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18 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :- Coppola segment drags down otherwise good movie, 31 March 2003 Author: Daniel Karlsson from Sweden
Three 40 minutes short films by three of the greatest American directors; Scorsese, Coppola and Allen. I personally like Scorsese's introducing segment the most, Life Lesson. Even if I personally is not a fan of Nick Nolte, the movie has depth and it's just as good as you would expect from a director like Scorsese. Unlike many other directors, Scorsese manages to capture sexual attraction, in this case felt by the main character (Nolte). Freshly photographed and good ending that makes you recall upon your own life. Not a masterpiece but indeed great.Coppola's segment "Zoe" is a total disaster. It is beautifully filmed, but the acting and the story is far below good. Better fit for the children's hour on TV. I don't know if the story was supposed to be ironical, a satire of spoiled extremely rich kids on Manhattan, which could be the fact since there were some scenes where the young girl interacts with a homeless man. That could have been a good theme, if it was Coppola's intention, but no matter the case - it just don't work. It is silly and it doesn't feel satirical at all. Another idea is that it was supposed to be funny, a short comedy, however, neither does it work on that layer. It somewhat makes me lose my respect for the director.Woody Allen's part however is a pleasant refresher after Coppola's borer. Very funny, typical Allen, good acting from Allen's side and good music.Overall rating is a mere 6, dragged down by Coppola. Without his segment I would rate this movie an 8.
11 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- New York, New York, 24 April 2006 Author: Galina from Virginia, USA
The anthology that include three short films that take place in New York City was made by three great American directors, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, and Francis Ford Coppola."Life Lessons" directed by Martin Scorsese, literally took my breath away - it made me want to rewatch all Scorsese's films (with the one exception, GONY, though). What a magnificent work - visually it is as powerful as the painting Nolte's Lionel was painting. Combining in one short film Procul Harum's "A whiter shade of pale" and Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" from "Turandot" was a stroke of genius. This film is an ode to the power of talent; it is about greatness and curse of the gift, not about love to the woman. The best scene of the film and I'd say one of the best ever made about the Artist's work is Nolte triumphantly painting his masterpiece - his love, desire, lust, cries, whispers, tears, and humiliations magically transform with every stroke of his brush into the immortal, triumphant, brilliant work of art. By the time the painting is finished, he would need a new source of inspiration and self-torture, and the cycle will repeat over again. Devilishly clever portrait of an Artist as Not a Young Man. 9.5/10 I loved Woody Allen's "Oedipus Wrecks" and I think it is very funny and touching. Looks like Allen has met mothers or grandmothers like Mrs. Millstein in real life and his little gem is his love-hate letter to them. In the end, mom always knows what is best for her little boy. Mae Questel and Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson) were wonderful. Woody's face after his mom "disappears" and the scene when he practically makes love to the chicken drumstick are pure delight; also the commentary that New York is used to everything and readily accepts the crazy situation - it is so true. One of the best Allen's films I've seen lately - I am very glad that I finally saw it.Larry David ("Seinfeld", "Curb Your Enthusiasm") plays the Theater Manager. It made me think if Estelle Costanza created by David and Mrs. Millstein (Woody's omnipresent mother) have a lot in common in making the lives of their sons miserable and smothering them with their merciless love? 9/10 Coppola's "Life Without Zoë" was much weaker than Scorsese's and Allan's stories and paled in comparison - this episode "from the lives of the reach and beautiful" was pretty and cute but you can skip it. 5/10
16 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :- The Good, The Bad & The Funny!, 8 October 2003 Author: Squrpleboy from Ontario, Canada
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
You can't really watch NEW YORK STORIES and comment on thefilm as a whole, because, much like the three directors involved,the three stories that make up the whole are so different and havespecific value in their own right. What you can do is applaud theidea, the approach, and the coming together of three big New Yorkfilmmakers to entertain and delight the viewer each in their uniqueway.Segment one is "Life Lessons", starring Nick Nolte and RosannaArquette, and directed by Martin Scorsese. It's a superbly actedand tightly directed little film about a cantankerous and love-lornold abstract painter and his young female "assistant", the object ofhis rejected affections. Nolte and Arquette play off each with greatchemistry (often explosive at that) and the pacing, cinematographyand storyline flow easily creating a real sense of the chaotic inner- psychosis behind artist beauty. {It was also really interesting tosee the large canvas that is the centre-piece of the film take shapefrom nothing to a real work of admirable art by the story's end.} 8/ 10 on this one.The second segment, "Life Without Zoe", by Francis Ford Coppolais, to put it frankly, horrible! Unbelievably boring, and so poorlyacted that I can only imagine Coppola himself had fallen asleepsomewhere in pre-production and was awakened when the filmwas released sometime the next year. Coppola has a knack forcasting young girls with no experience and/or talent in his films(ie., his daughter in GODFATHER III) and Heather McComb as Zoeis no exception. I actually stopped it 10 minutes in and fast- forwarded to the last segment. 1/10, truly pitiful in every regard. The gem of the compilation (and saving grace) comes in the finalsegment, Woody Allen's hilarious "Oedipus Wrecks". This waslaugh-out-loud funny. Allen plays a middle-aged lawyer who's lifeis made unbearable by his doting/nagging Jewish mother, playedbrilliantly by Mae Questel. Not only is this the best piece of thethree shorts that make up NEW YORK STORIES, but one of thevery best of Woody Allen's films, period. The tight interactivedelivery between characters that has become so trademark inAllen's films is served up so deliciously again by the likes of JulieKavner, Mia Farrow, Larry David, and the aforementioned mother &son team. Every facial expression sported by Woody is a gut- buster as well (special mention goes to Jessie Keosian, as hisdeaf Aunt Ceil, for the same reason). Witty, biting, and with one ofTHE oddest plot twists I've ever seen, "Oedipus Wrecks" is theicing on the cake, and a great ending to this film conjunction. 9/10,has to be seen for the "chicken drumstick love-scene" if nothingelse!Unfortunately, the film over-all is not an even delivery despite thenoble attempt. Scorsese and Allen shine with their spot-on storiesof intrinsic inhabitants of the Big Apple; Coppola just provides theworm. I can only recommend portions of the film and as such canonly give it a 7/10 in good conscience. Enjoy what you can!
8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :- Could've been better, but still, 25 March 2002 Author: MisterWhiplash from United States
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+
11 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :- Allen's was hilarious, Scorsese's was interesting, Coppola's was unnecessary, 14 May 2005 Author: Lee Eisenberg (eisenberg.lee@gmail.com) from Portland, Oregon, USA
"New York Stories" tells three tales of the Big Apple. Martin Scorsese's "Life Lessons" shows artist Lionel Dobie (Nick Nolte) trying to assess his relationships with people, Francis Ford Coppola's "Life without Zoe" shows a very mature girl, and Woody Allen's "Oedipus Wrecks" is about Sheldon Mills (played by Allen himself), a man who quite literally cannot get away from his mother.I have to say that Scorsese did a very good job looking at troubled relationships, and Allen shows how hard it is to have certain kinds of people as parents (of course he often shows that). But Coppola's segment was so dull that I choose not to even write about it. But don't worry; the movie is overall really good, and we should assume that it really sucks to be Allen's character, given what happens in that segment.
6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- 3 Tastes in 1, 17 May 2001 Author: Superblast from Atlanta
Life Lessons - I've probably seen it 10 times. You can refer to it as a 'short', but I get so wrapped up in it that I almost consider it to be a full-length movie. It's very close to perfect.Life Without Zoe - Past comments have stated that this is the weakest of the three. I don't like to think of any of the stories as weak. I think the order of the stories is what is important. First is the tense art world drama, then the fairytale-like Zoe. Zoe doesn't have the punch of Life Lessons, but it's a relaxing follow-up. Enchanted flutes, princesses, sheiks, diamonds, parties, sunsets. I hate to use the word 'cute', but that's what it is - very cute, and that's not a bad thing in this case.Oedipus Wrecks - Leaves the movie ending on a very outrageous and very funny note. This short is better than several of his movies (and I'm a HUGE Woody Allen fan).
8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- Two out of three ain't bad, 13 September 2003 Author: Christopher Attrill
**1/2 of****Three completely different short stories told by three of Hollywood's most influential and profilic directors in the most exciting and mythical city on earth. Seems like a shoe in doesn't it? Well almost. Looking forward as I did to the Woody Allen piece "Oedipus Wrecks" the wait was worth it, but still somewhat unsatisfying. This featurette would've been a welcome change of pace for Woody at the time given that he hadn't made a flat-out silly comedy for a while and he manages to make good use of every moment. He has a great cast,(Kavner, Questral are particular standouts) and a genuinely strange premise to work with and the results are a riot, dare I say one of Woody's best. So what's so unsatisfying? As good as "Oedipus Wrecks" is , it still suffers because it has to follow Coppolla's god awful and charmless "Life Without Zoe." Seriously I had absolutely no clue what the hell was going on in this obnoxious, cutesy-poo clinker. Can anyone help me understand why Coppola thought anyone would like this? Sitting through "Zoe" is so emotionally draining that by the time you get to "Oedipus" you're too annoyed and confused to fully enjoy it. As a result Scorsese's "Life Lessons" comes off the best of the three. Nolte and Arquette are flawless and the intensity and friction between them make for an engaging if not distressingly tense 35 minutes.
