Dolores CLAIBORNE: Summary
1995 Directed by Taylor Hackford
Cast: Dolores Claiborne: Kathy Bates
Selena St. George: Jennifer Jason Leigh
John Mackey: Christopher Plummer
Joe St. George: David Strathairn
Vera Donovan: Judy Parfitt
Selena’s boss: Eric Bogosian
THE “ACCIDENT”
1. Here is the editing track of the opening of the film:
a. Close shot of dark water. Camera up and we see rocky shoreline in the distance. We are in coastal Maine. Camera moves right to show a house perched on the rocks.
b. Camera keeps moving through four cuts (dissolves) until we are inside the house and looking up the stairway. Suddenly shadows appear at the top of the stairs. We hear voices. “Let go of me! Let me go!” Suddenly a woman falls from the upstairs landing and crashes through ballisters on the landing three steps up from the bottom. Camera up to show one of the shadows at the top of the stairs. A woman appears at the top of the stairs.
c. Close shot of woman shows she is Dolores.
d. Reverse angle to show Dolores’ point of view of the old woman on the landing. We hear sounds of moaning from the old woman.
e. Reverse angle to show reaction shot of Dolores.
f. Cut to close shot of teakettle on the stove sounding its whistle.
g. Cut to high angle shot of Dolores as she enters the kitchen. She begins to look around, frantic, and starts grabbing at large objects (several cuts). She pulls out the drawer of knives—they slam on the floor. She turns and stares at something.
h. Then to a close shot of a marble rolling pin. She grabs it and runs out of the kitchen.
i. She approaches the landing—we see her low angle (from the old woman’s POV).
j. Reverse angle shows the old woman, her head at the bottom of the screen. This from Dolores’ POV. “Please, Dolores,” the old woman moans. Dolores holds the rolling pin above her head—she struggles with the decision. Then we hear the letter carrier’s voice—he has come into the house with a certified letter.
k. He sees Dolores standing over the old woman and holding a rolling pin in her hand. “Oh, my God! What have you done?” Reaction shot of Dolores. He tells her to drop the rolling pin. He bends over the body of the woman. ‘You killed her, he says.” She drops the rolling pin.
l. Cut to the pin rolling on the floor toward the camera. The rolling pin moves toward us—
THE
OFFICE BANTER
2. Editing continues: cut to a low angle shot of the skyline—camera down to show a street in
midtown Manhattan. Cut to an establishing shot (Brooklyn Bridge and skyline)—other insert CU’s of the skyline. Then the shoes of an executive on his desk. And the banter between the executive and Selena begins. Selena and her boss argue about a story she wants to do. Note how she sits higher than him—thus gets the low angle shots (he gets the high angle shots). He doesn’t want to give her the story she wants. She refers to their recently ended sexual relationship. A staff person at the door overhears the remark—she comes in with a fax for Selena. The fax is anonymous—and includes a press clipping of a suspected murder and a handwritten, "Isn't this your Mother?" Scene ends with CU of Selena as she reads the fax.
SELENA RETURNS HOME
3. Cut (slow dissolve) to shot of the clouds, then that dissolves to a high angle ELS of coastal
Maine and a ferry moving across the water. Titles up. Camera tracks in toward the ferry
and eventually reveals Selena standing at the bow of the boat. She looks toward the town.
All of this in one shot. Then close shots of Selena as she watches the town appear closer. Cut to a helicopter shot advancing toward the town, with the water in the foreground—then the camera rises up to show the town and the land beyond. Cut to detail shot of lobster fisherman, and then behind them we see Selena driving off the ferry. Then a series of parallel cuts (Selena’s POV through the windshield of her rental car) and reverse angle reaction shots introduce us to this small island community.
4. Selena reaches the town hall. Cut to Mackey inside. He is on the phone talking to his staff back on the mainland. He spots Selena coming into the town hall. They introduce themselves inside. Then he begins to refer to another occasion, back in 1975, when he was investigating officer in the suspicious death of Selena’s father. He remembers she was 13 then, and he recalls it was the year of an eclipse. Here comes the town’s constable, Frank. The constable explains that Vera Donovan, a rich woman Dolores worked for, has died under suspicious circumstances. Selena seems impatient to see her mother. Mackey says, “There’s more to this than what you read in the paper.”
5. 11.21 The constable opens the door to an upstairs room. “Dolores?” Reverse angle shows Dolores standing at the other end of the room. She is cleaning up the coffee table. The constable goes over to Dolores. He wants her to see her daughter. From Selena’s POV we see the constable trying to get Dolores’ attention. “I don’t want a lawyer!” she says. Reaction shot of Selena shows her continuing discomfort. Now Mackey has entered and stands behind her-watchful. Back to the constable, who whispers to Dolores (“It’s your daughter”). She steps back and says, “Selena?” Reaction shot of Selena. She waves her hand with little enthusiasm. Reverse angle, Selena’s POV, shows Dolores react. “My God, you cut your hair!” This time Selena’s reaction shot shows the young woman even more flustered. Back to Dolores—she accuses Mackey of contacting Selena. But the constable says, “She came on her own.” More reaction of Dolores. “Look. Selena. My God! Is it really you?” She has come close to her daughter now. Still from Selena’s POV. Reverse angle—Dolores slowly embraces her daughter. Selena looks uncomfortable. She pats her mother on her back. Reverse angle—Dolores’ face drops. She looks up at Mackey. Reaction shot of Mackey—you can see a slight smile on his lips. Back to Dolores’ reaction—she moves out of the embrace.
6. CHAPTER 5 13.05 Two boys ride outside the town hall on their bikes. They yell, “Kill anybody else today?” As she walks past them she snaps, “Not just yet. But if I decide to today, I’ll know where to start.” The constable tries to set up some ground rules (don’t visit the Donovan house, stay on the island at least four days). “If I decide to make my grand escape, I’ll let you know first,” Dolores snaps. Then a quick encounter between Mackey and Dolores. He suggests she get a lawyer. He stands over her. She looks up at him and snaps, “I bet the last time you were sorry was when you needed to use the pay toilet and the string on your pet dime broke.” He smiles at her crack. Mother and daughter drive away.
7. 14.21 Inside the car, as they head for Dolores’ old house. From Selena’s POV. Silence for several seconds. Then Dolores: “I’m just mother here, trying to think of what to say.” She looks over at Selena. “All grown up. You turned out a beautiful woman.” But Selena is in no mood to be friendly. She lights up and criticizes her mother’s behavior. “Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto,” Dolores says. Selena doesn’t respond to this. Selena makes it clear her priority is to get out of town by Monday so she can head to Phoenix and work on a big story. “I didn’t kill her!” Dolores says suddenly. But her daughter doesn’t seem to believe her. She refers to the witness and to the circumstantial evidence. All of this so far has been one shot—on the cut we get a reverse angle showing Selena snapping at her mother: “Are you not listening to me? They’re talking murder here.”
8. 16.05 Then we cut away to an external shot of the car pulling up the house. Camera moves right and up so that we see the house in an ELS—the water behind it. The house is unpainted, in disrepair, and by being introduced this way to us becomes a kind of “character” in the film. This idea is reinforced when Selena gets out of the car, and from her POV we see the house (camera up slightly to emphasize the sharp gable on the second floor). The word “BITCH” is painted on the wall of the house. “Spooky, ain’t it?” Dolores says. Then Dolores walks up to the house and snaps, “Regular bunch of artistes!” She keeps complaining under her breath, and then Selena comes onto the porch to help her pry open the door. Dolores stands back and then turns around to look out at the surroundings.
