An interesting, melancholy mood piece (1992) written and directed by Howard Franklin (writer of Someone to Watch Over Me and writer and codirector of the underrated Quick Change) and set in New York City in 1942. Joe Pesci plays an artistically inclined tabloid photographer (loosely based on Weegee) and Barbara Hershey is a nightclub owner who enlists his aid. As the film itself suggests at one point, this is basically The Hunchback of Notre Dame relocated in Manhattan’s nightclub life of the 40s, and Franklin gives it all a memorable burnished finish. With Stanley Tucci, Jerry Adler, and Jared Harris; Robert Zemeckis is the executive producer. 99 min. (JR)