Whatever happened to Whit Stillman?

i think he's a total filmmaking genius for sure!

on what level?

i dont know, like i think his movies are perfect. i can see how someone who values different things could see them as lacking but for me he nails everything that counts

i like his movies too, i just don't think he's very accomplished as a visual storyteller or whatever.

yeah i don't know, i guess i don't really know what that means to be accomplished as a visual storyteller. no film is a success when judged by all criteria, but great films succeed on their own terms. whit stillman films aren't visual spectacles and usually look modest, but they are visually appealing (actors & actresses in them are generally attractive, settings are usually nice) enough so as not to distract from the dialogue. i mean, i definitely don't wish that his movies looked more like wes anderson's

I'm with amateurist. I like Manhattan despite missed visual and verbal cues (of which there are plenty). Sometimes his setups are worse than TV.

er, Metropolitan

Ô_o

Metropolitan is really well edited. It moves swiftly toward a fully formed gestalt while remaining more or less plotless until the third act. Christopher Tellefsen pulled off the same thing in Kids, which is otherwise dreadful. (Weird trivia: Tellefsen and Andrew Hafitz, the only other editor Stillman has worked with, have both done two movies with Larry Clark). The visuals are nothing special, but it looks pretty good, the lighting especially, given the constraints. It's hard to argue the formal virtues of Barcelona and Last Days. They're both clunky, but Damsels seems downright incompetent.

He's always had problems with blocking, but I think that most of the performances in the first three are impressive: it's hard to sell all that dialogue in an at least nominally naturalistic fashion. Almost every actor in Damsels seems like they had been directed for different movies.

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/08/trust_me_on_this_abbey_road/

Great article!

“Certainly some things are better than other things, right? And really, yes, I am saying you’re an idiot, that’s true, but it’s for your own good. Cry as much as you like, but you need to know these things.”

Pretty sure this quote could be posted on just about every ilx thread ever.

I hadn't realized from skimming reviews of DiD that its style was magical/neo-Shakespearean comedy, especially all the identity-hiding and switching. The scene like the one where Violet passes the soap around at the diner -- it's almost like A Mid-Semester Night's Dream. In the last third it's a little more strained than funny, though.

This is the most polished Gerwig comedy performance I've seen.

Also Adam Brody's character OTM on homosexuality.

my sister said she thought it was more like a bunch of short stories than a full narrative.

oh for sure, and not a problen.

so worth seeing? it was playing at the local theater here for like 5 days and by the time i convinced myself to go despite the poor reviews it was replaced by some jason seigel comedy

The reviews weren't exactly "poor." A little divided, which non-cookiecutter style will draw.

Had no problem w/ the guy playing Frank btw. From Miriam Bale's Slant review:

As noted in the press notes, this is the first film for Ryan Metcalf, who plays Violet's idiotic former beau. ("Do you mind if I try a version that's a little broad?" Stillman remembers Metcalf saying of the moment when the role clicked.) Stillman doesn't get a Chris Eigeman-type to play dumb because that would have been condescending. But the amateur playing broad comedy opens up some breathing room in Stillman's highly enunciated, dense comedy. The clash of styles in this film is bewildering and then disarming.

Yeah, I'm pretty fond of this one in fits and starts.

i didnt think he was bad, but i just felt like he was flailing around in his scenes, which were mostly unfunny

i think thats the directors fault btw.

sorry, I lol'd at him and other stuff

maybe it was more the movie's timing that i was responding to, i dunno

I remembered that 'golden oldie' too! Memorably atrocious even for a dance hit.

Stillman said that the "golden oldie" was going to be Cher's "Believe," but it was too expensive to license.

Would've made for a hysterically incongruous frat party soundtrack, tho.

I had forgotten what a hilarious monster Kate Beckinsale is in Disco. Also maybe the funniest and most pathetic Eigeman character.

Many of the club scenes were shot in the Loews movie palace in Jersey City, which I've been to several times now.

damsels in distress was super!

it's easy to do!

...

do the cha cha cha for two step.

and so on.

ah...cha-cha

<3 A Conversation With Whit Stillman About The Script Of 'Metropolitan'

Just last week listened to the Treatment interview with Stillman--good stuff.

One of the criticisms I get of the film is that all its energy goes out once Nick Smith leaves. I can see how people react that way, because you're getting a lot of the fun and comedy from Nick. A lot of these things, frankly, I did not catch as the writer of the script. People had to bring it to my attention.

I loved DID. Adam Brody fit perfectly in this world.

as did gerwig i thought! my liberal pc self might've blanched at brody on homosexuality if i hadn't heard the same thing for years from some of my older queer friends (see also paris hilton on grinder for that matter). was so happy to see dookie from the wire pop up in this, in some part of my brain it means 'he got out' like w/ michael on 90210 or randy on suburgatory.

and Wallace faked his own death and turned into a high school football star!

haha! as long as that little shit kenard doesn't pop up in anything.

DiD made me laugh a lot more than I thought it would. Pretty uneven, yes, but I think "the clash of styles in this film is bewildering and then disarming" pretty much sums up how I eventually felt. I want to watch it again, too, which is odd for this kind of movie.

The last twenty minutes are bewildering.

I'm not even sure why but i quite liked it too. It's oddly charming

I need to watch again to remember. Iirc it did lose its way and fumbled towards a resolution (which it didn't even really need). I was surprised the musical numbers weren't as effective as I thought they'd be.

Yes "oddly charming" was about how I was going to describe it, too. That, or charmingly surreal.

This is the sort of movie for which adverbs are redundant.

ha i haven't watched the last 20 minutes yet (wife wanted to go to sleep) but i'm loving this so far. really funny.

I loved it.

who can doubt that class and erudition have generally vanished from 'homosexual life'? and I haven't even seen Glee.

The march toward equality takes no prisoners. Except femmes.

Just got done with Metropolitan and now after six or so weeks can call myself a Stillman completest. How A-dorable was Carolyn Farina? "You really think I'm flat-chested?" Easily his least movie tho: as noted upthread the acting is uneven and the transitions suck.

Would Rank: Barcelona>The Last Days of Disco>>Damsels In Distress>>>Metropolitan

that rank cray

you nuts, metropolitan the platonic ideal of which the rest are shadows

ok, maybe that's not quite fair, last days of disco is kind of its own thing which over the years has been creeping ever closer to metropolitan in my estimation

I'm close to thinking DID is his best.

something about whit stillman breeds challops like tulips in may

I haven't seen LDoD since it came out, but with that in mind:

Barcelona > Metropolitan > Damsels In Distress > The Last Days of Disco