Where: Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West; Toronto & Cineplex Odeon Forum Cinemas, Montreal
When: Opens October 12, 2018
Cost: General Admission is $11.50 at Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema and can be purchased at www.hotdocscinema.ca
Details: Glamour, greed and thumping tunes put Studio 54 at the epicenter of 70s hedonism – a place that not only redefined the nightclub, but also came to symbolize an entire era. Its co-owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, two friends from Brooklyn, seemed to come out of nowhere to suddenly preside over a new kind of New York society. Now, 39 years after the velvet rope was first slung across the club’s hallowed threshold, director Matt Tyrnauer’s (Valentino the Last Emperor, Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, Citizen Jane) feature documentary Studio 54 tells the real story behind the greatest club of all time.
For 33 months, from 1977 to 1980, Studio 54 was the place to be seen in Manhattan. A haven of hedonism, tolerance, inclusion and acceptance as well as glitz and glamour. Attracting a steady stream of celebrities including regulars like Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Jones and more the club was very hard to gain entrance to and impossible to ignore, with news of who was there filling the gossip columns daily. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, two college friends from Brooklyn, succeeded in creating the ultimate escapist fantasy in the heart of the theater district. Rubell was the outgoing bon vivant who wanted to be everybody’s friend and was photographed with every celebrity du jour who entered the club and Schrager was the behind-the-scenes creative mastermind who shunned the limelight. Studio 54 was an instant success and a cash cow, but the drug-and-sex-fueled dream soon imploded in financial scandal and the club’s demise.
With unprecedented access to Schrager, who tells the whole unvarnished story for the first time, and a treasure-trove of rare footage, director Matt Tyrnauer’s Studio 54 constructs a vivid, glorious Disco Noir portrait of a phenomenon, and tells the story of two friends who stuck together through it all.
**Running time: 98 minutes**
More Info: www.hotdocscinema.ca