Little Women- drama opening scene

 

This movie is a modern adaptation of a novel written by Louisa Alcott. The 2019 coming of age period drama was written and directed by Greta Gerwig. i will be identifying what features they use to convey the genre and techniques used to draw you in from the opening sequence.

The long shot of the woman in the dress from behind, I found intriguing. By the way she walks with intent through this workplace surrounded by men, she already shows a feminist act within the first  17  seconds. It is clear she wants to get her book published (although she says it’s her “friend’s”)  we can already learn a lot about her character which intentionally grips us into wanting to know more about her and how she got to this point in her life. We are shocked by his reaction to her story, we sympathize with the feeling of injustice and discrimination to the lack of respect he shows due to her gender, would he have reacted differently if it were a man?

This period drama opens, we can guess it’s set in the late 1800’s. The scene takes place in an office, in America (old american accents). We can assume the era due to props like; ink pens, old money, their costumes, domination of men in the workplace, candles instead of lights, and in the dialogue “the country’s  just been through a war”. The scene then moves to her running through the streets with joy and we see men with bowler and top hats too.

The tone begins quite seriously, it’s calm yet we can see  our main character (most likely) is very nervous through her mannerisms. The silences hint at the drama genre, there is no soundtrack yet, just ambient sound of the workplace, which helps us focus on their conversation and emotions in the scene. · 

There’s a close up on her hands that are dirty which we connote with someone who doesn’t come from wealth as her hands are dirty, it could also mean she doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty - she’s hardworking. The lack of music to then a happy, uplifting soundtrack to accompany her as she runs down the street mimics her emotions which is a classic drama genre technique. There’s not much colour in the scene or only dull and dark colours which could suggest a drama filled film.

She is ambitious, hardworking, pretentious, also hesitant to be confident as he reads her book. We know she is a writer. We quickly side with her as she is likely to be the protagonist/feminist of the film and it means we’re interested in her story. From his character in this scene, he seems uptight and close minded we’re made to not like his character on purpose.

 I doubt he will have little importance and we can guess the storyline will follow her life, not his, due to her kind character with more to explore than his. We will possibly find out why she became a writer or what she writes about. Maybe her life as a woman, struggling to become successful in her line of work because of the equality crisis. I believe the writers have successfully presented this drama opening, however, I could expect more emotional and tragic scenes to come later in the movie. They have set up the narrative nicely and created a basis to what could be an amazing film.