Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Laroche boasts about his horticultural expertise at the hearing as Orlean watches from the back.

Scene 34 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Lerner
Laroche

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 20 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 34

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.
Scene 10
Valerie and Margaret give Charlie the assignment to adapt The Orchid Thief.
Just before
Scene 31
Charlie and Donald trade insults about their bodies and writing while reading different books on orchids and story.
Scene 32
Orlean drives through Florida and describes its mix of wildness and development.
Scene 33
Charlie drafts a van opening for the screenplay but cannot yet shape the book.
Scene 34
This scene

34INT. COURT ROOM - DAY

The proceedings are in progress. Orlean hurries in, sits in the back.

Laroche, in a Miami Hurricanes cap, wrap-around Mylar sunglasses, and a Hawaiian shirt, is on the stand. Alan Lerner, the tribe's lawyer, questions him.

LERNER

Finally, Mr. Laroche, what is your

experience in the area of horticulture?

LAROCHE

Okay, I've been a professional

horticulturist for twelve years. I've

owned a plant nursery of my own which was

destroyed by the hurricane. I'm a

professional plant lecturer. I've given

at least sixty lectures on the

cultivation of plants. I'm a published

author, both in magazine and book form.

I have extensive experience with orchids,

and the asexual micropropagation of

orchids under aseptic cultures. This is

laboratory work, not at all like your

nursery work.

(grins)

I'm probably the smartest person I know.

LERNER

Thank you.

LAROCHE

You're very welcome.