Wonderful movie, so finely put together in every sense, much of the artistry especially apparent on the second viewing. I found it very moving. Lady Bird was a marvel (I also saw it twice); Little Women might be just as good.
(w/ R then a second time by myself)
[29/1/20: The scene that's stuck with me is the one where Jo tells her mother about her frustration that women are seen as only fit for love, before adding quaveringly that she's so lonely, and the way her mother doesn't go to her but instead - lovingly - stays where she is so that Jo is left to work through what she's feeling herself, drawing on her own strength, just as her mother has done all her life, that latter bit being all subtext rather than explicit and even more powerful for it.
And that pivotal scene is connected to the film's ending. My interpretation had been that, in this 'Little Women', Jo didn't end up marrying Friedrich, but instead stayed true to the aspect of herself that led to dedication to writing rather than to marrying or love, and the intercut final scene at the educational institution with the whole family celebrating Mrs March's birthday the way her novel ended, with the conventional ending in marriage (in this case, as opposed to the other option of death) being that insisted upon by her publisher. But everyone I've talked to since had read that final scene as being the literal ending, happening as well as the publication of Jo's book, or at least thought it was ambiguous - which led me to think of it as actually indeterminate, as in left not 'ambiguous' in the sense that it's up to the viewer to decide, but rather in an either/both state which is deliberately unresolved ... which is an even more elegant solution on Gerwig's part to the problems of adapting Alcott's novel.]
[1/2/20: This morning I've been thinking about the scene with Beth and Jo on the beach, fine sand blowing out to water, Beth saying you can't stop the tide, Jo saying she will hold it back. It's affecting in its own right - one of Gerwig's clearest directorial flourishes, and it comes off, having the air of the iconic even on first viewing in its rendition of impending loss and its characters' competing emotions and responses, resistance and quiet acceptance - and heightened by its placement in a sequence of intercutting and juxtaposition between past and present; it's one of the film's several such sequences to great effect, in addition to the underlying effects its structure creates, throughout and at its climax.]
(w/ R then a second time by myself)
[29/1/20: The scene that's stuck with me is the one where Jo tells her mother about her frustration that women are seen as only fit for love, before adding quaveringly that she's so lonely, and the way her mother doesn't go to her but instead - lovingly - stays where she is so that Jo is left to work through what she's feeling herself, drawing on her own strength, just as her mother has done all her life, that latter bit being all subtext rather than explicit and even more powerful for it.
And that pivotal scene is connected to the film's ending. My interpretation had been that, in this 'Little Women', Jo didn't end up marrying Friedrich, but instead stayed true to the aspect of herself that led to dedication to writing rather than to marrying or love, and the intercut final scene at the educational institution with the whole family celebrating Mrs March's birthday the way her novel ended, with the conventional ending in marriage (in this case, as opposed to the other option of death) being that insisted upon by her publisher. But everyone I've talked to since had read that final scene as being the literal ending, happening as well as the publication of Jo's book, or at least thought it was ambiguous - which led me to think of it as actually indeterminate, as in left not 'ambiguous' in the sense that it's up to the viewer to decide, but rather in an either/both state which is deliberately unresolved ... which is an even more elegant solution on Gerwig's part to the problems of adapting Alcott's novel.]
[1/2/20: This morning I've been thinking about the scene with Beth and Jo on the beach, fine sand blowing out to water, Beth saying you can't stop the tide, Jo saying she will hold it back. It's affecting in its own right - one of Gerwig's clearest directorial flourishes, and it comes off, having the air of the iconic even on first viewing in its rendition of impending loss and its characters' competing emotions and responses, resistance and quiet acceptance - and heightened by its placement in a sequence of intercutting and juxtaposition between past and present; it's one of the film's several such sequences to great effect, in addition to the underlying effects its structure creates, throughout and at its climax.]