Then details of the editing:
a. MS Dolores on the porch as she looks away from the house
b. POV shot, Dolores in foreground, as we look over her shoulder to the barren shrubland around the house
c. CU of Dolores reacting
d. POV of Dolores off frame. We're inside her mind now. Scene changes—vibrant colors added, and now we are in the past, men beating the bushes and looking for someone. The colors are brighter, more golden.
e. CU of Dolores reacting to the scene
f. Closer view of men in bushes--panning shot
g. POV over Dolores' shoulder, the young Dolores on the porch, while a young Selena walks past her. "Selena!"
h. CU reaction shot of the young Dolores. "Selena!"
i. MCU reaction shot of the young Selena
j. CU of the young Dolores. "Get in the house!"
k. MCU reaction shot of the young Selena
l. CU of the young Dolores. "I said get in the house."
m. MCU reaction shot of Selena as she turns around and looks hatefully toward her mother
n. MCU of the young Dolores on the porch. "I am in the house!" As the young Dolores turns her head, her hair goes gray and she is the current Dolores. The current Selena stands behind her
o. Reaction shot MCU from Selena's POV showing the landscape in front of the house
p. Reverse angle, Selena leaves the frame and Dolores turns around into a reaction shot
q. Dolores' POV of the landscape
r. Reaction shot MCU of Dolores
9. CHAPTER 7 18.00 Inside the house there is more psychological editing--from Selena's point of view (and with accompanying reverse angle reaction shots) we see her scan the interior of the house. The colors inside are all washed out—as if in black and white. So both characters have secrets buried deep within themselves. Dolores comes in and begins to clean up. She seems to need to talk non-stop, a kind of interior monologue vocalized. We learn that Dolores has not lived in the house for more than three years. Dolores recalls that Selena called her at Vera Donovan’s house last Christmas. “The lines go both ways, Mother.” Then she adds, “This isn’t going to work. I need a phone.” She expects to stay in a motel in town—but Dolores tells her that there are none open anymore. So Selena is stuck with her mother. Dolores keeps acting chipper and upbeat, but then Selena shows more rejection by telling her that she will go shopping alone. She slams the door on her way out. Cut to reaction shot of Dolores—her face shows confusion and fearfulness.
10. CHAPTER 8 20.00 Dolores sifts through her daughter’s belonging. She puts away her clothes and is curious and concerned about all the pills in her luggage. Then she turns and sits on the bed and looks at the collages of pictures and other memorabilia that the teenaged Selena collected and pasted on the walls. Suddenly we hear the sound of a child’s laugh. Then from Dolores’ POV we see her relives—as if she is watching it happen now--a scene from many years ago—when Selena was small and having fun with Dolores. Mother and daughter are playing hide and seek. Suddenly there is the old Dolores reacting to watching the young Dolores. Suddenly the vision disappears, and Dolores is alone again. Her reaction shot dissolves to an image of the bay beyond the house. Then a rack focus shifts to the foreground object—a broken window (with shards of glass visible) and then brown wood covers that hole.
11. Chapter 9. 22.36 Dolores nailing wood over the window. Here comes Selena with the
groceries. She seems nervous, hyper. Mom tells her to go upstairs to take a hot bath—and
the young woman hesitates. “Go on. It won’t bite you,” Dolores says. Selena exits. Dolores
opens the groceries—and finds a bottle of whiskey. She reacts with fear in her eyes. Then
three transitional shots—two of a brilliant red sunset—and the third of the house in the
darkening dusk. Inside, the two are eating dinner. Dolores notes that she has a notebook
with all of Selena’s articles. “You’ve done so well for yourself.” Dolores tries to get Selena
to slow down her drinking. “I know my limits,” she answers. Dolores pauses, and then—as
if recalling another time and another person—says, “Doesn’t that sound familiar?” Selena
tells her not to follow up on this. “I’ve seen my share of drunks is all,” Dolores says. “What
did he have to be happy about?” “I suppose making sure everyone else was as miserable as
he was.” “Is that why you killed him?” Reaction shots between the two. Then Dolores gets
up from the table. Selena keeps talking, almost to herself. The editing:
CHAPTER 10 26.00
a. Then a great cut to an ECU of Dolores, her face taut, and we can see Selena behind her and out of focus.
b. Back to Selena, who continues her monologue
c. Back to the POV shot--a shaft of light from under the door behind her—Selena says, “We barely know each other. . . “
d. A quick reaction shot of Dolores— as Selena continues: “We haven’t spoken in years. . . “
e. The same POV shot, with Selena in the mid-ground, and in the background the door opens and in walks Joe. Selena continues: “and that’s as much your doing as it is mine.”
f. Her reaction.
g. A closer shot of Joe as he enters the door. He’s alone in the frame. He is also drunk. Selena continues: “You didn’t kill Vera? Great!”
h. Reaction shot of Dolores. As Selena continues: “You’ve got nothing to worry about. If you did, then you deserve whatever comes.”
i. Back to the first shot in the track—POV from Dolores. Only Joe and in the foreground now, Selena, still yapping on about “Let’s not pretend we’re some sort of goddamn Norman Rockwell family reunion here.”
j. Reaction shot of Dolores. As Selena continues: “I’m sorry, Ma. But that’s where we are.”
k. Close shot of Selena. “And as for Dad. . . the few memories I have of him--” Camera up to show the drunken Joe in the background—“I’d like to keep.”
l. Reaction shot of Dolores.
m. Same point of view shot, but now Dolores in the foreground. Selena looks up: “Are you listening to me.” Camera moves quickly to the right, and as it does so, the colors change to the rich colors of the past. Here comes Joe into the room and turns on the television.
12. CHAPTER 11 27.00 Now Selena is 13 again, and Dolores is younger—we are back in 1975.
Immediately Selena and Joe begin to flirt with each other—seemingly innocent father-daughter interaction. Dolores looks on happily in the background. Dolores is the bad cop—she reminds Selena of her homework. Selena goes upstairs. Dolores tries to talk to Joe about something he could sell to make some money. But he has changed his mind. Joe leans over to look for some soda in the refrigerator. Dolores can see he has split the seat of his pants. His underwear shows through. She has a good laugh. Harmless fun. He says some nasty things to her. She responds, “If you still had the boats, we wouldn’t need the extra money.” His reaction shot shows menace. He walks past her, bends over, and pulls his pants apart. He seems to be teasing her. She tries to laugh. “You want to see the dark side?” he says. Cut to a wide shot of her. She keeps laughing, and walks to the table, her back turned to him. Suddenly he smashes her in the back with a log from the stove. He walks past her and says, “Why the hell do you make me do it?” Then he sits down and reads his paper.
13. Cut to a close shot of a pot of cabbage boiling over on the stove. Cut to shot of Dolores in
the foreground right, the pot behind her on the left of the screen. She looks worn out, turned to stone. Reverse angle shows her daughter at the feet of Joe. Both are chatting in lively tones. Selena comes over and notices the pot of cabbage boiling over. Dolores asks her to move it off the burner. She tells a little white lie—she is just resting here. Meanwhile, we catch a glimpse of Mackey spiking his Coca-Cola with bourbon. Selena helps her mother by setting the table.
14. CHAPTER 12. 31.50 Dissolve to a later scene. Joe is still watching television.
Meanwhile, Dolores is moving around slowly in the kitchen. She is still in agony from the injury. Joe points to the beauty contestants on the tube and says, “You might want to see what an ass is supposed to look like.” Then he makes more fun of her. He looks over at his mother’s picture and says to himself, “She always said you’d let yourself go. Fat ass and lousy cooking.” The editing:
- He is sitting in a medium shot. Suddenly a pitcher of milk smashes against his head—from Dolores’ hand.
- Low angle of Dolores: “Guess what, Joe! I’m not tired anymore.”
3. Reverse angle. He raises up against her and then falls back—
4. Low angle of Dolores. She holds an axe over her head. “You’d better sit back down if you don’t want this in your head!”
5. High angle POV from Dolores. She stands above him, the hatchet above his head. Off screen we hear Selena’s voice. “Mommy?”
