If you haven’t heard of director Whit Stillman yet, then you should remedy that.  Whit Stillman has about 3 movies out: The Last Days of Disco, Metropolitan, and Barcelona.  I recommend them all, but if you had to see any one of them and not the others, then I would encourage you to see Barcelona (the other two are fantastic, and if you see one, then you’ll be craving more).

Barcelona (1994) is a comedy about two young idealistic male Americans in Spain (not like Anthony Garret in Spain) at the end of the Cold War.  As is the case in all of his movies, one of the things that Whit Stillman does so well is dialogue.  Stillman has a keen sense of the amalgamation of high and low (something Sercer enjoys).  He deals with deep themes, incorporates works from the Canon, portrays the frustration, naivety, Romance, willfulness, and ecstasy of youth without being cliche.  He captures some aspect of the philosophic query into the nature of love, and he does this while making you laugh.  He invites you to yourself fall in love with the characters and all of the richness of Spain.  I really want to go to Spain after seeing this movie!  Who’s with me?

So, if you’re looking for a great movie that won’t leave you feeling entirely depressed about life, but also won’t make you want to go commit some heinous and dangerous crime (like waking the Pig) because the movie made you feel too warm and fuzzy, then go and see Barcelona by Whit Stillman.

Warmly,

Lord Bloch