Notting Hill

from Notting Hill (1999) - Director Roger Michell

Notting Hill: 
script Vs film









The film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTjIRQU_HdM


The script

                                                                        BELLA

                C'est la vie... We're lucky in lots 
                of ways, but... Surely it's worth a 
                brownie.

        William reaches for her hand.  Max breaks the sombre mood.

                                MAX
                Well, I don't know.  Look at 
                William.  Very unsuccessful
                professionally.  Divorced.  Used to
                be handsome, now kind of squidgy 
                around the edges -- and absolutely
                certain never to hear from Anna again
                after she's heard that his nickname
                at school was Floppy.

        They all laugh.  Anna smiles across at William.

                                WILLIAM
                So I get the brownie?

                                MAX
                I think you do, yes.

                                ANNA
                Wait a minute.  What about me?

                                MAX
                I'm sorry?  You think you deserve the
                brownie?

                                ANNA
                Well... a shot at it.

                                WILLIAM
                You'll have to prove it.  This is a 
                great brownie and I'm going to fight
                for it.  State your claim.

                                ANNA
                Well, I've been on a diet since I was
                nineteen, which means basically I've
                been hungry for a decade.  I've had a
                sequence of not nice boyfriends -- one
                of whom hit me: and every time my heart
                gets broken it gets splashed across 
                the newspapers as entertainment.  
                Meantime, it cost millions to get me
                looking like this...

                                HONEY
                Really?

                                ANNA
                Really -- and one day, not long from 
                now...

        While she says this, quiet settles around the table.  The thing 
        is -- she sort of means it and is opening up to them.

                                ANNA
                ... my looks will go, they'll find out
                I can't act and I'll become a sad 
                middle-aged woman who looks a bit like
                someone who was famous for a while.

        Silence... they all look at her... then.

                                MAX
                Nah!!!  Nice try, gorgeous -- but you 
                don't fool anyone.

        The mood is instantly broken.  They all laugh.

                                WILLIAM
                Pathetic effort to hog the brownie.

from NOTTING HILL - Screenplay by Richard Curtis