A Love Letter to Frances Ha

'Frances Ha' (Noah Baumbach,2013) follows a charismatic, clumsy 27-year-old woman living in New York City as she dubiously attempts to hold onto her job as a modern dancer and her fractured friendship with her best friend, Sophie. Co-written by and starring Greta Gerwig, this coming-of-age tale delightfully corresponds with her much-beloved 'Lady Bird', drawing on similar themes and settings. It is heart-warming, ludicrous and entirely filmed in black and white, adding a layer of delicious nostalgia to this heavenly gem of a movie.

Anyone who truly knows me is aware of how much I adore this film (and is probably irritated by how much I talk about it). In fact, one of my most treasured pastimes is forcing my favourite people to re-watch it with me over and over again. I love introducing my closest friends to Frances' world as she navigates the streets of New York, Paris and Sacramento, puzzling over her insecurities, relationships and the instability of her delirious life. It really is just magic. In lockdown particularly, I couldn't help but be drawn back to this film, simultaneously comforted and unnerved by Frances' unfettered, impromptu and often selfish behaviour. Her lack of organisation, strange habits and daily disasters became uncannily familiar as I dreamily watched days pass by without any routine or productivity. But, it wasn't Frances' chaos that encouraged me to turn on the TV. It was Frances' adoration for Sophie and the honest, silly and unapologetic portrayal of modern female friendship that the film is so famous for. In a similar vein to movies such as 'Animals' (Sophie Hyde, 2019) and 'Booksmart' (Olivia Wilde, 2019), it realistically projects the daily muddles, often rank intimacy and wonderful absurdities of platonic love between two girls onto the silver screen and does it so beautifully. It delves respectfully into the depth and sentimentality of such affection without the usual distraction of a rom-com: the male love interest. Frances is unaware and detached from the male attention she receives, completely infatuated by and focused on fixing the issues in her friendship with Sophie. Sophie seems to be all she can think about.

In one of the early scenes of the film, Frances and Sophie discuss all of the wondrous possibilities that their futures may hold for them together, idealistically manifesting their fame and fortune whilst their bodies lie entangled side by side on Sophie's bed. Describing this fantastical masterplan as 'The Story of Us', Baumbach illuminates how their powerful partnership could easily rival romantic love, accumulating as many complications, memories and promises as a marriage. Their futures are undoubtedly and intrinsically connected and when the girls begin to drift apart, it is clear why Frances fails to modify to life without having Sophie always by her side. Unsure of how to cope, she attempts to recreate that specific love she had with Sophie with other uninterested individuals, highlighting the inevitable impossibility of such a replication. When she desperately attempts to play-fight with Rachel, her unimpressed colleague at the dance school, in the park, you can't help but feel such sympathy for her as you suddenly realise the extremity of that gaping hole in France's life left by Sophie's departure. Without a doubt, Baumbach perfectly captures the intense particularity of that love that goes hand in hand with being the best friend of another woman. It can never be matched.

Frances herself sums it up perfectly when she explains the "moment" that she wants most out of life, unaware that it is already in her clutches.

“It’s 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 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. It’s sort of like how they say that other dimensions exist all around us but we don’t have the ability to perceive them. That’s what I want out of a relationship. Or just life, I guess.”

'Frances Ha' is all about finding "your person" and realising that you should never ever give them up. Ever.