Crossing Delancey | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
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. Pictures |
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 starring Amy Irving and Peter Riegert. Joan Micklin Silver [2] directed it, drawing upon a play by Susan Sandler, who also wrote the screenplay. The film also features performances from 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 author Anton Maes comes to the bookstore to give a reading, he shows an interest in Isabelle, who is enamored with the intellectual world that is very different from her traditional Jewish upbringing.
Isabelle pays frequent visits to her Bubbe (grandmother), Ida, who lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Anxious for her granddaughter to settle down, Ida turns to the local marriage broker. Although shocked and annoyed, Isabelle allows the matchmaker to introduce her in Bubbe’s kitchen to Sam Posner, who owns the nearby pickle shop.
At first Isabelle is not interested in Sam, believing that he is too working-class for her. Instead, she sets her sights on Anton and the New York intelligentsia. But she also feels guilty for how rude she was to Sam, so she tries to make it up to him by setting him up with her girlfriend Marilyn. In the process, she learns that he did not hire a matchmaker out of desperation and in fact has admired Isabelle from afar for several years. She is deeply touched and begins to like him, but it seems Sam has given up on her and starts dating Marilyn.
One day at a store book reading, Sam shows up, as does Anton. Isabelle leaves with Sam, and later agrees to meet him the next day at her Bubbe’s apartment.
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 Anton wants the convenience of an assistant, not a true partner. Finally seeing through him, the disgusted Isabelle races to her grandmother's apartment late, 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 feigns confusion, but is gleeful 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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![]() LP cover | ||||
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 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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. [3] [4] [5] It currently holds an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 27 reviews.
One retrospective review from 2018 called Crossing Delancey "the ultimate Jewish rom-com" and a rare great story of "outwardly Jewish love". [6]
The film was a modest arthouse success. [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 | [7] |
Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Amy Irving | Nominated | [8] |
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
The Roches were an American vocal trio of sisters Maggie, Terre and Suzzy Roche, from Park Ridge, New Jersey.
Amy Davis Irving is an 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.
The Misfits is a 1961 American neo-Western film written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift. The supporting cast features Thelma Ritter, Eli Wallach, and Kevin McCarthy. Adapted by Miller from his own short story of the same name published in Esquire in October 1957, The Misfits was the last completed film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. For Gable, the film was posthumously released, Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962, and Montgomery Clift died in July 1966. The plot centers on Roslyn Tabor (Monroe), a newly divorced woman from Reno, and her relationships with friendly landlady Isabelle Steers, an old-school cowboy Gaylord Langland (Gable), his tow truck-driving and plane-flying best friend (Wallach), and their rodeo-riding, bronc-busting friend (Clift).
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), Lt. Mitch Kellaway in The Mask (1994), and glove manufacturer Lou Levov in American Pastoral (2016). 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 and actress 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?
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. 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. By early August, it was the number 1 record in the United States, where it remained for five weeks, finishing as the Number 4 single of the year 1924. It is now in the public domain.
"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.
Isabelle Fuhrman is an American actress. She is known for her role as Esther in the horror film Orphan (2009) and its prequel Orphan: First Kill (2022). She also portrayed Clove in the dystopian adventure film The Hunger Games (2012), and Alex in the independent film The Novice (2021).
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.
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 folk 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.
We Three Kings is an album by the folk trio the Roches, released in 1990. It is a collection of Christmas songs. The sisters wrote two of the album's 24 tracks. We Three Kings is considered a classic of unconventional Christmas music.
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".
Miriam Kressyn, one of the "First Ladies of the Yiddish Theater", acted and sang on stage, film and radio; she wrote plays as well.
Susan Sandler is an American writer and currently a 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.
Marilyn Monroe wore a white dress in the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch, directed by Billy Wilder. It was created by costume designer William Travilla and worn in the movie's best-known scene. The image of it and her above a windy subway grating has been described as one of the most iconic images of the 20th century.
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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