The Last Days of Disco. The Criterion Collection has finally brought out a DVD of Whit Stillman’s darkly witty 1998 film about the messy love lives of a group of young New Yorkers who frequent a club not unlike Studio 54. Yes, it’s funny, and yes, it’s an unsparing critique of contemporary American culture–one that’s all the more effective for having been played for laughs. In light of Stillman’s prolonged and inexplicable post-Disco silence, the reappearance on home video of the last and best installment of his indie-flick trilogy about the sexual revolution and its discontents is cause for rejoicing. What I’d really like is for him to make another movie, but since that doesn’t seem to be in the cards, I’ll settle for revisiting this one (TT).
Archives for August 12, 2009
TT: Snapshot
The opening scene of Tom Stoppard’s 1990 film version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, directed by Stoppard and starring Gary Oldman and Tim Roth:
(This is the latest in a weekly series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Wednesday.)
TT: Almanac
“There never could be a man so brave that he would not sometime, or in the end, turn part or all coward; or so wise that he was not, from beginning to end, part ass if you knew where to look; or so good that nothing at all about him was despicable.”
James Gould Cozzens, Guard of Honor