| It feels as if a pairing of Jane Austen and Whit Stillman was inevitable. Both are wry social critics who specialize in careful observations of middle-to-upper-class life: Austen’s fiction dissects the snobbery of the Georgian era; Stillman’s comic films gently skewer the idealism of the budding American bourgeoisie. In Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco, the director genially undercuts the pomp and pretense of those exercising late 20th century privilege. His interest in our craving for attention, affirmation, status, and appearance dovetails well with Austen’s satiric dismemberment of a genteel but pitiless pecking-order. With his new film Love & Friendship, the director has . . . READ MORE |