Screenwriting 101: Whit Stillman

“Very often with my favorite books, I can put them down and I don’t need to go back to them for a very long time. I’m just very, very happy with the experience of being within them. I love Raymond Chandler — I mean, I’m not that concerned about his plot — but I love the world of Raymond Chandler and think it’s fascinating. So when it comes to my own films, I guess we’re prisoners of our preferences — maybe I just don’t know how to make my plots terribly propulsive. Still, it really amazes me when some critics go on and on about the ‘narrative momentum’ in a story and complain that it ‘slows down’ at a certain point. I mean, God, are they children? Essentially, substituting a reductive standard for a higher aspiration. If the observation is right, and funny or interesting things are happening right along, yes, it’s not gonna be fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat entertainment. But it can be working.”

— Whit Stillman (FilmCraft | Screenwriting, P. 148)