49-547: John Whitney Stillman (born January 25, 1952) is an American writer-director and actor known for his 1990 film Metropolitan , which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay . He is also known for his other films, Barcelona (1994), The Last Days of Disco (1998), Damsels in Distress (2011), as well as his most recent film, Love & Friendship , released in 2016. Stillman
98-478: A debutante dress ball one evening on a whim. After the ball, a mix-up leads to his meeting a small group of young Upper East Side socialites known as the Sally Fowler Rat Pack, after the girl whose apartment they use for after-hours parties. Believing that they accidentally stole a taxi from Tom, they decide to invite him to their after-hours party, to prevent ill feelings. Tom decides to attend
147-663: A brief non-speaking cameo reprisal of her character Audrey Rouget in Stillman's follow-up film The Last Days of Disco (1998), during the 1990s following her starring role in Metropolitan , Farina received only small roles in two more films. These were a non-speaking role in Little Noises (1992), which was directed by Jane Spencer , and a small role as the protagonist's sister in The Age of Innocence (1993), which
196-579: A costume drama, because it's a pretty funny comedy, so it's really not what you might anticipate. It's not Downton Abbey in any way, shape or form. There are a lot of very good English comic actors who have done the supporting parts and really shine. I love Jane Austen. I sort of wanted something of my own to work on between paid script writing assignments. It's good that I had so much time with no producer or studio executive wanting delivery quickly because it's an incredibly funny novella she wrote, but hard to read and hard to dramatize. It's an epistolary form from
245-430: A few contributions from family members and friends. Including post-production, the total cost of making the film was $ 210,000. Stillman wanted to set the film in the past, possibly in the pre- Woodstock 1960s, but the budget did not allow for a strict period film to be made. Instead, he added period details to give the film an "aura of the past", like vintage Checker Cabs , and generally excluded anything too specific to
294-423: A full series. On July 11, 2016, Tom Grater reported that Stillman was commissioned by Amazon to write six new scripts to continue his original pilot film for The Cosmopolitans . "I explained to Amazon that I don’t like outlining or projecting what something’s going to be. I like to allow a story to arise as I’m writing scripts. I find it horrible when I try to think of something for the plot without really being on
343-427: A girl drunk and convincing her to " pull a train " several years before, after which she committed suicide. Nick admits that the story was a "composite" of incidents from Rick's life, but insists that it was based on real events. Shortly thereafter, Nick leaves Manhattan, giving Tom his top hat as a token of friendship. Believing that Tom is not interested in her romantically, Audrey decides to leave Manhattan to spend
392-523: A new husband for herself, and one for her reluctant debutante daughter, Frederica, too. As Lady Susan embarks on a controversial relationship with a married man, seduction, deception, broken hearts, and gossip all ensue. With a pitch-perfect Austenian sensibility, Stillman breathes new life into Austen's work, making it his own by adding original narration from a character comically loyal to the story's fiendishly manipulative heroine, Lady Susan." Stillman wrote and directed three comedies of manners released in
441-492: A novelization of the film, titled The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards . The novelization won the French 2014 Prix Fitzgerald Award. Stillman stated in 2006 that he was working on several unfinished scripts. He had been slated to direct a film adaptation of Christopher Buckley 's novel Little Green Men , but in a 2009 interview, Stillman said the adaptation is "[not] happening, at least with me." He
490-439: A rueful, ironic-romantic glaze." Stillman's effectiveness at the box-office has been mixed. He filmed Metropolitan for about $ 250,000, according to Stillman, with a box-office return of about $ 3 million. Barcelona was then filmed on a budget of under $ 3 million, returning just under $ 8 million. His third film was not a box-office success; its budget of $ 8 million returned about $ 3 million. Stillman, in an AOL interview following
539-462: A stint as a junior editor at The American Spectator , a conservative magazine. Stillman has subsequently distanced himself from his work for the Spectator, stating that he now hates "to be drawn into ideological debates" and prefers to remain " apolitical ". He was introduced to some film producers from Madrid and persuaded them that he could sell their films to Spanish-language television in
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#1732787543884588-466: A trilogy loosely based on Stillman's life and contains many references to the previous two films: a character considers a move to Spain to work for American ad agencies there after meeting with the Barcelona character of Ted Boynton, and Metropolitan' s heroine Audrey Rouget reappears briefly as a successful publisher, as do a few other characters from that film, as clubgoers. In 2000 Stillman published
637-528: A waitress, secretary, and receptionist. She spent one semester at Queens College , and also studied acting at a variety of venues including the Lee Strasberg Institute . She had no professional acting experience or agent when she auditioned for, and was cast as the lead in, Whit Stillman 's 1990 independent film Metropolitan . Her performance received very favorable reviews, which noted her sensitivity and perceptiveness. Apart from
