Most moviegoers probably couldn’t tell you the name of the musical Martin Scorsese directed, if they even believed you when you insisted that he had a musical under his belt at all. Scorsese’s New York, New York, a tale of two performers juggling their careers with the bumpy romance between them, has aged remarkably well and features Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli at the height of their careers with him coming off of Taxi Driver, 1900, and The Last Tycoon and her five years out from Cabaret and perhaps one of her last great screen performances.
Now De Niro gives us films like Little Fockers and Righteous Kill whereas Minnelli has become something closer to a pop culture joke appearing in Arrested Development and Sex and the City 2. The point being, if you want to go back to a time when both Minnelli and De Niro were delivering great performances and genuinely breaking new ground in their careers, then New York, New York is a great film to fit the bill, even if the overall pacing is a bit plodding and the chemistry between the two lukewarm.
The persistent Jimmy Doyle (De Niro), a club saxophonist, presses Francine (Minnelli), a lounge singer, until she gives him the time of day to both date him and be his accompaniment at big band gigs in the Big Apple. The film charts the ups and downs of their professional and love lives.
The restoration for the film is satisfactory, though the bitrate isn’t nearly as good as it could or should be at only 24 MBps, but Scorsese filmed it well and consequently it holds up visually even if the HD transfer isn’t anything special.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Despite being one of the classic films MGM is transferring to Blu-ray, there are quite a few extras to be had including an intro to the film from Scorsese, a really interesting audio commentary with Scorsese and film critic Carrie Rickey, a retrospective on the film from Minnelli, and a two part behinds the scenes and retrospective on the film which just might be the best featurette to be found. Finally, the disc is rounded out with alternate and deleted scenes and a little more commentary on the film from Laszlo Kovacs, ASC, and the film’s director of photography.
"New York, New York" is on sale June 7, 2011 and is rated PG. Drama, Musical. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Earl Mac Rauch, Mardik Martin. Starring Liza Minnelli, Robert De Niro.
