The Royal Tenenbaums (Chapter 1) lyrics

INSERT:

A first edition copy of The Royal Tenenbaums.

On the dust jacket there is an illustration of a cream-colored note card that looks like a wedding invitation. The title of the book is engraved on the card.

The next page says “Chapter One.”

NARRATOR (V.O.): Royal Tenenbaum bought the house on Archer Avenue in the winter of his thirty-fifth year.

CUT TO:

A five-story limestone townhouse. A forty-three-year-old man in a raincoat rings the front doorbell. He is Royal.

NARRATOR (CONT’D): Over the next decade, he and his wife had three children and then they separated.

INT. DINING ROOM. DAY.

Royal sits at the head of a long table. He is surrounded by his children.

Chas is twelve, with curly hair, dressed in a black suit and
tie. Margot is ten, with a barrette in her hair, wearing a knitted LaCoste dress and penny loafers. Richie is eight, with long hair, parted on the side, dressed in a Bjorn Borg-style tennis outfit with a headband.

Chas wears a blank expression, Margot looks as if she is about to cry, and Richie has tears all over his face.

MARGOT: Are you getting divorced?