Crossing Delancey | |
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Directed by | Joan Micklin Silver |
Written by | Susan Sandler |
Based on | Crossing Delancey 1985 play by Susan Sandler |
Produced by | Michael Nozik |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Theo Van de Sande |
Edited by | Rick Shaine |
Music by | Paul Chihara |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $4 million |
Box office | $16 million (United States) [1] |
Crossing Delancey is a 1988 American romantic comedy film adapted by Susan Sandler from her play of the same name, and directed by Joan Micklin Silver. [2] It stars Amy Irving and Peter Riegert. The film also features performances from Reizl Bozyk, David Hyde-Pierce, Sylvia Miles and Rosemary Harris. Amy Irving was nominated for a Golden Globe for the film, for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical.
Isabelle Grossman works for a New York bookstore which supports authors through public readings. When Dutch-American author Anton Maes comes to the bookstore to give a reading, he shows an interest in Isabelle, who is enamored with the literary world that is very different from her strictly religious upbringing.
Isabelle pays frequent visits to her Yiddish-speaking Bubbe (grandmother), Ida, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Anxious for her granddaughter to settle down with a decent Orthodox Jewish man, Ida hires a marriage broker. Although enraged, Isabelle grudgingly allows the matchmaker to introduce her in Bubbe’s kitchen to Sam Posner.
At first Isabelle is dismissive of Sam, believing that the small business he owns, a street corner pickle stand, is too working class to provide the life she wants. Instead, she sets her sights on Anton and the New York City intelligentsia, but she also feels guilty for how rude she was to Sam. She tries to make it up to him by setting him up with her girlfriend Marilyn. In the process, though, she learns that Sam kept turning down the matchmaker because he was waiting for her to bring a photo of Isabelle; Sam has quietly had a crush on Isabelle from afar for many years. She is deeply touched, through her friends see Sam has given up on her and starts dating Marilyn.
One day at a store book reading, Sam shows up invited by Isabelle, as does Anton. Isabelle leaves with Sam, and later agrees to meet him the next day at her Bubbe’s apartment to go on a date.
After work the next day, however, she is sidelined by Anton and, believing that he is romantically interested in her, goes to his apartment. She discovers instead that the narcissistic Anton wants an assistant he can sleep with, not a real wife or girlfriend. A disgusted Isabelle rejects him and races to her grandmother's apartment, finding it empty with Ida sleeping on the couch. Heartbroken, she believes she has ruined her chances with the honest and caring Sam. As she cries, Sam enters from the balcony. The two finally are united and Ida, waking and having feigned senile dementia to keep Sam from leaving, laughs gleefully that her plan has succeeded.
This was Yiddish theatre star Reizl Bozyk’s only film role.
Crossing Delancey (original motion picture soundtrack) | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | Oct 17, 1988 | |||
Genre | Folk | |||
Label | Varèse Sarabande | |||
Producer | Paul Chihara | |||
The Roches chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
Crossing Delancey (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the motion picture Crossing Delancey, released October 17, 1988. Instrumental tracks were by Paul Chihara, and songs were performed by (and in some cases written by members of) The Roches.
Suzzy Roche of the Roches played Marilyn, a friend of Isabelle (Irving), in the film. The Roches provided several songs for the soundtrack. One of the songs that was featured in the film, Nocturne, is also featured on the group's 1989 album Speak . An earlier arrangement of their cover of "Come Softly to Me" is featured on their album Another World.
The film received positive reviews. [4] [5] [6] It currently holds an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 82 reviews.
One retrospective review from 2018 called Crossing Delancey "the ultimate Jewish rom-com" and a rare great story of "outwardly Jewish love". [7]
The film was a modest success, grossing 16-million dollars in the United States against a 4-million dollar budget. [1]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
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Artios Awards | Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film Casting – Comedy | Meg Simon and Fran Kumin | Nominated | [8] |
Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Amy Irving | Nominated | [9] |
The Roches were an American vocal trio of sisters Maggie, Terre and Suzzy Roche, from Park Ridge, New Jersey.
Amy Irving is a retired American actress and singer, who worked in film, stage, and television. Her accolades include an Obie Award, and nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award.
Peter Riegert is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Donald "Boon" Schoenstein in Animal House (1978), oil company executive "Mac" MacIntyre in Local Hero (1983), pickle store owner Sam Posner in Crossing Delancey (1988) and Lt. Mitch Kellaway in The Mask (1994). He directed the short film By Courier (2000), for which he was nominated along with producer Ericka Frederick for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Suzzy Roche is an American singer, best known for her work with the vocal group The Roches, alongside sisters Maggie and Terre. Suzzy is the youngest of the three, and joined the act in 1977. She is the author of the novels Wayward Saints and The Town Crazy and the children's book Want to Be in a Band?
