What better way to kick off Conference week than with some of the greatest opening lines in film history?! Metropolitan is Whit Stillman’s first film (and many think his best – it’s my third favorite), and even from its opening scene, it is clear that a remarkably fresh voice had arrived on the American cinema scene, one with a very distinct comedic sensibility. There really is no other movie like it, at least if you don’t count Stillman’s other two films, Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco. Taken as a trilogy, I consider them the finest “comedies of manners” ever made. The script received a surprise Oscar nomination back in 1990 and finally came out on Criterion Collection DVD a couple years ago.
INT. FOWLER LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
Sally Fowler’s afterparty is in progress. In the foreground CHARLIE BLACK is seen in profile close-up talking to some person or persons o.s.; as the frame widens we see that his primary audience is the highly attractive CYNTHIA MCLEAN, although the group as a whole listens too.
CHARLIE: Of course there’s a God. We all basically know there is.
CYNTHIA: I know no such thing.
CHARLIE: Of course you do. When you think to yourself – and most of our waking life is taken up thinking to ourselves – you must have that feeling that your thoughts aren’t entirely wasted, that in some sense they are being heard. Rationally, they aren’t; you’re entirely alone. Even the people to whom we are closest can have no idea of what is going on in our minds. But we aren’t devastated by loneliness because, at a hardly conscious level, we don’t accept that we’re entirely alone. I think this sensation of being silently listened to with total comprehension – something you never find in real life – represents our innate belief in a supreme being, some all-comprehending intelligence.
CYNTHIA: That seems awfully subjective.
CHARLIE: Of course it is. That’s just my point. We all subjectively know God exists. Then, usually in adolescence, we decide that that’s silly. Still later –
[Cuts away to a quick scene of two young ladies talking about a young man, and then rejoins the conversation.]
CYNTHIA: I don’t see what that has to do with proving God exists.
CHARLIE: What is shows is that a kind of belief is innate in all of us. At some point most of us lose that, after which it can only be regained by a conscious act of faith.
CYNTHIA: And you’ve experienced that?
CHARLIE: No, I haven’t… I hope to someday.
[The scene in question begins at 3min 25sec.]
I mean, who starts a movie like that?! Especially a comedy… But it goes on from there and the humor grows. I promise if you stick with it and listen/watch carefully, you’ll see that there is a LOT more going on than a bunch of preppies talking in a room. Stillman is a true hero.
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6 responses to “Opening Dialogue from Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan”
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Great film by great film-maker. I don’t know if this quotes captures the comedic voice of most of his dialogue. Don’t go down a rabbit hole thinking this is some kind of well worked out argument. The excerpt is meant to be funny (but with serious undertones), and, when you see the film, it is.
John makes an important point! I should’ve mentioned that the dialogue/argument is meant to be taken half-seriously (watch the clip and you’ll see what i mean). Just as people are fond of saying that bible is not a “science textbook”, whit stillman’s films are not works of theology. but they have a lot to say and an incredibly funny/witty way of saying it.
i may have an opportunity to meet the man himself later this week…
NICK: (pulling a book from Jane’s bookshelf, and then in a casually loud voice) Are you familar with Dr. Pomeroy’s work, Jane?
JANE: What?
NICK: (Reading from the dust jacket) GIRLS AND SEX…. by Wardell… B… Pomeroy.
JANE: Oh… that…
A week later…
JANE: You’re a snob, a sexist, totally obnoxious and tiresome. And lately you’ve gotten just weird. Why should we believe anything you say?
NICK: I’m not “tiresome.”
Charlie: You’re a Marxist?
Tom: No. I’m a committed socialist, but not a Marxist. I favor the socialist model developed by the 19th century French social critic Fourier.
Charlie: You’re a Fourierist?!
Tom: Yes.
Charlie: Fourierism was tried in the 19ths century and failed. Wasn’t Brook Farm Fourierist? It failed.
Tom: That’s debatable.
Charlie: That Brook Farm failed?
Tom: That it ceased to exist, I’ll grant you. Whether it was really a failure, I don’t think can be definitively said.
Charlie: For me, ceasing to exist is failure. That’s pretty definitive.
Tom: Everyone ceases to exist. That doesn’t mean everyone’s a failure.
Dave… one of the many fun moments in that movie is when, in defense of Audrey, Tom Townsend pulls out a gun and Charlie exclaims:
“Watch out, he’s a Fourierist!”
(As in, watch out, he’s a freakin lunatic.)