New York Stories [DVD]

Amazon.co.uk Review New York Stories comprises three views of life in the city of all cities, with segments directed by Woody Allen, Francis Coppola, and Martin Scorsese. The best of the three is Scorsese's "Life Lessons", about an artist (played by Nick Nolte) who uses his hyper-success to lure beautiful, young, aspiring artists to serve as his assistant/lovers. It's an astute portrait of the nature of the New York art world. In "Life Without Zoe", Coppola portrays the life of the privileged daughter of a world-renowned flautist, 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 the movie as a whole much more interesting and enjoyable, it does at least provide an accurate glimpse of life in the Big Apple. --James McGrath, Amazon.com Product Description This film comprises three short pieces by three directors (Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola) about life in New York City. The first, 'Life Lessons' is directed by Scorsese and focuses on a painter (Nick Nolte) whose young girlfriend (Rosanna Arquette) leaves him. The second, 'Life Without Zoe' is directed by Coppola and centres on a rich young girl (Talia Shire) who wants to reunite her parents and the third, Allen's 'Oedipus Wrecks' focuses on a neurotic lawyer (Allen) who can't escape the interfering influence of his mother.