"Take a sip, and then I'll tell you everything."
Here is the proposal that landed me the gig. I was as thrilled as I was daunted and eagerly embraced it. There was no doubt on my mind that we had an Oscar-worthy story on our hands.
In August of 2005 I delivered the proposal I hoped would make me the screenwriter of choice for the feature film adaptation of David Liss’ historical novel “The Coffee Trader.” To read what happened before this moment, visit here. Below the proposal, exactly as delivered to the producer back then.
As I re-read it now, I enjoy seeing just how much the story and the characters evolved from this proposal to the final draft. The proposal was strong enough to beat out the competition and land me the gig. What followed over the next few months were discussions and meetings and an updated version of the proposal, which then served as my actual starting point.
While the initial proposal clearly centered around a forbidden love between a Jewish trader and a Dutch widow, it was next thought to be strongest as a love triangle where Miguel (the trader) fell for both the Dutch widow and his brother’s wife. You can see that would nicely complicate things and offer ample opportunity for exciting storytelling. This was something I then thoroughly explored with my first draft (so much fun!). The final version, however, very much focuses on the forbidden and impossible love that begins to grow between Miguel and his brother’s wife. I love the final take, of course - it offered great conflict, insurmountable hurdles and drama to spare - as an audience, you couldn’t help but root for those two, with the odds so terrifically stacked against them.
As a writer, I love making choices. The worst thing you can do is not choose - that leaves all options open and incapacitates you to the point of writer’s block. I have no trouble choosing a character, a place, a plot element, and then running with it. The reason is simple - I know that nothing is written in stone. Over the course of decades, I’ve written seemingly countless synopses, exposes, treatments and scripts. With most of them, what is known at the beginning greatly evolves on the way to a shooting script. And so it was with this film as well. For me, looking back, it’s thoroughly enjoyable to see how things evolved, and sometimes reverted and resurfaced. Characters, scenes, plot points, little things and big things - so much is constantly in flux when you’re in the thick of such a project.
Well then, here’s the proposal, as it was written in 2005:
"Take a sip... and then I’ll tell you everything. This devil’s piss is going to make both of our fortunes."
Miguel Lienzo is a Portuguese Jew in the Golden Age of Amsterdam; the year is 1659. Until just recently he was a wealthy trader, dealing on a grand scale in commodities at the world’s first stock exchange. Now, mere months later, he is a penniless man living in the cellar of his stingy brother. Deals went bad, too many deals. He desperately needs a break and needs it soon. Increasingly aggressive creditors are threatening to take away more than his clothes.
This is the moment when Geertruid Damhuis appears, a glorious vision of a Dutch woman and a recent widow. She comes to him with an idea and wants them to become partners in the trade with the barely known coffee fruit.
Initially more interested in her beauty than the almost unknown commodity coffee, he quickly finds that she may have latched onto something. Coffee, unknown still in Europe, will be the future, everybody will drink it and Miguel and Geertruid will plan and scheme to create a coffee monopoly.
As he and Geertruid are getting closer to success, tricksters, thieves, friends and foes alike begin to swarm them. Who can they trust, who will betray them, who’s spying on them... and can they even truly trust each other? When Miguel and Geertruid’s affair turns from sex to love, their scheme gets all the riskier, because the all-powerful Jewish Council will excommunicate any Jew who dares to deal with gentiles such as Geertruid.
Success seems impossible...
Statement of Intent
“The Coffee Trader” is a drama, a unique love story set during the Golden Age of Amsterdam. This love story won’t have a traditional happy ending. Would we remember “Romeo and Juliet” as one of the greatest love stories ever told if they had lived happily ever after? Would “Titanic” have had even half its emotional punch had Kate and Leonardo been rescued during the climax? Truly great love stories are the ones that couldn’t be, such as in “Casablanca” or in “The English Patient.”
Mentioning “Casablanca” brings up the suggestion of an ending that is hopeful. And that is precisely what I have in mind for The Coffee Trader.
Mentioning “The English Patient” raises the question of epics. I am not suggesting going epic with this film, although the novel clearly does. The story will work best as a film, if it condenses many elements, a major one of these being the element of time. The novel gives our hero many months to plan and scheme, due in part to the fact that letters and ships, both part of his plans, move more than slowly. This creates many lengthy passages in the novel that the film doesn’t need or want. I believe I can change the timeline to just over one week, by changing the plan surrounding the Coffee trade.
