Page One: “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (2018)

Screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty

A trailer for the movie:

The original tweet for this Page One drew several comments like this:

As I have said ad nauseam, there are no actual screenwriting rules. Yes, the trend nowadays is to break up paragraphs of scene description into short blocks with no more than three lines each. However, as demonstrated by Page One of Can You Ever Forgive Me?, there are writers who take a rather “old fashioned” approach with longer paragraphs.

Take heed. Script readers may ding a script with this approach to scene description. The path of least resistance is the “three lines or less” style. But again … not a rule.

Write the story the best way to convey that story. Period.

You may read the screenplay here.

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!

Page One is a daily Go Into The Story series featuring the first page of notable movie scripts from the classic era to contemporary times. Comparing them is an excellent way to study a variety of writing styles and see how professional writers start a story.

For more Page One posts, go here.