Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie types a screenplay opening that turns his own self-loathing into narration.

Scene 137 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Kaufman

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:12 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 137

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 134
Charlie explains his new idea to Orlean’s photograph, then panics when Valerie says Susan wants to meet him.
Scene 135
Charlie lashes out at Donald for pretending to be a writer and collapses in pain.
Scene 136
In the emergency room, Charlie sees a woman ignore him and suddenly finds an opening for his screenplay.
Scene 137
This scene

137INT. EMPTY BEDROOM - DAY

Kaufman types passionately on his computer.

KAUFMAN (V.O.)

Movie opens.: Charlie Kaufman, fat, old,

bald, paces the room. His voice-over

carpets the scene. "I am old. I am fat.

I am bald. My toenails have turned

strange. I am repulsive. How repulsive?

I don't know for I suffer from a

condition called Body Dysmorphic

Disorder."