Little Women (2019 film) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Little Women (2019 film)
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Greta Gerwig
Produced by	Amy Pascal Denise Di Novi Robin Swicord
Screenplay by	Greta Gerwig
Starring	Saoirse Ronan Emma Watson Florence Pugh Eliza Scanlen Laura Dern Timothée Chalamet Meryl Streep Tracy Letts Bob Odenkirk James Norton Louis Garrel Chris Cooper
Music by	Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography	Yorick Le Saux
Editing by	Nick Houy
Studio	Columbia Pictures Regency Enterprises Pascal Pictures
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date(s)	December 7, 2019 (2019-12-07) (MoMA) December 25, 2019 (2019-12-25) (United States)
Running time	135 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Money made	$220.1 million

Little Women is a popular 2019 American movie. It's a coming-of-age period drama film written and directed by Greta Gerwig. This film is the seventh time the famous 1868 novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott has been made into a movie.

The story follows the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March. They live in Concord, Massachusetts, during the 1800s. The movie features a great group of actors. These include Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, and Meryl Streep.

Sony Pictures started planning this film in 2013. Amy Pascal joined as a producer in 2015. Greta Gerwig was hired to write the script in 2016. She used Alcott's other writings to inspire her script. Gerwig also became the director in 2018. This was her second movie directed all by herself. Filming happened from October to December 2018 in Massachusetts.

Little Women first showed in New York City on December 7, 2019. It was released in movie theaters in the United States on December 25, 2019. The film was highly praised by critics. People especially loved Gerwig's writing and directing. The actors' performances also got a lot of compliments. The movie earned over $218 million worldwide. It received six Academy Award nominations. These included nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress. It won the award for Best Costume Design.

Discover the Story of the March Sisters

The movie's story jumps between two different times. It shows the March sisters as young girls and as adults.

Life in 1868: Jo's Journey

In 1868, Jo March is working as a teacher in New York City. She has sold a short story to an editor, Mr. Dashwood. Meanwhile, her youngest sister, Amy, is in Paris with their Aunt March. Amy attends a party with Laurie, a childhood friend. Amy gets upset with Laurie's behavior. Jo is also hurt when Friedrich Bhaer, a German professor, criticizes her writing. Jo soon learns that her younger sister Beth is very sick. She quickly returns home to Concord, Massachusetts.

Childhood in 1861: Growing Up Together

Seven years earlier, in 1861, Jo meets Laurie at a party with her older sister, Meg. On Christmas morning, their mother, "Marmee," asks them to share their breakfast. They give it to their poor neighbors, the Hummels. Later, they find their own table full of food. It was given by Laurie's grandfather, Mr. Laurence. Marmee then reads a letter from their father. He is away fighting in the American Civil War. Jo often reads to her father's sister, Aunt March. She hopes Aunt March will invite her to Europe.

When Jo, Meg, Laurie, and Laurie's tutor, John Brooke, go to the theater, Amy gets jealous. She burns Jo's unpublished novel. The next morning, Amy wants Jo's forgiveness. She chases Jo and Laurie onto a frozen lake. Amy falls through the ice, but Laurie and Jo save her. Mr. Laurence invites Beth to play his late daughter's piano.

Choices and Changes: Love and Loss

Back in the present (1868), Meg feels sad about being poor. Laurie visits Amy to apologize for his behavior. He asks her not to marry Fred Vaughn, a wealthy businessman. Laurie suggests Amy marry him instead. Amy loves Laurie but refuses, feeling she is always second to Jo. Still, she turns down Fred's proposal.

In the past (1861), Mr. Laurence gives Beth the piano. He finds out she has scarlet fever from the Hummels. To keep Amy safe, she is sent to stay with Aunt March. Aunt March tells Amy to marry a rich man to help her family. In the present, John tells Meg to make the fabric she bought into a dress. But Meg says she sold it and is happy as his wife. Beth gets better in time for Christmas in the past. Their father also returns home.

In the present, Beth's illness gets worse, and she dies. On Meg's wedding day in the past, Jo tries to get her to run away. But Meg is excited to marry John. Aunt March announces her trip to Europe. She takes Amy instead of Jo. After the wedding, Laurie asks Jo to marry him. Jo refuses, saying she doesn't want to be married.

New Beginnings: Dreams and Family

In the present, Marmee says Amy is coming home from Europe. Aunt March is also with her and is ill. Jo wonders if she was wrong to refuse Laurie. She writes him a letter. Amy tells Laurie she turned down Fred's proposal. They kiss and later marry on their way home. Jo and Laurie agree to stay friends. Jo then throws away the letter she wrote to him.

Jo starts writing a novel about her and her sisters' lives. She sends the first parts to Mr. Dashwood, who isn't impressed. Friedrich Bhaer surprises Jo by visiting the March house. He is on his way to California.

