USED PEOPLE

US, 1992, 115 minutes, Colour.
Shirley Mac Laine, Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Marcia Gaye Hardin, Marcello Mastroianni, Bob Dishey, Sylvia Sidney.
Directed by Beeban Kidron.

Used People was written by actor Todd Graff (writer of the American adaptation of The Vanishing). It was directed by British Beeban Kidron (Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Antonia and Jane). She brings a perceptive British eye to the characters and situations in New York City of 1969.

The film focuses mainly on elderly people, a Jewish housewife in Queens, played with accuracy and feeling by Shirley Mac Laine. Jessica Tandy is her mother, Sylvia Sidney her mother's close friend. Kathy Bates and Marcia Gaye Hardin are her daughters. Bob Dishey is her husband who dies - and Marcello Mastroianni is an acquaintance of her husband who comes to see her at her husband's funeral.

The film is particularly well acted - although, as the screenplay notes, this Jewish family yells at each other all the time.

The film is a focus on characters, personality idiosyncrasies, clashes, beliefs in love, betrayal.

The film has warmth and sentiment - but the characters in themselves are often abrasive.

1. The credits in writing, direction, stars?

2. Queens and New York City, the Manhattan outline - the '40s, 1969. Period detail, style? The musical score, the songs? The cinema references, especially The Graduate? and Bonnie and Clyde?

3. The title and its focus on the experience of people, ageing, new opportunities?

4. The credits and the slow tracking over the memories of the past? 1946 and Pearl cooking, Jack and his arrival, the hesitation, not speaking, the dancing? The graceful movements, Pearl's fall? The girls watching and grinning? The transition to Jack's death and funeral? The flashbacks and the meaning of this prelude? The meaning of Jack's love, watching Pearl die and feeling unable to help her in the house? His wanting to leave, the note and the money? In the bar, the talk with Joe, learning how to dance? The particular theme song and its being dear to Pearl? Joe and his watching the event? The irony of Jack and the money and note in his shoe and Pearl finding it? Meant to find it? Joe and the aftermath 23 years later?

5. Shirley MacLaine? as Pearl, her appearance, Jewish housewife, 37 years of marriage, single-minded, cook, caring for her children, her husband? Limited horizons? In the kitchen in 1946, being overwhelmed by the dance? 1969 and her grief, the experience of the funeral, her quarrelling family in the hearse, Norma not wanting to go into the cemetery? The burial, the wake, the family gathering, food, arguments? Talking, issues? The different generations? Her reaction to her mother? Accepting Joe's invitation?

6. Jewish families, Barbara and her talking about yelling, her children's response? Tensions, workaholics, expectations of one another, touches of madness?

7. Joe and his arrival, quiet, put off by the people at the wake, wanting to find Pearl? His proposal to her to go out? His own background, marriage and absence in the merchant navy, his daughter and her resentments, his bond with his brother Paolo? His mother and her Italian background? The bar? Inviting Pearl out, her dressing herself up to go? The walk to the bar, talking, Pearl's impatience, the story about Jack? Pearl's inability to listen? His wanting to talk, his always being there, the gift of the air-conditioner - and his fixing it? The invitation of the family to the meal, the celebration, the frank talk, the rudeness, his anger? Pearl and her wanting to wash up? The piano accordion and his giving it to the young boy, teaching him to play it? The influence on the whole family? Listening to the boy, his need for psychiatric help? His concern for Barbara and urging her to stand on her own feet? With Norma and getting her mother to talk things over? The courtship, the proposal, sleeping together - to test snoring and being comfortable? Norma's son on the roof, the episode with the dog, saving him from falling? The wedding, bringing Barbara back as a gift? Never doubting that he would marry Pearl? His happiness? His new chance for family, his daughter's resentment, the reassessing of his life, his absences? His ability to talk, joke, his range of quotations? A wise and genial man?

8. The influence on Pearl, her age, experience, the 37 years of marriage, the work, bringing up the daughters, coping with her mother? The puzzle of Joe, going out, listening to the story? Barbara coming home and her mocking her, the smell, not talking with her, hanging up on the phone? Pearl at home, mockery? Her argument with Barbara and the pouring out of her rage? The concern about Norma and her son, going to visit her in the bank? The clashes with her mother, the meal at the bar? At the baths, playing cards, kissing Joe in the baths - and everybody's reaction? Her discovering the note and the money? Accepting Joe's proposal, unsure, the sleeping arrangements? The wedding, wanting a sign - and the reconciliation with her daughter?

9. Barbara and her nickname, the smell, fatness - and being upset as a girl? Divorce, children? Her hard work, wanting to talk to her mother, the phone calls? The picnic and her mother's criticism of the children in the car (and her later lowering the window)? The clashes with Norma, the meal and her drinking? The talk about the yelling? The decision to go to California, the encounter with her mother in the lift and with the laundry, listening to her mother's rage? The decision to go? The return, reconciliation with Norma and her mother?

10. Norma, the spoilt younger child, the loss of her baby? Her boy and his eccentricity? With her mother, unable to face her father's funeral, not going to the cemetery? Her touch of madness? Fashion, dressing up, Marilyn Monroe, Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde? Watching The Graduate?, dressing as Mrs Robinson? The flirting with Frank, going to the club, re-enacting Mrs Robinson? with him? Tying him up, the cigarettes - and her anger about his treating her son? The clashes with her sister? The confrontation with her mother at the bank, with her son? Her accepting the madness? His pleading with her, her going to the funeral before the wedding, wearing a normal dress?

11. Frank, his wife, the brittle marriage? At the meal, flirting with Norma? Saving Norma's son on the train line, offering to see him for psychiatric sessions? The sessions, the encounter with Norma as Mrs Robinson, his infidelity, her torture - and his capitulation?

12. Pearl's mother and her friend Becky, friends for 72 years, their love of arguing, playing cards and games, the chat in the park and their trying to outrival each other, the visit to the rest home and its effect on each, Becky and her wanting good flushing toilets? The children urging the mother to go to Florida? Her resistance? The final decision, inviting Becky?

13. The various relatives, brothers and sisters-in-law, the arguments about freeways, about food? Their curiosity? Arguments and being hurt? Loud?

14. Norma's son, affected by his grandfather's death, the influence of his grandfather? Feeling he was Superman, trying to test out his invulnerability, with his aunt, inviting her to pinch him, confronting the dog and its being tame, on the train line and touching the third rail, willing himself to fall from the building? Seeing Frank for psychiatric sessions? His pleading with his mother to be normal? Explaining that the grief of the death and the departure of his father hurt him as well?

15. Jack, the dancing sequence, the photos and the memories, seen in flashback, the decision to leave Pearl, the dancing, the discussion with Joe? Leaving the money and the note to be found?

16. The effect of Pearl and Joe on each other, transformation, liberating Pearl? Pearl and her humdrum life, her hopes and expectations of life, her rage?

17. The wedding ceremony, the hippie ministers, the ceremony and its mood? The audience being left with the wedding - and hopes for the future?