The Confessional: Martin Scorsese's "New York, New York"

Al Hirschfeld's wonderful caricatures for the movie

By any measure Martin Scorsese's New York, New York is not considered anywhere near the upper echelon of his filmography. That distinction is reserved for Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Taxi Driver, among a few others. Books about Scorsese's films generally mark New York, New York an honorable failure, which it was, critically and financially, upon release in June 1977. By all accounts it was--and perhaps remains--a painful experience for its director to revisit. Interviews as well as Scorsese's commentary on the movie portrays it as too sensitive a subject for him to fully explore. Too personal? Possibly. The comments he makes on the New York, New York DVD seem especially perfunctory. Marty doesn't say a word about the personal difficulties he had making it. And by many accounts, the production was painful for most involved. As the movie's costume designer, Theadora Van Runkle, says, "People still sit around and tell horror stories about working on New York, New York" (for example, she states that the crew “were treated like peasants”).

Scorsese's problems included an unfinished script that required some scenes to be written just hours before filming them; a severe addition to cocaine; and an extramarital affair with Liza Minnelli, the leading lady. Budgeted at $7 million, the production ended up with a price tag of $12 million as the film shoot scheduled for 14 weeks ran to 22 weeks. The first cut of the film ran four and a half hours.
 

Stars Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro with director, Martin Scorsese,
during the production of New York, New York

Attempting to add the patina of classic Hollywood's best films, New York, New York, was filmed at the fabled MGM Studios in Culver City, California, where Liza Minnelli's parents, the legendary acting and singing star, Judy Garland, and film director, Vincente Minnelli, worked for much of their careers. Liza even had her mother's old dressing room as well as a visit from her father during filming in June 1976, which undoubtedly thrilled a cinephile like Scorsese.

I always wanted to hear from Scorsese or Minnelli themselves about what it was like to make a film on that lot. By 1976, MGM Studios Lot #3, which included the Meet Me in St. Louis set, the western set, and the massive lake from Show Boat, had already been sold and destroyed for condos; however, Lot #2, already sold and planned for destruction as well, was still there with its decaying sets--the mansion from The Philadelphia Story; Copperfield Court; the girl's school set used in films like Tea & Sympathy; Verona Square used in Romeo & Juliet, the Grand Central Station set, and the New York City streets sets. Did any filming go on there? There is a train station scene and many shots of New York streets in the movie that were obviously studio creations. Were they backlot sets cleaned up and used, or were they sets recreated on MGM sound stages? Scorsese was high, but it was likely from the scent of real Hollywood history as much as from cocaine. Both he and Liza knew the studio they were working in--with so much film history--may not be there much longer. Did Marty ever wander those studio streets and think to himself, this looks like the set from Madame Bovary, or, maybe Fred Astaire danced right here?  I've read books on MGM studios, Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and interviews with Liza Minnelli, but none ever mentions those sets nor what it felt like to be there. According to the book, MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot, Stage 5 and Stage 6 on Lot #1 still had the permanent "theater set" which had been used for the best-known musicals in the 1940s and 1950s. New York, New York was one of the last, if not the last movie, to shoot on that set.

Liza Minnelli's father, film director, Vincente Minnelli--
a hero of Scorsese's--visits the New York, New York set, June 1976

By the time of the film's premiere in June 1977, Hollywood had been transformed. May 25, 1977, saw the release of Star Wars, George Lucas's era-smashing, box office mega-hit. The trend towards the blockbuster had been coming for some time: Warner's The Exorcist in 1973 was one of the first to use a saturation approach to booking theater screens. 1975 saw Jaws devour every single movie and become the new all-time box office champion when it was put into over 400 theaters at once, an unprecedented move at the time. What was new wasn't how much money these films raked in but how fast they did it. At the time some films could play in movie houses for months or even over a year. For instance, Chinatown opened June 1974 in what was known as "platform" booking, which is gradually rolling out a film before going into wider release around the country. This approach would likely have been the best strategy for New York, New York. But with the blockbuster scenario in play, movies like New York, New York were doomed. More than the space opera stylings and action pace of Lucas's epic, it was the marketing of films in the Seventies that changed movies forever. Thus New York, New York bombed at the country's theaters, bringing in roughly $16 million and losing a bundle.

Scorsese seemed to be in a state of limbo after the drubbing New York, New York received, although he did manage to film the documentary, The Last Waltz immediately after the New York, New York shoot wrapped. Still living on the west coast, Scorsese was partying hard, stretching himself thin with both professional and personal activity. Mounting stress landed him in the hospital with exhaustion. According to Scorsese, he nearly died.

After the back-to-back fiascos of Stanley Donen's Lucky Lady in 1975 and A Matter of Time for her father in 1976, the damage New York, New York did to Liza Minnelli's movie career was devastating. Though she was still thriving on stage and in concerts, the movies would be off limits to Minnelli for the next four years when she returned in Arthur, playing third lead behind Dudley Moore and John Gielgud.