The story’s universal appeal lies in the love story, not in the story of a Coffee trade, as intellectually stimulating as that trade and the emergence of coffee in Europe may be. I would like to simplify the deals surrounding the Coffee trade, and concentrate more on the people involved, their allegiances, their lies, their double-crossings. This world of deception gives us a great adventurous setting for our lovers to battle against all odds.
Finally, this feature film will be everything but a slow historical drama. It will be a fast-paced costume adventure, spiked with unexpected humor and looming dangers alike, the kind of historical film that will reach audiences worldwide.
Main Character Biographies
MIGUEL LIENZO (38): Miguel is a rather selfish man who has a tendency to be cruel with little or no regard for others. He often comes across as an unlikeable character who’s only real aim is to get rich.
His back story > Miguel Lienzo is a Portuguese Jew. His Jewish family in Portugal was forced by the Inquisition to become Catholic. Where Miguel’s brother Daniel complied, Miguel secretly rebelled. He attended secret prayer meetings and Talmud readings and helped other secret Jews whenever he could. When his father was killed by the Inquisition, Miguel and his brother came to Amsterdam where public life as a Jew promised to be possible.
Miguel was married briefly, but his wife died after just a few months. Since then, he has shown two sides: On one hand he’s been a risk-loving trader who enjoys life in all its facets, including drinking and whoring. One the other hand he’s a religious person who loves prayer, giving thanks to God, attending Talmud studies, going to the Synagogue, thoroughly enjoying the freedom of being allowed to practice his religion. For Miguel, being excommunicated by the Jewish Council, the Ma’amad, would be pure horror.
Miguel as a cinematic character: The financial side > At the beginning of the film he is a loser, almost down and out. He will be a winner at the end, at least with respect to the coffee deal and wealth. For the movie I suggest we need to give Miguel more of an obstacle in respect to the business. He needs more pressure to give him more urgency and through that, more drive. It should be: “If I don’t succeed, the people who loaned me money will kill me.”
Religion and love > In the film he starts a fling with his Dutch business partner (Geertruid Damhuis), but he does not see her as more than that. In the course of the film that will change. His arc will go from “there is no greater good than my religion” to “there is no greater good than love.”
On a whole I want Miguel to be a far more positive character. In keeping with the world of movies, he must be more active, he will find out more by himself, he will make more things happen through his own actions. He can still be crafty and shifty and difficult at times because, after all, he is under tremendous pressure.
GEERTRUID DAMHUIS (38): Geertruid is an enigma to Miguel and a mystery woman to us as well. In the novel she is suggested as irresistible, her dealings and her relationship with Miguel always on the brink of something more, but that fails to ever happen. In the film these two become lovers.
Geertruid’s back story is revealed bit by bit in the novel, through layers of lies. We hear that she is a widow who has money left by her husband. In the end we find out that she and her partner Hendrick actually are the famed “Charming Pieter and Goodwife Mary”, two Robin-Hood-like bandits.
Geertruid as a cinematic character: She shares Miguel’s eagerness for success. Although for entirely different reasons. She is a professional thief and scams everybody. She approaches Miguel simply because his expertise will help her make large amounts of money at the exchange. She has, through her schemes, stumbled onto a great possible deal involving coffee fruit. She hopes that Miguel will know how money is to be made.
The financial side > Not only does she want success, but we eventually find out that she needs it just as badly as Miguel does. She too has invested more than she could afford and owes large sums to people even she cannot hide from.
Love > After initially only using Miguel for her plans with coffee trade, she falls in love with him. When this love blossoms into something greater than either of them had expected, the obstacles she faces increase greatly.
I want to mention two additional “characters,” as they significantly help in setting the tone of the film:
COFFEE: I would like to turn coffee itself into a character. One that doesn’t have a dramatic arc (and doesn’t narrate) but is present throughout all the same. The aim is that an audience practically smells coffee when they watch this film.