6. Wide shot of the other side of the room. Selena can be seen in the mirror at the foot of the stairs.
7. Reaction shot of Dolores. She moves in front of Joe and holds the axe close to her breast. She places herself between Selena and Joe. She asks Joe to confirm that all is okay.
8. High angle of Joe—looking up at Dolores and terrified. He agrees all is well.
9. Dolores calmly tells her to go back upstairs.
10. Reaction shot of Selena near the stairs. She goes back upstairs.
11. Reaction shot of Dolores.
12. Dolores’ POV shot, looking down at Joe. He says, “Bitch! You’re going to get a payback.”
13. Reaction shot of Dolores. She drops the hatchet.
14. Close shot of the hatchet dropping into Joe’s lap.
15. High angle, Dolores’ POV--Joe grabs the axe—
16. Wide shot, from the side of both characters—camera tracks in to frame both across from each other. Dolores has dropped to his level, right in front of him. “Go on! All I ask is that you do it quick!”
17. A quick cut to Joe’s point of view, a tight shot of both of them. She is right in his face. “This is the last time you will hit me. You do it again, and one of us is going to the bone yard.”
18. Reverse angle shows his reaction—he changes the subject!
19. Back to his point of view—so we can see her reaction. She begins to walk away—
20. Reaction shot of Joe—then Dolores’ body in the foreground, as she moves past him—
21. And magically, the shot changes to the PRESENT. There Selena sits at the table after dinner. Selena wipes some tears away from her face.
Her mother tells her, “That’s one lesson he got the first time. Maybe the only one.” Her daughter gets up and snaps, “What do you want me to say? Thanks for sharing?” She goes upstairs.
15. CHAPTER 12 34.50 Transition to a shot of the clouds in the sky. Dissolve to a shot of the water in the foreground and part of the island in the background, and then dissolve to a shot of Selena standing on the coast looking out to the sea. Her mother comes down to where she is. Selena says she couldn’t sleep. Selena is worried that her mother should have an attorney. And she is frustrated that Dolores doesn’t have a plan! “It’s you I’m worried about.” Dolores moves closer to her, tells her she cares about her, and touches her cheek lightly. But Selena turns away. “I can’t help but be worried about you.” Selena comments on how rough her mother’s hands are. Dolores steps away from her, and cut to a CU of the palms of her hands. “I guess if you want to know somebody’s life, you look at their hands.” Then reaction shot of Dolores. She begins to move into another reverie. Cut to a helicopter shot moving along the coast as we hear Dolores says, “That’s what 22 years of Vera Donovan will do to you.” Camera begins to track along the trees on the edge of the water and then up toward the big house we saw at the beginning of the film. We hear a distressed woman’s pleas—and the calm rejection in the voice of Vera Donovan. Suddenly we are inside the house, and we can see Dolores sitting just outside a room where Vera is dispensing with the latest candidate for housekeeper. “But just think what fun you’ll have telling your friends what a bitch Vera is.” Reaction shot of a young Dolores. “Next!”
16. CHAPTER 14 37.15 CU of Vera. She listens to Dolores review her employment history. “This is a big house, but I’m a big woman, and I think I can do a good job.” Vera leans back in her chair and begins to review her “rules” the housekeeper must abide by. Her voice becomes low, and Dolores’ voice-over comes up. “She had her ways. Did she ever! I don’t know where she got her idea, but I do know she was a prisoner of them.” This becomes a combination aural and musical montage showing Dolores learning the ropes in the first few weeks. We see Vera’s husband, Jack, ignoring his wife and hitting golf balls into the water. She even invites her husband in for a cocktail. He ignores her. Back to Dolores’ voice-over: “Three square meals of bitchery all summer long. But I kept my head down and my mouth shut.” And at the end of the scene—Vera is leaving Maine for points south on Labor Day, and she won’t be back until Memorial Day. She hires Dolores to take care of the house for only $12 / week. Dolores agrees.
17. CHAPTER 14 40.30 One thing has changed the next year when Vera returns. Vera’s husband Jack has died in an automobile accident. Vera moves in permanently. She seems in high spirits. Vera offers her full-time work. Then an interesting edited sequence coupled with her voice-over:
a. Medium shot of Dolores working in the house. Dolores: I knew what kind of hell it would be
b. Wide shot of the cold winter sky. Suddenly Dolores enters the frame with a large basket of clothes and drops them down in front of her. We look up at her in a low angle. Dolores: Hell ain’t something you get thrown into overnight! No . . . real hell comes on you—
c. Reverse angle, shows the load of wet sheets. Dolores: --“as slow and steady as a line of wet winter sheets. . .”
d. Low angle as she lifts the sheets out. Dolores: “. . . snot leaking off your nose. . “
e. Close shot of her hands up against the sheets on the clothesline. Dolores: “—your hands so cold and raw . . .”
f. Reaction shot of Dolores from high angle. Dolores: “--you start wishing they would go numb. It’s only December. You know by February. . .”
g. Close shot of her hands against the sheets. Notice her hands are much rawer, more wrinkled than earlier shot. Dolores: “--the skin’s going to be cracked so bad it’ll break open and bleed if you clench a fist.
h. Reaction shot, CU of Dolores, from high angle. Dolores: “--But you go on to the next. . .:
i. Close shot of the hand again. Dolores: “--and the next. And before you know it those sheets stretch out twenty years.” This shot dissolves to the scene in the PRESENT.
18. Dolores and Selena walk along the shore. Selena is still argumentative. Her mother tries to explain she worked for Vera in order to earn money so that Selena could get off the island and have a better life. But Selena will hear none of this. When they get back to the house, the constable and Mackey are waiting for them. Why are they here? They need a strand of Dolores’ hair for a DNA sample. “You want it, you cut it,” Dolores says. Mackey stops and responds, “Actually, I need to pull it.” Then a great stand-off. Point of view and reaction shots of the two as they face off. “Go on,” she says. “Take what you want. I ain’t doing any beauty pageants this week.” Mackey seems to take delight in this. He mentions that a witness has told them Dolores threatened to kill Vera. Selena wants her mother to stop talking—to not disclose anything. But Mackey is having too much fun. He begins writing down some of what Dolores is telling him. Then Dolores comes close to him and says, “You go ahead and scribble that down in your pad there. Just as long as you write down that saying a thing and doing it are two separate things.” Then she hits him with the punch line. “But then your wife probably already told you that.” Dolores walks away. Mackey puts away his book and announces, “My wife died 12 years ago—bone cancer. Natural causes.” His point made, he walks away. Before the constable gets in his van, Dolores asks him if she can get into Vera’s house to retrieve some of her personal belongings. He tells her they will pick her up tomorrow.
19. CHAPTER 16, 44.50 After they leave, Selena is frustrated that Dolores is making an enemy of Mackey. “I ain’t making one. I’m keeping one.” Then Dolores steps up to her daughter and says, “You don’t remember him?” Then two quick reactions shots of Mackey in the front seat of the constable’s van. Suddenly we cut to the PAST and Mackey, twenty years younger, steps into the frame and is shown questioning 13-year-old Selena. She is in tears in the police station. Her mother rises to her defense when Mackey begins to question Selena too closely. Mackey is convinced Dolores killed her husband. The constable, an older man, is also in the room. He defends Mackey’s approach until Mackey pleads for a chance to separate them. “Five minutes with the girl alone!” Here the constable draws the line. Mackey knows he can break the girl if he can question her with her mother out of the room. But he never gets this chance. Frustrated, he storms out of the room.
