Fletch Lives/Slaves of New York/Leviathan/Rooftops/Police Academy 6: City Under Siege

formerly Fillmore East, originally The Commodore Yiddish theatre, , fashion show

The Saint nightclub, 105 2nd Avenue, East Village, New York City, New York, USA

Raquel Welch and James Coco in The Wild Party (1975)

Anne Baxter and Robert Powell in Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980)

Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Reeve, and Madeleine Potter in The Bostonians (1984)

Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson in The White Countess (2005)

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990)

Nick Nolte, Greta Scacchi, and Thandiwe Newton in Jefferson in Paris (1995)

Bernadette Peters in Slaves of New York (1989)

Daria was helping me at the studio and I walked her home and took her dog for a walk and it was attacked by a cheetah.

Bernadette Peters and Adam Coleman Howard in Slaves of New York (1989)

Adam Coleman Howard in Slaves of New York (1989)

Bernadette Peters and Mercedes Ruehl in Slaves of New York (1989)

Bernadette Peters and Tama Janowitz in Slaves of New York (1989)

Steve Buscemi in Slaves of New York (1989)

Bernadette Peters

Adam Coleman Howard

Chris Sarandon

Tama Janowitz

Benadette Peters stars in this ironic film based on Tama Janowitz&apos;s best-selling collection of short stories that defined the downtown New York art scene of the 1980s

James Ivory

Slaves of New York

Sadly underrated film

It can&apos;t be easy to bring a Tama Janowitz novel to the screen.  Her characters are strange and chronically flawed.  Her plots progress like real life -- loosely, with lots of extraneous details and false starts -- yet contain a lot of wacky situations which we have trouble relating to reality (until we really think about it, and realize it&apos;s weird because it REALLY HAPPENS, everyday).  I love her sense of humour and her style of writing, especially since her novels don&apos;t follow a traditional form of plot development.

That said, this movie could have been better.  I don&apos;t think that the split-screen presentation of different scenes works at all, and many of the actors don&apos;t seem to understand why they&apos;re uttering the lines -- I don&apos;t think they &quot;get it.&quot;  Adam Coleman Howard (Stash) struggles valiantly, but always seems one step behind his character.  Madeleine Potter (Daria) isn&apos;t very convincing either.  Bruce Peter Young (Mikell) looks by turns bored and baffled.  And -- perhaps the biggest injustice of all -- the knight in shining armour at the end is a terrible actor; instead of being happy and hopeful at the emergence -- finally! -- of a single genuine person in Eleanor&apos;s life, I couldn&apos;t get beyond his wooden delivery.

Everyone else is great, however.  Bernadette Peters seems tailor-made to star in a Janowitz adaptation, as do many of the other oddball characters (Wilfredo, Mooshka, Samantha, the Japanese film crew).  Things pick up in the second half, and it certainly gets funnier as it goes along...Eleanor mentions a dream she had the other night about a baby with long arms and legs like a chimpanzee, &quot;but it was cute.&quot;  The party (and the blender) is a blast.  After so long in more-or-less quiet neutral, the last half hour kicks into gear.

Some people mentioned, &quot;how could Eleanor put up with Stash?&quot;  Well, look around, sadly...there are lots of Eleanors and lots of Stash&apos;s (people who are &quot;abridged&quot; like their &quot;tentacles have been cut off at the wrist&quot;).  As for the odd artsy SoHo characters...compare this film to &quot;Mondo New York&quot; and see that, if anything, Janowitz has missed out on a few bizarre and self-indulgent art types.

Don&apos;t expect to be on the edge of your seat when you watch this one.  Just sit back, enjoy, and take it for what it is: an expose on the New York art world in the 80&apos;s, and an examination of one woman attempting to deal with a city full of shallow, uncaring, jealous and stupid people.

It can't be easy to bring a Tama Janowitz novel to the screen.  Her characters are strange and chronically flawed.  Her plots progress like real life -- loosely, with lots of extraneous details and false starts -- yet contain a lot of wacky situations which we have trouble relating to reality (until we really think about it, and realize it's weird because it REALLY HAPPENS, everyday).  I love her sense of humour and her style of writing, especially since her novels don't follow a traditional form of plot development.

That said, this movie could have been better.  I don't think that the split-screen presentation of different scenes works at all, and many of the actors don't seem to understand why they're uttering the lines -- I don't think they "get it."  Adam Coleman Howard (Stash) struggles valiantly, but always seems one step behind his character.  Madeleine Potter (Daria) isn't very convincing either.  Bruce Peter Young (Mikell) looks by turns bored and baffled.  And -- perhaps the biggest injustice of all -- the knight in shining armour at the end is a terrible actor; instead of being happy and hopeful at the emergence -- finally! -- of a single genuine person in Eleanor's life, I couldn't get beyond his wooden delivery.

Everyone else is great, however.  Bernadette Peters seems tailor-made to star in a Janowitz adaptation, as do many of the other oddball characters (Wilfredo, Mooshka, Samantha, the Japanese film crew).  Things pick up in the second half, and it certainly gets funnier as it goes along...Eleanor mentions a dream she had the other night about a baby with long arms and legs like a chimpanzee, "but it was cute."  The party (and the blender) is a blast.  After so long in more-or-less quiet neutral, the last half hour kicks into gear.

Some people mentioned, "how could Eleanor put up with Stash?"  Well, look around, sadly...there are lots of Eleanors and lots of Stash's (people who are "abridged" like their "tentacles have been cut off at the wrist").  As for the odd artsy SoHo characters...compare this film to "Mondo New York" and see that, if anything, Janowitz has missed out on a few bizarre and self-indulgent art types.

Don't expect to be on the edge of your seat when you watch this one.  Just sit back, enjoy, and take it for what it is: an expose on the New York art world in the 80's, and an examination of one woman attempting to deal with a city full of shallow, uncaring, jealous and stupid people.

Benadette Peters stars in this ironic film based on Tama Janowitz's best-selling collection of short stories that defined the downtown New York art scene of the 1980s

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Slaves of New York

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