Only Robert De Niro suffered no ill effects after the release of New York, New York. His career  rebounded nicely with The Deer Hunter in 1978, and in 1980, Scorsese and De Niro would team for the fourth time to make Raging Bull, which by any measure is a fine achievement, likely their best and certainly their most critically well regarded.

Jimmy (Robert De Niro) and Francine's (Liza Minnelli)
emotional tug of war is the heart of the film

Going through many edits, New York, New York's original cut was four and a half hours before it was cut down to about three and a quarter hours, and finally clocking in at two hours, thirty-five minutes at the time of its release (though it was cut again to two hours, sixteen minutes after its poor financial showing). Critics could admire the movie without becoming emotionally involved. In his book The Hollywood Musicals, Ted Sennett calls the film "easily the gloomiest musical in some time." At awards time, New York, New York did both well and poorly, befitting its own uncertainty about whether it was musical, drama, comedy, none of these or all. Garnering four Golden Globe nominations for the film, for the title song, John Kander and Fred Ebb's "(Theme from) New York, New York," and for Minnelli and De Niro, none won. Hoping to build on any momentum those nominations got, the studio was hoping for attention come Oscar time. However, the movie did not receive one nod from the Academy, which indicates what the Hollywood community thought of the film as a whole. With post-theatrical release videotape, discs, and streaming still far off, the film was locked away in a film vault.
 

Scorsese and Minnelli in the editing room

 
In the aftermath of the its failure, New York, New York was lumped with Peter Bogdanovich's 1975 Cole Porter musical At Long Last Love; William Friedkin's Sorcerer (also from 1977); and future duds like Steven Spielberg's 1941, Francis Ford Coppola's One From the Heart, Robert Altman's Popeye, all mega budgeted box office and critical losers. Some of these filmmakers' careers never really recovered from these films. Bogdanovich and Friedkin struggled for years and never quite got their mojo back for more than a cinematic moment, though Altman and Coppola did experience quite a bit of success after these losses, as did (ahem) Spielberg.

I think what disappointed moviegoers was the tone of New York, New York. The advertisements and the film's trailer tried to play up the nostalgia angle, but the movie only somewhat played to nostalgia. Along the way, it also injected realistic situations and characters into our idea of classic Hollywood and the world that fostered it. I think people wanted a good, old-fashioned movie, but they probably should've known the creator of Taxi Driver wasn't going to give us Grease. If New York, New York has a film relation, it would be George Cukor's 1954 re-make of A Star Is Born.
 

My view of New York, New York has always been positive. From when I first saw it in June 1977, I was a fan. I was initially drawn to the stars, who are both amazing, and the film's incredible music. I understand how many feel De Niro's Jimmy Doyle is a jerk, and he is. But the movie doesn't present him as a cartoon villain any more than Minnelli's Francine Evans as a relentless nag. Both are young, working towards their individual success. Francine is as ambitious as Jimmy, but she handles it differently. And it's the ambition that breaks them up (though Jimmy's affairs probably don't help), and the movie underscores the importance of their breakup: Both finally succeed as Jimmy opens a popular jazz club and Francine becomes an acting and singing star.

I have many favorite scenes: The opening, set at the famed Rainbow Room where Jimmy and Francine meet in the first bit of comedy that characterizes the film's early scenes; the captivating first song the two leads share, "You've Brought a New Kind of Love to Me"; when De Niro breaks up the club his old band is performing at; Minnelli's musical numbers (her voice is never better); Diahnne Abbott's sultry rendition of Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose"; the biggest emotional scene of the movie when Jimmy and Francine have a terrible argument that essentially leads to Francine going into labor with their son; Francine's triumphant return to New York featuring her performance of the title song; and, finally, the film's quiet, bittersweet finish.

New York, New York is a movie I've always had a lot of affection for. It's one of those movies where I just cannot understand why my friends don't see what I see in it. Or why they haven't ever seen it. While I admit it has its faults (it's a bit too long; De Niro's character, which Ted Sennett calls "harsh and unpleasant," becomes more so as the film progresses; the editing is choppy, especially in the last thirty or so minutes where time jumps forward abruptly), for me the pluses far outweigh the minuses. Boris Levin's production design and Laszlo Kovacs camera work is a visual feast, as are Theadora Van Runkle's brilliant costumes, and the glorious music, consisting of both standards--"The Man I Love," "Blue Moon," "Opus One," "Just You, Just Me"--and the Kander and Ebb originals.

Amazingly, New York, New York got second life when the movie was re-released in 1981 with the deleted scenes restored. The critical community sat up and reappraised the film, with some calling the restored version a masterpiece. As a full-fledged fan of the movie, I could not have agreed more.


Sources
New York, New York (Blu-Ray)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
Martin Scorsese by Les Keyser
Martin Scorsese, Close Up by Andy Dougan
MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot by Steven Bingen, Stephen X. Sylvester, and Michael Troyan
The Hollywood Musical by Clive Hirschhorn
The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson
Wikipedia
YouTube
Scorsesefilms.com: Behind the Screen-Minnelli on New York, New York
Images from the Web