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :- Good For An Anthology FIlm, 20 February 2007 Author: jzappa from United States
New York Stories is another anthology film that I was suckered into because of the credentials. Other anthology films that I've seen, like Four Rooms, have not been very good despite the amazing credentials. I haven't been a fan of most movies with more than one director, hence more than one vision thus many colliding like an orchestra playing unharmonious notes. New York Stories is satisfactory however, eve if its mood swings leave one feeling many different ways about it. You'll feel stimulated, yet strangely unfulfilled.Martin Scorsese's segment, Life Lessons, is very melodramatic in that hardened, grungy way of his. Nolte gives a wonderful performance, very intense, and Arquette is very realistic and effective. Scorsese employs his usual machine gun multi-genre soundtrack and plunging, stylistically passionate and energetic cinematography. His segment says something very profound and important about the human characteristic of selfishness and how much more abundant it is in ourselves than we care to accept.Then comes Francis Ford Coppola's segment, Life Without Zoe. Arg. The acting, despite the leniency one may generously give child actors, is awful. Heather McComb did in fact fill out very very nicely when she grew up, but that does not excuse her very scripted performance here. She's the least of the cast's problems, though. Everyone sounds like the salesmen on the used car commercials. The story is something quite silly. Perhaps it would be fine if it were its own film, but Coppola had to know that he was being teamed with Scorsese, his fellow creator of quintessential Mafia cinema, and Woody Allen, the prolific source of mature and sophisticated comedies about sex and relationships. Did he submit this segment for shock value? I guess so. Well, it worked. I don't understand why Coppola works with kids. His daughter Sophia, who at age 18 here co-wrote the script and designed the costumes, did in fact go on to become a fine director herself, but did he not notice his pattern after awhile? He makes The Conversation, the Godfather films, and Apocalypse Now, and we think he's found his niche. Then he starts making movies like this, following up with films like Jack with Robin Williams.Woody Allen's segment saves the film. I suppose this is one way anthology movies are interesting. In a single feature-length narrative film, when it takes a plunge in the middle, it can't really be saved in the end, especially if it was as bad as Coppola's segment. In an anthology, if the middle of the movie is terrible, you still have the end to look forward to. This is the case in New York Stories, because Woody Allen's segment, Oedipus Wrecks, the final third of the movie, is hilarious. It's one of the funniest satires he's ever done of the Jewish Brooklynite's culture. It's goofy in a subtle way, and fascinatingly surreal the way a lot of Allen's best and most creative work is. Actually, Oedipus Wrecks is perhaps the only one of the three parts that actually clearly represents a hue of New York's culture. Scorsese's part didn't represent New York as much as it represented the emotional tempests of an artist and happened to take place in the meatpacking district. Coppola's mid-section represented the lives of wealthy children whose lives are so free that they live practically like very spoiled and gossipy adults, but to such an outlandish degree of family-oriented fantasy that it's not at all credible. Woody Allen firmly focuses upon his division of New York culture. And by the by, it's a very pleasant surprise to see a younger Larry David, pre-Seinfeld and pre-Curb Your Enthusiasm, in a bit role in Oedipus Wrecks.Whatever was going through Coppola's mind, it's because of him that New York Stories can be described as a film in the shape of a circular saw. It's on one level, then takes a ninety- degree plunge to a different level, then again with the third segment it takes a ninety-degree ascension to the precise level it was at before.
