The influences behind The Last Days of Disco

1998

The Last Days of Disco

Film by Whit Stillman

American independent cinema. United States. In English.

Whit Stillman's 1998 comedy of manners follows two young Manhattan publishing assistants, Alice and Charlotte, and the men around them at an exclusive disco in the early 1980s as the scene collapses. It completes the loose trilogy begun with Metropolitan and Barcelona and joins Austen-style social comedy to an elegy for a vanished nightlife.

Where it came from

Where to watch

Rent Amazon $3.99, Apple TV $3.99, Fandango at Home $3.99
Buy Amazon $14.99, Apple TV $14.99, Fandango at Home $14.99

In the US, as of October 18. Prices and services change.

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1977

Saturday Night Fever

Film by John Badham

New Hollywood. United States. In English.

Drama about a Brooklyn paint-store clerk who lives for weekend nights at a local disco.

What it handed down

To The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Saturday Night Fever fixed the popular image of disco on screen, a working-class Brooklyn version Stillman's film answers with the Manhattan elite club of yuppies and admen. Last Days takes up the earlier film's idea of the dance floor as the center of young lives, then stages that world's end.

Where it came from

Where to watch

Stream MGM Plus Roku Premium Channel
Free Pluto TV, YouTube, Hoopla
Rent Amazon $3.99, Fandango at Home $3.99, Apple TV $5.99
Buy Amazon $4.99, Apple TV $14.99, Fandango at Home $14.99

In the US, as of October 18. Prices and services change.

Find “Saturday Night Fever” on Amazon

1961

West Side Story

Film by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins

Late Classic Hollywood. United States. In English.

Film of the Broadway musical that resets Romeo and Juliet among rival street gangs on Manhattan's West Side.

What it handed down

To Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Commentators have long noted parallels: a hero named Tony, dance as the expression of urban youth, ethnic street rivalry, and a climax tied to a bridge over New York water. The debt is generally read as an echo of the earlier musical rather than a documented model.

Where it came from

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare c. 1595 (printed 1597)

Where to watch

Stream Hoopla
Free Tubi, Pluto TV, YouTube, Fandango at Home Free
Rent Amazon $3.99, Apple TV $3.99, Fandango at Home $3.99, Plex $3.99
Buy Amazon $14.99, Fandango at Home $5.99, Apple TV $14.99

In the US, as of October 18. Prices and services change.

Find “West Side Story” on Amazon

c. 1595 (printed 1597)

Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare

Elizabethan. England. Written in English.

Tragedy of two young lovers from feuding Veronese families.

What it handed down

To West Side Story (1961)

Direct source, well documented.

Jerome Robbins conceived the musical as a modern Romeo and Juliet, and the film follows Shakespeare's plot closely: feuding gangs for feuding houses, the balcony scene on a fire escape, and a fatal message gone wrong.

Where it came from

Find “Romeo and Juliet” on Amazon

The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and JulietArthur Brooke

1562

The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet

Arthur Brooke

Elizabethan. England. Written in English.

Long narrative poem in poulter's measure telling the Romeo and Juliet story.

What it handed down

To Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595 (printed 1597))

Direct source, well documented.

Brooke's poem was Shakespeare's main source, supplying the plot, the characters of the Nurse and Friar Laurence, and many details. Shakespeare compressed Brooke's months of action into a few days.

Where it came from

Novelle, Matteo Bandello 1554

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NovelleMatteo Bandello

1554

Novelle

Matteo Bandello

Italian Renaissance. Italy. Written in Italian.

Collection of prose novellas including the tale of Romeo and Giulietta.

What it handed down

To The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562)

Direct source, well documented.

Brooke worked from Pierre Boaistuau's French version of Bandello's novella of Romeo and Giulietta. He kept the Italian plot while adding moralizing commentary.

Where it came from

The line stops here: bandello reworked Luigi da Porto's earlier novella; that line is not followed here.

Find “Novelle” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To West Side Story (1961)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595 (printed 1597))

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet (1562)

Where it came from

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