Metropolitan (1990 film)
- This article is about the 1990 film. For the 1935 film of the same name, see Metropolitan (1935 film).
| Metropolitan | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for Metropolitan | |
| Directed by | Whit Stillman |
| Written by | Whit Stillman |
| Produced by | Whit Stillman |
| Starring | Edward Clements Chris Eigeman Carolyn Farina Taylor Nichols Dylan Hundley |
| Cinematography | John Thomas |
| Edited by | Christopher Tellefsen |
| Music by | Jock Davis, Tom Judson, Mark Suozzo |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
Release dates | August 3, 1990 (USA) |
Running time | 98 minutes |
| Language | English |
Metropolitan is the first film by director and screenwriter Whit Stillman. Shot on location in Manhattan and Long Island, the movie depicts the lives of young, wealthy New Yorkers (or as one character attempts to rebrand them, the "urban haute bourgeoisie") during debutante ball season while home for winter break in their first year of college. Middle-class Tom Townsend, an admirer of Fourier's socialism, observes this comedy of manners with an outsider's distance but eventually becomes deeply attached to the characters he meets.
The film has become a cult classic since its release.
After several years of being unavailable in any home video format, Metropolitan was released on DVD by the Criterion Collection on February 14, 2006. This edition includes audio commentary by Whit Stillman, editor Christopher Tellefsen, and actors Chris Eigeman and Taylor Nichols.
Cast
- Carolyn Farina as Audrey Rouget
- Edward Clements as Tom Townsend
- Chris Eigeman as Nick Smith
- Taylor Nichols as Charlie Black
- Allison Rutledge-Parisi as Jane Clark
- Dylan Hundley as Sally Fowler
- Isabel Gillies as Cynthia McLean
- Bryan Leder as Fred Neff
- Will Kempe as Rick Von Sloneker
- Ellia Thompson as Serena Slocum
- Stephen Uys as Victor Lemley
Awards
- Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay
- Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
Trivia
- The font used in the credits and title cards is Antique Roman, the same typeface that many formal invitations (like the ones the characters receive to parties) use.
- It is unclear what exact year or decade the events of the film are set in. A title card near the beginning merely says it is "Christmas break, not so long ago." No special attempt is made to reference historical events or evoke a particular period, nor to disguise the fact that it was shot around 1989. One clue is the mention of a childhood toy Derringer cap gun craze, which in real life was from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s; another clue lies in a related film, as Audrey Rouget and the 'Sally Fowler crowd' make a cameo appearance as older, successful versions of themselves in the nightclub in The Last Days of Disco, set in 1981. Presuming that this is at least five to ten years later, this implies that the events of Metropolitan take place somewhere between 1961 and 1971.
External links
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