In New York, Mr. Dashwood agrees to publish Jo's novel. His daughters want to know how it ends. He doesn't want the main character to stay unmarried. To please him, Jo ends her novel with the main character stopping Bhaer from leaving. She successfully gets the rights to her book and money from sales. After Aunt March dies, Jo inherits her house. She opens it as a school where Meg, Amy, John, and Bhaer all teach. Jo watches her novel, titled Little Women, being printed.

Meet the Talented Cast

The film features a wonderful group of actors who bring the March family to life:

Making the Movie: Behind the Scenes

How the Film Was Developed and Cast

Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan, who directed and starred in Little Women, respectively, at a screening of the film

In 2013, Sony Pictures announced a new movie based on Little Women. Robin Swicord and Denise Di Novi were set to produce it. In 2015, Amy Pascal joined as a producer. Greta Gerwig was hired to write the script in 2016. By June 2018, Gerwig was also announced as the director. She had wanted to direct this film for a long time. She felt the book inspired her to become a writer and director. This was Gerwig's first big studio film. It was also her second movie directed by herself.

In June 2018, many famous actors joined the cast. These included Meryl Streep, Emma Stone (later replaced by Emma Watson), Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, and Florence Pugh. Gerwig had worked with Ronan and Chalamet before in her movie Lady Bird. She wanted to cast Pugh after seeing her in another film. Eliza Scanlen joined the cast the next month. James Norton and Laura Dern were cast in August. In September 2018, Louis Garrel, Bob Odenkirk, and Chris Cooper joined as supporting actors.

Writing the Story for the Screen

Gerwig started writing the script after the 2018 Academy Awards. She used Louisa May Alcott's letters and diaries for inspiration. She also looked at 19th-century paintings of young women. Gerwig wrote several drafts of the script. She also got ideas from Alcott's other stories for the conversations. Gerwig wrote many lines that would be spoken at the same time. She also said a speech in the film was inspired by a talk she had with Meryl Streep. This talk was about the challenges women faced in the 1860s.

To focus the movie on the characters as adults, Gerwig used a nonlinear timeline. This means the story jumps between different times. The ending of the movie is different from the book. It shows a happy romance while also showing Alcott's artistic dreams. Gerwig believed this honored Alcott's true wishes.

Creating the Costumes

The film needed about 75 main historical costumes. Each costume took around 40 hours to make. The costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, mixed old Victorian styles with a more free look. She wanted the old clothes to look appealing to modern viewers. She combined woolly shawls with plaid skirts. She also used long red capes and jaunty newsboy caps.

She made sure the characters' childhood and adult clothes were different. But she also kept a connection between them. Each character had a "core color." Jo had red, Meg had green and lavender, Beth had brown and pink, and Amy had light blue. The characters also shared clothes. This showed their close relationships. Durran also styled Jo in loose cotton dresses and plain wool skirts. She used modern ideas and looked at young Bob Dylan for inspiration. She also used the Teddy Boy style and paintings by artists like James Tissot and Winslow Homer for ideas.

Filming and Editing the Movie

Filming primarily took place in Harvard, Massachusetts.

The actors practiced for two weeks before filming began. Principal photography started in Boston in October 2018. The main filming location was Harvard, Massachusetts. Other places included Lancaster, Harvard University in Cambridge, Crane Beach in Ipswich, and Concord. The Shaker museum in the Fruitlands of Harvard was used for Meg and John's home. This was a place where Alcott and her family once lived.

The March family house was built from scratch in Concord. The production designer wanted the outside to look like an old jewelry box. He said the inside was like a beautiful maze. The Lyman Estate in Waltham was used for a ballroom scene. Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum was used for a scene in a 19th-century Paris park. Castle Hill in Ipswich also stood in for European scenes.

Greta Gerwig kept her pregnancy a secret during filming. She also banned cell phones on set. Cinematographer Yorick Le Saux used 35 mm film to shoot the movie. Filming ended on December 16, 2018. Gerwig started editing the film the very next day with editor Nick Houy.

The Music of Little Women

Alexandre Desplat, a French composer, created the music for the film. Greta Gerwig was a big fan of his previous work. She wanted him to create music that was "beautiful but not too sweet." She also said she wanted a mix of Mozart and Bowie. Desplat used an orchestra with a piano, harp, flute, clarinet, and celesta. The movie's music was released on December 13, 2019.

Releasing the Film to the World

Little Women first showed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on December 7, 2019. It was also shown to open the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival on December 9. The movie was released in US theaters on December 25, 2019. Sony Pictures Releasing distributed it. Sony spent about $70 million to promote the film.

The movie was supposed to be released in China in February 2020. However, this was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was released digitally on March 10, 2020. It came out on DVD and Blu-ray on April 7. Later, the film was released in Denmark and Japan in June. This happened after these countries reopened their theaters. It was finally released in China on August 25, 2020.

On home video and digital art, the film is often called Greta Gerwig's Little Women. This helps people tell it apart from other movies and TV shows based on the same novel.

See also

In Spanish: Mujercitas (película de 2019) para niños