In Praise of Whit Stillman

 I recently rewatched two films I really like: Metropolitan and Love & Friendship, both written and directed by Whit Stillman. Metropolitan (1990) was first recommended to me when I was in my early twenties, newly graduated from college with a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts... and working as a "trainer" at the all women gym Curves. A woman who came in at 6:00am on the dot every day befriended me (she was not a super chatty person, unlike most of the clientele) and shared film recommendations with me often. She deserves her own blog post, to be honest-- her life was immensely fascinating and exciting! I remember watching Metropolitan once (I either rented it or found it on Netflix) and reporting back to her. Sadly, dear reader, I didn't truly get the film at the time. Years passed and I saw it pop up on HBO Max. My husband and I sat down to watch it one weekend and it finally dawned on me what a brilliant film it is and how my younger self had failed to truly rise to the occasion when offered this recommendation.

Metropolitan centers around the heady, wild "deb" (debutante) season for New York's wealthy and elite young women and men. The focus is less on the actual balls and more on the after parties attended by the same group of people. Tom Townsend, a middle class Princeton student, attends one ball on a whim and accidentally falls in with this group after a confusion over a taxi. While he sees himself as very much above the societal obsession with balls, parties, and status, he soon becomes a part of this group, despite his lack of wealth. The after parties are dialogue heavy-- these young men and women gossip, dream, and critique the world they see as their inheritance. Audrey, one of the so-called Rat Pack, has a crush on Tom as well as a deep love for Regency literature, particularly Jane Austen's works. 

(from Indiewire)

There is of course heartbreak, arguments, and confusion-- like any good film from the 80's or 90's with young people as the focus. What was truly lost on me years ago was how much this film and its dialogue and story owes to Jane Austen. Reading up on the movie after I re-watched it, it became clear to me that Stillman has created a modern Austenian story that stands far above (in my opinion) movies like Clueless and Bridget Jones' Diary. I'm embarrassed to admit that it also took this second viewing of Metropolitan to recognize that Stillman wrote and directed another film I absolutely love: Love & Friendship.

(from NPR.org)

Love & Friendship (2016) is based on Austen's epistolary novel Lady Susan which was unpublished during her lifetime. I have not read it but I do own a copy in my complete works of Jane Austen and I intend to read it once I finish Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Stillman's film follows the intrepid Lady Susan, recently widowed, on her journey to find a husband for herself as well as one for her young daughter. She is a witty tour de force who wreaks havoc on each household she descends upon as a longterm guest, for "she has no money of her own." Her reputation as a flirt precedes her and causes much alarm to her sister-in-law, who has an eligible and handsome brother. Lady Susan sees herself as above reproach-- a sentiment echoed wholeheartedly by her best friend, Mrs. Johnson. The threads of relationships, friendships, and intrigues become very tangled and while everyone seemingly has a happy ending (in true Austen form, the movie ends with marriage), it is clear that in order to function in society, one must either conform or learn how to work the rules of society to your advantage.