By Andrew Cristi
Twenty years ago the year was 1998, and it seemed like audiences were looking everywhere for that heavy dose of nostalgia that could take them right back in time to the disco dance floor- the 90’s had already witnessed a successful reboot of “The Brady Bunch,” and scored with indie hits like “Dazed And Confused,” as well as touching coming of age period pieces like “My Girl,” and “Now And Then,” so it only made sense by the time the end of the decade rolled around that the hunger for leisure suits and fringe would be at an all time high. Fashion trends were already emulating those of the time, the bottoms of jeans were already getting wider, and just that year TV was set to premiere “That 70’s Show.” Studios just knew that the world needed more of the 70’s as movie-goers would rush to the theaters to witness flamboyant costumes, “groovy” lingo, and that funky, funky music- and voila, “The Last Days Of Disco” was born.
The only thing is, unlike the other disco movie green-lit that year, “54,” “The Last Days Of Disco,” was far less ostentatious. Not really the same celebratory spoof on the decade, or ode to “Saturday Night Fever” that the world had come accustomed to with the nostalgic period films of the decade, “The Last Days Of Disco” puzzled audiences at the time as they looked around for the over-the-top clothing and constant usage of time-appropriate dialogue. In fact, it wasn’t until later that Whit Stillman’s indie gem began to get regarded as the true treasure of cinema that it really is.
First, right off the bat, what audiences really missed at the time was what this movie was really about- which is absurd because it’s right in the title; “The Last Days Of Disco.” We are not focusing on the height of disco here, we are focusing on the tail end- and the very first thing we see in the film is that this is “the very early 80’s.” Perhaps this was a disappointment during a time in society where even guys were starting to adopt the awful trend of boot-cut jeans in order to recapture the 70’s, but as we as a culture grow as sophisticated film-goers it becomes more obvious how perfect and complete this movie really is. “The Last Days Of Disco,” while very much fun and nostalgic, is not simply a tribute or love letter to another time, but instead it’s a period piece in the best possible sense like “Mad Men” or “The Americans” where it is completely well-researched from soup to nuts and becomes a time machine right back to that time.
Much like the performances- and we’ll get to that in a bit- every inch of this picture is completely subtle, sophisticated, and nuanced as no element ever needs to beat the viewer over the head in order to get its point across. The fashion is perfectly of the time and very much fun without being ugly or garish just for the sake of being thematic- and that very much helps the film feel both like a period piece and timeless.
The dialogue doesn’t rely on patronizing the audience in order to get a laugh- in fact, far from it. Stillman’s script, like all his scripts, is not only razor sharp and offering conversation between his characters that is both completely natural and hilarious, but his writing also provides an entire world within historical fiction that is completely well-thought out and acknowledges what environment every character would be in from their job to the bar they might frequent. The pages here are as complex as Shakespeare or “Star Wars,” as they offer both masterful dialogue as well as this broad playground for the characters that never seems to have any loopholes.
That also bleeds into the characterization- and that is another reason why perhaps this film has really stood the test of time beyond being just “a disco film.” Again, yes, it’s wonderfully fun and it does offer plenty of “that funky music,” but the characterization here is beyond deep and really explores very real people we see while interacting in our own lives even today- particularly in shallow settings like nightlife. Charlotte- the histrionic narcissist, Des- the antisocial narcissist, and Josh- the bipolar one who is sort of helping our very lost protagonist form her own ideals- these are all very complex and real people, albeit hilarious, but real. They are not stock characters or archetypes thrown in there to set a scene for disco- there is a solid group of people here, and everyone knows a Charlotte, everyone knows an Alice, Everyone knows a Tom, everyone knows a Des, and so on.
