Based on an unknown Schönberg opera from 1929, From Today Until Tomorrow explores one night in a not-quite loveless marriage. A husband and wife return from a party where she has flirted with another man, while he has cast an appraising eye toward an attractive, fashionably dressed acquaintance of his wife’s. Though each dreams, briefly, of leaving the marriage for the excitement and mystery of a new lover, in the end they decide stability and comfort are more important than the fleeting thrill of new romance. Directors Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, who previously collaborated on two other films about music (The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, 1968, and Moses and Aaron, 1975), rely on long fixed shots in austere black-and-white so that the focus remains on the musical brilliance of Schönberg’s atonal score, performed here by 70 musicians. That Schönberg would choose such a relatively lighthearted message for his newly discovered musical language remains a mystery, especially since the conclusion reached by the husband and wife—to stick with the tried and true—seems directly at odds with Schönberg’s own philosophy of composing. It is just this juxtaposition, however, coupled with Straub and Huillet’s faithful presentation, that makes the opera a compelling addition to the Schönberg canon—and the film such a challenging and intriguing experience.
On a hot summer afternoon in New York, Emma Jones gossips with other neighbors in her residential building about the affair that Mrs. Anna Maurrant and the milkman Steve Sankey are having. When the rude and unfriendly Mr. Frank Maurrant arrives, they change the subject. Meanwhile, their teenage daughter Rose Maurrant is being sexually pressured by her married boss Mr. Bert Easter. She does however very much like her kind young Jewish neighbor Sam, who has a serious crush on her.
The next morning, Frank Maurrant tells his wife that he is traveling to Stamford on business. Mrs. Maurrant meets the gentle Sankey in her apartment, but out of the blue Frank comes back home. He realizes his wife is upstairs with Sankey, and runs upstairs. We hear shots and see the two men struggling as Sankey tries to escape through the window. Maurrant runs out with a gun. He has killed Sankey and fatally wounded his wife.
Maurrant is apprehended and is led away by police. He apologizes to his daughter Rose, who will now have to take care of herself and her young brother without either parent. Rose's boss offers once again to set her up in her own apartment, but she refuses. Then she sees Sam, and tells him she wants to leave the city. Sam pleads with her to let him go with her, but she tells him it will be better for the two of them to have a couple of years apart before they consider becoming a couple. Rose walks off down the street by herself.
Flashback story of an escape from the lonely, high-security Dartmoor Prison. A jealous barber's assistant is enraged by the attentions that his manicurist girlfriend pays to a customer. He threatens the customer with an open razor and lands in gaol.
维恩(罗伯特·德尼罗 Robert De Niro 饰)是警局里的采证专家,个性温和而又善良的他从来不会在犯罪现场开枪,每当遇到对峙,他总会选择智取而非武力。一场意外中,维恩认识了黑社会老大法兰克(比尔·默瑞 Bill Murray 饰),法兰克对于维恩的智慧十分的赞赏,一来二去之中,两人成为了好友。
为了报答维恩的救命之恩,法兰克选中了自己的俱乐部中的一名酒保格罗丽(乌玛·瑟曼 Uma Thurman 饰),将格罗丽作为礼物送给维恩,在一个星期的期限里,维恩可以随意的“使用”格罗丽,无论用她来干什么。然而,维恩在无数个选择中选了最糟的那一个,他爱上了格罗丽。