Derailed is a 2005 American crime thriller film directed by Mikael Håfström and written by Stuart Beattie, based on the 2003 novel of the same name by James Siegel. Starring Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston, Vincent Cassel, Melissa George, Giancarlo Esposito, David Morrissey, RZA, and Xzibit, the film follows Charles Schine and Lucinda Harris who are having an extramarital affair and are assaulted and robbed by Philippe LaRoche in a hotel room. When LaRoche later threatens to kill Charles's family unless he pays him a ransom, Charles finds himself the victim of a conspiracy.
Joan Micklin Silver was an American director of films and plays. Born in Omaha, Silver moved to New York City in 1967 where she began writing and directing films. She is best known for Hester Street (1975), her first feature, and Crossing Delancey (1988).
"It Had to Be You" is a popular song composed by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was published on May 9, 1924. by Jerome H. Remick & Co. of New York. The Isham Jones Orchestra recorded an instrumental version of it on April 24, 1924, at Brunswick Studios, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City, and it was released in July.
"Come Softly to Me" is a popular song recorded by The Fleetwoods, composed of Gretchen Christopher, Barbara Ellis, and Gary Troxel, who also wrote it. The original title was "Come Softly", but was changed en route to its becoming a hit. Bob Reisdorf, the owner of Dolphin Records, which in 1960 changed to Dolton Records, was responsible for the title change. He thought that "Come Softly" might be too obvious and considered risqué, so he had it changed to "Come Softly to Me." The title phrase never appears in the song's lyrics.
Chilly Scenes of Winter is a 1979 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Joan Micklin Silver, and starring John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert, Kenneth McMillan, and Gloria Grahame. Based on the 1976 novel by Ann Beattie, it follows a civil servant worker in Salt Lake City who falls in love with a recently-separated woman who works in his office building.
Isabelle Fuhrman is an American actress. She is known for her breakthrough role as Esther in the horror film Orphan (2009) and its prequel Orphan: First Kill (2022). She plays Clove in the dystopian adventure film The Hunger Games (2012), Alex in the independent film The Novice (2021), and Diamond in the Western film series Horizon: An American Saga (2024–present).
Lutèce was a French restaurant in Manhattan that operated for more than 40 years before closing in early 2004. It once had a satellite restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip.
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Lucy Wainwright Roche is an American singer-songwriter. Preceded by two EPs, 8 Songs and 8 More, Roche released her debut album, Lucy in October 2010. In 2013, she starred as Jeri in the Stuff You Should Know television show.
Reizl Bozyk, also known as Rose Bozyk and Róża Bożyk, was a Polish-born American actress of the Yiddish theatre. Her claim to mainstream fame was her sole film role, playing the interfering grandmother of Amy Irving in Joan Micklin Silver's film Crossing Delancey (1988). She also appeared in a memorable Law and Order episode "Night and Fog" which aired in season 3.
Speak is an album by the American musical trio the Roches, released in 1989 on MCA Records. The album contained two singles that had accompanying videos, "Big Nuthin'" and "Everyone Is Good". Another track, "Nocturne", was included in the 1988 film Crossing Delancey, which costarred Suzzy Roche.
Yentl is a 1983 American romantic musical drama film directed, co-written, co-produced by, and starring American entertainer Barbra Streisand. It is based on Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy".
Susan Sandler is an American writer and professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She has numerous writing credits but is probably best known for her play Crossing Delancey, which she also adapted into a film with the same name starring Amy Irving and directed by Joan Micklin Silver.
Mina Bern was a Polish and American actress. She was a star of the Yiddish theater.
Songs in the Dark is the debut album by the Wainwright Sisters, a singer-songwriter duo featuring the Canadian-American Martha Wainwright and her American half-sister Lucy Wainwright Roche. The album, released on November 13, 2015, includes lullabies that their mothers Kate McGarrigle and Suzzy Roche sang to them as children, plus songs by Woody Guthrie, Jimmie Rogers, and their father Loudon Wainwright III.
Amy Gordon Guterson is an American Orthodox Jewish actress, filmmaker, and educator. She is best known for her role as Chaya Epstein in the long-running video series Agent Emes. She is the founder and director of the Tzohar Seminary for Chassidus and the Arts and co-founder of the Jewish women's theater troupe Kol Isha. She is also a board member of the Arts and Torah Association for Religious Artists (ATARA), founded by Miriam Leah Droz.
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