Tinsel & Tine's #MiniMovieReview STUDIO 54 (director: Matt Tyrnauer) A look back on the phenomenon that was a disco, a night club, a theater performance, a constant party, Sodom and Gomorrah, celebrity filled ... basically an experience that captured the zeitgeist of the moment, and sadly, a moment is all it really had. The club was famously created by two men, Steve Rubell the face of the business, the schmoozer, loved being photographed with every celebrity of the day (whose death sadly in 1989 was due to complications resulting from AIDS) and Ian Schrager, the introverted, creative one with the vision to make the idea more than just a place to dance. The doc is told from Schrager's point of view, who, for the first time since Studio 54 closed down, was willing to tell its story. These two were cunning showmen who spent $400,000 to build the club in six weeks, from an abandoned space on W. 54th St., which had been part of CBS television, but was originally built as an Opera House in 1927. The first mistake they made however, was getting so swept up in opening and becoming a success that they never applied for a liqueur license. The second, skimming so much money off the nightly take (and not being quiet about it) that it was only a matter of time before the IRS came down on them. There was a group of 5 or 6 of us after the screening, talking in the Film Festival Lounge, and most felt Rubell & Schrager got what they deserved. That there was too much excess, they did things illegally and they made people feel horrible about themselves, waiting hours and hours outside the velvet ropes, most with no hopes of ever getting inside. But I didn't see it that way at all. I think it was fantastic that the LGBTQ community got to be in their element, experiencing more than total acceptance, they set the tone and everyone else entered their world. And I love to see people's dreams exceed their expectations! Okay, they got a little sloppy, but to send these guys to jail and rob an era of all that magic, that was the true crime. #studio54 #marvelousmoviemaven #documentary #PFF27 @studio54forever #studio54forever https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq_ICuDD-g1/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=gc4a50ynd3tm
