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They say silly, naive things with authority, and complain about the rent.
Before disco, this country was a dancing wasteland, Charlotte announces at one point.
Disco isnt their church or even necessarily a lifestyle its just where their friends are.
I have a deep, misplaced nostalgia for this movie about deep and misplaced nostalgia.
Disco was too great, and too much fun, to be gone forever.
When we were in Barcelona, we had a really tough shoot physically with a lot of night shooting.
Its really sort of fun.
Normally on these films, youre exhausted all the time.
I myself loved the disco era.
We got this huge space on the inside of the Jersey City Lowes.
Its a spectacular place.
Then we had to fill it with dancers to make it look like they were getting into a nightclub.
That was a huge challenge for us.
Just making a big disco scene with people looking like they belonged.
But in that era, it was kind of the big places, so we represented that.
A lot of actors are insecure about dancing on camera.
I wrote Des, his part inThe Last Days of Disco, in a way that Des never dances.
Some people were really comfortable with it.
And then, Robert Sean Leonard was just sensational.
Its a Chic song, I think Everybody Dance.
Robert Sean Leonard arrives playing the Tom character and he and Chloe start dancing.
Are you a good dancer?
Do you like to dance?I do love to dance.
It was sort of Darwinian.
You had to like dances if you were going to meet anyone.
So inDiscothere are characters where you parcel out different things.
I related to Chloe Sevignys character, Alice, because I worked in publishing.
I lived in an apartment like the one Alice had.
Jimmy Steinway, the dancing ad man character played by Mac Astin, too.
The nutty character played by Matt Keeslar.
I love how this movie sees friendship, and how theyre shaping their identities through these awkward pairings.
When I arrived in New York after graduating from university in 1973, there just seemed like nothing.
It was just a wasteland socially, which we talk about in the film quite a bit.
The film is a bit my dream fantasy of what it could have been like.
He said, I wouldnt know.
Ive never been in a disco.
Chloe Sevigny has said that this film is the movie people ask her about the most.
Is it the same for you?Oh, thats fantastic she says that.
I just love hearing that.
No, no.Metropolitanis definitely the film people talk about the most.
The idea for it was directed toward them.
It had an ambivalent reputation when it came out.
But then all the other journalistic comment was sort of negative.
There was a lot of talk about whether its accurate or not.
I only like punk music.
Really dedicated, really good taste and imaginative.
Sarah got what I wanted to do and had these incredibly beautiful outfits.
I remember this black dress that Kate Beckinsale had that looked like it had been chopped with scissors.
It was really pretty, like a Starburst.
She found troves of new clothes from the period that hadnt been worn.
Make it as good as you think you’re able to make it.
Not exactly like the movie.
So he waited for it and published it two years later.
Hes gotten the gig to write the novelization, but hes also talking about the way it really was.
The full title of the book isThe Last Days of Disco With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards.
Theres a really fun screening room in the basement of Planet Hollywood on 57th Street, near Carnegie Hall.
We really loved having our Planet Hollywood screenings.
Can you tell me more about those Planet Hollywood screenings?
One time we did this radical cut that was really a mess.
The foreign investors, PolyGram, had flown in from England to seethatcut.
The only place I could go and not be seen as they came out was the mens room!
Thats so wild!Yeah.
I dont understand why people cant come out of a screening room and just lie to the filmmaker.
Oh, I loved it!
The composer Mark Suozzo did something really interesting.
I love that Chic song, I think its called Everybody Dance.
Which has that great dance scene with Chloe, Kate, and Robert Sean Leonard.
A lot of this dialogue is really endearingly serious, but sometimes nebulous.
Keeslar, playing the Josh character, had the two big monologue scenes.
He had theLady and the Trampscene, and he had the disco will never die scene.
In the case ofThe Last Days of Disco, we were rushed as far as the casting.
We had to start shooting this film before we had finished all the casting.
I really liked them and it was a question of what they wanted to play.
It meant that there was more work on set than the other films Id done.
They just work all the time.
So, I dont know!
Youve been living in Paris for the last few years.
Do you feel very nostalgic for New York?No.
What happened in 1982?I just got fed up with New York.
I discovered places that I liked.
I said,Okay, I can live in New York for a few more years.
