Beyond the Pale by Victor Fanucchi

A mocumentary about obsession, delusion, and literary academia

Log line:

Unable to finish his dissertation and facing expulsion, a delusional and paranoid 13th year graduate student must make a name for himself at an upcoming academic conference to which he has not been invited.

Synopsis:

J.D. Nochpynne’s 1976 masterpiece novel, Pale Queen of Night is the subject of what appears to be a documentary.  Leading literary scholars explain the importance of Pale Queen of Night, a notoriously dense and complex novel told from the warped viewpoint of an aristocratic German expatriate, Professor Wolfgang Doppler whose strange historical research results in derision and persecution (he feels ) by his colleagues, a descent into paranoiac madness, and eventually suicide.  In documentary-style interviews, academic scholars (chiefly Professors ALDRIDGE BULLOCK, CANDACE DE LUNA, and ED FERTIG) debate J.D. Nochpynne’s intended meaning.  Is this erudite landmark novel a progressive critique of white male hegemony or conservative critique of political correctness?    Making interpretation difficult, J.D. Nochpynne is so thoroughly reclusive, so mysterious, that no one knows his or her gender or ethnicity or whether ‘Nochpynne’ is a pen name.

SASHA PLOTNIK, an eccentric graduate student writing his doctoral thesis on Pale Queen of Night, dresses like the novel’s foppish Wolfgang Doppler and does bizarre reenactments using people and places that resemble descriptions from the book.  In Pale Queen of Night, Wolfgang Doppler claims to be the hereditary Prince of Balzem, a small principality you won’t find on modern maps, a casualty of the historically shifting border between the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, Germany and Poland.  Sasha speaks of Balzem with a strange familiarity as if he’s from there, though it only exists in the novel.

A special academic conference celebrating the 30^th anniversary of Pale Queen of Night is being organized by the tweedy and aloof Prof. Bullock, chair of the Society of American Nochpynne Scholars (SANS), which will award a prize for the best presentation at the conference.   Prof. Bullock will host the conference at the school where he teaches, Midwestern University in New Stratford.  The vice chairs of SANS are the absent-minded Prof. De Luna and the OCD-suffering Prof. Fertig.  These three rival scholars have little patience for each other’s interpretation of the novel, and cutting between interviews, we see the bitterness and bitchiness of the debate. With a book coming out, Bullock needs to prioritize interviews he gives, and there’s a competing documentary from the Public Broadcasting Network (PBN) covering the 30^th anniversary conference, which will be seen by a far bigger audience.

Unlike the professors, Sasha wants the documentary’s attention and considers it to be about him primarily.  Sasha  has been a graduate student in the English Department of Hampford College for 13 years, and has failed to finish his dissertation due to depression and a tendency to change his thesis topic every couple years.  With the recent death of his elderly thesis advisor and mentor, Sasha has clearly snapped—unhinged, paranoid, delusions of grandeur.  He rightly fears being kicked out of the Hampford graduate program without his PhD and without any other job skills.  His deceased advisor was the only one who knew or cared what Sasha was working on, and now the head of Sasha’s department (who knows and cares nothing about J.D. Nochpynne) wants Sasha’s unfinished dissertation turned in immediately and will likely reject it.  Like Wolfgang Doppler from the novel, Sasha believes he’s being persecuted for being a genius. 

Sasha quits his part-time job at a Mr. Hot Dog stand and loads up his car outside the depressingly ugly apartment where he lives.  He’s moving several hundred miles to New Stratford where Prof. Bullock teaches and the SANS conference will be held.  Sasha’s hopes for his career rest on somehow being included in the conference, to which he isn’t invited, and presenting his dissertation, which he hasn’t finished yet.

In respective interviews digressing from the topic of the novel, we find out that Prof. De Luna and Prof. Fertig were married and now divorced.  De Luna speaks freely of Fertig’s quirks and kinks, while Fertig tries to protect his privacy and obviously still has feelings for De Luna.  While they are both vice chairs of the Society of American Nochpynne Scholars, they aren’t on speaking terms, and Prof. Bullock plays them off each other to maintain complete control of SANS.

In the middle of an interview with Prof. Bullock, Sasha knocks on Bullock’s door and introduces himself as the new lecturer. Sasha commandeers a class at Midwestern, telling the relieved young professor she's been reassigned so she can concentrate on her research.  Sasha tells the class they'll be studying Pale Queen of Night the rest of the term, which doesn't go over well with the students, who are there to study French poetry. But he gives them a carpe diem-like inspirational speech and tells them this class will change them forever.  Half the students drop the class immediately.

Sasha sublets the basement of a run-down student rental in New Stratford.  It's hard for Sasha to concentrate on typing out his conference presentation on his old manual typewriter while his undergrad roommates are throwing a loud party.  There's a precocious and misunderstood goth girl named ANNA (who doesn’t look 16 and doesn’t tell anyone either), out of her element at the party, who takes Sasha more seriously than anyone else and becomes scarily obsessed with Sasha, his fabulous style and intellect.  And he’s apparently from somewhere called Balzem, or so she believes.

