In 2020, the most famous novel by American writer Louise May Alcott “Little Women” (Little Women) marks 152 years. Immediately after publication in 1868, the book became a bestseller, and to this day it is considered one of the best works in American literature.

It's no secret that Alcott's novel is to a degree autobiographical. The parents of the writer were not rich, she grew up with three more sisters. From youth, girls had to earn extra money as governesses or tutors.

Book Incarnation of the Alcott Sisters - March Sisters. They find themselves in an unenviable position after the bankruptcy of their father, which occurred several years before the events described in the first novel began (only the eldest daughter, Meg remembers life in abundance). While she and Joe moonlight, the younger ones, Beth and Amy, help around the house. Poverty is not a vice, but because of it, girls now and then fall into an awkward, if not dependent, position. Do not despair and keep your nose upwind the sisters mom teaches - Mrs. March.

The brightest and most beloved character for readers is Joe's middle sister: a stubborn, impatient, but undeniably talented and decisive girl who did not want to reconcile herself with the socially imposed gender role of a refined young lady living in anticipation of marriage.

The extraordinary kid Joe (she regrets very much that she was born a girl) has become a role model for many generations. This was talked about by both Joan Rowling, and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as Anna Quindlen and Sonya Sanchez. Alcott's idea of ​​self-fulfillment through talent, not a successful marriage, was progressive and very attractive at the time (but by no means the only fresh thought in the novel).

The sisters publish their own newspaper, arrange meetings of the Pickwick Club, discuss read books, and stage costumed performances with decorations for the neighboring girls. Culture is an important part of their lives, as well as philosophy (not without reason the March family is philosophical about its plight).

In fact, right after the publication of Little Women, Alcott wrote a sequel entitled Good Wives, where she marries almost all the sisters, even the rebellious Joe, thus crossing out the whole revolution of the first novel and disappointing some of her fans (for example, the writer Camilla Paglia called the continuation a literary horror).

Nevertheless, filmmakers kept an eye on both novels and at all times - not only in the era of prosperity #MeToo. The image of Joe was tried on by Katherine Hepburn, June Allison and Winona Ryder. Right on the heels of the BBC mini-series with Maya Hawke in the role of Joe, the novel filmed Greta Herwig.

Little Women is her third full-length work. In 2017, Herwig “Lady Bird”, an independent directorial debut, premiered about growing up as unassuming as Joe, the girl Christine from Sacramento. This touching retro impressed with honesty, humor, freshness and lack of mentor tone.

If Gerwig is a beginner in directing, then she is a professional in the scripting field: she started writing scripts more than ten years ago. First co-authored with Joe Svanberg (“Hannah takes the height”, “Nights and weekends”), then with Alison Bagnall (“Dish and spoon”) and, finally, with Noah Baumbach (“Sweet Frances”, “Madame America”).

Herwig became Baumbach's muse and icon of the mumbledore, closely following the directors with whom she worked, subsequently developing her own tone with her inherent ease, sincerity and love of improvisation. In a similar vein, “Little Women” was filmed.

The scenario “Lady Bird” strongly resembles the Alcott novel: it is a similar story about growing up and rebellion (but without the addition of the changing position of women in society). In both tapes, the face of this rebellious spirit is one - Sirsha Ronan (she very much asked Herwig for her old friendship to give her the cherished role in the film adaptation of Alcott's books), Lady Bird of which resembles a distant relative Josephine March.

To the frenzy of the rich boy Lori (Theodore Lawrence) in love with Joe, the indecently popular Timothy Chalame plays in the neighboring estate (by the way, he is the same fighter with gender prejudices as his film colleague Emma Watson). Interesting fact: in the final of the picture, Greta Gerwig leaves the question of Joe's marriage open. Alcott wrote a sequel with a “happy ending” to please the reader’s request of the past, but Herwig's Little Women belongs to today.

  • Shot from the movie "Little Women" Greta Gerwig
  • © imdb.com

Watson here got the role of the main beauty, the elder sister Margaret March - highly dependent on the opinions of others, but zealously struggling with the vanity of a young woman. The two younger Marchs, the disinterested Bet and the selfish Amy, were played by Eliza Scanlen and Florence Pugh, and their mother, Laura Dern. The nasty rich woman, a relative of the aunt March, was embodied on the screen by the always compelling Meryl Streep.

The star cast of the tape Herwig is not inferior to the 1994 film adaptation ensemble with Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes and Christian Bale. However, if we compare films based on the correspondence to the letter of the novel, then the preference is still to give the tape Herwig.

In the adaptation of the script, the director changed the chronotope of the story, redrawing the yellowed pages of the 150-year-old novel into a dynamic story about adolescence, love, self-forgetfulness and friendship. Shots from the childhood of the sisters alternate with their youth. The beginning of the story is saturated with bright, warm, yellowish-ocher tones, but as the girls grow older the “lamp” shades become dulled and flow into a cooler palette.

Herwig’s non-linear retelling is devoid of significant discrepancies with the plot of the novel (which is good), but at the same time it does not allow tracking changes in the appearance of some heroes (which is bad). Alcott has been following the fate of the March sisters for several years, and if the elder Meg and Joe have apparently not changed much during this time, then Amy (who was 12 years old at the beginning of the story) should have turned from a girl into a girl. However, in her film adaptation, Herwig unforgivably turned a blind eye to this, sitting at the desk with schoolgirls, 24-year-old Florence Pugh.

Nevertheless, Herwig’s strange game of imagination can be ignored due to a bold move with a constant interruption of the literary narrative, which greatly refreshes the story. In this reading, “Little Women” have already been nominated for an Oscar in six nominations, of which at least one for the “Best Adapted Screenplay” - the film adaptation undoubtedly deserves more than its competitors.