Roseland

Quite surprisingly bad. Merchant Ivory didn't really hit its/their stride until the mid-80s, but I couldn't have imagined how inadequate their craft was in earlier days. This movie is sort of an easy get, too; it's three stories that take place in the famed Roseland Ballroom in New York, a lovely and interesting place with a ton of possibility. But the stories are sentimental to the point of goopiness, melodramatically sad, and/or comically easy to predict. So difficult to invest in as narrative. 

It's awkwardly made at every turn - poorly directed, acted with huge indifference, written with no respect for its audience. Some of the scenes are so awful, so painfully bad, that I could hardly believe these were the same folks who made The Remains of the Day. Definitely a practice movie. 

Of note for this project is the Hustle dance contest, reflecting disco and all that came with it. There's no 50s nostalgia, though, and few of the other repeated threads of the year show up. I think that's kind of appropriate for Merchant Ivory, since so few of their movies were contemporary. But it's an early, poor attempt from a creative (team) who would make significant, high-quality, and influential work, and that happened an awful lot in '77.