Picture this: a movie about a girl in her senior year of high-school where she tries out for the school musical, loses her virginity, fights her mother, and attempts to go to college anywhere but in her home state. From a glance, it sounds like just any ordinary coming of age film with a medium low-budget, but this film Lady Bird was nominated for five oscars, including Best Director, was named Best Picture by The National Society of Film Critics, and was even called “perfect” by the New York Times’ A.O. Scott. What’s more, this was the solo-directorial debut for the filmmaker Greta Gerwig.
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| Greta Gerwig on set. |
Not only is the way that Gerwig created Lady Bird through her writing and direction remarkable, but a reporter from Time Magazine also noted that “it’s hitting its peak at a moment when teens, at gun-control rallies and voter-registration drives, are proving themselves to be concerned with much more than the worlds inside their smartphones.” Gerwig is very intentional in the way that she presents her characters, their quirks, and all of their struggles. It is a brutally honest representation of a young woman and all those in which she comes into contact with, including her mother, friends, and various love interests. Women from all different backgrounds are seeing themselves reflected in the characters from Lady Bird, myself included.
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| Gerwig for The New York Times. |
In T.I. Lubart’s article Creativity Across Cultures, the differences in Eastern and Western creative thought processes are discussed at length, and they are often times seen as two different entities entirely, however Gerwig displays hints in her creative process that are reminiscent of both Eastern and Western traditional cultures. In the article it describes how the Eastern view of creativity is that it’s a phenomenon of expressing and inner truth in a new way or of self-growth, and in this way, is very focused on the process of creativity. In an interview with Time, the interviewer states that “Gerwig likes to walk, often as a remedy for writer’s block. It’s when you’re walking, she insists, that life happens to you.” This thought process and perspective on her own path towards creative process seems to focus more on the process of getting there than what the actual product will look like. Even before she began working on Lady Bird, her creative process as an actress in the film Frances Ha displayed hints of Eastern creative thought processes due to the fact that she was constantly working overtime after filming had ended to take notes on the lighting and production design, pieces of the filmmaking process that most actresses and actors never even consider thinking about because it is assumed that it has been taken care of.
However, Gerwig also does portray more traditional Western creative thought traditions as well. In an interview with Rolling Stones, Gerwig describes how she sought to offer a female counterpart to the young men that are the lead characters in the stories The 400 Blows and Boyhood. She specifically wanted to focus on creating and curating a product — a female character — that echoed the same depth and complexity that the male characters that dominant these stories have. In the same interview with Rolling Stones, she said:
“I just don’t feel like I’ve seen very many movies about 17-year-old girls where the question is not, ‘Will she find the right guy’ or ‘Will he find her?'” Gerwig says. “The question should be: ‘Is she going to occupy her personhood?’ Because I think we’re very unused to seeing female characters, particularly young female characters, as people.” Then, as an afterthought, Gerwig adds: “And that is something that really annoys the shit out of me.”
In her interview with Time, she describes how women in film are not just underrepresented as characters, but they are also underrepresented in all aspects of the filmmaking process. She noted that by her being a successful director does not just mean that there will be more movies from her and another woman director that will start due to being inspired by her, but that:
“that female directors and producers were more likely than men to hire women to serve other key roles on set. Women comprised more than half of the writing staff on female-directed films but only 8% on male-directed films. Editors and cinematographers fared significantly better as well. Women in film, in other words, beget women in film.”
Gerwig specifically wants a product that reflects all women, all of their various intersecting identities, and their various perspectives.
I still haven't seen Lady Bird and I was kind of on the fence about it, but this blog post convinced me! I'll have to watch it over Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteI love how Gerwig strives to make movies about women that are about more than just getting their love interests! Moreover, it is amazing that she uses her position as a director to bring more women to the creative table. It is really interesting that her creative process is a blend of both Eastern and Western values. I wonder if there was a particular person or experience that influenced her eastern creativity.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing Ladybird for the first time and being shocked as to how different it was than any movie I had seen before. I loved how real it seemed. Like you said in your post, it wasn't some glamorized high school experience where all she wants is love. While it has aspects of her romantic relationships, it is really focused on her relationship with her friends, her mother, and most importantly herself. It was so amazing to see such honesty in a film. I truly loved Ladybird and hope the film industry gains more creatives like Greta Gerwig!
ReplyDeleteI saw her early work with Joe Swanberg in a (poorly done) movie called Hannah Takes the Stairs. Swanberg funded it himself and has come far since, and I believe he deserves it but so does she! good for Gerwig! She’s surpassed his fame. Woman can do anything!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of ladybird as the female counterpart to Boyhood or other stories of growing up, and I love that she is telling stories about women, that I know I related to, and a lot of my friends did as well. I think it's also important that she not only strives to tell stories about women that historically have not been focused on, but also that she strives to tell them in a brutally honest way. She doesn't romanticize too heavily or cut out all the lows.
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