Blowhard, Esq. writes:
Because I am #hardcore, I stayed up until midnight so I could watch Whit Stillman’s potential series pilot THE COSMOPOLITANS as soon as it went live on Amazon. The show opens with Joan Osborne singing “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” over picture postcard views of Paris and titles written in a handmade French art deco font — it’s like the man has a direct line into the pleasure centers of my brain.
Starring Chloë Sevigny, Adam Brody, Carrie MacLemore, Jordan Rountree, and Adriano Giannini (the first three of whom are Stillman vets), the show mixes the group dynamics of METROPOLITAN with the lovelorn ex-patriates of BARCELONA, delivered with Stillman’s arch charm and droll humor. I particularly liked the inclusion of an older Italian as a more sophisticated European rake to mock and needle the American boys. Much like the girls trying to improve the boys in DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, it’s almost as if Stillman is trying to teach American men his Euro-inflected patrician-WASPy version of Game: wear a blazer or suit, go talk to the pretty blonde across the room, and don’t forget to dance. (The kinds of things previous generations learned watching French New Wave films, in other words.) My only complaint is that we see little of Sevigny, a defect that will no doubt be remedied if the show goes to series.
Related
- The New Yorker’s Richard Brody on THE COSMOPOLITANS.
- I gushed about DAMSELS IN DISTRESS here.
- Fabrizio on girliness.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Just watched it — terrific stuff.
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If we lived in a sane society, Stillman would be at least as famous as Woody Allen or Quentin Tarantino, and anything that gets Chloë Sevigny more screen time works for me. Let’s hope that it succeeds.
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Can’t wait to watch this. I love Stillman. He also employs my Celebrity Dream Date, Greta Gerwig. I wish she were in this. But Chloe Sevigny (basically, an earlier version of Gerwig) is plenty good enough.
“If we lived in a sane society, Stillman would be at least as famous as Woody Allen”
True enough, but he really has to up his output. His first three films had four year gaps, and then a 13 year gap for “Damsels.” That’s just too much. Whatever audience he gathered for the first three had long forgotten him.
Imagine if he churned one out every year like Allen!
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He mentioned in an interview that he’s been trying to get into TV for the past 5 years. I recall him working on musical or comedy about Jamaican music too, which seems to have stalled.
The next project he seems to be talking about most (other than the Amazon series) is this: http://www.whitstillman.org/2014/02/09/whit-stillmans-jane-austen-film-is-filming-this-summer-in-ireland/
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Yeah, when people start saying “gee, I wonder what ever happened to that guy who made ‘Last Days of Disco’, did he die or something?”, it’s been too long…
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Watched it and it was really good. Just good, clean Whit Stillman fun. Great dialogue, the usual sort of dead-pan acting he invokes, great scenery, lots of pretty girls. Now I have to go vote on it.
Even if you don’t watch it or watch it and don’t like it, do the rest of us a favor and vote in favor of it! Go here, scroll down, click on “Amazon Pilot Season” and take the survey!
http://studios.amazon.com/
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A hell of lot of young guys these days seem to be following the moppy hair /aviator sunglasses Scott Walker look. I saw three at once walking down the street the other day. I find this kind of odd considering hardly anyone these days has actually seen or heard of the guy.
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