686-463: Is "about three young women at an East Coast university, the transfer student that joins their group and the young men they become entangled with." The Cosmopolitans (2014) In 2014, Stillman wrote and directed the pilot episode of the TV series The Cosmopolitans for Amazon Studios on August 28, 2014, the pilot was available and Amazon Prime users could watch the pilot episode and vote to pick it up for
735-616: Is a 1990 American romantic comedy-drama film produced, written and directed by Whit Stillman , in his feature directorial debut. The film concerns the lives of a group of wealthy young socialites during debutante season in Manhattan. In addition to some of their debutante parties, it covers their frequent informal after-hours gatherings at a friend's Upper East Side apartment, where they discuss life, philosophy and their fate; form attachments, romances and intrigues; and react to an interesting but less well-to-do newcomer. Metropolitan
784-501: Is admirable and necessary in the customs and conventions of America's upper class". In 2009, National Review named it the third-best conservative film. On Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, " Metropolitan gently skewers the young socialite class with a smartly written dramedy whose unique, specific setting yields rich universal truths". The film grossed $ 2.9 million in
833-546: The "urban haute bourgeoisie", and the "possibility—the necessity—and the difficulty of breaking out of their world and connecting with the wider world, for the benefit of the wider world". Mark Henrie, editor of the book Doomed Bourgeois in Love: Essays on the Films of Whit Stillman , writes that it is a conservative film, which uses "mocking affection, gentle irony, and a blizzard of witty dialogue" to bring us "to see what
882-422: The 18th century and there are all these very funny ideas and lines buried within. It's kind of an inaccessible format and it was a long process of adaptation." Criterion Collection Release In April 2016, The Criterion Collection released a retrospective box set edition of Metropolitan , Barcelona , and The Last Days of Disco , available on Blu-ray and DVD. Stillman himself oversaw the digital transfers of
931-499: The 1990s: Metropolitan (1990), Barcelona (1994), and The Last Days of Disco (1998); he published a novel based on the last of these films. After completing his film trilogy, Stillman left independent comedy and started researching and writing a series of scripts set abroad. In August 1998 (shortly after The Last Days of Disco was released) he left his loft conversion in Manhattan's SoHo and moved to Paris. He returned to New York in 2010. A fourth film, Damsels in Distress ,
980-552: The Arts at the Ohio State University held a 25-year retrospective of the career and films of Stillman including his film titled Love & Friendship . At the time of the retrospective, Stillman was asked: "Your films all have a sort of costume drama sensibility, but without the costumes, and now you've made a costume drama, period dress and all." Stillman responded by stating that: " Love & Friendship doesn't loom as
1029-467: The Rat Pack and soon becomes a full-fledged member. Much of the film is composed of dialogues in which Tom and the Rat Pack discuss the nebulous social scene they occupy, including how they are coming of age just as the culture in which they were raised is ending, leaving them with uncertain social futures. During these discussions, Tom reveals that he, too, was raised wealthy, but that his father abandoned
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#17327875438841078-613: The US. He worked for the next few years in Madrid and Barcelona as a sales agent for directors Fernando Trueba and Fernando Colomo , and sometimes acted in their films, usually playing comic Americans, as in Trueba's film Sal Gorda . Metropolitan (1990) Stillman wrote the screenplay for Metropolitan from 1984 to 1988 while running an illustration agency in New York, and he financed
1127-559: The United States and Canada and $ 7 million worldwide. Carolyn Farina Carolyn Farina (born 1963 or 1964) is an American actress best known for her starring role as Audrey Rouget in the 1990 Whit Stillman film Metropolitan . Farina was born and raised in Bayside, Queens , New York . Her father left the family very early. A shy child, she began acting classes in grade school. After high school, she had jobs as
1176-561: The awkwardness of being in love in a foreign country culturally and politically opposed to their own. The Last Days of Disco (1998) The Last Days of Disco was based loosely on Stillman's experiences in various Manhattan nightclubs, including Studio 54 . The film concerns Ivy League and Hampshire graduates falling in and out of love in the disco scene of Manhattan in the "very early 1980s". Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale play roommates with opposite personalities who frequent disco clubs together. The Last Days of Disco concludes
1225-453: The beach, with Audrey saying that she is planning to attend college in France, and Tom contemplating going to visit her there. Tom, Audrey, and Charlie begin hitchhiking together towards Manhattan. Whit Stillman wrote the screenplay for Metropolitan between 1984 and 1988 while running an illustration agency in New York, and financed it by selling his apartment for $ 50,000, as well as with
