“Its surprisingly structured depiction of this relationship and its many private rituals and performances, which the film’s unforgiving style continually strips bare”
Each September we participate in two great events, Scalarama, which this year celebrates its 10th birthday and the annual Directed By Women worldwide film viewing party.
This year, our contributions are Chantal Akerman’s News From Home and Greta Gerwig’s little-seen (co) directorial debut Nights and Weekends (2008).
Now acclaimed with Oscar nominations and box office success for Lady Bird and Little Women back in 2008 Greta Gerwig was the unofficial queen of mumblecore: a low-budget subgenre of US independent film characterized by naturalistic acting, an emphasis on dialogue (often improvised) over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of people in their 20s and 30s. In the case of Nights and Weekends (which Gerwig co-wrote, co-directed and co-produced with her co-star Joe Swanberg) the young couple are seperated by two cities (New York and Chigaco). And Gerwig and Swanberg are far from shy when it comes to depicting the disintegration and aftermath of this relationship. (Polite note: the film is very sexually frank.)
Raw and uncompromisingly forthright, with shades of the Woody Allen of Annie Hall and Manhattan, not to mention John Cassavetes, Hal Hartly and early-Jim Jarmusch, Nights and Weekends is a fascinating look at a nascent talent.
