Whit Stillman lets clever young people talk long enough to reveal how little they know about living. We rate his patient, affectionate comedies highly, especially when he leaves the conversation to do the work.
Fi1m perspective
In Metropolitan (1990), young socialites discuss class and failure with more assurance than their experience can support. Stillman gives them time to finish, and time to sound ridiculous, without treating their youth as a charge against them. Edward Clements’s Tom Townsend enters a wealthy Manhattan circle during the Christmas ball season, giving us a way into its customs. We grew unexpectedly fond of them because Stillman lets their fear of failure show through the confident talk. Their worries matter to him, even when their explanations of those worries deserve a little scrutiny.
That debut led to Barcelona (1994), about American expatriates in Spain, and The Last Days of Disco (1998), set amid Manhattan nightlife in the early 1980s. Together they form a loose autobiographical trilogy of ensemble comedies. After a thirteen-year gap came the campus comedy Damsels in Distress (2011), followed by the Austen adaptation Love & Friendship (2016). Parties and formal dancing recur in his work, giving his characters places to test their opinions and attempt romance. His interest in a privileged few is narrow, but Metropolitan never asks us to mistake their troubles for everybody’s.
His dialogue needs actors who can make a polished sentence sound like something they need to say. In Metropolitan, Chris Eigeman’s brisk Nick Smith and Taylor Nichols’s earnest Charlie Black speak at different speeds, so the manners do not flatten everyone into the same person. Editor Christopher Tellefsen leaves room for remarks to register before another speaker takes over. Stillman’s patience depends on that timing as much as on the writing. We can hear the characters trying to sound sure of themselves, and recognise the effort even when we have no interest in their parties.
He is less sure when those conversations have to produce a plot. The central romance in Metropolitan feels pushed along rather than allowed to develop, despite Carolyn Farina’s sincerity as Audrey Rouget. Once events need arranging, he loses some of the ease that makes the parties so enjoyable. Start with Metropolitan for the company, and give the matchmaking a little leeway.
Biography
Whit Stillman is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. Born John Whitney Stillman on 25 January 1952 in Washington, D.C., he graduated from Harvard University in 1973. He began his career in publishing and journalism in New York before working as a sales agent for Spanish films in Barcelona and Madrid, and later running an illustration agency in New York.
Stillman wrote, directed and produced his debut feature Metropolitan (1990), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He is also known for Barcelona (1994) and The Last Days of Disco (1998), forming a loose trilogy, as well as Damsels in Distress (2012) and Love & Friendship (2016). Metropolitan won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best New Director.
