The Picture of Dorian Gray (2023) Movie Script
- All I ask is a tall ship
and a star to sail her by.
All I ask is a tall ship
and a star to sail her by.
All I ask is a tall ship
and a star to sail her by.
Is that enough? [laughs]
- Yeah.
- Can I keep this 'cause
this is written by Richard.
I can frame this.
- Yeah, that's how
it will all begin.
- Hello Princess.
[children chattering]
[bell tolling]
[dramatic musical tone]
[traffic rumbling]
[people chattering indistinctly]
[soft, pensive music]
[wind rushing]
[traffic hooting]
[chair creaking]
[people chatter
indistinctly outside]
[Evie sighs]
[soft, somber music]
- [Narrator] Always choose love.
Love changes everything.
The girl Evie loved was dead.
[seatbelt alarm pinging]
[sirens wailing]
[somber music]
[thunder rumbling]
This is a love letter,
a story about love.
A cautionary tale, a fairy tale.
Grownups are quite dismissive
in thinking of fairy tales
as quite innocent little
fables, harmless yarns.
But in doing so, they forget
what all children know,
into every fairytale
a witch must come.
- We have already been
through the summary
of your parents' estate
and that is in hand,
but obviously the purpose
of today's meeting
is to address your
living arrangements.
I know it has been some time.
- It's been over three
months. Mr. Brewster.
- Thank you Ms. Pettigrew.
- Yasmin, please.
- We have finally made
contact with your great-aunt.
As previously discussed, she's
your only surviving relative,
but she's well,
somewhat of a recluse.
Hence the delay.
- So it's true.
- Excuse me?
- Her great-aunt is Lady-
- Yes, your great-aunt is
indeed Lady Amelia Wotton,
the actress.
She was rarely
spoken of, I know,
and as I say, she and your
mother did not see eye to eye.
- Where is she?
- She disappeared from
public life some time ago
to a villa in southern
Puglia, Italy.
Basilicata to be precise,
where you will live with
her for the next three years
until your 18th birthday.
- In Italy?
- Yes, there is something
you should know.
- Go on.
- Well I, I suspect
it's, it's idle gossip.
Chinese whispers, talk
amongst the townsfolk.
But these, she is,
shall we say, eccentric.
- How'd you mean eccentric?
- Well, grief makes
us do funny things,
but rest assured you and I
will be in regular contact.
I'm always here
for, you know that.
But sincerely,
Evie, I'm so sorry.
Your parents weren't
just clients.
They were very, very dear,
close friends for many years.
Goodness! I can always
remember when you were born,
you would fit in
the palm of my hand.
Right here. Look, here.
[airplane roaring]
[somber music]
[bell tolling]
[downbeat piano music]
[footsteps crunching]
[Evie knocking]
[door creaking]
- Hello?
[door thuds]
Hello?
[fire crackling]
- Don't!
Don't do that.
Don't touch that.
- I'm sorry.
I, I just saw it was fast.
- It isn't fast.
Twenty to nine.
That is the day the
Earth stood still.
November, the 16th, 1948,
8:40 AM, he called to
say he wasn't coming.
You'll find all the
clocks in the house
are set to the same time.
Please do not touch them.
[Lady Wotton chuckling]
How does one know
right from wrong?
- What?
- Pardon?
Not what?
- Sorry, I-
- How did you know
the clock was wrong?
Oh, I see.
They are like you.
Timeless, hauntingly beautiful.
Flawless.
Dear sweet child.
Do you know what this is?
It's my heart and it's broken.
Can you feel it?
Don't be sad, Evie.
That's too easy.
- I'm sorry.
- Oh. You are an artist.
- Yes.
- Good.
You will fit right in.
You'll be happy
here in Villa Volpe.
That much I can promise you.
And tomorrow our guest arrives.
- A guest?
Someone else is coming.
- Yes. A young actress.
A Dorian something or other.
She is to appear in a
play, the play rather,
the Scottish play on
Broadway in three months time
and she is to come
to me to be tutored.
Let me show you to your room.
You may rest and then we
can have a little lunch
in the garden if you're
feeling up to it.
Good.
Very well then.
Follow me dear child.
[downbeat music]
[bell tolling]
[people chattering indistinctly]
[bell tolling]
[footsteps crunching]
Sweet girl. Come sit, eat.
- Thank you.
- My pleasure.
And how is your accommodation?
Is your room to your liking?
There are others
if you'd rather-
- Oh no really It's
perfect. Thank you.
Isn't it a little early?
- Hmph.
In a house where it's
always twenty to nine,
surely it must be five
o'clock somewhere.
You carry that
everywhere with you
yet I haven't seen you
take a single photograph.
- I haven't taken
a photo since...
Since...
- Since your parents passed.
Oh, what were they like?
- You never met?
- Goodness, no! I haven't left
this house in over 70 years.
70 years.
Tell me something of them.
- You know I was always
quite lucky as a child
that I didn't get sick much.
A lot of kids they get
colds or asthma or something
when I never got sick.
And then one Christmas
a few years ago,
I think I was 11 or 12, I
got the flu really badly.
I was in bed for days.
On the third day I got up,
I don't know where I
found the strength.
I mean I was completely
delirious looking
for the bathroom.
I walked to the bedroom
door and there on the floor
in the hallway, tucked up
under a blanket with a pillow,
was my dad watching over me.
He slept outside my
bedroom door like that
every night until I was better.
He was my protector.
He held my hand
everywhere we went,
I'd give anything to hold his
hand again, to hug him again.
That's the kind of man he was.
Those are the kind of
people my parents were.
They were good people
with good hearts
and they didn't deserve to die.
- I'm so sorry, Evie.
Life is full of tragedies.
- What was yours?
- My tragedy was
the man I loved,
loved the movies he made
more than the woman who
inspired him to make them.
What can I say?
Cinema is a mystery.
Ain't love grand.
[crickets chirping]
[seatbelt alarm pinging]
[indicator clicking]
[ominous music]
[sirens wailing]
[Evie sighs]
- [Narrator] If Evie knew
then what she knew now,
if the choice were between
feeling nothing or grief,
she was certain she would
choose grief every time.
That is after all how she
still knew she had a heart
because she could
feel it breaking.
She could feel it broken.
Alas, this was to be the day,
the first time ever
Evie saw her face.
The face of Dorian Gray.
[shutter clicks]
[blankets rustling]
[gentle music]
[bells tolling]
- Evie, this is Dorian Gray.
She has just flown
in from London too.
Isn't that fabulous?
Dorian, this is my
great niece, Evie.
- It's a pleasure
to meet you, Evie.
Lady Wotton's been
telling me all about you.
- Amelia, please
Dorian, call me Amelia.
- I'm sorry, Amelia.
Such a beautiful name.
- Oh. You flatter me.
- You deserve it. Come on.
I mean come on.
It's pretty cool, right?
Your aunt is the Lady Wotton of-
- The Scottish play.
- You keep calling it that.
Why don't you just say-
- No!
- Legend says that a coven
was so angered by the way
Shakespeare portrayed
witches in the Scottish play
that they cursed it.
And so for centuries, in a
strictly within the theater
or out of necessity,
rehearsals, performances,
it is forbidden
to say that word.
I can't thank you enough
for this opportunity.
- Oh, enough of the flattery.
Dorian, please.
You're too sweet.
Don't blow smoke up my arse.
You'll ruin my autopsy.
[phone buzzing]
- I'm so sorry.
Would you excuse me?
- Of course.
And what you think of our
guest, of Dorian Gray?
- She's definitely an actress.
- But of course. What else?
- She's very pretty.
- Is she?
Then you should take a picture.
- I don't think I'm ready to.
- Do you know what a
gift it is that you have?
When you look in that
camera to take a picture,
you don't see an object or
a view, a sunset, a flower,
the face of a man or
woman, even gender.
You understand that
everything needn't be labeled
because you see
what others can't.
You hold that camera and you
only see one thing, Evie,
even in darkness,
you see beauty.
[gentle music]
[bells tolling]
- I can't get over this place.
It's like something
from a fairytale.
- Have you been to Italy before?
- No.
You?
- First time in Italy,
but not in Europe.
- Seriously. How are you
not taking more photographs?
I can't get over it.
