For all new subscribers, this is a special column dedicated to films that occupy space in my mind. Beware - there are spoilers đđ
Dear Greta & Noah, 27 is a trip and this is a love letter to the both of you.
âDo I look old to you?â
âNo. Yes.â
âHow old?
âOlder than I am.â
âOlder than 27?â
âNo. 27 is old, though.â
Francesâ playful banter is gone. She stares at Benji, realizing itâs probably true.
The first time I watched Frances Ha, I was 16. It wasnât anything special.
Iâve seen it three more times since then, all three during this past year - this from someone who rarely rewatches a movie (always cherish a good first watch).
Needless to mention, I am myself 27 now and whoever I speak to about this, has had the same special relationship with this movie, only when they were 27. Why? What makes Frances Ha unique?
âSometimes itâs good to do what youâre supposed to do when youâre supposed to do it.â
Frances Ha follows Frances, a 27-year old woman in New York who is looking for an apartment because her best friend is moving out of theirs and she canât afford it by herself. She is an apprentice dancer but not a âreal dancerâ. (âSo, what do you do?â/ âItâs kinda hard to explain.â/ âBecause what you do is complicated?â/ âBecause I donât really do it.â) She is awkward, whimsical, different. She doesnât have any concrete plans. She is caught in a loop while everyone else around her is moving on and changing.
Itâs a slice of life. Thereâs conflict but thereâs no drama. Itâs a version of life. A lighthearted and hopeful one, emphasised by the method of naturalistic acting.
Frances Ha is a film about two best friends - Frances & Sophie. Sophie & Frances.
They met in Vassar College - a private liberal arts college. They are not special, they are fortunate. Privileged enough to explore careers in the arts, average enough to meander purposelessly through their twenties. Sophie wants to be a literary agent. Frances, a contemporary dancer.
âTell me the story of us.â
âAgain?â
Frances interlaces her fingers and puts them over her knees.
âAlright, Frances. Weâre gonna take over the world.â
But⌠life. Sophie finds an apartment with Lisa in Tribeca. Sheâs always wanted to live in Tribeca. Frances moves to Chinatown with Lev and Benji but she canât really afford full rent until sheâs done her Christmas show⌠sheâs let go.
She spends Christmas with her family in Sacramento. Off again. Real.
She crashes with Rachel for a few weeks before she flies to Paris for an uneventful weekend (âI think Iâll probably read Proust.â/ âI should probably learn french first⌠and then read it in french.â)
In the meantime, Sophie moves to Japan? With Patch? (âYou donât love him.â/ âI do.â/ 'âSophie, I fucking held your head while you cried. Donât treat me like a three-hour brunch friend.â)
For Frances, it seems like life is moving faster than sheâd want to. Where did the time when they ââŚused to take the train into the city and make bad decisionsâ go? Her character embodies the confusion of growing up in our middle class, non-poor (âIâm poor.â/âThatâs offensive to actual poor people.â) decision-heavy, get-at-able, fast-forward world.
It does so by its extensive use of atypical and memorable lines of dialogue that charm one all through to the end of the film.
Frances Ha is an ode to friendship between young adults, most notably inspired by old french movies - probably why it was shot in black and white. Although this might have been a budgetary decision too.
With a budget of a mere 3M, Noah was very intentional about the tools he had available. He used a Canon photographic camera that could record in HD and mostly alternated between a 50mm and a 70mm-200mm zoom lens. Little lighting, small crews but a TON of locations. This should be a crash course in filmmaking.
We all know how hard it is to write for production today. A script with a limited cast and limited locations is probably one with a higher chance of getting made.
Yet, not all stories can be told in limited locations. Sometimes, locations have a strong narrative purpose. Theyâre defining for the story. For Frances Ha, they certainly were.
Towards the end of the movie, Frances flies to Paris (and the crew fly with her). How else would they be able to pay homage to the french cinema they so much adored? Saving up money for a few days of filming in Paris was more important to the story than using an 85mm lens with a full-frame sensor.
IN ITS CORE, Frances Ha is an independent film. But itâs not just an indie - itâs also mumblecore. As defined by wikipedia:
Mumblecore is a subgenre of independent film characterized by naturalistic acting and (sometimes improvised) dialogue, low budgets, an emphasis on dialogue over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of young adults.
The mumblecore movement sprung out in the 2000s and early 2010s as the American version of the Danish Dogme 95 movement of the late â90s.
Other examples of American mumblecore:
Funny Ha Ha (2002) by Andrew Bujalski
Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007) by Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig
The Puffy Chair (2005) by the Duplass Brothers
Medicine for Melancholy (2007) by Barry Jenkins & one of my favorites
Tiny Furniture (2010) by Lena Dunham
It is a genre, it is a style, sure, but above all it is art. Itâs not just a skill. Itâs not just improvised dialogue. Itâs not just a good story.
Mumblecore requires a human component that we sometimes overlook both in filmmaking and in life - intuition.
Naturally, the mind wanders, if mumblecore is art then why arenât more people making mumblecore? Why arenât more people making art? Has filmmaking become a type of pretentious art? No, thatâs missing the point. To make pretentious art is to make something in order to impress someone & not express something.
Frances Ha happens to express the very identity of what the mumblecore movement is all about. The very essence of Frances as a character (âIâm so embarrassed. Iâm not a real person yet.â) and Frances Ha as a story is reflected by the means used to bring the story into life. Thatâs what distinguishes it and makes it a perfect representation of its subgenre. Frances Ha knows itself.
Which is, at the end of the day, the theme, the nut, the premise, the moral argument - whatever you want to call it - behind the movement as well.
âIâm not messy. Iâm busy.â
Busy with life. Busy with experience. Busy with making mistakes (âI like things that look like mistakes.â) You wonder, is she ever going to conform? Is it about conforming though?
Frances takes an office job in her dancing company. She now has time to work on her choreography. And she puts on her own showâŚ
Sophie is there. Engaged to Patch. Smiling at her from the other side of the roomâŚ
âYouâre both talking to other people, and youâre laughing and shining... and you look across the room and catch each otherâs eyes... but not because youâre possessive, or itâs precisely sexual... but because that is your person in this life.â
The film serves us with an authentic, delicate and subtly humorous take on the subject of growing up. We witness Frances learn and change in real time and that is healing.
Not everyone can make a film with the same effortlessness that we see in Frances Ha. Not everyone can do it and make it become a financial success. But most importantly, not everyone can make something meaningful out of it.
Thatâs why the mumblecore style works for this type of story and we love it for it.
So, my thoughts. How about yours?
I didnât know the genre but I loved the film. I was far older than 27 when it was out but its truth and immediacy were so fresh and refreshing, I recognised thoughts, feelings, the experience of being an adult âŚnot old enough. Your insight is excellent!
Never heard of it or the genre, but know a couple of almost 30yr olds and by Jove I remember the age. Will def. watch when time becomes a thing again.