2. Like Oil and Water

The 1990s saw a boom in independent filmmaking going mainstream in American cinema. Audiences found that the art house could merge with the multiplex as filmmakers with distinct voices such as Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Alexander Payne, Nicole Holofcenter, and many more were able to pull off an interesting paradox: making independent films mainstream and making them through traditional studios. Rather than describing the economics, independent often began to describe the aesthetic. These were the authentic voices in a sea of corporate sludge, bringing perspectives and styles that only they could. This very much includes the focus of our episode today, Whit Stillman, who came onto the scene right at the outset in 1990, with Metropolitan: a debut about debuts that would go on to earn him an Academy Award nomination for its screenplay.

Stillman's follow-up, Barcelona, pushes him into a more overtly political realm and something often more broadly comedic as a common thread emerges: the struggle to preserve virtues in an increasingly barbarous world. In this second episode of our series on the career, legacy, aspirations, and regrets of Whit Stillman, we hear from the filmmaker as well as with actor Taylor Nichols and critics Fran Hoepfner and Girish Shambu to tell the story of a man moving onward and upward, having written and directed two successful films–one explicitly independent and the other fitting into the new brand of American independent cinema.

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