Time To Kick Up Your Heels For “Metropolitan!”
Time for a terrific holiday gem of a movie! See the Christmas tree? And the festive attire? It’s from the GREAT 1990 film “Metropolitan!”
I own this film and love it, and I never think of it as a “holiday” film but it sure is!
It’s the story of a group of upper east side classmates over the holidays…more on the plot in a moment, but first, meet the Director, Whit Stillman!
After graduating from Harvard in 1973, Stillman began working as an editorial assistant at Doubleday in New York City.
He was introduced to some film producers from Madrid and persuaded them that he could sell their films to Spanish-language television in the US. He worked for the next few years in Madrid and Barcelona as a sales agent for Spanish films.
He made his directorial debut in 1990 with this gem of a film:
“Metropolitan”
Here is how wikipedia describes the film:
“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 Tom Townsend’s introduction to the “Sally Fowler Rat Pack” (SFRP), a small group of Upper East Side Manhattanites who make the rounds at debutante balls during Christmas break of their first year in college.”
Here is the trailer, which introduces you to all of the characters:
I love the film because it takes you inside that world of debutante balls through the eyes of an outsider – who doesn’t have much money and wears a worn raincoat in the cold weather, to which he always says “it’s got a liner.” It’s funny, heartwarming and touching as well.
The movie 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 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.”
Stillman continued to make films – here’s his next:
In 1994, Stillman followed up with “Barcelona”, which 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 the awkwardness of being in love in a foreign country culturally and politically opposed to their own.
A terrific film as well.
In 1998, Stillman directed The Last Days of Disco loosely based on his 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 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 club goers.
After a 13-year hiatus, Stillman released his fourth film, Damsels in Distress, starring Greta Gerwig and Adam Brody. It premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival as the closing film and received favorable reviews. The film 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.”
It’s also a great film!
He did a project for Amazon in 2014 called “The Cosmopolitans” with Adam Brody and Chloe Sevigny, but you can’t find it anywhere now, and then made one final film:
“Love & Friendship” was released in 2016 and is also charming and fun. So what happened?
Here’s what I found online: apparently Stillman, in an interview following 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.
If so, that’s a shame because his movies are beautifully written and acted, and you love the characters. He is currently showing “Metropolitan” in special screening all over America – that would be a great way to experience it!
If you need some other ideas for holiday movies, here are the secrets of “Love Actually”, rare on-set photos from “It’s A Wonderful life” and more!
Oh, and don’t forage that THIS is a Christmas movie too:
Yes, it IS!
Click here for all of the reasons that “Die Hard” is one of the best Christmas movies of all time!
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Categories: Art, Comedy Movies, Cult Movies, Film Fight Club, Great Films, Independent Cinema, Movies, New York, Obscure Movies, Pop Culture, Talent/Celebrities, True Hollywood Mystery
johnrieber 
How did I miss this one? I’ll “listen” to it today while wrapping presents! Happy Holidays, John!
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I saw that not long after release, and enjoyed seeing a very different side of American life.
Best wishes, Pete.
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oh, I’m going to have to see metropolitan!
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