Whatever happened to Whit Stillman?

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

*doesn't comment*

Amazon orders scripts, not episodes for Cosmopolitans

I've made it deeper into Cosmopolitans than I did Metropolitan, but I think that might just be that I like Chloe Sevigny and the guy from the OC.
Still kind of awful.

Just saw Taylor Nichols on an ep of Newsradio playing the representative from Rocket Fuel Malt Liquor.

adapting Jane Austen’s Lady Susan as Love and Friendship, with Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny:

“Beckinsale will portray the widow Lady Susan Vernon, who has come to the estate of her in-laws to wait out rumors about her dalliances circulating through polite society. She decides to secure a husband for herself and her rather reluctant debutante daughter. The cast includes Xavier Samuel and Stephen Fry, the long-suffering husband to Lady Susan’s friend and confidante, portrayed by Sevigny. Filming begins in Ireland this month.”

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/kate-beckinsale-chloe-sevigny-reunite-in-love-and-friendship-1201421435/

zzzzzzz

WELL!

Stillman doing a Jane Austen... next thing Tarantino will be doing a snuff film and Chris Nolan a 3D IMAX adap of the phone book.

yeah, white on white, so to speak.

Perhaps he should have challenged himself by adapting and filming criticism of Jane Austen instead.

https://mobile.twitter.com/WhitStillman/status/649332929194233858

https://www.criterion.com/films/28691-barcelona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MaSK3POHI0

get hype motherfuckers

beckinsale 4ever

The Last Days of Disco prequel we always wanted.

I don't see Chris Eigemann in there anywhere. I don't know about this.

stephen fry :(

Stilton doing an Austen riff in period-appropriate drag feels a bit too on the nose to me, as his films were already covert Austen adaptations.

This does remind me, though, that I still need to see Damsels in Distress.

*Stillman

stillman's really scraping the bottom of the austen barrel here.

beckinsale 4ever

― scott seward, Wednesday, March 23, 2016 2:56 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

someone on ILX once expressed a postulate that as the movies she was in got more and more lowbrow, kate beckinsale got hotter and hotter. wonder how this film reflects that.

someone should re-score that trailer to li'l jon

Love & Friendship was really wonderful!

A Thread for Whit Stillman's "Love & Friendship"

I finally saw DAMSELS IN DISTRESS.

Naturally it is quite good, maybe it's even very good compared to other films? - but I couldn't really it was that good compared to other WS films, which is a high standard.

It was possibly a bit too light for its own good. Or are they all pretty much equally light?

The incidental music seemed too intrusive and repetitive. The whole film seemed somewhat cheap. But then METROPOLITAN looks cheap, at least once you've watched the director's commentary, and is one of my favourite films of all.

I think if I had seen it in a cinema full of WS fans (which I didn't), it would have made me laugh along with them.

The above are probably standard views. Here is one slightly newer thought:

Has anyone remarked on how its musical ending pre-empts LA LA LAND?

I love Love and Friendship! I've watched it several times, as it feels like the most comforting movie in a long time

One of the things that amazed me (in a bad way) about DiD was the awful sound mixing/recording in some of the outdoor scenes. You'd think for a studio-distributed film, they could have gotten a few extra thou to fix that.

But I liked the film a lot anyway.

"Damsels In Distress" was good. Refreshing to see a depressive person imbued with a mean streak (Gerwig). Not always the usual fare in movies.

Tend to agree with Aerosmith - the sound balance in this film was not the best - whether this was about recording or the mix with the music.

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP I think is superior and very good. DID seems more like a stepping stone back to that level.

Love & Friendship was superior in every way, yeah. Especially like how it opens with a nod to Kubrick with the scoring.

DiD made me laugh about five times as hard as L&F, which counts for something in a comedy, I suppose.

I enjoyed DiD more than L&F too. I think it would be easy to pick it apart, but I laughed hard and thought Gerwig was utterly charming.

I've avoided seeing it precisely because of Gerwig.