Curtain Call
[1995, 52 min. 44 minute version available]. Michel Jones returns home after
her mother suffers a stroke because she wants to help her mother maintain herself
in her own home and yet consider an eventual decision regarding her living circumstances.
At the same time she seeks to resolve some personal conflicts with her mother
and perhaps restore a strong mother-daughter bond. To complicate matters further,
Michel has written a play, The Afternoon Group, and her mother has agreed
to take on one of the primary roles. Michel moves in with her mother to help
her prepare for the play. But Michel learns that her own wishes for her mother's
well-being must be balanced by her mother's right to autonomy.
Introduction
Curtain Call is an excellent resource for exploring the dynamics of
mother-daughter conflicts, particularly when the daughter is someone who is
having difficulty making her way through unfamiliar territory of adult caregiving.
Michel Jones returns home after her mother suffers a stroke because she wants
to help her mother maintain herself in her own home and yet consider an eventual
decision regarding her living circumstances. At the same time she seeks to resolve
some personal conflicts with her mother and perhaps restore a strong mother-daughter
bond. To complicate matters further, Michel has written a play, The Afternoon
Group, and her mother has agreed to take on one of the primary roles. That
play is scheduled to be produced by a community theater in Florida. Michel moves
in with her mother to help her prepare for the play; but her agenda expands
to reflect those concerns noted above. She wants her mother to face openly some
serious issues about her increasing frailty and what Michel views as her mother's
resistance to her own aging. But Michel learns that her own wishes for her mother's
well-being must be balanced by her mother's right to autonomy.
This video works too because Michel Jones, her sister Wendy, and their mother
Edith all are articulate women. And the director captures their intellectual
and emotional qualities in every scene. Voice-over is used effectively throughout
to reveal what concerns are on the minds of the family members. The voice-over
is nuanced and reveals the complex issues this family is dealing with. Michel
portrays her mother's point of view several times as a means of balancing her
own and her sister's concerns. For instance, at one point Edith complains, "Sometimes
I’m a case history." She realizes that now her daughters are in some
respects her "enemy"--they are plotting to take away her freedom.
Michel Jones' task as the director of this video is to strike a balance between
the subjectivity of a mother-daughter relationship and the objectivity of a
director who can portray Edith's status as an older woman honestly and sensitively.
Sometimes the quality of the video production does not appear to be up to professional
standards. The colors are washed out and the videographer uses shaky hand-held
shots. But these "amateurish" qualities eventually are overcome by
her portrayal of intimate, revealing scenes showing her mother's struggle with
her increasing frailty. The impact of those scenes is heightened with excellent
visuals and editing. Examples include Edith's comments about the aches and pains
she suffers when getting up in the morning, Edith sharing the importance of
her "meditation tree" outside her bedroom window, Edith demonstrating
the awkward (and somewhat humiliating) process by which she climbs into bed,
Edith stumbling and then falling on the patio (right in front of her daughter),
Edith falling out of bed, and Michel accusing her mother of eating only Triscuits
rather than a balanced diet.
Michel Jones tries to broaden the framework of her mother-daughter subject
by incorporating the comments of three other women who are acting in the play,
The Afternoon Group. These interview segments are richly photographed
and incorporate excellent commentary. The women are articulate on the subject
of aging, family conflicts, and an older woman's need for independence. But
eventually these scenes become repetitive and seem to delay the long-anticipated
climactic scene of the opening night performance. Adult caregivers, students
of aging, and staff will benefit from being confronted by irresolution, by the
lack of closure in the video. They will have to face the subtleties of aging.
There are no easy answers here, no absolutes. Who is right? Who is wrong? Michel
Jones makes a case that both her mother and herself share important points of
view. Most important, despite her personal concerns as a daughter of a frail
elder, she respects and affirms the rights of elders to maintain their independence
and autonomy.
Pre-Viewing Notes and Activities
Share with your audience some ideas regarding the organization of the video.
