Whatever happened to Whit Stillman?

A letter Whit Stillman wrote to the New York Times in 1974.

http://i.imgur.com/Gvz0431.png

The most Whit Stillman-esque Whit Stillman letter ever

That post, like the tiny record shop thread and geeshie wiley discussion before it, made my day.

It's great, isn't it? It's as if it comes straight from one of his scripts.

Good job there, guy

https://twitter.com/WhitStillman/status/472040503522127872

A$AP Chris L ‏@brittonlowe 10m

“@WhitStillman: Death to Hip-hop” Aw c'mon, Stillmatic.

404

yeah whatever that was it's gone now. ned, care to fill us in?

Stillman tweeted "Death To Hip Hop", and several ilxors hard sonned him (kudos to JBR for "The Notorious U.H.B.")

For some reason I can still see the tweet minus the responses on my phone.

Twit Stillman

Chloë Sevigny and Whit Stillman on Their Amazon Pilot The Cosmopolitans

omg

IKR! Psyched!

Whoa!!!

!!!!

oh of fucking course whit stillman's too aspirational for netflix

(!!!)

It's live! It's free! Everyone go watch it!!!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MR9WT7Y

did anyone watch it

So even a free first episode can't be watched in Europe? Fuck that.

Milksops, pipsqueaks, oh this is the stuff. <3

So even a free first episode can't be watched in Europe? Fuck that.

Free version of VPNReactor gave me the 30 mins of US proxy time I needed.

Finally remembered to watch "The Cosmopolitans" pilot. Liked it alot and sent positive feedback. Nice to hear Stillman loading the soundtrack with Uptown Soul. He's kind of underrated as a soundtrack director.

I love this man very much, thats all

i loved the pilot. i will watch this show faithfully.

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/15/whit_stillman_if_racism_is_not_socially_acceptable_why_is_class_prejudice/

Trying to imagine what a Stillman-authored ep of Sanford & Son would look like.

It’s a problem, of course, because I think racism is not acceptable, but having class prejudice, people can pat themselves on the back for. It’s reverse class prejudice. Millions of people have been killed for being bourgeois. Should there be consciousness about that? How much of the hatred of anti-Semitism was a class thing, because the Jews of Germany were successful economically? Categorizing people economically and hating them because you think they’re this way is a prejudice.

:/ :\

Millions of people have been killed for being bourgeois.

if Whit's keeping score he seems to have missed a salient point here

“They’re not embarrassed about being prejudiced if they’re being prejudiced upward,” Stillman said. “You should be embarrassed if you’re bigoted, no matter which way the bigotry runs.”

lol this guy

How much of the hatred of anti-Semitism was a class thing, because the Jews of Germany were successful economically?

and this man I can't even

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wveW9Tw2JKE

I've only seen one of his movies

I am completely unsurprised by that pullquote

i love his films and the dialogue of his characters

i don't have a lot invested in either his political or historical opinions

I like the movies I've seen (Metropolitan and the Last Days of Disco) okay, he does write funny dialogue

but yeah this is totally unsurprising

He's always been a relatively conservative guy fighting for the rights of the rich. That's what Metropolitan is all about! It mourns the tragic passing of American aristocracy. Doesn't mean I don't love it, though.

Although it's not the point he's making necessarily, I do think that the wealthy have a perspective and stories to tell etc..., and that a film or show or whatnot is not intrinsically bad because it's about the problems of people of the upper class.

The Surrealists were just a buncha social climbers.

I think he had a point when he was talking about people just lazily assuming the characters are "aimless" because they're shown in a single day of leisure.

for a "smart" guy whit stillman is awfully dumb

unless he's aspiring to lars van trier-like levels of trolling

I do think that the wealthy have a perspective and stories to tell etc..., and that a film or show or whatnot is not intrinsically bad because it's about the problems of people of the upper class.

yes, sure, absolutely. the interview is silly because the aristocracy shd never whine.

still witless

all whit, no wit

TBF I enjoyed Metropolitan (which is what I watched) but on the whole it was like a John Hughes movie with less humor and slapstick

whoa

anyway this episode is basically redolent of john irving losing it at the rich being discriminated against. good artists can say dumb things when fighting perceived inverse discrimination

anyone who's ever paid attention to his movies can not possibly be surprised by this

his movies, tbf, while set in bourgie milieux, are more imo about universals of fellowship & empathy, and espouse what is often a subversively surreal methodology

this is coming from someone with a hair-trigger response to unexamined bourgie presumptuousness

for reasons of lamentable overexposure obv before u all start zinging