Here, take one of me with
the view in the background.
It'll be perfect.
- I don't know. I have to-
- Please.
This is a once in a
lifetime experience for me.
These are forever
memories we're making.
Come on.
For me.
Pretty please.
I'll love you forever.
- Okay.
[gentle music]
No, no, you don't
have to smile so much.
Less, give me less.
- [Narrator] The great
photographer Edward Steichen
was once quoted as having said,
- Just as you are.
- [Narrator] "A portrait
is not made in the camera
but on either side of it.
[dramatic musical tone]
Once you really
commence to see things,
then you really commence
to feel things."
- By the pricking of my thumbs
something wicked this way comes.
- The raven himself is hoarse
that croaks the fatal
entrance of Duncan
under my battlements.
Come you spirits, attend
on mortal thoughts.
Unsex me here and fill me
from the crown to the toe
top full of direst cruelty.
Make thick my blood.
- Stop up the access
and passage to remorse
that no compunctious
visitings of nature
shake my fell purpose.
Nor keep peace
between the effect.
[Dorian speaks indistinctly]
Wherever in your
slightest substances
you wait on nature's mischief.
Come, thick night and pall thee
in the dunnest smoke of Hell
that my keen knife see
not the wound it makes
nor heaven peep through
the blanket of the dark
to cry, "Hold, hold!"
[crickets chirping]
I just wanted to thank you.
This whole thing.
To get the part was
a dream come true.
Broadway, but to
be here with you.
- You don't need to thank me.
- I have to ask,
I'm sorry if it's inappropriate,
but 70 years and you let me in.
Why?
- You already know this I'm
sure, but you were good earlier.
You are very good.
- But I don't want to be good.
I want to be great.
- Be careful what you wish for.
- I want it, Amelia.
I want to learn from you.
I want to know the secret.
- The secret to being
one of the greats
will be the death
of you in the end.
Every story must end, but
your song is just beginning.
Do you have someone back home?
- I did.
AJ, we broke up.
- And was he in
the arts, this AJ?
I presume not with
a name like that.
- It's short for Adam.
No, no.
- Then it wouldn't
have lasted anyway.
Few loves really last, Dorian.
All we do is fall for
people we can't have.
So we can experience the
bittersweet pain of sorrow
and there within lies the
secret to being great.
That is the greatest
performance of them all.
Frank, my fiance,
the love of my life to
whom I was to be wed.
He was a director.
- A director.
He was Frank Blaine.
He was a pioneer.
He worked with some of the-
- Greatest screen
actresses of our time.
Well, he must have
learned something from
his time with them
because he wasn't an actor
but convincing me
that he loved me
was worthy of every award
they had between them.
Of course, every film
director throughout time
falls in love with
their leading lady.
That is unwritten law.
And in turn, every leading lady
makes their director
believe they love them back.
That is truly the greatest
performance of them all.
Just as Frank's was, making
me believe he loved me.
Heartbreak is so, so sweet.
The purest, most pristine
example of suffering,
like snowfall within one's soul.
Evie.
- No.
- Yes.
- But Amelia,
she's just a child.
- And her heart, soul, her body
are the most pristine
and purest of them all.
Uncorrupted and vulnerable.
Virtuous.
- She's 14.
- So wherever the maddening
crowd flock, Dorian,
run in the opposite direction.
Blindly angry as they wield
their pitchforks and torches,
fueled by fear of what their
small minds can't understand.
They are always wrong.
- She's just-
- I've seen the way
she looks at you,
the way you look at each other.
And now your
greatest performance
shall be my final performance.
I have lung cancer, I am dying.
- My god-
- Oh, spare me the pity.
I don't want it.
I don't want pity,
I don't want tears or
flowers or prayers.
For old time's sake.
Take one last great love affair.
Make Evie believe you love her
and then break the girls' heart.
That is truly the greatest
performance of them all.
That is how one becomes one,
one of the greats.
Make her believe, Dorian Gray.
[somber music]
[Evie crying]
- Sweet dreams, Evie.
[door clicks]
[people chattering]
[foreboding music]
[bell tolling]
[lighter clicks]
[foreboding music continues]
[bells tolling]
- Good morning la
bella addormentata.
- Good morning.
- Hey.
- Did you sleep okay?
- Yes, thank you.
- And you?
- As naked as the
day I was born.
It was so hot.
There was hardly even a breeze.
- You'll adjust to it.
It'd be good practice
for the stage
under the burning
lights of Broadway.
- Speaking of which, what's
on the agenda for today?
- Movement.
Evie, I will need
you as my assistant
if you don't have any plans.
- Assistant? What would
you need me to do?
- [claps hands] The foxtrot.
I will show you the
gentleman's role first
and then after, you'll
take it with Evie.
Now pay attention.
I lead with my left
leg and I start
by taking two steps forward.
Walk, walk, step to the
left side, together.
Now watch again, Dorian.
Slow, slow, quick, quick
and now your part,
you move backwards.
So you start on your right
foot, two backward steps.
Back, back, side, right
left foot to right foot.
Yes, exactly like that.
Marvelous. And now with music.
[upbeat music]
[person singing in Italian]
- Take my hand.
- Why?
- So I don't break into pieces.
I'm nervous.
- Don't be.
I thought you were really good.
[gentle music]
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
- Are you okay?
[gentle music]
[gentle music continues]
[fire crackling]
- If you don't know it
by now, you never will.
- Me?
You should know it by now.
You've had to
listen to it enough.
Is that okay?
- Yeah, it feels really nice.
My dad used to do that
kind of thing all the time.
It was kind of our thing.
The house we lived in
was in the countryside,
so we had a fireplace
like this one.
Maybe not quite this big,
but we'd just lay
there under a blanket
in front of the fire,
just me and him.
He'd read to me.
He loved to read and
I just laid there
with my head on his chest,
listening to his heartbeat
as he fell asleep.
- What was he like?
Your dad?
- He'd always tell me I
was his favorite thing,
every morning, when
he'd leave for work,
he'd give me a kiss
and tell me two things,
that I'd always be
his princess and...
- [Dorian] And?
- [Evie] And that
he'd always come home.
- [Dorian] Until he didn't.
- Those were the last
words he ever said to me.
I wish more people would speak
to each other in that way.
- What way?
- Like if somebody
died tomorrow,
you'd be content with the last
thing you ever said to them.
Like really okay with it.
- I do admire you.
Everything you've been through,
your resilience.
You know, I look
up to you for that.
You have a kind heart, Evie.
The most magical smile
and a kind heart.
Don't ever change.
[Evie chuckles]
What is it?
- Are you okay?
- Yeah.
Why?
- I can hear heart beating.
- It's going really fast.
- I'm okay, I promise.
[soft music]
Can I keep you?
Come, you spirits that
tend on mortal thoughts,
unsex me here and fill me
from the crown to the toe
top-full of direst cruelty!
Make thick my blood,
stop up the access and
passage to remorse,
that no compunctious visitings
of nature shake my fell purpose,
nor keep peace between
the effect and it!
Come to my woman's breasts,
and take my milk for gall,
you murd'ring ministers,
wherever in your
sightless substances
you wait on nature's mischief!
Come, thick night,
and pall thee in the
dunnest smoke of hell,
that my keen knife see
not the wound it makes,
nor heaven peep through
the blanket of the dark,
to cry 'Hold, hold!'
[Amelia clapping]
- Let me see you.
Step into the light.
There she is. Happy
birthday, Dorian Gray.
- No, no, you're not
supposed to be in here.
It's a surprise for tonight.
- I'm sorry.
I was just coming to get-
- Get out.
Fuck!
- What is it?
- I cut myself. Shit.
- Is it bleeding?
Here, let's run it
under the water.
[water splashing]
Let me take a look.
There.
All better.
Now get back to it.
Whatever magic you're baking
in here. I can't wait.
Shout if you need
anything. Okay?
I'll see you in a bit.
[paper rustling]
[gentle music continues]
[operatic music in background]
[gentle music continues]
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Dorian
Happy birthday to you
[gentle music continues]
- Happy birthday.
[paper rustling]
- My God.
It's beautiful.
I love it.
- Are you sure?
- Of course.
You're so talented.
Really.
I love it.
Thank you.
