I first watched Little Women a bit over a year ago. It was the first film that introduced me to the techniques of directors, specifically the use of color is construing emotion and atmosphere. There's a lot to break down from this movie, so I'm going to focus on 3 parts; first, the color technique, second, the love triangle and my stance, and lastly the lesson that the film teaches us.
❗SPOILERS AHEAD❗
(1) Color technique
The film goes back and forth, paralleling between the past and the present, or, more specifically, the youth and adulthood. It's honestly heartbreaking seeing how depressed, unfulfilled, or lost the characters are as adults. The color palette--when I refer to "the color palette" of the film, I mean the wardrobe, setting, and mainly the filter that is dominant in that or those scenes--really reveals what Greta Gerwig was trying to explain to the viewer. The grayer, darker palette that covers the scenes of adulthood shows how starch and dry reality and growing up can be. The opening scene of the movie, showing the silhouette of Jo raising her head, is dark, gray, and sad. If you were to walk into the movie theater without knowing what genre of movie you were watching, you would immediately know it was a drama. The first scene of childhood, or the past, is at 9:39 in the movie. We are introduced to Beth, playing the piano. When I first watched the movie, I didn't know that this was the past. It's honestly a bit confusing what the past and present are, which should be understood by at least 1:29:35, one of the most heartbreaking scenes. We see Beth, miraculously alive and well, recovered from her illness. There is a magical gold coat over the scenes, and the lightness and airy atmosphere is masterfully illustrated by Gerwig. Jo awakes to find an empty bed where Beth had been the previous night, on the verge of death. She rushes down the stairs to find Jo, Marmee, and Hannah around a table. It's bright and happy and there is a great feeling of relief and happy catharsis. We see the family reunited, eating around a table. It seems like a perfect fairytale ending. As the camera focuses on Jo, sitting at the table, laughing, it cuts to the gray starchiness of two closed eyes, awakening. The following scenes are exact parallels of when Jo wakes up and discovers that Beth is alive and well, except that this is the opposite. She slowly walks down the stairs to find Marmee alone at a table, in tears, heartbroken at the death of the sweetest daughter, Beth. It is dark, gray, cold, and simply depressing. These two sequences of scenes paralleled the juxtaposition of dreams vs reality. This adds another dimension to the light and airy youth vs the cold present, the dreams of the characters. We now see how the naïveté of the characters in the golden scenes compare to that of how their dreams actually played out in their lives. A great example of this is Amy. As a girl, she is dressed in flowy gowns, and she is extremely naïve. She talks of being the greatest artist ever, living in Paris. In the future, she is in Paris, practicing art, but she is only brought there by Aunt March, who hopes she will marry rich, as (in Aunt March's point of view) all the other sisters are lost causes. Amy wears dark dresses, which look constraining and tight (I'd love to do a deep dive into Amy's wardrobe and how this represents women's struggle for independence, but that's a completely different story and this analysis is already getting very long so that will be in another entry). In the final scene, which takes place in the future, it is a golden and bright atmosphere, concluding that not all happiness and joy is lost in adulthood. Greta's use of color and emotion is absolutely beautiful and I just simply can't get over it. It's very similar to the style of Damien Chazelle's in La La Land (look out for an upcoming analysis!), and it's completely perfect.
(2) Oh Amy, oh Jo, oh Laurie...
I honestly have no clue where to begin with this. It's simply going to take too long to explain this love triangle so I need you to go watch the movie right now because my artistic abilities are unmatched and Gerwig will show the pain of this love triangle much better than I can describe it. Moving on. This section is strictly opinion based, and so is this statement when I say that all of it is Laurie's fault. I'm not saying I hate him, actually the opposite, I love his character, Chalamet construes the attitude of Laurie absolutely wonderfully and without him the story would not have been nearly as intriguing. It's so understandable to not know who or what you want. But Laurie broke both of Amy and Jo's hearts, leaving a lose-lose-lose situation. I know that Laurie and Amy ended up together in the end, but when Laurie had ignored her for the longest time and only given her a chance after Jo had rejected him--it's just wrong and hurtful. I think that Jo thought that she was making the right decision rejecting him and committing towards her career, and knowing that they probably wouldn't have worked out in the end--they just simply were not compatible--she could have at least given it a chance. Everyone and their mother in their town in Massachusetts knew that they had to have it out at some point--hehe :)--and they did. Even though Amy matured, she was still naïve--well, not naïve, but honestly just plain dumb. She knew that her actions would hurt Jo, even if Jo didn't show it, and Amy knew that she was second choice (which she did make clear to Laurie, and they both knew it, and yet she still got married to Laurie mere months after Beth's death. I agree with Jo completely when she says that Amy is shielded from the realities of life and that they should have sent for her when Beth was dying. And maybe Amy was overwhelmed with grief, and her marriage was a rash decision, but either way she completely disregarded the consequences of her actions. When Jo throws her letter to Laurie into the stream, it's simply heart-wrenching, especially knowing that the pain Jo feels is brought upon her by her sister. I am neither team Jo and Laurie or team Amy and Laurie (though, I do lean team Jo and Laurie but they wouldn't have been the best together). The best case scenario would be if Jo had said yes to Laurie in the beginning or if Laurie had realized his feelings for Amy earlier (which I still think his feelings would be invalid, as when he first met Jo, it was obvious that they both were in love, and they should have been together). But what story would that have made? One where the characters face no trial or tribulation, and end up happy? I am glad for the way that the story ends, it teaches us a...
(3) Lesson.
Don't wait. Don't wait around to find out how you really feel about someone. And don't think that because someone else has someone you rejected, you want them back. Jealousy can exist even if it's towards someone that you don't necessarily envy.
I know this analysis was long, I had a lot to say, and even this was a shortened version of my complete analysis of the film. I implore you to please, please, please watch Little Women and watch videos on youtube depicting the film. This is one opinion and what I've written here is by no means the correct analysis of Greta's vision, or what the film was actually trying to say. I hope that you enjoyed reading my depiction and take away from the film. Comment your thoughts, whether opposing, contradicting, or parallel to mine, I'd love to hear!
Personal rating: 5/5
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