I’m a writer – surprise! And one of my writing goals is to write movie scripts and direct said movies. I watch movies a lot. I watch movies and TV more than I read, which, if you’ve been here a minute, perhaps you can tell by my bad grammar and spelling. Though I will say, I used to be able to diagram the hell out of a sentence, never mind that was like in the 4th and 5th grades. Do kids nowadays still diagram sentences?
Anyway, I’m a writer who likes movies more than books. I’m particularly fond of movies from the 70s and the 80s. So naturally when I was up late one Friday night, my DVR pegged it at 11:36pm, flipping through the channels for something to watch, I stopped on TCM when I saw an older version of a girl I recognized from the movie “Carrie.” The movie was called “Crossing Delancey.”
I had never seen or heard of this movie before, but I decided to record it anyway. One, in case I fell asleep on it I could watch it later. But also, it had the makings of some of my favorite movies: it was set in New York, it was released in the 80s, within a minute of watching it the writing and the acting already appeared to be so well done, and it was my favorite genre a romantic-comedy, character driven. How could I pass?
I don’t know, it just seems like movies back then were really driven by story, and character, and acting that didn’t look like acting. Acting that made it look like you were getting a peek into someone else’s life without them knowing it. That’s a rarity now, especially character driven movies. At least as far as I can think of. If you know different, let me know.
So anyway, I watched this movie and thought it was so cute. I marveled at the acting, expect for Peter Riegert who plays Sam. I thought he could have emoted a bit more. It was hard for me to tell how he was thinking or feeling without his words. I loved how they made New York look: the high rise working class building the grandmother lived in, coming in and out of the subway, the weird lady that comes in the hot dog place singing. I loved the way they decorated Izzy’s apartment, and how it actually looked lived in.
There were also some things I didn’t like, like the scene where Izzy and her friend were in the sauna at the gym. The sauna was tiered and two Black women were laying on the tier below them, one talking giving her man a blow job and discovering a long blonde hair. I don’t know, just something about these Black women being on a lower tier talking about being betrayed while doing such an intimate and vulnerable act as oral sex just rubbed me the wrong way. Like this is the speaking role that Black women got in this movie? Then there is another scene where Izzy catches a cab, with a Black driver who doesn’t know what he is doing and is being guided by his Black instructor in the passenger seat. Granted he takes Izzy on a wild ride before getting her to her destination, but when she arrives and tosses the money at him like he’s a dirty dog, that too rubbed me the wrong way. We see several Black people throughout the movie in extra roles, but the speaking ones, for me, were not the best.
But most of all, I love this scene. This scene was just a cacophony of excellence. It was just magic to me, highlighted by Amy Irving’s acting, but supported by so many other cinematic efforts.
Let me set up what’s going on here. The movie is about a 33-year-old woman whose life seems to be going well—satisfying job, great friends, nice rent-controlled (very important in NYC) apartment—there’s just one thing missing: she has no man.
And well, you know how people get when you’re a single woman over 30, hell even approaching 30, and Izzy’s grandmother is no different. So she hires a matchmaker to set Izzy up. Izzy reluctantly agrees to have dinner with this guy, Sam, at her grandmother’s apartment, though as to be expected, she’s not into him. She’d much rather be with this asshole-type writer she met at the bookstore where she works. Sam, owns a pickle shop, which to her isn’t sophisticated enough like the writer.
During the dinner, she let’s Sam know that he’s not her type. He accepts it, has no hard feelings and tells her a story about trying on a different hat, basically a way of telling her she should open herself to something new.
Later he sends her a hat and a cake, and that’s where we pick at up in this scene. I love when she takes the hat out of the box, and the music chimes and goes into these romantic dreamy chords in support of how excited she gets about receiving the hat.
Like even though she doesn’t like this guy, there are certain things a guy can do—like give you unexpected, meaningful presents—that’ll make you rethink how you feel about him. He paid so much attention to her that he got her something that she didn’t even know she wanted and got a perfect fit. She tries the hat on in the mirror and adores it. So smitten is she by the gesture that she’s moved to go see him, wearing the hat. Perhaps she wants to tell him that maybe it’s worth giving it a shot.