Professors De Luna, Fertig and Bullock are less and less cooperative with the documentary, partly due to pressure from a competing, higher-profile documentary.

Two prominent Nochpynne scholars back out of the conference because of schedule conflicts, which leaves Bullock very agitated.  He’s got one other prominent expert on the panel, plus a nobody from a third-tier school no one’s heard of, LEONARD KORNBLUM of Monroe State College. 

The distraction of his rowdy roommates, Anna’s fruitless attempts at seduction, and his own perfectionism make it impossible for Sasha to finish his dissertation/conference presentation.  Trying to talk his way into the conference as a sub for the drop-out panelists, Sasha tells Bullock he has the perfect paper for the conference, but can’t give it to him yet because his only copies are with academic journals who want to publish it.

Prof. De Luna is being interviewed at her office at the University of New York, when Sasha “just so happens” to walk by her office door and pops his head in. Sasha makes his case to Prof. De Luna that he should be allowed to participate in the conference.  But when Sasha tells her the lie about having sent his only copies to a prestigious journal, the journal he names is edited by De Luna’s colleague right down the hall. Sasha backpedals and comes off as eccentric , to say the least.  De Luna mischievously tells the camera she’d like to see him on Bullock’s panel, but she knows Bullock would reject Sasha if she recommended him.

At Midwestern, a faculty member has a menacing message from Prof. Hahn about Sasha’s dissertation and his 400 books checked out from the Hampford library.  As Sasha’s anxiety heightens, so does his identification with Balzem and Doppler.

Prof. Bullock talks to Sasha about filling in for the drop-outs at the conference.  He hasn’t read anything by Sasha, but Prof. De Luna has told Bullock she got a copy of Sasha’s paper and didn’t like it.  Puzzling, since Sasha hasn’t written the paper yet and De Luna had seemed supportive.  But it’s De Luna’s complaints about Sasha’s work (too much like Bullock’s) that makes Bullock want to include Sasha in the conference.

Sasha doesn’t know whether he’s happy or anxious about being in the program, since he doesn’t have anything written and it’s a week away.  He has been getting increasingly strange, which worries Anna. 

With a tip from Prof. Hahn’s contact at Midwestern, Prof. Bullock discovers Sasha isn’t employed by the university at all.  In class, Sasha’s enthusiasm for Pale Queen of Night has rubbed off on the handful of remaining students, and they’re doing excellent work.  Bullock interrupts class, busting Sasha and barring him from the campus of Midwestern and from the conference less than a week away.

In despair, Sasha refuses to come out from under the covers of his bed and talks about ending it all.  His roommates move everything out of Sasha’s room, not having been paid any rent money, aside from Sasha’s fanciful Balzemian promissary notes.  At Anna’s request, two of Sasha’s former students come to his bedside to give him their term papers and thank him for his instruction.  Sasha is touched.  When they compliment his stylish outfits, he finds the strength to get out of bed.

The evening before the conference, participants assemble at a pre-conference dinner.  Much to Bullock’s consternation, Sasha arrives uninvited with the intention of smooth talking his way back onto the conference program.  Bullock wants to throw him out, but De Luna objects that Bullock doesn’t have the authority by himself to kick Sasha off the program. Bullock leaves in a huff.  The drinks are flowing, and Sasha gets soused, sings the Balzemian national anthem and alludes to his princely status.  Bullock and others think Sasha’s joking at first, but it’s not clear that he is.  Disturbing.

At the conference the next day, people are telling the story about Sasha from the night before, wondering if he’s actually crazy.  They relish the prospect of the notoriously nasty Bullock taking Sasha down, since they’re on the same discussion panel. 

Prof Kornblum wraps up a cautious, dry lecture. Time for questions, but there are none. Everyone’s waiting for Sasha’s talk, which goes well, with Sasha veering near the topic of his Balzemian royalty but keeping himself in check.  Goaded by a giggling question from the audience and a sarcastic comment from Bullock, Sasha finally can’t stop himself anymore and pronounces the truth for all to hear.  Yes, he is the hereditary Prince of Balzem!  Aside from Anna’s proud smile in the back row, the reactions in the room range from embarassment to mockery.  Sasha grabs the documentary camera and runs out of the hall.  The Filmmaker seizes the rival documentary’s camera and goes after Sasha.  Sasha gets to the roof of the building with the camera, and we see his POV as he talks about reenacting  Wolfgang Doppler’s suicidal leap off a skyscraper roof.  Anna pleads with Sasha, but he runs to the roof’s ledge.  We see the fall from the camera POV, shapes and colors swirling, the ground rushing up…  But Sasha hasn’t jumped after all, though the documentary’s camera is in pieces on the ground below.

Epilogue:  An ugly building that looks like a prison, but we see a sign –Monroe State College.  Sasha sits in a book-lined office with Prof. Kornblum, who explains that he hired Sasha onto his English Department faculty. Hiring the notorious Sasha Plotnik puts Monroe State on the map.  Besides, it feels good sticking it to Bullock.  Sasha says he and Anna are going to counseling, trying to make the relationship work.  Even though there is no physically intimate component to it, she does get to be the Princess of Balzem.