It features a Last Days of Disco reunion, of sorts: Kate. And in fact, his first film, Metropolitan, plays a lot like it’s just a Mansfield Park adaptation-something that’s hinted at in one of the film’s most oft-quoted bits of dialogue.īut Love & Friendship is more obviously Austenian. His powers of observation regarding the rituals of courtship among the privileged classes are considerable. Stillman's fifth film, 'Love & Friendship,' took him back to Sundance this week, where it earned glowing reviews. His debut movie, 'Metropolitan,' soared out of the 1990 festival toward critical glory, an Oscar nomination for its screenplay and a 25th anniversary re-release. Stillman is a perfect match for Austen’s sensibilities: he’s a master of clever, erudite dialogue that also pokes gentle fun at our propensity for pomposity. Whit Stillman is a Sundance success story. With one genius fell swoop (I won’t give it away, because it’s such a delightful surprise), Stillman hurdles the character set-up problem in a manner I think Austen would have liked. I’ve seen most Austen adaptations (including Clueless and Bridget Jones’ Diary), but they seem to get the genre wrong: they act like romances with comedic elements, but Austen’s books are classic comedies, stories in which all is set right by the end, in the Shakespearean manner, with wry character descriptions and witty banter.īecause the genre is off, many Austen adaptations spend so much time setting up emotionally resonant characters that it feels (to this Yank) that they counteract the essential reserved British-ness of any comedy of manners. Later published under the title Lady Susan, it’s Austen at the height of her affectionately satirical powers. For Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman ( Metropolitan, Last Days of Disco) adapted a novel by Jane Austen that was unpublished at her death.
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