The Royal Tenenbaums · written by Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson · 2001

Eli enjoys sudden literary celebrity, discusses Old Custer with professors, then calls from the lobby with a review clipping and asks whether he is especially not a genius.

Scene 16 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Narrator
Eli

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Begins 16 min into a 1:59 film

The story so farBefore scene 16

After losing his hotel room, Royal claims he has only weeks to live so he can move back in with his estranged family; as the truth unravels, he must find a way to be useful and earn a place in their lives.

Scene 1
The children ask Royal whether he still loves them as the family’s separation becomes unavoidable.
Just before
Scene 13
The hotel manager tells Royal to leave over unpaid charges; Royal cannot pay the masseuse and recalls his disbarment and estrangement.
Scene 14
Aboard the Cote d’Ivoire, Richie dictates a lonely message to Eli confessing love for Margot and recalls his failed last tennis match.
Scene 15
At a library reading, Eli reads from Old Custer to an applauding audience; the narration identifies him as a Brooks College assistant professor.
Scene 16
This scene

16INT. LOBBY. NIGHT.

Eli walks among the card catalogues surrounded by a crowd of admirers.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

-- had earned him a sudden, unexpected

literary celebrity.

CUT TO:

Eli standing near the circulation desk with a group of professors drinking cocktails.

ELI

Well, everyone knows Custer died at

Little Bighorn. What this book

presupposes is:

(tentatively)

maybe he didn’t?

Eli shrugs and smiles.

CUT TO:

Eli placing a call from a pay phone in the lobby. He unfolds a newspaper clipping and looks at it while he waits. He says suddenly into the receiver:

ELI (CONT’D)

Let me ask you something. Why would a

reviewer make the point of saying

someone’s not a genius? I mean, do you

think I’m especially not a genius?

Isn’t that --

Someone gives Eli a book to sign. He scribbles his name on it and hands it back without looking. He says sadly:

ELI (CONT’D)

You didn’t even have to think about it,

did you?