A Martin Scorsese double bill...
New York, New York (1977)
The USO dancehall-based opening of
Martin Scorsese's 'New York, New York' is so much like the opening of
Steven Spielberg's '1941' that I almost thought it was on the same sets (Except one is set on V-J Day, the other is set just after Pearl Harbour). Plus Scorsese goes for a deliberately artificial "Old Hollywood" visual aesthetic, a bit like
Francis Ford Coppola's 'One from the Heart', so I guess this is just the type of movie a "New Hollywood" Director made when they were doing cocaine by the handful (allegedly). 'New York, New York' is as close to a failure as Scorsese has got in my opinion. The relationship between
Liza Minnelli's Jazz singer and
Robert De Niro's hot-head saxophonist begins well, it's quirky, spiky and very amusing. However, his erratic behaviour quickly goes from exasperating, to unpleasant, to downright obnoxious, leaving me totally unable to sympathise with him. Minnelli's passive tolerance of his unforgivable behaviour made me dislike her character too. De Niro is given too much leeway to improvise endlessly, it's like when somebody does an impression of De Niro, with all the ticks and mannerisms turned up to 11.
E Street Band star
Clarence Clemons, one of the all-time great saxophone players, is cast as a fellow musician but a trumpet player for some reason? Minnelli is dressed and made up just like her mother
Judy Garland was back in the 40s, and the plot has similarities to
1954's 'A Star is Born', which or course starred Garland. It's a little weird. I watched the 163-minute "Special Edition", rather than the 155-minute theatrical cut and it felt way too long, so maybe the shorter version was the way to go. By the way, the song 'New York, New York' was written for this movie, then
Frank Sinatra scored a hit with it in 1980, although the definitive version is of course sung by the Brain Gremlin in
'Gremlins 2: The New Batch'.
After Hours (1985)
I thought this was a relatively minor entry in
Martin Scorsese's illustrious filmography but it has to be one of the very best and surely his funniest comedy. It's best to go in knowing nothing about the plot (like I did) because it's about Paul (
Griffin Dunne), a bored office worker tumbling on a whim into the world of the people that populate night-time Soho, New York. Not knowing for a single second where the story is going to turn next is a big part of the fun. Scorsese puts you off guard with his first shot, an exciting super fast, super smooth camera glide over onto to something totally banal.
Howard Shore's creepy organ score also keeps things tense, then develops into an oppressive
Goblin-esque Giallo synth sound (quite unlike anything else I've heard by the composer). The atmosphere is a constant ride of paranoia, melancholy, mania and jet-black comedy. Dunne's exasperated performance is fantastic, he gave me a real big laugh with his deadpan of the line
"I'll probably get blamed for that".
'After Hours' needs to be more widely available, I think you can only get a Spanish blu-ray import.
The trailer gives away far too much...
...but this very short clip gives a hint of the humour: