Programming Note

I just discovered some Woody Allen-related posts that I wrote many years ago in the drafts section of my blog so I reposted them. That's while you'll see them below.

I had "un-published" them when that documentary came out earlier in the year because I didn't want trolls to attack them -- or me. But now, after a little time has passed, I've decided to re-publish them because hopefully tempers have cooled. 

Or not. We're living in very hot tempered times. 

I know, we're all supposed to hate Woody Allen now, he's considered a menace to society, and his once highly acclaimed movies are undergoing a cultural revisionism where now we're supposed to hate them as much as him. But if you're capable of thinking your own thoughts perhaps you can read and appreciate them no matter what you think of the man. 

Or not. These days we're not supposed to separate the art from the artist because, well, apparently some people think a human being and a work of art are the same thing or haven't matured beyond the age of seven.

Manhattan - Woody Allen

Woody Allen's 1979 classic Manhattan is 30 years old this year and it certainly hasten lost any of its luster over time. It's as funny and poignant as ever. Before Seinfeld, before When Harry met Sally, before Friends, before Sex and the City, before all those TV shows and movies about yuppie life in NYC, Manhattan defined and influenced the sophisticated urban comedy. If you've never seen it, Manhattan revolves around TV writer Ike Davis (Woody) who quits his job to write a book. Meanwhile he's dating a 17 year old high school student (Mariel Hemingway, foreshadowing Soon-Yi) and getting involved with Mary (Diane Keaton) the mistress of his married best friend Yale (Michael Murphy). To make matters worse, his now lesbian ex-wife (Meryl Streep) is writing a tell-all book about their failed marriage. People lie, cheat, and steal each others hearts. While a very funny movie, Manhattan is, above all, a morality tale about how the way you treat people will eventually come back to haunt you (so people should treat each other well). Manhattan was Woody's first comedy after the Oscar-winning Annie Hall, and a lot of people consider it to be the superior film. In many ways, this was a daring film for its day. In 1979, New York City was in terrible economic shape and crime was exploding (as referenced in this opening from the movie). To make a movie celebrating NYC at the time wasn't a particularly cool thing to do. unlike n ow. Also, gay characters didn't appear in a whole lot of movies then, particularly gay people who were unapologetically "out" and happy about it. Not to the mention that Manhattan was shot in black and white which wasn't exactly something that set the box office on fire, then or now. Still, it's one of the most beautiful movies Woody has ever made and was actually one of his biggest hits ever. Woody Allen co-wrote Manhattan with Marshall Brickman (both had won Oscars for co-writing Annie Hall). Marshall Brickman would go on to write other movies and he's one of the writers of the big Broadway musical hit Jersey Boys. It was the last movie they would write together until 1993 when they co-wrote Manhattan Murder Mystery. Coincidentally enough, Manhattan is also the last movie that Woody and Diane Keaton made until Manhattan Murder Mystery. (After Manhattan, Diane Keaton moved to California and her next big movie was Reds in 1981). Sadly, this great triumvirate hasn't made a movie since 1993 and probably never will again but that's okay ... we'll always have Manhattan.

Woody Speaks!

The legendary New York filmmaker Woody Allen doesn't give a lot of interviews -- let alone a long one on the radio. But Woody just gave one to Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air and it's great. He talks about his career, his movies, his philosophy on life (basically, that is sucks) as well as his new film, Whatever Works, starring Larry David. You can hear it ... here. Interesting thing about this movie: Woody actually wrote this script more than thirty years ago, in 1977, around the same time Annie Hall came out. Like many of Woody's movies, he wrote the first draft and then left it in the drawer for a while (in this case, a long while) before resuscitating it. Let's hope this movie was worth the wait!

More Woody

And if you can't get enough Woody, here's a long article about our favorite nebbish from Vanity Fair in 2005, around the same time Match Point was released.