8 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :- Allen Shines; Scorsese's Strident; Coppola's Piece Best Suited To ELOISE Fans, But Where's Brody?, 9 October 2004 Author: Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci (dtb) from Whitehall, PA
I'd seen NEW YORK STORIES (NYS) before on cable, and I'd enjoyed the trilogy of short films by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen. However, I hadn't been aware that a teenage Adrien Brody was supposed to be in it until I happened to look up his credits on the IMDb. Since he was listed in order of appearance as part of the cast of Coppola's segment LIFE WITHOUT ZOË, I kept a sharp eye out for young Brody in the school cafeteria scene -- at least it *looked* like it was supposed to be the cafeteria! The artistically dim lighting made things a little hard to see, which may be why I (and other Brody fans I know) could hardly find Brody at all. Judging by the order in which he's listed in the credits (as a character named "Mel"), Brody should've shown up in Zoë's school right after the know-it-all character Andrea (Alexandra Becker) shows up, just before the Sherry-Netherland robbery scene with Chris Elliott. Brody must have had dialogue at some point, or he wouldn't have been in the credits at all. However, I guess Coppola & Company pulled a THIN RED LINE on the adolescent Adrien, because I didn't see or hear him utter a single syllable. My only inkling that Boy Brody was in the scene at all was that when I looked very closely and pressed my DVD remote's "Slow" button, I thought I detected a familiar noble-nosed profile amongst the students stylishly silhouetted in the background. Oh, well, at least Brody got an early screen credit and presumably a paycheck out of the experience, as did another future Oscar-winner: Sofia Coppola, who co-wrote the script and designed the cute opening credit sequence. Nevertheless, I found LIFE WITHOUT ZOË entertaining even when the game of "Spot the Adrien" came a cropper, despite its reputation as the weakest of NYS's trio of vignettes. While it has its overly precious moments, it's basically an uncredited 'tween update of Kay Thompson's ELOISE AT THE PLAZA book series, one of my faves; think of this as ZOË AT THE SHERRY-NETHERLAND. With gorgeous New York locations, catchy songs by Kid Creole & the Coconuts, and a likable cast including young Heather McComb, Don Novello, Giancarlo Giannini, and Talia Shire, you could find worse ways to pass the time. As for the other entries, Scorsese's LIFE LESSONS, with a screenplay by Richard Price, is well-crafted and well-acted, though the temperamental, manipulative artist and assistant/muse/lover played, respectively, by Nick Nolte and Rosanna Arquette were so immature and strident they got on my nerves after a while. Hands down, my favorite of the 3 vignettes (and the fave of most folks who've seen NYS) was Allen's uproarious OEDIPUS WRECKS, the story of a Jewish mother (Mae Questel, the cutie who voiced Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, is a devious delight) whose well-meant domination of her henpecked son (Allen) gets out of hand when the audience participation portion of a magic show goes horribly yet hilariously awry. Mia Farrow and Julie Kavner provide able support; CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM fans should keep an eye out for Larry David in a brief bit as the magic show theater manager. Kavner's home-cooked chicken drumstick gets my vote for "Best Performance by an Inanimate Object"! :-)
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :- So what's the problem?, 25 November 2008 Author: blanche-2 from United States
I'll step out of the loop here about "New York Stories," three tales of New York from 1989, directed by three formidable directors: Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen. I happen to think all three films had something to offer, and the fact that the Zoe sequence is about a child does not for me make it the weakest segment.I found the Scorcese segment starring Nick Nolte and Roseanna Arquette the most thought-provoking, the Zoe segment the most charming, and the Allen segment the wackiest. The first episode is about a tortured artist (Nolte) who expresses his sexual frustrations and problems with his young protégée (Arquette) in his work. She no longer sleeps with him and wants to quit New York and go home; he wants to kiss her foot and professes undying love for her. To Puccini's Nessun Dorma, he stares at his artwork and goes through a variety of emotions as he paints another masterpiece. This particular muse in the form of Arquette used up, one sees him at his art show connecting with another would-be artist/muse whose identity will also be lost in his genius.The second sequence, directed by Coppola, is a take-off on the Eloise stories by Kay Thompson. This little girl's name is Zoe. Her father, Claudio Montez (Giancarlo Giannini), is a famous flautist who travels, and her mother (Talia Shire) is a photo journalist who travels. Zoe lives with a butler and her dog Vegas at the Sherry Netherlands Hotel. She proves herself smarter than either parent in this charming film. My only question is why Giancarlo Giannini speaks Italian to his daughter when the name Claudio Montez is emphatically not Italian. Okay, it wasn't typical Coppola, but who said it had to be? The last one is pure Woody, Oedipus Wrecks, about a man with a nagging, critical mother who wants to marry a young woman (Mia Farrow) with children. He loves his mother, but he wishes she'd disappear. During a magic show, he gets his wish, when his mother goes into a magician's box and never comes out. Later she shows up in the sky telling him what to do, with the world as a witness. His girlfriend can't take it. He then goes to a psychic (Julie Kavner) who makes him a boiled chicken dinner. A complete delight.Three different, interesting stories by three great directors.
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