If you only read one article on Whit Stillman and Damsels in Distress, this one by Chip Brown at the New York Times is, so far, the one to go for.
It discusses Stillman’s childhood and college life, and reports from both the set of Damsels and its editing room. Lots of fascinating background information there which is probably new to many (or all) of us.
After graduation Stillman went to work for the book publisher Doubleday. He saw his father four times a year for lunch at the Harvard Club. When he was 27, further tensions with his stepmother curtailed even that limited contact. In 1990, the rift widened when Metropolitan had its premiere with its barbed allusions to stepmothers and poignant tropes of paternal abandonment — notably the box of his toys that the protagonist Tom Townsend finds outside his father’s apartment (a scene based on Stillman discovering that his father and stepmother had thrown away his toys at the house in Cornwall).
“I think Dad was very upset by Metropolitan and the scene where the toys are put out on the street,” [Stillman's sister] Linda Stillman said. “But it was the perfect metaphor for how we felt.”
There’s also a page called ‘Whit Stillman’s Family Album’ which has some great black and white photos from Stillman’s early life with recordings of Stillman talking about them. Well worth a look.
If all that wasn’t enough, there’s also an “exclusive preview” clip from the new movie.
A couple of other, briefer, Damsels articles appeared this week: A review at DailyCaller.com, annoyingly split over two pages; and Guy Lodge at Hitfix.com who muses on the different reactions to the film between audiences at Venice and London film festivals.