Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Charlie records a scene of himself performing insight while trying to impress Valerie.

Scene 142 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Kaufman'S Voice

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:14 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 142

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 139
Orlean narrates the real date and scale of Laroche’s orchid theft through archival footage.
Scene 140
Orlean sees Laroche represented as a mannequin in a Florida-history display and asks about a Wallace Stevens quotation.
Scene 141
Orlean reads Stevens on the poverty of being cut off from the physical world and desire.
Scene 142
This scene

142INT. EMPTY BEDROOM - NIGHT

Kaufman is on the floor typing. His mini-recorder is on.

KAUFMAN'S VOICE (ON RECORDER)

Kaufman sits across from Valerie, a

pretty film executive. He eyes her as

she picks at her salad. She looks up and

he looks down. He sweats. She

compliments him on his work. She rubs

her nose. He pulls at his nostrils. He

tries to sound like he knows what he's

talking about. He's full of shit.