Greta Gerwig - Visionaries: The Work of Women Filmmakers by Suzanne Ferriss Paperback

About the Book

Examines the cinematic vision and worldview of director, Greta Gerwig.

Book Synopsis

This is the first book to consider Gerwig as a writer-director. It argues that her three feature films to date--Lady Bird (2017), Little Women (2019) and Barbie (2023)--engage with debates about feminism and femininity through cinematic aesthetics. Her films are linked by heightened attention to material culture--through costume, production and set design. They meticulously recreate imagined worlds that resonate with viewers in the present for what they have to say about identity and relationships in contemporary culture, particularly how our lives, especially those of women, are fashioned through clothing, décor and architecture. They feature women who rebel by fashioning independent lives as fabricators--those who shape their worlds rather than being shaped by them. Considered together, Gerwig's three features form a developing oeuvre tracing the contours of feminist refashioning.

Review Quotes

Ferriss's book will become the benchmark for studies of Gerwig's oeuvre. Written with characteristic clarity and brio, this study is as entertaining to read as it is informative and eloquent. I am certain this book will be indispensible not only to those studying and writing on Gerwig, but also to those working within feminist film and media studies as well. Highly recommended.-- "Anna Backman Rogers, Professor of Aesthetics, Culture and Feminist Theory, University of Gothenburg, Sweden."