Consider the significance of the way Michel tells her story:
- The video tells the story of an adult caregiver who faces her mother's growing
old and increasingly frail. What will Michel do to help her mother maintain
herself and deal with an inevitable health crisis? Here the points of greatest
tension are the questions, "What will be required of the daughter in
terms of providing care for her mother if her mother’s physical health
worsens? What if there is a health crisis? What will be required of Michel?
How will she fulfill her responsibilities as a daughter, but also as an adult
caregiver?"
- The video also is about Edith's need to resolve some personal issues and
gain insights into her capacity for intellectual growth in old age. She is
a former actress who has taken on a role in a new play, The Afternoon Group,
written by her daughter. So part of the tension of the video is, "Will
Edith be able to fulfill her responsibilities as an actor in this play? Will
she be able to find the inner stamina required to learn her monologue and
express it flawlessly in the performance?"
- The video also is about a daughter who needs to reconcile some aspects of
a broken relationship with her mother. Michel lives far away from her mother,
and part of the video's plot is a consideration of how Michel and her mother
adapt to the renewed relationship. Michel poses an important question for
herself early in the video: "By talking about the play and its theme,
maybe my Mother and I can find a way to talk about ourselves." What has
been lost in this relationship between mother and daughter? So another major
point of tension in the video is, "To what extent will mother and daughter
learn to talk positively and honestly about their relationship? Will their
interaction lead to a reaffirmation of their mother-daughter bonds?"
- The conflicts and tensions noted above lead to two climaxes in the film:
the first is when Wendy and Michel confront their mother about their adult
caregiver concerns; the second when Edith performs on opening night. Viewers
should consider to what extent Edith prevails in both climactic scenes.Another
audiovisual that features a significant mother-daughter relationship is the
film I Know a Song (1987--see the chapter, Alzheimer's Disease). In
that film Brenda King shares the pain of an adult caregiver whose mother has
succumbed to the advanced stages of Alzheimer's Disease. At the same time
she shares some of the enduring family memories, affection, and devotion toward
her mother that sustains her when she visits her mother in a nursing home.
Compare Deborah Hoffman's relationship with her mother, also a sufferer of
Alzheimer's Disease, portrayed in Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter
(1994--also in the chapter, Alzheimer's Disease.)
Summary of Scenes
NOTE: Many of the scenes incorporate a voice-over technique. That is, we hear
the words of one of the people but don’t see them speaking on camera. Thus,
voice-over matches one set of words with another set of visuals that are relevant
to the subject of the voice-over. In this summary voice-over will be indicated
by the person’s name in capital letters, as in EDITH:
- Edith Jones, 77, and her daughter Michel sitting across from her in Edith’s
apartment. Edith watches her daughter warily. "What if you’re still
sharp as a tack but you’re not eating right, you’re suffering from
malnutrition, you’re a danger to yourself in the house because you might
fall." Edith says, "I think a lot of that is exaggerated."
Fade out. Scene fades in again. Michel says, "Let me get this straight.
You don’t want to see any homes and get any idea of the home you’d
like to go to? You don’t want Meals on Wheels. You don’t want us
telling anything what to do with your life until you are, as you put it, ‘bonkers.’
" Edith laughs. Michel imagines the headline: "Elderly widow abandoned
by daughters having eaten Triscuits for three months solid." Edith puts
her head down and rubs her forehead. Michel stares at her and smiles sardonically.
Title up.
- Exterior of Michel’s house in California. MICHEL: "Do we as adult
children have the right to tell our parents how to live if we think they’re
in danger? If we don’t step in, is that neglect?" She explains that
he mother has had a stroke. "I’m a writer, and I like happy endings."
She wonders, "How can I get her to talk to me about this when she is
so stubborn?" She notes that she wrote a play, The Afternoon Group,
about some of the issues her mother is struggling with. Her mother and some
of her friends are going to act in the play. Michel will move to Florida and
live with Mother while the latter works on the play. MICHEL: "By talking
about the play and its theme, maybe my Mother and I can find a way to talk
about ourselves."