The Best of Mr NYC Years End

As the clock ticks down to 2022, something occurred to moi: some of my best, or at least my favorite, posts are ones that I wrote at the end of various years. They were, as you might imagine, posts full of ruminations of the year gone by and the one right over the horizon but not always -- sometimes they were interviews or reports of odd things.

So here are my favorite end of the year blog posts that you might enjoy going back and reading again:

On the last day of 2013, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg was leaving office and Mayor-Elect Bill De Blasio was preparing to assume it, I wrote a blog post about how the Bloomberg years had marked a "farewell to funky town", how the wild city of the 20th century had became the much tamer one of the 21st. I also wrote about the recent deaths of some prominent New Yorkers who, in their way, defined "funky town". Now Mayor De Blasio is leaving and Mayor-Elect Eric Adams will be taking over and, it's fair to say, funky town, especially in a COVID world, is well and truly gone forever. 

Then, in 2018, a strange event happened in NYC -- a huge blue burst of light exploded over the sky of NYC, literally electrifying it. It was a strange yet amazing thing to happen in those quiet days between Christmas and New Year's, a reminder that this city is always full of surprises. 

In 2019, in my last post of the year, I did an extensive interview with Hyapatia Lee, the former adult actress and current Native-American activist. She was, and remains, a fascinating person with an amazing life story. It was a real honor to interview her.

Finally, last year, after a year-from-hell and another year-from-hell coming up, I wrote about my distinct memories of December 31, 1986 which remains my favorite New Year's Eve ever.

And now 2021 is in the history books and 2022 beckons. Fingers crossed that things get better but, even if they do, we have a long way to go. 

Review: "You're a Big Boy Now" (1966)

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the classic movie The Godfather which made its cast (Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, James Caan, and others) into huge stars (and cemented Marlon Brando's cinematic comeback). It also made its director, Francis Ford Coppola, into a household name.

Prior to The Godfather -- which became the highest grossest movie of all time when it was released in 1972 -- Coppola had only directed a few movies (Finian's Rainbow, The Rain People), none of which were successful. But prior to his Mafia classic, Coppola made his first movie in 1966, and it's actually one of his best: You're a Big Boy Now. 

Set in NYC during the psychedelic '60s, the movie is about a young man named Bernard (Peter Kastner) who lives under the thumb of his controlling parents (Rip Torn and Geraldine Page) and works at the New York Public Library. Bernard and other library flunkies move around the stacks looking for books and documents on roller skates and daydream about leading more exciting lives. Bernard decides to move out of his parents home on Long Island and into an apartment in Manhattan. Naive, virginal, innocent and sincere, Peter roams around Times Square and the city, finding temptation around every corner. He falls for a go-go dancer and actress named Barbara Darling (Elizabeth Hartman) who teases him constantly, all the while being pursued by a sweet girl named Amy (Karen Black), a former classmate of his. Many hijinks ensue including with a rooster that attacks attractive women (!) and that take young Bernard from the streets of the city into walk-up apartments, off-off-Broadway theaters, Central Park, and adult stores. 

But, fear not, true love prevails. 

You're a Big Boy Now is what I'd call a "romp": there are many wacky surreal scenes that would be annoying if it wasn't for the fact that we really like Bernard and are rooting for him. The characters are all very unique and well-drawn, and all of the acting is first-rate. Most of all, this is a very stylishly-directed film -- unlike Coppola's later slowing-moving, epic films, You're a Big Boy Now is fast-moving with lots of quick cuts, clearly influenced by the French New Wave and rock'n'roll spirit of the times (music by The Lovin' Spoonful plays throughout the movie). 

The movie came out a year before The Graduate and shares, in plot and tone, much in common with You're a Big Boy Now. But whereas the 1967 California-based movie is a very mainstream, straight-forward telling of a young man's coming of age, this 1966 NYC-based flick is an odd, eccentric, art movie about the same subject. 

