Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro teamed up for a second film collaboration titled “Falling in Love”. After co-starring in 1978’s “The Deer Hunter”, both actors went on to win second Academy Awards and were considered to be the greatest talents of their generations, so critics expected acting fireworks. Instead, De Niro and Streep chose to tell a rather simple story of a man and a woman, who meet in a crowded department store before Christmas, meet again on the train on their way to work and then fall in love, despite both being married. Critics were rather disappointed by the lack of big scenes in favor of everyday people with everyday problems. The films remains a small gem, but an often forgotten one.

1984 could have been a theatre-heavy year as well. Mike Nichols and “The Real Thing” producer Emanuel Azenburg were expected to put together a Broadway theater that was to include Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Mandy Patinkin and Amanda Plummer. Streep was going to star in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, “Private Lives” and possibly a Chekhov play. Mr. Nichols was to direct all three productions. But, as often, “we couldn’t work out the schedules for everyone involved”, Azenburg told The New York Times in March 1984.

“Falling in Love” released in November to lukewarm reviews and box office. Streep received the Italian David Di Donatello Award as Best Foreign Actress for “Falling in Love” and won her first People’s Choice Award as Favorite Motion Picture Actress – an award she would win throughout the 1980s. She also narrated the audio book and television programme “The Velveteen Rabbit”, for which she received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Album for Children. Her voice was also heard on an answering machine in Wendy Wasserstein’s “Isn’t it Romatic?” at the New Horizons.