''Frances Ha'' is a 2012 American

comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film directed by

Noah Baumbach Noah Baumbach (born September 3, 1969) is an American filmmaker. He is known for making light comedies set in New York City and his works are inspired by filmmakers such as Woody Allen and Whit Stillman. His frequent collaborators include Wes A ...

. It is written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, who also stars as Frances Halladay, a struggling 27-year-old dancer. The film premiered at the

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado, during Labor Day, Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 51st Telluride Film Festival, 51st edition took place on August 30–September ...

on September 1, 2012, and was given a

limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in the United States on May 17, 2013, by

IFC Films Independent Film Company (formerly IFC Films) is an American film production and distribution company based in New York City, New York. It is an offshoot of IFC (U.S. TV channel), IFC, owned by AMC Networks. It mainly distributes independent fil ...

Plot

Frances Halladay is a 27-year-old dancer who lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

with her best friend from college, Sophie. Her life is upended when Sophie tells her she plans to relocate from

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

Tribeca Tribeca ( ), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Str ...

, which Sophie considers her dream neighborhood, with a different friend. Frances, a struggling would-be dancer working as an apprentice at a dance company, is unable to afford the Brooklyn apartment alone and is forced to find someplace else to live. She moves to

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

and shares an apartment with her friends Lev and Benji for a brief period. Sophie and Frances's relationship struggles as Sophie and her boyfriend, Patch, grow closer. Frances learns that the dance company does not need her to work their Christmas show, which means Frances can no longer afford the apartment. She visits her hometown of

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

for

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

where she sees her family and reconnects with high school friends. Rachel, a fellow dancer in the company, lets Frances stay with her for a few weeks. During dinner with Rachel's family, Frances discovers that Sophie has quit her job at

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

and is moving to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

with Patch. Frances, on a whim, decides to spend an uneventful couple of days in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

that she pays for with a credit card. She returns to Vassar, her ''

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

'', to work as a waitress and summer

resident assistant A resident assistant (RA), also known by a variety of other names, is a trained peer leader who coordinates activities in residence halls in colleges and universities, mental health and substance abuse residential facilities, or similar establish ...

. Overworked and not allowed to take classes, Frances reads Sophie's blog of her life in Tokyo. One night, Sophie and Patch are at an alumni auction where Frances is waitressing. Frances learns they are engaged and sees the couple get into a fight. She lets a drunk Sophie stay with her in the dorm room she's been given, where Sophie reveals that she suffered a

miscarriage Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion, is an end to pregnancy resulting in the loss and expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the womb before it can fetal viability, survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks ...

while in Japan and is unhappy in her relationship. Sophie goes back to New York City the next morning, leaving a note for Frances. Some time later, Frances returns to Washington Heights in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. Frances eventually reconciles with Sophie and enjoys a modest but satisfying existence as a fledgling choreographer, teaching dance to young children, and as a bookkeeper for her former dance company. She rents her own apartment. Upon moving in, Frances writes her name down onto a slip of paper in order to mark her new mailbox. Her full last name does not fit, so she folds the paper to read: "Frances Ha".

Cast

* Greta Gerwig as Frances Halladay *

Mickey Sumner Brigitte Michael "Mickey" Sumner (born 19 January 1984) is an English actress best known for her film roles as Sophie Levee in ''Frances Ha'' (2012) and Farrah in ''The Mend (film), The Mend'' (2014) and her television roles as Katia on ''Low W ...

as Sophie Levee * Adam Driver as Lev Shapiro * Michael Zegen as Benji * Patrick Heusinger as Reade "Patch" Krause * Michael Esper as Dan * Charlotte d'Amboise as Colleen * Grace Gummer as Rachel *

Josh Hamilton Joshua Holt Hamilton (born May 21, 1981) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 2007 to 2015, most prominently as a member of the Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers teams ...

as Andy * Maya Kazan as Caroline * Justine Lupe as Nessa * Britta Phillips as Nadia * Juliet Rylance as Janelle *

