The Coppola piece is quirky, Woody Allen’s is familiar. Scorsese’s LIFE LESSONS is one of the greatest short films of all time. It was the last major effort of Nestor Almendros(the star DP among star DPs) and it has great performances from Nick Nolte and Roseanna Arquette. Loosely based on Dostoevsky’s GAMBLER, this is a story of the end of a short relationship. “It starts at the beginning of the end and ends at the end of the end,” to paraphrase Scorsese.

It’s a portrait of an artist who is a respected institution who no longer separates his life from his work and for whom all the sexual energy that goes into a normal relationship, the tension, the angst and the envy is put into the painting. And about a girl who does not want the identity of a muse to a great painter and wants a name of her own. This struggle creates a perverse relationship worthy of Bunuel and Sternberg.

I am no big fan of A WHITER SHADE OF PALE but it works wonders in this film thanks to Scorsese and Schoonmaker.