Displaying items by tag: Michael Christoffer

THE GREAT LILLIAN HALL

US, 2025, 110 minutes, Colour.

Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Lily Rabe, Jesse Williams, Pierce Brosnan, Michael Rose, Cindy Hogan, Keith Arthur Bolden.

Directed by Michael Christofer.

As we watch the central performance, we are probably thinking “The Great Jessica Lange”.  For 40 years she has top lined in quite a range of strong films as well as television programs and has won two Oscars. She is perfect casting here.

The film has been directed by actor and writer, Michael Christoffer, Pulitzer and Tony award winner for his play, The Shadow Box. The screenplay is by Elisabeth Seldes Annacone, inspired by her actress aunt, Marian Seldes, who had the reputation, like Lillian, of never missing a performance.

This is a story of a Grande Dame, First Lady, of the Broadway theatre. In a collage during the opening credits, she is seen on stage in rehearsals for Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, intercut with many scenes of her daily life, using the same words, performances. Lillian Hall has been a significant name in Broadway lights for decades. But, a slip and a bump into a fellow-actor during rehearsal indicates some unease.

In fact, the great Lillian Hall is in the early stages of developing dementia. And, we realise, that with these slips, with some dramatic nightmares, with the frequent appearances of her deceased loving husband and her comfortable love for him and need for his presence, she is aware of the situation.

On the personal side, there is her long-time assistant, Edith (a feisty Kathy Bates) who discovers her medication and realises the truth. There is a visit from her daughter (Lily Rabe), reaching out to her mother, but her mother over the decades often emotionally remote from her daughter.

There is a visit to the doctor, clarity of diagnosis, medication, advice. But, as we expect, Lillian Hall is determined that the show must go on, that she will be in command of her memory, reciting her lines, accurate blocking of the performance on stage, communicating with her director. The central character of The Cherry Orchard often like Lillian Hall herself.

She does have some support from her sympathetic neighbour, Pierce Brosnan.

There are many scenes of rehearsal, of slips, of Lillian’s determination, of communication with her serious-minded director who places great hopes in her, hopes that are not shared by the dismal financial prospects for the producer should the show fail.

We may not have liked Lillian Hall very much if we encountered her in real life, nor she liking us. However, the film invites us to share in the dread of dementia, in the upsets that it causes, some hope when she does reach out to her daughter with a visit, and some plain speaking with Edith. But Edith does have one solution, for Lillian to be connected by microphone and Edith to be her prompter – and a sequence in the rehearsal indicating whether this could succeed or fail.

So, ultimately, the dramatic climax is the dress rehearsal, the cast ready, a substitute ready, the anxiety of the director, the impatience of the producer. And Lillian Hall, about to go to the theatre, experiencing another appearance of her husband, remembering his devotion to her, his directing her, his support.

And, even to the final moments, the audience continues to wonder if she will get to the theatre and, if so, could she actually maintain her presence of memory, could she make it through the performance, the eagerly anticipating audience arriving, including her daughter, or, the experience of her condition compelling her to face reality?

Of course, the ending, whether happy or sad, is well worth waiting for.

1. Acclaim for Jessica Lange and her performance?
2. The New York setting, the Broadway settings, the theatre, apartments, the New York streets, homes, restaurants? The musical score?
3. The tradition of Broadway actresses, stars, first ladies? The image, the audiences, over many decades, the range of plays and performances, awards? The public lives, success? Their private lives, character, strengths and weaknesses, marriage, children, relationships, ups and downs? And the issue of ageing?
4. The introduction to Lillian Hall, the opening sequences, in real life, encounters with people, the hotel doorman, friends and associates in the theatre, transferring some of those sequences in words to stage performance?
5. The Chekov background, The Cherry Orchard, the central character, the screenplay drawing the parallels with Lillian Hall?
6. The rehearsal sequences, the members of the cast, their characters, relating to Lillian Hall, the beginning of the difficulties, memory losses, staging and blocking? David, as director, his ambitions, dedicated to theatre, no family, working with Lillian, supporting her, understanding her, visiting her, and the visit to her daughter and family? The discussions with the producer, her hard-headedness, business issues, having the standby? The tensions behind the scenes?
7. Lillian, Jessica Lange’s performance and presence, intensity, the thought behind her close-up sequences, inner intensity? Lillian, her age, reputation, her long career, directed by her husband, her devotion to him, his continued reappearance, her bond with him, wanting to be with him, the park, the park bench?
8. Her forgetting her lines, her seeing her husband, the disturbances at night? Working with Edith, for 20 years, Edith and her personality, asked by Carson to look after Lillian, the sequences at home, arguments, telling Lillian off? Margaret’s visit, the quiche, the tension between mother and daughter?
9. Margaret, her relationship with her mother, her marriage, her artist husband, her son? Visit to her mother, her mother turning up at the home, with David, the meal, the conversation, unable to tell her daughter the truth? The hospital sequence, the doctor telling Margaret the truth, her outburst against her mother, sense of alienation, her mother not disclosing her illness to her? Yet, the memories, her childhood, with the theatre, her parents, Lillian coming home, sitting on the bed, singing the song? And the older Lillian singing the song to her daughter? The finale, at the theatre, her mother acknowledging her daughter in the audience?
10. The visit to the doctor, his talking the truth, the test, the memory, folding the paper and the hand trembling? The pills? The prospects, the symptoms, the decline, her having to expect dementia?
11. Ty as her neighbour, the conversations, support and advice? His character, friendship, relationships?
12. Edith, discovering the tablets, confronting Lillian, Edith frantic when Lillian visited Margaret? The plan, the earpiece for the prompting? The rehearsal? Lillian not turning up for the premiere, Edith frantic again, meeting her at the park bench, the argument, Lillian drawing on her energies, going to the theatre, the performance, Edith with the prompting, the audience, acclamation, the performance, wandering, yet the final achievement, the curtain call?
13. The happy ending, Lillian and a final achievement, reconciliation with her daughter, with Edith, the success for the director and the producer?
14. The film and the themes of dementia, in public figures, diagnosis, prognosis, acceptance and not, decisions how to behave, to relate? The need for letting go?