New York Stories

Director: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen

1989 / 124min / 35mm

The leadoff hitter in this anthology triptych of Gotham-set short subjects courtesy New York’s best-known cineastes, Scorsese’s Richard Price–penned “Life Lessons” is nothing short of a small-scale masterpiece, starring Nick Nolte as a creatively constipated abstract painter who, with a gallery exhibition of new work looming on the horizon, turns the emotional anguish of his relationship with lover/mentee Rosanna Arquette into so much grist for his creative mill. “Stormily funny… Nolte doesn’t seem to act the role as much as he allows himself to be consumed by all of its big, overwhelming self-absorbed conceits… An exceptionally fine, very witty performance.” —The New York Times

Distributor: Walt Disney Studios/20th Century

Part of The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters