New York Stories (1989)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Directors:

Woody Allen
Francis Ford Coppola

Writers (WGA):

Richard Price (written by) (segment)
Woody Allen (written by) (segment)

Release Date:

10 March 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

One City. Three Stories Tall.

Plot:

A middle-aged artist obsessed with his pretty young assistant, a precocious 12 year old living in a hotel, and a neurotic lawyer with a possessive mother make up three stories.

Plot Keywords:

Artist | Painter | Henpecked Son | Big City | Musician

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Woody Allen	...	Sheldon
Marvin Chatinover	...	Psychiatrist
Mae Questel	...	Mother
Mia Farrow	...	Lisa
Molly Regan	...	Sheldon's Secretary
Ira Wheeler	...	Mr. Bates
Joan Bud	...	Board Member
Jessie Keosian	...	Aunt Ceil
Michael Rizzo	...	Waiter
George Schindler	...	Shandu, The Magician
Bridgit Ryan	...	Rita
Larry David	...	Theater Manager
Paul Herman	...	Detective Flynn / Clifford, The Doorman / Cop
Herschel Rosen	...	Store Clerk
Lola André	...	Citizen

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Brazil:14 | USA:PG (Certificate No. 29611) | Finland:S | France:U | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | West Germany:12 | Australia:PG | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Touchstone Pictures

Trivia:

At 33 minutes, Francis Ford Coppola's segment is the shortest. Woody Allen's clocks in at 40 minutes, while Martin Scorsese's runs to 45 minutes.

Quotes:

Lionel Dobie: I have to pick up my sister at the airport. I don't know why she can't take a cab like everybody else.

Movie Connections:

References "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams" (1977)

Soundtrack:

June In January

Could've been better, but still

In New York Stories, three segments are shown back to back, and they are all engaging in their own ways however it's only 2/3 successful as a total motion picture. Martin Scorsese's Life Lessons is a good example of what caliber of work Scorsese had when he made those three student films in the 1960's. It is a film that has a lot of depth, but it is quite worth it for fans of the actors and those who could get interested in Richard Price's story.

Coppola, director of THE GODFATHER and APOCALYPSE NOW makes Life Without Zoe here, a film that is 180 degrees out of whack from those two movies in that it tells the story of a little rich girl whose best friend is a doorman and revolves around a rich boy's birthday party. In a way, it almost could appeal to kids, but it's the wrong place to put in between a story of artists by Scorsese and a comedy of mother and son troubles by Allen.

Which brings me to the last short film, Oedipus Wrecks, where Woody plays a character whose mother suddenly out of the blue disappears. This is a good showing of what Woody can do in comedy without having to have a picture length presentation (not that he makes many bad films by the way).

So, New York Stories is worth checking out for Life Lessons and Oedipus Wrecks, and there could be an audience somewhere for Life Without Zoe, although the biggest flaw of the movie comes that neither one can connect at all outside of the fact that they all take place in New York and are made by New York directors- in short- fascinating and imperfect in some ways. B+