Dean Wareham Dean Wareham (born 1 August 1963) is an American musician and actor who co-founded the band Galaxie 500 in 1987. He departed from Galaxie 500 in April 1991 and went on to establish the band Luna (1990s American band), Luna. Following Luna's di ...

as Spencer

Production

''Frances Ha'' was directed by

, and written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. Gerwig, who also stars in the film, announced it in April 2012, though Baumbach's involvement was not revealed until the film's listing in the

's lineup. Gerwig had starred in Baumbach's 2010 film '' Greenberg'', and they decided to collaborate again. They exchanged ideas, developed characters and eventually co-wrote the script. Gerwig has said that she did not anticipate starring in the film as well, but Baumbach thought she suited the part. Filming locations included

and at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

in Poughkeepsie, Baumbach's alma mater. Gerwig cited

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...

's novella '' The Shadow Line'' and

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

's film ''

Annie Hall ''Annie Hall'' is a 1977 American satirical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay written by Allen and Marshall Brickman, and produced by Allen's manager, Charles H. Joffe. The film stars Allen as Alvy Singer ...

'' (1977) as inspirations for the film. Baumbach and Gerwig also have cited the films of the

French New Wave The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...

and

as influences, as well as '' Something Wild'' (1986) and ''

Lost in America ''Lost in America'' is a 1985 American satirical road comedy film directed by Albert Brooks and co-written by Brooks with Monica Johnson. The film stars Brooks alongside Julie Hagerty as a married couple who decide to quit their jobs and tra ...

'' (1985) which they watched during the production. In the bonus features on the home-video release, the filmmakers said that the film was shot in the style of

cinema, with the tools of a student filmmaker. Even though the production had both the budget for and access to professional-level cinema cameras and lenses, they chose to use the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a consumer-grade photographic camera that can record

high-definition video High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines ( ...

. Instead of adapting professional cinema lenses, as other cinematographers have done when working with that camera, they used Canon L-series EF

prime A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

and zoom lenses designed for still photography. They mostly used a 50mm prime lens and a 70–200mm zoom lens, rarely employing 35mm and 85mm prime lenses because they lacked the mechanics and features common among cinema lenses (when paired with the camera’s large full-frame sensor, they make it difficult to maintain focus). By using a very small camera and extremely limited lighting equipment, the production could quickly and easily move locations without attracting much attention. Without large crews, elaborate sets, and special visual effects, the production could afford to shoot around the world on a fairly limited budget.

Soundtrack

The filmmakers included a number of pop songs in the film, including " Every 1's a Winner" by

Hot Chocolate Hot Chocolate are a British soul band formed by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson. The group had at least one hit song every year on the UK Singles Chart from 1970 to 1984. Their hits include " You Sexy Thing", a UK number two which also made ...

, " Blue Sway''"'' by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

, "Chrome Sitar" by T.Rex, and " Modern Love''"'' by

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

. "Modern Love" is featured in a scene in ''Frances Ha'' that is a remake of a sequence in

Leos Carax Alex Christophe Dupont (born 1960), best known as Leos Carax (), is a French film director, critic and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was ''Boy Meets Girl (1984 film), Boy Me ...

's '' Mauvais Sang'', where Denis Lavant runs through the streets. The soundtrack includes a song by Felix Laband and references multiple French films; it contains music by

Georges Delerue Georges Delerue (12 March 1925 – 20 March 1992) was a French composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. Delerue won numerous important film music awards, including an Academy Award for '' A Little Romance'' (1980), three C� ...

