DVD Review: New York Stories (1989)

At the end of the 1980s, an interesting experiment was undertaken by a combo of several producers. Three featurettes are combined in an anthology to either confront or celebrate life in New York. Three of the top American directors -- Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen -- each contribute 40 minute films. It has just been released on blu ray by Kino Lorber.

The first film in the trilogy is Scorsese's "Life Lessons," featuring Nick Nolte and Rosanna Arquette offering some of the best work of either actor's career. Their relationship is a complex one -- artist and assistant, creator and muse, lovers and exes. Nolte is the seasoned artist dealing with a variety of challenges as he completes his latest work. With music blaring, he pushes past his creative block and pounds out a painting that is as layered with complexities in the same manner as his life. Arquette is the assistant and muse who had been his lover and is venturing beyond the situation that Nolte needs to keep for his own emotional sanity. Loosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's short novel "The Gambler," the artwork is done by Chuck Connelly, although it is not about his life. Scorsese's use of music, large shots filled with negative space, and the performances he gets out of his actors, all add up to one of his strongest films in spite of its limited running time. The supporting performance by Steve Buscemi as a wily, womanizing performance artist is another factor that assures this as the best episode in the film.

Coppola's "Life Without Zoe" is the weakest of the three episodes; a meandering story featuring a very young Heather McComb as a privileged little girl whose life we follow. There is nothing funny or interesting about anything she does. Sofia Coppola co-wrote this segment with her father. Interesting to spot a very young Kirsten Dunst, as well as Adrian Brody in a small part.

But the rich girl exploits in a ritzy hotel is not the least bit engaging. Steven Spielberg was originally set to direct one of the three episodes, but when he dropped out, the producers hired Coppola. This is one of his weakest films.

Woody Allen's "Oedipus Wrecks" at least partially makes up for the weaker Coppola segment. Naturally playing a typical New York neurotic, Allen is troubled by his negative, critical mother (the sort of Jewish mother stereotype that fits perfectly in an Allen comedy). When he brings waspish Mia Farrow to meet her, it is something of a nightmare as his mother says things like "he used to wet the bed." Taking mom to a magic show, she is used in a trick where she disappears. That's a dream come true for Woody until she starts showing up in the sky and judging him everywhere. It's quick, breezy, and funny with classic voiceover artist Mae Questel (Betty Boop, Olive Oyl) stealing the film as the mother.

While it is two thirds of a good movie (the Coppola is stuck in the middle as a veritable intermission), the Kino blu ray is most highly recommended. It features at least two top-level directors working uncharacteristically-yet-successfully in the shorter film format. It shows another layer of both Scorsese's and Allen's respective vision as filmmakers and they each rise to the occasion splendidly.

The blu ray can be ordered at this link: New York Stories