20. Chapter 16. 47.43 Back to the PRESENT. “So don’t be talking to me about making enemies.” They are still on the porch of the house. “Just look at this window. Little piss squirts.” She takes the axe out of Selena’s hands and smashes the window—the glass shatters in slow motion, and falls out of the frame. What’s left behind? A television monitor in CU. We hear an exchange of voices. Selena, in the PRESENT, is on the phone with her boss in Manhattan. She tells him the details of her scoop. She is excited about her story. He announces that she is off the story. He gave the story to another woman. Back to Selena. “So I guess you’re fucking Maureen now.” He defends himself. “I need this story,” she says.
ENDS CHAPTER 17 49.50
SIDE TWO
21. Selena in a bar on the island. Guess who shows up next to her—Mackey. He tries to get her to tell him what he wants to hear. He tries to insinuate himself—saying the two of them are very much alike. “My cases are my family.” Then he tells her that he has handled 86 cases of homicide, and 85 of them he has closed “to my satisfaction.” He pauses. “I underestimated your mother. Won’t happen again.” She realizes he is the one who sent her the mysterious fax. Reaction shot of Mackey. “For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or evil.” She curses him and walks out.
22. Close shot of the rocky shoreline and the water lapping up on the rocks. Cut to Dolores dropping the hot plate on the old cook stove. She is cooking some meat. She recalls her daughter was a good cook when she was young. Selena, still drinking, isn’t impressed. She leaves the table, goes over to her purse, and pulls out a bottle of hand lotion and rubs some between her hands. This is the second time we’ve seen her do this. Dry hands? Nervous hands? Locals come by and taunt Dolores for murdering Vera. She runs outside, grabs her axe, and yells back. The yokels in the pickup truck shoot shotguns into the air and yell epithets. Dolores curses them right back. Dolores walks back to the house. Frustrated, she smashes the axe into the stump. She looks up, and there is Selena standing on the other side of the screen door. Selena is crying. Why is she crying? Cut to close shot of Selena behind the door. She turns away. Dolores comes inside, and Selena retreats to the bathroom, where she washes down some pills (after drinking too much). Dolores is worried, but Selena tells her that in ten minutes she will feel no pain. She is on her knees holding onto the sink—just about at the end of her rope. Reaction shot of Dolores. She turns and looks to the side. Her POV—a wide shot of the phone across the room from her. Reaction shot of Dolores. She turns toward Selena and says, “Selena.” “Just give me ten minutes!” Selena screams. The phone rings.
23. CHAPTER 20 5.11 Dolores reacts, a fearful look in her face. Cut back to Selena, then back to the reaction shot, then a close shot of the phone. Someone picks it up—the light changes as the camera moves up to show young Selena on the phone in the PAST. A Christmas tree is in the background. She is 13, and she gets a crank call from some locals who taunt Selena for having a mother who “murdered” her husband—threw him down the well. Humiliated, Selena can only stand there and cry. Her mother grabs the phone from her hand and begins to scream at the crank callers. Meanwhile, Selena stands in the background and begins to smash Christmas ornaments by dashing them onto the floor. Her Mother rages, “If I find out who this is I’ll hang your privates from Batterston Light!” Then she slams down the receiver and attends to Selena, who scrunches a plastic ornament into her fist and then slashes at her throat with its shards—drawing blood. “Let me alone!” she yells and pushes her mother back.
24. Cut to the PRESENT. Selena comes out of the bathroom. She looks like death warmed over. Dolores tries to calm her. “It was a bad patch.” Selena is incredulous at this fiction. “Bad patch? I had a nervous breakdown!” But Dolores is afraid of this emotional darkness. “It was a hard time. You got through it.” Suddenly Selena runs out of the house and gets into her car. Her mother yells form the porch, “You had a full scholarship to Vassar College. It must have been just a bad patch.” Selena groans, “I must have been out of my mind to come back here.” Then she drives away. The lights strike Dolores full in the face. Reverse angle—and the screen is filled with bright light.
25. Chapter 21. 6..57 CUT to the PAST. The saturated colors return. People are beating the bushes around the house. It’s a search party. They’ve found something. Cut to 13-year-old Selena, who is standing in the yard. She turns back to the house and scowls at her mother. “What did you do to him, Mommy?” Reaction shot of Dolores, twenty years ago—“Nothing, baby. I promise . . .”
Sudden cut to the bright lights again—we are back in the PRESENT—reaction shot of Dolores. Then we see Selena lose control of the car and get stuck in the mud 40 feet from the house. Cut to a wide shot of the house, surrounded by a sky the richly saturated color of blood. A tiny Dolores, still on the porch, returns to the house.
26. CHAPTER 22 7.40 Next day at the crime scene, Vera Donovan's. Dolores is there with
Selena to retrieve personal belongings. Mackey is busy at the crime scene. He is his usual nasty self. Cut to several detail shots of the interior of Vera's room. Everything has been opened up, thrown around, checked carefully—by the police. Dolores seems stunned, immobilized. Selena goes across the room. She appears to want to get this task completed and get out. But she is stopped when she picks up a picture frame and realizes that it is a collection of photographs of young Selena and other momentos collected by Dolores. In another room, Mackey is working on other evidence gathering. Dolores enters. “This room is off limits,” Mackey says. Dolores walks right in. She has come for only one thing—the album she kept all of Selena’s stories in (and often shared them with Vera). Then Mackey takes the scrapbook out of her hand, checks the contents, and makes the prescribed number of smart remarks he is accustomed to make. Meanwhile, Dolores walks away from him and seems to regain her bearings in the room. Cut to a remarkable panning shot (right to left) of the other side of the room. We hear Mackey’s voice-over in the background. Suddenly the light changes, and we are dropped into the PAST. We see in the background the twisted and moaning body of old Vera Donovan. She is in great pain. Then the camera keeps moving left, and we see Dolores sitting next to her and comforting her. Then cut back to the PRESENT and see a reaction shot of Dolores. She goes over to Vera’s bed and notices that the portable urinal, marked for evidence, has not even been emptied. She picks it up and hurls it at Mackey’s feet. The constable comes over and complains about this interchange. Dolores walks up to Mackey and says, “I’m not leaving here until I have my scrapbook.”
27. CHAPTER 23 11.10 Outside the house Mackey pushes Dolores to talk. He wants to settle this right now right here. She turns on him. “Now you listen to me, Mr. Grand Poobah of upper butt crack! I’m just about half past give-a-shit with your fun and games. My husband’s death was ruled an accident.” She admits that she had plenty of reasons to kill her husband. “But Vera? All I am is out of a job.” Then Mackey drops his bombshell! Vera left her 1.6 million dollars in her will, made out 8 years ago. The constable tries to keep Mackey quiet. But he won’t relent. Doris is outraged that the old woman would do that. “It’s crazy. She would never do that!” She walks away from the house, and Selena calls Frank to join them. Now Mackey is alone in the frame. He throws out another challenge. “Let’s do it now. Let’s not wait for Monday morning.”
28. Selena’s point of view from inside the car. She is following her mother, who is walking ahead of the car. Selena tells her to get in. But Dolores won’t stop walking. Selena stops the car and gets out. She tries to catch up to her mother. Reverse angle to show Dolores walking toward the camera, and Selena running toward her in the background. “You had no idea she left you the money?” “I swear it!” Then she curses Vera: “Bitch!” Her daughter catches up. “You can afford a lawyer now.” Here comes Mackey in his car behind Selena. “Car trouble,” he smirks, and then drives on. Reactions shot of Dolores. “Wish I had killed her. Leaving me that money!” She is walking toward the house again. Cut to her point of view as the house looms ahead of her. Reaction shot. “I wish I had!” Reaction shot of Selena. She moves toward her mother. We see both women from the rear (Selena’s POV). Reverse angle when Selena stops just behind her mother. Now we see Dolores in the foreground, and Selena behind her. “What happened in that house?” Sound of a bell ringing.
