The first photos from Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women are here, introducing us to a new version of the March family. Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women was an immediate success when it was published in 1868, and has since been adapted to film, television, and theatre multiple times, each version with a unique touch.

Set in 1860s Massachusetts, Little Women centers on the women of the March family - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - and their passage from childhood to womanhood, while also touching on themes like family, love, grief, and gender roles. Back in 2016, Greta Gerwig was hired to rewrite the script for a new adaptation, and was chosen as director in 2018. The cast is full of familiar faces, and the first batch of photos gives us a look at them in character.

Vanity Fair shared the first photos from Gerwig’s take on Little Women, as well as some insight on the creative process for this new version. The new March sisters are Emma Watson (Meg), Saoirse Ronan (Jo), Eliza Scanlen (Beth), and Florence Pugh (Amy), with Laura Dern as their mother, Marmee March, and Meryl Streep as their rich aunt March. Also part of the cast is Timothée Chalamet, who plays Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, the March’s neighbor who quickly forms a friendship with Jo.

The look of Gerwig’s version is very different from the last film adaptation of the novel, directed by Gillian Armstrong in 1994, starring Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, and Christian Bale. Armstrong’s color palette was warmer, with a lot of brown and orange tones, while Gerwig’s color scheme leans more towards softer colors. According to Vanity Fair, Gerwig relied on paintings from the era to bring a different look to it.

Gerwig also shared that this film feels like an autobiography, explaining, “When you live through a book, it almost becomes the landscape of your inner life. It becomes part of you, in a profound way.” She also spoke about the relationship and dynamic between Jo and Laurie, saying, “in some ways, they are each other’s twins,” something we can see in one of the photos above, with Jo wearing items of clothing that are typically labeled “for men.”

Gerwig and company are bringing a much deeper look at Little Women than the versions we’ve seen before, with a better understanding of the roles these characters had in that era and how they mirror some social issues that are still present to this day. They also paid attention to the smallest details too, so we have a lot to look forward to with this new adaptation of Little Women.

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Source: Vanity Fair

  • Little Women Release Date: 2019-12-25