Rosanna Arquette Movie:

Editorial Review:
Three views of life in the city of all cities comprise this film, withsegments directed by Woody Allen, Francis Coppola, and Martin Scorsese. The best of the three is "Life Lessons," directed by Scorsese, about an artist (played by Nick Nolte) who uses his hypersuccess to lure beautiful young aspiring artists to serve as his assistant/lovers. The segment is an astute portrait of the nature of the New York art world. In "Life Without Zoe," Coppola portrays the life of the privileged Zoe, the daughter of a world-renowned flutist, whose adventures on the Upper East Side (in the upper echelons of society) play like something approaching a cartoon. Woody Allen finishes up the film with his "Oedipus Wrecks," a typical Allen number about a successful New York lawyer who's still hounded by his mother--the title tells you all you need to know. Though stronger segments to complement Scorsese's would have made this film much more interesting and enjoyable, it does provide an accurate glimpse into this wondrous city and is a must-see for anyone fascinated by New York. --James McGrath

New York Stories [Region 2] Reviews:
Fascinated by NYC
2009-11-23 - Fascinated by New York City, a reviewer is less than impressed with stories of self-indulgence, lust and egalitarianism too frequently associated with and substituted a nature of New Yorkers and NYC.

Scarcely provided landscapes of the Big Apple are great as usual when moviemakers - city lovers shared their feeling with a world.

It is not Rent but some fun anyway.



Film 4 Stars, DVD 2
2009-09-20 - I love this film, but the biggest problem I have is with the aspect ratio. I recently bought the film, not realizing it had been cut to a 1.33:1 from a 1.85:1, and I ultimately feel like if I'm paying for a film, I should own the entire thing.

Shame on me for not reviewing the aspect ratio before purchase, but beyond that, it's a great film minus the Coppola dribble in the middle.

Three of them are far from our daily life, but ...
2009-05-01 - Life Lessons is a story of renowned painter, i.e. far from me.
Life without Zoe is a story of a daughter of super rich, i.e. far from me.
Oedipus Wrecks is a supernatural story that never happens in our daily life, i.e. far from me.

Yes, they're all far from my life, but Life Lessons depicts the loneliness, the egoism, and the great desire for a young woman that is common to, at least, one-tenth, I guess, of all men. Though not so famous as him, I can feel the big sympathy for such an ego-centric world of a man.

Life Without Zoe is just a simple and flat description of the life of a young girl. I guess Francis wanted to project his loving feeling to his daughter Sofia onto the film. But the description is super-superficial. It's a fairy tale that has nothing to do with me.

Oedipus Wrecks digs up the complex in depth feeling of man toward the mother. She annoys the grown up boy and the big boy want to leave her but cannot. Mother is a dominator in the mental world of man.

As a result, I would rate Life Lessons as five stars and Oedipus Wrecks as four stars, but just one star for Life Without Zoe, thus the average of 3.3333333.

sheldon's complaint
2008-12-12 - Sheldon Mills (Milstein) played by Woody Allen wants to please his mother and his lover at the same time. As if this weren't impossible to begin with, his lover played by Mia Farrow is a 'shiksa.' And with children to boot. The hilarious dilemna is finally resolved but not before a mysterious disappearance leading to true love brings us deep into the ethnic New York Jewish culture. These characters rival any to be found in Philip Roth's opus.

Scorcese yes. Coppola and Allen no.
2008-09-22 - The Nick Nolte piece about a Soho artist's quixotic fixations with young girls is the best of the three films here. Nice Scorcese rock soundtrack, as usual. The Coppola bit is cartoon-like and not very interesting, though visually arresting. Woody's schtick about the over bearing Jewish mother is quite funny, but short and thin. The directors all try to outdo each other with fancy camera work. Great looks at late 80s NYC.