The St. Regis Hotel, Barcelona, Studio 54. What do these places have in common? They're all settings for Whit Stillman movies (Metropolitan, Barcelona, Last Days of Disco). So imagine my surprise, reader, watching the trailer for Damsels in Distress, the long, long awaited new film from Whit Stillman, transported not to the Sorbonne, Mount Holyoke, or even Cambridge, but to Staten Island. That's right. Whit chose the grounds of Snug Harbor, the "haven for aged, decrepit, and worn-out sailors" established in 1801, to film his story of a college recently gone co-ed.
Even if the movie doesn't live up to our outscale expectations--it's been thirteen years since Last Days of Disco--it will be worth seeing for the shots of Snug Harbor alone. I haven't been this excited for a film location since Everybody Wins put Norwich, Connecticut on the map (Director to Norwich Bulletin reporter on his choice: "It just reeks of small city corruption.")
Did I mention, there's also doughnuts? Here's the trailer:
It looks very, very good.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't believe you didn't know that it was shot in Staten Island until now! How is that even possible??