FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE THE BEST MOVIES IN OUR VIDEO STORE! Frances Ha 

Who makes a film in black and white these days? Noah Baumbach dedicates a painting to his Brooklyn, his New York, like a certain urban neurotic did more than thirty years ago - also in black and white. Does anyone feel a certain obligation here? Baumbach and his leading actress, co-writer and girlfriend also let themselves be carried away by the French Nouvelle Vague. Frances Ha is quoted with joy, up to classical scores by Georges Delerue. So much self-confidence; maybe even bravado? Frances Ha also reveals something of the romance between Baumbach and Gerwig, it seems so fresh and charming! The film depicts a certain phase in life. Frances Halliday (Greta Gerwig) is 27 and is in the process of graduating, but has not yet arrived in life episode. Part of her wants to go back, but another wants to start an adult life in New York. We get to know her while she is stuck between these two poles and is trying a promising career in a dance school. With her best friend and roommate Sofie (Mickey Sumner) Frances plays all sorts of games and they both repeat the words "I love you" for each other far too often - as often as lovers would never do. It is a friendship to escape reality that only lasts supposedly forever - until one of them strives forward. Sofie does exactly that and Frances is lost. For a while Frances lives together with Lev (Adam Driver) and Benji (Michael Zegen), two hipsters who are mainly interested in affairs and lots of beer in life. Baumbach's New York between Brooklyn and Manhattan seems almost anthropological - it's both: funny and enchanting. Thanks to the characters Lev and Benji, the first half of the movie is much stronger than the second. Sofie moves to Japan with her Goldman & Sachs lover, while Frances somehow drifts away. Greta Gerwig plays this captivatingly, but Frances character simply stagnates. Frances drifts off and the film drifts like this. Baumbach's and Gerwig's script seems unplanned and it remains the feeling that Frances Ha could have been much better! Maybe a little more independent and without all the reminiscences of past cinema heroes?