PK
or
Psi-Star
or
Ignorance is Bliss
by Roland
Michel Tremblay
Idea for a Sci-fi/Paranormal Film
This idea on the Net: www.themarginal.com/pk.htm
Download a doc version: www.themarginal.com/pk.doc
rm@themarginal.com
www.themarginal.com
Short Synopsis of PK or Psi-Star
(the long one follows)
Virginia White is a simple secretary working for
a big publisher in London who lives in a miserable apartment in
a small West London borough. She has written a book rejected by
most publishers in London, and lacking in confidence she has not
proposed it to the Editor for whom she works. Her friend Tania,
another secretary, tries to convince her to present her book to
the Editor and the same night invites her to play part in a psychokinesis
experiment at the University of London.
The parapsychologist Dr. Brown explains to them
that the Extrasensory experiment is very simple, there are four
lights in front of them and they need to try to influence the
apparatus so the lamp number 4 will light up more than the 3 others.
If the result is over 25% it cannot be due to chance alone and
they have proven their psychokinesis ability. Tania is not very
successful, she rates way under 25% but Virginia rates a perfect
score of 100%. Dr. Brown is very impressed by these results, he
declares Virginia the most psychic woman alive and she should
be using her skills to better the human race.
He tells her that she can influence events and
perhaps people by will alone and that in life she must be a very
“lucky” and gifted person since she obviously can
get information via other means than her 5 senses. In reality
Virginia is very shy and unsure of herself. She is not particularly
lucky or gifted. Dr. Brown suggests that perhaps she is not using
all her potential and that he would like to try a different approach
with her, he wants to see her again the next night.
The next day Virginia is back in the office and
plucks up the courage to give her book to the Editor, under the
eyes of an excited Tania. That night at the University Dr. Brown
asks Virginia to lie down on a bed and he connects her to some
machines. He asks her to sleep and to think about what she believes
will happen the next day. Then, when she will enter REM sleep,
he will wake her up and ask her what she was dreaming about. So
Virginia falls asleep just to be awoken an hour later. She tells
Dr. Brown that in her dream her Editor invited her to a chic restaurant
to announce that he will publish her book as it is the best thing
he has ever read. She can now go home, live the next day and report
back about what really happened.
So the next day Virginia lives in the hope that
the Editor will ask her to lunch. So far his schedule appears
to be full and he is not even in the office. She has to cancel
all his appointments and she tries to contact him without success.
She discusses her dream with Tania and they both seem horrified
that the Editor is not here. At the end of the day he enters the
room, the book of Virginia in his hand. He wants her to come to
the restaurant and sure enough he wants to publish her book. She
goes back to see Dr. Brown and they try the experiment again.
This time she dreams that a red car will collide
with her car and that her friend Tania will die. The next day
when she picks up Tania on their way to work, Virginia explains
to Tania her dream and they are now both very worried. Virginia
appears to be in a trance for a minute, she is trying to influence
the events so the red car will not hit them. She drives very slowly
and when she reaches the location of the accident, she can see
the red car and she does not accelerate as she was in her dream.
The red car takes another direction anyway so they are safe. They
discuss that somehow Virginia has influenced the future, even
changed the destiny of Tania. Perhaps she can push this further
and hope for a big book award in order to live as an author and
even maybe move to a leafy suburb or somewhere in the countryside.
That day in the office Tania is worried. A woman
who hates them both has backstabbed them by reporting a series
of mistakes that are not exactly their fault but now that woman
blames them. Tania feels that this may be it, they will both be
sacked. It is the not the first time that this woman strikes and
every time Personnel gets involved and there are meetings after
meetings to find out who made the mistakes and eventually it always
ends with a written warning. Tania feels that this time it is
the final written warning but Virginia is suddenly very confident.
She knows that it will backfire and the bitch will be blame and
take responsibility for her mistakes. Sure enough this is exactly
what happens and now Virginia feels weird about her new abilities.
