HUMANS HATE REALITY

Who doesn't know that everything is filth? I think every human being alive knows the truth but some have better mechanisms for hiding than others. Very few people want to face reality. Shove it in their faces and they squeal like pigs and writhe and twist every which way to avoid it. I prefer people who like to wallow in degradation. They seem to me to be the freest of all. Once they've let themselves be bottle-fucked, slapped around and pissed on, they can come to terms with their essential helplessness and insignificance. To do these things to others is no less degrading than to have them done to you because both actions are an admission of desperate desires.

To do or be done to both clear the way to really be yourself. No more hiding. No more pretending you're important. It's better to admit that everything is filth.

MAD, BAD AND DANGEROUS TO KNOW

NEW FLYER

HEAVY METAL

The character of Faust is based on the story by Goethe. The story was also conceived after reading the play all the way back in college. Over time, the themes have changed and deepened, but the constant element has always been a concern with the difficulties of trying to reconcile personal ambition and a desire for love with elements from a traumatic and painful past.


Faust is a powerful performer with a decidedly mixed character. He is equally capable of gentleness and tenderness as well as cruelty and bitterness. He loves life and at the same time, he is tortured by his past and he is sometimes very angry about that. He loves Susan but he's convinced that love is impossible for him because he can't trust and because he is self-destructive.


All this plays out against the backdrop of a heavy metal band on a fateful tour to try and regain lost glory. With his old friends Duncan and Toby and their new bassist Pandora (who is also involved in a relationship with Duncan), the band is traveling America in an attempt to take advantage of rock and roll nostalgia and make some money. Their tour isn't going very well though. They aren't filling the venues and their performances are mostly listless and uninspired recreations of things they did in the past. It's only after Faust's mother dies and he meets a preacher's daughter named Susan that things start to change for the group. Faust suddenly begins to find his energy and passion for rock again and the fans catch on and the while thing begins to take off. Of course, just when things are starting to pick up, Faust soon comes to realize that he is finally getting the benefits of a long ago pact with the titular Devil.

STRIP CLUB

INT. STRIP CLUB - SAME NIGHT

Flashing lights. Pounding music. A stripper with an apple and a snake slinks on stage in low light. She looks at the apple alternately with fear and desire until she finally bites into it. The tempo of the music and the flashing lights increases. Her sexuality begins to blossom and she flicks her tongue at the snake. Faust enters just before she bites the apple and she plays some of her act toward him after he seats himself at a table. When her set ends, another stripper appears and she takes the snake offstage and comes back on in a robe and goes over to Faust's table. 

MARY

I love your music.

FAUST

Yeah, I like your act too. Turn around.

MARY

What?

FAUST

Turn around so I can see your ass.

She reluctantly obeys.

Nice.

Mary is obviously disappointed.

MARY

Thanks. I've got to -

FAUST

Don't go.

MARY

Look, I definitely don't want to be rude to you, but I'm not in the -

FAUST

I'm sorry.

MARY

Really?

FAUST

I,m sorry. I'm not always this bad. I swear.

MARY

It's not that guys don't ever talk to me like that, It's just tonight I'm kind of moody and - Do you have a light?

Faust lights her cigarette.

MARY

I've been under a lot of - well, you don't want to hear this.

FAUST

No, what's the matter?

MARY

Oh --- nothing.

FAUST

Come on. Tell me.

MARY

My little boy's been sick and my mind's just - out there.

FAUST

He's sick? Is he gonna be -

MARY

Oh yeah. He'll be OK. He just feels really bad,ya know? Strep. He'll be fine. It just makes me sad to leave him when he really needs me.

She smokes and fidgets.

FAUST

I like your ring.

MARY

Thanks. My mom gave it to me. My mom's really cool. She's got this amazing tattoo - what?

FAUST

Your mom is cool, huh?

MARY

What? Did I hit a sore spot-

FAUST

No. I don't have parents really.

MARY

Not really?

FAUST

Well, my dad disappeared a long time ago and my mom's - well, she just died.

MARY

Oh baby. I'm sorry.

This show of sympathy touches Faust deeply, but he immediately toughens up.

FAUST

No. No. No pity. What does not kill us makes us stronger - or stranger. Whichever. How old is your little boy?

MARY

He's six.

FAUST

Six, huh? He must be a handful.

MARY

Oh yeah. He wears me out.

FAUST

What's his name?

MARY

Johnny.

FAUST

You really love him, huh?

MARY

Oh god. He's my whole life. It's just me and him, ya know. Gotta stick together.

FAUST

No husband.

MARY

No nothin'.

Pause. Faust stares at her intensely.

FAUST

You are so familiar.

MARY

My next set's coming up soon and I gotta go upstairs for a minute. Will you be here when I get back?

FAUST

No - uh, no. I gotta go. I - what's your name?

She instinctively answers with her stage name and then tells him her real name.

MARY

Melody - Mary.

FAUST

Mary. I'm sorry I was such an asshole earlier. I-

MARY

Don't worry about it. It's no big -

Faust takes her hand in a spontaneous gesture of tenderness. He then takes out a wad of hundred dollar bills and hands them to her.

FAUST

Take care of Johnny.

She kisses him. There is a connection. Faust looks at her and heads for the door. Mary smiles as she watches him leave.