DANIELLE STEEL'S CHANGES

US, 1991, 96 minutes, Colour.
Cheryl Ladd, Michael Nouri.
Directed by Charles Jarrott.

Danielle Steel's Changes is one of several telemovies and series made from the very popular romantic novels by Danielle Steel.

The films work according to formula, glamorous characters, heartfelt crises, romance, tragedy. While the world of the characters is affluent, the situations in which they find themselves appeal to television audiences who can identify in some ways with them. While the world is of glamour, even of stereotype and cliche, it is the material of glossy popular entertainment. Cheryl Ladd and Michael Nouri are attractive leads - she an expert television researcher who wants to be an anchorwoman, he a top surgeon in a field of few specialists. The film was directed by Charles Jarrett, who in the '80s and '90s specialised in this kind of material, but whose films in the past include Anne of the Thousand Days, Mary Queen of Scots, The Dove, Escape to the Dark, The Other Side of Midnight.

1. The popularity of Danielle Steel and her novels? Ingredients, characters, situations, expectations? Wealth and romance? Tragedy?

2. The glossy world of television, New York, surgery and hospitals, Los Angeles? Beautiful homes? Musical score?

3. The title and the focus on the author, on changes in people's lives - themes?

4. Melanie, her personality, skill at her work? Television research? The background of her youthful marriage, her twin daughters and bringing them up? The bonds between them? The appeal for the difficult operation, the television decision to make it an issue? Visits to Los Angeles, watching Peter, admiration, the attraction? Meals together, his story? Return to New York, the assassination attempt on the senator, her return to Los Angeles? With him, the courtship? The holiday - her daughter's reluctance? Her reaction to his children? The time together, Val and her pregnancy, the miscarriage and abortion? The family crises? The marriage? Her work? Giving it up, Pam and her hostility, her daughter's antagonism, the boys and their problems? Peter and his absence, surgery? Growing apart? Her leaving, her friend in New York? Peter's return, the reconciliation, her pregnancy - and a future?

5. Peter, skill in surgery, at work, the television interviews? Attracted to Melanie? The background of his dead wife, her portrait in the house? His children? The bonds between them? Mel's return, the holiday together, the courtship? The romance, sexual liaison? Val's pregnancy and the decisions to be made? The marriage? His working with his children, letting them be? Caught up with the difficult patients? Alienating himself from Melanie? Her leaving, his going to see her, the pregnancy, the future?

6. Melanie's daughters, their life, relationship to each other, their mother? Not wanting to go on holiday, the attraction to Mark? The romance, the pregnancy? Hospital? The inability to talk? The wedding, the girls and their antagonism? Their realising of their harshness towards their mother, reconciliation?

7. Peter's children, the adolescent and his romance, pregnancy and responsibility, wanting to atone? The young boy and his need for a mother? The teenage girl, her formality, studies, antagonism towards Melanie? The change of heart?

8. Melanie's friends, advice? Television world?

9. Melanie and her ambitions, giving them up, Peter's ambitions? The new family?

10. Expectations, predictable material, glamorous and glossy - but audiences identifying with characters and their crises?