Whatever happened to Whit Stillman?

Stillman's Criterion top 10.

i've never seen big deal on madonna street. or black orpheus.

man notorious is the best thing ever

heh now i see Lombard as the Chloe Sevigny of My Man Godfrey.

yeah that BJ she gives William Powell at the end of the movie is epic.

"cast of archetypal beauty" otm on notorious

I can watch My Man Godfrey anytime anyplace.

lol @ 'my gosh it's long'

Hmmm:

Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they will release Oscar nominated Whit Stillman’s latest film Violet Wister's DAMSELS IN DISTRESS worldwide. Martin Shafer and Liz Glotzer produced alongside Stillman, who also wrote the screenplay.

The film stars Greta Gerwig (GREENBERG, upcoming ARTHUR remake), Adam Brody (THE ROMANTICS, upcoming SCREAM 4) and Analeigh Tipton (CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE with Steve Carrell, America’s Next Top Model).

Violet Wister's DAMSELS IN DISTRESS is a comedy that follows a trio of beautiful girls who set out to revolutionize life at a grungy East Coast university – the dynamic leader Violet Wister (Gerwig), principled Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and sexy Heather (Carrie MacLemore). They welcome transfer student Lily (Tipton) into their group which seeks to help severely depressed students with a program of good scent and musical dance numbers. The girls become romantically entangled with a series of men --including slick Charlie (Brody), dreamboat Xavier (Hugo Becker) and the mad frat pack of Frank (Ryan Metcalf) and Thor (Billy Magnussen)—who threaten the girls’ friendship and sanity.

sounds like an updated version of The Group.

Damsels premiering at closing night of Venice Film Fest.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/newsandviews/festivals/blog/venice-2011-09-10-eccentricities-american-college-life.php

i only skimmed, to avoid plot, but s&s seems to be digging it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zh8oEU3DdE

i wanna see this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXNEHcyuu80

is that..... a person of color?!?!?!?

i went to a party for this but did not watch it

i wanted to stay true to the spirit of metropolitan

he still wants to make his Jamaica movie at some point, too

xxp

Do people talk like that?

nah, people talk like Henry James characters.

very excited/nervous about this

I like Whit Stillman, but they're speaking even more manneredly than Henry James characters. Here's a random James excerpt:

If there was something serious in Nanda and something blank in their companion, there was, superficially at least, nothing in Mr. Mitchett but his usual flush of gaiety. "Did she really send you off this way alone?" Then while the girl's face met his own with the clear confession of it: "Isn't she too splendid for anything?" he asked with immense enjoyment. "What do you suppose is her idea?" Nanda's eyes had now turned to Mr. Longdon, whom she fixed with her mild straightness; which led to Mitchy's carrying on and repeating the appeal. "Isn't Mrs. Brook charming? What do you suppose is her idea?"

I get that people talk about the kinds of things the Stillman characters are talking about, but the way they're saying them is also very unusual. It's been years since I've seen a Stillman movie. Maybe I've put up a wall since then.

a very small subset of young ppl talk sort of like whit stillman characters irl imo iirc

sort of covering the fact that its usually less fluid and successful irl

the job of movies is not to depict the way people talk irl

Neither is it the job of novels.

It's their job to accurately depict how well the people filmed or written about talk.

mumblecore

person of colour but with ridiculously over-enunciated british toff vowels. he's prob trying to make a point here.

adam brody's in this? of course. of course he is.

no suzy but he totally tried to sleep w/ my friend last night it was p lol

anyway if i can get up early enough i think ill go see this tomorrow

!!!

While doing press for his latest, which closes the Venice Film Festival this weekend, Stillman told Variety that he would still like to make the Jamaica-set “Dancing Mood.” We told you way back in 2008 that he was considering directing this drama, set within the church music scene of Kingston, Jamaica in the years 1962 to 1966, but it seemed as if he was focusing all his attention on ‘Damsels’ at that moment.

Stillman says that if he can’t, “set it up via traditional methods, we’ll use our own resources, do the film on a small budget.” Considering that he hasn’t directed a film since the Criterion-certified “Last Days of Disco” in 1998, we’re guessing that any potential financiers are probably waiting to see how Venice audiences respond to “Damsels” first. Frankly, it’s been so long, we’re hoping the picture, already scooped up by Sony Pictures Classics (a good sign) goes over like gangbusters. On the aforementioned Criterion disc, Stillman said work on “Dancing Mood” began during his discovery of reggae and dub during the making of ‘Disco.’ He called it a spiritual film, but one with fantastical elements as well, that could prove to be expensive. “So the script has angels and demons and it turns out I picked about the hardest film there is to get financed in the world,” he said.

super-excited about Dancing Mood tbh i hope he gets to make it. even if it's terrible.

yeah that sounds amazing

no suzy but he totally tried to sleep w/ my friend last night it was p lol

― Lamp, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 23:20 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

man or woman?

no suzy lol

hear this ends in a musical number

xps well duh, but it's something people talk about and criticize when they talk about movies and books.

So I saw Damsels in Distress (2011). There's something about the fact that THIS is what we get after 13 years that makes it even funnier, like that bit in The Big Lebowski with the doodle, crossed with Jack Torrence's typewriter. You could find much fault with the the direction, and the film sure does sag badly in places. And ultimately I wanted more of Violet and a bit less of most of the others. But A++ for the laughs from all those things that had made Whit chuckle to himself and scribble down in a notepad. Bear in mind I found Be Kind Rewind the funniest film of 2008.

(I can confirm it ends in a musical number)

bring on the dancing mood

http://www.whitstillman.org/2011/12/28/metropolitan-2/

No objection to the event at all but:

If you want something to remind you of Metropolitan‘s magic, James Wolcott has just written for Vanity Fair about it being “the movie that best captures the mood of Christmas”.

Yeah I'll take my A Christmas Story marathons, thanks.

so did this come out? is it on dvd yet?

i think its only played festivals so far but iirc i got picked up for distro by sony classics so im sure itll be out in 10 months or so

http://www.whitstillman.org/2011/12/28/metropolitan-2/

― buzza, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 22:56 (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

kinda unforgivable to tease METROPOLITAN II: ROGUE JUSTICE in the url when in fact it's a webstream of plain ol' metropolitan one

I loved the Wolcott post on Metropolitan actually -- and he's right that the movie's ideal during Xmas time.

schlump otm, I was expecting Metropolitan 2: Revenge of the Urban Haute Bourgeoisie.