CHAPTER 24 14.40 Here is the editing track. We are dropped into the PAST again:
1. Close shot of the old woman’s arm—she is ringing the bell in her hand.
2. Reaction shot of Dolores. She is sewing in the adjacent room. She gets up and begins to walk toward the doorway. We hear old Vera moaning and ringing the bell.
3. Dolores enters Vera’s room. “Hell’s bells. Look who’s up.”
4. Close shot of the arm again. Camera moves up and right to a close shot of the old woman against the pillow. “I’m wet.”
5. Reaction shot of Dolores. “What else is new?” Then Vera (in the lower foreground) says, “How long this time?” Dolores touches her forehead. “Since you last made sense? About two days I guess.”
6. High angle, Dolores’ point of view. “Just leave me wet, don’t you?”
7. Low angle CU of Dolores. She shrugs and walks away.
8. Wide shot of the room. “And I’m not thinking straight,” Vera says. Dolores goes to the bathroom and comes back with the portable urinal. “Regular party around here when you’re snoozing.” “Where’s my China pig?” Vera cries. Dolores looks off and cracks :Well, there’s only 200 of them around. Which one you want?”
9. Close shot of Vera. “Are you being smart?”
10. Low angle of Dolores standing over her. “If I’d a been smart, I would have gotten done working for you a long time ago.” She wants Vera to lift up so that she can pee some more.
11. High angle shot, Dolores’ POV, of the old woman in bed. Vera clutches the covers. She won’t let Dolores get at her.
12. Low angle reaction shot of Dolores. “You going to sit here and marinate in it?”
13. Close shot of Vera. She is adamant.
14. Reaction shot of Dolores. “You’re going to get on this fanny pan one way or the other.”
15. High angle, POV, urinal in the foreground. Dolores taps it. “Come on.”
16. Close shot of wheelchair being rolled up by Dolores. “Here we go.” Camera up to show Dolores. “Your chariot awaits, your highness.” Vera sits on the edge of the bed. Dolores lifts her into the chair as the camera moves right. Vera slumps in the chair. “I hate this nightgown.”
17. Close shot of tray for the wheelchair. A plate of food is on the tray. Camera moves back and to the right as Dolores lifts the tray and places it in front of Vera. “You’re poisoning me. Slow but sure. That’s what you’re doing.” Dolores smiles. “I won’t bother you with poison. I’ll just shove you out the window. There will be one less smelly bitch in t he world.” Dolores walks away.
18. CU of Vera. “Don’t we have an air across our ass today, Dolores Claiborne!”
19. Wide shot of Dolores cleaning up the bed across the room.
20. CU of Vera. “I want my china pig!”
21. Wide shot of Dolores. “Get off your royal duff and get it. Do you good.”
22. CU of Vera. “What I want is someone who will do as they’re told.”
23. Medium shot of Dolores. “Don’t go too far, Vera!”
24. CU of Vera. “I’ll go as far as I damn well want! Yes! I will!”
25. Medium shot of Dolores. She begins to move to the left.
26. MS of Vera. “If this is what is going to pass for living . . . “
27. Wide shot of Dolores in front of the china cabinet. “…I’ll damn well say what I want,” Vera finishes.
28. CU of porcelain ornaments (all china pigs) in the china cabinet. Dolores checks out several and then selects one. “I’ll fix you some tea. You’ll feel better.”
29. MS of Vera. “I won’t! I won’t feel better!”
30. MS of Dolores as she approaches Vera—who continues, “I’ll never feel better. . .”
31. Low angle CU of Vera. She is sobbing. Suddenly the little china pig appears in the bottom of the frame, just below her face.
32. Reaction shot of Dolores. We can hear the tune from the china pig music box: “Happy days are here again . . .”
33. Low angle CU of Vera. She is looking at the pig and sobbing. Her nose is dripping snot.
34. Wide shot as Dolores places the china pig on the nightstand.
35. Low angle CU of Vera. Dolores reaches out and gently wipes the snot away from Vera’s nose.
36. Reaction shot of Dolores.
37. Low angle CU of Vera. She stares at the pig and smiles.
38. Vera’s POV of the china pig. It moves in a circle as the music continues: “Happy days are here again.”
29. CHAPTER 24 19.24 Scene continues moments later. Here is the editing track:
a. Close shot of teakettle on the stove. Dolores’ head lowers into the frame as she checks the flame.
b. Low angle shot of wheelchair moving away from camera. Vera is on the move. A vase topples noisily
c. Reaction shot of Dolores in the kitchen.
d. High angle from stairway as Dolores comes out of the kitchen. Camera follows Dolores as she walks toward it and up the stairs to the first landing. Then from her POV we can see Vera rolling down the hallway on the second floor. “Vera!”
e. Reaction shot of Dolores.
f. Vera’s POV—the wheelchair rolls toward the top of the stairs as Dolores reaches the top.
g. Reaction shot of Dolores as she stumbles at the top step.
h. Dolores’ POV as Vera rolls toward her, only a few feet away now. “What the hell are you doing?“ Dolores approaches Vera. Dolores steps behind her to grab the chair. Vera slams Dolores in the head with her good arm. Dolores falls back temporarily.
i. Reverse angle. Now the camera is behind both women. Dolores tries to catch up with Vera.
j. Reverse angle. Vera’s chair is at the top of the stairs, and Dolores struggles to hold her back. “What in God’s name—“ They struggle. Vera bites Dolores on the arm.
k. Dolores falls to the floor.
l. Bird’s eye POV as Vera’s body begins to tumble down the stairs.
m. Another angle as she falls.
n. Reaction shot of Dolores as she watches through the railing.
o. Bird’s eye POV as the body tumbles down to the first landing.
p. View of the body tumbling from the side of the railings. We hear the body smash against the ballisters.
q. Reaction shot of Dolores. She gets up.
r. Wide shot of Dolores looking down.
s. Her POV of the scene—the body at the first landing.
Dolores goes down to Vera, who is not dead. She bends over the body. Shot selection combines Dolores’ POV shots (high angle) and her reaction shots (low angle). “No doctor. No hospital.” But Dolores insists Vera will be all right. ‘You’re going to be fine.” Vera chuckles. “Dolores Claiborne says I’m going to be fine. I’m relieved to have a professional opinion.” Dolores, almost crying, says, “Why? Why did you do this, Vera?” Her answer: “Because I hate the smell of being old.” Then she says, ‘”I’m tired. I want to be done. Will you help me, Dolores? Please? Help me die?” Dolores shakes her head. “Kill me now.”
30. CHAPTER 24 21.52 The editing track continues:
a. Close shot of teakettle falling off the stove.
b. Teakettle rattles onto the floor.
c. Dolores pulls out drawer filled with knives.
d. Her reaction.
e. Close shot of marble rolling pin.
f. Shot through the ballisters—Dolores enters the frame, and camera moves right. This is a POV shot (from Vera) as Dolores stands over her with the marble rolling pin held over her own head—ready to smash it down on Vera’s head—
g. Reverse angle, high angle shot of Vera (her head at the bottom of the frame. “Please, Dolores.”
h. Reaction shot of Dolores—she still holds the rolling pin over her head.
i. Reverse angle, high angle of Vera—“If you really want to help me. . .”
j. CU of Dolores—her face in turmoil—readying herself for the strike, then wavering, then. . SOUND of the mailman who has entered the house—and Dolores begins to shake—it’s over—
This shot dissolves to the PRESENT and we see Dolores an Selena still standing at the cemetery a hundred yards away from Vera Donovan’s house. “You don’t believe me, do you? You think I killed her?” Selena walks away and says, “It’s the rest of the world you better start worrying about.”