[melancholic orchestral music]
- What did you wish for?
It wasn't her, was it?
- Can I ask you something?
- Of course.
- Are you afraid of it?
Death?
- No. No.
I'm an actress.
We don't fear death.
I'm afraid of the same
thing you are, time.
- How do we stop it?
- Well, it's not as simple
as stopping the clocks,
that much I know.
I may be old, but
I'm not stupid.
- I don't want to
grow up, to grow old.
- And if there was a
way, would you take it?
Of course there is a way, but
it's a tale as old as time,
a photograph, a moment in
time, immortalized in film.
The picture of Dorian Gray.
Do you know what
Frank used to tell me?
"To be desired, Amelia is
perhaps the closest in this life
one could reach to
being immortal."
I'm afraid I must retire
for the evening, darling.
I do hope you've had the
happiest of birthdays.
I'm so glad you're here
with us, with Evie and I.
- Goodnight, Amelia.
- Are you staying up?
- Just a little while.
- Very well.
I'll see you in the morning.
- Goodnight.
Thank you, for everything.
- Oh, you're very welcome.
The pleasure is all ours.
Sweet dreams.
- Night.
[Evie vomiting]
- It's okay.
[Evie gags]
There you go.
You'll feel better in
the morning. I promise.
Call if you need anything.
It definitely wasn't the cake.
The cake was perfect.
- Tomorrow, and
tomorrow, and tomorrow,
creeps in this petty
pace from day to day,
to the last syllable
of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays
have lighted fools
their way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life is but a walking shadow,
a poor player who struts and
frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more:
it is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.
If the world saw you every
day forever, Dorian Gray,
they shall remember this time.
[ominous music]
[seatbelt alarm pinging]
[sirens wailing distantly]
[ominous music continues]
[Evie sighs]
[gentle music]
- [Narrator] It
was your archetypal
beautiful summer of love
as Evie and Dorian spent every
day together, blossoming,
but no romantic tale
is without tragedy.
- Aunt Amelia!
- What is it?
- Evie, would you give
us some privacy, please.
- Is something the matter?
- Evie.
- Please.
- Sit. Please.
- Please.
- This is a letter from a
Lisa Jackson. Her brother was-
- AJ. Adam.
Wait...
- He's dead.
- He's...
- Dead, deceased.
He has passed on.
He is no longer with us.
- But...
- He took his own life.
He seemingly couldn't
live without you.
- I-
- Tried to break it off.
- How did you know?
- She has enclosed his note?
For the most part,
it is legible,
save for a few parts that
are too stained with blood.
The ink has combined with-
- I broke it off
when I came here.
We wanted different things.
It wasn't even real.
- For him, it was
very real indeed.
If you ask me, he
appears at best obsessed.
Alas, belief to the
believer is true, Dorian.
- I want to read it.
But-
- You will need time
to process things.
- Yes.
Would you keep it
safe for me until...
Would you excuse me?
[footsteps thumping]
[fire crackling]
[ominous music]
[people chattering indistinctly]
- Are you doing all right?
- Yeah, thanks.
How could we not be, here?
I don't think there's
a person alive
that couldn't be
seduced by Bella Italia.
- Do you want to be on your own?
- No.
What makes you think that?
- I, I just feel like sometimes
I'm keeping you from things,
from Aunt Amelia, your lessons,
your studies, your play.
- For you,
I have all the
time in the world.
- That's good because
I feel the same way.
You're easy to talk to.
You brighten up my days
just by being in them.
I can't wait to spend
more time with you,
get to know you better.
- I wish I could stay
here forever with you.
[gentle music]
- I don't want this to end.
Can I tell you a secret?
- Do you want to?
- You're my favorite
thing about being here.
- Well, you're one of
my favorite people too,
and I can count
them on one hand.
- Can we stay forever?
- What would we do?
- We'd go for walks in the
mornings and the evenings,
before and after
it gets too hot.
I like walking with
you, talking with you.
It just feels comfortable.
We could get a dog.
- A dog? [laughs]
- Yeah. Why not?
- What kind?
- I always wanted a boxer.
- A boxer?
- Yeah. Don't laugh.
- What would we call it?
- I hadn't thought
that far ahead yet.
I just know I always wanted one.
Just like I know I
don't want this to end,
the walks, the pictures.
You're always the first person
I want to try my baking.
- Well, your baking's
pretty damn good.
Even when Italians are
your main competition.
- I want to travel with you,
all the places we said we'd go,
the Amalfi Coast, Paris, Bali.
Even if it's just that field
you said you'd show me,
just talking under the
stars as the sun goes down.
Is that all right?
[gentle music continues]
- Do you want me to let go?
What is it?
- Why can't other people
be as comfortable with us
as I feel with you?
[gentle music continues]
[crickets chirping]
[dogs barking in the distance]
[door creaks]
I'm glad you came.
You shouldn't stare.
- Well, you shouldn't
look like that.
- You flatter me.
Where do we go from here?
Take my hand.
- Why?
- So I don't break into pieces.
I'm nervous.
- Don't be.
- There's so many
things I want to say.
- So say them.
Anything you lose
from being honest,
you never really had at all.
You won't lose me.
Are you okay?
- Yeah.
Are you?
- Yes.
You're not sick of me yet?
Sometimes I feel I'm
keeping you from things too.
- No, you're not.
I just want to be near you.
- Are you happy?
- I'm happy when I'm with you.
- I'm glad I make you happy.
- Thank you.
- For what?
- I meant, what I said earlier,
you always brighten up my day.
I can't wait to spend
more time with you.
Get to know you better.
- I don't want
this to end either.
I don't want to go.
Did I say something wrong?
- No, no. It was right.
It was so right.
It's just a little overwhelming.
- Overwhelming?
- In a good way.
- Are you sure?
- Promise.
[bell tolling]
- If I saw you every
day, forever, Evie.
I'd remember this time.
- I love you.
Did you know that?
I don't wanna regret
not saying anything.
- So say it.
Say it. Tell me.
It's okay.
You're okay.
It's okay, you're okay.
- I...
I am so in love with you.
- [Narrator] The only thing
better than a first kiss
are those seconds before,
when one knows what
is about to happen.
It is a sudden rush.
A moment of the
purest of certainty
in a world where everything
else to us is unknown,
one of unspeakable darkness.
[gentle music continues]
[door clicks]
[foreboding music]
[footsteps thumping]
- [Amelia] Walk. Don't run.
You mustn't run, you'll
do yourself a mischief.
Something the matter?
- Where is she?
- [Amelia] Who?
- Dorian. Where is she?
- Dorian?
Why she left, dear, for New
York, for the play of course.
It opens on Monday dear girl.
[somber music]
[footsteps thumping]
[Evie sobbing]
Why so sad?
Oh, don't be sad, Evie.
Remember what I told you?
Don't be sad. It's too easy.
- She was my friend.
I wanted to run away with her.
- I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Right now there is
confusion and sadness.
I'm sorry.
[cocktail shaking]
[somber music continues]
Ain't love grand!
Evie.
- I miss my parents,
but I'm not going to miss her.
I won't look for her.
I don't want to
know where she is,
what she does, who she's with.
I'll never let anyone get
that close to me again.
I'm tired of being sad now.
I don't want to cry anymore.
I don't wanna think
of her anymore.
- And so fate and circumstance
have conspired to return
us to this moment.
I told you the girl would
hurt you terribly, didn't I?
- She hurt me?
You didn't let me say goodbye.
- You built something that
shouldn't have been built, Evie.
- I built something,
Aunt Amelia?
You told me to build it,
to have those feelings,
to not give up, to love.
And now you tell me-
- Well, I suggest you
look on the bright side.
We are together joined,
you, Dorian and I,
a pyramid of pain.
It is not love,
but it is a bond.
We are together.
- Who are you to
say it wasn't love?
You were the one who...
Dorian wouldn't just
leave like that.
I mean, was she? Did she?
Why wouldn't you wait?
- That's what people do, Evie.
They leave. They go away.
When I told her she must depart
without saying farewell to you,
nothing seen nor said,
she wasn't heartbroken, Evie.
- Why?
Why would you say that?
Why?
I could have gone a long
time without hearing that.
You might have left
me with something.
You might have...
