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Frances Ha
Dec. 26th, 2013 11:25 amI just watched the movie Frances Ha, which reminds me of Girls - but an odd mirror image of Girls, where the characters are still lovable despite their faults and where hope for human connection remains a real thing rather than a fool’s dream.
Frances is quirky, but in an alienating rather than an immediately lovable way; the thing that makes her gaucheness lovable, even lends it a touch of tragedy, is that we can see her yearning to connect. There’s a dinner party, a key scene in the movie: Frances tries very hard to be charming and put together, but mostly ends up being awkward and out of sync, so even when her comments are not oversharing, they come so badly timed that they feel like an interruption.
What she wants, she explains, is that thing when you're with someone, and you love them and they know it, and they love you and you know it... but it's a party... and you're both talking to other people, and you're laughing and shining... and you look across the room and catch each other's eyes... but - but not because you're possessive, or it's precisely sexual... but because... that is your person in this life. And it's funny and sad, but only because this life will end, and it's this secret world that exists right there in public, unnoticed, that no one else knows about.
This is beautiful, but you can see why all the other dinner party guests feel unnerved by Frances’s intensity. They’ve just met her, and she’s telling them her deepest hopes and dreams?
Frances once had this connection with her best friend Sophie: but they’ve been drifting apart ever since Sophie moved out of their apartment, not because they had a fight, but because she had the opportunity to live in Tribeca. Sophie will have to live with someone she can hardly stand, and she’ll be leaving behind her best friend to do it...but it’s Tribeca. She’s always dreamed of living in Tribeca. If you live in Tribeca, you know you’ve arrived.
And after that, things just drift. Sophie gets more serious with her boyfriend, Patch, even though she doesn’t seem to like him - or at least, Frances thinks Sophie doesn’t like him; it’s hard to know what Sophie is thinking, because both the viewers and Frances get only very limited access to her thoughts. This is a new development in their friendship, but it’s unclear why Sophie has pulled away. Is getting married before she turns thirty another item on her “successful person” list?
On the verge of moving to Japan with Patch, Sophie calls Frances to extend an olive branch: her going away party is that night, and she wants Frances to come. Frances is on an impulsive trip to Paris, which makes it impossible for her to attend. But although Frances is clearly desperate to make sure Sophie knows that Frances isn't blowing her off, that she truly can’t attend, she never explains that she’s in Paris: to explain that she’s on an impulsive weekend trip might entail explaining that her career as a modern dancer is on the rocks, and she just can’t do it, even though they both yearn so much to reconnect that they are all but attempting to climb through the phone.
What is striking to me is the extent to which this is caused by success, or rather, the gap between their definitions of success and the things that actually make them happy. When things go wrong, either in their friendship or their careers, they can’t admit that they’ve messed up, so they only dig themselves deeper.
It is, for all this, a delicately hopeful movie: even if they can't quite work things out, they want to. It's beautifully shot and choreographed as well: the scene where Frances dances through New York City is simply beautiful: it's goofy and lively and fun. There's a lot of sadness in the movie, but it also shows pure joy in a way I've rarely seen on film.
Frances is quirky, but in an alienating rather than an immediately lovable way; the thing that makes her gaucheness lovable, even lends it a touch of tragedy, is that we can see her yearning to connect. There’s a dinner party, a key scene in the movie: Frances tries very hard to be charming and put together, but mostly ends up being awkward and out of sync, so even when her comments are not oversharing, they come so badly timed that they feel like an interruption.
What she wants, she explains, is that thing when you're with someone, and you love them and they know it, and they love you and you know it... but it's a party... and you're both talking to other people, and you're laughing and shining... and you look across the room and catch each other's eyes... but - but not because you're possessive, or it's precisely sexual... but because... that is your person in this life. And it's funny and sad, but only because this life will end, and it's this secret world that exists right there in public, unnoticed, that no one else knows about.
This is beautiful, but you can see why all the other dinner party guests feel unnerved by Frances’s intensity. They’ve just met her, and she’s telling them her deepest hopes and dreams?
Frances once had this connection with her best friend Sophie: but they’ve been drifting apart ever since Sophie moved out of their apartment, not because they had a fight, but because she had the opportunity to live in Tribeca. Sophie will have to live with someone she can hardly stand, and she’ll be leaving behind her best friend to do it...but it’s Tribeca. She’s always dreamed of living in Tribeca. If you live in Tribeca, you know you’ve arrived.
And after that, things just drift. Sophie gets more serious with her boyfriend, Patch, even though she doesn’t seem to like him - or at least, Frances thinks Sophie doesn’t like him; it’s hard to know what Sophie is thinking, because both the viewers and Frances get only very limited access to her thoughts. This is a new development in their friendship, but it’s unclear why Sophie has pulled away. Is getting married before she turns thirty another item on her “successful person” list?
On the verge of moving to Japan with Patch, Sophie calls Frances to extend an olive branch: her going away party is that night, and she wants Frances to come. Frances is on an impulsive trip to Paris, which makes it impossible for her to attend. But although Frances is clearly desperate to make sure Sophie knows that Frances isn't blowing her off, that she truly can’t attend, she never explains that she’s in Paris: to explain that she’s on an impulsive weekend trip might entail explaining that her career as a modern dancer is on the rocks, and she just can’t do it, even though they both yearn so much to reconnect that they are all but attempting to climb through the phone.
What is striking to me is the extent to which this is caused by success, or rather, the gap between their definitions of success and the things that actually make them happy. When things go wrong, either in their friendship or their careers, they can’t admit that they’ve messed up, so they only dig themselves deeper.
It is, for all this, a delicately hopeful movie: even if they can't quite work things out, they want to. It's beautifully shot and choreographed as well: the scene where Frances dances through New York City is simply beautiful: it's goofy and lively and fun. There's a lot of sadness in the movie, but it also shows pure joy in a way I've rarely seen on film.
