On Udolpho's website is a picture on the right side of a movie poster. I had clicked on that and read his review. Liking it, I decided to do the Inter Library loan thing and requested it. I quickly forgot that I had done so. Generally, it is easy to get any book or movie from the Massachusetts system. There was a problem as Metropolitan appears to have attained "cult" status. No library wanted to give out their criterion dvd edition. They are not so protective of the VHS copies so that when, months later, I realized the dvd was not coming, I received the old technology version in short order.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I forgot most of what Udolpho had written and it was an entirely new movie to me. I have watched it a few times now and see more to like with each viewing. That it was made for $100,000 in 1990 seems near miraculous until you think of the atrocities made for vast sums.
Metropolitan is a lost world. It was a world that was not even on the radar screen for most of us when it was in flower. I must be a reactionary to like it so much. Perhaps it is the contrast with our current republic of bad taste of which I am, to my shame, an all to willing part.
Anyway, it is a movie worth seeing and if you haven't, read Udolpho's review and then wait several months.
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Several yeara ago, I saw an interview with Whit Stillman, the director of Metropolitan, on the Charlie Rose show. He made the point that - contrary to the version of events portrayed in the film "Titanic" - the men of the upper classes accorded themselves quite well for the most part, chivalrously seeing their ladies and children off in the lifeboats before stoically meeting their end.
Evidently, in James Cameron's world, they behave with craven cowardice. This is what I was left to conclude, but I wouldn't know for sure, because I never saw the film.
If you liked Metropolitan, rent (or borrow) Barcelona.
I shall probably try to ILL Barcelona (we don't rent or buy out here in Swamp Yankeeland). His Last Days of Disco I may have a problem with if only because of the title and the music.
It has been forever since I saw it, but I still prefer A Night To Remember to Titanic, which was a chick flick anyway.
Disco isn't a bad film and it manages to portray the late 70s without all the exaggerated kitsch--white suits, bell bottoms, flamboyant nightclubs. It suffers from having a few weak leads and a scattered story. Barcelona on the other hand is very good. It's probably the most favorable depiction of salesmen on record. Would make a great point-counterpoint double feature with Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross.
The Criterion DVD of Metropolitan is a must for the better picture quality and the illuminating commentary track by Stillman, Nichols, and Eigeman.
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