She meets with Dr. Brown to discuss what is going
on. Is she now predicting the future or influencing it? She now
dreams what will happen the next day and she can change the events
to her advantage. She feels that she is no longer living, she
believes life has become an unchallenging state of affair, like
a video game. She is telling the Doctor that she will win the
most looked after book prize in town and that he is invited to
come with her when this happens. In fact, to her knowledge, her
book was never submitted and she has no chance of winning. The
next day she learns that somehow her Editor presented her book
to the committee and she has been nominated. When her Editor all
excited hopes for her to win, she is very sad when she announces
that she will win for certain. She appears to have lost the will
to live and she gets more and more depressed even though she now
lives comfortably in the countryside with a much healthier bank
balance.
On the night of the book prize, Virginia, Tania,
the bitch secretary, the Editor and the Doctor are all sitting
around the table. Virginia wins and she goes to the podium to
give her speech. She is very distressed, unhappy, she says that
she has influence the events somehow so she could win. She announces
that she has cheated on life, that she does not deserve the prize,
in fact, she does not even deserve to be published. She is a simple
secretary and leaves the room crying.
The Doctor runs after her to discuss the situation
some more. Virginia announces that she dreamt her own suicide
that same night. That she could no longer live if she knew exactly
what would happen in life and if she could influence everything
to her own advantage. This is when the Doctor tells her that perhaps
ignorance is bliss. She should forget about psychokinesis and
ESP, about the mechanisms of existence, and try to live a normal
life. A glimpse of light comes back in the eye of Virginia. She
appears to have an idea.
The end of the movie is Virginia signing her new
books at a book launch. She seems very happy and the title of
the book is Ignorance is Bliss. But when the Doctor asks her if
truly ignorance is bliss, she does smile and do not answer.
Long Synopsis of PK or Psi-Star
Virginia White, a simple secretary working for
a big publisher in London, arrives to work late on a cold morning.
She rushes in the office and see the beautiful Raymond. They exchange
a big smile and suddenly her eyes falls on Lucy, a woman younger
than her who looks at her watch after looking at Virginia from
head to toe with a condescending air. Then she leaves the room.
Another secretary called Tania comes closer and gives us an idea
of what is going on in the office.
Virginia: what is that bitch up to now? Tania:
who does she think she is? Our boss? She’s just a secretary
like us. Virginia: who makes many mistakes… Tania: and somehow
always succeed in getting us blame for them. Virginia: I hope
being late is not a sackable offense, with my final written warning
that would be it. Lucky you, you don’t have your final written
warning yet! Tania: I’m the lucky one with my three written
warnings… And they laugh about their situation before talking
about the business of the day.
We learn that they are working for a big publisher
and their boss Mr. Pemberton is the main Editor, also that Virginia
is interested in the beautiful Raymond and that it would be sad
if she was fired. Tania tries to convince Virginia that she should
give her manuscript to the Editor, before she is sacked, perhaps
it would save her.
Virginia: can you imagine? He would be so red
with jealousy that it would be all he needs to decide to fire
me on the spot. Tania: it would certainly shut Lucy up. We learn
that the book Virginia has written was rejected by every publisher
in town and she lacks the confidence to give it to her boss. Then
Tania invites Virginia tonight to an experiment at the University
of London about psychokinesis. Virginia agrees to accompany her.
At the University the parapsychologist Dr. Brown
explains to them that the extrasensory experiment is very simple,
there are four lights in front of them and they need to try to
influence the apparatus so the lamp number 4 will light up more
often than the 3 others. If the result is over 25% it cannot be
due to chance alone and they have proven their psychokinesis ability.
Tania is the first to try and she sits down at
a table with the remote control so when she feels ready she pushes
the button and one of the lamp lights up. On the other side of
the window, seeing that all the lamps lights up except number
4, Dr. Brown asks Virginia if perhaps her friend did not understand
the experiment and is trying instead to get all the lamps to light
up except number 4? He is very impressed anyway because he explains
that it would also be significant if lamp number 4 were to light
up less than 25% of the time, it would mean she could affect the
event in a reverse kind of way. But then lamp number 4 lights
up twice in a row and all his hopes are gone.
