A Constant Visual Feast

“Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young kicks off with dialogue from The Master Builder, one of the most significant works of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The text details an exchange between Halvard Solness, the architect of the play’s title, and Hilda, a young woman from Solness’s past who has arrived to assert herself in his present. He expresses to her his fear of the younger generation, who he believes will come to ‘thunder at [his] door,’ while she rebukes his crotchety anxieties and recommends that he ‘open the door to the younger generation.’ Solness responds to her advice with incredulity. ‘The younger generation,’ he tells her, ‘it means retribution, you see. It comes, as if under a new banner, heralding the turn of fortune.'” (Via Paste Magazine.)