31. CHAPTER 25 22.46. Back at the house. Selena has done some research and wants her mother to consult an attorney. But Dolores seems listless, inattentive. She goes into the house. Selena follows her. “In case you missed it, I’m trying to help you.” “I don’t care a fiddler’s fuck what anyone cares about me. It’s you. It’s what you think!” Selena is frustrated with her mother. “When someone hurts me, I leave!” she declares. And she begins rubbing her hands with lotion again. The third time. “Believe me, I learned that a long time before I got to New York.” Suddenly Dolores gains her bearings on this interaction. She looks up and says, “I’m not the one that hurt you.” Selena realizes the topic is returning to dear old Dad. She is ready for this onslaught. “He was a drunk. Maybe he hit you. I don’t remember.” Dolores says, “You don’t remember much of anything. Now Dolores has it. She gets up, and we see her move into a close shot. “You honest to God don’t remember, do you?” Reaction shot of Selena shows her closed-off, still in denial. She turns away from her mother. Dolores says, “That’s why you’re so unsettled, ain’t it?” But Selena doesn’t want to listen. Then Dolores suggests they sit down and share a drink. Why this turn? Selena wants out. But Dolores stops her from leaving—they are in the frame together—and Dolores is holding her back. “You sit down right this minute!” She sits her down, and then Dolores sits down and pours a drink of bourbon. They are going to have a little “talk.” She pushes the drink across the table. Reaction shot of Selena. Then back to the close shot of the drink. A man’s hand—dear old Dad’s hand—reaches out and takes it up.
32. CHAPTER 26 26.10 And suddenly we are in the PAST again. Joe holds the drink up, and we cut to a nervous Dolores at the dinner table with Selena. Dolores wonders why Selena has slipped form A's to C's and D's in two semesters. Selena seems nervous, remote. Joe is drunk. CHAPTER 27 27.17 The next day Dolores meets Selena at the ferry slip on the mainland. Selena works in a hotel as a maid. Cut to the two on the ferry back to the island. “You used to be beautiful. Why ain’t you anymore?” Dolores asks. Dolores worries that her daughter is on drugs or is pregnant. “You want to end up like me? Dumb as stuck?” What the hell is going on with you?” Suddenly Selena runs to the railing and seems to want to jump off. Frantic, Dolores grabs her. “What is wrong with you.” Then she spots a locket the girl is wearing. It belonged to her grandmother. The girl is in tears—fearful that her secret will be found out. Reaction shot of Dolores says it all—she has finally guessed what the problem is. Joe has been abusing Selena.
33. CHAPTER 27 29.53 Dolores goes to the bank to cash in her savings account—she has more than $3000 stashed away from the years of working for Vera. The banker tells her the account has been closed out by her husband. She is stunned. Then she is increasingly angry. She demands to know why she was not consulted. The banker, a man, says it was all standard practice. Her husband said the account book had been lost, he was issued a new one, and later he closed out the account. Suddenly Dolores becomes calm and measured in her tones. “It’s because I’m a woman, ain’t it? If it had been the other way around—“ She has saved for 11 years to fill up this bank account. She seems to be getting angry again, but then she realizes that Joe has either squirreled the money away someplace or opened a new account. She stands up and moves close to the banker. She speaks just above a whisper. “I know you don’t have to tell me, but I’m hoping you’ll think for just one moment about the grief and heartache you could have saved me by making just one phone call.” She asks him to tell her—if he knows—what Joe did with the money.
34. CHAPTER 29 32.48 A scene from the PAST. We are at Vera Donovan’s house. Vera is chatting gaily about all the tasks that must be completed. Meanwhile, Dolores looks like a lump of coal. She is moribund, leaden. Vera chatters on, until she comes into the drawing room to see Dolores crying her heart out. She sits down and insists that Dolores tell her what is going on. Dolores tells her what Joe did. At first, Vera thinks Dolores is going to ask her for money. She makes a cynical crack about her money being “tied up in cash.” Then Dolores drops her bombshell. “I was going to leave. I was going to take Selena with me.” Reaction shot of a stunned Vera (the first time we have seen her “stunned”). “Well, isn’t that dramatic? Why exactly are we running away? Perhaps it’s not as bad as it seems?”
35. CHAPTER 30 35.30 Another scene from the PAST. Flashback to the ferry scene between Dolores and Selena. “It’s your father, ain’t it? He’s been at you!” Selena keeps denying her mother’s charges, and finally she slaps her mother in the face. “You bitch!” we hear—but it’s not from the young Selena’s mouth.
CUT to the PRESENT. Selena has yelled “You bitch!” She jumps up from the table. “You crazy old lying bitch!” She refuses to listen to her mother. She runs upstairs. Poor Dolores stands there as if not knowing what to do next. Suddenly the sound of steps coming back down the stairs. Off screen now, Dolores calls, “Selena?”
BACK TO THE PAST. The 13-year-old Selena runs down the stairs and yells, “Don’t try to stop me.” She is going to the mainland to work at the hotel. She runs outside the house. Again the colors are richly saturated against the bright blue sky. Dolores follows her. She tries to cut her off by taking a short cut across the scrub bushes in front of the house. Selena yells that she doesn’t want to be there when her mother talks to her father. More denial from her about the abuse. Suddenly her foot catches on something and she falls down. She has cut her leg. Then a high angle POV shot, and the camera moves toward the bird’s eye POV—shows an open hole of an old well—in a parallel track we come back to once more, and then the third time the camera tracks back from it—
36. CHAPTER 20 37.50 CUT TO THE PRESENT—we are looking straight into glass--the circular shape of the rim of a glass—held in Dolores’ hand. She turns the glass over and puts it on the table. Cut to Dolores sitting at the table in her house. She is alone. Selena is upstairs. This shot dissolves to a shot of the darkening clouds in the sky, another transition. Then a dissolve to a wide shot of the old house on the shoreline at dusk. Cut to Selena coming back down the stairs. Now all is calm between them. The relationship is over. She tells her mother she is leaving for Phoenix tomorrow. Selena has slept for twelve hours. Dolores has packed her things. They are cut in separate shots. Then we see a CU of Dolores, sitting on the right of the frame. Selena walks past her (back to the camera) on the left—so they are separate from each other even in the same frame. Cut to a close shot of an envelope on the porch. Selena picks it up. The envelope was left by Mackey. It’s his report. But Dolores doesn’t want it. “How remarkably brave, Mother,” Selena says. Then she goes to the car. She angrily lays out her plan—she’ll fax the report to a lawyer, he will call her tomorrow, and she had better listen. She warns her mother not to “shoot her mouth off” at the inquest tomorrow. Suddenly she turns away from the car door and addresses Dolores: “I’m sorry, Mother. But sometimes being a bitch is the only thing a woman has to hold onto.” Reaction shot of Dolores. Selena leaves. Reaction shot of Dolores. Dissolves to a shot of the clouds, again showing the darkening of dusk. This shot dissolves to a shot of Selena’s car. Great shot of Selena from the outside, with reflections of the trees on the driver’s side window. Then cuts of Selena from the inside of the car. Suddenly Selena discovers an audio tape in a case taped to the back of her laptop. “Shit!” she says. Dolores has left her a tape to listen to. She begins to play the tape.
Cut to Dolores standing outside, near the town. She is talking into the tape. She makes the tape during the time Selena was asleep upstairs (that long 12-hour sleep). Shot of her speaking are intercut with shots of Selena in the car.
