#Vanessa Caswill

[isaacsdevil4108]

Little Women (2017) dir. Vanessa Caswill

Jonah Hauer-King as Theodore Lawrence & Kathryn Newton as Amy March

#little women #amy march #laurie laurence #theodore laurence #little women 2017 #Vanessa Caswill #jonah hauer king #kathryn newton #gifset #edit #mine #gifedit #lw #lw 2017 #movies #I AM OBSESSED WITH THESE TWO

[allgirlsareprincesses]

Love At First Sight (2023)

Okay, we’re going to talk about the new Netflix romance directed by Vanessa Caswill, Love At First Sight, because I’m seeing almost no chatter about it and that cannot stand. Full disclosure, I’ve never read the book on which this movie is based, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, so I’m reacting only to the film (which I’ve now seen 4.5 times in 2 days).

The Surface Reading

It’s a perfect, tight, adorable little RomCom that’s heavy on the Rom and light on the Com, with a wrenching dash of angst and the most hair-twirling chemistry between two leads that has graced our screens in years. Truly, if all you want is 90 minutes of two actors being saccharine precious cinnamon rolls, look no further!

There are simple takeaways here, like that chance can only take you so far, but in the end you have to choose to love. Or that change and loss are part of life and you can’t run from them. Or that London is a massive labyrinth of eccentric people that probably looks 400% cooler onscreen than it is in reality (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never visited, so this and the 90s Parent Trap are the extent of my knowledge about the city, sorry).

Anyway, I adored how straightforward the story was - that the narrator (played brilliantly by Jameela Jamil) tells you directly in the first two minutes that it’s a story about love, fate, and statistics. She then repeatedly describes every development as it is happening, the characters’ histories and internal monologues, and all the context you need to follow the thin but fast-paced plot. The writing, performances, and production design are all solid, allowing the audience to get lost in the romance as it unfolds.

BUT if you’re slightly unhinged like I am and you’re always looking for more layers in your media, HAVE NO FEAR! There is in fact more going on in this little movie than you might expect.

Color Theory

For starters, the use of red and green in the film is fascinating. Yes, I realize the action of the story takes place a few days before Christmas, so you might assume it was just a seasonal aesthetic choice, but if you look closer, you can see very carefully selected shades of red and green repeating throughout the film. The red is a cool, deep rose color, sometimes pink, while the green is cool and dark, like oxidized bronze rather than emerald. Further, while they appear over and over, these hues are rarely used in a purely decorative or festive way. Instead, they play a role in the separation and coming together of the couple. On a color wheel, red and green are complements, perfect opposites that are never adjacent but always joined in the middle.

The title card during Hadley’s introduction is literally a green stripe over a red stripe, then the hallways of the airport are green, and of course Hadley’s ever-important backpack is a rosy red. As the couple grow closer on their flight, the light turns pink. Once in London, a green van takes Oliver one way while a red taxi takes Hadley the other. At her father’s wedding, Hadley is dressed in red (“the color of a bruise” she calls it), contrasting beautifully against her green jacket. Upon realizing Oliver’s true purpose, she chases after him on an iconic red double-decker bus. Meanwhile at the living memorial, Oliver’s father is dressed in red while his mother wears a faded green, as if to say she is already beginning to fade away. The event is decorated with green drapery and streamers, and there are even stacks of red and green chairs in the stairwell where Oliver begs his mother to receive treatment.

Hadley gifts her red and green bouquet to Tessa, and when she is driven away, a green-clad narrator returns the red backpack to Oliver. Wandering London alone, Hadley exchanges her painful red heels for a pair of green trainers (“sneakers!” she insists), and tries to call her dad first in a red phone booth and then on a phone from a stranger sitting in a cluster of red chairs. Finally, Oliver chooses to pursue Hadley to the wedding reception which is lit in pink, and where they finally share the long-awaited kiss.

There are many more examples, but in general we see that green indicates separation and loss, while red symbolizes joining, intimacy, and (what else?) love! It lends the film a gorgeous, subtle aesthetic without being garishly festive, and shows the lovers’ emotional journey from lonely childhood to vulnerable, loving adulthood.

