Build a movie plot around this: WHY DID LOU TAKE THE PHONE? He doesn't
Answer:
The opening close-up shot shows a knife slicing lemons. The camera pans out to Sally (Susan Sarandon) washing herself with the lemon juice in front of the window at her kitchen sink in an apartment building in Atlantic City. She is listening to the operatic soprano aria Casta Diva from Norma. From the next apartment, an older man, Lou (Burt Lancaster), is spying on Sally as she bathes.We then cut to a phone booth. A young long-haired man goes in, pretending to make a call, then grabs something in tin foil. This is Dave. Another, tough looking guy with bleach blond hair goes in the same phone booth, obviously to get what was in the tin foil, but can't find it.We then see Dave hitchhiking with a young pregnant woman, Chrissie. They are both dressed like gypsies or hippies. in the background are the marshes of New Jersey and industrial smoke stacks. The two hippies walk through Atlantic City's boardwalk and go into a casino where they find Sally, who works in one of the casino's seafood restaurants. We learn the hippies are Sally's estranged husband, Dave, and her sister, Chrissie. The two had run off together. Sally says she's not going to let them stay with her, but relents.Lou passes them as they enter Sally's apartment. He goes downstairs to Grace's apartment, a woman about his own age who lives in an apartment with girlish pink decor. We find that Lou does errands for her for cash and that they have a combative co-dependent relationship.Back upstairs, Dave tries to kiss his estranged wife, Sally, who gives him the cold shoulder, telling him he ruined her chances of making a life in Las Vegas. He leaves angrily, but sees her purse and steals her wallet from it on the way out.Lou argues with Grace over five dollars. She tells him to steal it. Calling him king of the crooks. He takes the abuse calmly. He takes Grace's dog Peppie for grooming, and while there he asks the proprietress if she has any bets. We see Lou make his rounds as a small-time bookie.Sally is taking classes to be a blackjack dealer. We learn...