SIDE TWO ENDS
CHAPTER 32 41.41
SIDE THREE
37. CHAPTER 33. SCENE FROM THE PAST. We return to the scene between Vera and Dolores when Dolores told her about her husband's stealing her money. Apparently Dolores has even told her about her discovery of sexual abuse. CU of Vera: “How far has he gone, Dolores?’ Dolores is still crying, and she tries to make sense out of this crisis. “Has he fucked her?” Vera asks brutally. But Dolores doesn’t know. “But if he hasn’t, he’s going to—soon enough.” She goes over the same ground again—she was going to use the money he stole to escape from the island. But Vera reminds her that her plan was faulty. Where was she going to escape to? He would find her. CU of Vera. “It’s a depressingly masculine world we live in, Dolores. “ Then she delivers her message. “Husbands dies every day, Dolores. They die! And leave their wives their money! I should know. Sometimes they’re driving home from their mistresses apartments and their brakes fail. An accident can be an unhappy woman’s best friend.” Reaction shot of Dolores. Reaction shot of Vera. Telling Dolores this has brought her to tears.” Her image dissolves to a sunset image of the island. Cut to Dolores in her car. She is deep in thought. Obviously she is driving home after the conversation with Vera. She rounds a curve, and from her POV we see the rocky shoreline—the camera seems to track slightly to the right—an accident? But not for Dolores.
38. CHAPTER 34 2.45 This image dissolves to a close shot of a marimba. It’s eclipse party time at Vera Donovan’s. We are in the PAST again. Vera’s lawn is filled with people for the afternoon party. At 5:00 p.m. everyone will enjoy the eclipse together. Vera finds Dolores working hard, bringing out hors d’oeuvres, and she stops to talk to her. She is sending her home. She wants her to have a great party with her husband. Hint. Hint. “I can’t do it,” Dolores says. Reaction shot of Vera: "Sometimes you have to be a high-riding bitch to survive. Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hang onto." Cut to close shot of Dolores’ hand taking the handles of the shopping bag Vera has brought for her. Reaction shot of Dolores: “Thank you, Vera.” Reaction shot of Vera. She resumes her haughty manner and says farewell.
CHAPTER 34 4.45 Transitional shot of the eclipse just beginning to nip a corner away from the sun. Then shots in town of everyone gathering for the eclipse. Lots of movement. Dolores moves among them with grocery bags.
39. CHAPTER 35 5.25 There’s Joe at the house. He’s trying to work a winch but can’t get the engine to run. He’s dirty and greasy. Here comes Dolores with all kinds of goodies for his “last meal.” She starts with the whiskey—and that gets his interest. Every exchange from Joe is a hateful word hurled at Dolores. She goes inside. Transitional shot of the sun, a larger corner of it being nicked away by the covering moon. Dolores is busy inside with the meal preparation. Joe is getting drunk on the porch. She brings out a beautiful plate of food and sits behind him. The editing continues:
a. Transitional cut to a shot of the clouds moving over the sun. Then we can see more of the sun covered by the moon.
b. Close shot of Joe, who has just finished his last meal. He licks his fingers.
c. Close shot of his plate, mostly empty. He lifts the bottle of whiskey.
d. Dolores’ POV of Joe—he lifts the bottle and glances over to her.
e. Reaction shot of Dolores.
f. Joe nods toward her, and then turns his attention to the bottle. He drinks and drinks.
g. Reaction shot of Dolores. She moans, almost fearful of what is to come.
h. Joe lifts the bottle and drinks and drinks.
i. This shot dissolves to one of the clouds, now filling the sky, and turning blood red with the sunset.
j. Dolores’ POV of a plate she is washing in the sink. She moves as if in slow motion.
k. Reverse angle, low angle, shows Dolores looking down into the sink.
l. Back to her POV of the plate. Now the plate is under water—an image of death—and suddenly her hands shake as if she has awakened.
m. Reaction shot of Dolores as she hears her drunken husband singing.
40. CHAPTER 36. 8.30 The eclipse is about ready to become full. People are massing in the
bay. Everyone is paying attention to the moment of full eclipse. Back on the porch, Joe is
trying to look at the moon through an eclipse-viewer. Now is the time. Dolores comes out and springs her trap. She tells him she knows he stole her money. She knows he spent $500 on poker and booze. She tells him she was at the bank, and they gave her the $2500 back (this is a lie). But he doesn’t know it’s a lie. He is outraged. He chokes her and throws her down. Then she tells him she buried the $2500 in the yard. He begins to pull her out to the scrub brush, she gets away from him, and then she springs another trap: she tells him she knows he has been molesting Selena. She runs away from him as he chases her. She is leading him to the well. She reaches the well, leaps over it, and then the editing track:
CHAPTER 37 13.24
1. Wide shot of the two running, both fall down—but she makes it over the well hole.
11. Low angle, shot from inside the well looking up at Joe struggling to grab onto something.
12. Close shot of Dolores on the ground, regaining her balance.
13. Dolores’ POV—shows close shot of Joe struggling to hold onto the timbers.
14. Reaction shot of Dolores.
15. Dolores’ POV again—he is losing his grip.
16. High angle, Joe’s POV as he looks down into the hole.
17. Reverse angle, close shot of Joe from the rim of the well hole. We can see him struggle. The sky is above him.
18. Reverse angle, he looks down into the hole.
19. Reaction shot of Dolores. She gets up.
20. Dolores’ POV—now she is looking down on her husband who is still holding on.
21. His POV down into the hole.
22. Low angle reaction shot of Dolores—she moves around the edge of the hole.
23. Dolores’ POV—looking down on her husband. He asks for help.
24. Reaction shot of Dolores.
25. ECU of Joe, from Dolores’ POV. He is getting desperate now. He looks back. “D! D!”
26. ECU Reaction shot of Dolores—the sun behind her hair. She shakes her head.
27. Reverse angle—ECU of Joe—he gets the message. He can’t believe she won’t help him.
28. ECU of Dolores, reaction shot.
29. Reverse angle, her POV—Joe snarls, “You bitch!”
30. ECU Reaction shot of Dolores. Joe’s voice: “You’re going to die!”
31. New angle on—from the ground level, Joe in the background tires to reach out and grab Dolores’ foot, so that he can drag her down with him.
32. Reaction shot of Dolores.
33. Back to the new angle—he reaches for her leg but she pulls it back in time. He begins to slip into the hole.
34. Reaction shot of Dolores.
35. He slips some more.
36. Then we look down into the hole as he almost falls.
37. Reverse angle, ECU shows Joe in the frame and the sky above
38. Reaction shot of Dolores. We hear Joe yelling for help.
39. Wide shot of the house against the sunset and the bay. Camera tracks right to show all the activity. Joe’s screams for help in the background.
40. High angle shot of Joe, his head at the bottom of the frame, his arms gripping the timber at the top. He screams for help.
41. Reaction shot of Dolores. We can see the eclipse just behind her head. “Nobody can hear you, Joe.”
42. Back to the high angle of Joe. He looks back. “You bitch! You just better hope I don’t get out of here!” He regains his balance and puts his weight against the timber. He’s going to climb out of that hole.
43. Reaction shot of Dolores.
44. Wide shot of Joe grasping the timber. Suddenly it lets go and he drops.
45. Reaction shot of Dolores. She throws her head back. Then she turns around and looks up at the sun.
46. Reaction shot—high angle as we look at her upturned face.
47. Dolores’ POV of the eclipse. Music changes. The corona is coming out around the perimeter of the sun. The sky is darkening.
48. Reaction shot of Dolores. Her eyes are closed.
49. Back to the eclipse—the corona increases—jewels of red come out around the perimeter.
50. Reaction shot of Dolores—her eyes are open now.
51. Her POV. The corona’s red jewels begin to disappear one by one as the eclipse comes full.
52. Reaction shot of Dolores. Her face darkens as the light dims.
53. Her POV. The last jewel of the red corona is visible, then dims, and the eclipse is full.
54. Wide shot, high angle, of Dolores against the scrub growth. She runs away. Then Dolores’ voice-over, as she describes what she did next
55. Wide shot, high angle, Dolores in the shed at the house picks up a flashlight and runs out. She talks about the beautiful eclipse.
56. Wide shot of the eclipse, and the light changes magically to all shades of blue. Then the sky is red and the disk of the sun is red—and suddenly Dolores enters the frame, low angle, and looks down into the hole.
