Whit Stillman among the Janeites

by Deborah Yaffe

His adaptation of Lady Susan downplays a key fact: Austen’s women jockey among themselves for status and power. Men may be the prizes, but they’re not the point. Continue Reading »

1 Jul 2016

Carl’s Rock Songbook #71: Swingin’ Tips for Youth Group Leaders, Courtesy of Whit Stillman and Jane Austen

by Carl Scott

This is going to be an odd essay. The argument, in a nut-shell, is that those officially charged with being our youth leaders, whether by religious groups or schools, as well as those who unofficially are youth leaders, simply by being youths themselves that their peers might follow if invited and . . . . Continue Reading »

21 Nov 2012

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

by Carl Scott

Whit Stillman fans know that his first three films are a loosely connected trilogy of sorts, with THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO being the film that ties them together by means of our meeting key characters from the other two in its Club. How then, does his recent DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, a rather stranger . . . . Continue Reading »

10 Nov 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #69: THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO, Pt. 2

by Carl Scott

. . . one can change human institutions, but not man; whatever the general effort of a society to render citizens equal and alike, the particular pride of individuals will always seek to escape the [common] level . . . In aristocracies, men are separated from one another by high, immovable . . . . Continue Reading »

9 Nov 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #68: THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO

by Carl Scott

This and the next will be the last songbook posts on pop-music movies for a while. Despite my doing five(!) posts on ALMOST FAMOUS , two on the SCHOOL OF ROCK, and an epic one on THE DOORS, I do think that among my list of pop-music films , THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO is the standout in terms of sheer . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Nov 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #67: How to Think about Disco

by Carl Scott

Have any of you seen the Eric Rohmer film 4 Aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle? It’s sort of a retelling of the “Country Mouse, City Mouse” story. Two young women, one from the country, one from the city, are thrown together and become friends. They represent a certain sophistication . . . . Continue Reading »

15 Oct 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #53: What Are the Best Films about Popular Music?

by Carl Scott

Since I want films about any and every sort of pop music since the advent of jazz, and about the rock music of 1966 to the present, for this topic I’m sort of overlooking the rock v. rock n’ roll distinction I insist upon elsewhere . And since what I really want are films that convey what . . . . Continue Reading »

28 Jun 2012

The College Scene: “Damsels in Distress” as A Correction to “Charlotte Simmons”

by Carl Scott

Thomas Hibbs has an appetizing preview of Whit Stillman’s new film Damsels in Distress over at NRO. Lots on the importance of dancing, the reason why with suicide, “prevention is ten-tenths of the cure,” and Hibbs’ interesting observation that Stillman’s college scene . . . . Continue Reading »

20 Apr 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #37, XTC, “Life Begins at the Hop”

by Carl Scott

[ Note: by the criteria laid out in Songbook #12 , this is not a Rock song, but a rock n’ roll one. ] The last Songbook post raised the problem of repetition, of “new music” that is only sort of new. The first sign that recorded pop music could not remain ever-progressive in its . . . . Continue Reading »

25 Jan 2012

Whit Stillman Makes Virtue Fun

by Carl Scott

Everything’s been coming up Whit Stillman for me lately. Re-watched Barcelona, for various reasons found myself reading both Jane Austen and Lionel Trilling, and then my wife gave me the scripts of Barcelona and Metropolitan for my birthday. Here’s a reflection a couples years ago about . . . . Continue Reading »

21 Oct 2011