- Michel summarizes some parts of her mother’s life. Her mother "was
always an actress" and one point had dreamed "of being a star on
Broadway." Several photographs show Edith on stage in costume. But Edith
stayed home and raised a family. MICHEL: "When I was a child, I thought
she was the most glamorous woman in the world, and I thought she would live
forever." A photograph of Edith as a young woman dissolves to a close-up
of Edith now. She describes the effects of her stroke.
- Edith admits, "Michel and Wendy were quite keen that I should live
in a home." She shakes her head. "But no way was I going to a home.
They kept telling me how private I would be. Nuts. You’re not private
at all." A photograph of Edith and her two daughters is shown. "Up
until then I had been friends with my daughters." Other images of Edith
and her children appear. EDITH: "Suddenly they weren’t friends anymore.
They were people who were trying to look after me, and I didn’t want
to be looked after." Edith and one of her friends arrive at the theater
for rehearsal. MICHEL: "She was right about that. Wendy and I acted out
of fear and panic. We never asked her what she wanted. My sister and I had
become the enemy."
- Three of Edith’s friends, women who will also act in the play, comment
on the negative attitudes toward aging prevalent in today’s society.
Each seems to be vigorous and intellectually alert. Edith at rehearsal. EDITH:
"This was always my one hobby. So when I wasn’t doing it, I missed
it terribly." She is shown at home: "So I feel great joy in knowing
I’m not completely finished. Maybe this will be the last thing I ever
do. But so what?"
- Wendy and Michel check the refrigerator in Mother’s apartment. Michel
has moved in with her Mother to help her through this transition. Wendy lives
nearby and works closely with older adults. She recalls that often Mother
tells her, "I’m not one of your residents." Edith comments
on Wendy’s attitude toward her. "Sometimes I feel that I’m
a case history. I know she’s saying it for my own good." She describes
a certain patronizing cheerful attitude that Wendy enacts when around her.
Edith thinks, "That’s the way I talked to her when she was ten years
old."
- 7:00 a.m. Edith sits up in bed and describes how stiff and sore she feels
when she begins her day. "But as the day wears on, I can walk almost
normally with the walker." She is wearing a blue bathrobe. "But
the first thing in the morning I just want to die." She wonders, "Why
should this happen to me?" Then she walks into the living room and uses
the walker to steady herself. MICHEL: "I’m shocked to see how bad
her walking has become." Her mother won’t use the walker outside
the house. MICHEL: "She doesn’t want anyone thinking of her as an
old lady." She walks slowly into the kitchen and describes the daily
tasks that help her keep going.
- Interview with Edith. She acknowledges the limited time she has left. EDITH:
"I just want to live each day as it comes. If I think too much about
it it might depress me." She is shown engaging in daily tasks. Wendy
in interview: "All seniors are living with risk, and it’s just varying
degrees of risk"--from high to low risk. "We may think that Mom’s
at high risk. The family always thinks it’s more serious." Edith
struggles to raise her leg in order to sit in the front seat of her automobile.
WENDY: "The risk will have to be really great before we can do something
about it." She adds, "From her level, she’s doing just fine
for herself."
- Close-up of three canes leaning against the wall of her apartment. Edith
in interview. Her daughters want her to use a cane. "I guess it’s
partly vanity. I don’t like to think of myself as an old lady using a
cane." Rehearsal of the play. The director, a young man, addresses the
actors. Michel explains that each of the four women has a three or four-minute
monologue during the play. At that point they will come forward and address
the audience. MICHEL: "The monologue is her moment to shine as an actress."
Edith plays a woman named Agnes, who reminisces about her marriage. Scenes
of rehearsal. EDITH: "I think Agnes is a wonderful character. I would
have loved to have her as a friend. Her monologue takes her back to when she
was a straight-laced schoolteacher who falls in love with an airman."
- After the rehearsal, the director talks to Michel about his goals for the
project. He tells her he is concerned the women "are going to have some
trouble dealing with all of this." When he began working with the women,
all in their 70s, he viewed them as having "certain infirmities"
and "limitations." He wonders, "Maybe they’re being a
little over-ambitious thinking they can handle this." The three other
women in the play express concerns about the difficulties inherent in this
production. They feel under pressure because what they thought was going to
be a "reading" is really a "performance."