So, to sum up: You're a Big Boy Now is a very  good, very 1960's, very NYC movie about moving into adulthood, and, since it's the debut film of one cinema's greatest directors, it's a must-see.  

P.S. This was the first movie made under the Mayor's Office of Film and Television. I remember, years ago, seeing an old clip of Mayor John Lindsay giving a press conference, announcing the creation of this office and this movie being shortly going into production. Standing right behind him was a young, fully-bearded Francis Ford Coppola which Lindsay pronounced "Cap-polla." 

The Subway in 2021

As COVID has raged across NYC, and the world, for almost two years now, so much of the city's life has been disrupted: the way we work, the way we play, the way we socialize, the way we negotiate our very lives.

But one thing hasn't changed -- the subway. No matter what, when we people need to get around NYC, they still use it. Even though I haven't travelled much around the city in 2021, when I did, the subway not only remained the best way to get around town, but provided me with a sense of normality, a sense of regularity, a link to the "before times", a link to my fellow New Yorkers.

It was like a second home within my home.

This article that chronicles the COVID year 2021 in the subway shows the good and bad of the subway. How it can be scary and comforting at the same time but that, at all times, reminds you of what a fascinating place NYC is -- even during the most difficult of times.

"Christmas Night in Harlem" from Louis Armstrong

Christmas in the Streets

New York City is a magical place during Christmastime, streets and buildings decked out with lights and wreaths and signs wishing us a happy holidays, attempting to buck up our spirits. The holiday season becomes part of the NYC aesthetic, you see it everywhere, it becomes, in a way, our neighbor.

But like any neighbor, it's changed over the years.

This article, with lots of pictures, presents a thoughtful look at how Christmas in the streets of NYC have changed over the decades. It's a reminder, that in NYC, even something as unchanging as the holidays morphs and evolves. 

Omicron in NYC

 

Wes Anderson's Real Unreal NYC

I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of Wes Anderson's movies -- I find them rather  precious and not that funny (although I enjoyed the Grand Budapest Hotel and want to see The French Dispatch).

This lack of enthusiasm includes his 2001 flick The Royal Tenenbaums, about a dysfunctional family in NYC.

While I'm not a big fan of the movie, I totally agree with this article about how The Royal Tenenbaums is certainly one of the most unique NYC movies ever made. The movie takes place in a totally surreal, completely unrealistic and fake version of the city -- even though it was filmed entirely on location in NYC. Unlike other movies that are filmed elsewhere but are set in, and attempt to portray a realistic version of, NYC, this movie was actually filmed here but shows a totally unbelievable version of the city. 

The movie is now 20 years but, whether its then or now, NYC is a place than can always be re-imagined. 

Dick Gottfried Says Goodbye

Assemblyman Dick Gottfried, who has represented the West Side of Manhattan in Albany for 52 years, will retire at the end of 2022. He's the longest-serving legislator in New York State history, a link to this city's and state's past. 

When he entered the Assembly as a twenty-something, Richard Nixon was President, Nelson Rockefeller was Governor, and John Lindsay was Mayor. The Watergate scandal was two years in the future, the NYC fiscal crises was 5 years in the future (as was Saturday Night Live), Son of Sam was 6 six years in the future, and 9/11 and COVID-19 were 30 and 50 years in the future. His long career was a part of and an undercurrent of this history, a source of stability in tumultuous times.

Politicians like Dick Gottfried are increasingly rare these days in that he was a public servant as much as a politician. He didn't want glory, fame, or money, and he didn't get into nasty scandals or say bombastic things -- he just served his constituents, faithfully and honestly and thoughtfully, for more than half-a-century. This city and state were lucky to have him and we can only hope that we'll get more public servants like him in elected office in the future. 

"And Just Like That ..." Makes the Subway Sexy ... and Confusing

The long awaited Sex and the City follow up series, And Just Like That, has hit HBO Max, and like the good New Yorker and yenta that I really am at heart, I've watched the first two episodes and look forward to the rest of them (and yes, I'm aware of the big twist in the first episode but I shan't reveal it here for those who haven't seen it yet).