[somber music]
You.
You!
- If I saw you every
day forever, Evie,
I would remember this time.
- Well aren't you
the wicked one.
Take my hand.
Do you know what this is?
It's my heart
and it's broken.
Can you feel it?
- I'm sorry.
I-I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
- What did you do?
- How privileged you were
to live in that bubble.
Never knowing no one
actually loves you.
Not like you love them.
Not in the end.
- She loves me.
How could you be so heartless?
Wasn't it enough for you that
my heart was already broken.
- I wanted to shatter it.
- Why? Because you
stopped believing in love.
- Because I was hurting.
Not because I stopped loving
him you stupid little girl.
You don't fall out of love.
Otherwise, how was it ever love?
I never stopped loving him.
Not for a moment, even when
he completely broke me.
- I hope the guilt of
what you've put me through
eats away at whatever's left
of your withered old heart.
- [Narrator] And,
in that moment,
the one person entrusted
to protect Evie
from the terrors of the
world became her horror.
[melancholy music]
- If we never speak again,
remember that I loved you.
You weren't even mine to lose.
Yet losing you has
broken my heart.
- What have I done?
When she first came,
I meant to save her
from misery like mine.
[Amelia wails]
What have I done?
[gentle piano music]
What have I done?
[Amelia wails]
- [Narrator] To an
innocent observer,
Lady Wotton's coveted and
meticulously orchestrated
final performance might have
drawn comparisons to Icarus.
Flying too close to the sun,
he crashed into the
dark, murky depths
of the cold roiling
Atlantic below.
But what they seldom see
is Icarus was not
failing when he fell.
Rather he had merely reached
the end of his triumph,
his greatest performance.
Lady Wotton's victory,
however, was short-lived.
They say a broken clock
is right twice a day.
And that was true of this day
when Lady Amelia Wotton
died at 20 to nine
on an idle Tuesday,
just like any other,
Evie never returned to
Villa Volpe after that day.
Though she would
visit Matera often,
hoping to happen upon a
chance encounter with Dorian.
15 years passed.
Her feelings frozen,
suspended in time,
forever running
away from her love,
until one day, overwhelmed
by her torment,
She took Lady Wotton's advice
and turned her
suffering into beauty.
Her pain into art.
She traveled to the
city of love, to Paris,
to write her story.
The story of Evie and the
picture of Dorian Gray.
The thing about love, true love,
is its remarkable, most
admirable resilience
in its ability to
transcend all age,
creed, color,
proclivity and time.
True love never dies.
And so as she wrote, Evie
realized that instead
of having spent the past 15
years running away from Dorian,
she had carried her
with her the whole time,
always loving her,
merely from afar.
It was in that moment
that Evie decided
she needed to see
Dorian one last time.
[traffic rumbling]
[sirens wailing]
[car horns honking]
[footsteps thudding]
[hands clapping]
- Evie.
There are two things
I will never forget.
The way you looked at
me for the first time
and the way you looked
at me the last time.
You wore that dress, the
first time I saw you.
- You did it.
- I did it.
- A wild success.
- A wild success.
Rich beyond my wildest dreams,
more beautiful than hat
band Kelly and Loren.
Timeless.
- And all at the age of...
- 45.
- Of course.
You don't like a day over 30.
- And it's all because of you.
Everything good in me.
Anything special
is because of you.
- There's nothing good in you.
I wanted to understand you
before I laid eyes on you again,
us, the lines, the
rules of disorder.
It began to blur.
You and I started to blur.
- Isn't that how you found me?
- 15 years of lying
awake at night
wondering if you missed
me the way I missed you.
I never heard from you once.
You could have
contacted me at any time
and I would've dropped
everything for you.
- You needed to hear-
- No, I needed you.
But I can't live with
that, pain anymore.
That longing, wanting, wishing.
I looked for you.
I looked for you everywhere,
staring at after
images of you in places
you haven't been to in years.
But you never there.
But I waited for you.
I waited 15 years.
15 years, and now it's too late.
- We were separated
by sacrifice,
fate, circumstance,
and yet bound by love.
- You and I weren't bound
by love, but by pain.
Barely and so rarely
can I remember
what my life was
like before you,
but a place was made
for you in my world,
within my broken heart,
at a time when I thought I
could ever feel anything again.
Every day, nothing
but pain and hurt
until one day there was you.
Suddenly it didn't hurt anymore.
You were the first person
to make me feel something,
anything other than pain.
How was I supposed to let
go of that? Let go of you.
I let you know me.
I let you see me.
I gave you a rare gift,
but you didn't want it.
- Didn't I?
- You shattered it.
You told me I was one
of your favorite people,
knowing I had no one left.
You used that against me
and then I never
heard from you again.
I woke up one day
and you were gone.
Why?
- You weren't supposed to leave.
I wanted to run away
with you. [sighs]
- I was so in love with you too.
- You left because you weren't
woman enough to face me.
You didn't stop to think
that maybe if two people
couldn't stay away
from each other,
that maybe they
weren't meant to.
- God.
We wasted so many days.
I just wish we could start
a whole story over again.
- But why?
- Because if that
was all the time
I was meant to spend with you,
three months,
it was hauntingly not enough.
- If you believe that,
then you're heartbroken
over a love that
never even existed.
Well, not for you anyway.
You know I feel
contaminated by you.
I bring out the worst in you.
What sort of love is that?
- I'm sorry.
[thunder rumbling]
[upbeat music]
[man singing in Italian]
- Don't.
[gentle music]
- May I have this dance?
Do you remember?
- Take my hand, so I
don't break into pieces.
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
[siren wailing outside]
[Dorian speaks indistinctly]
- I know.
I know what Aunt Amelia
did to the picture.
You know what that
is, don't you?
Turns out you do have a
soul after all, Dorian.
There it is.
- Please.
I don't want to go.
[ominous music]
Isn't it funny?
- What?
- All of it.
[footsteps clicking]
[ominous music continues]
[glass shatters]
- If I saw you every
day forever, Dorian,
it wouldn't be like this.
No, it would be this.
I know she told you to take
my hand just like she told you
about my dad outside
the bedroom door.
She told you all of it,
everything you needed to know.
No, when you took my hand,
all of that didn't stop it
from meaning the world to me.
Because loving you was like
loving the stars themselves.
You said you wanted all
the time in the world,
but you had it in me
[Dorian sobs]
because I will love you
until the end of time.
[ominous music continues]
[gentle music]
[birds twittering]
[shutter clicks]
- I'm sorry.
You just looked so
deep and thought, I...
I'm a photographer.
I'm not crazy.
Are you okay?
- I'm okay, thanks.
I'm okay.
- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to,
I just thought that
you could do with a...
chat or something.
Let me guess.
The oldest story of them all.
You love them, but they
don't love you back.
- What?
What do you do?
- Well, there's only
one thing you can do.
You have hope.
You have hope that
you'll stop loving them.
- What if I can't do that?
- You move on.
[Havisham chuckles]
What?
- That's what they
all say, isn't it?
Move on.
That's not love.
If you move on, if you stop
caring, how is that love?
- I was agreeing with you.
- I'm sorry, I interrupted you.
- [Narrator] And when anyone
else would've given up on love,
Evie told the gentleman this.
You move on with your life as
if you did stop loving them.
You listen when they
tell you about the person
they've fallen in love with
and you smile softly
and you let them
know you're okay with that,
even though you're not.
And you take those
late night phone calls
and you wipe away their tears
and hold back their hair.
The happiest days of their
life will be with someone else.
And so you'll tell them
how happy it makes you
to see them that joyful.
It'll hurt, but you'll
love them anyway.
Sometimes it will really hurt,
but you keep loving them even
though you pretend you don't.
Even though you can
only do it from afar,
but you do because
love is always right.
True love isn't selfish.
True love is wanting the
best for that someone.
And in that, accepting
that may not be with you.
And so you move on.
You move on with your life as
if you did stop loving them.
"Will you do something for me?"
Evie asked of the gentleman.
"Right now, it might not feel
like you ever want to
feel anything again,
but if you do, if you love
someone, you tell them,
even if you're worried that it
might not be the right thing
to do or other people won't
understand it, but you say it.
You always choose love because
love changes everything."
