Chapter2 Perspectives: New York as a Character, New York as a Backdrop
“I can't with any conscience argue for New York with anyone. It's like Calcutta. But I love the city in an emotional, irrational way, like loving your mother or your father even though they're a drunk or a thief. I've loved the city my whole life - to me, it's like a great woman.” From one of his earliest films, Bananas (1971) all the way to his latest work, Café Society (2016), Woody Allen has always treated New York as a principal character in his cinema. His Manhattan is an extension of his human characters’ personalities, or vice versa: his protagonists are Manhattan personified. The rapid-fire one-liners, agonized relationships and vintage jazz music in Allen’s movies …show more content…
Comparing the West and the East Coasts, he commented, “Los Angeles is a wonderful city. Beautiful houses, wonderful weather. Los Angeles is great for driving; that's where I learned to drive. And it's great for driving because it's laid out for cars, not for people. New York is for people.” Rotten and hideous, New York still remains to Scorsese a place of vigor, energy, and most importantly, redemption. Growing up in a devoutly religious environment, the Roman Catholic concept of guilt and redemption exerts a profound impact on Scorsese’s cinema. Most of his early protagonists are discomposed young men who strive to find atonement for their sins. "The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand, the kind you can feel in your heart—your soul, the spiritual side. And you know, the worst of the two is the spiritual." Throughout Mean Streets (1973), Charlie Cappa (Harvey Keitel) places his hand above open flames over and again, as if by tormenting himself with the roaring inferno he can achieve some spiritual salvation. The same masochistic tendency can be found in Raging Bull (1980), when Jake La Motta (played by Robert De Niro) submissively takes relentless beating from his opponent yet still self-destructively remains standing in the ring. In The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Jesus (Willem Dafoe) takes Judas Iscariot (Harvey Keitel) in his arms and begs Judas to betray him so that he can be crucified and resurrected—that’s the only way he can save the world. And in movies like Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), the world is the festering city of New York. “All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets,” says Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in his most famous TD soliloquy.
“I can't with any conscience argue for New York with anyone. It's like Calcutta. But I love the city in an emotional, irrational way, like loving your mother or your father even though they're a drunk or a thief. I've loved the city my whole life - to me, it's like a great woman.” From one of his earliest films, Bananas (1971) all the way to his latest work, Café Society (2016), Woody Allen has always treated New York as a principal character in his cinema. His Manhattan is an extension of his human characters’ personalities, or vice versa: his protagonists are Manhattan personified. The rapid-fire one-liners, agonized relationships and vintage jazz music in Allen’s movies …show more content…
Comparing the West and the East Coasts, he commented, “Los Angeles is a wonderful city. Beautiful houses, wonderful weather. Los Angeles is great for driving; that's where I learned to drive. And it's great for driving because it's laid out for cars, not for people. New York is for people.” Rotten and hideous, New York still remains to Scorsese a place of vigor, energy, and most importantly, redemption. Growing up in a devoutly religious environment, the Roman Catholic concept of guilt and redemption exerts a profound impact on Scorsese’s cinema. Most of his early protagonists are discomposed young men who strive to find atonement for their sins. "The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand, the kind you can feel in your heart—your soul, the spiritual side. And you know, the worst of the two is the spiritual." Throughout Mean Streets (1973), Charlie Cappa (Harvey Keitel) places his hand above open flames over and again, as if by tormenting himself with the roaring inferno he can achieve some spiritual salvation. The same masochistic tendency can be found in Raging Bull (1980), when Jake La Motta (played by Robert De Niro) submissively takes relentless beating from his opponent yet still self-destructively remains standing in the ring. In The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Jesus (Willem Dafoe) takes Judas Iscariot (Harvey Keitel) in his arms and begs Judas to betray him so that he can be crucified and resurrected—that’s the only way he can save the world. And in movies like Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), the world is the festering city of New York. “All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets,” says Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in his most famous TD soliloquy.