Harry K.

3 July 2007. Opening sequence in Scorsese's Mean Streets --Harvey Keitel making his way down the block--Little Italy, the neighborhood, local characters, comaraderie--a Leo Castelli look-alike, for instance, or the guy in the cheap black leather jacket with impossibly wide face, passing on the sidewalk just behind. They all have names--Vinny, Alberto, Manny even--known only to them, not to us. That's the whole point. The veil of connection--an arm around a shoulder, a smile, even, underwritten by unswerving violence...

Subway scenes on YouTube--Good Morning Astoria, the N Train, all rivets and girders, the jumble of New York, clacking over the river, a slow urban panorama, revealed in intermittent snatches, syncopated stands of iron...