CHARMING PIETER AND GOODWIFE MARY: These are two Robin-Hood-like thieves, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Our hero Miguel loves to read the adventures pamphlets of these gallant and very crafty rogues. What is suggested in the novel, is something I wish to build on far more. I want Miguel to be inspired by them. Miguel initially reads the stories to escape the drab world of a loser, much as today someone might be watching TV as pure escapism. Then, as the plot thickens, Miguel begins to feel a certain kinship with the fictitious characters of those stories.
It is only in the end that Miguel finds out what will come as an equal surprise to all of us, and that is the fact that Madame Geertruid Damhuis and her fellow Hendrick are Charming Pieter and Goodwife Mary. Their scams and schemes inspired storytellers and so those stories began being told, exaggerated, greatly altered, but still, based on their own thieving lives.
The reason why an audience will not even begin to suspect a possible connection is simple: In real life it is Geertruid who is the charming brains of the operation, and Hendrick is merely the roguish brute at her side. Geertruid is also visibly older than the Goodwife Mary we will see. To add fictitious moments from Charming Pieter stories and intertwine them with our Coffee Trader plot will make for a very interesting story element. It is playful and intriguing and could, used a subplot, provide surprises for the audience.
Other important characters
SOLOMON PARIDO: He is Miguel’s nemesis at the Exchange and within the Jewish community. When Miguel was still well-regarded, Parido had wanted him to marry his daughter. The wedding fell through when the bride-to-be found Miguel enjoying himself with a maid. Parido’s own wife died at the shock of hearing that her own husband also often enjoyed the company of that same maid. Parido does all he can to quell the scandal and to restore his tainted image. Still, people are laughing behind his back, and he is determined not to be the laughingstock. He kills every laughter with repercussions... and he will do whatever he can to destroy Miguel Lienzo.
DANIEL LIENZO: Daniel is Miguel’s younger brother. Both of them have been raised as “Conversos,” former Jews who converted to Catholicism because of the Inquisition. When their father is killed by the Inquisitors, the brothers leave Portugal for Amsterdam, a place of relative freedom for Jews. Daniel has always been jealous of his older brother, his taller brother, his more handsome brother. Now it is he who is married, who owns a solid house and who has the important connections with the likes of Solomon Parido. And Daniel never fails to let Miguel know.
HANNAH LIENZO: Hannah is a mousy young woman, wife to Daniel. She grew up a Catholic, never knowing that she was actually a Jew. Then, on the day of her wedding, her father informed her of the fact and that was that. Hannah therefore understands very little of the Jewish world; all she knows is what her husband tells her - and that is very little. Daniel believes it best to keep her uneducated in most things, lest she forget her place. Hannah secretly longs to be with someone like Miguel, a more friendly, open man with laughter in his eyes. The only thing she craves even more, but doesn’t dare to ask for, is knowledge.
ANNETJE: She is the young maid at Daniel Lienzo’s house. She is impertinent, fresh and wild. She loves sneaking around, knowing secrets, telling them, keeping them. She knows things about Hannah and lords them over her. She also finds and loves occasional company whenever Miguel feels lonely and sneaks up to her chamber.
ALONSO ALFERONDA: Alferonda is the classic Shylock: a loan shark. He has been excommunicated from the Jewish community by Solomon Parido’s machinations. He may not have been a bad man then, but he certainly became one afterwards. He is the man criminals go to when they need money, the lowest of the low come to see Alonso Alferonda. And he freely gives, because it is well-known that you do not double-cross Alferonda or you might find yourself dead in the canal. The fact that Alferonda’s clients often end up dead, or at the very least maimed, is well known and Miguel, like all other decent people of Amsterdam, try to stay as far from him as they can.
JOACHIM WAAGENAAR: Joachim is a young Dutch trader who’s been hit hard by the same bad trades that made Miguel’s money disappear. Joachim claims that he lost his money because he trusted Miguel and that Miguel is guilty of the loss. Joachim is practically a beggar now. He sends threatening notes to Miguel, asking for the money back. There is nothing Miguel can do, also because he truly isn’t at fault. But Miguel’s resistance only increases Joachim's anger. Soon, he will do more than just threaten.
The Coffee Trade / The scheme planned by Miguel Lienzo
This deal is what propels the story forward. It is the catalyst for the love story, and it is this planned deal that causes the many twists and turns within the film. The novel takes its good time with Miguel’s scheme, his coming up with a plan, putting the pieces into place (let alone motion). To give you an idea of what I mean, you need to know about the deal in the novel:
Geertruid approaches Miguel with the idea of somehow making money with this new commodity, coffee fruit.
