Exploring the New York Debutante Scene and Its Cinematic Reflections

Whit Stillman is something of a cult film director. He rose to prominence in 1990 with his debut film Metropolitan, which became the first in the so-called “Doomed. Bourgeois. In love” trilogy: Barcelona came out in 1994 and The Last Days of Disco in 1998. Set among America’s so-called “Preppy” class, the films are comedies of manners in the tradition of Jane Austen, exploring the transitional phase of youth and a certain American identity.

The films are now having something of a revival. Stillman joins the New Statesman's culture editor Tanjil Rashid.

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