Get ready for a wildly diverse, star-studded trilogy about life in the big city. One of the most-talked about films in years, New York Stories features the creative collaboration of three of America's most popular directors, Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, and Woody Allen.
Birdee Pruitt has been humiliated on live television by her best friend, Connie, who's been sleeping with Birdee's husband, Bill. Birdee tries starting over with her daughter, Bernice, by returning to her small Texas hometown, but she's faced with petty old acquaintances who are thrilled to see Birdee unhappy -- except for her friend Justin. As he helps Birdee get back on her feet, love begins to blossom.
In 1841, young Ishmael signs up for service aboard the Pequod, a whaler sailing out of New Bedford. The ship is under the command of Captain Ahab, a strict disciplinarian who exhorts his men to find Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab lost his leg to that creature and is desperate for revenge. As the crew soon learns, he will stop at nothing to gain satisfaction.
North Korea's 8th Special Forces hijack a shipment of CTX, a potent new liquid explosive, and threatens South Korea as part of a plot to re-unify the two countries. Ryu and Lee, special agents of O.P., South Korea's secret intelligence service, attempt to track down the terrorists and find the CTX. Meanwhile Hee, the 8th's ultra-bad female sniper, resurfaces to wreak havoc and haunt Ryu.
Isolated bell-ringer Quasimodo wishes to leave Notre Dame tower against the wishes of Judge Claude Frollo, his stern guardian and Paris' strait-laced Minister of Justice. His first venture to the outside world finds him Esmeralda, a kind-hearted and fearless Romani woman who openly stands up to Frollo's tyranny.
Ben is a control-freak, charmer, abuser and warped product of the digital age. He films everything. Jess is just out of rehab. Their worlds are dominated by each other. Jess now needs some space and time apart from Ben and is invited by her friends to their house in the woods for the weekend. People arrive and the party kicks off… but not everyone attending has been invited.
Gary, a musician, is trapped in an unhappy relationship with his live-in lover, Dora. He becomes enthralled with a beautiful seductress who enters his dreams, and tries to control his dream-state so he can spend more and more time with her. When Gary sees his mystery woman's face on a bus billboard, he discovers she is real, and fate brings him an opportunity to meet her.
British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the Cold War during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one.
Antonio and Emma have been separated for years, but he does not accept when Emma dates other men. Indeed Antonio proves obsessive, aggressive and intrusive, and again threatens Emma to hurt the children: little Kevin, shy and introverted, and the adolescent Valentina.
An architect's desire to speak with his wife from beyond the grave using EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), becomes an obsession with supernatural repercussions.
Artist Pietro Leoni is preoccupied with feminine beauty. While walking near an old castle in Italy, he sees a young woman dive in the water from a rock and becomes determined to sculpt her from memory. He rents a house near the spot and falls in love with the mentally disturbed daughter, Francesca, of the castle's owner, W. C. Hutton, while becoming involved with her sister, Marisa unaware of her identity.
A nuclear war specialist returns from a mission gathering data on Soviet communications and electronic warfare techniques in the Arctic Ocean to find that his flat has been broken into and mysteriously re-decorated.
A forger is forced to work for a Nazi spy ring. His conscience gets the better of him, though, and he secretly conspires with the FBI to turn over the gang.
Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.
A young soprano becomes the obsession of a disfigured and murderous musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House.
A pilot carrying a valuable amulet is shot down over China by a ruthless Russian agent, who also wants the amulet.
Yoon-hee is so harassed by her husband's obsession and frantic love, that even breathing is painful to her. One day, her sudden suicide attempt is foiled when someone takes her in his arms and saves her. Hyeong-joon is a rough-looking detective. He asks nothing, but maybe he knows that for some people, just being alive is hard enough. Yoon-hee goes looking for Hyeong-joon, and from the moment she sees him, feels that he already loves her deeply. Because she knows it is totally impossible to be free from her prison of marriage, the peace and happiness she feels at Hyeong-joon's side is heartbreaking and frightening. Hyeong-joon, used to his life of loneliness and despair, loves Yoon-hee at first sight, but as he can't do anything for her, just lets her go. The only thing he can do is to offer her and himself some comfort.
The CIA’s hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Roger Ferris is the agency’s man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events. An eye in the sky – a satellite link – watches Ferris. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIA’s Ed Hoffman, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival.
The film's main theme is obsession. An obsession with love, with art, originality, copying, with success, money and... with oneself. Sooner or later, if we lose our rational upper hand over it and let ourselves be dragged down by it, every obsession leads to destruction. But it is only when being dragged down, in spite of all the cuts and bruises, that we find a unique DELIGHT, if only for a few short moments - and what else is life really about? It is like a drug. What at first seems to be weak and trivial is capable of expanding and growing into a serious problem that can appear to be absolutely incomprehensible and absurd to those who have never experienced anything like it.
A single mother signs up for self-defense classes from a handsome instructor. But he develops a frightening obsession with her and orchestrates an increasing deadly array of "tests" to see if she has truly learned from his lessons.