Review of New York, New York (1977) by Dave S — 02 Jul 2011

New York meets New York... put them together and what have you got? They're just different parts, and they can never be whole. Two artistic, mega New York personalities, both with ambitious egos, fall in love after V-Day in 1945, Jimmy Doyle (Robert DeNiro) and Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli). Doyle is an eccentric, temperamental, paranoid saxophonist who woos Evans, a singer, through controlling, slightly abusive methods, of which a woman like her tends to seek.

As much as the personalities clash, so does Scorsese's stylistic choice to blend an old-school Hollywood musical with a harsh, sometimes violent love affair, that which is destined to fail. It expresses the idea that two inflated romantics like Doyle and Evans will see the world around them in a fantasy from a movie, yet we the audience will observe the literal nature of their anaclitic interactions amidst this ironic backdrop.

There's a dreamlike quality to Scorsese's depiction of his hometown that makes us feel a sense of longing, much like the characters feel throughout the duration of this film. The subtlety of the scene in which two lovers dance underneath an unmotivated light-source in the quiet of the City, with only the sound of a train passing by and no music, is perhaps one of the most beautiful moments ever captured on film.