Crossing Delancey, Then (1988) and Now (2025): A Night at Jacob Burns Film Center

JBFC Senior Film Programmer Monica Castillo interviewing Amy Irving and Peter Riegert (March 20, 2025).

Seeing Crossing Delancey again on the big screen at the Jacob Burns Film Center was like stepping into a warm, familiar embrace. I first saw the film in 1988, and it was just as charming, funny, and quietly profound as I remembered. Back then, I was captivated by Amy Irving—not just by her beauty, but by the way she infused Izzy with equal parts strength and vulnerability. I’d had a crush on her ever since Carrie, and that hasn’t changed.

One of the night’s highlights was the post-screening Q&A with Irving and Peter Riegert, whose chemistry, even after all these years, felt as natural and affectionate as ever. When I got the chance, I asked Riegert if he’d always been a good handball player, like his character, Sam. With perfect comedic timing, he revealed that the actor playing against him in the film was actually a childhood champion who had taught him the moves. Then, with a twinkle in his eye, he added, “My character was good with his hands in many different ways,” prompting laughter from the audience.

I also shot a short video of Amy Irving reminiscing about how Joan Micklin Silver cast her, a story told with the warmth and fondness that defined the whole evening. But what struck me most was the moment when Irving and Riegert took the stage hand in hand—decades after Crossing Delancey left its characters on the brink of something beautiful, here they were, still side by side. It was like stepping into a dream where the freeze-frame ending had melted into real life, and the love and friendship we all hoped for them had, in some way, come true.