Miguel comes up with the plan to create a Europe-wide monopoly, thus being able to control the entire market and setting prices as he sees fit.
He begins to put his plan in motion and orders a secret shipment of coffee. It will sail to Amsterdam (to be delivered within approximately two months’ time from the port of Mocha (Yemen)).
He buys Puts (a Put is a contract that allows the holder to sell a given stock at a specific price within a designated period of time.) for coffee.
He sends letters to fellow traders at every European exchange, telling them to work for him and to buy a certain commodity at a certain day of his saying.
When the shipment arrives, he plans to flood the Amsterdam market with coffee, thus making the prices crumble.
Since he has previously bought Puts, he’ll be able to sell the stock at a preset price, thus making him a very nice bundle.
Then, once all exchanges in Europe have heard of the coffee flood in Amsterdam, prices will crumble there as well.
Once the prices have dropped everywhere, Miguel will instruct all his fellow traders to buy every scrap of coffee they can at those low prices.
He then owns all the coffee available in Europe and has a monopoly.
If your head is still clear, you must be a trade-minded person. As for all the rest of us in the audience... we may have left the building. To make sure this will not happen, I will simplify the deal. As is, it is too involved to be easily accessible, too varied in schemes and too lengthy in time. Also, the inner workings and details of the Exchange simply don’t make for very interesting (much less intriguing and thrilling) screenplay material. I will therefore alter the deal > as you will see in the outline.
The story
We meet Miguel Lienzo at a lousy time and place in his life. As a Portuguese Jew he enjoys relative freedom in the Amsterdam of 1659. But in his profession as a trader, things couldn’t be worse. He used to be a wealthy merchant, well regarded everywhere. Now he’s lost several trades, has gone bankrupt and still owes much money to members of the Jewish community. He’s left with nothing, but his set of clothes and he’s forced to live in the cellar of his stingy brother Daniel’s house.
He has to settle his debts within a week, but as the story begins, he prefers drowning himself in the jolly adventure stories of “Charming Pieter and Goodwife Mary.” He could use their cunning right about now. If he could only scheme the way those two thieves do, he’d be wealthier than his vicious excuse of a brother, wealthier even than his greatest foe at the Exchange, the treacherous Solomon Parido.
When Miguel makes his way to the Exchange, he suddenly finds himself confronted by a filthy looking young beggar. Only after a moment does he recognize Joachim Waagenaar, a former Dutch trader who’s lost all his money with the same rotten deals as Miguel. But Joachim accuses Miguel of being the cause and wants his money back. He threatens Miguel, seems desperate, but Miguel doesn’t have anything himself. He manages to get away from Joachim but keeps hearing the threats ringing in his ears.
Moments later he feels a hand on his shoulder and thinks it’s Joachim again. But there stands a frighteningly tall and rough-looking Dutch fellow named Hendrick. Hendrick forces Miguel to accompany him to a seedy part of town, where, in an even seedier tavern, he meets the woman who will change his life, the beautiful Geertruid Damhuis.
She presents herself as a smart woman and a recent widow. She had him brought here because she knows that Jew traders are not allowed to deal with Dutch people. In this place, surely no Jews would be found. She explains that she had Hendrick bring Miguel, because she has heard that he’s an excellent trader fallen on hard times. She knows he needs his luck to change and will work his hardest to make that happen. Her husband has died leaving her with nothing but debts. And yet, he has left her with something. He has left her with a warehouse full of coffee fruit.
Miguel is less than impressed (although greatly smitten by her beauty). Hardly anybody trades this odd fruit. He knows coffee as a medicinal product prescribed by physicians for problems with the bowels. Geertruid smiles and says, “Even nature’s greatest glories can harm if taken in the wrong dose.”
She takes Miguel to a back room and serves him his first-ever coffee. He says, “It looks like devil’s piss.” She smiles and answers, “Take a sip and then I’ll tell you everything.” She watches him drink, watches his face change. He says a quick thanks to God for the joy of this drink. Geertruid doesn’t understand and he explains that he simply loves saying thanks, being able to speak Hebrew without being slaughtered for it. He grins, he certainly isn’t a rabbi, but simply loves the freedom of being allowed to be who he is. She nods, smiles at him. And then reveals her thoughts about coffee.
