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