Comments on: Carl’s Rock Songbook #70: Social Dancing as a Key to Whit Stillman’s Films

By: Carl’s Rock Songbook #70: Social Dancing as a Key to Whit Stillman’s Films | Whit Stillman

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 06:58:53 +0000

[...] Carl Scott from First Things writes: [...]

By: Carl’s Rock Songbook #71: Swingin’ Tips for Youth Group Leaders, Courtesy of Whit Stillman and Jane Austen » Postmodern Conservative | A First Things Blog

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:36:15 +0000

[...] what I think we learn from what I’ve called Whit Stillman’s Social Dance Sequence (METROPOLITAN, set somewhere in the 1965-1975 window, LAST DAYS OF DISCO, set precisely in 1980-81, [...]

By: HT

HT — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:01:03 +0000

Thanks, Carl, I could say the same for you. I brought up Rohmer and Malle because most of the film discussions in this blog seem to revolve solely around rather recent commercial US domestic films as if they were sui generis. Situating them in a wider ‘cineaste’ frame might sometimes be worthwhile.

Thank God there’s more to life than politics; good viewing and listening, man!

By: Carl Eric Scott

Carl Eric Scott — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:31:34 +0000

HT, that’s some fine taste there. Love Rohmer, and May Fools.

By: HT

HT — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:04:17 +0000

I tried to send this to the last Disco article, but failed, so I’ll try again here (Damsels is in my Netflix queue). I think you’re probably onto something with the dancing, Carl; my major beef with your Disco comments is an apparent romanticization of Studio 54 and its fellow clubs as “grown-up”. I saw Disco this last weekend, and I would describe neither Stillman’s little coterie of characters nor the Villagey people they drift through without making any human contact with as grown-up. That said, the film is gently funny and quite good.

What I really wanted to say, though, is that it hit me while watching Disco that Stillman’s cinema sensibility is really much more European than American (not a value judgement). In particular, he has something in common with Eric Rohmer, who has also studied coupling of young people (mostly) with a very light touch. My favorite Rohmer films are My Night at Maud’s, La Collectionneuse, Pauline at the Beach and The Marquise of O (a short story by Kleist).

Let me also recommend Louis Malle’s May Fools (Milou en mai), which has a sort of Taking-Woodstock humorous oblique look from the perspective of an eccentric country family at the Events of May 68.

By: CJ Wolfe

CJ Wolfe — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:10:19 +0000

Where do you think Hip-hop dancing falls into your dancing categories? Growing up in the 90s, most of the dances at schools were dominated by hip hop, not rock and roll. I think it’s individualistic but in a bad way, not in a good way like rock. The very few live bands that played at dances I went to made for a much more fun experience