Following all the Merchant-Ivory productions in the past, where it took place mainly in Victorian England, those were all ensemble movies, with Helena Bonham Carter at the center of it all. Bernadette Peters could be considered a contemporary version of Bonham Carter's characters. Being that these hapless characters are caught in the middle leading their daily lives with eccentric characters around them. I enjoyed over the years watching this film for several reasons, first one the artwork that is featured in it, next is the music, another this could have been a good lead in for a television series(not the big reason, but part of it. The characters play well off each other, and also gives that feeling of six degrees of separation. I've read the book and it would be hard to film it since it was a collection of short stories, however Merchant-Ivory pulled it off.
16 Reviews
Bernadette Peters as a Bohemian
drednm2 September 2012
This over-long look at New York's art scene in the 1980 is based on a book of short stories by Tama Janowitz. Like the stories, this film has lots of characters and a meandering plot that basically follows Eleanor (Bernadette Peters) through her life of being a New York "slave" (a person who lives with a person who owns the house or has the lease for the apartment), designing weird hats, looking for love, and the endless whirl of parties, art openings, and friends.
Peters lives with an artist named Stash (Adam Coleman Howard)who is self-absorbed and unpleasant. Stash latches onto wealthy Daria (Madeleine Potter) who is a would-be artist but is too wealthy to really care. They run in the same circle as Marley (Jsu Garcia billed as Nick Corri) who paints but who really wants to start a church in Rome. His agent (Mary Beth Hurt) puts him in touch with a wealthy nutjob (John Harkins) who finances all sorts of weird "art" projects such as the guy in Montana who moves mud from one end of the garden to the other.
The plot follows Peters but also exposes the incredible arrogance of art as well as its cyclic trendiness. What is art? Who knows.
Co-stars in the film include Stanley Tucci, Tammy Grimes, Christine Dunford, Tama Janowita (as Abby), Steve Buscemi, Betty Comden, Chris Sarandon, Mercedes Ruehl, Michael Schoeffling, Bruce Peter Young, Louis Guss, Anthony LaPaglia, and Charles McCaughan as Sherman.
There's a brilliant and very funny interlude as three drag queens with a boom box and dressed in skin-tight red gowns parade down the street as the Supremes lip-syncing to "Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart." The sequence is just another look at fun and silliness of performance art.
Peters lives with an artist named Stash (Adam Coleman Howard)who is self-absorbed and unpleasant. Stash latches onto wealthy Daria (Madeleine Potter) who is a would-be artist but is too wealthy to really care. They run in the same circle as Marley (Jsu Garcia billed as Nick Corri) who paints but who really wants to start a church in Rome. His agent (Mary Beth Hurt) puts him in touch with a wealthy nutjob (John Harkins) who finances all sorts of weird "art" projects such as the guy in Montana who moves mud from one end of the garden to the other.
The plot follows Peters but also exposes the incredible arrogance of art as well as its cyclic trendiness. What is art? Who knows.
Co-stars in the film include Stanley Tucci, Tammy Grimes, Christine Dunford, Tama Janowita (as Abby), Steve Buscemi, Betty Comden, Chris Sarandon, Mercedes Ruehl, Michael Schoeffling, Bruce Peter Young, Louis Guss, Anthony LaPaglia, and Charles McCaughan as Sherman.
There's a brilliant and very funny interlude as three drag queens with a boom box and dressed in skin-tight red gowns parade down the street as the Supremes lip-syncing to "Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart." The sequence is just another look at fun and silliness of performance art.
It's all true
bluestreak716 November 2008
When I saw this movie, I thought it was surreal. Then I moved to New York and realized that it was just being honest. The movie takes place against the colorful (sometimes to a ridiculous extent) new york artist scene. I never read the book, so I don't really know (or care) if the movie was true to it or not, but I thought that all the characters were well developed and gave some hilarious performances. The plot flowed seamlessly and by the end you know that, despite the fact that little of what you saw made much sense, there is some strange order to the world and that it's all good. I find myself recommending this movie to all my friends as I would recommend it to anyone interested in New York, art, or the simultaneous crappiness and lovableness of humanity.
Eleanor is so sweet.
Xanadu-221 September 1998
I LOVE "Slaves of New York"! It´s a charming movie despite it being set in a contemporary big scruffy city. The reason is the main character, Eleanor, played by Bernadette Peters is so sweet! She feels she´s just a "normal" girl who wouldn´t mind having a kid, while living among all sorts of arty big city characters. I wish I had a friend like her. The film has a calm pace, not as frenetic as one would think about a movie about art types in New York. It´s a very underrated movie. It´s funny too in a low key way. It grows on you.
Sadly underrated film
Muffy-519 March 2001
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.
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.
