Little Women

Well, this past Wednesday was Little Women Day in Boston, declared in honor of Greta Gerwig's new movie, which is being released on Christmas Day.

I will no doubt go to see it, as I did the 1994 incarnation, which I seem to recall I saw with my sisters. I liked that version just fine, and I'm sure I'll like the new version even finer, as I'm a big fan of Saoirse Ronan, who plays Jo. Not to mention being a big fan of Meryl Streep, who plays Aunt March.

Like most women of a certain age, I go back quite a ways with Little Women, having read it as a girl (along with Little Men and Jo's Boys). Louisa May Alcott was by no means my favorite writer. I preferred Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books, which I devoured. And I much preferred - over pretty much everything else - Maud Hart Lovelace, at whose altar I worshipped, and whose Betsy-Tacy series was my all-time favorite.

But I did enjoy Little Women.

Jo was, of course, the March girl I liked best. She was fierce, strong, and a writer.

While I've come to appreciate Amy more in my old age, she was just such a bee-yotch I couldn't stand her. Beth was a simpering ninny. Sure, I was sad to see her simper off into the great beyond, but there was no way I was going to identify with her. And Meg was a goody two-shoes who barely registered. A chip off the old Marmee block.

One year, at a Christmas grab at the Y, my prize was a book of Little Women paper dolls. I loved paper dolls (especially after I hit the age of paper doll reason and discovered that paper dolls work a lot better if you don't cut off the little white tabs.) So I loved them, they were just awful. All the March sisters looked more like Little Lulu, with buggy eyes and big, stupid grins, than they did like I imagined the March sisters. Plus their outfits were more Victorian era than Civil War. Nonetheless, I spent many an hour fan-fictioning plots for my Little Women paper dolls.

Growing up in New England, it's easy to get sucked into Little Womenhood.

I've been to the Alcott House in Concord a number of times over the years. It's been kept pretty much intact, and you can even see the deocrations the Alcott girls put up in their rooms. Very sweet and touching.

The last time I was there was maybe 15 years ago, when my sister Kath and I took our nieces. We were the only Americans there. Little Women is apparently pretty popular among young Japanese women. (As is Anne of Green Gables, one of those other books/series I read as a child and knew I was supposed to love, but was sort of luke-warm towards it.)

I also watched old B&W Little Women movies when they showed up on Boston Movietime. I'm sure I wouldn't be so enamored of her portrayal now, but as a kid I admired Kathering Hepburn as Jo. But June Allyson in the 1949 version? Something about her voice that was so, so irritating.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing the new version, which was filmed around Boston.

While they were filming last year, I didn't see any of the stars. No Saoirse Ronan. No Timothy Chalamet. No Meryl Streep. But when they were filming in the Boston Public Garden, which is just across the street from my house, I did see the stars' trailers. The names of their roles were on the doors. Jo. Laurie. Aunt March.

I love to see movies that are filmed locally, or in a place I'm familiar with, trying to see if I recognize the locations. Trying to see if they get it right. (Moonstruck was filmed in part in my sister's neighborhood in Brooklyn, and there's one scene in which Cher parks her car in Brooklyn Heights and then walks around the corner to...Litlle Italy?)

I also enjoy seeing movies that are set here or in a place I'm familiar with, and purportedly shot around here or in a place I'm familiar with. I was once watching a movie that was set in New England, and there were some scenes that were supposed to take place in Worcester County. I remember sitting there thinking 'something's not quite right here.' What wasn't quite right was that the filming took place in Michigan. Which kinda-sorta looks like Worcester County. But kinda-sorta doesn't.

So I'll be all eyes on Little Women. Something to look forward to as the cold settles in...