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

Eli apologizes to Margot over the phone after learning of Royal’s illness; they note they are not blood relatives.

Scene 43 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Eli
Margot

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Begins 36 min into a 1:59 film

The story so farBefore scene 43

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.

Scenes 1–39
Royal is absent from the children’s adult lives, and their family remains shaped by his betrayals and abandonment.
Just before
Scene 40
Royal tells Etheline he is dying to win time with the family, admits the lie, then confirms he really is ill.
Scene 41
Etheline tells Henry that the children know Royal is dying and that she cannot gauge how they are taking it.
Scene 42
Ari and Uzi call Chas from swimming class and ask who their father is; Chas names Royal and says he is really dying.
Scene 43
This scene

43INT. ELI’S TOWNHOUSE/MARGOT’S BATHROOM-DARKROOM. DAY.

A third telephone conversation. Eli sits on a couch in front of a painting of two men wearing ski masks riding a motorcycle chasing after a screaming girl in a bikini. He smokes a long, Moroccan-looking pipe. Margot talks on the telephone in her bathroom on Archer Avenue. There are three bottles of developing chemicals and a photographic enlarger next to the sink.

ELI

I’m very sorry, Margot.

MARGOT

That’s OK. We’re not actually related,

anyway.

ELI

That’s true.