Sunday, October 3, 2010

Scene 28, Jack Legrand


The crescendo scene of a silent film tragedy always seems to flash images of anguished faces. They look on as the dignity of the protagonist slips from his hands.
Torn between two worlds; the one he thought existed and the one, which actually does. He is helpless.

Watching a man discover his own worthlessness seems an intrusion.
As onlookers, we become audience to his moment of bitter disillusionment, where we realize with him that he will never again exist the way he had previously.
Life as he knows it, will never be the same.

In such a scene Jack Legrand wears the anguished face. He is the cinema owner who had gone bust in the market crash months before.
Fearing the very moment he is now faced with, he hid his loss from his family and friends, hoping for the best.
Staying at the office all hours until finally, an eviction notice was hand delivered by a lawyer accompanied by two officers who escorted him off the premises and chain bolted the doors to the theatre shut.

Upon arriving home, LeGrand walked into the scene that awaited him in the story of his own personal tragedy.

Unbeknownst to him, his wife had been notified of the loss three days prior. She had quietly made arrangements to leave, taking the children with her.
Her reason, whether it was Jack’s tendency to drinking in excess, avoiding his family, or the loss of his cinema, (which he had failed to inform his wife about for three months)
Mrs. Legrand’s mind was made up to leave, and the hard look on her face showed it.
As a moving tuck was filled with the contents of the home, by the order of his wife, Jacks in-laws stood by, arms crossed and stone faced as Legrand begged his wife to stay.

He cried tears of a half drunk who wanted someone to fight with. There was hissing and spitting when the tears had run dry. Finally the ragefull throwing and tearing of the belongings being stripped of him, being taken by a family who refused to stay by his side in the midst of his darkest hour.

They ought to have been ashamed at treating him so coldly, but they were not. Their indifference toward him brought out a beast within him.
In seeing the beast, it would make it easier to leave.
Seeing the pitiful beast would make it easier to remind her children why Mrs. LeGrand had chosen to leave Jack. When the little ones awoke at night missing him, all she need do is conjure the ugly and pitiful image of a grown man hissing, spitting and begging his family to stay, and she would ever be a heroine and he the villain.

Rainer Men's club (A)

It seemed the afternoon meeting at the Conservatory had moved to the Rainer House, a men’s club in downtown Seattle. Formalities of the...