New York, I Love You (2008)

Eleven love stories set in one of the most loved and hated cities of the world, New York City.

Directors:

Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal

Writers:

Hu Hong (segment), Yao Meng (segment) (as Meng Yao)

Stars:

Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hayden Christensen	...	Ben (segment "Jiang Wen")
Andy Garcia	...	Garry (segment "Jiang Wen")
Rachel Bilson	...	Molly (segment "Jiang Wen")
Natalie Portman	...	Rifka (segment "Mira Nair")
Irrfan Khan	...	Mansukhbhai (segment "Mira Nair")
Orlando Bloom	...	David (segment "Shunji Iwai")
Christina Ricci	...	Camille (segment "Shunji Iwai")
Maggie Q	...	Call Girl (segment "Yvan Attal")
Ethan Hawke	...	Writer (segment "Yvan Attal")
Chris Cooper	...	Alex (segment "Yvan Attal")
Robin Wright	...	Anna (segment "Yvan Attal") (as Robin Wright Penn)
Anton Yelchin	...	Boy (segment "Brett Ratner")
James Caan	...	Mr. Riccoli (segment "Brett Ratner")
Olivia Thirlby	...	Actress (segment "Brett Ratner")
Blake Lively	...	Ex-Girlfriend (segment "Brett Ratner")

Storyline

Eleven vignettes, all homages to New York City life, are presented. I. Ben (Hayden Christensen), a pickpocket, is attracted to Molly (Rachel Bilson) at first sight, and gets into an interesting "pissing match" with Molly's married lover, New York University professor Garry (Andy Garcia). II. Mansuhkhbai (Irrfan Khan), an orthodox Jain diamond wholesaler, and Rifka (Natalie Portman), an orthodox Jewish diamond retailer who is getting married tomorrow, learn that they have more in common than just diamonds. III. David (Orlando Bloom), a musician and music editor for a video being directed by Abarra, is having problems meeting Abarra's demands while he slowly falls for Abarra's assistant, Camille (Christina Ricci), who he's never met, but has only talked to on the telephone solely about work. IV. A young man believes he's made a powerful connection to a stranger, a young woman, in the simple act of lighting her cigarette, and proceeds to convince her of the same and as such that there is...

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Plot Keywords:

central park | chrysler building | empire state building | grand central station | lincoln center for the performing arts | 

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Taglines:

every moment another story begins

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

M/12

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Cantonese Gujarati Yiddish

Release Date:

5 November 2009 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

New York, I Love You

Filming Locations:

Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$14,700,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$380,605, 18 October 2009

Gross USA:

$1,588,015

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$14,603,177

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vivendi Entertainment, Ever So Close, Visitor Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In March 2008, Abraham Karpen, a twenty-five-year-old member of the insular Williamsburg, New York, Hasidic, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, dropped out of filming, on the orders of his community's rabbis. Karpen had been playing the role of the husband of Natalie Portman's character. Their segment had most probably already been shot, since Portman's site contains a photo gallery from two days of shooting (March 12 and 13, 2008) and the filming was supposed to take two days. Karpen's face is now closed with a picture of Keira Knightley's face in the photo gallery. However, Karpen is in this movie, and is credited for the role as Abe Karpen.

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Goofs

When the painter was drawing the Chinese woman using soy sauce, he dripped a few drops on her face, but in the next scene, in his studio, the soy sauce drips are gone.

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Quotes

Anna: Have you ever made love to a perfect stranger?
Alex: Now you're teasing me.
Anna: I believe I am.
Alex: Well, I mean... No, not exactly a perfect stranger, if you mean someone I wouldn't know at all.
Anna: It's sad.
Alex: It's sad? Why?
Anna: Because there's almost nothing more exciting than fucking somebody you don't know. Right? You don't know their name, barely saw their face.
Alex: Don't... Don't tell me your name.

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Alternate Versions

When the title was shown at Toronto Film Festival it included two additional segments These Vagabond Shoes and Apocrypha, these were removed for the wide release but are included in the DVD extras.

