Metropolitan (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

This is a fun jaunt to a time that has passed, a sort of late-twentieth-century Jane Austen tale of young persons from a certain stratum of society. For me personally—assuming the Christmas church scene was filmed in December 1989—it is fun to know that I was actually there! This film is the opposite of an action movie with special effects, so if that's what you crave, it's definitely not for you.

Great movie-Blu-Ray quality is AWFULI love this movie ever since I watched it on TCM a couple of years of ago. I recorded it on my DVR and I have watched it too many times to remember. I love to watch it during Christmas. I'm not from Manhattan, but West Texas. Whitman script and the great delivery by these talented first time actors transports me completely. The movie production is structured like a play. The dialogue is the star of the movie and is some of the best EVER written for a movie. But, this movie is not for everybody. It rewards the careful listener and is meant for multiple viewings. I bought this Blu-Ray for the commentary which is fantastic.Bad News: The blu-ray transfer is horrible. The picture is full of noise. Looking at the skin of the actors reveals lots of black dots. The movie was filmed in Super 16 MM (and the director himself admits in the commentary that the lighting for many of the scenes was poorly executed) so I don't know if that affected the overall quality of the source material for the Blu-Ray. But, man it is bad. In fact my DVR copy from TCM is better! Please tell Criterion to re-issue this movie into a better Blu-Ray version. It deserves it!

A near-perfect film, a story of intellectual, moral, and social redemption--and absolutely hilarious to boot. Carolyn Farina is radiant in her innocence, and Chris Eigeman debuts as one of the most underrated comic actors of his generation. Taylor Nichols is the perfect comic foil for Eigeman (a relationship reprised in Stillman's Barcelona). Nichols' stammering earnestness and Eigeman's glib, one-liner cynicism are the perfect complement for one another. This will be Whit Stillman's lasting contribution to late-modern American cinema.

I had seen this film during it's limited time in theaters and thought that it was tremendous in it's combination of simplicity of production and well written and executed dialogue. It proved that a well crafted work, shot with competent actors and relying on execution and dialogue can still win out against 5 star marquee names with a big budget and no plot.Although one may think that the time period and social circumstances of the characters may make for limited appeal, I believe that most people will be taken in by the storyline and not bother that they did not attend Deb week nor live in a Manhattan apartment.

Whit Stillman's freshman effort is one of those films that rewards repeated viewing. Every time I watch I hear some witty new line or notice some charming detail. It is required Christmastime viewing in our house, as both my wife and I grew up on the outermost fringes of the "Urban Haute Bourgeoisie"

The film itself is a masterpiece. The multi-format Blu-Ray version in terms of quality is not great. The picture is filled with noise, as in tiny flecks of color. It is almost unwatchable. The standard DVD version I have is of better quality which is sad given what I paid for the Blu-Ray version.

This is a fun movie about the foibles of the upper class in New York. I had only glancing contact with this set in my three years in New York but it rang true enough. An on-going theme of the movie is whether the people in this class are doomed to revert to the mean, go back to being middle-class or worse. Chris Eigeman is a huge amount of fun. See him next in the Whit Stillman movie "Barcelona".

A fantastic film I found on Netflix some years back that I hope would return. It has not so far and I was forced to purchase a copy on Blu-ray to satiate my desire to watch it again.

It is a simple story of an outsider among some New York socialiates during their debs season but what a great story. The dialogue is excellent, the acting crisp and warm hearted. In between this scintillating script and great comedy there is a beautiful love story. I loved it. It is a tragedy that Whitman is not making movies likes this any more, what happened to all these great actors. It is a great Christmas movie or any time movie, can be watched over and over again and will give pleasure with every repeat viewing.

as described, arrived very quickly

I had waited ages to see this film. I had seen Barcelona and the Last Days of Disco and needed Metropolitan to complete the Whit Stillman set. It wasn't on video, it was never shown on TV and there was an interminable wait for it to be released on DVD.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!

A surprisingly well written and unique independant film coming out of the early 1990s.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.

Entre Jane eyre, woody allen (en mieux) un film ou les mots comptent plus que les images.Quand la futilité approche la tragédie souriante d'un groupe de nantis déboussolés. Interprétation merveilleuse d'acteurs inconnus, mention spéciale pour carolyn Farina, apperçu dans le temps de l'innocence. La découverte d'un auteur qui confirmera dans les derniers jours du disco. Futilité, drôlerie et gravité.