Death and Rebirth

Speaking of which, there’s plenty of rebirth imagery too! When Hadley and Oliver meet, they are both still children, struggling with the impending loss of parental security through divorce and death. Thus, when they board the plane, it is as if they enter an underworld or womb, separated from their families and remade as new adults. They emerge on the other side into a hallway (read: birth canal), as each must still confront their own dying childhood before they can join as full and equal partners. Hadley journeys to a bright, red-strewn celebration of life, while Oliver must enter a dark green commemoration of death, his fear driving him deeper to hide in another hallway. Here his mother comes to find him, begging him to emerge into life, but Ollie still can’t confront her death alone.

Thankfully, Hadley travels to this underworld to find him, bursting into the memorial like a bright red flower. Even the bruise metaphor works, acknowledging the pain they are both experiencing at the changes in their lives. But Oliver still refuses to face his fears, trying to take a shortcut around death to life with Hadley. Still, she knows he’s not ready (likely because she’s not yet, either), and gently pushes back. And so, Oliver returns to the underworld, and Hadley walks off alone until she descends barefoot through a soggy riverside tunnel (birth canal again!). Finally, she calls her father and admits she is “lost.” When he arrives, Hadley at last gathers the courage to ask why he ended their old life, and to tell him how much it hurt her. But as Oliver predicted, she forgives her dad and even begins to accept his new bride.

Back at the memorial, Oliver is reminded by Hadley’s red backpack - his unaddressed emotional baggage - to be honest about his pain. In at last openly mourning his mother and his own childhood, Ollie takes a step into adulthood, just enough for his family to nudge him that extra bit to go after Hadley. And so, the family delivers him to his bride, who has meanwhile learned to dance again, even through her heartbreak. With one last confession, the two consummate their love with a kiss, bathed in pink light before an open door.

Happily Ever After

There’s so much more, with the hand-holding, numbers, Shakespeare, Dickens, the music, and beyond, but the point is that this cute, charming little romance is actually very deliberately constructed. It follows timeless patterns and motifs which we instinctively understand through visual and auditory language. And the narration plays a huge role in this as well, not unlike the prologues and epilogues of the Bard’s plays in that they state the story’s lessons plainly: that we cannot always be prepared for unwelcome surprises, but that we can make the choice to love every day.

Anyway, Vanessa Caswill deserves all the flowers and if you haven’t seen her gorgeous adaptation of Little Women (with all due respect to the marvelous Greta Gerwig and Gillian Armstrong), please do yourself a favor and watch that after you finish this!

#love at first sight #romantic movies #the statistical probability of love at first sight #netflix movie #vanessa caswill #hadley sullivan #oliver jones #haley lu richardson #ben hardy #jameela jamil #katie lovejoy #jennifer e smith #romantic comedy #romcom #coming of age #rebirth #underworld #color theory #meta #my meta #search for the lost husband #underworld journey #little women 2017 #shakespeare #charles dickens #romance #holiday movies

[oldfilmsflicker]

new-to-me #714 - Love at First Sight

#2023 in films #Love at First Sight #Vanessa Caswill #52 films by women #directed by women

[zendadya]

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT (2023) dir. Vanessa Caswill

#love at first sight #filmedit #filmgifs #fyeahmovies #filmtv #moviegifs #userbbelcher #netflixedit #userstream #romcomedit #cinematv #userrobin #tuserrachel #tuserhan #userzo #cinemapix #benhardyedit #ben hardy #haley lu richardson #my gifs #*

[glindathegoodwitchs]

Kathryn Newton as Amy March in episode 1 of LITTLE WOMEN (2017) dir. Vanessa Caswill

#mygifs #little women (2017) #littlewomenedit #useraurore #userkam #userallisyn #userhers #sersh #usersugar #userpunk #tuserrachel #userbbelcher #userstream #tuserdee #amy march #amymarchedit #kathryn newton #kathrynnewtonedit

[snowbairdd]

- It's like the tide Jo. When it turn it goes slowly, but it can't be stopped. - I'll stop it. I'll fight it. I'll keep you alive. Whatever I have to do and whatever I have to give up to God.

