"New York, New York" (1977)

I was very intrigued to see this film when I realised Martin Scorsese was directing it and Robert De Niro was starring in it. I couldn’t imagine either of them working on a musical. I just never thought this would be a genre I’d see either of them do. But needless to say it is a film worth watching some time.

Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro), an egotistical saxophone player, and Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli), a lounge singer, meet in Times Square on V-J Day and decided they’re meant for each other. However their romance proves rocky and strained as their careers slowly begin to take flight.

Robert De Niro is quite something. I’ve only seen him in his newer movies, so this was an interesting watch for me. He’s so much younger! Not sure what to say to his character. He wasn’t always very nice and could be quite domineering. But Robert De Niro plays this well I think. For example there’s a scene when Jimmy is telling Francine to get in the car and he’s quite bossy about it, like in a needless sort of way. Then once in the car and he’s talking, another couple drive up and ask if he’s pulling out and he’s really rude in replying to them. I think he ends up shouting at them. There’s other scenes too but this is the one that’s springing to my mind. He is a fantastic actor though. This is the only film I’ve seen Liza Minnelli in actually. I’ve heard the name so often I feel like I should have seen her more, but no. I think she and Robert De Niro work well together. Especially the scenes when she’s singing and he’s playing the saxophone! These were probably my favourite scenes.

This movie introduces the song "New York, New York" that later became a pop music standard and one of the most famous and often recorded songs in history. I loved the music in this film. I kinda like jazz, of which there is a lot, so this probably made me enjoy the movie more. Robert De Niro is really good on the saxophone. He learned to play it for this film to make his performance look more authentic. Though I don’t think he still plays it today. Liza Minnelli is a very good singer too. The song she sings, "And The World Goes Round", which takes place in a recording studio, is the only song in the movie performed live as filmed, as opposed to lip-synched to a pre-recorded soundtrack. I think that’s an interesting nugget of wisdom.

Martin Scorsese called the film a "film noir musical" and he encouraged his lead actors to improvise in many scenes. I read somewhere that both Liza Minnelli and Martin Scorsese have said that a lot of the dialogue in the film was actually improvised. So apparently this created difficulty during the editing phase, as the editors and Martin Scorsese struggled to create a streamlined narrative. If that’s true then it’s amazing.

This film is quite long. I found it very long for what it is…but that’s just my attention span!! I prefer movies that don’t go over two hours if possible! So I did start to feel it after a certain point. Apparently though this was originally four and a half hours long!! Can you imagine? Martin Scorsese cut it to 153 minutes, then to 136 minutes. In 1981 some material (mainly the 'Happy Endings' sequence) was restored and the film became 163 minutes long. I think I watched it to a point, paused it and then came back to it again later. (This is not a criticism of the film!!) Martin Scorsese seems to like making long movies! Nearly all of the movies I’ve seen of his are quite long!

So…yeah! Bit long, but I would recommend this film! It’s certainly something!

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