âFrances Haâ bonds Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig
Oscar-nominated writer-director Noah Baumbach is known as the creator of literate, personal films about characters in crisis. Actress Greta Gerwig has parlayed her deft touch playing blond oddballs in small indie films into work with an impressive roster of filmmakers including Woody Allen, Ivan Reitman and Whit Stillman.
Now the real-life couple, who worked together on âGreenberg,â have co-written a melancholy comedy, âFrances Haâ thatâs becoming one of the most-buzzed-about films on the fall film festival circuit. Directed by Baumbach, the black-and white movie stars Gerwig as an aspiring dancer in New York City whoâs thrown off balance when her relationship with her best friend and roommate undergoes a sudden strain.
At first blush, it doesnât sound like much of a departure for either of them, yet the alchemy of their collaboration seems to have brought out something new from both.
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âFrances Haâ became the toast of the Telluride Film Festival when it first screened there last week â audiences seemed pleasantly surprised by the warmth from the often-mordant Baumbach, and one reviewer called it âGerwigâs defining performance to date.â The film is set to unspool Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, where itâs one of the most high-profile movies in the market for a distribution deal and will move on the New York Film Festival in late September.
In an interview between Telluride and Toronto, Baumbach said that if the tone of âFrances Haâ feels lighter than his other works, it wasnât totally intentional. âI do really set out thinking each one is a comedy and then whatever happens, happens,â he said, adding that he was surprised how hostile some audiences had been to characters in both âGreenbergâ and his 2007 movie âMargot at the Wedding.â
âI will say about this movie,â he added, âI feel like the final product is closer to whatever abstract idea I had in my head when I set out to do it than anything Iâve done.â
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Baumbach and Gerwig have been looking to do another project together since he first directed her in 2010âs âGreenbergâ and then in his unaired pilot for an adaptation of Jonathan Franzenâs novel âThe Corrections.â
They began by informally trading ideas and notes back and forth, then developed those into characters. Finally, they wrote a full-fledged script centering on 27-year-old Frances as she finds herself unprepared for adult life and reeling further when she and her close friend Sophie (played by Mickey Sumner, daughter of Sting and Trudie Styler) have a falling out. They arenât lovers, but thereâs no question itâs a breakup.
With this foray into screenwriting, Gerwig, 29, has become part of a current wave of actresses writing or co-writing their own material, a group that includes Zoe Kazan (âRuby Sparksâ) and Rashida Jones (âCeleste and Jesse Foreverâ). But Gerwig said she didnât necessarily intend to play Frances.
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âThe writing of it and the acting of it were separate for me,â she said by phone while briefly in Los Angeles between Telluride and Toronto. âI did feel like I had to write this script. The writing of it was such a huge thing, but the acting of it was scary. I really was worried I wouldnât be right for it.... It didnât feel like, âI wrote this great part, and Iâm perfect for it.ââ
Baumbach admitted he had other ideas. âI can say I totally had Greta in my head,â he said. âI always thought, âI canât wait for Greta to play this part.ââ
Baumbach tackled post-college ennui in his 1995 debut feature, âKicking and Screamingâ (that filmâs star, Josh Hamilton, has a small role in âFrancesâ), but moved on to explorations of divorce (âThe Squid and the Whaleâ), family dysfunction (âMargot at the Weddingâ) and adult drift (âGreenbergâ).
Returning to the subject at age 43, Baumbach acknowledged that he brings a different perspective â or as he joked, âfarnessâ â to that period in oneâs life. âI could in some ways have the distance of the director: How will I shoot this? What is the best way to tell this story? Probably not being 27 helped me do that in a more efficient way. But I also totally connect to the story.â
Baumbach shot âFrances Haâ digitally on what he calls a âmodest budgetâ and opted to make the movie in black and white in part to replicate the look of the collaborations between Woody Allen and cinematographer Gordon Willis on films such as âManhattan.â
The story is divided into chapters according to the addresses where Frances lives as she bounces from place to place in search of a true home and a more complete self. A Christmas sequence was shot in Sacramento (with Gerwigâs parents playing Francesâ parents), a weekend getaway in Paris and thereâs also a summer sojourn at Baumbachâs alma mater, Vassar. Itâs all part of the process of Frances letting go and moving on, becoming more completely herself.
âI think one of the things we wanted to achieve at the end of the film was this melancholy joy,â Gerwig said. âThat feeling was really important for us.â
If the early reactions are any indication they seem to have achieved that goal. âI think this holds up with any of my movies,â Baumbach said. âThe hopefulness in this one was never in question. I always wanted to reward Frances at the end of this movie. The character was hopeful, the process of making it was hopeful. It just felt like the way this movie should be.â
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