She has discovered that coffee awakens the intellect, allows you to wake faster in the morning and stay awake longer at night. She is convinced that coffee is the drink of the future, that coffee is “the drink of commerce.” Miguel is more than curious at this point. What does she want from him? She throws up her hands and laughs, exclaiming, “I don’t know!” But she wants to do something, she is certain that coffee is going to make their fortune. That is why her dead husband had secretly shipped it here - he had something planned, something big at the Exchange... and Geertruid needs Miguel the trader to help figure out what that plan might have been.
When he agrees to think about it and readies himself to leave, they brush against each other at the door. Both of them feel the chemistry that had them itching from the moment they met. But then Hendrick opens the door, and the moment has passed. Miguel politely kisses her hand and leaves. Her eyes follow him through the tavern, she smiles. That same evening Miguel returns to his brother’s home full of energy. He may not know what to do with a warehouse full of coffee yet, but it is as Geertruid has said, they must do something, and he feels it in his bones that coffee will be the thing to make him rich.
She has given him a sack full of roasted coffee beans and when he enters the house, he manages to hide the sack just in time. Because he finds Daniel and his nemesis waiting for him. Solomon Parido is standing there with a grave smile. He proclaims that he has come to his senses, that the time of wrath is over and that he will not harm Miguel anymore. Miguel is clearly suspicious but accepts a “truce,” especially because Parido knows something about a bad trade of Miguel’s. Miguel is sitting on brandy futures and stands to lose a thousand guilders come next reckoning day. Parido smiles and says he knows someone who will buy those futures.
First thing the next morning Miguel grabs the coffee beans, grinds them and adds wine. His face contorts, he drinks more, grins and goes to work. At the Exchange it happens just as Parido has suggested. The deal comes through, the futures are taken off his hands. Maybe Parido really has come to his senses. Miguel leaves the Exchange with a light heart... and then it hits him... the perfect scheme for coffee.
When he rushes off to tell Geertruid about his plans, he notices that he is being followed (we later learn by spies of the Ma’amad, the Jewish council). Who is following him? Why are they after him? He hasn’t done anything illegal... yet. If he is found talking with characters such as Joachim or Hendrick, or even dealing with a mysterious gentile woman, he could be excommunicated, if it was the Ma’amad after him. Especially since Solomon Parido is on that council. But then, he has proclaimed newfound friendship, hasn’t he? Miguel manages to lose the spies and presses on.
Looking for Geertruid in the tavern, he finds not her, but runs into Alonso Alferonda instead. The massively overweight Jewish loan shark is in the middle of having a stubborn debtor’s fingers cut off. Miguel is disgusted and wants to leave immediately. Alferonda stops him and says that he’s heard rumors about Parido trying to make friends with Miguel. Alferonda warns Miguel, he shouldn’t trust anything Parido does. Miguel just nods, knowing that Alferonda hates Parido (Parido was instrumental in having Alferonda excommunicated). Before leaving, he asks Alferonda whether he’s ever heard of Geertruid Damhuis. Alferonda thinks about it, shakes his head. No, he hasn’t, but he’ll check around. Miguel shakes his head. He doesn’t want anything to do with Alferonda.
Miguel finds not Geertruid but Hendrick, stuck in a brawl against several men. Miguel tries to help but is kicked back. He realizes that they’re fighting for money. Hendrick wins the fight, everybody applauds and after wiping his bleeding nose, Hendrick tells Miguel where to find Geertruid. Geertruid stays at a modest inn and Miguel finds her in her room. Again, the chemistry is all over them, but when she smells coffee mixed with wine on his breath, she brews a proper drink for him. Adds hot water and they drink. Miguel wouldn’t need coffee for all the excited energy he’s packing. He can’t wait to explain his coffee scheme and to make it easy for her (and the audience) he excitedly draws a diagram of the scheme on the wall with chalk.
