Writer/director Whit Stillman is has returned to the director’s chair for the first time in 13 years. His last film was the excellent The Last Days of Disco starring Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny and with Damsels in Distress he’s surrounded himself with a whole new crop of up-and-coming female talent and I have the first three clips from the film which will have its world premiere screening next Saturday, September 10 at the Venice Film Festival and coincidentally I’ll be seeing it one day later in Toronto.
Described as a comedy, the film, written by Stillman, centers on Violet Wister (Greta Gerwig), Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and Heather (Carrie MacLemore) as they set out to revolutionize life at a grungy American university. They welcome transfer student Lily (Analeigh Tipton) into their group, which seeks to help severely depressed students with a program of good hygiene and musical dance numbers. The girls become romantically entangled with a series of men – including smooth Charlie (Adam Brody), dreamboat Xavier (Hugo Becker), the mad frat pack of Frank (Ryan Metcalf) and Thor (Billy Magnussen) – who threaten the girls’ friendship and sanity.
I have still yet to see Stillman’s 1994 feature Barcelona, but after seen Last Days of Disco and Metropolitan, it was a no-brainer when I made Damsels in Distress one of my most anticipated films coming in the second half of 2011.
As for those clips, this is the first footage from the film to be released online and you can watch all three clips directly below. Sony Pictures Classics has not yet set an official release date.