- Edith sits on the edge of her bed in the morning and looks out the window
at a large pine tree in the yard. Then the camera shows her in a close shot
from a low angle: "It’s a form of meditation, I think." She
describes the tree. "I sit here in the morning because it starts my day.
I feel that I can pull myself together and realize what I have to do. It gives
me a feeling of ‘I can do it.’ " Fade to black.
- Sound of breaking glass and Michel’s voice as she cries out: "Mom!
Are you okay?" Suddenly the shot shows Michel leaning over her mother,
who has slipped and almost fallen down on the patio of her apartment. Edith
tells Michel she tripped on the entrance to the patio. "I just feel very
shaken." Michel bends over the broken coffee cup and the coffee spilled
against the wall of the balcony. MICHEL: "I feel my Mother is an accident
waiting to happen." Shot of Edith reclining on her bed. She lies across
the bed at an angle, lets herself recline onto her back, and then slowly lifts
her legs onto the bed. "Isn’t this an awful way to get into a bed?"
Then she turns onto her right side, pulls herself forward, and adjusts her
head on the pillow. MICHEL: "What happens the next time? Will her hip
break? And how long will it be to someone finds her? How can I not intervene?
- Michel and Edith visit a doctor. He shows them an x-ray of Edith’s
hips. One hip has been repaired and is fine. The other shows severe deterioration.
"The only answer for a hip like this is to replace it with a nice new
shiny one." Edith walks down the hallway of her apartment building. She
makes small baby steps when she walks, movements associated with the effects
of the stroke. MICHEL: She notes that Edith refused to use a "panic button,"
and stopped using a home care agency because "she felt embarrassed using
services that can be better used by someone else."
- Edith sitting in her kitchen. She tells Michel she is having difficulty
memorizing the lines. "Every once in a while I get scared that it’s
a result of the stroke or my age." The director of the play expresses
some concerns about Edith’s physical abilities. "Sometimes I’m
not sure that she is going to be able to stand up. She has a cane. I wish
she would use it." Then we see the director urging her to use the cane
during a rehearsal. She is evasive, tentative about using the cane. Finally
he tells her that her using the cane would make the performance "better."
She accepts this logic. MICHEL: "My mother and I are playing games with
each other. I’m pretending that she should use the cane only because
of the play and she is pretending to agree with me." Later, Michel powders
Edith’s hair, so that she will look older on the stage. She doesn’t
think she looks old enough for the character Agnes. She tries on a couple
of wigs. MICHEL: "She even asks the director if she should fake a limp
to make the part more believable." Michel laughs at the look of one of
the wigs.
- Michel confronts her mother in the kitchen. She tries to persuade Edith
to sign up for Meals on Wheels. Michel doesn’t believe a word of her
mother’s story of what she eats every day. At one point Michel points
out that the four bananas she bought are still in the bowl. How could Edith
have eaten one of them yesterday? "I wouldn’t tell lies," Edith
says. Michel says that "in her mind" she is telling the truth--but
in reality she isn’t eating well. "You’ve been eating Triscuits."
She gets the box down from the cupboard. Edith sits in a chair by the stove
and looks up at Michel. At one point both are on camera, the daughter standing
over the mother. Later, they stand across from each other and Edith refuses
to sign up for Meals on Wheels. She won’t give a reason why--she just
won’t have them. She leans forward in her chair and entreats Michel,
"I do all sorts of things to just please you and Wendy. But there comes
a time when I have to stand up for myself." Michel tries to bring out
more evidence--vegetables her mother left in the refrigerator--now spoiled.
Her mother denies she bought those vegetables. "People must think we’re
nuts talking like this!" Edith says. Michel hands her a wrinkled, dried
potato that has grown eyes more than two or three inches long. "I was
growing that potato!" Edith quips. Then she looks into the camera and
laughs.
- Wendy and Michel exchange grumblings about their mother’s reluctance
to change. Then Wendy and her family are shown visiting Edith and Michel.
