Earlier this year, we reported on the exciting news that writer-director Whit Stillman (Last Days of Disco) will make his first film in over a decade with Damsels in Distress. During a recent interview, actress Greta Gerwig (Greenberg) broke the news that she has been cast in tthe film, which begins shooting in two weeks. Given that this interview happened exactly two weeks ago, it’s probably safe to assume that the film is already shooting. More after the jump.
During the interview with WWD [via Hollywood Elsewhere], Gerwig described her role in Distress:
“I play a girl named Violet who runs a suicide-prevention center at a liberal arts college. She prevents suicides through the powers of Thirties song-and-dance numbers. So it’s a very dark comedy.”
-
From what I understand, the film will be a bit whimsical and might have some musical numbers. This sounds very interesting to me --- Stillman producing something as odd as this excites me. I’ll also take this opportunity to recommend Stillman’s past films to anyone who hasn’t seen them. All of the director’s films (Metropolitan, Barcelona, Last Days of Disco) are worth checking out, and anyone who has seen them knows why it’s a real shame that we’ve gone so long without a new Stillman film
Here is a plot synopsis for the film:
[Damsels in Distress] centers on a group of college girls who take in a new student and teach her their own misguided ways of helping people. Lily, a new student at Seven Oaks University, winds up filling in with a dynamic and highly individualistic group of girls, addicted to the elegance of the past: Heather, Violet and Rose all volunteer at the campus Suicide Prevention Center, convinced that musical dance, sharp clothes and good hygiene — the Dior perfume “Diorissimo” is their trademark — can all contribute to staving off the inevitable self-destructive impulses that follow hard on the heels of failed college romances. Despite their sophisticated talk and savvy use of perfume, the girls are plagued by Cupid’s arrows and must adjust their psyches to the onset of amour. [The Playlist]
-
