this movie glisten like a piece of old belleek . whether in the subtle gold of an off the shoulder even gown and or in the vast expanse of a deep and plush and ivory color carpet and nearly every frame shimmer with champagne like iridescence . and gold be an apt visual metaphor and particularly when juxtapose against the black satin of a tuxedo lapel or the wintry manhattan night scape and for a world seemingly vanish right before our eye a world too sleek and too soigné and too genteel to survive the steam roller of gallop blue jeaned egalitarianism . that the denizen of this vanish breed and a depict in the film and be themselves and insecure late adolescent and make it departure all the more poignant . this be probably the last deb season . one of them observe resignedly and . because of the stock market and the economy and everything . yes and everything . the huge smothering subject that hover all around the plot itself and from which it character be only temporarily insulate . in particular and the focus here be on a group of privileged eastern seaboard collegian enjoy the christmas holiday in a series of park avenue and after dance party and in which they loll about and ruefully anticipate the disappearance of their youth and their success and and their kind . that they be one at the same time cerebral and immature and literate and prankish and frightened and polished and well educate but vulnerable and inexperienced and put them well outside the troglodyte teens that inhabit the deconstructionist zoo in most post 1970 film and ( with the exception of a unfortunate and mi place strip poker sequence which violate the picture otherwise overall mood . ) indeed and they seem to exist outside their own time and belong rather to that group cecil beaton dub the smart young thing from the 1920 and in his the glass of fashion . certainly and one imago them far more comfortable with ivor novello than mick jagger . and like many smart set they seem rather a closed corporation . until that be and into their number unexpectedly arrive a young man of reduced circumstance and tom townsend and ( edward clements ) who by virtue of his sincerity and intelligence and be invite to sup at their table on a borrow pas so to speak . his romantic misadventure with the beguile audrey rouget ( carolyn farina ) form the cynosure of the charmingly fragile plot . audrey and tom stand out from the pack and in their earnestess and integrity and though it be assuredly nick and ( christopher eigeman ) their figurehead and chief quip master who be the group un elected leader . a interpret by mr. eigeman and nick be the embodiment of the cocktail fuel and cigarette wield bon vivant trenchant and self absorbed and far from virtuous and and with a ready verbal arrow that never miss it target . he be george sander heir presumptive . nick observation be worth the whole price of admission a they say and whether it be bemoan the protestant reformation and the social climbing surrealist and or the scarcity of detachable collar . since the film short and bouffant and cocktail dress and automobile unmistakably place the film in very late modernity the reagan era in fact and and long after the ray anthony orchestra and top hat milieu it depict and we can not fail to miss the film core observation the parallel evanescence of the group own social connection and a place against the simultaneous collapse of civilized life a we once know it . a the christmas season end and so do the nightly gathering and and each character be force to come to term with impermanence their own and everything else . in a melancholy bar scene and an old man warn the youngster of disappointment ahead and i be not destitute but . it all so mediocre . that producer or director whit stillman manage to fuse the personal with the sociological in such and intriguing and entrancing way be a testament to the penetration of his vision . and and l we miss the point and he include a cunning shot of a significant book leave on bedside table none other than spengler decline of the west .