Edith grabs her grandchild’s hand and leads her into the apartment. EDITH:
"Once you get the habit of ‘poor me’ it’s awfully hard
to get rid of it when you’re old. Don’t fall into that trap!"
Scenes of Edith swimming in a pool.
- Two weeks before the performance. Three of the actors meet at Edith’s
apartment. The women concentrate on their lines and several are shown reacting
to missed cues or missed lines. They work hard. Later, Edith maintains that
she was pleased with the rehearsal. Outside her building Edith sits alone
on a park bench and practices her monologue. This montage progresses to her
rehearsing her lines on her sofa in her apartment, in the swimming pool, and
then her sharing her concerns with the director. "This time I feel maybe
I’m too old." He encourages her. Then we see her sitting on her
bed and meditating as she views the pine tree. Later Michel works with her
in her apartment. The last scene is a slow panning shot from the open script
up to Edith’s head, laying against the back of the sofa. She is asleep.
- The camera moves down a dark hallway, as if simulating Michel’s frantic
movement as she runs to assist her mother. MICHEL: "I heard a thud coming
from the other room." She found her mother on the floor. Later, Edith
is sitting up in bed. "I didn’t fall. I’ve learned to fall
very easily, and I don’t hurt myself. I’m afraid the girls may think
she should go to a home. I can fall very easily, and I can move myself over
to the bed and get up. There’s no need to worry. It was just a dumb thing
I did." During this confession she barely looks up at Michel and looks
weary, uncomfortable, a little shaken. She looks up finally and says, "Okay?"
- Wendy comes over for a "family conference." Wendy tells her she
is concerned because every day when she calls her mother Edith cries on the
phone and complains about the intense pain she is suffering. "I don’t
say it to anybody else," Edith retorts. Wendy refers to the possible
need for "more help" than the daughters can provide. Edith vents
some of her hostility toward Wendy when she accuses Wendy of patronizing her,
as if she were a "case history." Edith mocks Wendy with the lines
of the patronizer: " ‘I’ll see what I can do, Madame. I’ll
do my best.’ That doesn’t mean much to me." Frustrated and
angry, Wendy looks toward the camera and shakes her head. Michel defends Wendy:
"Unfortunate choice of words, but her heart was there, Mom." Edith’s
point is that her daughters shouldn’t feel they "have" to help
her. "I don’t like that." Michel speaks up. Edith keeps after
Wendy, until her daughter jumps up and walks out of the room, throwing over
her shoulder, "I don’t need this thrown up at me." Camera back
to Edith. "You throw it up at me that I didn’t understand. Why shouldn’t
I throw something up at you?" She turns to look at Michel, who is sitting
next to the camera. Edith looks disconsolate.
- Michel (off-screen) breaks the silence: "We’re all feeling a little
tender at the moment. And maybe we don’t say it in the right way. But
we do care. Our problem is how best to help you without infringing on your
freedom. What do you suggest?" Edith leans forward and speaks earnestly,
"I don’t like to be told by Wendy and by you two that I’m being
selfish. I don’t think that I am." Michel tries to explain their
point of view again. Suddenly we hear Wendy off-screen, "By not trying
to be a burden you are being a burden." Edith begins to respond, and
Wendy cuts her off, "By not accepting help from others means we have
to pick up the slack." Edith turns toward Michel. "She makes me
feel so guilty. She doesn’t do it as if she loves me." Wendy says,
"Of course I do." She enters the room and says, "You don’t
hear what I’m saying." She brings in coffee. Edith says, "It’s
always my fault." Wendy rubs her hand across her face. "You know,
Mom, I would do anything to help you. I’m just trying to juggle a lot
of things at once right now." She summarizes the various priorities in
her life right now--including a divorce. Camera moves to Edith. "Can
I say something now? When it comes to my priorities, I have a feeling that
what you say is the way it’s going to be." Edith talks to Michel
later. She acknowledges that even at 77 she is unsure of herself and defensive.
