Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)

Director:

Joe Swanberg

Writers:

Joe Swanberg and
Greta Gerwig ...
(more)

Release Date:

22 August 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Hannah is a recent college graduate interning at a Chicago production company. She is crushing on two writers at work...

Plot Keywords:

Office | Writer | Friendship | Guitarist | Break Up

Cast

Greta Gerwig	...	Hannah
Kent Osborne	...	Matt
Andrew Bujalski	...	Paul
Ry Russo-Young	...	Rocco
Mark Duplass	...	Mike
Todd Rohal	...	Brian Duges
Tipper Newton	...	Minnie
Kris Swanberg	...	Gaby (as Kris Williams)
Kevin Bewersdorf	...	Guy Who Lays Down
Ivan Albertson	...	Stephen
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nathan Adloff	...	Friend at Party (uncredited)

Directed by
Joe Swanberg

Writing credits
Joe Swanberg		and
Greta Gerwig		and
Kent Osborne		and
Andrew Bujalski		additional material and
Ry Russo-Young		additional material and
Mark Duplass		additional material and
Todd Rohal		additional material and
Kevin Bewersdorf		additional material and
Tipper Newton		additional material and
Kris Swanberg		additional material (as Kris Williams)

Produced by
Anish Savjani	....	producer
Rajen Savjani	....	executive producer
Joe Swanberg	....	producer

Original Music by
Kevin Bewersdorf

Cinematography by
Joe Swanberg

Film Editing by
Joe Swanberg

Production Management
Meg DiGiovanni	....	post-production supervisor

Sound Department
Kevin Bewersdorf	....	sound recordist
Chris James	....	sound mixer

Editorial Department
Yohance Brown	....	colorist
John Eremic	....	digital intermediate supervisor

Other crew
Frank Ross	....	supplier: additional equipment
Vincent Savino	....	press kit

Thanks
Dan Brown	....	special thanks
Jay Duplass	....	special thanks
Aaron Katz	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Film Science

Distributors

• IFC Films (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• IFC First Take (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• CineBinario Films (CBF) (2011) (Spain) (DVD)
• Film1 (2012) (Netherlands) (TV) (limited)

Other Companies

• Offhollywood Digital  digital intermediate
• Zacuto  equipment

Also Known As:

Runtime:

USA:83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Film Science

Trivia:

Shot without a script.

Movie Connections:

References The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Soundtrack:

1812 Overture

self-indulgent art film

Joe Swanberg's "Hannah Takes the Stairs" is a low-budget art-film done in a quasi-improvisational style. It centers around a group of self-absorbed twenty-somethings who spend most of their time sitting around discussing life and relationships as if such subjects had never been talked about before. The result is a sometimes insightful but more often tedious look into the mindset of today's younger generation.

Hannah (Greta Gerwig) is a neo-Bohemian playwright with poor instincts when it comes to men, who, upon dumping her ne'er-do-well musician boyfriend, immediately strikes up romances with two fellows at the obviously loosey-goosey TV production company where she works. The movie strives hard to be as extemporaneous as possible both in its performances and its direction, and while that does yield a few moments of truth and honesty along the way (the break-up scene is almost painfully convincing), too much of the movie is simply vapid and self-indulgent, with a trio of perfectly able-bodied young folk puling and mewling and whining about life to the point where we just don't care to listen to them anymore.

With no real plot or storyline to speak of, watching "Hannah Takes the Stairs" is a bit like staring at someone else's random doodlings for an hour-and-a-half and finding no real reason why we should care about them. And, oh yes, unless I missed it, no actual staircase appears in the movie, with or without Hannah going up or down it. I guess it must be metaphorical.