The Three New Yorks

Douglas Van Hollen

Software engineer. Kravist. Oenophile. MSTie. Trekker. Last of the V8 Interceptors. On permanent sabbatical in Winter River, CT.

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3 Responses

  1. David Conrad says:

    My favorite New York City film is The Most Obvious One (http://blogrp.flickchart.com/the-annotated-godfather-10-times-art-imitates-life-in-coppolas-classics/), which is a little bit of all three types, but one that I seem to like better than most people and that does a particularly good job with intersectionality in the city is Cassavetes’ Shadows. The choice to work without a script may not lead to anything more “real” than a scripted drama, but it does seem to have allowed the actors to express their own New Yorks, with the result that different characters are in different New York Cities. Tony Ray, born in D.C. with a Hollywood pedigree, has come for New York #3, and clearly thinks that’s where he is, while Lelia Goldani, born in NYC, is fluent in #1 and knows that that’s the kind of New York movie they’re in.

    My favorites of the #2 type have to be the first two Malle/Gregory/Shawn movies: My Dinner With Andre and Vanya on 42nd Street. I’ll save my thoughts on those for a blog piece someday.

    • What’s fascinating about your last sentence is something I didn’t touch on in the post, which is that which New York a film takes place in is very much in the eye of the beholder. I personally would have placed the Malle-iverse in #3, “where art happens”, but I can totally see the argument for seeing those films as a study of the “lifestyles of the rich and famous” in city #2.

  2. oxfordtricks2018 says:

    Yah, it’s been good to see as a NYC cult. And, also good to see the article based on western culture.