All the above comments explain a lot. The heavy reliance on improvisation and allowing Lisa Minnelli to get away with shoddy acting. She did say in an interview that, if they had more time, they would have had the scriptwriters put something together from the improvised takes. I guess they had better things to do with their time - and the movie suffered as a result.
De Niro was absolutely brilliant though. It would have been difficult to find a descent actress who could play the love/hate role.
Must give Scorsese some credit, I suppose, for presenting the dilemma that Liza's character found herself in at the very end.

Jon phillips said the production was 'drugs R us' on this moviepeak of cocaine wave late 70's and end of many directors careers, his wife had to be removed from Spielbergs CEO3K at this time after smoking crack on setUnfortunatly no one put a leash on Scorcese and crew hence this flopped and misdirected film. Nice idea though
Drugs, infidelity and rampant egos ensured that New York, New York was a very rotten big apple
New York, New York was supposed to be Liza Minnellis triumphant emulation of the great MGM musicals made by her mother, Judy Garland. With a plot partially lifted from A Star is Born, it was filmed at MGM studios. Minnelli even used her mothers old dressing-room and the original hairdresser from The Wizard of Oz.
This being the 1970s, however, filming was a nightmare of cocaine, egotism and adultery. Minnellis father-fixation propelled her into a drug-fuelled affair with her director, Martin Scorsese. He was the creative genius who was going to rescue her from post-Cabaret disappointment. She was his ideal muse, the embodiment of the classic Hollywood movies that he loved.
Back in the real world, Scorsese had the obligatory unfinished script to deal with, and a pregnant wife who was also a Jekyll and Hyde drunk. When she wasnt being sick, Mrs Scorsese (Julia Cameron) prowled the set taking her rejection out on the crew with snotty comments. Scorsese stayed closeted in his trailer with Minnelli having lengthy script conferences. Their drug use got worse and worse. Andy Warhol wrote in his diary of the night that Minnelli and Scorsese appeared on the doorstep of the fashion designer Roy Halston, demanding: Give me every drug youve got.
"People still sit around and tell horror stories about working on New York, New York, says the films costume designer, Theadora Van Runkle, who had her own problems coping with Minnellis creeping weight gain. The crew, she says, were treated like peasants.

Didn't they say in that documentary or somewhere else that all 3 of them - Scorsese, Minnelli, and De Niro were high during the making of that movie?

I hate to break it to you pal, but Scorcese was having a torrid affair with Liza Minnelli at the time this movie was being made. So I'm assuming he didn't find her nearly as repulsive as you think he did.

I also found her hard to look at and weak acting especially being next to Deniro, but those are some rough words, wow.

What a nasty, insulting thread you started! Shameful. I'm just glad I didn't have a mouthful of coffee when I read it.
I do disagree about "Bringing out the Dead," thought it was a fine movie but I like Nicholas Cage about as much as you do Liza Minelli, so maybe my lowered expectations were a factor.
Heh hehheh heh hehHe said "do Liza Minelli!"

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Lol Oh, how true. In a sick car crash kind of way I enjoyed the movie, perhaps it was watching someone treat Minelli like she deserves.
Looks like a spanner, acts like a spanner it's spanner boy

This movie wouldn't suck if i could believe for a second that a stud like De Niro would put more than a second's effort into bagging a mutant like Liza. Her physical deformity is matched only by her character's vacuous personality and her inability to act with any ability at all. This was the most painful movie I've ever sat through, watching De Niro's unmatchable skill and energy paired with a fugly black hole like Minelli. It does shed some light, though, on Scorcese's downward spiral into drug abuse. I'm convinced that he told his idol Vincente Minelli, that he had a project for his daughter, only to see her perform and turn immediately to rat poison taken introvenously. I assume he was hoping for death, but instead we got Raging Bull. If we were rewarded as handsomely for suckfests like Gangs of New York, I'd even sit through Bringing Out the Dead or Kundun again in hopes of another taste of genius on the back end. Hm, maybe someone should spike Marty's OJ or something
If you watch the introduction on the DVD, you can tell he knows how bad it turned out. He's practically in tears. So was I by the end of this beast. No wonder Minelli had to marry a plasticine homosexual. Who else would touch her anywhere but the wallet?
She did a great job in Goonies though.

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Woah, I never would have guessed that he was a coke addict, I thought he was merely battling with homosexual issues. Come on, the Liza musical number at the endbut I guess I could smell the coke. I could smell the coke a mile away.
You got me straight trippin, Boo.

For what it's worth nearly every actor and/or director featured in Easy Riders Raging Bulls has called the film inaccurate.
"Death to Videodrome! Long live the new flesh!"

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Although Scorcese was on drugs at the time, the film NY NY is outstanding. The musical numbers were all filmed right away, then Scorsese took his time, utilizing much too much money.
But, I'll tell you, you watch this and AVIATOR back to back, you will find that the filmmaking is way better in NY NY than AVIATOR. It will seem as if SCORSESE was on automatic pilot when he made AVIATOR. NEW YORK had way, way, way, way more ambition, and in my opinion, Scorsese pulled ALL it off in New York. Very little doesn't work. While in Aviator, the ambition Scorses employs as well as the CGI, sometimes it make you role your eyes.
If I had one problem with NY NY, it was the character, Jimmy, not DeNiro acting, but Jimmy, the character, was just too damn unlikable. On the other hand, this was offset by Liza's DAMN good work and singing.
As far as DeNiro and drugs, he indulged, especially around the way early 80's and some of his cohabitors were Robin Williams and John Belushi. In fact, both DeNiro and Williams were contacted after Belushi was found dead, as they had been with him a short time, a day or two,

This was a good De Niro film but a bad Scorsese film. I don't feel Scorsese's presence in the film in terms of directing and trade marks, but De Niro who sort of gives out his obsessive jealous husband performance reminds us all of Raging Bull of course. R.B became Scorsese/De Niro's ultimate comeback.

Troy ANderson, That is wonderful news to hear, Im proud of Martin.. Way to go!.. And I dont think Robert would be a drug addict!.. People are lame to start rumours of such BS
Lost and Disillusioned ::sighs::

Scorsese quit the coke back in 1979. He almost died from it, and DeNiro got him to stop.
He got himself back together and went on to work on Raging Bull.

how about De Niro ? Was he did the same ?? as I heard that he's a drug user in the other forum.

Yep, he was on coke at the time, probably still on it.