Then, there is the casting and performances. Not at all arrogant in his casting choices, Stillman has really given a huge leg-up to some of the best in the business from Greta Gerwig, to Mira Sorvino, to Billy Magnussen, and this film is no different as it touts the incredible Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale front and center- each giving a tour de force that they really deserved far more credit for. Sevigny has the kind of unassuming acting prowess that sneaks up on every performance and steals every scene she’s in- whether it be here, or in other modern classics like “American Pyscho,” and “Party Monster,” and Becksinale is the kind of actress that blends both modern relatability with a classic kind of prestige- and it’s clear as to why Stillman wrote this specifically with her in mind based on her performance playing a Jane Austen character. All the other actors surrounding them in “The Last Days of Disco,”– particularly Chris Eigeman and Matt Keeslar- are also top shelf and giving performances that are both solid and uproarious, and again, many of the monologues here are very Shakespearean in nature and it takes a very well-trained actor to accomplish them with such skill, so for Keeslar to deliver the “Lady And The Tramp” monologue so perfectly, that takes tremendous talent. Same with the exchange between Beckinsale and Eigeman as he informs her that he wouldn’t want to lick the boots of her gay friends- pretty classic, and the acting tennis done here matches perfectly with the slick writing. The rest of the cast only compliments them, with great casting touches with Mackenzie Astin and Jennifer Beals as well- both of whom are also excellent.
Again, after twenty years, this incredible film is really just now starting to get the true love it deserves, and surprisingly enough it got no love from the Academy that year- which is a crime as it easily should have won in so many categories, and certainly should have earned itself some nominations (Stillman instead however much deserving received his nomination for his screenplay for “Metropolitan” a few years prior.) But, accolades aside, it seems as though one thing is for sure- the incredible filmmaker and his entire company all equally share the same very fond love for this film that its fans do- and that will live on forever.
With now being the time that the public seems most nostalgic for the early 80’s with major hits like “Stranger Things,” “The Americans,” “Snowfall,” and “Glow” ruling television, it seems as though “The Last Days Of Disco” would be more popular than ever right now- especially since society is very much going through a very similar shift in culture as we witness the hipster turn over to the new yuppie. It seems as though right now would be the best time ever to see more of the film and see what might be next for these characters…perhaps…in television form? The brilliant Stillman claimed that at the time, there were talks of bringing the show both to stage and to the small screen- and it would undoubtedly be a hit in both forms- especially watching as Alice, Charlotte and company transitioned from disco dancers to full on 80’s yuppies. It could be “Mad Men” meets “Girls.” Time for Netflix to make this happen!
With the 20 year anniversary of the film underway and the film showing in several locations, Wingman sat down with the genius auteur and asked him a few questions on the making of the film, the casting, and what he has next up his sleeve. Read on to see what Stillman had to say!
WINGMAN: A lot of people didn’t understand this movie when it first came out. They thought it was more about disco and the club, when it was really about the time and the yuppies who were sort of not really a part of that scene but might have went there a few times. It was perfectly accurate and well researched.
WHIT STILLMAN: Well, the thing is that disco seemed larger than life even if you didn’t go that many times. So, during that era, it wasn’t really about how many times people would frequent the club- most people would probably have a particular occasion to go. If someone went to Studio 54 five times then that’s kind of a lot. So, it can have kind of a big influence in your mind even if you weren’t there every night or week. And also there is kind of this very odd thing that if you go and see someone and then go back and see the same person again it makes you think that they’re a disco person and that they must also be there all the time, when really you both just went that night- and all the people in different groups sort of have different nights when they go. So, there are all sorts of people who had disco as a major part in their lives where something major happened at the club, or they met someone important at the club who became a big role in their life- and this is really about that group, not so much about the group that might have lived there.
WINGMAN: One thing that’s important to bring up is how timely this movie is now- there’s so many parallels to what was happening then with what is going on now; the changing world with Reaganomics, and how club heads and hippies were turning to yuppies, and were really now we’re really seeing the hipster die and the new yuppie be born.
STILLMAN: Well, I don’t know much about that- I’m kind of out of the loop! [Laughs] The hipster is dying? [He quotes the film with a laugh] “It can’t die! Something this great and this important can never die!”
