Film Studies
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Film critics Dana Stevens of Slate and Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman join us each week in October to talk about films. This week: movies set in New York, from Michael Clayton to American Gangster. What's your all-time favorite New York movie?
Comments [131]
Arthur - the wittiest debauchorous millionaire ever with most brilliant straight man sidekick , Sir John Gielgud. A highly amusing commentary about social class, romance and adulthood.
And with keeping in the same letters and same year:
"Author! Author!". Endearing comedy about a play write (Pacino) and his eclectic assortment of kids and step kids living a creative and chaotic life in the Village.
Bad Lieutenant
The Professional
The Warriors
King Of New York
The Godfather Parts I & II
The Driller Killer
Superfly
French Connection
Serpico
Taxi Driver
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
9 1/2 Weeks
Carlito's Way
Do The Right Thing
Dog Day Afternoon
Sweet Smell of Success
The Naked City
Juice
Saturday Night Fever
Pickup On South Street
Escape From New York
American Psycho
New Jack City
Year of the Dragon
Panic In Needle park
Mean Streets
Cruising
Soylent Green
Style Wars
Wild Style
Downtown 81
Bad Brains: Live at CBGB 1982
Summer Of Sam
Fresh
Kids
Midnight Cowboy
Shaft
Pi
How could I forget! Cigarettes and Romance - John Turturros's wonderful movie - everybody should go see it!!! he can't get a distributor even though it's a hit all over teh world and we in NY know where he is filming! (outer boroughs)
One of the most overlooked of gritty-70's New York films is Gordon Parks "Shaft" starring Richard Roundtree. It has great shots of Harlem, Times Square, and the West Village.(Every time I pass Cafe Reggio in the Village not only do I think of the film, but also of Issac Hayes instrumental track titled "Cafe Reggio" on the album)In fact, Shaft won an Oscar for best movie music score for Issac Hayes for Godsakes!
A Bronx Tale
SHAFT (Richard Roundtree) for the opening sequence through Times Square '72, and the scene at the No Name Bar.
Got to be After Hours. Griffin Dunne losing himself in the quirky mayhem that is late night Gotham
Caught your piece on best NY movies. There was mention of Scorcese, but again, no mention of one of the best depictions of NYC in the late '40's, early '50's: RAGING BULL.
I can think of no other film that provides as viceral an impression of the city during this time than this.
The depictions of Bronx tenement and street life, the Italian social club and Parish dance, the Bronx rooftop wedding reception (the only scene filmed in color): unforgettable.
I've heard and read many pieces on 'best NY films' over the years, but am amazed that this movie is almost never mentioned.
Maybe people can't get past the boxing.
Well, Sex & The City isn't out yet-but if it's anything like the show it will definitely be my favorite!
I agree...any Woody Allen and When Harry... :)
Great display of the city.
Breakfast at Tiffany's
my bodyguard..
riding motorcycles across the 59th st bridge.
getting into fights in centralpark ,ahhh youth..
these are just a few off the top of my head:
beat street
wall street
midnight cowboy
big
coogan's bluff - I always think of the cloister chase scene when I go there.
And whoever said "The Conversation.." Sorry buddy, that was San Francisco.
And did I forget 12 Angry Men?
Taking of Pelham, New Jack City, Kids, Requiem for a Dream, Pi, and Fresh. Nuff said.
After Hours
The Naked City - when New York was still ethnic and interesting
Taxi Driver - what movie better captures seedy New York
On the Bowery
On the Waterfront
Planet of the Apes
(which not-so-gently reminds us of the old Indian name for Manhattan, "Island of Many Hills.")
And, of course, the phenomenal "Sweet Smell of Success."
"I love this dirty town."
OF COURSE! How could I forget "DO THE RIGHT THING". One of the best movies of our time.
igby goes down - yes, that's the best!!!!
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" - seeing it made me want to move from Ohio to New York. Also "Hannah and Her Sisters", a Woody Allen valentine to the city.
Correction--I meant The Royal Tenenbaums, not The Royal Hendersons (which is not even a movie, I don't think).
I like The Royal Hendersons and The Squid and the Whale for NYC movies with an authentic feel.
Nothing by Woody Allen--to this native New Yorker, he's completely off base.
I'd love to know the current guest's (George Carlin's) picks.
How about "On The Town" & "Saturday Night Fever" as a double bill.
