SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER - Monday 13th September from 7pm -The Old Ivy House,

Underrated? Darker than you remember? Way deeper and more like social commentary than a celebration of flammable flared polyester nonsense?

NO POLYESTER FLARES PERMITTED AT REBEL REEL CINE CLUB… think more Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Raging Bull and Chinatown …

‘Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night’ … or Saturday Night Fever to give it it’s film title …

Saturday Night Fever wasn’t based on the discos of Brooklyn and Manhattan – Nik Cohen may have fibbed about that … but his short story, which went on to be adapted by Serpico screenwriter Norman Wexler, is a great dark social commentary with insanely great Cossack moves … (in fairness to Nik Cohen he did write his novel I Am Still the Greatest
says Johnny Angelo which David Bowie ripped off for Ziggy Stardust so a little bit of forgiveness for gilding the rayon lily may be due…)

SNF is so dark … death, rape, social mobility or lack of it … broken dreams and heartbreak (and not in a rom-com way …)…
It also has great clothes albeit the man-made fibre-count is as high as the Brooklyn Bridge … sorry Bobby …

The opening credits (The Warriors/ The Joker/ The French Connection… so many NYC films have similar references…)

The Soundtrack too … the Bee Gees stuff is actually brilliant … AND there’s David Shire’s version of Night On Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky’s ode to the witches dance of spirits on Bald Mountain BUT DISCO …)…

Yes, it revived Disco (oops …) and it was actually born out Cohen’s remembrance of a Mod in Shepherd’s Bush and a gang member from Derry …

Whatever … the opening sequence is just brilliant and John Travolta was never better … “Would ya just watch the hair. Ya know, I work on my hair a long time and you hit it. He hits my hair!”.

7pm: DOORS - DJ Vadim Kosmos

7.30pm: Introduction with Vadim Kosmos and Chris McGill (Rebel Reel Cine Club)

9.35pm DJ until Midnight

Saturday Night Fever
Dir. John Badham 1977
1hr 59mins.