'Last Days of Disco' Headed Back To DVD (Finally!)

Kate Beckinsale in "The Last Days of Disco"As I pointed out before, I am a big Chris Eigeman fan. A major reason for that is the work of Whit Stillman. As a writer-director, Stillman can be called a great many things. Prolific, however, would not be one of those things.

During his nearly 20-year career, Stillman has created a total of three movies: "Metropolitan," "Barcelona" and "The Last Days of Disco." Stillman has a small, but devout, fan base -- with each of the three movies having their defenders as being his best.

"Metropolitan" (my favorite) came out in 1990. The well-received film introduced the world to a world rarely seen and, of course, to the debutante season. Of the movie, Roger Ebert said: "[Whitman] has made a film Scott Fitzgerald might have been comfortable with, a film about people covering their own insecurities with a facade of social ease. And he has written wonderful dialogue, words in which the characters discuss ideas and feelings instead of simply marching through plot points as most Hollywood characters do."

Four years later, "Barcelona" arrived and it was equally well-received. Ebert: "It appears at first to be about the casual lives of young men trying to launch their careers, but eventually (again, like an Allen movie) it reveals darker depths and meanings. What it also does is give voice to a generation. If there is one part of American society that American movies are usually not interested in, it is the wage-earning, 9-to-5, ambitious, competitive, white collar society of business and management. Watching this movie, I realized that although I'd seen a lot of amazing things on the screen before, I'd hardly ever seen young WASPs earning a living."

Another four-year wait revealed "The Last Days of Disco," a movie about, well, the title kind of gives it away. The movie also served to introduce a lot of people to Kate Beckinsale (for which I remain grateful). For synchronicity's sake, here's Ebert once more: "The movie is the latest sociological romance by Whit Stillman, who nails his characters with perfectly heard dialogue and laconic satire. His characters went to good schools, have good jobs and think they're smarter than they are."

Four more years came by and no picture from Stillman was on the horizon. Now, 11 years after "The Last Days of Disco," Stillman still hasn't produced another picture. There have been rumors here and there, but nothing has come of them.

To make matters worse, "The Last Days of Disco" has been a veritable no show on DVD. A brief release came out, but it was so hard to find that the title regularly fetched in excess of $100 on eBay. Now, at last, the movie is returning to DVD on Aug. 25 and -- even better -- it is getting the Criterion treatment.

Of course, those who currently own the out-of-print DVD are putting the title up for sale on eBay before it loses its full value. Woe be to those that buy it without knowing about the forthcoming Criterion collection version.

That "DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION" will include the following:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Whit Stillman
• Audio commentary featuring Stillman and actors Chloë Sevigny and Chris Eigeman
• Four deleted scenes with commentary by Stillman, Eigeman, and Sevigny
• Stills gallery with production notes by Stillman
• Stillman reading a chapter from The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards, his novelization of the movie
• Behind-the-scenes featurette
• Original theatrical trailer
• PLUS: An essay by novelist David Schickler

Of course, if you are one of those people who no longer believe in DVDs and like to watch your movies online, well, there's good news for you, too. The movie is showing for free on Hulu (and since the movie is intended for mature audiences, a Hulu account is needed -- it's a short, painless process).

In the meantime, I'll be busy waiting for Stillman's next movie. Should be any decade now ...