"The Day of the Condor" & Godfather Part 1
Love Affair (with Irene Dunn), An Affair to Remember (D. Kerr) & When Harry Met Salley.
Any of the first ten films of Woody Allen or Spike Lee.
How about "Do the Right Thing" & "Manhattan"
or "She's Got to Have It" & "Annie Hall"
How about "Desperately Seeking Susan" and "After Hours"?
"Metropolitan" and "Radio Days" come to mind, as well as the original version of "The Producers".
King Of New York, Christopher Walken at his best.
Basquiat and C.H.U.D. (chanabolistic human underground dwellars)
Two very different films that I love.
How about "Desperately Seeking Susan" and "After Hours"?
Sweet smell of success
the sweet smell of success :favorite ny film
Frankie and Johnny
NEW JACK CITY
too obvious?
manhattan: the opening credits alone.
PAID IN FULL, the Harlem gangster film.
Elf
Definitely, The Taking of Pelham 123
Favorite NYC movie-- La Ciudad. Beautiful neo-realist film made by David Riker in 1998, four black-&-white short stories of immmigrants living in the city. Fiction that's full of truth:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0168589/
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0412214
"Do The Right Thing" juxtaposed with "You've Got Mail"
Husbands, Serpico and more recently Do the Right Thing!!!!
The Taking Of Pelham 123, Hannah and Her Sisters
Sweet smell of success
Breakin- movie on break dancing
BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET
By no means the greatest, but a nod to the "Raphsody in Blue" segment from Fantasia 2000
OOPS! not new york
The Warriors was a grsat intro to NYC. I saw it 20 years before I moved here. It is a take on the run from Marathon to the sea..a gang trying to make it to the beach. Yaphet Kotto was fabulous!
Do The Right Thing (and some other Spike Lee joints)
don't forget "wild style".
Mutual Appreciation by Andrew Bujalski
How about "Moonstruck"
Metropolitan.
Big!
Do The Right Thing
very new york, very real
An Unmarried Woman with Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, and Michael Murphy
The Conversation
Taxi Driver, Saturday Night Fever, Do the Right Thing
Do the Right Thing
Coffee and Cigarettes
Desperately Seeking Susan
Downtown 81
Best Films:
Do The Right Thing - Spike Lee
I'm Not Rappaport
Last Ten Years:
Inside Man - Spike Lee for the details, architectural and Cultural such as the Albanian in the crowd and the Gargoil in the intro.
Roayl Tennenbaums - Wes Anderson
All NYC with out any direct connection to NYC.
Oh yes, also, "WHEN HARRY MET SALLY"!!! One of my all time favorites!!!
The Naked City
midnight cowboy. dog day afternoon.
seriously, don't sleep on "the siege." with its anti arab-american sentiment and jihadi terrorism, it's almost scary to watch it now
How about: The sweet smell of success.
Carlito's Way (1993)- when NYC is flimed correctly it becomes a character too.
"Husbands" by Cassavetes
My Cuusin Vinny...so New York even though set in the South
Moonstruck, all the Woody Allen movies set in New York and Kissing Jessica Stein.
Igby Goes Down
my favorite ny movie from the last ten years is "As Good As it Gets". A great study on the interactions between people from different social classes as they coexist in nyc (artist, waitress, rich writers).
Best NYC car chase... "The Seven Ups"
Sweet Smell of Success
(I might have said Dog Day Afternoon, but it's being talked about now)
I’d have to say my favorite cinematic depiction of NYC is in “A Boy Named Charlie Brown”. The scene where Snoopy iceskates by himself in a desolate Rockerfeller center makes me want to cry. The colors are washed out by the darkness. It’s sweet and romantic and desolate. It’s like the quiet of NYC in the very wee hours of the morning…
Muppets Take Manhattan, When Harry Met Sally, Little Manhattan (shows the UWS i know and love)
Squid & The Whale was a great non manhattan movie I think... and i used to live in Park Slope when I watched it.
oh, and Mean Streets... gosh, i'm getting too old.
Maybe "Pi"
as well
Mean Streets.
"BEAT STREET"
"The WARRIORS"
"WILD STYLE"
"JUICE"
"FRESH"
"Juice"
"CARLITO'S WAY"
"DO THE RIGHT THING"
"ghost" for the marcy ave section of the burg, back when it was holywood-ese for scary nyc
Serendipity!
best post 9/11 movie:
25th hour
Summer of Sam (sorry, it's more than 10 years ago) but captures the boroughs so well...
