Great Character: Frances Halladay (“Frances Ha”)
The Great Character theme for the month: Struggling Artist. Today: Frances Halladay from the movie Frances Ha (2012), written by Noah Baumbach and Greta Greta Gerwig. Here is Jason Cuthbert’s weekly Great Character post.
At the typically post-college age of 27, the vanity of youthful ignorance begins to be viewed more as delayed adulthood than blissful rebellion. The expectation of responsible career development squeezes out every last ounce of idealism from your late 20’s energy reserve. The Californian New Yorker Frances Halladay is no exception from this veracious societal vacuum, her childlike spirit feeling isolated in her own growing body. But when everyone around her suddenly seems to be moving on with their lives, the joke is on Frances Ha, and she isn’t laughing on the inside.
Frances Ha plot summary from IMDB:
A story that follows a New York woman (who doesn’t really have an apartment), apprentices for a dance company (though she’s not really a dancer), and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possibility dwindles.
Frances Ha rethinks the romantic comedy to include one about two heterosexual female roommate besties growing apart, written by its director Noah Baumbach and its star Greta Gerwig who plays Frances with many “ha ha ha” one-liners. This real life romantic couple captures modern gentrified New York City with the timeless black and white beauty of the past cinematography of Woody Allen’s Manhattan. The electric friendship of Frances and her best friend or soul mate without sex Sophie (Sting’s daughter Mickey Sumner) is immediately established in the sharp opening sequence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eKHR6pg8ZI
Baumbach offers another lean, laser-precise look into pivotal character dynamics with Frances Ha as he did with that fantastically tense domestically divided tennis match that begins The Squid and the Whale. Frances loves Sophie so much that when Frances breaks up with her boyfriend because she refuses to ditch sharing shelter with Sophie to move in with him, she actually gets over it rather rapidly by daylight drinking with, you guessed it, Sophie at a Chinatown party with hipster friends Lev (Adam Driver) and Benji (Michael Zegen). But, the unexpected curveball that brains Frances out of the blue is when Sophie actually doesn’t renew their lease and bounces out of their Brooklyn dominion to the ritzy enclave of Tribeca that Robert De Niro’s iconic Tribeca Film Festival has made famous. Frances’ many meltdowns ensue.
FRANCES: Don’t treat me like a three-hour brunch friend!
Frances feels abandoned by the one friend she seemed to think would always be one doorknob away, with no husbands, children or wealthier roommates in between them. This living single switch is a reality check Frances refuses to cash. It stirs up quite a bit of self-conscience anxieties about turning her own dance apprenticeship into an actually lucrative profession.
FRANCES: I’m so embarrassed. I’m not a real person yet.
Frances has suddenly gone from Sophie’s full time friend to a freelance companion, mostly due to Frances’ passive aggressive tantrums and Sophie’s serious relationship with the financially stable Patch (Patrick Heusinger). While subletting with Lev the sculptor and Benji the screenwriter (banging out an uncommissioned speculative script for Gremlins 3), Frances become hyper aware of her lack of money and lack of housekeeping skills that Sophie got down on her about.
FRANCES: I’m not messy. I’m busy.
Dating the confident and together Lev doesn’t seem like the right fit for Frances. But Benji’s more inviting carefree humor and genuine concern appear much closer suited to the “un-datable” Frances. Plus, Frances’ competitive preoccupation with being a true blue grow-up just like Sophie is putting the absent-mindedness in her on overdrive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpu6Sg5GT_U
Even as the financial opportunities at the dance studio that she is kinda-sorta working at seem to not lead towards any windfall of wealth, Frances Halladay still remains too comfortable to embark on any new dance prospects elsewhere.
FRANCES: I have trouble leaving places.
When Frances’ new temporary roommate Rachel has no patience for her jokes or any desire to play fight in public like the spontaneous Sophie would engage in, a cool wind blows out any glimmer of bright candle light left in Frances’ sunny disposition. To make matters more depressing, Rachel actually dances in the main company of Frances’ dance studio, not too be confused with Frances’ stand-by status.
FRANCES: Rachel and I have a really cool apartment. Or Rachel does and I am staying there for six-ish weeks.
RACHEL: Five.
FRANCES: Right. Five. Yeah.
But even in the midst of hitting the rock bottom of her starving artist alienation and ego-bashing growing pains, Frances still clings to her ideal definition for unconditional love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuwUpMkybkc
For her ultra quick self-depreciating quips, for her saccharin sweet loyalty and for the dreams of her small town heart trying to beat freely in the big city — Frances Halladay is a GREAT CHARACTER and a giant bundle of joy among the struggling artists of cinema.
This characters is a great touchstone for any young person with creative aspirations because Frances’ story hits two notes again and again: The struggle between art vs. commerce. And the ultimate question of most every movie: Who are you? In a ways, she is like Llewyn Davis, but with a better sense of humor!
Thank you, Jason, for this post and the entire month-long series featuring Struggling Artist characters.
You may follow Jason on Twitter: @A2Jason.