Now it is the turn of Virginia to sit down and
Tania to talk with Dr. Brown. While they start talking about the
experiment and the fact that perhaps Tania is some sort of an
anti-psi-star, and therefore might be inviting bad luck into her
life, we can see in the background that every time Virginia presses
the button, the lamp number 4 lights up. After a while Virginia
turns around and says that perhaps the machine is not working?
Dr. Brown rushes to check it out. Pressing the button and seeing
that it works fine, he cannot believe his eyes. He asks Virginia
to try again. Once again lamp 4 lights up all the time. Shaking,
he brings her into his office pushing away Tania who is a bit
insulted as she thought for a moment that she was some special
subject and was already dreaming of going out with Dr. Brown.
In the office, Dr. Brown is delighted by these
results, he declares Virginia the most psychic woman alive and
she should be using her skills to better the human race. He tells
her that she can influence events and perhaps people by will alone
and that in life she must be a very “lucky” and gifted
person since she obviously can get information via other means
than her 5 senses. In reality Virginia is very shy and unsure
of herself. She is not particularly lucky or gifted.
She explains that the man she hopelessly fell
in love with in the office, Raymond, is gay. That she is about
to be sacked from her job and her first novel cannot find a publisher.
Dr. Brown suggests that perhaps she is not using all her potential
and that he would like to try a different approach with her, he
wants to see her again the next night. In the meantime he tells
her to have more confidence and to confront reality, to provoke
the circumstances, and everything should happen beyond her wildest
dreams. The results of the experiment shows that she should be
able to affect the people around her, turn everything to her own
advantage.
The next day Virginia is back in the office and
plucks up the courage to give her book to Mr. Pemberton, the Editor,
under the eyes of an excited Tania, but under the funny reaction
of her boss. With a very patronizing tone, he just cannot believe
that her secretary can have any aspiration as a writer. In his
opinion good women writers are very rare, as a prime example he
mentions that to this day he has never seen a woman who published
a book about philosophy that was recognized as a great body of
work. In fact, he knows no woman who ever wrote philosophy. Virginia
is quick to point out that perhaps it is because they had male
publishers who thought exactly as he thinks. Perhaps those publishers
were so frightened at the idea of publishing a woman that they
published the book under a pseudonym, a male name! Maybe every
great philosopher is actually a woman! In fact, she would not
mind to be published under the name Raymond if he wishes. And
then a smile comes across Mr. Pemberton’s face, he points
out that Raymond is gay, if she did not know that by now. She
wonders if being gay is worse than being a woman, to that the
Editor answers that he knows gay people who wrote great philosophy.
Exasperated she tells him to read the book and to chuck it in
the bin if he does not like it. She adds that everyone else in
town rejected it anyway, so she was not expecting miracles here.
At that he panicked: who else has read this before? Every publisher
in town, she answers. So what, you won’t read it now? He
then says: I cannot publish something that has been rejected buy
the whole planet, I would be a laughing stock! I can already read
the headlines: George Pemberton, desperate for any new author,
publishes the book of his secretary, a book that everyone else
thought was garbage! Virginia, completely out of her mind, shouts:
read it or else I won’t do your presentation for the third
quarter meeting, or better, I will fill it with obvious mistakes
and you would never know the difference, but your boss will. At
this idea he reminds her that she is on her final written warning,
to which she adds: exactly! I don’t care anymore! All right,
all right, I will read it tonight! Satisfied Virginia leaves his
office.
She is greeted by Tania who wants to know what
happened. Virginia: after all these insults, I don’t think
for a minute he will read it tonight as he said. He just wanted
to get rid of me! Who was insulting who, Tania is afraid to ask?
We were both insulting each other, Virginia adds, before putting
her two hands in front of her face in shame, just as Lucy passes
by, wondering what is going on. She goes right into the office
of Mr. Pemberton. Both Virginia and Tania are trying to listen
to what is happening in the office. They hear loud laughter and
they are just completely discouraged.
