Posted on 04/15/2012 10:35:04 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out
Whit Stillman doesnt want to talk about politics. Ask the famed indie film director for his thoughts about the current Republican primary race, and he politely but flatly declines.
No, I have nothing, he says.
Lightly pressed further, he changes the subject, turning the tables to ask questions of his own.
[....]
Mr. Stillman recalls directing an episode of the TV show Homicide: Life on the Street. He had a script he liked, but a rewrite turned a yuppie victim whose family had been murdered into this awful, caricatured yuppie villain.
We dont necessarily want to do a PR job for them, he says of the character type. But we also dont want to dehumanize them, either. He objected to the rewrite and is sure he was blacklisted his explosive and unprompted term from directing television as a result.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
He comes from a once wealthy family with connections to the Rockefellers. His father was in the Kennedy administration, but Whit actually contributed to the American Spectator back in the 70s and 80s.
That was a very different era from the present, and I don't suppose he's especially conservative nowadays, but Stillman was definitely an exception in the film industry. More thoughtful than most movie people.
Wikipedia says his godfather was the man who coined the term WASP, and that's very appropriate if you know Whit Stillman's films. Wikipedia also has this gem:
Whit Stillman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Slim Whitman.
I agree wholeheartedly that Whit Stillman is a decent guy and a good filmmaker. His family was instrumental in getting JFK elected to the Senate, but it was a different Democratic Party back then.
Whit was born to fantastic wealth, but I don’t think he ended up with a lot of it. I think that after his parent’s divorce and business reversals that Whit found himself well off, but needing to make money somehow. I understand he sold his Manhattan apartment to raise money to make one of his films.
I like Whit. He’s a really decent guy, and I suspect he’s a lot stronger conservative than he can let on.
I started out liking that show but that smug ash hole Belzer (I know more about Iraq than the troops there because I read 20 newspapers a day) finally became too much to take.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.