Damsels in Distress

As almost always, there are spoilers here. 

I've been waiting for what seems like years for the new Whit Stillman (it's been 14 years since he's made one, which is to say, he hasn't made a new film since I started watching his old ones).

Damsels in Distress is set at a liberal arts college that is both pretentious and filled with stupid students (this part is a stretch--one boy doesn't know colors). It centers on a mean girls group who aren't mean, at least not intentionally--they're trying to help people, albeit condescendingly. 

I thought that the beginning of the film was slow--there's the characteristic droll, slightly ignorant and slightly insightful (mostly insightful in their ignorance) commentary of Stillman's characters (Roger Ebert calls this double-reverse wit and likens it to P.G. Wodehouse*; in danger of sounding repetitive, it reminds me of Oscar Wilde), but there wasn't much else. I got interested a ways into the film when we see Violet, the main character,'s childhood obsessive-compulsive behaviors. In an explanation of those behaviors, her current psychosis becomes clearer.

Violet's urge is to reform--she tries to help suicidal students, with a special emphasis on the healing power of scents, and particularly the scent of soap. Her urge is to clean and organize and uplift. This urge is rooted in her own continuing struggles with the death of her parents and with rejection from a boyfriend. The soap is key to this reform and so is dance. She believes that suicidal and depressed students can be helped through tap and other forms of dance. She attempts to create a new international dance craze, the Sambola, which is a mix of other dance styles. She emphasizes dress and perfume and manners as a way to counteract the onslaught of depression often encountered at college.

Thomas Hibbs writes about dancing in Stillman's films:

In a recent group interview, one of his regular actors, Chris Eigeman, addressed Stillman: “I do think that dancing for you is sort of perfect in a way, because on the one front, it’s this very codified way of genders intermixing. It’s both intimate but very, very public.” Eigeman then added, “The other thing is that you look incredibly silly when you do it.” That’s a pretty good guide to Stillman’s art: comedic silliness at once concealing and revealing truths about the human condition.

Violet's efforts at reform are connected to her own efforts to remake herself, and we see characters around her adjusting their identity for different circumstances. Violet remakes herself, which includes renaming herself from the picked-on name of Emily Tweeder. Her friend Rose goes to England for 6 weeks and returns with a British accent (who among us has not met such a character?). Charlie/Freddie, a romantic interest of several of the girls, hides the fact that he's an eighth year education student by wearing suits and telling women that he works in strategic development (again, who among us has not met such a character?--a man with such a vague title that you know it's a cover up for something else--whether it's Tony Soprano's work in "Waste Management" or the ubiquitous DC "consultant," which probably refers to some secret job).

Visually, it is interesting that Stillman repeatedly used overexposed bright light that backlit the characters to make them look like angels with halos, which is clearly at least how they thought of themselves (and corresponding to their flowery names--Violet Wister, Heather and Rose). The other noteworthy stylistic element is the intermittently included phrases used to introduce you to the next section of the film. They are reminiscent of a silent movie and include things like, "The Algebra of Love" or "The Decline of Decadence." These contribute to the academic aspect of the film, appropriate since it's set at a college--the film presents itself as something like an academic paper with section headings and footnotes.

Also: like Hong Kong Housewife, I always get super cold at the movies. Unlike Hong Kong, U.S. movies do not give you blankets, so I brought my own, shoved in an over-sized tote. This also served as a convenient spot to hide snacks and drinks.


* And, goodness gracious, Whit Stillman is too clever by half, or however that cliche goes: from the opening credits in which he lists separately, "Damsels" and "Their Distress," to the closing qualification that "dufi" is the non-standard but preferred plural of "doofus," he is hilarious, although in a wry and ironic way that makes you smile, but not laugh. Although perhaps it was the two annoying women who kept laughing far too loudly directly behind us who made me not want to laugh?

** I have one more thing to say, but it doesn't relate to anything in the post: I love April in Parks and Rec, but I think that she is one of the worst actresses in Damsels in Distress. I have a feeling that it's because Stillman gave her a role that required some emotion, and she does better in roles where she doesn't have to show any.

(I wrote about his other films a long time ago here and here.)