New York, I Love You (2009)

Directors:

Fatih Akin
Yvan Attal

Writers:

Emmanuel Benbihy (concept)
Tristan Carné (premise)

Release Date:

16 October 2009 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

every moment another story begins

Plot:

An anthology film joining several love stories set in one of the most loved cities of the world, New York.

Plot Keywords:

Love | New York | Anthology | Place Name In Title | Omnibus

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Natalie Portman	...	Rifka (segment "Mira Nair")
Shia LaBeouf	...	Jacob (segment "Shekhar Kapur")
Anton Yelchin	...	Boy in the Park (segment "Brett Ratner")
Bradley Cooper	...	Gus (segment "Allen Hughes")
Blake Lively	...	Girlfriend (segment "Brett Ratner")
Robin Wright Penn	...	Anna (segment "Yvan Attal")
Orlando Bloom	...	David (segment "Shunji Iwai")
Christina Ricci	...	Camille (segment "Shunji Iwai")
Hayden Christensen	...	Ben (segment "Jiang Wen")
Rachel Bilson	...	Molly (segment "Jiang Wen")
Ethan Hawke	...	Writer (segment "Yvan Attal")
Justin Bartha	...	Sarah's Boyfriend (Transitions)
John Hurt	...	Waiter (segment "Shekhar Kapur")
James Caan	...	Mr. Riccoli (segment "Brett Ratner")
Eva Amurri	...	Sarah (Transitions)
Drea de Matteo	...	Lydia (segment "Allen Hughes")
Chris Cooper	...	Alex (segment "Yvan Attal")
Maggie Q	...	Call Girl (segment "Yvan Attal")
Andy Garcia	...	Garry (segment "Jiang Wen")
Cloris Leachman	...	Mitzie (segment "Joshua Marston")
Olivia Thirlby	...	Actress (segment "Brett Ratner")
Eli Wallach	...	Abe (segment "Joshua Marston")
Julie Christie	...	Isabelle (segment "Shekhar Kapur")
Jacinda Barrett	...	Maggie
Burt Young	...	Landlord (segment "Fatih Akin")
Qi Shu	...	Chinese herbalist
Taylor Geare	...	Teya (segment "Natalie Portman")
Irrfan Khan	...	Mansuhkhbai (segment "Mira Nair")
Emilie Ohana	...	Zoe - the Video Artist
Ugur Yücel	...	Painter (segment "Fatih Akin")
Ashley Klein	...	Prom girl (segment "Brett Ratner")
Sinsu Co	...	Mystery Bar Girl (segment "Allen Hughes")
Eliezer Meyer	...	Grand Rabbi Elli (segment "Mira Nair")
Jordann Beal	...	Prom girl (segment "Brett Ratner")
Gary Cherkassky	...	Skater Punk (segment "Joshua Marston")
Richard Chang	...	Mr. Su (Transitions)
Cesar De León	...	Dominican (segment "Natalie Portman")
Gurdeep Singh	...	Badal (Transitions)
Amy Raudenbush	...	Mom #1 (segment "Natalie Portman")
Carlos Acosta	...	Dante (segment "Natalie Portman")
Loukas Papas	...	Pizza Patron - Transitions
Juri Henley-Cohn	...	Ali (Transitions)
Duane Nakia Cooper	...	Haitian Cab Driver - Transitions
Vedant Gokhale	...	Cab Driver (Transitions)
Eddie D'vir	...	Rabbi (segment "Mira Nair")
Jeff Chena	...	Bartender (segment "Jiang Wen")
Robert d Scott	...	Du-Rag (Transitions)
Andy Karl	...	Evan (Transitions)
Simon Dasher	...	Guitarist (Transitions)
Adam Moreno	...	DJ Blue (segment "Brett Ratner")
Himad Beg	...	Indian Man (Transitions)
Adam S. Phillips	...	Jogger - Transitions
Aron Charach	...	Young Hasid (segment "Mira Nair")
Brad Naprixas	...	Hassid in Wedding (segment "Mira Nair")

Also Known As:

New York, je t'aime (France) (literal title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and sexual content.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

France | USA

Language:

English | Russian | Yiddish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #45093) | South Korea:15 | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Canada:14A (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Vivendi Entertainment

Trivia:

In March 2008, Abraham Karpen, a 25-year-old member of the insular Williamsburg, New York, Hasidic (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) community, dropped out of filming on the orders of his community's rabbis. Karpen had been playing the role of the husband of Natalie Portman's character. Their segment had most probably already been shot, since Natalie's site contains a photo gallery from two days of shooting (12 and 13 March 2008) and the filming was supposed to take two days. Abraham's face is now closed with a picture of Keira Knightley's face in the photo gallery.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2009-10-17)" (2009)

definition of a tune-in-tune-out movie

New York, I Love You, or rather should-be-titled Manhattan, I Love Looking At Your People In Sometimes Love, is a precise example of the difference between telling a story and telling a situation. Case in point, look at two of the segments in the film, one where Ethan Hawke lights a cigarette for a woman on a street and proceeds to chat her up with obnoxious sexy-talk, and another with Orlando Bloom trying to score a movie with an incredulous demand from his director to read two Dostoyevsky books. While the latter isn't a great story by any stretch, it's at least something that has a beginning, middle and end, as the composer tries to score, gets Dostoyevky dumped in his lap, and in the end gets some help (and maybe something more) from a girl he's been talking to as a liaison between him and the director. The Ethan Hawke scene, however, is like nothing, and feels like it, like a fluke added in or directed by a filmmaker phoning it in (or, for that matter, Hawke with a combo of Before Sunrise and Reality Bites).

What's irksome about the film overall is seeing the few stories that do work really well go up against the one or two possible 'stories' and then the rest of the situations that unfold that are made to connect or overlap with one another (i.e. bits involving Bradley Cooper, Drea DeMatteo, Hayden Christensen, Andy Garcia, James Caan, Natalie Portman, etc). It's not even so much that the film- set practically always in *Manhattan* and not the New York of Queens or Staten Island or the Bronx (not even, say, Harlem or Washington Heights)- lacks a good deal of diversity, since there is some. It's the lack of imagination that one found in spades, for better or worse, in Paris J'taime. It's mostly got little to do with New York, except for passing references, and at its worst (the Julie Christie/Shia LaBeouf segment) it's incomprehensible on a level that is appalling.

So, basically, wait for TV, and do your best to dip in and out of the film - in, that is, for three scenes: the aforementioned Bloom/Christina Ricci segment which is charming; the Brett Ratner directed segment (yes, X-Men 3 Brett Ratner) with a very funny story of a teen taking a girl in a wheelchair to the prom only to come upon a great big twist; and Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman as an adorable quite old couple walking along in Brooklyn on their 67th wedding anniversary. Everything else can be missed, even Natalie Portman's directorial debut, and the return of a Hughes brother (only one, Allan) to the screen. A mixed bag is putting it lightly: it's like having to search through a bag of mixed nuts full of crappy peanuts to find the few almonds left.