As she approaches is place of work, imagination runs into reality. The sophistication of the man she created in her head that would do such a romantic deed, was in stark contrast to the man she saw before her, shoving his hand into a giant vat of pickles before bumbling customers.
The acting in this scene just blew me away. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and it was like the change in her face told a thousand stories. The way her face went from bliss to disgust, conveying the message without uttering a word was mesmerizing. I love when actors can tell a story without saying a word. Tell a story with just a look on their face alone.
In addition to Amy Irving’s acting, in this scene you can really see the collaborative effort of moviemaking. Immediately after we see the look on her face change, there’s a cut to a shot of a big green sign in the shape of a pickle that says “pickles.” The camera pans down to a battered and beaten sign that says “wholesale and retail”, perpendicular to another rusty sign that says “ a joke and a pickle for only a nickel,” which stands in stark contrast to the polished posh bookstore she works in. If that wasn’t enough, the camera comes back to her, showing her reaction as she gets a load of him at work. Now it cuts to his hands, dipping his hand into a vat of swishy-sounding pickled peppers with pickle juices and pickled pieces all over the back of his hand. So you’ve also got the camera angles and editing going on that’s driving the story.
As a writer, I can’t help but wonder what the script said. Like how much of that was her, and how of it was the script or maybe the director. But words and direction have their limitations, and she took that scene far beyond what any direction or words could say.
This movie, by the way, was written by a woman and directed by a woman—not the same woman. What I love about the writing in this scene is that she didn’t just leave it at the look. There is a point where it looks like Izzy is about to turn around, possibly pretend she never came by, but she can’t because she gets noticed.
That’s a bold thing for a writer to do, to have a character’s fantasy be record-scratched, if you will, by reality. The writer could have easily had the character turn and walk away unnoticed, leaving her to grapple with it on her own, or ignore it even, but instead she has the character be spotted and confronted by the man she’s decided isn’t good enough for her. The script didn’t just leave the audience with facial expressions, it made the character back it up with words.
And she does. It’s like how do you write that? What do you say in that situation? I wasn’t expecting her to be so forthright, I was expecting her to come up with a lie, but loved that she told him straight up, and loved his reaction.
That’s one of the things I really liked about this movie, while it does have some of the predictable tenets of a romantic-comedy, there are several times where I was surprised by the character’s actions.
But overall this scene was my favorite, because I love the way they explored how you can create something in your head, something that fuels you and makes you happy, only to be let down when you come crashing into what’s actually there. It explores what happens when imagination meets reality.
After watching this movie, I did a little research on it and found out that a lot of people didn’t like the main character, Izzy. They thought she was a snob. A lot of people thought Sam was too good for her, because of this scene in particular.
While I understand the sentiment, when I saw this scene, I didn’t feel that way at all. I actually thought it was refreshing in its honesty. However stuck up, or snobby we’re taught her reaction may be, the fact of the matter is you don’t have to like someone just because they like you, or even just because they’re good to you.
That, I believe is especially true for women, it may not even apply to guys – and men, please correct me if I’m wrong, but when does a guy date a woman he’s not attracted to for whatever reason, simply because she’s nice, she’s a good person? I mean sure this guy was nice and romantic, and attracted to her, but in that moment, she didn’t want to be with a guy who sticks his hands in a vat of pickles all day for work, and that’s okay. She deserves to have a man who doesn’t do that, and he deserves to have a woman who doesn’t mind that he does.
And I just think all too often the message to women—especially after you’ve been with several men who’s been disrespectful to you in some way, shape or form—is to go with the nice guy who treats you well, whether or not you’re attracted to him. And the fact of the matter is, over time it becomes easy to become attracted to a man like that, especially given the contrast between how he treats you and how other men have treated you. However, I can’t help but wonder, if that’s not, in some ways, still a form of settling.
That’s not an issue this movie really explores, it’s just something I thought about after seeing this scene and reading others reaction.
Perhaps it’s something I should explore in a script.
Crossing Delancey Released in 1988 You can catch the full movie for sale or rent on YouTube.
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