That night at the University Dr. Brown asks Virginia
to lie down on a bed and he connects her to some machines. He
asks her to sleep and to think about what she believes will happen
the next day. Then, when she will enter REM sleep, he will wake
her up and ask her what she was dreaming about. So Virginia falls
asleep just to be awoken an hour later. She tells Dr. Brown that
in her dream her Editor invited her to a chic restaurant to announce
that he will publish her book as it is the best thing he has ever
read. She can now go home, live the next day and report back about
what happened. She points out that Mr. Pemberton does not think
much of women as writers, in fact, he does not think much of her.
It is very unlikely that this will happen.
So the next day Virginia lives in the hope that
Mr. Pemberton will ask her to lunch. So far his schedule appears
to be full and he is not even in the office. She has to cancel
all of his appointments and she tries to contact him without success.
She discusses her dream with Tania and they both seem horrified
that Mr. Pemberton is not here. At the end of the day he enters
the room, the book of Virginia in his hand. He wants her to come
to the restaurant, but instead of the chic restaurant that she
saw in dream, it is a disgusting little café on the corner
of the office, filled with horrible people walking around them,
dropping stuff on the table and pushing her in the back. She seems
unhappy and Mr. Pemberton asks her what’s wrong. Nothing,
it is just that in my dream you were bringing me to the nicest
restaurant in town. What else did you see in your dream, asks
Mr. Pemberton? You were telling me that my book was the best thing
you ever read and that you would publish it. Don’t worry,
I am not dreaming now. So, tell me the bad news, I am a bit surprise
that you would bring me to the restaurant to tell me it is crap.
Well, he says, the book is great and I want to publish it. What?
she says. Are you serious? Yes, I am. Of course, you will have
to rewrite it completely at least five times, but I believe this
is a winner. Ok, ok! I don’t mind! she says. I will rewrite
it ten times if necessary! So he asks: you had a dream about this?
Yes, she says. In which you were not asking me to rewrite it another
five times, if I may add. Weird, he says. You might not have to
rewrite it you know, it all depends on the committee, they might
accept it as it is, though I would be very surprised, it would
be a first. And under which name will it be published, she asks?
Your name of course, this is way too feminine to be written by
a man… unless you were gay, of course. It is too…
how shall I put it, too emotional, too pink to my taste. Too many
details, too much intuition, only a woman could be that hysterical.
Or intelligent, she says, after doing a weird face. Yes, intelligent,
he admits. You are full of surprises, I would have never suspected
that my secretary could be so observing of society and be capable
of writing such a book. If I did know you better, I would have
thought this was written by a Doctor of psychology who has three
PhDs from Oxford University. She is surprised to hear that, but
does not fail to mention that Dr. Brown said something similar
two days before. Perhaps she is a different person when she writes
as when she just lives her life. Perhaps this is all about to
change, he finally says. And by the way, I love those two monsters
you described so well, who in the world could be so mean and blind?
he asks. Oh, it is based on real life, just look around and you
will find those monsters creeping around you, she says. Really?
he adds. Yes, and they are particularly blind, as you say, she
says finally, obviously talking about him and Lucy.
She goes back to see Dr. Brown and they try the
experiment again, pleased with the success of the first attempt.
This time she dreams that a red car will collide with her car
and that her friend Tania will die. She is quite distressed by
her dream and tells Dr. Brown her concerns. He is quick to tell
her that she should be able to influence the future, it might
not happen. She just needs to concentrate and repeat to herself
that it will not happen. How does someone do that? How can she
actually influence the future, change it? The only thing Dr. Brown
can think of is meditation. Try to not think about anything, to
stop hearing that stupid little voice in your head for a few minutes,
and then make it happen. You just have to make it happen, she
sings, as per the Oasis song.
The next day we see the miserable apartment of
Virginia. She is getting ready to go to work and she kisses her
five cats goodbye, telling them that her friend Tania might die
today, but again she might not. She wonders if she should stay
home with her cats. She sits in the big chair with one of them,
wondering how she finds the energy to ever leave the flat when
she could be so happy here with her five cats. She could write
her next novel all day, giving them nice food, instead of going
to work. She could be living in a nice leafy apartment uptown
or even better, in the countryside. And for a moment there, she
is kind of blank, she is in some sort of trance. When she wakes
up, she realizes she might be late and somehow she is convinced
that she has changed the future. She tells her cats that soon
they will move to a much bigger and better place. In fact, it
will be so luxurious, they will all feel embarrassed and guilty
for living there. Then she leaves.