WINGMAN: Your characterization is amazing- you really tackle the narcissist so beautifully and you really understand personality disorders; Charlotte is so complex. She’s narcissistic and histrionic- perhaps even a little borderline- she’s a great character. And Des is almost antisocial, then there’s Josh and his bipolar disorder. These characters are very layered.
STILLMAN: Well, I guess in my mind the two that stood out really were the Charlotte character and the Josh character. Charlotte is the person that is always more than what you are- she is the most sexy, out there, and adventurous, and then she’s the most moral and religious. No matter what it is, she has to be the most of whatever she’s doing. So, she’s the most into publishing, then she’s the most into television. Book publishing is everything, then television is everything– and we encounter those people all the time, and I think before we really form our identities these people loom really largely in our lives and we don’t really know to avoid them, or ignore them, or to take them with such a grain of salt that they do no harm. The Josh character is a bit of a white-washing of manic-depression, but there’s also hope there. A lot of these things that seemed really grave or hopeless in the past now seem to show a much better light shed that seems pretty hopeful, and that’s good. So, it’s a little bit of white-washing, I’ve had a family member who suffers with manic-depression, and this is a positive side of it, but maybe Josh is also less affected than others.
WINGMAN: You’re great at these types of characters in general- Like Metropolitan, you really excel in writing the depth of shallow bourgeoisie characters in a very real, but stylized way. Why is this group the type of group you like to write about?
STILLMAN: I guess I’m more sympathetic to them. I try and make them so that people can think what they want about them. A lot of people bring their own group hostility to them- which is very easy to do because of in-group/out-group mentality. Sometimes you see people at a party that you haven’t been invited to, or they are in their own world, so you can lay judgments on them. In this case, we invite the viewers into the party and therefore it allows the audience to judge them the way they judge anyone else based on what they do or how they act. I suppose there’s kind of a social utopian quality to most of our films. One thing that seemed very sad to me when I got out of university was how there seemed to be sort of no coherent social groupings having fun- so our films emphasize that; the circumstances where groups come together and everyone knows each other and socializes and there’s this dramatization. I used to always find that in Russian and British novels. Austen, Balzac and Tolstoy would write about society and the people within that society and how they were interrelating- and where is that in the United States? So, the 70’s was a really bleak time for me. In the 60’s there was these really cute discotheques that were tame and fun, but then there was nothing but juice bars where people took drugs- everything went away. No one was dancing in bars anymore. So, when disco came back it was a really great time- people were going out together again, you’d run into people at these clubs- and you’d really run into people; there would be people who you hadn’t seen in ten years, or hadn’t seen since you were a kid, and that was really the interest here.
WINGMAN: The casting is incredible- and this was Kate Beckinsale’s first American film. You’ve gone on to work with Kate again, as well as Chloë Sevigny- both in “Love And Friendship,” and casting Jennifer Beals was such a great touch. Talk about that.
STILLMAN: We were really lucky to be able to afford all these great people, and I guess they were willing to work under or at scale, or what not. I felt kind of harassed during casting because we were rushed to come out before the other disco film [“54,”] So, we sort of had to finish casting when we started filming and there were changes. Robert Sean Leonard kind of saved us because he came in to play Tom. And yes, I really loved getting Jennifer Beals and was very much hoping she could be part of this. I loved her film and think she’s fantastic, and we got really lucky. We got really lucky all the way around- all the stars aligned.
WINGMAN: Speaking of working with great talent, in the past you’ve also cast Aubrey Plaza, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Adam Brody, Billy Magnussen, Emma Greenwald, Mira Sorvino, Thomas Gibson, and Greta Gerwig. You have a great eye for talent. You must be very proud of where they all are now.