[upbeat music]
[people singing in Italian]
and a star to sail her by.
All I ask is a tall ship
and a star to sail her by.
All I ask is a tall ship
and a star to sail her by.
Is that enough? [laughs]
- Yeah.
- Can I keep this 'cause
this is written by Richard.
I can frame this.
- Yeah, that's how
it will all begin.
- Hello Princess.
[children chattering]
[bell tolling]
[dramatic musical tone]
[traffic rumbling]
[people chattering indistinctly]
[soft, pensive music]
[wind rushing]
[traffic hooting]
[chair creaking]
[people chatter
indistinctly outside]
[Evie sighs]
[soft, somber music]
- [Narrator] Always choose love.
Love changes everything.
The girl Evie loved was dead.
[seatbelt alarm pinging]
[sirens wailing]
[somber music]
[thunder rumbling]
This is a love letter,
a story about love.
A cautionary tale, a fairy tale.
Grownups are quite dismissive
in thinking of fairy tales
as quite innocent little
fables, harmless yarns.
But in doing so, they forget
what all children know,
into every fairytale
a witch must come.
- We have already been
through the summary
of your parents' estate
and that is in hand,
but obviously the purpose
of today's meeting
is to address your
living arrangements.
I know it has been some time.
- It's been over three
months. Mr. Brewster.
- Thank you Ms. Pettigrew.
- Yasmin, please.
- We have finally made
contact with your great-aunt.
As previously discussed, she's
your only surviving relative,
but she's well,
somewhat of a recluse.
Hence the delay.
- So it's true.
- Excuse me?
- Her great-aunt is Lady-
- Yes, your great-aunt is
indeed Lady Amelia Wotton,
the actress.
She was rarely
spoken of, I know,
and as I say, she and your
mother did not see eye to eye.
- Where is she?
- She disappeared from
public life some time ago
to a villa in southern
Puglia, Italy.
Basilicata to be precise,
where you will live with
her for the next three years
until your 18th birthday.
- In Italy?
- Yes, there is something
you should know.
- Go on.
- Well I, I suspect
it's, it's idle gossip.
Chinese whispers, talk
amongst the townsfolk.
But these, she is,
shall we say, eccentric.
- How'd you mean eccentric?
- Well, grief makes
us do funny things,
but rest assured you and I
will be in regular contact.
I'm always here
for, you know that.
But sincerely,
Evie, I'm so sorry.
Your parents weren't
just clients.
They were very, very dear,
close friends for many years.
Goodness! I can always
remember when you were born,
you would fit in
the palm of my hand.
Right here. Look, here.
[airplane roaring]
[somber music]
[bell tolling]
[downbeat piano music]
[footsteps crunching]
[Evie knocking]
[door creaking]
- Hello?
[door thuds]
Hello?
[fire crackling]
- Don't!
Don't do that.
Don't touch that.
- I'm sorry.
I, I just saw it was fast.
- It isn't fast.
Twenty to nine.
That is the day the
Earth stood still.
November, the 16th, 1948,
8:40 AM, he called to
say he wasn't coming.
You'll find all the
clocks in the house
are set to the same time.
Please do not touch them.
[Lady Wotton chuckling]
How does one know
right from wrong?
- What?
- Pardon?
Not what?
- Sorry, I-
- How did you know
the clock was wrong?
Oh, I see.
They are like you.
Timeless, hauntingly beautiful.
Flawless.
Dear sweet child.
Do you know what this is?
It's my heart and it's broken.
Can you feel it?
Don't be sad, Evie.
That's too easy.
- I'm sorry.
- Oh. You are an artist.
- Yes.
- Good.
You will fit right in.
You'll be happy
here in Villa Volpe.
That much I can promise you.
And tomorrow our guest arrives.
- A guest?
Someone else is coming.
- Yes. A young actress.
A Dorian something or other.
She is to appear in a
play, the play rather,
the Scottish play on
Broadway in three months time
and she is to come
to me to be tutored.
Let me show you to your room.
You may rest and then we
can have a little lunch
in the garden if you're
feeling up to it.
Good.
Very well then.
Follow me dear child.
[downbeat music]
[bell tolling]
[people chattering indistinctly]
[bell tolling]
[footsteps crunching]
Sweet girl. Come sit, eat.
- Thank you.
- My pleasure.
And how is your accommodation?
Is your room to your liking?
There are others
if you'd rather-
- Oh no really It's
perfect. Thank you.
Isn't it a little early?
- Hmph.
In a house where it's
always twenty to nine,
surely it must be five
o'clock somewhere.
You carry that
everywhere with you
yet I haven't seen you
take a single photograph.
- I haven't taken
a photo since...
Since...
- Since your parents passed.
Oh, what were they like?
- You never met?
- Goodness, no! I haven't left
this house in over 70 years.
70 years.
Tell me something of them.
- You know I was always
quite lucky as a child
that I didn't get sick much.
A lot of kids they get
colds or asthma or something
when I never got sick.
And then one Christmas
a few years ago,
I think I was 11 or 12, I
got the flu really badly.
I was in bed for days.
On the third day I got up,
I don't know where I
found the strength.
I mean I was completely
delirious looking
for the bathroom.
I walked to the bedroom
door and there on the floor
in the hallway, tucked up
under a blanket with a pillow,
was my dad watching over me.
He slept outside my
bedroom door like that
every night until I was better.
He was my protector.
He held my hand
everywhere we went,
I'd give anything to hold his
hand again, to hug him again.
That's the kind of man he was.
Those are the kind of
people my parents were.
They were good people
with good hearts
and they didn't deserve to die.
- I'm so sorry, Evie.
Life is full of tragedies.
- What was yours?
- My tragedy was
the man I loved,
loved the movies he made
more than the woman who
inspired him to make them.
What can I say?
Cinema is a mystery.
Ain't love grand.
[crickets chirping]
[seatbelt alarm pinging]
[indicator clicking]
[ominous music]
[sirens wailing]
[Evie sighs]
- [Narrator] If Evie knew
then what she knew now,
if the choice were between
feeling nothing or grief,
she was certain she would
choose grief every time.
That is after all how she
still knew she had a heart
because she could
feel it breaking.
She could feel it broken.
Alas, this was to be the day,
the first time ever
Evie saw her face.
The face of Dorian Gray.
[shutter clicks]
[blankets rustling]
[gentle music]
[bells tolling]
- Evie, this is Dorian Gray.
She has just flown
in from London too.
Isn't that fabulous?
Dorian, this is my
great niece, Evie.
- It's a pleasure
to meet you, Evie.
Lady Wotton's been
telling me all about you.
- Amelia, please
Dorian, call me Amelia.
- I'm sorry, Amelia.
Such a beautiful name.
- Oh. You flatter me.
- You deserve it. Come on.
I mean come on.
It's pretty cool, right?
Your aunt is the Lady Wotton of-
- The Scottish play.
- You keep calling it that.
Why don't you just say-
- No!
- Legend says that a coven
was so angered by the way
Shakespeare portrayed
witches in the Scottish play
that they cursed it.
And so for centuries, in a
strictly within the theater
or out of necessity,
rehearsals, performances,
it is forbidden
to say that word.
I can't thank you enough
for this opportunity.
- Oh, enough of the flattery.
Dorian, please.
You're too sweet.
Don't blow smoke up my arse.
You'll ruin my autopsy.
[phone buzzing]
- I'm so sorry.
Would you excuse me?
- Of course.
And what you think of our
guest, of Dorian Gray?
- She's definitely an actress.
- But of course. What else?
- She's very pretty.
- Is she?
Then you should take a picture.
- I don't think I'm ready to.
- Do you know what a
gift it is that you have?
When you look in that
camera to take a picture,
you don't see an object or
a view, a sunset, a flower,
the face of a man or
woman, even gender.
You understand that
everything needn't be labeled
because you see
what others can't.
You hold that camera and you
only see one thing, Evie,
even in darkness,
you see beauty.
[gentle music]
[bells tolling]
- I can't get over this place.
It's like something
from a fairytale.
- Have you been to Italy before?
- No.
You?
- First time in Italy,
but not in Europe.
- Seriously. How are you
not taking more photographs?
I can't get over it.
Here, take one of me with
the view in the background.
