Today, I've been totally nerding out about this:
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. It's a documentary film about, obviously, Louisa May Alcott, the lady who wrote
Little Women aka the obsession of my childhood. Oh my, did I LOVE this book and the fact that it was semi-autobiographical was even better. Louisa = Jo in the book, basically. Growing up in Massachusetts was fabulously convenient because Louisa GREW UP THERE TOO! And that meant I could totally go visit her house and geek out on the very ground where
Little Women was written. I went several times throughout the 1980s. This is the famed Orchard House:
It's located in Concord, MA. I have next Monday off - I wonder if I can get anyone to join in my nerdfest and go visit the house. There's all that Revolutionary War Lexington/Concord stuff to do out there too.
This website has all the info on her house.
I'm pretty sure my obsession started very young with a cartoon version of
Little Women that was at my local videostore. This particular videostore had this weird magnet system to denote whether the video was in or not - like there was a magnet on the box if it was available. I used to HIDE the magnet on this video if for some reason I wasn't able to rent it that particular day. I didn't want anyone else to watch it. I'd pretty much have a melt-down if it wasn't in when I wanted it. I've been trying to do some research on this version, and all I can really find is this:
This might be it. Apparently, there were several anime versions of
Little Women produced in the 80s, so I'm not sure exactly which version I saw. All I know is I would LOVE to see this again.
I fancied myself a kind of combination of Jo/Beth. Like Jo, I loved to write. In fact, I kind of considered myself a child prodigy in play-writing and chapter books. (This is, of course, absolutely untrue). I liked to think I inhabited Jo's "spunky independence" though I was in NO way a tomboy like Jo. Super girly to the max. That's where Beth comes in...sickly, super-feminine Beth. I also had an obsession with tragic childhood disease (wrote many plays about this). Imagine how completely stoked I was when I contracted scarlet fever as a kid. Yes, my friends, Beth dies from scarlet fever. When I got it, there was no actual danger of DEATH, with the advent of antibiotics and all, but still...now I could really relate, ya know?
In the mid-90s came the new film version, the pet project of Ms. Winona Ryder. Um. LOVE HER. Anyway...it's pretty fucking good. Winona is of course Jo. Claire Danes as poor Beth. Kirsten Dunst as Amy. Trini Alvarado as Meg (Trini, where are you? She was also the star of one of my favorite movies ever -
Times Square - but that's another blogpost for another day). And, HELLO, Susan Sarandon as Marmee. CINEMA GOLD, PEOPLE!
Oh yeah, and Christian Bale plays the hot neighbor boy, Laurie. Wooo!
If you're in the Providence area, the Louisa May Alcott documentary is screening at the Columbus Theatre Saturday 8/9 at 3pm as part of the RI International Film Festival. Yeah, nerd-time!!
