Damsels in Distress

Damsels in Distress is a 2011 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Whit Stillman and starring Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody, and Lio Tipton. It is set at a United States East Coast university. First screened at the 68th Venice International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, it opened in New York and Los Angeles on April 6, 2012. Plot Newly transferred college student Lily becomes friends with Violet, Heather and Rose, a clique who run the campus' suicide prevention center. They date less attractive men to help the men's confidence; they try to clean up the "unhygenic" Doar Dorm; they clash with the editor of the campus newspaper, The Daily Complainer, who wants to close down the "elitist" fraternities; and they try to start a new dance craze, The Sambola! Cast Development Damsels in Distress was Stillman's first produced feature since The Last Days of Disco (1998). In August 1998, he had moved from New York to Paris with his wife and two daughters. In that time, he wrote a novelization of The Last Days of Disco, in addition to several original film scripts which were not made, including one set in Jamaica in the 1960s. He resolved to make a lower-budgeted film in the style of his debut, Metropolitan (1990). In 2006, he met with Liz Glotzer and Mart Shafer at Castle Rock Entertainment, who had financed his second and third films. According to Shafer: Whit said, 'I want to write a movie about four girls in a dorm who are trying to keep things civil in an uncivil world.' It took him a year to write 23 pages. Six months later, a few more dribbled in. He just doesn't work very fast. Finally we had a draft. When we started production he said, 'I think 12 years is the right amount of time between movies.' Castle Rock provided most of the $3 million budget.