Anatomy of Lady Bird - Stella and Sophia

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Transcript:

Stella: Greta Gerwig’s film, Lady Bird, captures the feelings and emotions of a young girl in her last year of high school as she transitions into college. In other words, a coming-of-age story. Many aspects of the film are placed purposefully in the scenes by Gerwig in order to convey a larger meaning to the audience.

Sophia: The scene we will be covering is the opening scene of Lady Bird. One of the more memorable scenes in the film.

Stella: The scene starts off with a two-shot of Lady Bird and her mother sleeping in what seems to be a motel bed. In the movie, it isn’t stated why they are there. As Richard Brody says in his review, “The movie is nearly devoid of vistas, lacking moments between scenes when nothing special but vision and motion are happening, lacking even the walking and talking in places that the characters frequent. “ The two-shot of the mother and daughter sleeping adds a sense of closeness. We believe Gerwig starts the very first scene with this two-shot in order to tell the viewers a bit about the mother and daughter’s relationship. She seems to have wanted to start the film off with a positive note considering what the two will be put through throughout the rest of the film.

Sophia: The lighting also plays a key role in the larger meaning of this scene. Gerwig adds warmer tones and lighting to this scene. For example, the natural light coming from the orange-ish window blinds. Orange lighting or warm lighting indicates warmth, balance, and vibrance. As someone who hasn’t watched this film before, this clip would make you think that they have a good relationship with each other.

Stella: Again, Gerwig uses a two-shot in order to allow the viewers to try and figure out the relationship between Marion (the mother) and Lady Bird. However, this time the lighter seems darker. The only source of light that is seen in this shot is from the window. Their bodies are silhouetted. The lighting change could foreshadow a change in their relationship.

Sophia: The next scene is Lady Bird and her mother in the car traveling back home while finishing The Grapes of Wrath. In this scene establishing shot we see the environment, they are driving through. It is a dolly shot that is off-center towards the right. Then we get an eye-level two-shot of Lady Bird and her mother as well as a close-up shot of Lady Bird’s mom and then Lady Bird herself as they finish listening to The Grapes of Wrath.

Stella: As they finish the Grapes of Wrath we get an over-the-shoulder close-up shot of the case that has the cassette tapes of what they are listening to. This shot allows the audience to not only see what they are listening to but we also get to see that they aren’t using a CD or just listening to the radio but rather were listening to cassette tapes. This is an important detail because it helps the viewer get a sense of when this takes place before it is explicitly said, which is the early 2000s.

Sophia: The rest of the scene then rotates through only three different shots. The first being an eye-level two-shot. This shot allows the viewer to take in the entire atmosphere and it helps the viewer feel the tension that is filling up the car as they’re starting to argue. Then we get a close-up shot of Lady Bird, then another close-up shot of Lady Bird’s mother.

Stella: These close-up shots are not in the perspective of the other character but a bit to the side of them. These shots that have the characters isolated in the frame help the viewer focus on what the character is saying and helps the viewer pay more attention to the character’s emotions or reactions.

Sophia: These shots continue to rotate as they are fighting in the car until the last shot of Lady Bird is her opening her door and jumping out of the car, which is then immediately followed by a cut to her mother’s reaction as her mom screams. Her mother’s reaction only goes for a few seconds when it’s then cut to the next scene. As A.O. Scott said, in his review of Lady Bird, “Their shared moment of literary catharsis quickly devolves into an argument, which is punctuated by a startling and hilarious jolt of physical comedy.” which is exactly why these cuts and development in the scene are so abrupt.