At first glance, to someone who is unaware of the classic masterpiece by Louisa May Allcott, the film seems like a simple story of a family of four girls (not that that doesn't make it important in itself) just another movie adaptation of the novel. But Greta Gerwig’s version is so much more than that. Greta from the beginning makes it obvious that for her, this story is about women, money, power and art - a story as relevant and pressing today as it was when Alcott wrote it in 1868.
there’s something special about seeing a story on a screen inhabited with women growing up, enjoying each other, figuring out life, written and directed by a woman - somehow even in this day and age it feels like such a revolutionary act.
The themes in the movie echo hugely to what Virginia Woolf's ‘A Room of One’s Own’. She’s brilliant. (The amount of time I giggled through this book, or stopped reading to look up and tell anyone around me how witty and cool she is, is unprecedented) The essay is a beautifully crafted stream of consciousness, a flow of her thoughts while she was asked to deliver a lecture about women and fiction. She makes a small but hugely important point - A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. One of the most brilliant writers of history and definitely my favorite one, she emphasizes that “intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor.”
I felt throughout the movie, Greta was trying to underwrite that emotion in her screenplay.
She is again one of those storytellers whose language and voice is so personal and an echo of who she is as a person. I'm constantly drawn to such people. If you watch any of her interviews, you’ll see a chaotic, messy, funny, humble, witty, brilliant, compassionate human being. Every time she tries to answer a question, you can see she has so many directions she can take which she awkwardly struggles to choose from and how her brain works in a messy mysterious way. I love her.
In terms of filmmaking - her approach to the content itself was a conscious choice to not go in the traditional linear timeline as the book. Re-making a classic that most of her audience were already aware of, she brilliantly uses that to focus on themes of childhood and adulthood.
She deliberately portrays a rawness, a realness in the film. The film feels rooted in reality where characters and places feel homely and light and lived in, natural and messy, instead of feeling stiff and rigid from this strict uptight stiff Victorian era - how mostly movies depicting that era are made.
Gerwig mentions in one of her interviews how the look and feel of the movie was inspired by the photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron, who was using photography as an artform before it was used as such, clicking photos of women in England in the 1860’s. They just look like girls - messy hair, annoyed expressions, nonchalant - just them as people.
* please watch the movie before reading ahead *
The genius of Greta’s version lies in the space she gives each character on the screen to allow them to express who they are truly, which was missing from the earlier adaptations. There is no antagonist in this film except maybe ‘patriarchy’. I learnt so much from each of these beautifully portrayed characters.
- Jo March - the lead of the book and the film, she is a reflection of Louisa herself. Jo March is inspiring in a way that she refuses to conform to societal norms to shape her life. She wants to make her own way in the world. She is flawed and human, rebellious and idealistic and so relatable.
It does make me question the frameworks that society, in this epoch of time, is built on and the obvious failings of that capitalist system can be seen through its ecological impact. a lot of the times when I talk to my friends about it, I'm bored of the conclusion they end the discussion with "well that's how the world works, what can we do." And I'm like, really? Remember when monarchy, colonization and slavery were the norm? and yet throughout history we have seen through various stirring sequence of events all these things practically eliminated, to believe that it is the current state of the world is the ultimate truth is just bizarre. Maybe, I'm young and idealistic too, idk. And this is by no means to say that I hold any power whatsoever to change the world, what I can change however is my understanding of these frameworks, how I function within them, and how much I let them affect the way I choose to have this experience on this planet. you feel me?
- Amy March - genuine love to Greta for erasing Amy’s image as a bratty, whiny child who only cares about marrying rich. Instead, Greta shows her as a young woman making mistakes out of anger and loneliness. With that one scene, she gives her character a platform to express one of the most important themes of the movie about women and their lack of agency.
“Well, I’m not a poet. I’m just a woman. And as a woman I have no way to make money, not enough to earn a living and support my family. Even if I had my own money, which I dont, it would belong to my husband the minute we were married. If we had children, they would be his property. So don’t sit there and tell me that marriage isn’t an economic proposition.”
- Marmie - She shows that strength doesn't necessarily needs power, Marmie shows her strength through her love, compassion, empathy. Instead of just being seen as saintly and serene, as early movie adaptations, directed by men catered to social norms of virtuous, self-sacrificing womanhood, Greta highlights her humanity with her line, "I'm angry nearly every day of my life", a mother who struggles to raise a family by herself but instead of letting anger consume her, she channels it by allowing her girls the freedom to be their authentic selves.
