Metropolitan
BUY AT:
See more details, packaging, or compare
Synopsis
One of the great American independent films of the 1990s, the surprise hit Metropolitan, by writer-director Whit Stillman, is a sparkling comedic chronicle of a young man’s romantic misadventures while trying to fit in to New York City’s debutante society. Stillman’s deft, literate dialogue and hilariously highbrow observations earned this first film an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay. Beneath the wit and sophistication, though, lies a tender tale of adolescent anxiety.
Picture 8/10
Released alongside their new Blu-ray edition of The Last Days of Disco, Criterion presents Whit Stillman’s first film, Metropolitan, on Blu-ray in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 on a dual-layer disc in a 1080p/24hz high-definition transfer.
Like The Last Days of Disco it looks as though Criterion is yet again using the same high-definition transfer used for their original DVD edition from 2006. But in this case this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Unlike Disco, which is laced with artifacts and an assortment of other problems that I blame on an outdated, mediocre transfer, Metropolitan’s transfer is a strong one to begin with, even though it’s six years old.
The film was shot on Super 16mm and then blown to 35mm with the transfer coming from a 35mm interpositive. The film has a very grainy look, as it did on DVD, but the film’s grain receives a far better rendering here, looking far more natural. As to clarity it can look a little fuzzy, something I blame more on the shooting style and technical limitations, but I still think the transfer delivers the image as best it can and there is a striking amount of detail in certain scenes. There are times where the picture can look a bit noisy instead of grainy but in general I didn’t detect any other troublesome artifacts, certainly not the edge-enhancement that is laced throughout The Last Days of Disco. Colours look accurate and saturated perfectly, while black levels are rich and inky and don’t crush out details.
After the other Stillman Blu-ray release from Criterion I wasn’t holding out much hope for this one but in the end it’s very strong, with very few shortcomings, looking far more film-like and natural in comparison to the original DVD edition.
Audio 6/10
Though it does sound a little sharper and clearer I can’t say I noticed a striking difference between the original DVD’s Dolby Digital 1.0 mono track and this Blu-ray’s new lossless linear PCM mono track, and I’m sure that can be blamed on the film’s sound design. Stillman more or less admits he doesn’t know much about sound in films in the accompanying commentary and it shows here. Dialogue is a bit muffled and monotone but still easy enough to hear. The only lively moments are when the film’s score or music selections make their appearance and they sound a little more robust but not by much.
In the end the weakness has more to do with the overall sound design and possibly the technical limitations of the shoot than anything to do with the transfer, which I think is about as good as one can expect.
Extras 5/10
Everything gets ported over from the Criterion DVD, starting with an audio commentary featuring Stillman, editor Christopher Tellefsen, and actors Chris Eigeman and Taylor Nichols. It’s an enjoyable enough track with the four, all recorded together, recalling their first film. Stillman goes into detail about the development of the script, which he wrote after the script for Barcelona, figuring the lower key nature of this story would be easier to get made first. He also covers, along with everyone else, the difficulties and limitations that come up from such a low budget, and Stillman reveals a lot of his tricks in faking the film, which involved sneaking around and a lot of freebies. There’s talk of casting, and the apparent taboo of casting a redhead as the main character. There’s also a great amount detail about the editing process (the film was trimmed from 160-minutes to 99-minutes through a lot slight nips here and there) and Stillman talks about many of the things he took away from this film, including the horror he felt when he realized just how much film he had wasted. Stillman has most of the track and he can be a little dry, but everyone else, especially Eigeman, offer some levity, ultimately making the track far more entertaining than it probably should be. Fans of the film should enjoy it.
The remaining supplements are pretty slim, though not without their merits. Criterion presents a series of outtakes, starting with a 9-minute montage of various trims made to the film, along with alternate takes, bloopers, and even footage of some of the coverage of certain scenes, including an infamous moment Stillman mentions in the commentary where he filmed an empty chair for a large amount of time. There’s also another small 2-minute section entitled Memorial to Line Producer Brian Greenbaum. This footage shows outtakes or stills where Greenbaum, who passed away in 1992, appear.
Alternate Casting presents test footage of alternate actors trying out for roles eventually filled by others. The first presents Will Kempe testing out for the role of Nick Smith, and the scene in question is where Nick and Tom are walking down the street while Nick explains his Polly Perkins story. The other scene presents Lloyd Kaufman, co-founder of Troma Entertainment and responsible for such films as The Toxic Avenger, appearing as the record producer that shows up briefly in the film. Each segment runs about 2-minutes. An alternate commentary by Stillman features the director explain why he didn’t go this route in casting. What’s especially interesting is that Kempe would be cast Rick Von Sloneker, Nick’s arch-nemesis.
The disc then concludes with the original New Line Theatrical Trailer, which runs 2-minutes and looks to have been sourced from a VHS tape.
The same essay Luc Sante wrote for the original DVD edition, which talks about the film and the people it represents, is included in the insert and doesn’t appear to have been altered but I admittedly only did a quick scan.
And that’s it. It’s incredibly sparse, with not even 2-hours’ worth of material. Still, fans of the film will more than likely enjoy going through everything.
Closing
The supplements are decent but they’re pretty slim. Thankfully the transfer offers a significant improvement and presents a far more film-like look in comparison to the DVD. For this aspect the Blu-ray is worth picking up or upgrading to.
BUY AT:
