Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie lashes out at Donald for pretending to be a writer and collapses in pain.

Scene 135 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Kaufman

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:11 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 135

Unable to find a conventional story in The Orchid Thief, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman turns his own crisis into an increasingly self-referential adaptation.

Scenes 1–9
Charlie inhabits an isolated, self-condemning world while Orlean’s book supplies a distant model of obsession.
Scenes 10–88
Charlie wants to write honestly and make flowers matter, while also longing to be desired and understood.
Scenes 89–105
He leaves his familiar writing room and goes to Florida to search for the story firsthand.
Scenes 106–126
The swamp is ordinary, Orlean’s research fails, and Charlie experiments with increasingly personal versions of the book.
Scene 127
Orlean’s imagined portrait tells Charlie to focus on what he cares about, and he turns his own life into the screenplay.
Just before
Scene 132
Charlie drafts Orlean’s distant marriage as another scene in his adaptation.
Scene 133
Charlie imagines an intimate life with Orlean, who corrects his version of her marriage.
Scene 134
Charlie explains his new idea to Orlean’s photograph, then panics when Valerie says Susan wants to meet him.
Scene 135
This scene

135INT. EMPTY LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Donald types at his desk on his computer. Kaufman storms in.

KAUFMAN

You can sit here and pretend to be a

writer, mocking the seriousness of what I

do, like some kind of fucking funhouse

mirror version of me! But let me tell

you, you don't know what writing is!

Kaufman grabs his stomach, doubles over.