Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- Sorry, this item is not available in
- Image not available
- To view this video download Flash Player
Metropolitan (The Criterion Collection)
Return this item for free
Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges
Learn more about free returns.- Go to your orders and start the return
- Select the return method
- Ship it!
Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
DVD
October 1, 2015 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $14.11 | $17.99 |
Watch Instantly with | Rent | Buy |
Genre | Comedy |
Format | Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen, Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Dolby |
Contributor | Stephen Uys, Dylan Hundley, Isabel Gillies, Will Kempe, Roger W. Kirby, Chris Eigeman, Allison Parisi, Whit Stillman, Carolyn Farina, Ellia Thompson, Edward Clements, Taylor Nichols, Bryan Leder See more |
Language | English |
Runtime | 1 hour and 38 minutes |
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Product Description
One of the most the most significant achievements of the American independent film movement of the 1990s, writer-director Whit Stillman's debut, Metropolitan, is a sparkling comedic chronicle of a middle-class young man's romantic misadventures among New York City's debutante society. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Stillman's deft, literate script and hilariously high-brow observations mask a tender tale of adolescent anxiety. SPECIAL FEATURES: New, restored high-definition digital transfer . Audio commentary by director Whit Stillman, editor Christopher Tellefsen, and actors Chris Eigeman and Taylor Nichols. Rare outtakes and deleted scenes. Optional English subtitles for the deaf and heard of hearing. A new essay by author and film scholar Luc Sante.
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.66:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
- Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 3.2 ounces
- Item model number : CRRN1620DVD
- Director : Whit Stillman
- Media Format : Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen, Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Dolby
- Run time : 1 hour and 38 minutes
- Release date : February 14, 2006
- Actors : Carolyn Farina, Edward Clements, Chris Eigeman, Taylor Nichols, Allison Parisi
- Subtitles: : English
- Studio : Criterion Collection
- ASIN : B000C8Q9KK
- Writers : Whit Stillman
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #47,246 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #5,830 in Comedy (Movies & TV)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
In this analysis of a young aristocracy without a tradition (which Stillman understands indeed in the Burkean sense), these youths spend the holidays going to dances and hanging out afterwords at each others apartments.
I don't want to offer simply a Cliff's notes to Stillman, so I won't let out all the insights that Stillman offers, while demanding much from the viewer in order to understand them. There's the enjoyment. Just pay attention to religious symbolism; that's huge for Stillman. (Ex. there is a moment in the film when one of the character's is leaving on a train, and a hymn by Luther is playing in the background) If you want some more hints, Nationalreview.com had an interview with him a while back you can probably still get, and Intercollegiate Review had a whole journel dedicated to his works a year or so ago.
Stillman is by far the greatest director around today--his cultural commentary has the weight of a Proust or Claudel--don't miss it.
Top reviews from other countries
Some of the acting comes off as stilted, especially from the lead actor, but there is enough charm and varoety from the supporting cast to make up for any of these shortcomings.
The tale is a familiar one (think Brideshead Revisited) where a less privileged outsider finds himself in the world a couple of rungs up the ladder and not entirely comfortable with it. Tom Townsend is a Charles Ryder (single parent home, cash-strapped, doesn't have the right clothes) of the 1980s who purely by the chance of a mix-up with a taxi ends up as part of the Sally Fowler Rat Pack, a group of preppy college students who are doing the rounds of the debutante balls over Christmas in New York.
So was the wait worth it? Yes it was, although I do think that Metropolitan is a bit of a tough nut to crack; it took me a couple of watches to get into the rhythm of it and to latch on to its humour.
Stillman was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay (and lost out to Ghost! Ha!) and it's easy to see why. I think it has a lot more to recommend it than Woody Allen and the humour is more sophisticated than Allen's which is amusing in itself when you consider that Stillman's concerns are centred on a group of teenagers. Metropolitan is certainly a very chatty film, with characters who are prone to crippling self-examination and also not above introducing new terms to the language (UHB - urban haute bourgeoisie anyone?), however another of Stillman's strengths is creating characters who are very nuanaced rather than galumphing stereotypes.
Stillman did the clever thing of producing a film that was dated when it already came out and it's keenness for the era, particularly evidenced through the girls' clothes, is done with a light hand and isn't at all laboured. Stillman's real triumph is creating a sense of nostalgia in the viewer for the pearls-and-sweaters innocence of this world which he cleverly compounds by having the characters talk about the demise of the world that they are actually inhabiting.
There is an interesting commentary from Stillman where the secrets of making a film for no money at all are revealed. An interesting companion to Metropolitan is the screenplay, contained in a volume with Barcelona. You'll see that a couple of bits were edited out although the consequences remain in the finished product. See if you can work out what they are!