Metropolitan
Reviewed in February 2010
Director: Whit Stillman. Cast: Edward Clements, Carolyn Farina, Taylor Nichols, Chris Eigeman, Allison Parisi, Isabel Gillies, Dylan Hundley, Elizabeth Thompson, Will Kempe, Bryan Leder, Roger W. Kirby, Alice Connorton, John Lynch, Thomas R. Voth. Screenplay: Whit Stillman.

Photo © 1990 New Line Cinema/Westerly Film/Allagash Films
Opening credits over jazz/swing thing; "You an't listen to your brother - I can't think of anyone who's less of an authority on female anatomy"; Public transportation snobs, look down on people who take cabs; TN: "I don't think there is a popular imagination"; long letter about agrarian socialism - now she's Red Army; Tom Townsend: Fourierist - I'm a socialist but not a Marxist; "When did you stop seeing each other?" (Audrey, washing dishes), TT, almost interr: "Yale game weekend" - fade to black, as though WS knows when he thinks he's landed a punchline; Sally: "Good luck with your Fourierism"; "It has a lining"; Mansfield Park a notoriously bad book, even Lionel Trilling thought so; ev in Austen looks ridiculous from today's perspective; has it occurred to you that from jane Austen's perspective, today would ook even worse? :) ; 1824; "There's something a tiny bit arrogant about people going around feeling sorry for other people who are 'less fortunate'"; if Thorstein Veblen were here, he'd tell you the same thing; "I think I'd prefer one more like the one I rented" / "That is the one you rented" / "Oh, I didn't realize it looked like this. I guess it'll be okay, then"; our generation's probably the worst since... the Protestant Reformation. It's barbaric!; 2600; "It's just that my stepmother's a writer, and our presence makes her anxious"; I don't read novels, I prefer literary criticism (two for one); he doesn't say all the expected things / That's true, he disagrees with everyhting everyone else thinks; 2909; 3013; 3315; "Tom hasn't had much experience in places like these - maybe he went through one of those fire doors that locks from the inside" (but played comic-astringency); TN: There's actually very little social snobbery in the United States; pink ruffled girl: "I can't stand snobbery or snobbish attitudes of any kind"; CE: "The Eas Hampton seagulls are complete morons"; CF: "Tom is the only guy I've ever liked in my whole life; I'm not going to forget about him because of some apparent inconsistencies"; "Is our language so impoverished that we have to use acronyms of French phrases to make ourselves understood?" (UHB: Urban Haute Bourgeoisie); phony phony phony Catcher : TN "And when he's not being a phony, he's a bastard"; CE just HATES Rick; CE tells long story about his forcing a girl named Polly Perkins to "pull a train" with him and a crew mate, and she later kills herself, but the story isn't true; extra outside Doubleday: looks to camera, looks back at store; TN: You know she's a big admirer of Jane Austen / EC: But she's turned her back on all that; TN: I warned you - he's a Fourierist!; cab out to Long Island; RvS lounging in room B+

Academy Award Nominations:
Best Original Screenplay: Whit Stillman

Other Awards:
Independent Spirit Awards: Best First Feature
New York Film Critics Circle: Best New Filmmaker (Stillman)
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