer and living in Berlin, aren’t you?
CLAUDIA: I’m just not into it. I’m sort of an old-fashioned butch if you get my drift.
JAY: Exit only?
CLAUDIA: Yeah. Something like that.
JAY: That is so… nineteen-fifties. Get over it, baby. Even straight men are taking dildos these days.
CLAUDIA: I can’t. It makes me feel weak. Jay, what can I do?
JAY: You gotta teach her a lesson.
CLAUDIA: Oh, she’d love that.
JAY: Not that kind of lesson. Every girl has a melting point. What you need is a revelation.
CLAUDIA: Easier said than done.
JAY: Well, I know of a place that might interest you. It’s a sex club.
CLAUDIA: Sex is not our problem.
JAY: Well something is. Here. (he hands her a card) It’s not what you’d expect at all. (starts to walk away) You never know where you might find the solution.
Claudia looks at the card. Turns it over. On the other side is a mirror. Claudia looks at herself. She needs a new path.
SERIES OF SHOTS – BERLIN AT NIGHT: A) Infamous / Classic Berlin (i.e., Brandenburg Gate); B) Street life; C) Queer street life.
EXT. BERLIN STREET – NIGHT
Claudia moseys down a dark street. It’s silent, only the sound of her footsteps. She sees a pink lightbulb in front of a shuttered storefront. She pauses.
There is a little dispenser under the front doorbell labeled TAKE ONE.
Claudia reaches in and pulls out a little package wrapped in mirrored paper; she opens it to find her prize is a fake mustache. She puts it on using the mirrored side of the key card as her aid. Claudia approaches the front door. Notices an eyehole, peers in; a blue eye looks back at her. Startled, she holds up her card.
INT. SEX CLUB – NIGHT
QUEER WOMEN and TRANSPEOPLE of all types are lounging, flirting, making love in a variety of turns. Only one person seems to notice her, OCEAN LEROY (35), the Host. He’s a postmodern character right out of Blue Velvet.
OCEAN: Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome, Claudia.
CLAUDIA: How did you know my name?
OCEAN: Jay told me he was sending a walking victim. Look around, does anyone else fit that description? (They both look, concur.) Let me give you a tour of Oz.
What ensues is a visit into two distinctly different scenes, moments before the money shot. No foreplay. Just passionate moments that lead up to a real orgasm.
OCEAN (CONT’D): Follow me.
Ocean opens Door Number One. They walk in as SADIE LUNE is being fucked by her entirely naked, tattooed lover, KAY. Ocean and Claudia watch them come. When she does, Sadie kisses Kay with loving gratitude. Kay receives this with joy. Claudia finds this upsetting.