Rooms on Film: Saturday Night Fever

let's dance the last dance: john travolta and karen lynn gorney

It seems I'm still in an Empire State of Mind. Specifically, New York in the '70s. This movie has several locations: Tony's family home, the dance studio, stores, the disco hall... And it briefly breezes through the new Manhattan digs of Stephanie, a young woman who is very serious about her ambitions. 

Typically, it's one of those places that gives the impression that elevators had not yet been invented. Or at least, no one had thought to install them anywhere in the five boroughs...

stephanie: fiercely determined to get the hell outta brooklyn

From humble beginnings, two Brooklynites meet - fatefully - through their mutual passion for disco dancing. And they discover that he is settling while she is striving for upward mobility. First stop, a Manhattan address.

umm, you have to admit: her family home has great curb appeal

that car, his shoes, his hairdo... what's not to love about this?

Looking at her family's Brooklyn home and the brownstone stoop in Manhattan... The first thing I missed upon moving here was grass. As someone who also fell to the siren song of New York, I do understand the appeal. But seeing the manicured hedge, lawn and flower bushes versus all this concrete is a stark reminder. It is possible to grow to abhor concrete.

The apartment has three levels. They pass through so quickly I doubt anyone has managed to screencap it. The front door is to the left and this little room is, I believe, the kitchenette. You go up the stairs to the livingroom area with the bathroom off it (again, I think) and then up another staircase to the loft/ bedroom. Narrow, claustrophobic, only relieved by the high ceiling, and so totally New York.

remember when it was common for doors to be this ugly wood?

these open shelves let the light through from the windows

Give it up: this living room is pretty cute. It's simple, stylish and sophisticated. Basic small space tenets are employed - I think they were de rigeur in the '70s. You've got simple window coverings, pops of color, leggy chairs with thin profiles, a see-through coffee table. That inky blue velvet sofa is a pretty lush piece. (The little girl in me is loving the stereo speakers in the corners.)

tastefully casual urban living: always ready for company

...why did they bypass the seating to sit on the window sill?

view from the staircase: a very narrow apartment indeed

And upstairs we have the sleep loft, which is just big enough to be a bedroom. She might have had a typewriter or a desk too. Who knows? There is a little bistro table on the living level right at the top of the first set of steps there. He probably only used it for an entry table. Most New Yorkers in small pads don't eat at dining tables. Heck, I have an EIK (eat-in kitchen) which I wouldn't consider eating in.

her old boss is a lech but he gave her this great place

Apparently people used to spend their whole lives staring across the river pining for Manhattan. As Stephanie showed us, if the dream is big enough, ain't no river wide enough to keep it from you.

not even the stunning skyline can compete with being in the city