It'll be perfect.
- I don't know. I have to-
- Please.
This is a once in a
lifetime experience for me.
These are forever
memories we're making.
Come on.
For me.
Pretty please.
I'll love you forever.
- Okay.
[gentle music]
No, no, you don't
have to smile so much.
Less, give me less.
- [Narrator] The great
photographer Edward Steichen
was once quoted as having said,
- Just as you are.
- [Narrator] "A portrait
is not made in the camera
but on either side of it.
[dramatic musical tone]
Once you really
commence to see things,
then you really commence
to feel things."
- By the pricking of my thumbs
something wicked this way comes.
- The raven himself is hoarse
that croaks the fatal
entrance of Duncan
under my battlements.
Come you spirits, attend
on mortal thoughts.
Unsex me here and fill me
from the crown to the toe
top full of direst cruelty.
Make thick my blood.
- Stop up the access
and passage to remorse
that no compunctious
visitings of nature
shake my fell purpose.
Nor keep peace
between the effect.
[Dorian speaks indistinctly]
Wherever in your
slightest substances
you wait on nature's mischief.
Come, thick night and pall thee
in the dunnest smoke of Hell
that my keen knife see
not the wound it makes
nor heaven peep through
the blanket of the dark
to cry, "Hold, hold!"
[crickets chirping]
I just wanted to thank you.
This whole thing.
To get the part was
a dream come true.
Broadway, but to
be here with you.
- You don't need to thank me.
- I have to ask,
I'm sorry if it's inappropriate,
but 70 years and you let me in.
Why?
- You already know this I'm
sure, but you were good earlier.
You are very good.
- But I don't want to be good.
I want to be great.
- Be careful what you wish for.
- I want it, Amelia.
I want to learn from you.
I want to know the secret.
- The secret to being
one of the greats
will be the death
of you in the end.
Every story must end, but
your song is just beginning.
Do you have someone back home?
- I did.
AJ, we broke up.
- And was he in
the arts, this AJ?
I presume not with
a name like that.
- It's short for Adam.
No, no.
- Then it wouldn't
have lasted anyway.
Few loves really last, Dorian.
All we do is fall for
people we can't have.
So we can experience the
bittersweet pain of sorrow
and there within lies the
secret to being great.
That is the greatest
performance of them all.
Frank, my fiance,
the love of my life to
whom I was to be wed.
He was a director.
- A director.
He was Frank Blaine.
He was a pioneer.
He worked with some of the-
- Greatest screen
actresses of our time.
Well, he must have
learned something from
his time with them
because he wasn't an actor
but convincing me
that he loved me
was worthy of every award
they had between them.
Of course, every film
director throughout time
falls in love with
their leading lady.
That is unwritten law.
And in turn, every leading lady
makes their director
believe they love them back.
That is truly the greatest
performance of them all.
Just as Frank's was, making
me believe he loved me.
Heartbreak is so, so sweet.
The purest, most pristine
example of suffering,
like snowfall within one's soul.
Evie.
- No.
- Yes.
- But Amelia,
she's just a child.
- And her heart, soul, her body
are the most pristine
and purest of them all.
Uncorrupted and vulnerable.
Virtuous.
- She's 14.
- So wherever the maddening
crowd flock, Dorian,
run in the opposite direction.
Blindly angry as they wield
their pitchforks and torches,
fueled by fear of what their
small minds can't understand.
They are always wrong.
- She's just-
- I've seen the way
she looks at you,
the way you look at each other.
And now your
greatest performance
shall be my final performance.
I have lung cancer, I am dying.
- My god-
- Oh, spare me the pity.
I don't want it.
I don't want pity,
I don't want tears or
flowers or prayers.
For old time's sake.
Take one last great love affair.
Make Evie believe you love her
and then break the girls' heart.
That is truly the greatest
performance of them all.
That is how one becomes one,
one of the greats.
Make her believe, Dorian Gray.
[somber music]
[Evie crying]
- Sweet dreams, Evie.
[door clicks]
[people chattering]
[foreboding music]
[bell tolling]
[lighter clicks]
[foreboding music continues]
[bells tolling]
- Good morning la
bella addormentata.
- Good morning.
- Hey.
- Did you sleep okay?
- Yes, thank you.
- And you?
- As naked as the
day I was born.
It was so hot.
There was hardly even a breeze.
- You'll adjust to it.
It'd be good practice
for the stage
under the burning
lights of Broadway.
- Speaking of which, what's
on the agenda for today?
- Movement.
Evie, I will need
you as my assistant
if you don't have any plans.
- Assistant? What would
you need me to do?
- [claps hands] The foxtrot.
I will show you the
gentleman's role first
and then after, you'll
take it with Evie.
Now pay attention.
I lead with my left
leg and I start
by taking two steps forward.
Walk, walk, step to the
left side, together.
Now watch again, Dorian.
Slow, slow, quick, quick
and now your part,
you move backwards.
So you start on your right
foot, two backward steps.
Back, back, side, right
left foot to right foot.
Yes, exactly like that.
Marvelous. And now with music.
[upbeat music]
[person singing in Italian]
- Take my hand.
- Why?
- So I don't break into pieces.
I'm nervous.
- Don't be.
I thought you were really good.
[gentle music]
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
- Are you okay?
[gentle music]
[gentle music continues]
[fire crackling]
- If you don't know it
by now, you never will.
- Me?
You should know it by now.
You've had to
listen to it enough.
Is that okay?
- Yeah, it feels really nice.
My dad used to do that
kind of thing all the time.
It was kind of our thing.
The house we lived in
was in the countryside,
so we had a fireplace
like this one.
Maybe not quite this big,
but we'd just lay
there under a blanket
in front of the fire,
just me and him.
He'd read to me.
He loved to read and
I just laid there
with my head on his chest,
listening to his heartbeat
as he fell asleep.
- What was he like?
Your dad?
- He'd always tell me I
was his favorite thing,
every morning, when
he'd leave for work,
he'd give me a kiss
and tell me two things,
that I'd always be
his princess and...
- [Dorian] And?
- [Evie] And that
he'd always come home.
- [Dorian] Until he didn't.
- Those were the last
words he ever said to me.
I wish more people would speak
to each other in that way.
- What way?
- Like if somebody
died tomorrow,
you'd be content with the last
thing you ever said to them.
Like really okay with it.
- I do admire you.
Everything you've been through,
your resilience.
You know, I look
up to you for that.
You have a kind heart, Evie.
The most magical smile
and a kind heart.
Don't ever change.
[Evie chuckles]
What is it?
- Are you okay?
- Yeah.
Why?
- I can hear heart beating.
- It's going really fast.
- I'm okay, I promise.
[soft music]
Can I keep you?
Come, you spirits that
tend on mortal thoughts,
unsex me here and fill me
from the crown to the toe
top-full of direst cruelty!
Make thick my blood,
stop up the access and
passage to remorse,
that no compunctious visitings
of nature shake my fell purpose,
nor keep peace between
the effect and it!
Come to my woman's breasts,
and take my milk for gall,
you murd'ring ministers,
wherever in your
sightless substances
you wait on nature's mischief!
Come, thick night,
and pall thee in the
dunnest smoke of hell,
that my keen knife see
not the wound it makes,
nor heaven peep through
the blanket of the dark,
to cry 'Hold, hold!'
[Amelia clapping]
- Let me see you.
Step into the light.
There she is. Happy
birthday, Dorian Gray.
- No, no, you're not
supposed to be in here.
It's a surprise for tonight.
- I'm sorry.
I was just coming to get-
- Get out.
Fuck!
- What is it?
- I cut myself. Shit.
- Is it bleeding?
Here, let's run it
under the water.
[water splashing]
Let me take a look.
There.
All better.
Now get back to it.
Whatever magic you're baking
in here. I can't wait.
Shout if you need
anything. Okay?
I'll see you in a bit.
[paper rustling]
[gentle music continues]
[operatic music in background]
[gentle music continues]
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Dorian
Happy birthday to you
[gentle music continues]
- Happy birthday.
[paper rustling]
- My God.
It's beautiful.
I love it.
- Are you sure?
- Of course.
You're so talented.
Really.
I love it.
Thank you.
[melancholic orchestral music]
- What did you wish for?