Maya Hawke as Jo March in LITTLE WOMEN (2017) dir. Vanessa Caswill

#little women #little women 2017 #littlewomenedit #perioddramaedit #periodedit #weloveperioddrama #perioddramasource #onlyperioddramas #perioddramacentral #gifshistorical #cinematv #dailyflicks #adaptationsdaily #femalecharacters #femalegifsource #userperioddrama #userblorbo #useroptional #userthing #mine*

[moonlightsdream]

FILMS IN 2023: → Love at First Sight (2023) — dir. Vanessa Caswill

#love at first sight #loveatfirstsightedit #haley lu richardson #ben hardy #romcom #romcomedit #filmgifs #moviegifs #userfilm #fyeahmovies #dailyflicks #motionpicturesource #cinemapix #cinematv #userbbelcher #userstream #useroptional #filmedit #!gifs #films2023

[dailyflicks]

When you’re afraid of surprises, it can seem better to leave nothing at chance. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT (2023), dir. by Vanessa Caswill

#love at first sight #lafsedit #filmedit #filmgifs #moviegifs #dailynetflix #romancegifs #usercassidy #tusermichi #userlix #usersavana #userchelsea #useraurore #2020s #romance #* #by callie #love at first sight spoilers

[thatscarletflycatcher]

PERIOD DRAMA APPRECIATION WEEK 2023 - DAY 6: FAVORITE CHARACTER

MARK STANLEY as FRIEDRICH BHAER in LITTLE WOMEN (2017) Dir. VANESSA CASWILL

#perioddramaweek2023 #perioddramaedit #perioddramasource #adaptationsdaily #little women #Mark Stanley #Little Women 2017 #Fritz Bhaer #Friedrich Bhaer #I have given up and given in into Tumblr's demands

[benzatthanin]

LITTLE WOMEN 2017 | dir. Vanessa Caswill

#littlewomenedit #perioddramaedit #tvedit #cinemapix #dailyflicks #perioddramasource #romancegifs #tvandfilm #little women #little women 2017 #amy x laurie #kathryn newton #jonah hauer king #*

[radfilmstills]

Love at First Sight (2023) 

Dir. Vanessa Caswill / DP: Luke Bryant

#loveatfirstsight #HaleyLuRichardson #BenHardy #film #moviestill #movieframe #vanessacaswill #LukeBryant #moviescenes #romcom

[claudia1829things]

My Ranking of the “LITTLE WOMEN” Adaptations

Below is my ranking of the movie and television adaptations of “LITTLE WOMEN”, Louisa May Alcott’s 1868-69 novel:

MY RANKING OF THE “LITTLE WOMEN” ADAPTATIONS

1.  “Little Women” (BBC; 2017): adapted by Heidi Thomas and directed by Vanessa Caswill

2.  “Little Women” (1994):  directed by Gillian Armstrong and adapted by Robin Swicord

3.  “Little Women” (NBC; 1978):  directed by David Lowell Rich and adapted by Suzanne Clauser

4a.  “Little Women” (1933):  directed by George Cukor and adapted by Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason [tie]

4b.  “Little Women” (1949):  directed by Mervyn LeRoy and adapted by Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason [tie]

5.  “Little Women” (BBC: 1970):  directed by Paddy Russell and adapted by Denis Constanduros and Alistair Bell

6.  “Little Women” (2019):  adapted and directed by Greta Gerwig

#little women #louisa may alcott #little women 1933 #little women 1949 #little women 1970 #little women 1978 #little women 1994 #little women 2017 #little women 2019 #david lowell rich #suzanne clauser #dorothy maguire #susan dey #eve plumb #meredith baxter #ann dusenberry #greta gerwig #saoirse ronan #florence pugh #Emma Watson #eliza scalen #denis constandurous #alistair bell #jo rowbottom #janina faye #angela down #sarah craze #paddy russell #george cukor #victor heerman

[liliannasprereadmediathek]

[image description] Two images next to each other. On the left the characters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy being read to by their mother Marmie in a Christmas setting. On the right, Jo, Beth, Meg and Amy gathered around their mother Marmie all looking into different directions.

One question listeners: are you a Jo, Amy, Beth, or Meg? This episode, we’re discussing characters in the 1994 and 2019 versions of Little Women, and diving deep into subtextual readings and fan interpretations.