NOT SO BAD!
gonboy672 May 2000
I LOVED the book....and come on, piecing together the book into any sort of coherent film couldn't have been the easiest endeavour, and the result really isn't so bad! Looking back on this film 11 years later it truly DOES seem to capture the time and place effectively and has what amount to basically cameos of Stanley Tucci, Steve Buscemi, and Mercedes Ruehl.
Ins & Outs of Art Life
lds90001 October 2004
Slaves of New York, is a lovable, bittersweet portrait that gets better with age. It captures the essence of the late 80s art world inhabited by those on the artist food chain: future superstars, struggling unknowns, narcissists, star-f*ckers, martyrs, creeps, losers and hangers-on. Eleanor's battle with finding her place in the world while in the shadow of her ego maniacal boyfriend is a story as old as time. Slaves is a thinly-veiled art-world "A Star is Born" and there are many characters to love and hate. The main focus on Stash and Eleanor is both
frustrating and believable. Stash being immensely insecure, Eleanor being quietly talented, the actors portray their roles with such intensity, it must be noted that the casting is perfection. Everyone from myopic art dealers, lazy femme fatals, bloated benefactors and competitive artists are here waiting for their chance for their big score, whether it is buying low and selling high, getting into the "good" gallery or hooking up with the "right" lover or muse. It is satisfying in the end to see how Eleanor, by just being who she is, basically fumbles into her true calling while trying to navigate a world so cutthroat and critical. She eventually finds satisfaction with her lot in life and realizes that, that in itself, is an art worth mastering.
frustrating and believable. Stash being immensely insecure, Eleanor being quietly talented, the actors portray their roles with such intensity, it must be noted that the casting is perfection. Everyone from myopic art dealers, lazy femme fatals, bloated benefactors and competitive artists are here waiting for their chance for their big score, whether it is buying low and selling high, getting into the "good" gallery or hooking up with the "right" lover or muse. It is satisfying in the end to see how Eleanor, by just being who she is, basically fumbles into her true calling while trying to navigate a world so cutthroat and critical. She eventually finds satisfaction with her lot in life and realizes that, that in itself, is an art worth mastering.
One of the best portrait of New York City
laurentusa200125 January 2003
I must have seen this movie more then a hundred times, know every lines. Putting aside the fact that this movie made me Miss Peter's biggest fan. While watching this movie in France (over and over again), it gave me the urge, need, inspiration to move to the Big Apple, and pursue my dreams. Combining it with Working Girls, Hannah and her Sisters, and Bare Foot in the Park, I put this movie to portrait New York at its best and truest, as I want to see it, as it supposed to be, as I am seeing it. Whenever in doubt with the city watching the movie all over again reminds me of what New Yorkers are all about of the reason I moved here, and regain my faith in New York! One of the top movies ever made, one of the best New York movie, with some of the best actresses (lets face it, top stage actors ARE the top screen actors as well). Let's not forget to mention Miss Mercedes Ruehl, whom actually rules!!!
"- My only problem is that I can't sew. But a lot of people can't sew...... Coco Channel for instance... -Coco Channel couldn't so? -I Don't Know!......."
"-A whole house.... I never knew anybody with a whole house"
"-OOOOh, where did you get that Ice cream? -From the freezer!"
THANK YOU
"- My only problem is that I can't sew. But a lot of people can't sew...... Coco Channel for instance... -Coco Channel couldn't so? -I Don't Know!......."
"-A whole house.... I never knew anybody with a whole house"
"-OOOOh, where did you get that Ice cream? -From the freezer!"
THANK YOU
under-appreciated little film with an ensemble cast
chwalker-christopher26 September 2017
I rated this 9, for sporadically brilliant dialogue, some fine-tuned performances, and a bevy of attractive actors of both sexes, in their prime. Viewers who didn't like it because the plot line isn't linear? Y'all missed part of the point.
Jan, walking into her apartment where a party is in progress: "What's that noise?" Eleanor: "My life."
Jan, walking into her apartment where a party is in progress: "What's that noise?" Eleanor: "My life."
One of my favorite movies ever
moviemom2313 July 2020
Better as travelogue than as drama
budikavlan6 October 2002
Often disjointed adaptation of the volume of intertwined short stories by Tama Janowitz is most interesting for its examination of the avant garde art scene in Manhattan. The story is less compelling; the personal evolution of hat designer Eleanor (Peters) is fine, but other story threads hold less interest. Peters gives an unusual performance (owing much to her scattered, unassuming personality) which doesn't really fit with the other characters, though that is a large part of the point of that plot: Eleanor is much more honest and unironic than the pretentious, pseudo-intellectual types who populate the milieu. The parties, openings, shows, and gatherings keep the screen interesting, though the occasional split-screen scenes are an unsuccessful experiment. Performances are generally good, including a funny two-scene cameo by author Janowitz as Eleanor's friend Abby. My reaction to this makes me think it might have made a good sitcom.