It wasn't her, was it?
- Can I ask you something?
- Of course.
- Are you afraid of it?
Death?
- No. No.
I'm an actress.
We don't fear death.
I'm afraid of the same
thing you are, time.
- How do we stop it?
- Well, it's not as simple
as stopping the clocks,
that much I know.
I may be old, but
I'm not stupid.
- I don't want to
grow up, to grow old.
- And if there was a
way, would you take it?
Of course there is a way, but
it's a tale as old as time,
a photograph, a moment in
time, immortalized in film.
The picture of Dorian Gray.
Do you know what
Frank used to tell me?
"To be desired, Amelia is
perhaps the closest in this life
one could reach to
being immortal."
I'm afraid I must retire
for the evening, darling.
I do hope you've had the
happiest of birthdays.
I'm so glad you're here
with us, with Evie and I.
- Goodnight, Amelia.
- Are you staying up?
- Just a little while.
- Very well.
I'll see you in the morning.
- Goodnight.
Thank you, for everything.
- Oh, you're very welcome.
The pleasure is all ours.
Sweet dreams.
- Night.
[Evie vomiting]
- It's okay.
[Evie gags]
There you go.
You'll feel better in
the morning. I promise.
Call if you need anything.
It definitely wasn't the cake.
The cake was perfect.
- Tomorrow, and
tomorrow, and tomorrow,
creeps in this petty
pace from day to day,
to the last syllable
of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays
have lighted fools
their way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life is but a walking shadow,
a poor player who struts and
frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more:
it is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.
If the world saw you every
day forever, Dorian Gray,
they shall remember this time.
[ominous music]
[seatbelt alarm pinging]
[sirens wailing distantly]
[ominous music continues]
[Evie sighs]
[gentle music]
- [Narrator] It
was your archetypal
beautiful summer of love
as Evie and Dorian spent every
day together, blossoming,
but no romantic tale
is without tragedy.
- Aunt Amelia!
- What is it?
- Evie, would you give
us some privacy, please.
- Is something the matter?
- Evie.
- Please.
- Sit. Please.
- Please.
- This is a letter from a
Lisa Jackson. Her brother was-
- AJ. Adam.
Wait...
- He's dead.
- He's...
- Dead, deceased.
He has passed on.
He is no longer with us.
- But...
- He took his own life.
He seemingly couldn't
live without you.
- I-
- Tried to break it off.
- How did you know?
- She has enclosed his note?
For the most part,
it is legible,
save for a few parts that
are too stained with blood.
The ink has combined with-
- I broke it off
when I came here.
We wanted different things.
It wasn't even real.
- For him, it was
very real indeed.
If you ask me, he
appears at best obsessed.
Alas, belief to the
believer is true, Dorian.
- I want to read it.
But-
- You will need time
to process things.
- Yes.
Would you keep it
safe for me until...
Would you excuse me?
[footsteps thumping]
[fire crackling]
[ominous music]
[people chattering indistinctly]
- Are you doing all right?
- Yeah, thanks.
How could we not be, here?
I don't think there's
a person alive
that couldn't be
seduced by Bella Italia.
- Do you want to be on your own?
- No.
What makes you think that?
- I, I just feel like sometimes
I'm keeping you from things,
from Aunt Amelia, your lessons,
your studies, your play.
- For you,
I have all the
time in the world.
- That's good because
I feel the same way.
You're easy to talk to.
You brighten up my days
just by being in them.
I can't wait to spend
more time with you,
get to know you better.
- I wish I could stay
here forever with you.
[gentle music]
- I don't want this to end.
Can I tell you a secret?
- Do you want to?
- You're my favorite
thing about being here.
- Well, you're one of
my favorite people too,
and I can count
them on one hand.
- Can we stay forever?
- What would we do?
- We'd go for walks in the
mornings and the evenings,
before and after
it gets too hot.
I like walking with
you, talking with you.
It just feels comfortable.
We could get a dog.
- A dog? [laughs]
- Yeah. Why not?
- What kind?
- I always wanted a boxer.
- A boxer?
- Yeah. Don't laugh.
- What would we call it?
- I hadn't thought
that far ahead yet.
I just know I always wanted one.
Just like I know I
don't want this to end,
the walks, the pictures.
You're always the first person
I want to try my baking.
- Well, your baking's
pretty damn good.
Even when Italians are
your main competition.
- I want to travel with you,
all the places we said we'd go,
the Amalfi Coast, Paris, Bali.
Even if it's just that field
you said you'd show me,
just talking under the
stars as the sun goes down.
Is that all right?
[gentle music continues]
- Do you want me to let go?
What is it?
- Why can't other people
be as comfortable with us
as I feel with you?
[gentle music continues]
[crickets chirping]
[dogs barking in the distance]
[door creaks]
I'm glad you came.
You shouldn't stare.
- Well, you shouldn't
look like that.
- You flatter me.
Where do we go from here?
Take my hand.
- Why?
- So I don't break into pieces.
I'm nervous.
- Don't be.
- There's so many
things I want to say.
- So say them.
Anything you lose
from being honest,
you never really had at all.
You won't lose me.
Are you okay?
- Yeah.
Are you?
- Yes.
You're not sick of me yet?
Sometimes I feel I'm
keeping you from things too.
- No, you're not.
I just want to be near you.
- Are you happy?
- I'm happy when I'm with you.
- I'm glad I make you happy.
- Thank you.
- For what?
- I meant, what I said earlier,
you always brighten up my day.
I can't wait to spend
more time with you.
Get to know you better.
- I don't want
this to end either.
I don't want to go.
Did I say something wrong?
- No, no. It was right.
It was so right.
It's just a little overwhelming.
- Overwhelming?
- In a good way.
- Are you sure?
- Promise.
[bell tolling]
- If I saw you every
day, forever, Evie.
I'd remember this time.
- I love you.
Did you know that?
I don't wanna regret
not saying anything.
- So say it.
Say it. Tell me.
It's okay.
You're okay.
It's okay, you're okay.
- I...
I am so in love with you.
- [Narrator] The only thing
better than a first kiss
are those seconds before,
when one knows what
is about to happen.
It is a sudden rush.
A moment of the
purest of certainty
in a world where everything
else to us is unknown,
one of unspeakable darkness.
[gentle music continues]
[door clicks]
[foreboding music]
[footsteps thumping]
- [Amelia] Walk. Don't run.
You mustn't run, you'll
do yourself a mischief.
Something the matter?
- Where is she?
- [Amelia] Who?
- Dorian. Where is she?
- Dorian?
Why she left, dear, for New
York, for the play of course.
It opens on Monday dear girl.
[somber music]
[footsteps thumping]
[Evie sobbing]
Why so sad?
Oh, don't be sad, Evie.
Remember what I told you?
Don't be sad. It's too easy.
- She was my friend.
I wanted to run away with her.
- I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Right now there is
confusion and sadness.
I'm sorry.
[cocktail shaking]
[somber music continues]
Ain't love grand!
Evie.
- I miss my parents,
but I'm not going to miss her.
I won't look for her.
I don't want to
know where she is,
what she does, who she's with.
I'll never let anyone get
that close to me again.
I'm tired of being sad now.
I don't want to cry anymore.
I don't wanna think
of her anymore.
- And so fate and circumstance
have conspired to return
us to this moment.
I told you the girl would
hurt you terribly, didn't I?
- She hurt me?
You didn't let me say goodbye.
- You built something that
shouldn't have been built, Evie.
- I built something,
Aunt Amelia?
You told me to build it,
to have those feelings,
to not give up, to love.
And now you tell me-
- Well, I suggest you
look on the bright side.
We are together joined,
you, Dorian and I,
a pyramid of pain.
It is not love,
but it is a bond.
We are together.
- Who are you to
say it wasn't love?
You were the one who...
Dorian wouldn't just
leave like that.
I mean, was she? Did she?
Why wouldn't you wait?
- That's what people do, Evie.
They leave. They go away.
When I told her she must depart
without saying farewell to you,
nothing seen nor said,
she wasn't heartbroken, Evie.
- Why?
Why would you say that?
Why?
I could have gone a long
time without hearing that.
You might have left
me with something.
You might have...
[somber music]
You.
You!