We’ll discuss disability, autistic, and queer readings, and try to answer our question: is Little Women a ‘story for every generation’, and why is it so popular?

To listen, just head to the link in our bio, or find us wherever you find podcasts 🎧 

[headphones emoji]

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/Dcu52sHYLzb

🍂🍁📚🎄🍃🌳❄️☃️📜✍️🪶

[falling autumn leaves emoji; leaf emoji; stack of books emoji; Christmas tree emoji; falling green leaves emoji; tree emoji; snowflake emoji; snowman emoji; scroll emoji; handwriting emoji; feather emoji]

📝 Shownotes: 📝

📼 Preread text (Rowan Ellis, https://youtu.be/SMFll3aIbmo)

Primary Sources:

📚 “Little Women” (1868, 1869) by Louisa May Alcott

🎞️ “Little Women” (1933) (dir. George Cukor, 📜 Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman)

🎞️ “Little Women” (1949) (dir. Mervyn LeRoy, 📜 Andrew Solt, Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman)

🎞️ “Little Women” (1994) (dir. Gillian Armstrong, 📜 Robin Swicord)

🎞️ “Little Women” (2019) (dir. + 📜 Greta Gerwig) (https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/little-women-by-greta-gerwig.pdf)

📺 “Little Women” (2017) (dir. Vanessa Caswill,  📜 Heidi Thomas) (Masterpiece: PBS)

Secondary Sources:

📰 “Life Magazine: Little Women: A Story for Every Generation” (Meredith Corp., 2020)

📜 ‘Everything depend[s] on the fashion of narration’: Women Writing Women Writers in Short Stories of the Fin-de-Siècle (Bryony Randall) 📜 “The New ‘Little Women’ Makes Space For Jo’s Queerness” (Shannon Keating) (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/shannonkeating/little-women-greta-gerwig-saoirse-ronan-jo-march-queer) 📜 “The New Little Women Basically Proves Jo March is Queer” (Michelle Hyun Kim) (https://www.them.us/story/little-women-greta-gerwig-jo-march-queer) 📜 Amatonormativity (https://medium.com/the-science-scholar/opinion-amatonormativity-the-damaging-pedestal-of-romantic-love-d70cc0585b0f) 📜 “The Real Reason Hairspray Was Banned On The Little Women Set” (Avery Stone) (https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/12/9114384/little-women-movie-hair-makeup-interview) 📼 “Little Women: Laurie & Jo” (https://youtu.be/osdVRusNGgg) 🎞️ “Divergent” (2014) (dir. Neil Burger, 📜 Evan Daugherty, Vanessa Taylor) 📼 “Greta Gerwig, Representation, and the Universal Girl” (https://youtu.be/0p-cBSqIDbQ) 📼 “Why Neurodivergent People Relate to Jo March” (https://youtu.be/x-j5XK1wpyo)

📱Social Media Handles📱:

IG:     https://www.instagram.com/liliannapod/ Twitter:     https://twitter.com/liliannapod Tumblr:    https://www.tumblr.com/blog/liliannasprereadmediathek

🎹 Intro Music 🎹: "Wall" by Jahzaar, licenced under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)  

🎹 Outro Music 🎹: “Waterbeat” by DJ Lengua, licenced under Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

🎹 Transition Music 🎹:

“Pencil” by zakkolar - Pixabay “Fireplace Fire Crackling - Loop” by SoundsForYou - Pixabay “Sleigh Bells fast” by jcdecha - Pixabay “Tambourine christmas sound effect 25” by beetpro - Pixabay “Footsteps in the snow, шаги в парке,” by SSPsurvival - Pixabay

#LittleWomen #LouisaMayAlcott #JoMarch #AmyMarch #BethMarch #MegMarch #Laurie #GretaGerwig #SaoirseRonan #EmmaWatson #FlorencePugh #ElizaScanlen #LauraDern #TimothéeChalamet #BobOdenkirk #MerylStreep #GillianArmstrong #SusanSarandon #WinonaRyder #KirstenDunst #ClaireDanes #ChristianBale #AdaptationTheory #MoviePodcast #podcast #queer #FeministPodcast #QueerPodcast #LiliAnnasPrereadMediathek #LiliAnnaPod #trans #ace #DisabledRepresentation #DisabledRep #disability #disabled

[piasgermany]

[Album + Video] Soundtrack zum Netflix-Film "Love At First Sight" erscheint am 15. September!

