KWYN BADER

LOVING JEZEBEL 
Written and Directed by Kwyn Bader

PRODUCED BY STARZ and BET 
RELEASED THEATRICALLY IN OCTOBER 2000 BY UNIVERSAL and THE SHOOTING GALLERY 
AIRED ON STARZ CABLE CHANNELS 2000 - 2014  
DISTRIBUTED INTERNATIONALLY BY FIRST LOOK

WINNER 
SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST FILM FESTIVAL AUDIENCE AWARD 
FOR BEST FEATURE FILM

FROM THE SCREENPLAY...

THEODORUS:

One night I had a dream that they all came to visit me and I asked them what they needed and each one whispered the same thing in my ear.  "I needed you to love the parts of me that nobody else did".  And I loved them so much they healed and then didn't need me anymore.  The only one who's whisper was inaudible, whose message I could never understand, was Nikki Noodleman whose motives remain forever a mystery.  Maybe if I had known her, my life would have turned out better.  None loved me back until Samantha.  Her kiss was the one I'd longed for in pre-school and her touch revealed that these women were the beacons of all that was worth knowing in the universe.  History called them Jezebel but I called them love.

“It’s hard to dislike a movie that’s infatuated with the concept of love…”Loving Jezebel” becomes a good natured version of “She’s Gotta Have It”, Spike Lee’s first feature.  Like that film, this one feels like it comes out of a world close to the director’s heart.”
Elvis Mitchell, NY Times

LOVING JEZEBEL is a coming of age comedy about a young man who discovers the truth of love through romantic relationships that, let's just say, are not quite right.  Kwyn wrote the screenplay and directed the feature film which was produced by David Lancaster. He also provided the tag line for its poster and on-air advertising and wrote all the special content for the film’s website. In the following scene, acted by Hill Harper and Nicole Ari Parker in the completed feature, romantic hero Theodorus has landed his first date with Frances, his college “sweetheart.”

36 INT. FRANCES'S DORM ROOM. NIGHT. 36

A tiny dorm room. Messy with expensive clothes, college books, Vogue magazines, music tapes, framed art movie posters and shoes. Theo stands at the door surprised that Frances wears nothing but a bra and a sarong around her waist.

FRANCES:

Of course you're on time.

Theo cautiously takes a seat in her desk chair. Frances sits on her bed and puts her feet on Theo's leg and takes the cotton out from between her recently painted toes. She pulls clothes out of her closet. She grabs a pair of stockings with a run from her drawer. She tosses them on the floor and grabs another pair.

THEODORUS (V.O.):

When Frances dressed and put on make up, it was such a great show I felt guilty I hadn't bought a ticket. With smooth brown skin she was a blend of Afro- Phillipino-Bavarian mocha that gave her the essence of one of those Island women in a Cezanne painting.

 In a few fluid moves she abandons the sarong, pulls stockings up over her petite lingerie, pulls on her dress and adorns herself in her blouse. She slips on a pair of tiny new heels. She strokes red lipstick over her mouth.

She sprays her wrists with fine perfume--then sprays the air and moves her neck into it. All done with the sureness of an artist confident of every brushstroke..

THEODORUS (V.O.) (CONT'D):

She moved with the trained grace of royalty. She smelled of a rare French perfume, and the breasts on her small frame existed as perfect orbs that might have been described in Dante's Paradiso. Her lips were more than promises. They were perfection, full and subtly curved with all the possibility in the universe. She covered them with red lipstick but I loved them without. If her shit smelled it was with the aromatic celebration of peach nectar...or maybe mango. 

37  INT. AUGIE'S JAZZ CLUB. 106TH AND BROADWAY. THAT NIGHT. 37

The musicians are just getting in. Theodorus and Frances settle in at a tiny table for two. The rest of the cramped club is already a few drinks into the evening. A couple of old Black JAZZ BUFFS trade stories as they smoke some weed in the corner. A WAITER approaches the table.

WAITER:  

What can I get you?

FRANCES: 

A rum and coke...with a cherry in it please.

THEODORUS: 

I thought you didn't drink.

FRANCES: 

Don't believe everything you hear.

THEODORUS: 

I'll have an amaretto sour.

The waiter walks off.

FRANCES:

An amaretto sour...

THEODORUS:

Bird used to drink 'em.

FRANCES:

Yeah, right Theodorus.

THEODORUS: 

True. True indeed.

FRANCES:

I never heard that.

THEODORUS: 

Not for very long. But there was one period when he was playing with Dizzy Gillespie. Amaretto sour's every friggin' night.

The music starts. The waiter serves them their drinks.

FRANCES: 

Don't let me drink too much. I might lose control. She downs the whole damn drink in one long swig. Another one please, actor.

Theodorus is staring at her in wonderment.

FRANCES:

What are you doing?

THEODORUS:

Sorry...staring.

FRANCES: 

That's alright...at what?.

THEODORUS:

Your lips.

FRANCES: 

Why were you staring at my lips?

THEODORUS: 

I want to kiss them so bad...but I don't know if you'll lend them to me.

FRANCES: 

Like books in the library. You could...

THEODORUS: 

...check them out for two weeks at a time...

She leans across the table like she's going to kiss him but stops just when her sweet breath is on him.

FRANCES: 

I hate kissing.

THEODORUS: 

What?

FRANCES:

It's disgusting.

THEODORUS:

Why is it disgusting?

FRANCES: 

It just is. Sucking on somebody else's tongue germs. What do I look like?

THEODORUS: 

So what do you do before you make love?

FRANCES:

I don't have sex. Do you? 

THEODORUS: 

Not as often as I might like. Why? Does it show?

FRANCES: 

Sex is even more disgusting than kissing.

THEODORUS: 

Did something bad happen to you when you were young or something?

FRANCES: 

My stepfather used to make my mother sit in the backseat of the car so I could ride in front with him.

THEODORUS: 

Did he ever try--

FRANCES: 

No, no , no....but if I had offered...he was very good looking.

THEODORUS: 

Jesus...So what happened? You had a bad first time?

FRANCES:

I've never had a first time.

THEODORUS:

I don't believe you.

FRANCES: 

Never had sex. Why not?

THEODORUS:

You seem very worldly.

FRANCES: 

I'm not lying. I'm a virgin.

THEODORUS: 

Then how do you know sex is disgusting?

FRANCES:

Home video.

THEODORUS: 

You think sex with me would be disgusting? 

FRANCES: 

Of course...nothing to do with you...it's just the nature of the act....What's wrong?

THEODORUS:

I just can't see how you and me could be disgusting. Even on home video. 

They listen to the music. Frances works the cherry in her mouth sensually. She bites it off the stem then works the stem in her mouth and takes it out tied in a knot.