Tongue-in-cheek feature film about a bored housewife fed up with the bland, repetitive life she shares with her dull, routine-bound husband. A woman is singing 'Three Blind Mice.' Titles: Telltale Films Presents Carolyn Pickles, Anthony Schaeffer, Joyce Kennedy in Waiting for Alan A film by Richard Woolley A blue gate opens onto the grounds of a large, brick house. Inside, Marcia Johnson gets out of bed and begins her daily routine. She dresses, prepares her husband's evening...

Tongue-in-cheek feature film about a bored housewife fed up with the bland, repetitive life she shares with her dull, routine-bound husband. A woman is singing 'Three Blind Mice.' Titles: Telltale Films Presents Carolyn Pickles, Anthony Schaeffer, Joyce Kennedy in Waiting for Alan A film by Richard Woolley A blue gate opens onto the grounds of a large, brick house. Inside, Marcia Johnson gets out of bed and begins her daily routine. She dresses, prepares her husband's evening pyjamas and afternoon drinks, and briefly talks to him on the telephone: 'Hello, darling . . . yes, fine . . . everything's ready.' She takes a drink and reads in 'Country Life.' Alan, her husband, returns home, changes his clothes, and takes his drink. After an aborted attempt at conversation, Marcia serves dinner, and Alan retires to the sitting room to read his newspaper. Patiently knitting, Marcia turns toward the camera and directly addresses the audience, confiding the details of her marriage and the monotonous predictability of its 3,602 cups of coffee. In a fairytale-like ultimatum, she decides to 'give him three chances' to change his ways. They go to bed and read for a moment before switching off the lights. His book is called, 'Mr. Home,' and hers is, 'Famous Last Words.' The following morning, Marcia continues her smug commentary as she fixes Alan's breakfast, chats with the houseworker, Mrs. Betts, and explores the lonely grounds. She sits at an empty tennis court, watching an invisible match between Alan and another woman's husband. We hear them ask 'Good old Marcia' to fetch their drinks. Anticipating Alan's return, she repeats the routine from the previous day shot by shot, this time lingering over a picture of her two sons, which is sitting on the mantle. When he arrives, she attempts to break their dreary routine by surprising him from behind, asking him to go to the cinema, enticing him with conversation and, in another fairy-tale gesture, offering him apples. Nettled by any prospect of change, he responds negatively each time, ultimately rejecting the apples as sour. With a knowing glance at the camera, Marcia raises a finger for each unfavourable response. Finally, she leaves. When her husband notices her absence an entire hour later, when he expects her service again, he searches each place she had visited in the gardens. He finds her discarded glove and scarf, but, when he discovers the open gate, he does not pursue her. Instead, he closes it and returns to the house. Adjusting his routine only slightly, he soon retires to bed and rolls over onto Marcia's empty pillow while his wife happily catches a train out of town. Woolley's regimented camerawork stolidly documents the repetitiveness of Marcia and Alan's life, and his choice of non-diegetic music divides the film into three distinct sections. While Satie's '1st Gymnopedie,' accompanies Marcia's interlude in the garden, the original evening routine is accompanied by Beethoven's 'Fur Elise,' and its second incarnation by Chopin's morose 'Prelude No4' - both extremely repetitive pieces in predominantly minor keys. The entire first movement of 'Fur Elise' returns during the final credits. Ending Titles: Marcia: Carolyn Pickles Alan: Anthony Schaeffer Mrs. Betts: Joyce Kennedy Photography: Russell Murray Assistant: Anne Cottringer Sound: Moyra Burns Dubbing Mixer: Alf Bower Electrician: Mark Gibbon Production Manager: Jean Stewart Music: Fur Elise - Beethoven; 1st Gymnopedie - Satie; Prelude No4 - Chopin Pianist: Gerald Wragg With Thanks To: British Rail, Rodney Clapson, Sue Dillon, Film& TV Services Ltd., Nigel & Theresa Forbes-Adams, Dalton Hatfield, Caroline Hollway, Jonquill Hood, Elizabeth Mansfield, Noe Sheldrake, Janet Tovey, Andrew Tudor, Yorkshire Arts Association, York University Written, Produced and Directed by Richard Woolley A Telltale Production Copyright Richard Woolley 1983   Additional Information:  Script available as part of YFA background file.