United States, 1977
Directed by Martin Scorsese
With Robert De Niro (Jimmy), Liza Minnelli (Francine)
The production started while the screenplay wasn’t ready. Costs quickly overran. Montage turned into a nightmare. The final cut was shorter than the director’s project. Success was tepid. It is not a well-liked movie. Is it worth another look?
Working on the Hollywood heritage and his own psychological obsessions, in a rather unruly manner, Martin Scorsese proffers a story both complicated and unexpected for the audience. It is a startling and enthusiastic tribute to musicals and at the same time the sad examination of a relationship unable to last. Characters carry us to a fine exploration of the various riches of jazz music and entertainment even as their performances are bound to divide them.
The most fragile element of the plot, and for some an unredeemable flaw, is why Francine stands by Jimmy for so long – even as she wasn’t really interested in him in the first place. Maybe it could be put down to a reluctance to live in conflict or a fear of being alone again. But her drive to have success and share it may be enough to understand her willingness to cope with Jimmy’s testy nature.
This desire of a shared ambition is doomed. Jimmy dreams of a success fed by his ability to connect with new forms of jazz without making compromise. He wants to be his own master and a leader. In a telling scene, when Francine gives the orchestra the signal to start, he flies out of the handle and humiliate her. When she chooses to go back to New York for her pregnancy, he’s amazed. The time spent in Big Apple isn’t going to bring them closer. As she gets successful with her records of songs and confident of her future, the difference turns into a chasm.
Their affair ends in a graphic and poignant sequence. She has come to the jazz club where he plays with leading black musicians to get his approval for a contract. He appears unconcerned during the talks with her managers. When they leave, she tries to go up on the scene he stands. But he gets up and plays his saxophone so forcefully, with such a glare, that she moves back and gets out. His notes are stronger than her will; or rather they are from a world she is not allowed to access. The quarrel that follows in their car is incredibly violent, and incredibly convincing and mesmerizing for the audience. The final straw is when Jimmy chooses not to see her newborn son at the clinic. Here, the camera pans to the left and focuses on a white wall; the next scene shows us Francine with a kid in a studio. Separation occurred and time lapsed; it is expressed in a remarkable ellipsis.
That is part of a constant inventiveness to shot the story. The first sequence is a dynamic and boisterous reconstruction of a street and a bar in New York on V-Day in 1945. Joy is all over the place and the camera swirls as it captures the mood and follows Jimmy, first the feet and then the rest of his stubborn persona. It is a tour de force that introduces the musical theme and the difficulty for Jimmy to seduce Francine. The director gladly exploits the possibilities that brilliant camera motions and the sophisticated sets offer in order to bring his audience closer to the different aspects of the drama and the atmosphere of the music genre that the characters try to master to make a living and achieve their aspirations. Jazz was indeed at the narrative’s time in a golden age in terms of influence and popularity, while on the cusp of a stylistic transformation.
Cinema matters too. Growing success in the record industry enables Francine to take her chance at the film industry. The final and boldest tour de force of Scorsese is to follow the character as she starts acting and then to show whole sections of a spectacle until we suddenly realize, as the camera focus on people in a movie theater and especially Jimmy, that we have just watch a film within a film, another picture whose magnificent and dazzling images are a breathtaking evocation of visual prowess of some past musicals. Scorsese started to shot his movie with this long sequence and he clearly enjoyed it fully – an enthusiasm still palpable and easy to share, even if the change from one narrative to another can unnerve.
“New York, New York” isn’t a flawless and seamless oeuvre, as many duly noted upon its release. Even if it promotes a movie called “Happy Endings” it refuses to give a romantic and predictable conclusion to the characters ‘story. It can sound too messy – perhaps because ad-lib played a greater part in the dialogues than the screenplay, making some developments a bit long-winded, a bit confused. But a visual richness and an amazing cinematic energy still make it a great experience for moviegoers. The knack of the director for the most eloquent and elegant images seems sometimes unparalleled. The talent of the actors gives a genuine, powerful, ring to their characters’ emotions. A feature often overlooked in the movie is the real and constant sense of humor running through it (for instance, who can forget the wedding scene with the broken glass and the suicidal idea of Jimmy?). And then there is the song.