1994 - BARCELONA, the second film from Whit Stillman

The second film from Whit Stillman a less than prolific filmmaker is another quirky comedy much like his first film Metropolitan.  In Metropolitan, Stillman set his story in the world of the debutante ball season in New York.  His main character got himself mixed up with a bunch of fairly self absorbed preppies.  It was an offbeat and amusing film  looking into a world few people knew about and it got Stillman attention as a filmmaker to watch.

His next film Barcelona  had a bigger budget since he was now associated with a film studio and it is almost a chamber piece.  The film focuses on a couple of cousins living in Barcelona, Spain.  It follows their involvement in relationships with some Spanish women and their adjustment to Spanish culture particularly at a time when the United States was not very popular in Europe.

 

This film like Metropolitan also has a lot of that dry humor that was already a characteristic of Stillman's films and this was only his second time behind the camera.  The performances are interesting if at times on the dry side and when the film starts to get a little to dramatic Stillman slips in a couple of  humorous lines and situations to lighten the mood.

 

In the world of Whit Stillman, all of the Spanish women are beautiful and basically jump into bed with our American characters on a minute's notice.  The men are self aware if rather on the neurotic side but not in a debilitating way.  Barcelona is a minor if entertaining comedy, I suppose in the good old days they would call this a "civilized entertainment.

Written by Whit Stillman, the running time is 101 minutes.

2011 - DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, an attempt at a "civilized" comedy

From cultist comedy director Whit Stillman, who after a very long break between films comes this comedy about college life.  Greta Gerwig the future director of Little Women and Barbie is Violet Wister who along with a group of college girls, run a suicide prevention center.  The center's idea of working with suicidal people is to feed them donuts and coffee and have them take up tap dancing as a form of therapy.  The film pivots to the love lives of the girls and has a lot of amusing and occasionally funny moments involving smelly college guys and discussions about sex as practiced by members of a religious sect called Catharism.

The writer/director Whit Stillman specialized in these kinds of what I can only describe as very coy comedies beginning with Metropolitian, Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco.  Stillman is not a prolific writer.  There was about a 13 year break between The Last Days of Disco and Damsels in Distress.  Everyone talks in a rather mannered, (some would say stilted) way. Overall Stillman's films are kind of an acquired taste.

 

What the film really has going for it is the performance of Greta Gerwig.  Her character of Violet Wister is very funny as she attempts to bring a civilizing influence to a bunch of drunk college frat boys.  The film is worth watching for her alone. Overall this film is entertaining if you are in the mood for some real eccentric humor.  This film is so strange it even has a couple of musical numbers tacked on to the end of it.

The film runs 99 minutes.