Movie reflection: Frances Ha
What can I say? I did not think I would enjoy this film, but I really did. My sister kept urging me to watch it and when I finally did, I couldn鈥檛 help but relate to Frances in more than a few ways. You see, Frances is finding her way through life 鈥 navigating friendships and seeking out her place in life as an adult, especially as she鈥檚 realizing she may not be the ideal and perfect dancer the world of dance demands that she should be if she were to be considered 鈥渟uccessful鈥.
I won鈥檛 really talk about the plot and the overview of the film here as all that information is easily retrieved from the internet (a film by Noah Baumbach, starring Greta Gerwig and Adam Driver). Rather, some points of reflection as I relate it to a mature-age HDR student. What would success look like for a Ph.D. graduate? Would it be through being awarded a postgraduate position? Is it working in the academic world? Would working in industry be seen as a failure?
What about friendships? What makes a friendship a success 鈥 is it measured through the number of years of friendship? Or is it through the quality and the impact that friendship has made in one鈥檚 life? Do we have to keep all the friends we make? Or are there friends who are meant to be in our lives for only a short moment in time? The ones who are there in the trenches as you鈥檙e going through the chaotic moments of a particular period of your life. Do we outgrow friends?
鈥淚t鈥檚 that thing when you鈥檙e with someone and you love them and they know it and they love you and you know it but it鈥檚 a party and you鈥檙e both talking to other people and you鈥檙e laughing and shining and you look across the room and catch each other鈥檚 eyes. But not because you鈥檙e possessive, or it鈥檚 precisely sexual, but because that is your person in this life and it鈥檚 funny and sad but only because this life will end and it鈥檚 this secret world that exists right there. In public. Unnoticed. That no one else knows about. It鈥檚 sort of like how they say that other dimensions exist all around us but we don鈥檛 have the ability to perceive them. That鈥檚 what I want out of a relationship. Or just life, I guess.鈥 鈥 Frances
At the end of the day, life is filled with moments and before we know it, the years fly by. The moments are what sustain us, what we treasure, and what we look back and remember as we grow.