I'd previously stumbled upon and enjoyed this appreciation of American director Whit Stillman from an old issue of The Intercollegiate Review. Little did I know that nearly all of the Spring 2000 issue was devoted to Stillman.
Mama-Lu and I recently rented Barcelona, and it was certainly as good as I can remember it being.
Some quotes, my memory augmented by the IMDB.
- Fred: But what do you call the message or meaning that's right there on the surface, completely open and obvious? They never talk about that. What do you call what's above the subtext?
Ted: The text
Fred: Yeah, but they never talk about that. - "I don't think Ted is a fascist of the marrying kind."
- Ted: I don't think you understand. I was reducing everything to ant scale, the... the U.S. included. An ant White House, an ant CIA, an ant Congress, an ant Pentagon...
Ramon: Secret ant landing strips, illegally established on foreign soil."
