Don’t get me wrong, Whit Stillman is my favorite writer/director so I don’t mean to bring him down to the level of tween tv, but am I the only one to notice that the creators of Gossip Girl have a few homages to Stillman? Consider the evidence:
1. Metropolitan‘s “it-girl” is named Serena Slocam. Gossip Girl’s it-girl is Serena van der Woodsen.
2. Metropolitan’s rich kid is named Rick Von Sloneker. See above character name.
3. And of course, both are about former prep school teenage socialites.
Metropolitan is a must-see. It’s funny, endearing and portrays rich New York socialites, aka UHB (Urban Haute Bourgeoisie), like real people. Which of course they are.
very interesting.
i’m adding in RSS Reader
Theres much more evidence! GG clearly resembles Stillmans NY-triology.
Both Metropolitan and Last days of disco feature the “outside” “working-class” guy and in LDOD he is actually called Dan! And the outsider in Metropolitan has a crush on Serena, right?
LDOD we have the two girls – blone and brunette – who clearly resembling Serena and Blair in behavouir in GG.
And Chuck Bass is just the modern version of Nick Smith, right?
Never thought about it Dan, but you’re absolutely right. Tom Townsend in Metropolitan is in love with Serena Slocam. The similarity ends there because in GG clearly Dan and Serena are meant for each other.
Absolutely right on Nick Smith being Chuck Bass — unapologetic aristocrat who you love to hate and hate to love. Wish Chuck had as good of lines as Nick though.
What first got me thinking was the scene where Chuck gets Dan to hit him by saying “So little time and so many sluts to defend”. It was somewhat recognizeable.
Then I thought of the scene in Metropolitan when Nick gets Rick to hit him:
Rick: No-one says that to my face!
Nick: First you complained that I said it behind your back, and now that its to your face. But franklt, how can you tell which is which?
Of course Nick is wittier, but there is some resemblence…
hmm, Nick isn’t nefarious unlike Chuck.
Bald reference to Metropolitan:
Gossip Girl: “There’s nothing wrong with keeping a secret if the truth is gonna hurt someone!” (season 1 episode 2)
Metropolitan: “There are good reasons people don’t go around telling people their most intimate thoughts,” Audrey sensibly objects. “Games like this can be really dangerous.” Their hostess, Sally, scoffs: “I don’t see what’s so dangerous about it.” And, in a truly conservative reply, Audrey articulates the moral role of convention: “You don’t have to. Other people did; that’s how it became a convention: people saw the harm that excessive candor could do.” Cynthia leaps on this: “You admit that it’s basically just a social convention then. . . . Basically what this game requires is complete candor, openness—I don’t see how that can be bad.” (narration from http://www.udolpho.com/weblog/?id=00884 )
Metropolitan: Far, far superior.
I agree with everything you said.
you know, I never have watched GG, but i also loved Whit Stilman’s joints. btw, where did that guy go? and…are his movies autobiographical?
and…is GG any good, or is it exactly what one would expect?
cheers….
does anyone else feel like Barcelona was sort of strained and going over already gone over topics?
Q- Is LDOD the best of the trilogy? It’s pretty clear I think.
and It took me forever to make the connection of Robert Sean Leonard from house also being in LDOD . cool and he played a jerk in LDOD hilarious
I don’t know what happened to Whit Stilman, but I’m sure he has fans waiting and ready to purchase tickets to whatever it is that he makes next.
Gossip Girl is okay. I watched a few episodes of the first season, but I kind of got tired of it.
My favorite is definitely Metropolitan with Barcelona a close second. LDOD is good, but I actually think it’s a bit rehashed.