A movie about consequences

I think this movie is better than most people give it credit for. I thought that the character development was pretty good, and I really liked the themes of punishment and the possiblity for redemption.

I think the best example of this was Mimi, who was a musical success prior to disco but couldn't cut it as a disco artist because she was too old and couldn't speak English. At first, she lives a life of pretense, pretending to be dropped off in cars when she actually takes the bus, and living a life that she cannot afford. She finally is humbled into working as a waitress and accepts her new status when an opportunity to manage a new wave band drops in her lap and she finds true success on her own, without having to depend on any sleazy managers.

Of course, the disc jocky is punished most obviously. He loses his marriage, his family, his jobs, his contacts, his friends and ultimately his life because of drugs. He even commits a homicide, although it was not intentional. He is given a number of opportunities to redeem himself, because he continues to choose a life of chaos. He paid the ultimate price for it.

Tino's character is one of the scariest. He harbors closeted homosexual attractions but outwardly makes derogatory statements about gays. He marries and impregnates his girlfriend, but all the while he is engaging in anonymous trysts with men, thinking, foolishly, that he can keep those two worlds separate. Of course, his house of cards starts to fall when he is beaten by his friends. So there's punishment right there. And his mother killed herself, in part due to his lack of interest in the business. But the scariest part is that at the end of the movie, we see Tino cruising a gay bathhouse, and the implication is that he is still having anonymous sex with men and that he has escalated his homosexual behavior. Given the time frame of this film, the dawn of the AIDS epidemic in the US/Canada, the viewer is left with the ominous feeling that Tino will contract HIV and will likely die of AIDS. Perhaps even infect his wife and unborn child. I think there is some ambiguity as to whether Jonathan, who did become infected with the virus, was actually infected by Tino or someone else. Perhaps Tino was already infected and did not know that he was infecting others.

Of course, Gilles was punished for screwing over the black woman who sang Adriana's song. He lost much of his mobility after he was shot. Adriana's manager was fired. Gille's son Daniel stole money from his father in order to buy him out of the business, but the joke is on Daniel, because the days of disco were waning and he never would have gotten out of the business what he had put into it.

Finally, there's Adriana, a mysterious character. That girl seemed to be able to do whatever she wanted without consequence. Well, her best friend was killed. She got pregnant. I don't think her fame would have lasted once it ws revealed that she cannot sing.

Jonathan, of course, was punished for his excess when he became infected with HIV. Tina is a smaller character, but her punishment was being married to Tino, although she did not realize that this was a punishment.

This movie is off center but interesting none the less.