Jean Constantin Jean Constantin (; born Constantin Cornel Jean; 21 August 1927 – 26 May 2010) was a well-known Romanian comedian of Greeks in Romania, Greek ethnicity. Constantin was born in Techirghiol, and died in Constanța. Filmography *' (2010) .... A ...

and Antoine Duhamel, who originally wrote for films of the

Release

''Frances Ha'' premiered at the

on September 1, 2012. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' said "audiences seemed pleasantly surprised by the warmth from the often-mordant Baumbach." The film also screened at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

on September 7, 2012, after which

acquired North and Latin American rights to distribute the film in theaters. ''Frances Ha'' also screened at the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

on September 30, 2012, and at the

Edinburgh International Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, international, European or UK Premieres), in al ...

in June 2013. The film had a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on May 17, 2013, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...

label on November 12, 2013.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives ''Frances Ha'' a 92% approval rating based on 192 reviews, with an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 7.80/10. The website's critical consensus is: "Audiences will need to tolerate a certain amount of narrative drift, but thanks to sensitive direction from Noah Baumbach and an endearing performance from Greta Gerwig, ''Frances Ha'' makes it easy to forgive."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

calculated an average score of 82 out of 100 based on 35 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Stephanie Zacharek of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' praised Gerwig's performance, writing, "It's a relief that ''Frances Ha'' isn't as assertively frank, in the 'Look, ma, no shame!' way, as '' Girls''. And this is partly Gerwig's vision, too. No other movie has allowed her to display her colors like this. Frances is a little dizzy and frequently maddening, but Gerwig is precise in delineating the character's loopiness: Her lines always hit just behind the beat, like a jazz drummer who pretends to flub yet knows exactly what's up". Peter Debruge, reviewing for '' Variety'', described ''Frances Ha'': "This modest monochromatic lark doesn't present a story—or even a traditional sequence of scenes—so much as it offers spirited glimpses into the never-predictable life of Frances, a 27-year-old dancer." He said Frances was "a character whose unexceptional concerns and everyday foibles prove as compelling as any New York-set concept picture, delivering an affectionate, stylishly black-and-white portrait of a still-unfledged Gotham gal". Sarah Galo of ''Mic'' also noted that ''Frances Ha'' “is really quite daring in its portrayal of female friendship. Frances and Sophie go through the motions of being BFFs to breaking up to being reunited in the end.” The ''

'' highlighted Gerwig's foray as part of a trend of female actors becoming writers or co-writers; other examples include

Zoe Kazan Zoe Swicord Kazan (; born September 9, 1983) is an American actress and writer. She has acted in films such as '' The Savages'' (2007), '' Revolutionary Road'' (2008), and '' It's Complicated'' (2009). She starred in '' Happythankyoumoreplease'' ...

with ''

Ruby Sparks ''Ruby Sparks'' is a 2012 American romantic fantasy comedy-drama film written by Zoe Kazan and directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton. It stars Paul Dano as an anxious novelist whose fictional character, Ruby Sparks, played by Kazan, ...

'' and

Rashida Jones Rashida Leah Jones ( ; born February 25, 1976) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is best known for her roles as Louisa Fenn on the Fox drama series ''Boston Public'' (2000–2002), Karen Filippelli on the NBC comedy series ''The Offic ...

with '' Celeste and Jesse Forever''. Baumbach filmed ''Frances Ha'' with his cinematographer Sam Levy digitally and in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

, the latter to emulate, in part, collaborations by

and his cinematographer Gordon Willis, in films like ''

'' (1979).

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

compared ''Frances Ha''s style to the works of

Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch ( ; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and musician. He has been a major proponent of independent film, independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films such as ''Stranger Than Paradise'' ...

and

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...

Accolades

References

External links

* * * * *
''Frances Ha: The Green Girl''
– an essay by Annie Baker at

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frances Ha 2012 films 2012 comedy-drama films 2012 independent films 2010s American films 2010s buddy comedy-drama films 2010s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 2010s dance films 2010s English-language films 2010s female buddy films American black-and-white films American buddy comedy-drama films American coming-of-age comedy-drama films American dance films American female buddy films American independent films English-language buddy comedy-drama films English-language independent films Films directed by Noah Baumbach Films produced by Scott Rudin Films set in New York City Films set in Paris Films set in Sacramento, California Films shot in the Hudson Valley Films shot in New York City Films shot in Paris Films shot in Sacramento, California Films with screenplays by Greta Gerwig