But we gotta talk about the subway.

Unlike the original series that existed in an NYC Wonderland, where people were magically transported about the city either in cabs or on their fancily-clad, Manolo Blahnik-ed feet, in this "woke" update, the characters actually ride the subway. In fact, there's more subway scenes than sex scenes in this reboot -- or, put another way, they're going down differently in this new series than in the first one.

Most surprisingly of all, the subway stop that's visited the most (so far) is the 116th Street stop on the 1 train. Let's just say that this is a subway stop that I know VERY well. So imagine my surprise, and continued bewilderment, that the 116th Street station in And Just Like That is ... not the REAL 116th street station! It's either a set or another subway stop dressed up as the 116th street station.

And here's what's extra confusing -- the REAL 116th street station is beautiful (or as beautiful as a subway station in NYC can be) while the fake one on And Just Like That is grungy and scary and smaller than the real one.

This is confusing -- for a show that's all about glamour, about beauty, about a  fantasy version of NYC, why would they make this particular subway station so wretched when the real subway stop isn't wretched at all? Was the order from the producers, "Hey, make the subway scary for dramatic effect!"? Strange.

Anyway, go ahead and enjoy the station but, just remember, that ain't the real 116th street subway stop. 

Classic Mr NYC

There's a big new biography on 1930s movie star Greta Garbo that is getting stellar reviews.

A native of Sweden, Garbo came to Hollywood in the 1920s and became an immediate sensation during the silent-movie era, then successfully transitioned to talkies in the 1930s. She became one of the highest grossing (and paid) stars of her era, the jewel in the crown of the biggest studio of the time, MGM. While the country was mired in the Great Depression, Garbo's beauty and talent and glamour lifted the spirits of a people that were otherwise struggling. 

And then, in the 1940s, at the outbreak of World War II, at the height of her fame, Garbo quit Hollywood and never made another movie. She lived the rest of her life (she died in 1990) as a recluse on the Upper East Side, becoming dubbed "the hermit about town."

In 2011, I actually found the building that Garbo lived in, and took a picture and blogged about it. I've also written about Garbo (including one of her notorious lovers) over the years. Garbo was a forever mystery, in life and death, and nowhere did she seem more mysterious than in NYC. 

"NYC" From "Annie: Live!"

Out Tonight

As NYC recovers from the pandemic, one of the things that took the biggest hit -- and that New Yorkers of all stripes wish to recover -- is enjoyment of the nightlife.

Is there any town, anywhere in the world, that's better to go out at night in? 

The restaurants, clubs, shows, events, there's more to do on any given night in NYC that no one can ever do it all. 

We're the city that never sleeps, for reason. The greatness of NYC nightlife speaks for itself.

That's why three recent articles about going out in NYC caught my attention since they really summarize the drama and joy of nightlife in NYC.

There's the mayor-elect, Eric Adams, who declares that he plans to be omnipresent in NYC at night. Oh no, he won't shutter himself in Gracie Mansion when evening descends on the city, he'll be out rubbing shoulders with the great unwarshed, enjoying not only his power but his prestige as NYC night-lifer #1.

Oh course, one of the places where people go out at night are bars and clubs. Most cater to a certain clientele -- young, old, rich, poor, or scraping by. So that's what it was fascinating to read about how young New Yorkers are flocking to the Bemelman's bar at the Hotel Carlyle on the Upper East Side. This place is about as old-school NYC at it gets, it's hardly a place where the young and hip have congregated. Well, what's old is new or, in this case, young, again.

Finally, there's legendary NYC columnist (and past Mr NYC interviewee) Michael Musto, writing about what it's like to be an older man going out to the clubs and hitting the downtown scene these days. He shares his memories of what NYC nightlife was like when he was young and how it's changed -- but how he, an inveterate NYC "nightcrawler", has remained largely the same.