the last days of disco

the film that everyone forgot.

imagine a woody allen film set in a disco in the early 80s. that's how i've always thought of whit stillman's 'the last days of disco'. stillman was an accomplished independent filmmaker in the early 90s with his talky features that were known and praised for their depiction of erudite an priviledged youth in such works as 'metropolitan' and 'barcelona'. it was his third film, 'the last days of disco', that stayed with me and resonated in a way that i couldn't articulate at the time. i remember seeing it freshman year in high school and thinking it was somehow cool and interesting because the characters used big words and it starred chloe sevigny. i watch it now in a place not entirely dissimilar from the characters in the film. they are post-college graduates struggling to find themselves, professionally and socially, in a new city that is experiencing a vast cultural change. disco is dead and the post-black out of 1977/son of sam/travis bickle still hangs over new york with the emergence of the 80s yuppie on the horizon. sex, college memories, entry level jobs, and being sexiled in a tiny manhattan apartment also complicate the realtionships of the friends and lovers in the film.

it's smarty, sexy, funny, and no longer available on dvd (curses!). oh, and the film concludes with chloe sevigny and a few friends awkwardly dancing to the ojay's "love train" on an abandoned subway. i know i will never forget that part.