How it was Filmed: Metropolitan 

When I first saw the film, I was thinking the lighting and the camera work brought a more authentic feel to the social life in the Upper East Side of New York. And yes, the debutantes really did look like debutantes I knew. When I heard the dialogue, I realized this was nothing like a studio film. This was right out of the holiday parties given for college sophomores home from philosophy, art history, and their first economics classes. They were trying out ideas while working the social notion of wanting to impress. All of this in a first film. Chris Eigeman is a mystery to me. I couldn't keep my eyes off him in this movie--he was portraying a character just like a number of people I knew in college. He is a ball of fire on screen. I have never understood why he is not one of the top drawer actors in the industry.

One interesting detail not mentioned here is that they had to hurry to film the NYC street scenes while the Christmas decorations were still up, because those were the actual Christmas decorations, as Stillman had neither the money nor the permits to put up decorations just for the movie.

My favorite behind-the-scenes anecdote about this movie was Bryan Leder (Fred Neff) getting abducted by a taxi driver. When Fred gets sick, a taxi is hailed for him by Nick. The shot was supposed to end at that time, but a cab pulled up, so Eigeman and Leder improvised, with Eigeman opening the door and Leder entering the cab, which drove away with the actor inside. Leder had to ask the driver to go around the block and deposit him back where he came from.

Great work. A contribution to film appreciation. Informative, pithy and enlightening, as in tungsten interiors and natural light exteriors for 35 mm blowups. Especially liked the detail about how low-budget interior filming of less luxurious apartments was able to be "dressed up" as more fancy by having actors walk out of more glamorous townhouse buildings and that the doormen let them walk in and out of the lobbies to create the effect. Our mind fills in the gap with the help of creative editing and we believe the grandeur of the illusion that the interiors match the exteriors . Brilliant!

love this! super interesting, and the only video essay i can find about this masterpiece

One of my favorite films of all time, although it didn't boost the cause of Fourierism as much as I might have hoped.

Thanks for covering this one. One of my favorites. I certainly didn’t grow up this way, but the actors in this made all the characters very relatable. It’s really a little gem of a film.

One of my favorites. And I’ve never quite been able to figure out why.

Also it helped that Stillman was a child of wealthy and influential parents. His films were basically taken from his life. He may have related to the outsider, but he was technically an insider in this world. I enjoyed this walk down memory lane.

excellent work!!! Thank you.

Love you showing clips from other films to illustrate points.

LOVE this film and very good review.

I would love to be apart of a group like that but it would be so sad after the bubble pops.

Great video

Very good Movie!!!💐💐💐💐💫

You can now make a movie like this with a smartphone

One of the actors aunts let them film at theirs on Park Ave.

I enjoy the script for your video sort of emulating the conversational style of Stillman

Loved it

Narrator sounds like a Stillman character 😂

I'd like to see this movie. I missed it

Nice

How about The Last Days of Disco...…..and Slap Shot

What about Audrey? I always liked her.

Decent video.

I say "It's untenable" at least once a week.

I think the characters of Noah Baumbach's _Kicking and Screaming_ are more interesting. The movie was likely a take on this film, I think.

Does this aspect of Manhattan culture still thrive today? Seems that NYC is more of a bland global city in the same vein as every other metropolis ever since China entered the stage.