Pink Palace presents the Directors Cut of 54, a film that was butchered by the studios after test audiences ran screaming from all the homo content, Miramax ordered 45 gay/bi minutes cut and 25 minutes of new hetero footage be added, the film flopped.

In 2015 director Mark Christopher reassembled the cut footage and delivered this darker, queer centric look at the lives of the staff who worked at 54, and the hot bi triangle between the three leads.

The story centres on Shane, a working class Jersey boy who dreams about making it to Studio 54 meeting Julie Black (Neve Campbell), a starlet he has a crush on. His luck turns one night after 54’s kooky owner Steve Rubell (Mike Myers) is smitten with Shane’s abs and lets him in the club. Shane eventually gets a job as a busboy and lives the dream of Studio 54, snorting, swallowing, and screwing anything he can get his hands on. This new cut then centres on Shanes relationship with Julie to a love triangle between his best friends, the married Studio 54 employees Anita (Salma Hayek) and Greg (Breckin Meyer).

“During those years of rebounding — and unbeknownst to Christopher — a VHS bootleg of the two-hour-long 54 rough cut began to circulate among film geeks, and, despite being distorted by its poor technical quality, it became the focus of a word-of-mouth campaign: This movie was really good. Petitions to Miramax to release 54 as Christopher intended it began to appear online, and in 2008, the New York LGBT film festival Outfest had a “secret screening” of the director’s cut. “ They sold out immediately“ says Christopher of the Outfest airing. “There’s been an appetite for this cut for a long, long time.”

“The director’s cut captures the freedom of the time,” says Phillippe, “but also the impending sobriety that would come with AIDS. It resonates.” Driven by character and atmosphere rather than soapy plot, Christopher’s film is permeated by a melancholy that adds depth to the ecstatic party scenes. Mike Myers nails the pathos and charm behind Rubell’s ‘luded-out lechery, while Phillippe’s measured performance, finally given space to breathe, is vulnerable, amoral, and sexy. There are no easy heroes or villains in this 54, only people looking for something they’ll likely never find.” Vulture

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Pink Palace is a super low fi highly relaxed event that takes place in the basement bar, its a safe queer space so come along and catch some queer film and pop culture history, each week the film is introduced by curator Andrew Woodyatt, and feel free to stay and chat afterwards, participation is encouraged!