Section 2 Stay in touch: Looking for monocle.com a smart podcast to give you monocle.com/radio the low-down on all cultural Edition 4 happenings worldwide? Tune in 07/06—13/06 to the freshly relaunched weekly Culture Show on Monocle 24. but that had no standing at Studio whatsoever. If you’re talking about something from 40 years ago that’s still compelling today then there’s got to be some underlying social reason. Section Section Section M: What about the door policy, the line – it was infamous. Was that something that you and Steve planned or did it just happen and you decided it worked for you? IS: It was definitely part of the idea. To me we were trying to do in the public domain what everyone else does in their private domain: to get an alchemy and an energy; we were trying to curate the crowd and we wanted it to Adam Schull be a mixture that had nothing to do with wealth or social Iamge: standing, it had to do with creating this combustible energy every night. When you are doing a door policy I wasn’t in New York then but I remember the tail-end that doesn’t have a rational objective criteria other than of that before it was cleaned up; it was very distinctive. instinct, then mistakes get made and people get infuri- TELEVISION / AUSTRIA Here, a rundown of the ladies: It’s a lost analogue world too – if you notice in the film, ated by it but we didn’t understand that because it was the telephones on Ian’s desk are rotary dial and that was really quite honest. You know, a nightclub doesn’t have Violent femmes 1. the feeling I wanted to get across with the archive I used. any discernible product that’s different from every other Record numbers of Nicoletta ‘Nico’ Huber I was also astonished by how covered Studio 54 was on nightclub other than the experience that you create there the TV; there was almost constant coverage on the local and part of that is the people. It was instinct and Steve was Austrians are tuning in to Blonde, curvy, single, fast-talking and the Section Section Section only Weib who works outside the home, news right up to Walter Cronkite himself. It showed what a master at it and nobody ever got mad. Most of the time. a television show to enjoy a Nico starts the series by selling counterfeit a major story this was. particularly guilty pleasure. designer clothing in the posh suburban M: What did Studio 54 do for the future of New York? boutique she owns; she gets caught (also M: New York was practically bankrupt in the late MT: The fact that Warhol was there almost every night writer Kimberly Bradley in an affair with a friend’s husband) and 1970s. Was the club a reaction against that? tells you a lot about Studio 54. Warhol put Steve on the it only gets more complex from there. IS: Yes. You know what? Every great city has its moment cover of Interview; he had a sense that Studio was import- German television series such Austrian actress Nina Proll works her – Rome had the 1950s, London had the 1960s and in the ant. I think Warhol and Studio are culturally and themat- as Berlin Babylon have generated oddball appeal here to great effect. Gem 1970s it was New York’s time. Everyone who didn’t have ically tied; a harbinger of celebrity culture and all these plenty of hype of late. But in televi- quote: “Sometimes I get so nauseous with roots in the rest of the world rolled in and everyone who things that were coming up in society, the meritocracy. I sion, as with so many other things, myself that I have to vomit.” didn’t have roots on the West Coast rolled in, so New think Warhol loved the randomness of the door; I think Germany’s southern neighbour is York was the epicentre. This gritty city was so much more he loved that Steve was such an unlikely social arbiter often overlooked. One Austria-made 2. bohemian than it is today, everybody wasn’t a hedge-fund and had found this extraordinary role for himself. Ian, series, however, has broken viewing Maria Schneider manager, there was an artistic presence and nobody had you say in the film that Studio was a social experiment records in the country and is ripe for anything to lose – and Studio was a vehicle for that; it and no one is saying that about anything else from 40, 30 binge-watching (and export). At first Maria seems prudish and naive. But things change as she finds out secrets represented an absolute freedom to people, they felt pro- or even 20 years ago. Vorstadtweiber (loose transla- about her neglectful husband (Georg tected and that’s a human ideal. I think even though what tion: “Broads from the Suburbs”) doesn’t fly to Dubai every week after was done at Studio had never been done or seen before IS: You see, Matt; when you say that it makes me smile. is Austria’s answer to Desperate all). Maria is easily the most surprising and we hit the level of sophistication that we’d aimed for Housewives, launching with a bang character and, as the episodes unfold, her there was also an element of being the right guys, willing M: Ian, is the film that rare thing: a fitting tribute to in 2015 and just finishing its third passive aggression turns active: let’s just to take the chance, to break the rules and being in the your best friend? season on OrF, the Austrian state say Georg ends up in a wheelchair and right place at the right time. IS: Yes, I think it is; there were things in there that Steve broadcaster. The so-awful-it’s-great it’s not an accident. Actress Gerti Drassl might have felt very exposed about and might not have series’s first season saw 30 per cent won a German Acting Prize for her role as Maria in 2017. M: What about Studio 54 in the context of the city? liked but I think the film was very, very well done and I audience share, the best for any show You are also telling the story of a specific period in enjoyed my connection with it and I’m sure Steve would in Austria in 20 years (ratings since New York’s history, right? feel the same way. then are down a bit but more than 3. MT: Absolutely but I hadn’t really thought about it that 800,000 Austrians still watch the Waltraud ‘Walli’ Steinberg way until I started to unpack the story. I certainly knew Studio 54 will be released on 15 June show each week; Austria has around Walli is the toughest talking character with FILM / USA said about Studio 54 and there’s even been a feature film that 54th Street around 8th Avenue was a sleazy part of eight million people). The show is a a big dose of entitlement: she says she about it. I think when it comes to documentary, a gift is the city then but I didn’t know how bad a neighbourhood hit even in Germany, which, for an has a noble title but delivers the juiciest, a story that people think they know but they don’t really it was, how unlikely it would be to open a major nightclub Austrian production, is practically most streetwise lines. After her estranged know and this falls into that category. What defined the on that particular block. For me, the time travel back to unheard of. husband Josef sends her beloved horse project for me was not making a film out of newspaper a New York where a part of Midtown was dangerous and Written by Uli Brée, Vorstadt- away to be made into meat, she plots Disco inferno clips or reminiscences of people with bold-face names Clockwise from a risky place to make a big investment and stake all your weiber is a mix of soap opera, comedy revenge – all the while having an affair back in the 1970s. I wanted to get it from Ian because Ian top left: Schrager dreams was interesting. A major theatre from the early and drama – but where it shines with Maria’s teenage son. But it’s not Walli We’ve all heard of Studio 54 – but have we heard the truth? A documentary, created it with Steve and it was his perspective that I was leads Bianca 20th century was just sitting empty, all this is part of a is in its satire of Viennese culture. who kills Josef. Actress Maria Köstlinger is interested in. It’s really him that’s telling you the story Jagger’s birthday fascinating story about the evolution of New York and its The complex social hierarchies of perfect in the role. produced in collaboration with co-founder Ian Schrager, promises to set the without the help of Diana Ross or Liza Minnelli chiming horse through the urban decline in the 1970s but there was a cultural rise the wealthy Viennese and Austria’s “I think 4. record straight. We spoke to him and the film’s director about the club’s legacy. in. I cared much less about what their experience was, I club; Liza Minnelli, happening at the same time. Warhol real-life political intrigues are here cared what Ian and Steve’s experience was.