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Clip description
Fran (Noni Hazlehurst) has disappeared, leaving her friend and neighbour Marge (Annie Byron) to look after Fran’s three kids. When Fran returns home after three nights away, she introduces Jeff (Alan Fletcher), a barman she picked up on the first evening. Marge is unhappy, telling Fran she was worried about her.
Curator’s notes
Here we see another side to Fran’s personality. Her way of coping after being beaten by her husband is to go out and pick up a stranger and stay out for three nights. While it restores her high spirits, Fran seems not to have given a second thought to Marge, who now feels taken for granted. Marge’s opprobrium falls off Fran like water off a duck’s back. Marge and Fran, as two friends, fall unselfconsciously into classic mother-daughter roles. Marge plays angry parent to a tee, while Fran is the irresponsible, fun-loving daughter who comes home whenever she feels like it without thinking of the consequences.
Note the air of barely disguised desperation with which Fran tries to persuade Jeff to stay when he announces he’s leaving – an indication of her emotional neediness. This echoes her reactions to her violent husband walking out on her in clip two. While Jeff appears easygoing and relaxed, a pleasant contrast to Fran’s husband and the man in clip one, his nature will come into clearer focus in later scenes.
