Reply With QuoteOh my, lol. Cool let's hope I get to see it too :)
Underground Hit [Level 5]
I remember when the movie 54 came out and I was 16 and just getting into disco. I loved the soundtracks, had loved Ryan Phillipe since he played a gay teen a few years earlier on the soap One Life to Live, and knew that the director Mark Christopher was famous for making some award winning gay themed short films. I went with a friend and I remember watching it and afterwards just being like "what"? The recreation of Studio 54 was great, some of the music was great, but the story felt like it had huge holes in it.
Then I found out that Miramax got scared of the homoerotic elements of the film and took it away from Christopher (why hire a director famous for his gay films and then get scared?) and decided the main market would be teenaged girls, so recut the film. I hoped the director's cut would make a DVD release but nothing happened. Anyway apparantly there's hope now--it's doing the gay film circuit and may end up on DVD soon.
I still have no illusions that the film in any form will ever be great--so don't argue with me that it's a bad film lol, but after all these years I am curious to see the original story (a full 40-45 minutes were cut)--and thought ther emight be some interest on here.
"Popnography reports that a director's cut of Mark Christopher's 54 was "secretly" screened at L.A.'s Outfest on Friday and it's apparently revelatory:
"In 45 minutes of new (original, that is) footage assembled by Christopher -- using largely uncorrected, rough audio and video that was expertly edited -- we see Shane sleep with dozens of men and women, for career advancement or simply pleasure. Phillippe is in nearly every scene, and his performance is strong, sympathetic and seductive. It's also frequently nude, or barely dressed, and the camera clings to what one character calls his "body by David and face by Botticelli." And far from being merely a "love triangle," the slow, simmering sexual attraction among Phillippe, Meyer and Hayek -- especially an amazingly intense, evocative kiss between the two men towards the end of the film -- is equally as important as the queer family they make for themselves. Even Mike Myers -- whose role as 54 owner Steve Rubell was widely touted as his brave bid to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor -- benefits from the re-cut. The '98 version made him a caricature, a wise-cracking, ass-grabbing dirty old gay whose eyes were always bigger than his mouth. He's more creepy in this take, but also more empathetic, more tragically addicted to the beauty of youth no matter the cost.
The positive reaction has already sparked talk of a DVD release."
There's also an old website/fansite that detials some of the cut scenes and had a petition to get it released at 54: Director's Cut (early trailers of the film had some of the cut scenes, like Ryan's character getting his cock caught in a bottle....)
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Oh my, lol. Cool let's hope I get to see it too :)
Gold Record [Level 7]
I was always curious to see the film but never did until i bought the DVD ; I quite enjoyed it...It's not a GREAT movie but as someone who enjoys disco and Mr. Phillippe ; it's a win/win situation.Originally Written by EricHG23
I would love to see the newly extended cut.
Thanks E for the rumblings !!!
KRIS
Gold Record [Level 7]
saw the movie in the theater and was first in line to buy the DVD. Wasn't the best movie in the world.... but would fork out the money for the director's cut.
Underground Hit [Level 5]
Yeah I think a DVD release *will* happen--the original DVD was a very early fairly bare bones DVD (it really shoulda had some disco or 54 documentaries--even that tired E True Hollywood Story episode added) and Ryan P is if anything a bigger star now. The original film reallyw as massacred
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
I like that movie and would buy a rereleased blu-ray
Find them and destroy them!
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Sounds really interesting, maybe some small company will make a deal with the moguls and get the cut realesed on dvd. - By the way, went to a press screening some years ago and saw Mr Philippe in the flesh. I thought of Cristina who sang a great version of that old tune Is That All There Is, meaning he was a really, really short person, Ryan, petite in the extreme and close to a midget, or so it seemed back then :icon_question:
Underground Hit [Level 5]
He's 175cm tall, that is far from being a small person or midget, and you're not being very nice or politically correct, I wonder how tall you are Lurch, ever got made fun of for something you can't change about yourself?
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
Size isn't important.:icon_confused:
...ya gotta beat the street......
Underground Hit [Level 5]
I never thought the original film was quite as bad as some people have mentioned here. I thought Myers was pretty good. Wonder where they found the disco grandma?
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Enlightened by free information access, we sometimes get blinded and act in an insensitive manner, making fun of such respected artists and guardians of the free world such as Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, George W Bush or Ryan Philippe. I apologize, especially as I now know that Mr Philippe is offically 175 cm tall, only 3 cm shorter than me. My posse & me, we must have been drunk or something. I wonder how tall Mr Bush is? :icon_surprised:
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