#NEW YORK TIMES BEST MOVIES 2017 FULL#
In his own words, “For some reason I’ve always had an irrational love for New York … the city is so full of chaos, and the chaos is, for many people, pleasurable.” The romance focuses on an older man and a young girl, something that would mirror the controversies in the director’s real life, but the romance here is really between a man and his city. Manhattan is also a very good romantic comedy, dryer than his earlier comedies but still funny and loose. The black and white compositions around the city that open the film are some of the most memorable glamour shots the city has ever had. There is an undeniable majesty to his hometown’s skyline, and is even more unforgettable as shot by the inimitable Gordon Willis. The New York of Woody Allen is at least partly a dream, inspired by real life. These characters are less historical figures than stand-ins for where we came from, immigrants looking for a new identity in a world full of promise, finding that they would have to fight for it. This is in many ways a symbolic New York, a parable of a city born in turmoil. The accuracy of its history may be questionable, but Scorsese is more interested in the feel of this bygone time and place. His father was an Irish immigrant who had gone to war (the opening and ending sequences are envisioned very much like a war film) with the “nativists,” men who have forgotten how few generations separate them from a similar boat. The story is of a son (DiCaprio) who witnesses the death of his father, returning as an adult to seek revenge on the killer, played iconically by Daniel Day-Lewis. Taking us back nearly 150 years to look at the early days of the city, its facade may look different, but Scorsese’s Old New York is plagued by all the same problems with race, class, corruption and violence. Like many films on this list, its New York is, in one way or another, an invention. Martin Scorsese’s sprawling, semi-historical epic has its share of promoters and detractors. Some of these films were made by Oscar-winning directors and featured A-list actors, but the uncredited star of each is the city in which they were set. This is not meant to be a list of simply the 25 best films that take place there, but a list of films that put New York City on display in specific, unique or memorable ways. Its cultural diversity offers writers and directors an infinite number of stories to tell, themes to explore, and gifts their cinematographers with a visage that photographs beautifully – in both wide and close up, color or black and white. It is a city that has inspired a lot of filmmakers. When it comes to American cinema, New York City is far and away one of the most popular settings.
0 kommentar(er)
