On Golden Pond/Fried Green Tomatoes/Sophie’s Choice

Collection of three acclaimed film dramas. In ‘On Golden Pond’ (1981), for 48 years, Professor Norman Thayer Jr (Henry Fonda) and his wife, Ethel (Katharine Hepburn), have holidayed at their New England cottage on Golden Pond. This time round they have an extra guest – Billy Ray (Doug McKeon), the son of their daughter Chelsea’s (Jane Fonda) boyfriend, Bill. The generation gap is soon highlighted, with Norman and Billy clashing frequently and fiercely. However, as the summer progresses Norman begins to forge the kind of close relationship with the boy that he has always denied Chelsea, and comes to realise how much happiness he has missed out on with his own daughter. In ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ (1991), Evelyn (Kathy Bates), a bored housewife, meets Ninny (Jessica Tandy), an old woman who tells stories about her hometown of Whistle Stop. The stories centre around two women who ran a cafe, Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) and her friend Ruth (Mary-Louise Parker), whose violent husband Frank disappeared. Evelyn finds inspiration in the stories and her outlook and life improve. In ‘Sophie’s Choice’ (1982), upon moving to a Brooklyn boarding house in 1947, author Stingo (Peter MacNicol) meets Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) and Sophie Zawistowska (Meryl Streep). The trio become firm friends, and spend much time together; but Nathan’s explosive temper often results in Stingo spending time alone with Sophie, and it is in these moments that she slowly reveals her past to him, describing what she experienced at the hands of the Nazis in occupied Poland.