When she picks up Tania on their way to work,
Virginia explains to Tania her dream and they are now both very
worried. She drives very slowly and when she reaches the location
of the accident, she can see the red car and she does not accelerate
as she saw in her dream. The red car takes another direction anyway
so they are safe. They discuss that somehow Virginia has influenced
the future, even changed the destiny of Tania. Perhaps she can
push this further and hope for a big book award in order to live
as an author and even maybe move to a leafy suburb or somewhere
in the countryside?
That day in the office Tania is worried. Lucy,
the woman who hates them both, has backstabbed them by reporting
a series of mistakes that are not exactly their fault but now
that woman blames them. Tania feels that this may be it, they
will both be sacked. It is the not the first time that this woman
strikes and every time Personnel gets involved and there are meetings
after meetings to find out who made the mistakes and eventually
it always ends with a written warning. Tania feels that this time
it is final but Virginia is suddenly very confident. She knows
that it will backfire and the bitch will be blame and take responsibility
for her mistakes. Sure enough this is exactly what happens and
now Virginia feels weird about her new abilities.
A few weeks later, back in the office, everyone
is celebrating the success of Virginia’s book. It is still
number one after 3 months! She is now a PA instead of a secretary,
even though no one is certain what the difference means, at least
the salary is much higher. The other secretary Lucy is very frustrated
while Virginia and Tania are just delighted by this change of
events, enjoying every moment of their success over her.
She meets with Dr. Brown to discuss what is going
on. Is she now predicting the future or influencing it? She now
dreams what will happen the next day, can remember it and she
can change the events to her advantage. She feels that she is
no longer living, she believes life has become an unchallenging
state of affair, like a video game. She is telling the Doctor
that she will win the most looked after book prize in town and
that he is invited to come with her when this happens. In fact,
to her knowledge, her book was never submitted and she has no
chance of winning. The next day she learns that somehow her Editor
presented her book to the committee and she has been nominated.
When Mr. Pemberton all excited hopes for her to win, she is very
sad when she announces that she will win for certain. She appears
to have lost the will to live and she gets more and more depressed
even though she now lives comfortably in the countryside with
a much healthier bank balance.
On the night of the book prize, Virginia, Tania,
Lucy, the Editor and the Doctor are all sitting around the table.
Virginia wins and she goes to the podium to give her speech. She
is very distressed, unhappy, she says that she has influence the
events somehow so she could win. She announces that she has cheated
on life, that she does not deserve the prize, in fact, she does
not even deserve to be published. She is a simple secretary and
leaves the room crying. While Lucy suddenly appears to have regained
an interest in life, the doctor runs after Virginia to discuss
the situation some more.
Virginia announces that she dreamt her own suicide
that same night. That she could no longer live if she knew exactly
what would happen in her life and if she could influence everything
to her own advantage. This is when the doctor tells her that perhaps
ignorance is bliss. She should forget about psychokinesis and
ESP, about the mechanisms of existence, and try to live a normal
life. A glimpse of light comes back in the eye of Virginia. She
appears to have an idea.
The end of the movie is Virginia signing her new
books at a book launch. She seems very happy and the title of
the book is Ignorance is Bliss. But when the Doctor asks her if
truly ignorance is bliss, she does smile and do not answer. She
simply says: well, you will have to buy the book to find out!
Roland Michel Tremblay
44E The Grove, Isleworth, Middlesex, London, TW7 4JF, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 8847 5586 Mobile: +44 (0)794 127 1010
rm@themarginal.com
www.themarginal.com
Main Contact/Webmaster: Roland Michel Tremblay
Tel. : +44 (0)20 8847 5586 (London, UK)
E-mail : rm@themarginal.com
Site : www.themarginal.com
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