STILLMAN: Yes, I’m really pleased. I was kind of concerned after “Metropolitan” that they were really great and they didn’t move on the way they should have. I think they were stigmatized with the idea that they were people who were essentially playing themselves- which absolutely wasn’t true. There was a couple of girls who came from private schools in New York, but that was it- and it’s great to see the others we have worked with doing so well, but I think they were doing well before they came into our films. I think people might think we might have discovered Mira Sorvino, or even Chloë Sevigny- and Chloë was already pretty big, and Mira was taking off like a rocket ship when she came to us because she had just been in a film that did very well at Sundance.
WINGMAN: The fashion in “The Last Days Of Disco” was incredible- not overdone, but perfect. The rainbow tube top that Alice wears is so perfectly on point- it’s exactly of the early 80s. You are such a phenomenal director because your films are perfect in the sense that they have perfect dialogue, perfect visuals, perfect music, perfect performances- they are just so complete. Talk about the fashion and the music being their own characters.
STILLMAN: I will say that the outfit you mentioned was us deciding that it was as far as we wanted to go when it came to doing that sort of thing- we didn’t want to be too much, but just what people want. The dress I really loved was this black dress that Kate wore which kind of looked like someone went after it with scissors and cut stars into it. So, we want to give a little bit of the touch of the period without pounding it in the way people may have assumed the way disco should be. One of the challenges was actually trying to make it look good because I really thought that in the late 70’s a lot of things looked really terrible- so, that’s one reason I wanted to make it the early 80’s. Everything started looking better; the fashion, the haircuts, the new wave thing coming in- I liked that style there. One thing I did was go back through fashion magazines of the period and I tried to find things that I liked the looks of, so, there were a lot of things we were not doing, and we really focused on what looked good through our later eye and that’s how we came up with the aesthetic.
WINGMAN: This film was actually very much a lot about your own experiences in the club scene around that time. Which character would you say you are?
STILLMAN: Well, all the films are sort of a descending order of autobiographical content. In “Metropolitan,” and “Barcelona” I sort of knew those characters individually. There was more of weaving true and fictional elements together in “The Last Days Of Disco.” Having all the guy’s characters come from Harvard, as well as my own experiences going to those clubs- that all gave me something to work from. But, I think it was one of the first times that knowing the actor I wanted to use helped me write something. Early on I had seen Kate Beckinsale in “Cold Comfort Farm” where she was playing a Jane Austen character in another setting- and that really helped me when having Kate in mind for the Charlotte character.
WINGMAN: You have another film on the way; “Dancing Mood.” What can fans expect?
STILLMAN: It’s going to take a while, and I might change the title- I’m working on it again. I don’t know how many of the old elements will still be in it, but it will still be early-mid 60’s in Jamaica, and it will be the Ska and rock-steady periods. I’m really hopeful for it. It’s supernatural, and it’s something I haven’t done before. For me, what was very important with “The Last Days Of Disco” was the last sequence when people leave reality. I admire films that do that- escape reality, like the film’s of Woody Allen and other filmmaker’s films, and I wanted to explore beyond naturalism- and I hope to do that in this next film.
WINGMAN: “The Cosmopolitans” was supposed to be a TV series. Would you ever bring “The Last Days Of Disco” to television? It would be an incredible show- especially now.
STILLMAN: That’s a really good idea. I think there was interest in doing that back then- I got a TV commission at the time, but it got completely turned around and changed during discussions. Things seem to change every moment- I thought it would be really good to have a show with lead female characters at this age and they said; “No, we don’t want that, we want this…” [Laughing] So, they just kept changing what they wanted. There were a couple of people really interested in doing it as a musical- Rufus Wainwright wanted to do it as a musical. But, that’s a really great idea to have a TV show- I have to go back to that.
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And since as Charlotte says television is the future, and because “disco will never die,” and because “The Last Days Of Disco” is quite frankly one of the best movies ever made, it’s about time that Stillman’s masterpiece finally gets rebooted for the small screen after all.
In the meantime, check out more screenings of “The Last Days Of Disco” for its 20th anniversary:
American Cinematheque – Santa Monica – June 22
Curzon Soho – London – July 20
Mike McCarthy