5 Reasons to Watch 'Frances Ha'
Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha (2012) is a film starring his real life partner, Greta Gerwig who plays Frances, an up-and-coming dancer lost in the artist crowds of New York City. Frances’ character resonates with so many young creative women who are insecure of leaving their comfort zone to venture out into the world that waits for her.
It was during quarantine 2020 that I began my Frances Ha binge, watching it every other week, because it made me miss the outside world, the once bustling city outside my windows. Every time I felt moved with the tone of the film and its cinematic devotion to New York City (in black and white) and its unknown artists. The film is a rollercoaster of adult puberty, that uncertain, sensitive phase of post-college and “you should really have a career by now” age. Gerwig co-wrote the film with Baumbach, and now having watched it a million times, can recognize her own voice and perhaps some parts of her life and the struggles that she mostly likely had at Frances’ age.
This is a film with a unique, yet relatable female voice that could possibly get you through a creative rut. Are you wondering when will your next creative surge happen? Or is this it? Am I to never be inspired ever again? These relentless thoughts are also part of the creative process, so is watching films. Being visually stimulated in black and white offers drama and comedy, which this film does excellently. Here’s a few reasons to watch and learn from Frances Ha, which by the third time helped me realize that letting go is never easy, but sometimes being alone can be rewarding.
REMEMBERING THE HIGH
It’s really important for our mental well being as well as our creative spirit to remember a time when things were so good, so good that you wish someone had filmed you. That’s the excited feeling I get when watching the scenes of Frances sprinting across Chinatown, Manhattan like a happy go lucky lunatic. We have to remind ourselves that it could be so good again.
HOLDING ON AND LETTING GO OF FRIENDSHIPS
Frances and her bestfriend Sophie (Mickey Sumner) go through some social distancing in terms of their friendship. You know when your bestfriend gets herself a bonafide true adult relationship with feelings, hopes and meeting the parents. That pretty much leaves you on the sidelines wondering how this transition happened without your approval. In a way we are all going through a major transition with close friends. The thing to realize is that right now we are all changing and that goes for our relationships.
UNDATEABLE AND OTHER LIFE MESSES
Frances is undateable as it’s repeated throughout the film. Frances is messy, but she insists that she’s just busy. Frances is too tall to be married. All these things that makes Frances who she is turns out to be the reason she becomes lovable, not just to others but more importantly to herself. This isolation period brings out all sorts of insecurities to the forefront, but if we keep ourselves distracted enough and not let obstacles hinder us from our goals, we can love ourselves again. Life’s uncertainty is always temporary.
AWKWARD DINNER PARTIES
We can all relate to having been the awkward one at a dinner party, or watching an awkward moment go down. Even when we can’t relate to the people within an atmosphere, the challenge of finding a way around it is a cause to role play or better yet - learn to be ourselves in any situation and be comfortable with it. You can’t expect people to admire you if you are not being the real you.
NOSTALGIA CHANGES US
All throughout 2020, we made promises to ourselves about how we want our life to be post-quarantine. Nothing will go back to the way it was, that is what life promises us. But years later, we can look back and reminisce about how good we really had it, being around people, having tangent conversations, networking and roaming around aimlessly day by day. Frances Ha made me realize that Frances may have felt lonelier when she was with other people and it wasn’t until she was alone that she discovered who she was, what she wanted and what she needed to do.
I hope we all get that Frances Ha moment.
CHAMBERLAIN COFFEE
