Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Laroche teaches Orlean about pollination and orchid forms, but she remains detached from the spectacle.

Scene 61 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Laroche
Orlean

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 36 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 61

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.
Scene 31
Donald’s rivalry and affection give Charlie a living counterpoint to his isolated view of himself.
Just before
Scene 58
Charlie piles up books on his abandoned interests and begins reading Darwin.
Scene 59
Darwin’s voice reads about life descending from a common origin.
Scene 60
Charlie dictates a creation-of-life opening and insists on silence before the story begins.
Scene 61
This scene

61EXT. SHOW HALL - DAY

Blasting music. Crowds. Laroche shows the flower to Orlean.

LAROCHE

See that nectary all the way down there?

Darwin hypothesized a moth with a nose

twelve inches long to pollinate it.

Everyone thought he was a loon. Then,

sure enough, they found this moth with a

twelve inch proboscis -- proboscis means

nose, by the way -- and --

ORLEAN

I know what proboscis means.

LAROCHE

Every one of these flowers has a specific

relationship with the insect that

pollinates it. There's an orchid that

looks exactly like this particular

insect. So the bug humps the flower and

gets covered with its pollen. Thusly...

Laroche mimes humping.

ORLEAN

I get it.

LAROCHE

That's called pseudo-copulation. These

flowers are smart! You gotta fall in

love with them. Once you learn anything

about orchids, you'll devote your life to

learning everything about them.

Orlean looks around: people sniffing flowers, feeling petals, staring deep into nectaries. People jabber passionately, people buy plants, people carry boxes of purchased plants. Orlean looks deeply into various flowers, at a dizzying array of colors and shapes, but remains detached.