Scorsese’s only musical was his most chaotic service. At the height of his glory after the gold medal for “Taxi Driver”, the director is at the peak of his megalomania. His ambition? He orchestrates the encounter between the artifice of musicals like MGM produced on the chain in the 1940s and the truthfulness of marital drama a la John Cassavetes. De Niro plays an ambitious saxophonist returning from the Pacific War. Liza Minnelli, singer on the rise. They seduce each other, they love each other, they divide, they find each other, they destroy each other while their respective careers – she succeeds in variety, he vegetates in jazz – keep them a little further apart.
The art of love and the love of art don’t mix. Scorsese knows best because he saw it live. During filming he has an affair with Liza Minnelli while his wife is pregnant. On coke 24 hours a day, she doesn’t leave the studio, constantly improvising with her two stars … while the extras roam the sets. The budget goes up, the shooting never ends. When publisher Irving Lerner dies, Marcia Lucas, George’s wife, comes to the rescue. At the same time, she is editing a science fiction film, directed by her husband, in which no one believes. Wobbly and beautiful (the mingling of genres is counterproductive, De Niro and Minnelli are masterful), “New York, New York”, which everyone has been waiting for in turns, will barely cover its costs. The other is “Star Wars”.
Thursday 1 December at 20:50 on TCM Cinéma. American musical comedy by Martin Scorsese (1977). With Robert De Niro, Liza Minnelli. 2h36. (Multicast and On Demand).
