Opening: black screen
black background remains white lettering announces:

WINTER LIGHT:

next screen as before: a Stephen Spielberg film
new screen as before: produced by Stephen Spielberg

new screen: written by Stephen Spielberg

new screen: directed by Stephen Spielberg

new screen: and starring Stephen Spielberg
as the aliens

new screen: Max Von Sydow as the man
Liv Ullman as his wife

new screen: and Michael Shannon as the Woodcutter

new screen:
“What makes me drunk
makes me wiser.”
Heraclitus
(wrongly attributed)

after a 20 second interval an establishing shot in black and white of
a Lutheran church on a hill on an overcast day
late morning snow all around the stark building,
a bare tree as high as the church to the left of the building

shot held for a minute in silence with the gradual introduction of the sound of voices singing a
traditional hymn.

A voice over (the Woodcutter):

“…. some people say that life is quiet here…..”

cut to a close up of the woodcutter slightly bent at the waist as he shaves himself
in a makeshift mirror with a straight razor. He is so intent
on his work he does not see the peripheral image of the
wife wielding an axe about to swing. The malevolence
in her intent is clearly evident in her expression as seen
over the woodcutter’s left shoulder as she approaches him

abrupt cut back to the church as before
Voice over

“…. people say the silence is God’s will at work….”

Abrupt cut to a flaming unidentified flying object miles above in the sky

Voice over
a new voice: Spielberg’s: “A screaming comes across the sky”

Abrupt cut back to the original opening scene:
a still life scored for congregational voices and flaming object

Cut to the Woodcutter’s Cottage

Interior medium shot

The woodcutter is dressed for work:
worn flannel shirt, heavy outdoorsman pants
held in place by suspenders. His unruly gray/
black hair is uncombed and unwashed.
He is a man of indeterminate age maybe late 40’s/
early 50’s Work has made him hard but
prematurely aged.

He speaks directly into the camera:

“…. some of us know that beneath the veneer,
the quiet of the village, the church on the hill,
the faithful singing, lies man’s deepest, innermost
lustful thoughts and desires, the darkness that lies
at the heart of the night….”

Blank screen:
(VO) “….Then the aliens arrived….”

Cut to the hill
Long shot as before

On the right side of the church an Ed Wood kind of space craft/ contraption has landed next to the church. The bubble top of the craft flips open on rusty hinges and two space suited alien creatures climb out. These aliens resemble ones from Mars Attacks, the Tim Burton version. They consider the church for a second, draw their ray guns from side holsters, aim them at the building and a visible multi-colored ray spews forth completely obliterating the church.

Not even a smoking ruin left behind.

Their mission completed, they climb back into their
craft and speed away. The whole sequence should seem
highly coordinated, matter of fact and last no more than
a couple of minutes.

Cut to Woodcutter cottage

He is speaking in the same
matter of fact way:

“……some say it was an act of God.
That what happened here affirmed
His unknowable works and plans.
That He was so inscrutable those of us
who remained must accept the obvious:
He has a plan….”

Pause
Cut to pebble strewn beach on
an overcast, gloomy day. Think
the final scene of Hour of the Wolf.

A blood-spattered Liv Ullman addresses
the camera directly:
“…. some say that when a man and a woman
live together for many years they come to
resemble each other. I sure as hell hope not….”

as she speaks camera
moves from her face to the
beach and that badly abused body
of the man lying on the beach

Cut to
Woodcutter’s Cottage:

“…others say the opposite: that there is no plan.
That God is dead or that He may never have
existed….”

Cut to a blank screen

Woodcutter is still speaking:

“….by the time we find out it will be too late
and it won’t matter anyway….”

Scene gradually fades to black
faint echoes of a congregation singing
then once the screen
is complete dark large white lettering
scrolls down think Star Wars opening scenes:

Spielberg voice over:

“Follow the bouncing ball”
an actual bouncing ball
careens over the letters as
he speaks:

“There is a Hand to turn time.
Though thy glass today be run,
Till the Light that hath brought the Towers low
Find the last poor Pret’rite one….
Till the Riders sleep by ev’ry road.
All through our crippl’d Zone.
With a face on ev’ry mountainside.
And a Soul in ev’ry stone….”

Now everybody—–“

As Spielberg’s VO ends, a musical air by John Williams
begins, increasing in volume: stirring martial music
the stuff people fight interstellar wars to