Geertruid can’t help being pulled into his fervor. She smiles, then laughs as he waves his arms and explains. It may look tricky, but Miguel assures Geertruid that it’s simple. They will buy Puts, papers that give them the right to sell coffee at a certain price. The price of coffee is relatively high right now. Once they have the Puts, Miguel will go to the Exchange and flood the market with coffee, all of a sudden selling all that secret coffee. That’ll make coffee prices go down dramatically. As soon as the bottom has been reached, Miguel will turn around and buy his own Coffee back at that low price. Then he will sell that coffee to the merchant who sold him the Puts for the high price and make a huge profit with the difference.
This scheme will be made possible through two things. One, nobody knows of this coffee stock in the warehouse. And two... Geertruid waits with a skeptical look in her eyes. Two is the fact that they need a lot of money to buy those Puts. Geertruid shakes her head, whatever those Puts are, she doesn’t have any money to buy them. Miguel promises to think of something – and fast, because his time is running out. Geertruid is thrilled by his bright enthusiasm for his own scheme, his own cleverness. He seems like a child with a new toy. They again drink coffee, and whether it is the coffee or something else in the air, they end up giving in to chemistry. What begins as a joyous romp, ends with moments of unexpected tenderness. Both of them notice and both of them choose to ignore those moments.
The following night Miguel reads Charming Pieter stories again. He takes a break from the scheming thief to go upstairs, time to grind more coffee beans. As he reaches the kitchen, he finds that Daniel’s wife Hannah is there as well. She couldn’t sleep, the baby kicking in her belly and she being hungry all the time. Hannah opens up a bit as they talk, and she forgets to properly cover her hair under the veil. The nightly meeting in the kitchen has a great tenderness, one that Hannah mistakes for something more. Miguel makes the coffee and they drink together. Hannah has never tasted anything like it before. He realizes that under that mousy exterior is a woman craving to be alive. He offers her some of his coffee beans and then disappears into the cellar again.
The next morning Miguel is greeted by his brother. Daniel wants to know if Miguel has any plans with coffee. Miguel acts surprised, no, why should he? Daniel produces a single coffee bean that Miguel must have forgotten in the kitchen the previous night. Miguel suggests it might belong to Annetje. Daniel stares after him as Miguel leaves the house.
What will happen next
Miguel will borrow the large sum of money from Alferonda. Alferonda initially refuses to lend the money, but Miguel manages to convince him. The terms are clear - if he doesn’t pay back with interest in time, he will pay for it with his life. Then Alferonda turns amicable and tells Miguel about an upcoming whale oil scheme of Parido’s. Miguel might make a small bundle if he plays his cards right.
Miguel and Geertruid are increasingly loving. They stroll together along a promenade and run into Daniel and Hannah. Miguel introduces them. If Hannah is jealous, she manages to hide it. Daniel is curt, he’s on the way to dinner at the home of Solomon Parido.
Hannah and Annetje secretly go to Catholic church on Sunday. As Hannah’s never been told anything about the Jewish faith, she’s clung to her old ways. On the way back Annetje playfully grabs Hannah’s veil and runs away, Hannah has to chase Annetje. And suddenly Hannah sees Miguel’s friend Geertruid standing there. Geertruid is talking to some men. As Geertruid recognizes Hannah, she makes a “silence” sign, with her finger to her lips. It seems they both have a secret. Geertruid has apparently something she doesn’t want known. And Hannah’s going to Catholic church should definitely stay secret.
Miguel tries to meet with Geertruid again, but she’s disappeared. According to Hendrick she had to go visit a sick aunt in the country. After buying the coffee Puts, he makes the whale oil deal and in doing so, hurts Parido’s scheme. Parido is more than unhappy and is now all the more determined to destroy Miguel. Parido also seems to have heard rumors about Miguel’s interest in coffee (Miguel suspects his own brother has been talking to Parido) and he warns Miguel off any coffee trade. That in itself gives Miguel all the more drive.
He has completely forgotten about Joachim Waagenaar. And when Joachim, filthy and seemingly on the brink of madness, appears before Miguel in the street, Miguel finds himself in a dark alley fighting with Joachim. It is, of all people, Solomon Parido who walks into the alley as both men sit panting on the floor.
