{"id":8837,"date":"2014-09-16T13:10:25","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T17:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=8837"},"modified":"2014-09-16T13:10:25","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T17:10:25","slug":"you-should-watch-the-cosmopolitans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2014\/09\/you-should-watch-the-cosmopolitans.html","title":{"rendered":"You Should Watch “The Cosmopolitans”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

for real!:<\/p>\n

\n

The Cosmopolitans<\/em>, Whit Stillman\u2019s new project about American expats in Paris, is several different kinds of experiment: It\u2019s Stillman\u2019s first foray into television. It\u2019s a return to the slightly more naturalistic style of earlier movies like Metropolitan<\/em>, rather than the more stylized approach of 2011\u2019s wise and winsome Damsels in Distress<\/em>. And it\u2019s a commercial experiment, since Amazon is offering the pilot for free<\/a>; the pilot\u2019s ratings will decide whether Amazon picks up the whole series as part of its Prime content.<\/p>\n

That experiment deserves to succeed. Judging by the pilot, The Cosmopolitans<\/em> will please fans of Stillman\u2019s movies. There\u2019s culture-clash comedy of manners, amiable and opinionated youth, and some very fun dialogue. (\u201cThis is my friend Hal. He\u2019s lonely and craves the company of maternal women.\u201d) \u2026<\/p>\n

The series title conjures up images of amoral sophisticates, rootless citizens of the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. These characters express definite, settled beliefs; they\u2019re comfortable divvying up the world into good and bad choices, good and bad people.<\/p>\n

They disagree about\u00a0which<\/em> people are sheep and which are gauche goats. There are several exchanges in which one of the Europeans criticizes somebody, and one of the Americans defends him or her\u2014these Americans are chiefly distinguished by their acceptance of others\u2019 bad behavior. The Europeans snipe at each other, on implicitly moral grounds. Sandro calls Fritz \u201ca ridiculous pipsqueak.\u201d Fritz, hissily, on Sandro: \u201cHe sort of issssssss<\/em> a bad sort.\u201d But the Americans try to stay friendly with everyone.<\/p>\n

Sandro, who is one of the Americans\u2019 shepherds in Parisian society, dismisses Hal as a \u201cmilksop\u201d for continuing to chase after his hot-and-cold girlfriend Clemence. All these Americans are milksops, in the nicest possible way, putting up with the foibles of friends and the casual cruelties of romantic partners.<\/p>\n

They know they\u2019re being doormats. They don\u2019t necessarily care. One of the sharpest, subtlest elements of the pilot\u2019s humor is the regularity with which all the characters make what they themselves admit to be bad choices. The pilot is filled with characters refusing to defend themselves. Sandro confronts Hal: \u201cYou are pathetical! I can\u2019t believe how you Anglo men let women push you around.\u2026 How many times has Clemence dumped you? Maybe twenty, thirty?\u201d<\/p>\n

And Hal, calmly: \u201cNothing like that. Maybe\u2026 sixteen? Seventeen?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

for real!: The Cosmopolitans, Whit Stillman\u2019s new project about American expats in Paris, is several different kinds of experiment: It\u2019s Stillman\u2019s first foray into television. It\u2019s a return to the slightly more naturalistic style of earlier movies like Metropolitan, rather than the more stylized approach of 2011\u2019s wise and winsome Damsels in Distress. And it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[258,101,431,81,160],"class_list":["post-8837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-a-hard-man-is-good-to-find","tag-america","tag-cupid-and-psycho","tag-wherever-you-go-there-you-are","tag-whit-stillman"],"yoast_head":"\nYou Should Watch "The Cosmopolitans"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"for real!: The Cosmopolitans, Whit Stillman\u2019s new project about American expats in Paris, is several different kinds of experiment: It\u2019s Stillman's first\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2014\/09\/you-should-watch-the-cosmopolitans.html\" 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