Elvis D
Después de su gran obra "Taxi Driver", Scorsese se dispuso a hacer esta película, logrando recrear varios aspectos de las comedias musicales que solían ser muy populares en los años 40. La cinematografía, el vestuario y la producción son impecables, haciendo que los escenarios luzcan como las películas clásicas orientadas a la música y la comedia. Se siente como si fuera una película hecha en los años 40. La banda sonora es bastante buena con ese aire de jazz clásico y fue en esta película donde se originó una de las canciones más populares de Frank Sinatra. Robert De Niro es todo un carismático y pícaro saxofonista cuya relación con Francine se divide entre su amor por ella o su carrera musical. Algo que incluso afecta a la misma Francine. Con un toque dramático, la película es incluso un vistazo a lo que yacía detrás de las estrellas musicales de su momento. La duración hace que la película llegue a ser algo difícil de ver de principio a fin, pero no cabe duda que New York, New York es un gran homenaje al mundo de las comedias musicales clásicas. Mi calificación final para esta película es un 8/10.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
10/25/23
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Mark A
Lots of good parts, but the whole thing doesn't come together.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
12/20/22
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Audience Member
Liza was outstanding
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
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christopher c. m
The first time Scorsese tried expanding is range with this musical drama. But it just doesn't work. There is no reason that a rom-com-dram needs to be over 2½ hours. Considering plot wise it's nothing but another version of "A Star Is Born" except Jimmy isn't remotely likable sympathetic or relatable. It's needlessly long, with horribly unlikable characters. This New York, New York is ahellofa bore.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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Audience Member
Before I knew anything about Scorsese's New York New York, I knew the song. By heart. Doesn't everybody? It's the anthem of New York. Well, the anthem for people like me that have spent hundreds of hours wandering New York in the movies and always yearned to ‘wake up in the city that doesn't sleep'. The city and Scorsese are inseparable (you can take the boy out of the city…), but this isn't the Big Rotten Apple of billowing street grates and filth strewn streets for a predator to stalk, it is show tune New York, a glimmering silver screen metropolis exploding with post-war celebration, music, and technicolour.
Production designer Boris Leven uses the same vibrancy of his past work on The Sound of Music and West Side Story to build gargantuan music halls with those slick black floors Fred and Ginger used to tap-tap across, and obviously artificial exteriors of clean NY blocks and snow covered woodlands, all the more comforting because we know we will always be beautifully lit. Every inch of fairytale NY is swamped in the bold colours of by Laszlo Kovacs' cinematography, sumptuously recreating the Hollywood in cool blues and passionate red. Scorsese conducts his backing to New York New York pitch perfect, but the writing throws the number off key.
It is a familiar story (see A Star Is Born 1937, 1954, 1976 and 2018): Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro) is a hot blooded saxophonist who meets singer Francie Evans (Liza Milleni) during a VJ Day celebration in an NYC dance hall. Francie slowly succumbs to Jimmy's (obnoxious) charms, and so begins a can't-live-with-can't-live-without relationship that we follow over years and musical numbers as the pair join a touring band.
Frustratingly, NYNY is only an octave away from hitting all the right notes. In the opening, Scorsese introduces Jimmy as a man ‘out of his own time' by losing him in a jubilant crowd, moving to an extreme wide shot, and then pointing him out with a neon red arrow. It is a fantastic moment, Jimmy looks like a tourist in somebody else's movie. Scorsese then juxtaposes De Niro's New Hollywood aura against Minelli, daughter of Golden Age icon Judy Garland and director Vincent Minelli, director behind some of the most vibrant technicolour pictures of the time. What should follow is a story of a man born too early, a woman born in the right time, and the turbulent love affair between artists with all the frustrations, disappointments and resentment that goes with it.
It's predictable, which isn't the issue, it's a romantic musical after all (you mean the leading lady actually fell for Cary Grant?!), but the tempo of the tune is a drag. The loose, improvisation of the scenes jar with the classical cinema of the time, when even minor movies flowed with dialogue sharp enough to cut yourself on. And Jimmy is no Cary Grant, he's as exhausting and emotionally violent as the men in some of Scorsese's less rose-tinted work, and leaves us questioning if Scorsese wanted to immerse us in tinseltown's heyday or critique it.
