{"id":386912,"date":"2026-10-29T19:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/386912\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T19:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:50:09","slug":"john-turturro-stars-in-new-film-the-only-living-pickpocket-in-new-york-exploring-survival-and-life-in-the-bronx-bronx-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/386912\/","title":{"rendered":"John Turturro stars in new film \u2018The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,\u2019 exploring survival and life in the Bronx \u2013 Bronx Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Premiering in Bronx theaters on Oct. 30, writer-director Noah Segan\u2019s \u201cThe Only Living Pickpocket in New York<\/a>\u201d stars John Turturro as Harry Lehman, an aging con man struggling to adapt his clever thievery and lifestyle to the rapidly advancing technological world around him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harry spends his days caring for his disabled wife Rosie (Karina Arroyave) in a humble Bronx apartment and his nights scouring the city for easy targets, until he accidentally finds himself at odds with a very powerful family.<\/p>\n

Segan and Turturro spoke with the Bronx Times about the film, and how it connects to what they love about human connection, and fear for its technological future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOn my mother\u2019s father\u2019s side, they were in the Bronx. We all come from somewhere here. I think I chose the Bronx because that was where grandpa Art originated,\u201d Segan said.<\/p>\n

When Turturro reminded Segan that the Bronx is the only New York City borough connected to the U.S. mainland, Segan admitted that context as more revelatory than intentional.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is profound. The fact that the movie starts in the only place connected to the rest of the United States and ends on an island [Staten Island] that is not connected to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Segan did purposefully take care to highlight everyday struggles working class New Yorkers may recognize in his script \u2013 like broken elevators making apartment life particularly challenging for disabled residents and their caregivers \u2013 which Turturro appreciated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could have worked in a lot of different places, but it was set here and in places that were not upper middle class, it\u2019s in working class neighborhoods,\u201d Turturro said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, starring John Turturro, explores themes of caregiving, surveillance and survival against the backdrop of New York City, including the Bronx. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics<\/p>\n

With only about 20 days for filming, \u201cThe Only Living Pickpocket in New York\u201d was shot on-location throughout New York City. While filming a scene where a pawn shop is defaced, Turturro remembers the genuine concern of passerby and regulars who were just harmlessly looking out for the wellbeing of their community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an energy about the city. Especially when you leave it and you return and you realize, \u2018Wow, there\u2019s this collision of different cultures, races, languages.\u2019 It\u2019s a city of immigrants, really. There is something challenging about that and also beautiful about it when the mosaic functions,\u201d Turturro said.<\/p>\n

The inspirational \u201cgrandpa Art\u201d that Segan mentioned is acclaimed photographer Arthur Rothstein, son of Jewish immigrants that raised him in the Bronx in the 1920s. A century later, the Bronx remains a hub for immigrants. The world as a whole, however, has seen major technological advancements, for better or worse, as seen in Segan\u2019s film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe surveillance state \u2014 I don\u2019t know anybody that is a super big fan of that who\u2019s not selling it,\u201d Segan said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The lead actor shared additional concerns of how technology can resemble some of the financial barriers low-income people might face, citing his wife\u2019s work as a social worker.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe works with a lot of people on Zoom and they don\u2019t have computers, they can\u2019t navigate the health system. They don\u2019t have a certain amount of technology to help them, so poorer people are really being left behind,\u201d Turturro said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scored by Gary Lionelli, some of the film\u2019s most striking scenes are soundtracked with New York City classics like the Odyssey\u2019s \u201cNative New Yorker.\u201d At some point throughout production, Segan created a long playlist of music that spoke to him and shared it with Turturro.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great when a director shares music because music is emotional transportation \u2026 I imagine that Rosie, his wife- they worked as a team as pickpockets, and they would go out dancing,\u201d Turturro said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know from experience that people sometimes who can\u2019t speak, they can hear you, they can see you. Their spirit is really alive. And so, it\u2019s not a waste of time talking to them, not only caring for them, but also doing things that reminds them of the life they had.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"With scenes rooted in New York City neighborhoods, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York offers a portrait of a changing city and the people trying to find their place in it. The movie premieres in theaters Friday, Oct. 30. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics<\/p>\n

Turturro loves dancing, and when Turturro sent Segan him a short video theorizing that Harry should use dance as a way to communicate with his nonverbal wife, Segan was enthusiastic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not have this on the schedule originally, and we had to wait until the end of the day and everybody had left. It was just actors and a cameraman, Sam [Levy] and myself and we put the song on and just went for it,\u201d Segan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMovement brings happiness,\u201d Turturro added.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The joy of dancing, and other in-person shared bonding activities, is something Turturro hopes remains even as technological forms of communication become omnipresent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best things about life is meeting people and having an exchange or sharing something, and there\u2019s this space that\u2019s created between us that is unobstructed. I think that Noah touches on that really in a very subtle way, but a very powerful way, in the movie,\u201d Turturro said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After having its New York Premiere at the 2026 New York Film Festival, Noah Segan\u2019s \u201cThe Only Living Pickpocket in New York\u201d will premiere in Bronx theaters on Friday, Oct. 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Premiering in Bronx theaters on Oct. 30, writer-director Noah Segan\u2019s \u201cThe Only Living Pickpocket in New York\u201d stars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[140829,118502,41552,140830,140831,129578,9,24,55,54,14115,50937,56,86492,140832,140833,140834,140835,50938,45146,71868],"class_list":["post-386912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-arthur-rothstein","tag-bronx-movies","tag-john-turturro","tag-karina-arroyave","tag-movies-set-in-nyc","tag-native-new-yorker","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-film-festival","tag-noah-segan","tag-ny","tag-nyc-movies","tag-odyssey","tag-pickpocketing","tag-pickpockets","tag-surveillance-state","tag-the-only-living-pickpocket-in-new-york","tag-things-to-do-in-the-bronx","tag-zoom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}