[PIAS] wird den Soundtrack zur kommenden Netflix-Komödie "Love At First Sight" mit Haley Lu Richardson, Ben Hardy, Jameela Jamil, Rob Delaney und Sally Phillips in den Hauptrollen veröffentlichen. Unter der Regie von Vanessa Caswill und basierend auf Jennifer E. Smiths Bestseller-Roman "The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight" wird der Soundtrack zusammen mit dem Streaming-Start des Films am 15. September digital veröffentlicht und enthält u.a. Tracks von Morgan Harper Jones, Andreya Triana, SOBI und Lucy Spraggan.

Andreya Triana aus dem Südosten Londons leiht ihre rauchige, gefühlvolle Stimme dem zarten und berührenden "When Love Arrives", das zusammen mit der Ankündigung geteilt wurde. “When Love Arrives’ is a beautifully raw and honest song for anyone who has been in love”, erzählt Andrya. “It’s an indescribable live changing feeling that turns your whole world upside down - in the best way possible!”

Tracklist "Love At First Sight - Official Soundtrack": 01. “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” - Morgan Harper Jones 02. “Ships Passing” - Morgan Harper Jones 03. “Lonely” - Morgan Harper-Jones 04. “Honey Honey” - SOBI 05. “When Love Arrives” - Andreya Triana 06. “Above the Clouds of Pompeii” - Bear’s Den 07. “Bad Kids (Acoustic)” - TTRRUUCES (film version) 08. “Everything Goes My Way” – Tessa Jasckson 09. “Video Killed the Radio Star” – Morgan Harper Jones 10. “Lemonade” - Circa Waves 11. “Strange Game” - Jess Ribeiro 12. “Time” - Angelo De Augustine 13. “Why Don’t We Start from Here” - Lucy Spraggan

#love at first sight - official soundtrack #netflix #pias recordings #album #video

[glindathegoodwitchs]

Kathryn Newton as Amy March in episode 2 of LITTLE WOMEN (2017) dir. Vanessa Caswill

#mygifs #little women (2017) #littlewomenedit #useraurore #userkam #userallisyn #userhers #sersh #usersugar #userpunk #tuserrachel #userbbelcher #userstream #tuserdee #amy march #amymarchedit #kathryn newton #kathrynnewtonedit

[haroldgross]

New Post has been published on Harold Gross: The 5a.m. Critic

New Post has been published on https://literaryends.com/hgblog/love-at-first-sight/

Love at First Sight

[3 stars]

Watching the modern rom-com evolve has been interesting. Attitudes and plots remain relatively unchanged other than women achieving more or equal agency in the action, but the pathways and and interactions have recently leapt into the modern technological world. Haley Lu Richardson (After Yang) and Ben Hardy (The Voyeurs) make a delightfully bumbling couple who build on a meet cute in an airport…with a little help from their friends, family, and the universe.

Richardson manages to make her semi-trainwreck of a life approach to seem near endearing. But we also see her grow through the process. Similarly, Hardy goes through his own evolution so that he can be open to possibilities. And neither Hardy nor her families are anything but supportive…in their way. In other words, this is definitely light-hearted and full of laughs despite some of the subplots. And it leaves you with a sense of joy and possibility.

For all of its fun and typical rom-com structure I did trip on a particular choice. One of the flick’s unique aspects is the guiding voice of Jameela Jamil (Star Trek: Prodigy, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin), who is only listed as Narrator. While amusing, the fact that she shows up as the hand of fate, or as the embodiment of Puck, or perhaps one of various muses but is never identified or resolved leaves the whole story a bit incomplete. I know I’m overthinking this a little, but I like there to be reasons for everything in a movie. If Jamil only narrated the story without appearing, that would have been fine. But, since she’s an actual player in the action, it feels like director Vanessa Caswill should have found a reason for her. A minor nit, but one that left my ability to suspend disbelief itching.

Where to watch

#3stars #adaptation #Comedy #Dark Comedy #datenight #Romance #SeeIt #Movie Review