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Revision as of 16:55, 11 December 2014 by 76.31.249.221 (talk) (→Plot)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 1990 American film| Metropolitan | |
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 Promotional poster for Metropolitan | |
| Directed by | Whit Stillman |
| Written by | Whit Stillman |
| Produced by | Whit Stillman |
| Starring | Carolyn Farina Edward Clements Taylor Nichols Chris Eigeman Allison Parisi Dylan Hundley |
| Cinematography | John Thomas |
| Edited by | Christopher Tellefsen |
| Music by | Jock Davis Tom Judson Mark Suozzo |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date |
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| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $225,000 |
| Box office | $2,938,208 (USA) |
Metropolitan is the debut film by director and screenwriter Whit Stillman. It received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The film is often considered the first of a trilogy of Stillman films, followed by Barcelona (1994, but written before Metropolitan) and The Last Days of Disco (1998).
Plot
Shot on location in Manhattan and Long Island, the movie depicts the lives of young, well-educated upper-class New Yorkers (or, as one character calls them, the "urban haute bourgeoisie") home on winter break from their first year of college during debutante ball season.
Middle-class Princeton student Tom Townsend, an admirer of Charles Fourier's socialism, attends a dress ball one evening on a whim and meets 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. Tom learns that he and the Rat Pack share some mutual friends, including his ex-girlfriend Serena Slocumb, with whom he remains infatuated. After the ball, a mix-up leads to the Rat Pack coming to believe that they accidentally stole a taxi from Tom, and they decide to invite him to a party as a means of apologizing.
Though Tom finds the Rat Pack pretentious, he decides to attend the party, and befriends several other attendees, including Nick Smith, a cynical dandy who takes Tom under his wing; Audrey, a shy girl who enjoys Regency era literature and develops a crush on Tom; and Charlie, a soft-spoken quasi-intellectual with an unrequited love for Audrey.
Under Nick's tutelage, Tom ingratiates himself to the Rat Pack and soon becomes a full-fledged member. Much of the film is composed of set pieces in which Tom and the Rat Pack discuss the nebulous social scene they occupy, including how they are coming of age just as the yuppie 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 the family to marry another woman, taking most of his money in the divorce and leaving Tom and his mother middle-class. As a result, Tom harbors a love-hate relationship with wealth and the upper class.
One of the members of the Rat Pack begins dating Rick von Slonecker, a young, European aristocrat notorious for his womanizing. Nick alienates himself from the group after accusing Rick of getting a girl drunk and gang-raping her several years before, insinuating that she was Nick's ex-girlfriend and that she committed suicide afterward. Other members of the Rat Pack point out holes in Nick's story. Nick later reveals that the story was not literally true but a "composite" of things Rick had done. Shortly thereafter, Nick leaves Manhattan, giving his top hat to Tom as a token of friendship and a symbol of the upper class's acceptance of him.
After several failed romantic overtures towards Tom, Audrey decides to leave Manhattan to spend the rest of vacation in the Hamptons with Rick and his girlfriend. Realizing that he's developed feelings for her, Tom recruits Charlie to help him rescue Audrey from Rick. The two travel to the Hamptons together, bonding en route. They arrive to find Audrey enjoying a quiet weekend at a beach house; Tom and Charlie nonetheless instigate a fight with Rick, which ends with Tom, Audrey, and Charlie being kicked out of the house. The three discuss their feelings for one another, and decide to go back to Manhattan together. The film ends with the three characters contemplating their uncertain futures as they walk back to Manhattan: Audrey plans to leave for France in order to attend college, with Tom contemplating coming to see her and Charlie still in love with her.
Cast
- Carolyn Farina as Audrey Rouget, a young debutante.
- Edward Clements as Tom Townsend, a Princeton student who falls into Audrey's group of friends.
- Chris Eigeman as Nick Smith, a cynic who takes Tom under his wing.
- Taylor Nichols as Charlie Black, a stammering philosopher who is wary of Tom.
- Allison Parisi as Jane Clark, Audrey's best friend.
- Dylan Hundley as Sally Fowler, an aspiring singer who lets the group use her parents' Upper East Side apartment for their nightly get-togethers.
- Isabel Gillies as Cynthia McLean, Sally's best friend.
- Bryan Leder as Fred Neff, an alcoholic college graduate and mutual friend of the group.
- Will Kempe as Rick Von Sloneker, a rival of Nick and Tom.
- Ellia Thompson as Serena Slocum, Tom's ex-girlfriend, who is dating Von Sloneker.
- Stephen Uys as Victor Lemley.
Production
Whit Stillman wrote the screenplay for Metropolitan between 1984 and 1988 while he was running an illustration agency in New York, and financed it by selling his apartment for $50,000 as well as with a few contributions from family members and friends. Stillman claims the movie is based on events from his life in late 1970, while he was living with his divorced mother in Washington D.C. While on Christmas break during his first year at Harvard University, he met a group of like-minded college students from various universities around the country. Each night, he and his new group of friends attended a formal ballroom dance party at a hotel or convention hall, and then retired to an after-hours gathering at one of the students' parents' houses in nearby Georgetown. The group then spent the remainder of the night talking, debating and discussing a wide range of topics. As in the movie, this nightly ritual eventually ended just after New Year's Day when Stillman and the rest of the group returned to their respective schools.
Awards and honors
- Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay
- Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
American Film Institute recognition:
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs - nominated
References
- Stephen Holden (1990-08-03). "New Face; Crashing A Socialite's Cozy World". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
- Stillman, Whit. Barcelona & Metropolitan; A Tale of Two Cities. Faber and Faber Ltd. 1994. ISBN 0-571-17365-9
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs Nominees
External links
- Metropolitan at IMDb
- Template:Amg movie
- Metropolitan at Rotten Tomatoes
- Criterion Collection essay by Luc Sante
| Films directed by Whit Stillman | |
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