Whit Stillman

Stephanie Bunbury at the Sydney Morning Herald writes:

IT’S BEEN an unconscionably long time between daiquiris for Whit Stillman, the upper-crust, Upper East Side director who, in the ’90s, was to preppies and yuppies what Woody Allen is to Jewish neurotics. Stillman’s trio of films – Metropolitan, Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco – were sophisticated yet naive, stories of classy young people whose natural habitat was the party, but who spoke of books and each other in perfectly constructed sentences. Then, after The Last Days of Disco, nothing. Whit Stillman disappeared. Now, at 60, Stillman (pictured below) has made his fourth film. Everyone who speaks to him at the Venice Film Festival, where the film is being launched – appropriately enough, given that this is the city both of perilous artificial constructions and masks – tells him how marvellous it is that he’s back. He agrees, not without bitterness.

At The Movies with Margaret & David talk Damsels in Distress:

Damsels in Distress Rated M Review by David Stratton Seven Oaks is a college on the East Coast of America. Violet Wister, GRETA GERWIG, is the leader of a group of attractive young women students who are all named after flowers: Rose, MEGALYN ECHIKUNWOKE, Heather, CARRIE MACLEMORE, and new arrival Lily, ANALEIGH TIPTON. The majority of the students at Seven Oaks are male, and Violet and her friends are determined to raise standards, starting with doing something about the masculine smell that permeates the place. Violet feels the problems faced by most girls is that they’re too busy looking for a ‘cool’ man – why not, she thinks, choose a male who’s obviously inferior – you’ll feel more in control that way. Whit Stillman made a trio of well-regarded films in the 90s – METROPOLITAN, BARCELONA and THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO – but he’s been absent from the screen for 13 years. DAMSELS IN DISTRESS shows he’s lost none of his ability to write amusingly off-the-wall characters, and much of the film is genuinely funny, once you get on to the director’s very special wavelength. Greta Gerwig’s Violet is a wonderful creation – her ambition is to invent a new dance that will sweep the world, and, indeed, the film veers towards a musical eventually with a lovely rendition of “Things Are Looking Up”, a Gershwin song originally introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film, A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. Having these women run a Suicide Prevention Centre is a risky element for a comedy, but Stillman

Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress is about to get some additional international mileage thanks to the release of the official video for Victoria Aitken’s “Weekend Lover.” The video for the song — whic hit No. 10 on the U.K. dance charts and is now catching fire in Germany — is composed entirely of scenes from Stillman’s movie about a group of trend-setting women (led by Greta Gerwig) at a boorish East-coast college whose romantic entanglements upend their friendship and their lives. (“Weekend Lover” is featured on the soundtrack of Damsels in Distress, which was released on DVD at the end of July.)

David Stratton of The Australian writes:

Heyyouguys.co.uk writes again and this time it’s a DVD review of Damsels by Emma Thrower:

With the issue of suicide never shied away from, Whit Stillman’s Damsels In Distress is set against a backdrop of pain and suffering that is masked by whimsy and social judgment to produce a film that never dwells for longer than it needs to. With the opening credits reminiscent of a Woody Allen flick alongside the inclusion of chapters and footnotes to the closing credits, the director’s presence is often felt, especially in how suicide is never treated as taboo but as an everyday part of human life. Though the overriding light-hearted humour ensures we are constantly aware this is a comedy first and drama second, Damsels In Distress utilises its comedy and throwaway charm (the tap dancing goes hand in hand with Fred Astaire’s 1937 musical, A Damsel In Distress) as a coping device for the personal – albeit rather frustratingly hidden – dramas at its core.

Jon Lyus of heyyouguys.co.uk writes this about Damsels in Distress:

In a recent interview Greta Gerwig described Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress as a candy-coloured black comedy and this is neatly accurate description of Stillman’s return to directing some thirteen years after the release of The Last Days of Disco. The film is out on DVD today (no UK Blu-ray yet sadly, and this film would really benefit from the transfer) and as it’s a film I wanted to throw a spotlight on and urge you to take a moment to welcome another fine performance from Greta Gerwig. Once called the mumblecore Meryl Streep Gerwig’s career path is far more exciting than this reductive description offers. If you delve into her early work with Joe Swanberg, one of the key figures in the mumblecore movement, her screen presence already is vital. Her work in Hannah Takes the Stairs and Night and Weekends (which she co-wrote and co-directed) is impeccable, and in the low-budget limelight she has the naturalistic quality so key to the movement yet is able to stand out, to linger in the mind.

ViewLondon.co.uk writes about the new Damsels in Distress DVD.  Please see below for a tiny snippet:

This week’s DVD of the Week is writer/director Whit Stillman’s Damselsin Distress, which, for my money, is one of the best films of the year. Analeigh Tipton (Crazy Stupid Love) stars as Seven Oaks college student Lily, who hasn’t been on campus more than thirty seconds before she’s co-opted into an idealistic, super-pretentious clique that includes queen bee Violet (Greta Gerwig), British-accented Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and sweet-natured Heather (Carrie Maclemore). The girls dedicate themselves to running the college Suicide Prevention Centre, dishing out the unlikely therapies of tap-dancing and free doughnuts (but only if you can prove you’re clinically depressed). The plot, such as it is, centres around the usually upbeat Violet getting depressed after catching her gloriously moronic boyfriend Frank (Ryan Metcalf) with newly inducted clique member Priss (Caitlin Fitzgerald).