vothty In these three short stories set in New York, Allen boils a funny but flavourless chicken, Coppola conducts a disastrous flute solo, and Scorsese paints a masterpiece.

leonblackwood Review: These 3 short movies by these top directors, wasn't as good as I thought they would be. Scorsese's short movie with Nick Nolte and Rosanna Arquette, was the best of the three but I still expected better from him. The story follows a painter who is totally in love with his ex-partner, who keeps on using him, and he only seems to paint when she is in his life. Nolte put in a good performance, but the storyline didn't seem to go anywhere. The next short from Coppola was terrible. It followed a young girl who had rich parents and seemed to live by herself most of the time because of there busy work commitments. Personally, I found the little girl annoying and this was another storyline that was weak and uninteresting. Woody Allen's short wasn't that much better. Its about a man who has an annoying mother who just won't stop interfering in his life. I didn't find this short that funny and the whole woman in the sky thing was ridiculous. In all, I was disappointed with these short movies which centred around New York, but out of all of the directors, Scorsese is the winner. Disappointing!Round-Up: Once these directors heard that they were going to be making a movie together, based on 3 different stories, I expected them to pull out there best work, but the end results were quite poor. Coppola hasn't done anything that amazing since the Untouchables and the Godfather and Woody Allen hasn't done anything in the same calibre as Scorsese. I think that the whole film was based on there love for New York, hence the title, but the individual films haven't really got that much to do with the city. I know that it's obvious that they were filmed in New York but thats about it. Anyway, Scorsese latest movie, The Wolf Of Wall Street was brilliant and his work on this project put the other 2 directors to shame. As this film came out in 1989, I think that it would be totally different if the directors teamed up again to make another movie like this. Budget: $15million Worldwide Gross: $11millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there dramas about 3 different stories based in New York and directed by Coppola, Scorsese and Woody Allen. 4/10

michaeltidemann I have viewed the "Life Lessons" segment of New York Stories probably 80 times. I use the film religiously in my college writing classes.The assignment I give my students is to define art for Lionel, for Paulette, and for themselves. After some analysis, students realize that a big problem between Lionel and Paulette is that they view art differently. Paulette constantly needs external validation ("Can you tell me if I'm any good or not") while for Lionel art is a compulsion - his life and art feed off each other. Students who are able to get past Lionel's somewhat dysfunctional personality are able to understand and discuss some very important concepts about what it is to be an artist.I would highly recommend "Life Lessons" to anyone teaching art, aesthetics, writing, or theater classes. It's a great way to initiate a discussion about art.

mkw-5 "Life Lessons" (Scorsese)-This is really different from the Scorsese we are used to see. This special form (=short episodes) seems to have given the directors some new possibilities and freedoms. The movie is great. Nick Nolte and Rosanna Arquette are absolutely perfect. The story is simple on the surface, but the characters are very well build and very realistic: They are both lovable, sympathetic and stupid and selfish at the same time. The characters are maybe the deepest and most multi-dimensional that I've ever seen in a Scorsese movie."Life Without Zoe" (Coppola)-Very interesting movie. The story is about rich people, a rich and well succeeded family. The movie shows that rich people are people also. Very specially directed and acted. Very interesting."Oedipus Wrecks" (Allen)-I don't know if Allen is a director or an artist at all. He don't have anything to say, at least in this short picture. He's again acting himself, and comically, not acting very good. He's a super-neurotic person that creates problems out of nothing. He doesn't seem to have anything else in his life than whining about nothing and making movies about that. This is his most boring work I've seen. OK, maybe he's done something good also. But this was so bad, so boring and uninteresting that I hardly could watch it even with fast forwarding.Overally, because the Scorsese's piece is so great, and the Coppola's piece also in it's own way, this episode movie was very good, and very interesting. Allen's part couldn't make the other parts worse. Recommended for everybody.