New York Stories

The idea of getting a number of leading directors to produce a short theme-based film and combining the results into a feature-length film sounds like a good idea. It was a popular device in the 1970s particularly in Europe but I can’t think of one instance where it has worked.

New York Stories, which combines the talents of Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen, is no exception. Coppola, who is no New Yorker that I know of, must have subbed his contribution out, as it is an unequivocally awful, pointless tale (co-writing credits go to his daughter who has since gone on to much better things) of a supposedly-cute rich kid. Allen, no doubt regarding this as a job best quickly offloaded, has done little more than recycle his old material in a flimsy story whose cleverest aspect is its title, Oedipus Wrecks.

Fortunately, not all is lost however, thanks to Martin Scorsese’s dynamic Life Lessons, with Nick Nolte right-on as a bullish action painter. It’s well-observed, one of Scorsese’s most effective uses of pop music and has supports by Rosanna Arquette and Steve Buscemi.

 

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