- Then to a rehearsal. The director and Michel look on with interest as the
women rehearse their lines. More ideas about aging from the other women in
the play. One of the women is shown with her mother in a nursing home. "I
gave her an ultimatum. And she has never regretted it. Nor I." Michel
confronts Edith again in her apartment--they sit across from each other in
chairs. Michel holds back tears as she entreats her mother, "I’m
afraid I’m going to go back to Los Angeles and get a phone call from
Wendy that says--" Her mother offers, "--that she broke her hip?"
"No! Worse!" Michel regains her composure and asserts, "You’re
not listening to us! You’re not listening to our fears. I want you to
live alone. I want you to be happy. But it scares me that you’re blind
to the dangers around us. And that’s foolish!" Her mother cuts her
off: "But I haven’t got any dangers around me, dear." Michel
looks on, exasperated. Scenes of Edith preparing a meal in her kitchen. MICHEL:
"I’m turning into a spy and a nag. ‘What did you eat for lunch
today? Did you turn off the stove?’ " She asks several questions
about why she is responding this way to her mother’s situation. MICHEL:
"Who am I doing this for?"
- The cast party, the night before the first performance. The next morning
Edith sits up in bed and tells Michel that she dreamed about the play and
on the stage she was naked. In the dressing room that night. Wendy visits
and says hello. " Don’t expect too much," Edith warns Wendy.
Then the buzz of activity before the play. Here comes the audience. Many quick
shots, including one of Edith working on her lines at the last moment. Backstage,
Edith awaits the raising of the curtain. The opening scene begins well. The
women seem relaxed on stage. Michel "holds her breath." Wide shot
of the stage. The lights dim and Edith steps forward for her monologue. The
camera moves in, and then cuts to a close shot. She is flawless in the execution
of her monologue. Her face glows, and her eyes are alert, remembering. Her
monologue is accompanied by a musical score. Her character reviews the death
of her husband in World War II and the miscarriage of their child. She shares
her friendship with another woman. Edith steps away from her position at the
front of the stage to applause. Later we see the women bow at the end of the
performance, then cut to Michel running backstage to embrace her mother, who
sits in the dressing room. "We did it!" Edith cries. "You were
terrific!" They embrace again. "It was a wonderful feeling!"
Edith shares.
- Music up. Edith and Michel walk down a sidewalk in the park. MICHEL: "And
now back to the practical, everyday things, getting up, watering the plants,
carrying on. I’d love to be able to say that everything’s going
to be all right; unfortunately, life’s not like that. But through all
this we learned from each other." She notes that a physical therapist
will visit regularly to help Edith improve her walking skills. MICHEL: "I’ve
agreed not to bug her about Meals on Wheels." A woman will visit weekly
to help with cleaning and shopping needs. Edith plans to have her second hip
operation.
- Back to the two walking in the park. MICHEL: "I admire my mother’s
spirit and determination. I hope that same spirit runs through me." Then
a shot of the two sitting across from each other in Edith’s apartment.
Edith admits that she is not easy to work with. "What do you suggest
we do?" "Leave me alone." Michel smiles but grimaces. "How
would you feel if it were your mother?" Edith pauses and gives this some
thought. "I don’t know."
- Michel leaves. MICHEL: "Promises are made to be broken." She admits
that Edith may not continue with the physical therapy or with other recent
changes. "The games continue." She says good-bye. Wendy stands in
the background. MICHEL: "In the end I go back to my life and she is left
alone with hers. Am I doing what’s right for her? I don’t know."
Michel leaves, and her mother turns away and walks slowly into her apartment.
- Exercise class filled with older women. Edith stands in the back and moves
slowly and unsteadily to the beat. At one point she stumbles and has to lean
against a chair to prevent herself from falling. She stares into the camera,
blushes, grimaces, and smiles broadly."
Discussion Questions and Sample Worksheet
Text of The Great Circle of Life:
A Resource Guide to Films and Videos on Aging, copyright © 1987, 1999,
2005, Robert E. Yahnke. All photographs copyrighted by Robert E. Yahnke. All
rights reserved. Contact author for permission to copy photographs or
reprint portions of text.