“I consider you a person of some integrity—except, you know, in your relations with women.” That must be the most important line spoken in any Stillman film pinpointing the many ways his movies marry sociological study, comedy of manners and a rather clear moral position. If The Last Days of Disco is Stillman’s masterpiece is because it’s the one that most clear articulates the ways one witness unaware our slow decay towards barbarism, the idea that ultimate links all his four historical films. One stumbles upward, while the world around it just awkwardly disappears. It is as beautiful elegiac as it is witty because Stillman sincere belief that “the yuppie scum” deserves its elegy too. There’s plenty of behavior beauties…

"'Disco will never be over. It will always live in our minds and hearts. Something like this, that was this big, and this important, and this great, will never die. Oh, for a few years - maybe many years - it'll be considered passé and ridiculous. It will be misrepresented and caricatured and sneered at, or - worse - completely ignored. People will laugh about John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, white polyester suits and platform shoes and people going like *this* but we had nothing to do with those things and still loved disco . Those who didn't understand will never understand: disco was much more, and much better, than all that. Disco was too great, and too much fun, to…

Included In Lists:
Criterion Collection - #485

Though my relationship with Whit Stillman began with frustration and disengagement, it was later relieved in my recent viewing of his latest film, Love & Friendship, that I found a particular connection with his particular mode of direction, to take such self-aware and curious characters in a manner that is accessible and entertaining rather than pretentious and alienating. It was through that film that I began to second guess my initial feelings towards his work, that maybe Metropolitan was simply a one-off that may benefit with a subsequent viewing. The opportunity has yet to arrive, but curiosity did arise in exploring more of this man’s work, and all in all that led me to…