- If I saw you every
day forever, Evie,
I would remember this time.
- Well aren't you
the wicked one.
Take my hand.
Do you know what this is?
It's my heart
and it's broken.
Can you feel it?
- I'm sorry.
I-I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
- What did you do?
- How privileged you were
to live in that bubble.
Never knowing no one
actually loves you.
Not like you love them.
Not in the end.
- She loves me.
How could you be so heartless?
Wasn't it enough for you that
my heart was already broken.
- I wanted to shatter it.
- Why? Because you
stopped believing in love.
- Because I was hurting.
Not because I stopped loving
him you stupid little girl.
You don't fall out of love.
Otherwise, how was it ever love?
I never stopped loving him.
Not for a moment, even when
he completely broke me.
- I hope the guilt of
what you've put me through
eats away at whatever's left
of your withered old heart.
- [Narrator] And,
in that moment,
the one person entrusted
to protect Evie
from the terrors of the
world became her horror.
[melancholy music]
- If we never speak again,
remember that I loved you.
You weren't even mine to lose.
Yet losing you has
broken my heart.
- What have I done?
When she first came,
I meant to save her
from misery like mine.
[Amelia wails]
What have I done?
[gentle piano music]
What have I done?
[Amelia wails]
- [Narrator] To an
innocent observer,
Lady Wotton's coveted and
meticulously orchestrated
final performance might have
drawn comparisons to Icarus.
Flying too close to the sun,
he crashed into the
dark, murky depths
of the cold roiling
Atlantic below.
But what they seldom see
is Icarus was not
failing when he fell.
Rather he had merely reached
the end of his triumph,
his greatest performance.
Lady Wotton's victory,
however, was short-lived.
They say a broken clock
is right twice a day.
And that was true of this day
when Lady Amelia Wotton
died at 20 to nine
on an idle Tuesday,
just like any other,
Evie never returned to
Villa Volpe after that day.
Though she would
visit Matera often,
hoping to happen upon a
chance encounter with Dorian.
15 years passed.
Her feelings frozen,
suspended in time,
forever running
away from her love,
until one day, overwhelmed
by her torment,
She took Lady Wotton's advice
and turned her
suffering into beauty.
Her pain into art.
She traveled to the
city of love, to Paris,
to write her story.
The story of Evie and the
picture of Dorian Gray.
The thing about love, true love,
is its remarkable, most
admirable resilience
in its ability to
transcend all age,
creed, color,
proclivity and time.
True love never dies.
And so as she wrote, Evie
realized that instead
of having spent the past 15
years running away from Dorian,
she had carried her
with her the whole time,
always loving her,
merely from afar.
It was in that moment
that Evie decided
she needed to see
Dorian one last time.
[traffic rumbling]
[sirens wailing]
[car horns honking]
[footsteps thudding]
[hands clapping]
- Evie.
There are two things
I will never forget.
The way you looked at
me for the first time
and the way you looked
at me the last time.
You wore that dress, the
first time I saw you.
- You did it.
- I did it.
- A wild success.
- A wild success.
Rich beyond my wildest dreams,
more beautiful than hat
band Kelly and Loren.
Timeless.
- And all at the age of...
- 45.
- Of course.
You don't like a day over 30.
- And it's all because of you.
Everything good in me.
Anything special
is because of you.
- There's nothing good in you.
I wanted to understand you
before I laid eyes on you again,
us, the lines, the
rules of disorder.
It began to blur.
You and I started to blur.
- Isn't that how you found me?
- 15 years of lying
awake at night
wondering if you missed
me the way I missed you.
I never heard from you once.
You could have
contacted me at any time
and I would've dropped
everything for you.
- You needed to hear-
- No, I needed you.
But I can't live with
that, pain anymore.
That longing, wanting, wishing.
I looked for you.
I looked for you everywhere,
staring at after
images of you in places
you haven't been to in years.
But you never there.
But I waited for you.
I waited 15 years.
15 years, and now it's too late.
- We were separated
by sacrifice,
fate, circumstance,
and yet bound by love.
- You and I weren't bound
by love, but by pain.
Barely and so rarely
can I remember
what my life was
like before you,
but a place was made
for you in my world,
within my broken heart,
at a time when I thought I
could ever feel anything again.
Every day, nothing
but pain and hurt
until one day there was you.
Suddenly it didn't hurt anymore.
You were the first person
to make me feel something,
anything other than pain.
How was I supposed to let
go of that? Let go of you.
I let you know me.
I let you see me.
I gave you a rare gift,
but you didn't want it.
- Didn't I?
- You shattered it.
You told me I was one
of your favorite people,
knowing I had no one left.
You used that against me
and then I never
heard from you again.
I woke up one day
and you were gone.
Why?
- You weren't supposed to leave.
I wanted to run away
with you. [sighs]
- I was so in love with you too.
- You left because you weren't
woman enough to face me.
You didn't stop to think
that maybe if two people
couldn't stay away
from each other,
that maybe they
weren't meant to.
- God.
We wasted so many days.
I just wish we could start
a whole story over again.
- But why?
- Because if that
was all the time
I was meant to spend with you,
three months,
it was hauntingly not enough.
- If you believe that,
then you're heartbroken
over a love that
never even existed.
Well, not for you anyway.
You know I feel
contaminated by you.
I bring out the worst in you.
What sort of love is that?
- I'm sorry.
[thunder rumbling]
[upbeat music]
[man singing in Italian]
- Don't.
[gentle music]
- May I have this dance?
Do you remember?
- Take my hand, so I
don't break into pieces.
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
[gentle music continues]
[siren wailing outside]
[Dorian speaks indistinctly]
- I know.
I know what Aunt Amelia
did to the picture.
You know what that
is, don't you?
Turns out you do have a
soul after all, Dorian.
There it is.
- Please.
I don't want to go.
[ominous music]
Isn't it funny?
- What?
- All of it.
[footsteps clicking]
[ominous music continues]
[glass shatters]
- If I saw you every
day forever, Dorian,
it wouldn't be like this.
No, it would be this.
I know she told you to take
my hand just like she told you
about my dad outside
the bedroom door.
She told you all of it,
everything you needed to know.
No, when you took my hand,
all of that didn't stop it
from meaning the world to me.
Because loving you was like
loving the stars themselves.
You said you wanted all
the time in the world,
but you had it in me
[Dorian sobs]
because I will love you
until the end of time.
[ominous music continues]
[gentle music]
[birds twittering]
[shutter clicks]
- I'm sorry.
You just looked so
deep and thought, I...
I'm a photographer.
I'm not crazy.
Are you okay?
- I'm okay, thanks.
I'm okay.
- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to,
I just thought that
you could do with a...
chat or something.
Let me guess.
The oldest story of them all.
You love them, but they
don't love you back.
- What?
What do you do?
- Well, there's only
one thing you can do.
You have hope.
You have hope that
you'll stop loving them.
- What if I can't do that?
- You move on.
[Havisham chuckles]
What?
- That's what they
all say, isn't it?
Move on.
That's not love.
If you move on, if you stop
caring, how is that love?
- I was agreeing with you.
- I'm sorry, I interrupted you.
- [Narrator] And when anyone
else would've given up on love,
Evie told the gentleman this.
You move on with your life as
if you did stop loving them.
You listen when they
tell you about the person
they've fallen in love with
and you smile softly
and you let them
know you're okay with that,
even though you're not.
And you take those
late night phone calls
and you wipe away their tears
and hold back their hair.
The happiest days of their
life will be with someone else.
And so you'll tell them
how happy it makes you
to see them that joyful.
It'll hurt, but you'll
love them anyway.
Sometimes it will really hurt,
but you keep loving them even
though you pretend you don't.
Even though you can
only do it from afar,
but you do because
love is always right.
True love isn't selfish.
True love is wanting the
best for that someone.
And in that, accepting
that may not be with you.
And so you move on.
You move on with your life as
if you did stop loving them.
"Will you do something for me?"
Evie asked of the gentleman.
"Right now, it might not feel
like you ever want to
feel anything again,
but if you do, if you love
someone, you tell them,
even if you're worried that it
might not be the right thing
to do or other people won't
understand it, but you say it.
You always choose love because
love changes everything."
[upbeat music]
[people singing in Italian]