The Last Days of Disco

Manhattan, the early 1980s: young college graduates look for romance, build careers, explore art, and go to clubs as the disco era is slowly coming to its end. Whit Stillman’s elegant comedy is an ironic investigation into romantic and class relations in America at the end of the twentieth century.

New England college graduates Alice and Charlotte work in a New York publishing house and spend their nights dancing at an exclusive club, also frequented by Jimmy, who works in advertising, assistant district attorney Josh, and lawyer Tom. Jimmy’s friend Des is a manager in the club: he seduces women and then pretends to be gay to avoid further interaction. Alice is hoping to publish a bestseller and become assistant editor. Charlotte wants to work on television. Their life paths intersect, diverge, and come together again, as the young people grow older and wiser.

The Last Days of Disco is one of the main pictures by Whit Stillman, an acclaimed US director who brings out a new film once in about every five years. A modern-day comedy of manners, the film explores social and human relations with the elegance and wit that puts it on par with English literature (Jane Austen, George Meredith, and Oscar Wilde).

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