- Aunt March - Usually considered the antagonist of the story, I find her character sooooo interesting. In the midst of all these young ambitious girls, is this matriarch character, who is unfiltered in her opinions about money. She is the realist in the family who realizes that beyond all the ambition and dreams, is the underlying reality that the world measures value in terms of money. She isn’t evil, she just knows the world is a shitty place to be for these young women who want so much more than the world is able to provide for them.
- Beth March - the sweet and kind-hearted sister, taught me that ambition isn't the be-all and end-all. Sometimes, being compassionate, honest, and humble is enough.
- Meg March - “Just because my dreams are different than yours, doesn’t mean they’re unimportant.” is my favorite line by Meg and enough to show her strength of character to choose her own path to happiness in life.
One of my favorite things about this version of the movie was its ending.
Louisa May Alcott in real life doesn’t get married, but she makes the savvy economic decision to have her lead character married in the end. Gerwig reveals the economic underpinning that lies beneath the character’s marriage, and in so doing, she transforms the whole fraught and vexed climax of Little Women into a celebration of subversive feminine ambition.
One a side note :
The trope of a leading female character being saved by love is what sells, and still does. Most of the movies I watch disappoint me with the very archaic idea of love and romance. That a happy ending only exists when you find your soulmate - your partner in life. This is not to disparage the idea of love. Love is THE most important thing in life, for me as well, but to limit it to only to this romantic idea of love feels like an insult.
There are so many versions of love, and some of the explanations of what love is given by Plato and his made conversations with poets and philosophers in ‘The Symposium’. So far, for me the ‘platonic’ idea of love, which btw I suppose should receive the Oscar for ‘The Most Misrepresented/ Misunderstood Phrase of All Time’, holds the strongest explanation for what love truly is. Plato believed that love is a quest, but not to find another half of you, but a quest to love the ideal form of beauty itself, that’s the last step to attain in his Staircase of Love. Its a love that goes beyond love for other humans, creatures or even concepts, its beautiful to think about.
After listening to Greta’s interviews, I realized that there was a tremendous amount of trust among the people involved in making this film, as well as in other collaborations she's had with Noah Baumbach. It made me realize that I want to have collaborations where I'm not afraid to sound like a total idiot. There's something about the way she and Noah work together that makes me feel like creating something together would have been a blast. You know that feeling when you see people talking and you can't help but think, "Damn, it would be so much fun to be a part of that"? That's what I want to keep doing in life. To work with people who genuinely love, respect, and admire each other, without any power trip or ego getting in the way. I'm already scoping out potential collaborators who share the same values of mutual respect and admiration, and I'm excited to see where those connections will take me. I'm done with settling for what's convenient - I want my work to be inspiring and fun, damn it.
ughh…there is so much more about this movie I want to talk about…the androgyny of Jo and Laurie, the costume design, the screenplay writing method, and so much tiny trivia I discovered about Louisa May Alcott and her life...maybe I'll save some for actual conversations.
As I was thinking of the list of movies to put on here, from the list of extremely brilliant, well-made, thought-provoking movies I've seen in my life. I realized the only movie I was adding that was made by a female director, was about women and power and thus increased the relevance of it being part of this list.
fun fact : she was the first woman to be nominated for a best director in the Academy Awards in eight years for her debut film ‘Ladybird’ in 2018. She also became the fifth woman ever to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar in the 90 years of the Academy Awards - I mean clearly, we have a long way to go..
another fun fact : she shot this movie while being pregnant - I mean she made a movie and a human being at the same time - how fkn cool, impressive, formidable, and commendable is thattt!
I want to end this with another one of my favorite dialogues between Jo and Amy towards the end of the movie, which I think sums up the what the movie changed within me quite well.
JO
It’s just about our little life.
AMY
So?
JO
Who will be interested in a
story of domestic struggles and joys?
It doesn’t have any real importance.
AMY
Maybe we don’t see those things as
important because people don’t
write about them.
JO
No, writing doesn’t confer
importance, it reflects it.
AMY
I’m not sure. Perhaps writing will
make them more important.