The sight is enough for Parido to enjoy his clearly upcoming victory. Miguel, fighting with an unsavory gentile is enough to bring him before the Jewish Council. Parido will finally finish off the young upstart who made him the ridicule of town. Miguel is as surprised as Parido when Joachim refuses to admit that there was a fight. He claims he had fallen and Miguel had tried to help. Because of his confused senses, he had caused Miguel to fall as well. Parido cannot believe his ears... but grabs the chance, he takes Joachim Waagenaar with him, playing the grand benefactor. Miguel is left behind knowing that he’ll be definitely brought before the Council. Excommunication seems a certainty.
That evening Geertruid is back and Miguel tells her about his troubles, about his fear of being excommunicated, about the importance of being allowed to live his faith. He’d be less than half the man he is if they did that to him. That night romping turns to lovemaking.
The following morning there’s the bloody head of a pig on the doorstep of Daniel’s house. Hannah faints and Daniel fears for the unborn child. He blames Miguel and his schemes with unsavory gentile characters for this. Miguel on the other hand suspects the powerful Solomon Parido himself, who’s apparently trying to make things even worse for Miguel.
Miguel needs to know what Parido knows and plans. He goes to the master of rumors, loan shark Alferonda. They meet at a Turkish Coffee tavern. Alferonda offers Miguel as special type of coffee, monkey coffee. Alferonda warns Miguel, tells him what he’s heard. The Council seems to be set to convene tomorrow morning. Parido seems to want to use Joachim Waagenaar in his plan to have Miguel excommunicated.
As the final day at the Exchange nears
Miguel is pulled before the Ma’amad, the Jewish Council. There it becomes obvious that Parido has done all to find out about Miguel’s deal. Parido wants to have Miguel excommunicated but Miguel manages walk free, making Parido look bad in the process and without revealing anything about his planned coffee trade.
Joachim Waagenaar appears at Daniel’s home and talks to Miguel. He’s washed and properly dressed now. And the fact that he’s spying for Parido seems obvious. Daniel, listening in, also chimes in and wants to know about Miguel’s deal. Miguel keeps saying that he doesn’t plan any deal with coffee... but Daniel has heard about the Puts Miguel bought.
When Miguel’s sack of coffee beans is empty, he wants to go fill it again at the warehouse... and finds the warehouse empty. The coffee has disappeared!
Hannah tells him about seeing Geertruid in the street last Sunday, about her making a sign of silence, Miguel can’t believe his ears. Is Geertruid behind all this? Is all this a scam? What is she hiding? Miguel finds Geertruid and the tension between them grows as the big day at the Exchange races closer.
What will he do now? He has bought those Puts with money from the loan shark and doesn’t have a single coffee bean for his plan! He rushes off into the streets of Amsterdam, trying to find the people who might be able to still help.
At the Coffee tavern he’s refused entry, despite his mentioning of Alferonda. At the tavern where he met Geertruid first, the bartender curses Geertruid and Hendrick, advising Miguel to stay away from them. When he finally meets Alferonda, the loan shark advises him to play the illegal game of a Windhandel, should the coffee not turn up in time (Windhandel = selling goods one does not have).
When the big day at the Exchange begins, Miguel dresses his best, drinks his coffee and goes to the Exchange. The bells strike and the Exchange opens. Miguel begins his scheme - and doesn’t seem to have a chance. Parido has instructed and threatened one and all to stay away from dealing with Miguel. Miguel seems lost, until a young Dutch trader buys his coffee – it is Joachim Waagenaar! After Miguel sells everything, buys it again low and then wins greatly buy selling his high price Puts, we find out that he and Joachim had struck a deal earlier. Joachim had actually spied on Parido and not, as Parido had thought, the other way around!
When Parido accuses Miguel of Windhandel, Hendrick and Geertruid show up at the Exchange and announce that they have found the missing coffee. It had been transferred into another warehouse nearby by unknowns. But Geertruid states the rumors mention a name in this theft. Saying this, she looks straight at Parido. Parido, furious about Miguel’s success (and more!), simply mentions that maybe the coffee was simply misplaced temporarily. He leaves.
Miguel now finds out why exactly Parido wanted to know about his upcoming deal all the time. Alferonda enlightens him with a happy smile. Seeing Parido this furious makes it a wonderfully happy day for Alferonda. We find out that Alferonda was the mastermind behind everything. Alferonda knew that Parido himself was planning a huge coffee deal. So Alferonda had managed to bring a secret shipment of coffee (the one in the warehouse) to Amsterdam, while at the same time diverting Parido’s shipment. Then he “employed” Miguel through the assistance of Geertruid, who owed Alferonda money herself. Only because of her it worked, because Miguel would clearly not have worked for Alferonda, had he known about it.
