The Last Days of Disco is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Whit Stillman, and loosely based on his travels and experiences in various nightclubs in Manhattan, including Studio 54.

Starring Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale, the film follows a group of Ivy League and Hampshire College graduates falling in and out of love in the disco scene of New York City in the early 1980s.

[5] Along with Metropolitan and Barcelona, a print of The Last Days of Disco resides in the permanent film library of the Museum of Modern Art.

[6] In the "very early 1980s", Alice Kinnon and Charlotte Pingress, recent Hampshire College graduates, work as poorly paid readers for a New York City publisher.

After work one night, they enter an exclusive disco nightclub where Alice hopes to socialize with Jimmy Steinway, who uses the club to entertain his advertising clients.

At work, Alice pursues the publication of a book on Buddhism, written by the Dalai Lama's brother, that Charlotte had previously recommended rejecting and gains the editors' respect.

Josh Neff, a district attorney and friend of Jimmy's who frequently attends the club, asks Alice to lunch to pitch a book.

Josh announces he is going to Lutèce for lunch, treated by Alice, who is celebrating her promotion and her book that was published after she switched it from nonfiction to self-help.

Beckinsale, who was living in England at the time, mailed an audition tape to Stillman; he was immediately mesmerized and cast her in the role of Charlotte.

The leading role of Alice Kinnon took the longest to cast—it originally was going to go to an unnamed European actress, but according to Stillman, she resembled Beckinsale too much and also had a non-American accent that caused complications.

The relationships that bloom from the club are often expressed through long dialogue sequences, with Stillman's trademark dry humor and "sharp lines"[10] often blurted, especially by Charlotte and Josh.

[14] In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote: "Mr. Stillman's free ticket with the critics for the seemingly magical minimalism of Metropolitan has long since expired.

[15] Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A− grade; Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote that "Stillman's gang may be maturing precariously close to middle age, but it's lovely to know the important pleasures of conversation and intellectual discussion endure".

[16] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan praised the "exceptional acting ensemble" for being "successful at capturing the brittle rituals of this specific group of genteel, well-spoken young people on the cusp of adulthood who say things like 'What I was craving was a sentient individual' and 'It's far more complicated and nuanced than that'".

It was last shown at the museum's Pop Rally event in August 2009, with Stillman, Eigeman, and Subkoff present for a question-and-answer session after the screening.

Stillman wrote a novelization of the film published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux under the same title, with the added subtitle "...With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards".

After being unavailable for home media purchase for some time, the film was rereleased in 2009 for the Criterion Collection DVD series in a restored version Stillman approved.

The Criterion DVD's cover features an illustration by French artist Pierre Le-Tan,[23] depicting Beckinsale and Sevigny preparing themselves in the powder room before entering the disco; the painting is a replication of a scene in the film.