Had Scorsese tightened the reins, perhaps this collision of classic and contemporary Hollywood filmmaking would've worked, with the New Hollywood actor struggling to keep up with the tempo of the cool, sharp dialogue of the classic Hollywood dame always ready with a cigarette and a line. Still, for all its faults, New York New York is gorgeous, full of passion, and still knows how to melt away my little town blues.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
Full Review
matthew d
Unbelievably bloated and sexist, but Liza Minnelli is delightful!
Director Martin Scorsese's romantic musical drama New York, New York (1977) is a colossal misfire from the mighty Marty in my opinion. It's so beautifully made and acted impeccably with a great singing performance from Liza Minnelli and excellent saxophone by Robert De Niro. I think that Scorsese's striking direction really saves New York, New York from mediocrity. Scorsese keeps the focus on how increasingly unhinged and selfish De Niro's character is from the beginning as how depraved and cruel he gets, while empathetically showcasing Minnelli's dramatic skills as a sympathetic heroine and proficient singer.
The trouble with New York, New York is Writers Mardik Martin and Earl Mac Rauch's story is so terribly male centric and sexist, it's unforgivable. De Niro is immediately creepy and sleazy and never charming, so Liza Minnelli and him have zero romantic chemistry. He treats her terribly and is so mean and narcissistic, you never buy that she'd be with him or take all his insults. New York, New York is an awful experience really. Liza Minnelli is so natural, charismatic, and talented with a unique voice that I found her captivating. I felt so bad for her having to take all this abuse from Robert De Niro's disgustingly sexist and completely selfish saxophonist. It's impressive seeing De Niro really playing, but he's just got no romantic chemistry or charm with Minnelli that most of the movie is awkward.
Also, Scorsese front loads the movie with all drama and a few jazz songs here and there, then stuffs the last half hour with musical numbers. I know Martin Scorsese loves The Red Shoes and probably appreciates Judy Garland's musical version of Janet Gaynor's A Star Is Born, which does very similar sequencing. However, the jazz songs are extremely forgettable from composers Fred Ebb and John Kander. They really know how to write bland and generic jazz show tunes with a select few standouts that do not appear until the end of the movie.
Lionel Stander is very entertaining as Liza's fast talking agent Tony. Scorsese probably cast Stander because he was the fast talking studio spin master from Janet Gaynor's A Star Is Born. Barry Primus has more natural and warm romantic chemistry with Liza Minnelli as the kind piano player. Dick Miller is pretty fun as the first jazz club owner who doesn't like De Niro's lead saxophone style of playing. Jack Haley, The Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz with Liza Minnelli's mother Judy Garland, cameos in his final film role as The Master of Ceremonies at the end. Robert De Niro's real wife Diahnne Abbott cameos as a Harlem Club Singer with an average voice performing an old jazz number.
Editors Tom Rolf, Marcia Lucas, Bert Lovittt, and David Ramirez rarely cut the song sequences in an interesting way, so you're left with these long and boring numbers ad nauseum. I really don't understand why this simple story had to be 2 and a half hours long at a snail's pace for 163 grueling minutes. Scorsese should be capable of a proper musical as he's a fan of the genre and this came out right after his seminal crime drama Taxi Driver, so he was at his peak powers. All his efforts clearly went into the production instead of telling a new story in a refreshing way. It just feels so dated and male focused, instead of telling the story from Liza's perspective to be more sympathetic.
Cinematographer László Kovács creates all these magnificent shots so that every scene in New York, New York is creative and beautiful. I've never seen so many moving extras, moving wide shots that pan all around clubs and streets with ease. You get these ultra close-up shots of Liza's eyes to moody medium shots of De Niro soloing on saxophone and more. Boris Levin's production design is meticulous in recreating 1945 in New York from theaters to clubs and street corners alike with these lavish and gritty sets. Harry Kemm's art direction has all these smoky shots and forlorn artful concepts that I appreciate to capture the different tones of New York, New York.
I loved some of costume designer Theadora Van Runkle's dresses for Liza Minnelli, but some are hideously ugly. I think that Michael Westmore and Christina Smith applied too much make-up on Minnelli because she looks ghostly pale with layers of product on instead of her more naturally pretty face in many of the shots.
In all, New York, New York is one of Scorsese's most middling and frustrating pictures. At least we got Liza Minnelli from this with her true talent and range here.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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