So basically what happened is that Alferonda played Parido’s very own scheme before Parido had the chance to play it. No wonder he was so furious with Miguel, that some young upstart would dare enter into his territory. And now Miguel is rich, Geertruid is without debt and Alferonda is happy. Still, Miguel can’t help feeling cheated. He was just a marionette in all of this. And his love and partner in everything turns out to be a fraud. So, even as they leave the Exchange and everybody claps him on the back, congratulating him on his great success, things turn sour.
One of Parido’s spies has been successful in his research regarding one Geertruid Damhuis. Parido hears that she is a professional thief. Maybe he won’t be able to prove that she was his business partner, but the suggestion alone, plus her obviously unsavory character, will be the end of Miguel. Parido confronts Miguel with the information on her character and the coming excommunication. In the heat of the moment Miguel exclaims that he loves Geertruid above all and that he will not be ordered around by Parido or the almighty Council. Parido is most pleased, he has heard what he wanted to hear. Miguel might as well pack his bags and leave the Portuguese Jewish community right now.
Miguel grits his teeth, ready to move away with Geertruid. But she loves him too much to allow that. She has seen his ways, the love he has for his faith, his place, his prayers. She knows he’d end up being unhappy. Geertruid tells him that she and Hendrick are the two “heroes” from the “Charming Pieter and Goodwife Mary” stories. She makes herself and Hendrick sound like the worst kind of conniving criminals, but Miguel knows what she’s doing. He still wants to stay with her... and so she disappears in the middle of the night.
Miguel’s triumph at the Exchange has put him on the map again. He’s bought a new house and yet, as workers are bringing furniture, he’s lost all energy. He misses her, more than anything he’s ever missed before. At his moment of misery Daniel and Hannah show up at his doorstep. Daniel informs him that Hannah claims her child to be Miguel’s! Miguel sees the pleading look on Hannah’s face. He nods, yes, the child is his. Daniel caves and agrees to release Hannah so that Miguel can marry her. Daniel will leave Amsterdam for somewhere far away.
It doesn’t take long for Hannah to realize Miguel’s misery, now that she’s in his house. She’s changed, she’s begun to read, she enjoys coffee, she speaks her mind (which is what Daniel couldn’t take). And so it is Hannah who forces Miguel to look at himself in the mirror, an unhappy face. But he’s agreed to take care of Hannah and her unborn child. This is his place and here he will stay. The end of the movie sees Daniel coming back and being forgiven by Hannah. And so Miguel is free to find Geertruid... and that’s what he does – he goes off in search for her. We don’t see them together at the end, but we want to believe that he will indeed find her somewhere in some exotic part of the world in the middle of another scam.
The End
Final thoughts
After reading the short outline, I hope you’re able to envision the kind of quick-paced colorful film I have in mind. As for pacing, I would like to give the example of another period piece, that of “Shakespeare in Love.” As a romantic comedy that film is, from a genre point of view, vastly different. But it offers a contemporary pace that is very much in line with what I envision for our film.
I want to show a world of contrasts in multi-cultural Amsterdam. The excitement and speed of the Exchange will be reflected in the pace of the movie. It will also reflect the greed, ambition and high-stakes risk-taking of more contemporary movies such as "Wall Street". “The Coffee Trader” will be a multi-faceted dramatic tapestry, woven in layers of love, hate, greed, fear, lies, treachery, danger, friendship and tenderness.
Certain elements are not yet reflected in this proposal, such as the additional scheme of a European coffee monopoly. That may be too much as an additional element for the movie, then again it might be possible. I’d have some ideas on how to work it into the story. Another issue is, of course, the weight and structure of each character’s arc and the various subplots, especially the love affair, which needs to be passionate and very much in the foreground of the film. Whatever else is going on between these two they have found their equal and it would consume them if they were not playing for such high stakes. In a detailed treatment form, and then in the script, it will be possible to address those issues, and structure them to perfect balance.
Well, this got me the job - what do you think?
I love it. Write the book!