57. Wide shot, from ground level, of Dolores shining the flashlight. Her voice-over explains how she set up her story of the “accident”—the sudden disappearance of her husband.
58. Wide shot of the red sky from INSIDE the well—the opening is a circle of red.
59. This dissolves to the red disk of the sun.
60. High angle of Dolores as she turns around and looks back up toward the sun.
61. The disk of the sun darkens again. Voice-over: “That’s what happened. Plain and true.
62. High angle reaction shot of Dolores. “And I don’t care who knows it. All I ever cared about—“
63. Wide shot of the ferry leaving its slip. “—is that you’re safe and sound. I lied to you.”
64. Wide shot of Selena standing on the ferry. “—and I lied to myself.”
65. Close shot, low angle, of Selena standing at the rail. “—and now it’s time to pay the piper.
We stay with Selena in this scene. Suddenly Mackey’s car pulls up at the ferry slip. Parallel cuts go back and forth between them. She turns her back on him and walks away. Cut to a POV shot, with Mackey in the foreground, his back turned, while the ferry recedes in the background. Great transitional cut to the clouds in the darkening sky.
41. CHAPTER 28 17.00 On the ferry. Selena buys a cup of coffee. She lifts the plastic lid and smells the coffee, and she seems transported to another place. Then she looks at the writing on the side of the cup.
BACK TO THE PAST. The counter man slides a coffee and hot cocoa onto the ferry counter. Joe’s voice is heard off-screen, but we don’t see the 13-year-old Selena. Instead, Selena in the PRESENT watches her father in the past. He walks right past her, and when he exits the enclosed part of the ferry, we see him out the window, from Selena’s POV—and suddenly that richly saturated color of the past is added to that external scene. Now the Selena in the PRESENT follows him outside. The editing combines her POV shots of her father, walking away from her, with reaction shots of her. Now she is bathed in that same richly saturated color. She follows him to the back of the ferry. He is carrying the two cups. She stops at the corner of the enclosed part and spots her 13-year-old self waiting for Daddy. He sits next to Selena. He looks around, nervous, and tires to calm her down. The 13-year-old Selena looks scared, taut with fear. Now the Selena in the PRESENT steps out from behind the wall and stands in front of her father and the 13-year-old Selena. She is watching the moment her father had given a locket to his daughter. Then he turns his attention to her hands. “Nobody is going to see us, sweetheart.” The editing track continues:
a. The POV of Selena in the PRESENT: Joe rubs the hands of 13-year-old Selena, and then he begins to move her hand toward his crotch. “Daddy, please!”
b. Reaction shot of Selena in the present—she winces, but still keeps watching.
c. Reverse angle. Joe keeps trying to persuade her, his voice honey sweet. “You remember how I showed you. Selena?” Suddenly the 13-year-old Selena looks up and seems to be staring hard right at the Selena in the PRESENT.
d. Reaction shot of Selena in the PRESENT.
e. Then back to the hands and the crotch. Joe’s voice: “That’s it. Boy. That’s a good girl.”
f. Reaction shot of Selena in the PRESENT.
g. Then reverse angle to show the 13-year-old Selena still looking away—perhaps still locked onto the eyes of Selena in the PRESENT.
h. Reaction shot of Selena in the PRESENT. Suddenly an arm reaches out to touch her shoulder. It’s the counter man. He holds up her change from the purchase of coffee. She looks back toward the benches at the back of the ferry.
i. Her POV. They are empty.
She goes into the washroom, and she throws some water on her face. But when she looks into the mirror, she doesn’t see her face. She sees the back of her head. She looks again. Scary music underscores her terror. She can’t see her face. She opens the door and then looks back to the mirror and finally sees her reflection.
42. CHAPTER 40 20.56 CU of Dolores at the inquest. Dolores is surrounded by Mackey, the constable, and the judge. Dolores begins to tell her story. She makes one change. She says when she got back from the kitchen, Vera was dead. Mackey doesn’t believe her. He begins his performance, calculated to break her down. “Is it true you made those threats?” Then off-screen we hear the voice of Selena—“Of course it’s true.” She comes in swinging, and she tells the judge that her mother could not have killed Vera. She alludes to information not in Mackey’s report. The judge wants to hear it. “These two women loved one another.” Well, Mackey makes great sport of this statement, and forces Selena to admit that she has not visited her mother, and Vera Donovan, for 15 years.
But Selena is not ready to quit. “These two women were together for 22 years. My mother spent the last 12 years caring for Vera 24 hours a day—for $80 a week. I want to know (she turns to her mother) if you hated each other so much, why did you stay together? There were other jobs. In the past few years, who else has been in that house?” Her mother mentions the doctor, who visited once a month. Mackey mentions Sammy Marchand, the mailman, and his eyewitness testimony. Selena responds, “Nobody else cared whether she lived or died,” All they had was each other. That’s why they stayed together.” Now Mackey brings up the will—a sufficient motive for murder. When Dolores learned about the will, she plotted to kill Vera. But Selena handles this, too. She makes the point that why did her mother wait 8 years to kill Vera when she could have waited a year, or two, or three (after learning of the will) and dispatched her in plenty of time to enjoy all that money. She concludes, “She waited 8 years to throw her down the front stairs!” And Mackey agrees. “Yes! To make it look like an accident.” “How is beating to Vera to death going to look like an accident?” Then she brings up Sammy Merchant (the mailman)—who always came at noon. Why not wait until midnight to kill her? “Forty years of experience,” Mackey responds. That’s how he knows he is right.
Then she pulls out her ace in the hole: “Why don’t you tell the judge why we’re really here?” Reaction shots go around. “Because she’s done it before,” Selena declares. Now the judge is interested, “Is there evidence of a prior felony?” Cut back to reaction shot of Mackey. He knows Selena has him now. You can see that little smirk on his face. ”No, there’s not. They wouldn’t indict her.” Selena turns to the judge: “Eighteen years ago my father drank a bottle of scotch and fell down a well. Mr. Mackey didn’t think it was an accident. That’s why we’re here today.” Great reaction shot of Mackey. Then Selena turns to Mackey and delivers a theme: “You said we were a lot alike? You were right.” Then she explains that it’s time to let go of their hates. She goes on and on. Reaction shot to Mackey: “This report’s the truth!” He won’t budge. More reaction shots between them. Then Selena is ready to leave. Cut to a CU of her hand, palm extended. Cut to reaction shot of Dolores. Cut to reaction shot of daughter. “Mother?” Reaction shot of Dolores. We hear Selena’s voice: “He can’t hurt you anymore.” The judge turns to Mackey. It’s his call. He says nothing. Cut to CU of Selena. “Come on. It’s time to go.” Cut to CU of Dolores. She begins to stand. Cut to wide shot, Mackey’s POV—in the background, the mother’s hand joins the daughter’s hand and they walk away. Reaction shot of Mackey. It’s over. That shot dissolves to a transitional shot of the clouds in the sky—perhaps more light than dark now.
CHAPTER 41 32.36 Wide shot of the ferry approaching the slip on the island. There are Dolores and Selena in the rental car. They get out. Selena is rubbing her hands with lotion. She admits she is not going to Phoenix. “That was a lie.” Dolores touches her gently on her neck—where the scar still lingers from the time she cut her throat with the Christmas ornament. “Do I still have to worry about you?” Selena responds, “I don’t know how to feel about what you did.” Reaction shot of Dolores. Then back to daughter. “But I know you did it for me. The two embrace. Both are crying. “I don’t want to lose you again!” Selena says. “You won’t.” Selena drives onto the ferry. Dolores stays behind. We see the scene from her POV. Then a parallel track of her POV shots of Selena and her CU reaction shots.
Summary
written by Robert E. Yahnke
Copyright, Robert E. Yahnke, © 2001
Professor, General College, Univ. of Minnesota
Reprinted by permission of the author
for educational use only