1274-486: The family to marry another woman, leaving Tom and his mother with limited financial resources. As a result, Tom harbors a love–hate relationship with wealth and the upper class. Serena has been dating Rick Von Sloneker, a young, titled aristocrat notorious for his womanizing . At a party after the International Debutante Ball , Nick alienates himself from the group by accusing Rick of getting
1323-461: The film by selling the insider rights to his apartment (for $ 50,000) and with the contributions of friends and relatives. Loosely based on Stillman's Manhattan days, with his divorced mother during the week of Christmas break 1969 during his first year at Harvard, Metropolitan tells the story of the alienated Princetonian Tom Townsend's introduction to the "Sally Fowler Rat Pack" (SFRP), a small group of preppy , Upper East Side Manhattanites making
1372-453: The film tracks "the Austen phenomenon beyond Austen, into what [is called] the 'post-heritage' film, a kind of historical costume drama that uses the past in a deliberate or explicit way to explore current issues in cultural politics". In 2015, The New Yorker film critic Richard Brody wrote that Metropolitan is about the plight of America's upper class, or what the film's characters call
1421-458: The films and recorded audio commentaries along with members of the casts and crews. Stillman wrote a novelization of The Last Days of Disco published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux under the same title, with the added subtitle " ...With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards ". It won the French 2014 Prix Fitzgerald Award. Stillman also wrote the novelization of his 2016 film Love & Friendship . Metropolitan (1990 film) Metropolitan
1470-402: The ground and seeing where it goes. I was really resistant to do the mini-bible. So I gave them something, but I really didn’t want to do it that way. They also knew about the film, so they commissioned six scripts for the first season that they were going to let me postpone until I finished this film, which is now. So in ten days, we’ll be full on with that. It’s been really good because I think I
1519-906: The indication that Little, Brown and Company would be publishing the screenplay adapted by Stillman The film premiered in January 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival under the title of Love & Friendship . Although the plot of the film is adapted from Lady Susan , the actual title used ( Love & Friendship) is from another, unrelated early epistolary novel by Austen, unpublished during her lifetime. It received universal acclaim from critics. The promotional announcement by Little, Brown and Company summarized Stillman's adaptation stating; "Recently widowed, Lady Susan arrives, unannounced, at her brother-in-law's estate to wait out colorful rumors about her dalliances circulating through polite society. While there, she becomes determined to secure
Whit Stillman - Misplaced Pages Continue
1568-425: The murky surface of daily life, emerge more clearly, in ritualized isolation. The second is something that happens at the party: a dance, but a formally patterned one where the rules are the very subject." - Richard Brody , 27 August 2014 Love & Friendship (2016) A film version of one of Jane Austen's early short novels Lady Susan was reported by Entertainment Weekly on January 22, 2016. This followed
1617-463: The party, and befriends several other attendees, including Nick Smith, a cynic who takes Tom under his wing; Audrey, a shy girl who enjoys Regency-era literature and develops a crush on Tom; and Charlie, an overly philosophical friend with an unrequited love for Audrey. Tom learns that he and the Rat Pack have some common friends, including his ex-girlfriend Serena Slocum, with whom he remains infatuated. Under Nick's tutelage, Tom ingratiates himself to
1666-503: The pilot of “The Cosmopolitans” involves several of Stillman’s signature subjects. The first is a party: the male trio, plus Aubrey, head to a soirée at the posh apartment of an arrogantly wealthy Parisian acquaintance (or perhaps a German in Paris), Fritz (Freddy Åsblom). For Stillman, parties are laboratories where possibilities arise suddenly from the close and quickly ricocheting contacts of social atoms—and where social rules, hidden beneath
1715-500: The present day or recent past. But a large part of the idea was to disguise our pitifully low budget by filming the most elegant subject available." Barcelona (1994) Barcelona , his first studio-financed film, was inspired by his own experiences in Spain during the early 1980s. Stillman has described the film as An Officer and a Gentleman , but with the title referring to two men rather than one. The men, Ted and Fred, experience
1764-568: The present day. Leading commentators such as Emanuel Levy have called the film a comedy of manners while in her book Jane Austen and Co. , Suzanne R. Pucci compares the film to Austen's novels and those of Henry James , such as The Wings of the Dove . For Pucci, the film deserves full membership in the class of 20th- and early 21st-century Austen remakes such as Ruby in Paradise (1993) and Bridget Jones's Diary (2001). According to her,
1813-482: The reason for the long gaps between his films is that "Stillman is sometimes simply too damn smart for his own good. You can't always tell at whom he's poking fun, or why, and it becomes unfortunately easy to typecast him as the WASP answer to Woody Allen and conclude that his movies are insufferably irritating documents of privilege. He himself is aware of that possibility the whole time, and bastes his entire worldview in
