Frances Ha

As this week is my best friend's birthday week, I felt it necessary to write about a film close to me. Frances Ha, mirrors me and Miranda's relationship but in a way that is very realistic and challenging and in the end, depicts a friendship that is complicated and intense but in the end is very loving even through eachothers varying moods, boyfriends and complicated and confusing situations.

Greta Gerwig, my favourite director is the co writer of the film, also plays Frances. The film follows the struggles and challenges of Frances, an aspiring dancer living in New York. Directed and written by the same director of Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach, this film stands out with its interesting use of black and white film as well as Baumbach and Gerwig's talented writing.

Frances and Sophie's relationship is amazing to watch. Sophie (Mickey Sumner), Frances' best friend is who Frances shares everything with. It is blatant that in the film that Frances and Sophie are the most connected plutonic couple imaginable. Frances even says, '“We’re the same person,” even though Sophie has her completely different interests and sometimes different values. Their relationship mirrors certain relationships that only some women have with their essentially soulmates.

Greta Gerwig plays Frances skilfully by making the character bubbly and playful as well as somewhat insecure and doubtful. We see that Frances' personality is childish, which makes her unique and interesting on one hand and immature and awkward on the other. for example, she decides to go to Paris on whim with no solid plan, she literally invites herself to stay at a stranger’s home in Paris and sleeps through most of the trip!

Baumbach's use of quite steady and still long shots engages me more than fast pace shots. As sort of an indie film, lots of the shots in the film are filmed to make the audience feel like they are looking onto their life from afar yet through the writing, its blatantly personal, so much so that it creates a ver claustrophobic feeling. Baumbach's interesting choice of black and white film makes the setting of New York and Paris feel both romantic as well as melancholy. It also makes us feel nostalgic which mirrors Frances' struggle to leave her youth behind.

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Happy Birthday Miranda ILY