The film Scorsese directed for the anthology New York Stories is Life Lessons. Released in 1989, it is the first of the anthology’s three segments and follows Lionel Dobie, a successful but emotionally volatile painter played by Nick Nolte, and his younger assistant and lover, Paulette, played by Rosanna Arquette.
Life Lessons explores artistic obsession, romantic power struggles, and the relationship between creative work and personal dependence. Its painterly subject allowed Scorsese to build the segment around color, movement, rock music, and the intense rhythms of the studio, giving it a distinctly energetic style within the three-part film.
The other titles are segments directed by the anthology’s two collaborators. Francis Ford Coppola directed Life Without Zoë, while Woody Allen directed and starred in Oedipus Wrecks. New York Stories premiered in 1989 and was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The anthology’s shared subject is New York City, but each director tells a separate story.