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Connections

Followed by Berlin, I Love You (2019)

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Soundtracks

Up from South
(2006)
Written by Thomas Brenneck, Daniel Foder
Performed by The Budos Band
Published by Defend Songs, Inc
Administered by Kobalt Music Publishing America Inc (BMI) 100%
Courtesy of Daptone Records

User Reviews

A Moody, All-Star Anthology Serves as a Valentine to a Fictionalized New York

A dozen stories. Ten filmmakers. 103 minutes. If you do the math, you will draw the same conclusion I did - that there isn't much time for a viewer to make an emotional connection with every episode presented in this all-star 2009 omnibus tribute to New York. An eclectic group of global filmmakers, some well-known, others on the verge, had to meet certain requirements to make the final cut - they were given only 24 hours to shoot, a week to edit, and the result had to reflect a strong sense of a particular NYC neighborhood. The cumulative effect makes for a moody portrait of the city through various couplings, but due to the contrivance of its structure, the film falls short in bringing a deeper emotional resonance to the themes the creators want to convey.

With a couple of key exceptions, the film appears to be more of a valentine to Lower Manhattan. Consequently, there is a fashionably edgy look to the short stories. Israeli-born French director Yvan Attal epitomizes this feeling in two episodes. The first deals with an aggressively talkative writer (an irritating Ethan Hawke) throwing a barrage of romantic and sexual overtures at a sleek Asian woman who appears to have heard it all (Maggie Q). The other is marginally better, focusing on a chance conversation outside a restaurant between a woman taking a cigarette break (an effortlessly sexy Robin Wright Penn) and a man intrigued by her emotional availability (Chris Cooper). Both have O. Henry-type twist endings that make them ultimately entertaining.

A couple of other entries feel more gimmicky by comparison. Brett Ratner's mostly comic entry features Anton Yelchin as a naïve high-school student and Olivia Thirlby as his unexpected prom date with James Caan as her pushy pharmacist father. Mira Nair directed a flat culture-clash encounter between two savvy souls - a Hassid woman about to marry (Natalie Portman) and a Jain diamond dealer (Irrfan Khan) - who become mutually intrigued by their price negotiation meeting. Other episodes feel even more cursory. Portman wrote and directed a brief episode focused on an ebullient toddler (Taylor Geare) and her father (Carlos Acosta) having fun together in Central Park, highlighted by a brief dance performance from Acosta at the end (he is a Cuban-born principal dancer for the Royal Ballet). Chinese director Jiang Wen led Hayden Christensen, Andy Garcia and Rachel Bilson on an empty roundelay of deception and humiliation among thieves at a bar.

Japanese director Shunji Iwai was at the helm of a slight episode featuring Orlando Bloom as a frantic musician working against deadline, while Turkish director Faith Akin shares a brief story of obsession with Uğur Yücel as a solitary artist who wants to paint the face of a local Chinese herbalist (Shu Qi). The entry from Allen Hughes (of the Hughes Brothers) consists mostly of a continuing voice-over of two regretful lovers (Bradley Cooper, Drea de Matteo) hesitant to follow up on their passionate one-night stand. The oddest, most dispiriting entry comes from Shekhar Kapur who directed a script from the late Anthony Minghella (to whom the film is dedicated). It stars Julie Christie as a guest returning to a posh Fifth Avenue hotel where she bonds with a palsied, Slovak-accented bellboy played by an overly sensitive Shia LaBeouf. The nature of their relationship is never really divulged, but it ends on a surreal note of little consequence.

Directed and written by Joshua Marston, the best episode is perhaps the least ambitious as it features Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman as an aged, bickering couple on their way to the boardwalk in Coney Island for their 63rd anniversary. The reassuring way she places her head on his shoulder is easily the most touching moment in the film. All in all, this stylish hodgepodge will appeal mostly to those who are drawn to the short story format. Benoît Debie's sharp cinematography at least brings a consistent sheen to the film as it tethers the various story lines to a New York that feels mired in a cinematic fantasy. I just think Woody Allen's "Manhattan" executes on the same approach far more effectively. The extras on the 2010 DVD include a handful of additional scenes (though not the two deleted segments directed by Scarlett Johansson and Andrei Zvyagintsev), interviews with five of the directors and the original theatrical trailer.