Ghostbusters. Without falling into the trap of Echt grit, this fantasy sci fi comedy manages to evoke an abiding sense of the city.
Also: "Kids", "As Good as it Gets", "Someone Like You" and "American Psycho"
"requim for a dream" i'm a brighton beach boy.
Favorite NYC movies: "The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3," "Across 110th St."
How about "Saturday Night Fever" - no really! Without all the hoopla, the story was very New York and very well done.
Also, "The Pope of Greewich Village".
Spike Lee's "25th Hour"
In America. Poignantly real side of immigrant families in New York.
Big! Can't beat the FAO Schwartz scene, not to mention Coney Island.
squid and the whale written and directed by a New Yorker
The best, most accurate of NYC in the 70s is THE TAKING OF THE PELHAM 1-2-3
Godspell has some great shots of New York in the early 70s, including a dance scene set atop the nearly finished WTC.
From the last 10 years
American Psycho (movie not book) is a comedy of manners for the new Manhattan era.
summer of sam
Favorite--boring insofar as the critics have already called Scorcese the poet of the streets--Mean Streets.
Coming to America
and as a nod to the outer boroughs:
the squid and the whale
The French Connection!
A strange film, Addiction, by NYC's own Abel Ferrara, starring Lili Taylor and Christopher Walken -- dark and mysterious and, well, a bit pretensious, like NYC.
Also, Party Girl, with Parker Posey as the original hipster librarian.
For a NYC film of the last ten years, I'd have to say Spike Lee's "25th Hour." His portrayal of a wounded, raw post-9/11 city is a rich backdrop to a great film.
Within the last 10 years? Well, how about a recent re-release: Cruising, the Friedkin/Pacino cop thriller. You want a 70's-era "gritty" New York? Here it is in spades. Well, 1980, I guess.
The Muppets Take Manhattan - After seeing the movie as a child I dreamed of moving to New York.
Dog Day Afternoon, and The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3. I grew up in and around the city and I like these movies because Pelham 1-2-3, in particular, captures the undercurrent of dread that existed a while ago.
though they never actually call it New York, I think that "the Royal Tenebaums" is certainly one of the best New York movies of the last decade.
i think the siege is a terrific, and extremely prescient, recent NYC movie
fyi i watched a scene of amrican gangster being filmed at the tombs in chinatown earlier this year, in the middle of a hectic saturday. amazing!
my all time favorite NYC movie is "Naked City" because it is gritty, without pretense and shot in black and white. "French Connection" gives the best total NYC quality, you really feel as if you are there in the movie.
The Devil's Advocate. A great picture of that new corporate life New York has become. :-)
I'd have to say Martin Scorsese's After Hours.
25th Hour was a perfect take on New York immediately following the WTC attacks. I loved seeing my New York that I remember so well portrayed in such a honest and difficult light.
The Squid and the Whale also.
The Royal Tennenbaums might be the best New York movie about the over privileged.
"Kids" is a modern classic.
How about "Jacob's Ladder" with a young, paranoid Tim Robbins? Dirty subways, graffiti, small, crowded apartments that actually look affordable....
No NYC landmarks, just the feel of solitary, grungy New York.
Plus a great movie.
The Warriors. It's older than 10 years, but great NYC street scenes from Bronx to Riverside Park to Coney.
the warriors (1979)
After Hours
25th Hour...i love how accurately it portrays post 9/11 NYC with all its' beauty and flaws. It's so clearly made by a New Yorker.
How to kill a movie: Title it something that means nothing to anybody.
You know, like, "Michael Clayton."
Ok, not in the last ten years...but, The Fisher King...if only for the dancing scene in Grand Central Station. Beautiful!
"My Dinner With Andre" has some great NY moments
The Sweet Smell of Success - best NYC movie ever!
The French Connection
Muppets Take Manhattan!
the wrong man-hitchcock
When Harry Met Sally
King Kong.
the wrong man - hitchcock
"Vanilla Sky" with Tom Cruise
"Desk Set," Tracey & Hepburn, Walter Lang director, 1957. Loved her apartment and the scene on the roof of the Newsweek building.
New York city is being turned into Stamford, CT. For shame.
Pick any Woody Allen movie and that would be my favorite NYC movie. No one can do it better.
Leave a Comment
Register for your own account so you can vote on comments, save your favorites, and more. Learn more.
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. We reserve the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting. By leaving a comment, you agree to New York Public Radio's Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use.