The Puppet Master." "Kaufman." "It was a masterpiece." "Bravo!" "I saw it five times." "But nobody else did." "That's not surprising." "I understand how that film affected you." "No, you don't." "You can't." " I write about unusual people." " Thank you." "I've always been more interested in the unusual." "Than the average?" "Sure." "You see, I've never been to dinner with an economist before." "Surely you're not a Marxist?" "I don't like labels, except on my T-shirts." "How about you?" "They have this rule in economics." "If something happens three times, it's an established fact." "Until it happens once, and then it's an unexplained mystery." "Like the end of your film." "You see, it's... how do you say, a straw man argument." "Because the real cause of the blackout remains a mystery, until now." "What was the cause?" "I'll go ahead with my original theory and say, "I don't know. "" "But now we do know." "And what was that?" "I think the blackout was a result of negligence." "Carelessness." "In a system that depends on chaos and confusion for its integrity, to promote justice and order." "A power outage of that size could only be the work of incompetence or of malevolence." "Mr. Kaufman, you said in your lecture on stage four that, "The audience feels like they're right inside this woman's head. "" "And at that moment, it struck me." "You were right." "Everything you said applies to life in general." "The audience does feel like they're right inside my head." "And that's why it seems so much more important than what really is important." "In other words, your life." "Sure." "What really happened at stage four?" "Nothing." "I was the victim of my own illusion." "The audience left at the intermission, which is the time to bring out the sandwiches, and I was trapped." "I didn't bring the sandwiches." "What happened then?" "I spent the intermission drinking." "I never bring the sandwiches." "Can you tell me why not?" "Drinking only makes me hungry." "What did you have to eat at intermission?" "I had some nuts." "What kind of nuts?" "Cashew nuts." "Why, may I ask, at a time like that, would you have cashew nuts?" "I guess I bought them on an impulse." "As I was leaving, I saw a display in the store." "They're beautiful." "They're like little art pieces." "They're like little sculptures." "I bought a bagful." "You see, I don't go to the movies that often." "Did you like the movie?" "I don't remember." "I didn't like the movie." "I was so drunk I couldn't tell if it was any good." "But now I think it's a masterpiece." "What do you think makes it such a masterpiece?" "I can't explain it in any other way except that you have to see it for yourself." "I'm a teacher and I take my students to the movies all the time." "But I'll tell you what happens." "It affects some of them more than others." "For some of them, it opens up the world for the very first time." "It's profound." "I'm not suggesting you have a similar experience." "What I'm saying is that it's inexplicable." "And not everyone can understand it." "The ones who can, see past the illusion into some sort of truth." "The message is in there, in that mystery." "That's where we all must look for our own redemption." "Where did you see it?" "Intermission, I saw it three times." "By the time the lights came back up, I was all cried out." "Thank you, Mr. Kaufman." "This concludes our questioning for today." "I'm sorry I was late." "I don't have a watch and I'm afraid you'll have to time me from now on." "I had a little accident." "Me, too." "Yeah." "Is it bleeding?" "You cut your face." "It's nothing." "Excuse me." "It's OK." "You look fine." "What's new?" "This is her." "And this is him." "They need some fun." "They should get drunk and make out." "See if you can give me a hand." "Keep her up all night and then send her to my room in the morning." "He gets here at noon and leaves at 10 to catch the flight to Chicago." "That's it." "Thanks, Bruce." "You know, I know this is a motel and all, but it's a little bright in here." "I don't understand." "I thought you were an economist." "I am." "But when I left the house, I ran into this fellow from the Institute of International Economics." "He offered me $1,000 if I'd stay over and tell him what happened." "You know, in a sense, I'm doing this for you." "I mean, I'm keeping you up." "Tell me about the accident." "That's why I got into economics." "I was an investigator at the Transportation Department." "We were testing the impact strength of the fuselage of a transport plane, a DC-8." "It was 1:00 in the morning, we were in this hangar in Philadelphia, we were testing." "The doors burst open, there was a flash fire, and everybody burned." "And I was the first guy out of the plane, and it was so hot." "I was in shock." "The first thing I remember was the firemen coming and finding me, and I think I said something like," ""I'm a federal investigator." ""Save me, I'm burning to death. "" "The only thing I could think of." "And then after they put out the fire, they had to treat me." "And I'm in a hospital, and this doctor comes in, and he's like a vulture, like a buzzard, to this woman, and he's talking about money." "And he says that she wants a settlement, and so he negotiates with her for two hours, for two hours, for two hours." "And I lay there thinking about that guy for two years." "Then I had a lawyer come to see me." "He said I had a case, he'd take the case, and if I didn't get well, I should sue him." "And I got better." "You should sue him." "My God, he's right." "You never know what's going on inside your head." "Yes, you do." "Did you like what you saw?" "Yeah." "I did." " You want to do it again?" " Maybe." "You can't decide right now?" "No." "Well, I can't wait, so do it again." "You know, maybe if you wait too long you get tired of it." "What do you think, Larry?" "Maybe she just likes to be surprised." "I'm surprised." "You're all surprised up here." "Let's not try and make me out as something I'm not." "Just leave me alone." "How would you like a spanking?" "What about her?" "She's a woman." "And what do you think they like?" "She looks like she'd like it." "If you don't like it, too bad." "I'm not doing it again." "I just had you all surprised." "Now you're all disappointed." "We don't have to talk about this now." "I never knew you didn't like it." "I'm disappointed in you." "Don't think I don't know what's going on." "But we're not going to do it, no matter what you say." "You're not a person." "You're just something there to be looked at." "I'm sick of looking at you." "That's all I am, a dummy in a woman's way, something to be looked at." "There's nothing inside here." "Where did you buy that thing?" "I made it myself." "Do you think I'm stupid?" "Don't lie to me!" "What's this for?" "I made this so you couldn't have one!" "But I like looking at you." "I was alone." "I like being alone." "I like being with you, but I like being by myself more." "So what are you going to do?" "I don't know." "Go ahead, do it." "No, don't." "If you're going to go to a bar and pick up a man, pick up one of your friends from work." "Hey, he'll buy you a drink." "You'll feel better." "Just pick someone out at random." "That's what you think I'm going to do?" "Maybe if I really wanted to hurt you, I'd let you pick out someone." "You couldn't resist." "See, this is exactly what I mean." "I wouldn't want to hurt you." "That's why I'm not going to hurt you." "Not bad, eh?" "You did a good job." "I didn't do anything."