PLEEEEEEEEEEASE RELEASE ON DVD!!!_THE BEST 80's MOVIE EVER
chadport6 September 2004
I should qualify,
First of all, this is the best, most encapsulating movie of the 80's ever produced, IT IS THE SINGULAR HIGHEST PERFOMRNACE OF BURNDADETTE PETERS (which is an outstanding recommendation considering how talented this woman is/even with that talent she has been circumscribed by second-rate films which do not do justice to HER TALENT WHICH THIS FILM TOTALLY DOES!!!)...DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED ON DVD???....this is (and I usually like books better/and having read this novel) the BEST reproduciton of Tama Janowitz's novel-and (having lived in the East Village of NYC during this period) THE MOST STRAIGHTFOWARD/TRUTHFUL/ACCURATE OF FILM REPRESENTATIONS...this is a modern Don Quixote set to 80's East Village setting...the music selection could NOT BE MORE PERFECT!!! (and is still more inspiring than anything produced today)..the character of Stash also amazing....but Burnadette Peters with Ashtray Lopsided Hat is beyond PERFECT...this is perhaps MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME...PLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE RELEASE ON DVD...Merchant/Ivory has never produced anything less than a first rate film!!!!!..that should also make it a sure bett for those concerned more with financial risk of releasing this CLASSIC!!!!
First of all, this is the best, most encapsulating movie of the 80's ever produced, IT IS THE SINGULAR HIGHEST PERFOMRNACE OF BURNDADETTE PETERS (which is an outstanding recommendation considering how talented this woman is/even with that talent she has been circumscribed by second-rate films which do not do justice to HER TALENT WHICH THIS FILM TOTALLY DOES!!!)...DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED ON DVD???....this is (and I usually like books better/and having read this novel) the BEST reproduciton of Tama Janowitz's novel-and (having lived in the East Village of NYC during this period) THE MOST STRAIGHTFOWARD/TRUTHFUL/ACCURATE OF FILM REPRESENTATIONS...this is a modern Don Quixote set to 80's East Village setting...the music selection could NOT BE MORE PERFECT!!! (and is still more inspiring than anything produced today)..the character of Stash also amazing....but Burnadette Peters with Ashtray Lopsided Hat is beyond PERFECT...this is perhaps MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME...PLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE RELEASE ON DVD...Merchant/Ivory has never produced anything less than a first rate film!!!!!..that should also make it a sure bett for those concerned more with financial risk of releasing this CLASSIC!!!!
very cool little film
kjanaway2 April 2000
this is a very cool little film.i rented it because i really dig the actors that are in it.this film apply represents the artsy community and how they all hang out and go to parties together.maybe its not for everyone, because since its independent its not effervescing with action scenes. the pace of the movie is cool because it is just like real life.you go places and meet people and try to pursue goals that may or may not work out. its important that artsy people should see this film, because everyone in it represents someone they know.great cameos from mercedes ruehl, stanley tucci, steve buscemi, and bernadette also does a great job as eleanor who lives with her crass and selfish boyfriend.
Spot on time capsule but still relevant today.
CriticsVoiceVideo22 February 2021
This movie is so spot on for me and my experiences to New York and it's art crowd and trendy people. Weird casting of Bernadette Peters and Mercedes Ruehl, but it still works. The girl playing Daria is fantastic, among other great performances.
Stash is a jerk
Boyo-225 May 2000
Why did Eleanor put up with Stash? Why is Daria so annoying? Why didn't this movie get any play at all?
It has a great cast, with (literally) hundreds of "New York" types, and every single SoHo type is represented, eventually. I like Bernadette Peters so I appreciate this movie cause its one of her only starring roles.
For a touch of trivia, at the party Eleanor throws at the end, the woman who spends the party hiding in the bathroom is Tama Janowitz, who wrote the novel "Slaves of New York".
It has a great cast, with (literally) hundreds of "New York" types, and every single SoHo type is represented, eventually. I like Bernadette Peters so I appreciate this movie cause its one of her only starring roles.
For a touch of trivia, at the party Eleanor throws at the end, the woman who spends the party hiding in the bathroom is Tama Janowitz, who wrote the novel "Slaves of New York".
Slaves of Types
kevita1 January 2003
I liked this movie - though I was surprised to read the novel and find it very very different. Bernadette Peters is very funny and endearing. My only problem is that this is nearly the exact same character she played onstage in SONG AND DANCE (won a Tony for it) except the girl is American, not British. Lower the boom!
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