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‘We’ve revolutionised going out‘, pronounces club owner Steve Rubell. At the legendary Studio
54, the mother of all nightclubs since the invention of disco, clubbing was much more than just
socialising to music. In 1998, director Mark Christopher created a cinematic monument to this
ostentatious mixture of Art Deco and plush, frivolous 1970s hedonism and drug-induced 24-hour
party people. At the producers’ behest his film about this up-market disco in New York was changed
considerably prior to its theatrical release and an extra 25 minutes of new material was added –
including an ending that differed from the one in the original screenplay. Now, seventeen years after
the premiere of the producers’ version, the Panorama is presenting for the first time the painstakingly
reconstructed original version telling the story of young, curly-haired blond Jersey boy Shane O’Shea
who loses himself in the bewitchingly glamorous world of sex, drugs and disco and who only just
manages to jump ship before the club is closed down by the police. This reintegrated version is
weightier, darker, more drug-addled and above all queerer than the version that received the nod at
the time.
Gallery
Credits
- Original title
- 54: The Director's Cut