John Badham
La Febbre Del Sabato Sera (1977)

You can be a paint store clerk or a supermarket Cinderella trying to earn your daily bread*
You can argue with your mother because the only decent shirt isn't washed and ironed for Saturday night.
You can at 14 mimic Tony Manero when you stroll up and down on Saturday afternoon in your quaint town. (some call it "struscio", others "vasche")
You might also decide thirty years later to talk about a film that was banned for those under 16.

Tony Manero's life is simple, you work all week to party on Saturday night; youth hasn't changed in this respect in the last quarter of a century, and rightly so.
What's important is to have the shirt ready, ironed, hair slicked back, to appear more than to be, just trying to be what others want us to be.
Being a leader even when you have nothing to say**…
Or trying to convey the anguish you gather in a film wrongly labeled as a musical.

Dramatic!
Saturday Night Fever is a dramatic film interspersed with songs that contributed to stripping the gay patina from disco music; an entire generation hurled onto dance floors lit by strobe lights, a generation that went to the disco on Sunday afternoons to pick up, smoke, and drink a beer because heck, they wouldn't serve you spirits.
Dramatic because when a friend dies, you see all the challenges that life will hold for you.
It's then that Tony realizes it's time to grow up.

This film is the debut for John Travolta; for others, it will be a myth simply because disco kept us away from the years of lead.
I dedicate this review to all the friends lost for various reasons, among them, Mario, my desk mate until the 4th grade…

I recommend a detailed review of the film.

The very important soundtrack (source Wikipedia):

1. "Stayin' Alive", Bee Gees, duration 4'45"
2. "How Deep Is Your Love", Bee Gees, 4'05"
3. "Night Fever", Bee Gees, 3'33"
4. "More Than a Woman", Bee Gees, 3'17"
5. "If I Can't Have You", Yvonne Elliman, 3'00"
6. "Symphonie No 5" (original by Beethoven), Walter Murphy, 3'03"
7. "More Than a Woman", Tavares, 3'17"
8. "Manhattan Skyline", David Shire, 4'44"
9. "Calypso Breakdown", Ralph MacDonald, 7'50" (*)
10. "Night on Disco Mountain", David Shire, 5'12"
11. "Open Sesame", Kool & the Gang, 4'01"
12. "Jive Talkin'", Bee Gees, 3'43" (*)
13. "You Should Be Dancing", Bee Gees, 4'14"
14. "Boogie Shoes", KC and the Sunshine Band, 2'17"
15. "Salsation", David Shire, 3'50"
16. "K-Jee", MFSB, 4'13"
17. "Disco Inferno", Trammps, 10'51"

(*) not played in the film.

Cast (source Yahoo! cinema): John Travolta, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Paul Pape, Donna Pescow, Bruce Ornstein, Val Bisoglio, Julie Bovasso, Sam Coppola

Director: John Badham

Screenplay: Norman Wexler

* Quotation and homage to Alberto Camerini for Cinderella from the album Cinderella and the daily bread

** Quotation and homage to Decibel by Enrico Ruggeri for The Leader from the album (renamed) Punk