Whit Stilman's Metropolian gets the Criterion treatment and will be released this week. This is one of my favorite films and although Stilman has been far from prolific he has been consistant in his film making (ie. the excellent Barcelona and competent The Last Days of Disco). I think that this will be added to my personal library of films:
Metropolitan is either an elegy for the death of the upper classes disguised as a sweet, teen romance, or it is a sweet teen romance disguised as class elegy. It tells the story of a group of Manhattan teens—members of the self-described urban haute bourgeoisie (UHB, for short)—as they meet up for debutante balls over the Christmas holidays. They lounge around in formalwear, discussing the demise of their class and its cultural traditions. A prim Jane Austen lover falls for a sober outsider (he lives on the déclassé Upper West Side) who professes a commitment to socialism. The obstacles to their love are a cold but seductive flirt and a cartoonishly rakish baron. Our heroes resist these venal temptations and end up together in the bourgeois promise land—Southampton.A deeply nostalgic film, Metropolitan is set, an inter-title tells us, "not so long ago." But the characters habitually dress in dinner coats and tails and do not seem moored to a particular time period. They could have been plucked from any generation of privileged youth. (It must be said, though, that some of the ruffled pink dresses will never transcend the '80s) The film is shot mostly inside apartments with vaguely antique décor. The few exteriors—the Plaza, the 21 Club, a snowy Park Avenue—suggest an elegant old New York. Stillman tells us, in the commentary track, that he tried to shoot in places that were doomed. We see the characters in front of the old Scribner bookstore on Fifth Avenue or at the Midtown automat; they ride around almost exclusively in Checker cabs.
Click here to read the full review from Slate.com.
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