Touchstone Plus-Or-Minus: New York Stories

Disney has had a long history with anthology films. Movies like Melody Time and Make Mine Music helped keep the studio in business during the war years. But by the 1960s, the studio set them aside. At the same time, the format moved overseas. Legendary filmmakers like Godard, Fellini, Pasolini and Truffaut experimented with short films released in omnibus form such as Ro.Go.Pa.G., Spirits Of The Dead and Love At Twenty. These movies may not have been blockbusters but the low stakes and short form allowed these directors to stretch creatively.

But by 1989, the format had begun to fall out of favor. There was the occasional outlier, such as the opera-themed Aria. However, they were no longer being produced with the same regularity as they had back in the ‘60s. When an A-list filmmaker wanted to play around with a shorter format, they were now more likely to head to television. So, when Touchstone released New York Stories, a triptych of tales helmed by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen, they certainly got people’s attention.