1862-538: The rest of vacation in the Hamptons with Rick and another girl from the Rat Pack named Cynthia. Realizing that he has developed feelings for Audrey, Tom recruits Charlie to help him rescue her from Rick. The two travel to the Hamptons together, bonding en route. Against their expectations, they arrive to find Audrey in no peril. Tom and Charlie nonetheless instigate a fight with Rick, which ends with them being kicked out of his beach house. Afterward, Tom and Audrey talk on
1911-542: The rounds at debutante balls during Christmas break of their first year in college. Though he is a socialist deeply skeptical of the SFRP's upper-class values, Tom (Edward Clements) grows increasingly attached to the cynical Nick ( Chris Eigeman ) and plays an important part, of which he is largely unaware, in the life of Audrey ( Carolyn Farina ), a young debutante. Many of the exclusive interior locations were lent to Stillman by family friends and relatives. The film premiered and
1960-426: The twenty-fifth anniversary of Metropolitan , refers to himself as having been put into "director's prison" for more than 10 years before he made Damsels . His 2016 film Love & Friendship , a comedy based on a Jane Austen story, was a box-office success, grossing more than $ 20 million worldwide against a production budget of $ 3 million. Series 25-Year Wexner Center film retrospective The Wexner Center for
2009-794: Was E. Digby Baltzell , a University of Pennsylvania professor and chronicler of the American upper class . He attended the Collegiate School in New York City, Potomac School in McLean, Virginia, and Millbrook School in Stanford, New York . He majored in history at Harvard University , where he wrote for its student newspaper The Harvard Crimson . After graduating from Harvard in 1973, Stillman began working as an editorial assistant at Doubleday in New York City, followed by
Whit Stillman - Misplaced Pages Continue
2058-415: Was a financial success, grossing about $ 3 million on a budget of $ 225,000. In an interview Stillman said of the film, "The material seemed pretty rich, almost rank. And perhaps it's better approaching a subject people feel strongly about, even if that strong feeling is hatred, than something colorless and unspecific. Also, I love anachronism and this was the chance to film, essentially, a costume picture set in
2107-620: Was born in 1952 in Washington, D.C., to Margaret Drinker (née Riley), from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a Democratic politician, John Sterling Stillman, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs under President John F. Kennedy (a classmate of Stillman's father at Harvard), from Washington, D.C. His great-grandfather was businessman James Stillman ; his great-great-grandfather, Charles Stillman , founded Brownsville, Texas . Stillman
2156-404: Was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 63rd Academy Awards . The film is often considered the first of a trilogy of Stillman films set in the 1980s and portraying privileged young adults, followed chronologically (but not release-wise) by The Last Days of Disco (1998) and Barcelona (1994). Middle-class Princeton student Tom Townsend, an admirer of Charles Fourier , attends
2205-568: Was raised in Cornwall, New York , and experienced depression during puberty. "I was very depressed when I was 11 or 12," he recounted to the Wall Street Journal . "I was sent to the leading Freudian child psychologist in Washington, D.C. It was heck. The last thing I needed to talk about was guilt about sex." However, when his parents separated, he found that his depression ceased. "I actually felt healthier." Stillman's godfather
2254-479: Was released in 2011, premiering out of competition as the closing film at the 68th Venice International Film Festival . The Guardian in 2012 compared Stillman to Terrence Malick , another filmmaker who has "come to owe a good part of their mystique to the very paucity of their oeuvre...The lengthy gaps in between (films) have created expectations that are hard to fulfil, and admirers have been inclined to overestimate their achievement." A reviewer at Salon wrote that
2303-558: Was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight section at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival . Metropolitan was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize (Drama) at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival . Stillman won Best First Feature at the 6th Independent Spirit Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1991 for Best Original Screenplay . He won the 1990 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best New Director. The movie
2352-476: Was waiting for the idea I really want, and I think I have that now. It’s not exactly Paris, it’s a European idea. So it will be Chloe and Adam Brody. We’ll keep the pilot, that’s part of the story, but we’ll be going a different place with it." - Whit Stillman, shortly before the world premiere of Love & Friendship at Sundance In 2016, Amazon stated that: "Our agreements with the content provider don’t allow purchases of this title at this time." "The bulk of
2401-489: Was writing another film, Dancing Mood , set in Jamaica in the 1960s, which was not produced. Damsels in Distress (2011) After a 13-year hiatus, Stillman released his fourth film, Damsels in Distress , starring Greta Gerwig , Adam Brody , Hugo Becker and Lio Tipton (credited as Analeigh Tipton). It premiered September 10 at the 2011 Venice Film Festival as the closing film and received favorable reviews. The film
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