Talking About NYC In The Movies

Gothamist is sorry we haven't posted about this sooner, but in the spirit of better late than never, James Sanders, author of the beautiful book Celluloid Skyline about the representation of the city in film, is speaking at the Center for Architecture tonight about Edge of the City - Waterfront, Train Station, and Grand Hotel. The lecture is the fourth and final one in a series (earlier topics included Emerald Cities - Skyscrapers Real and Imaginary, Street Scene - Row House, Tenement, and Housing Project and Domestic Elaborations - Residential Interiors in the Movie City), and costs $15 - check here for registration. If anyone has gone, let Gothamist know - we'd love to know what we missed!

Some movies on the theme: On The Waterfront, Unfaithful (never has the Metro-North been so decadent), and Plaza Suite. And find other great events in Gothamist Arts & Events.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on July 21, 2004 12:01 AM

Comments [rss]

Dave H.

These lectures are awesome. Although Sanders and the resident a/v geek don't seem to have their shit together, the last two were well worth attending. Plus, afterwords you get to browse the Center for Archictecture's models of the West Side Stadium and Convention Center and the Court Street Cube skyscraper models. Currently showing on the ground floor: the finalist master plans for the High Line. Oh yeah, wine, cheese, and crackers are always a plus.

Jen

Thanks for letting us know about that lecture. It is surprising that he didn't go into Woody Allen interiors...or the ones of Spike Lee or Martin Scorsese films, because they give a modern perspective. And I agree - Rear Window should have been there, at least in the respect of how NY is all about people living on top of each other, yet not knowing anything about each other.

Condour

I went to the interiors one. He was very interesting and some some great slides, although the video parts of the presentation were somewhat lacking, due to the technology they had at their disposal.

He basically presented several different residence styles, and noted how the residences could become symbolic of social status, and the various unwritten rules of each class. Through the process he went through several commonly depicted forms of housing in the city, and a little about their histories: The gilded-era mansion (pre-crash excess), the rowhouse, the duplex, the apartment building proper, the penthouse, and the loft.

Some of the films used as examples were Holiday, The Seven Year Itch, Rosemary's Baby, An Unmarried Woman. I was a little disappointed in the lack of attention to the set design itself (except concerning Holiday, which was well covered), and specifically to lack of attention on the art deco penthouse, which I feel is central to film depictions of Manhattan. More could also be said about the clutter of Woody Allen interiors (not to be confused with Woody Allen's Interiors) Also: Where was Rear Window? Rope? And of course, The Apartment? But overall it was a whole lot of fun to attend.

Kristen

I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading this book (which was a fabu M-Mas gift from Gothamist herself)... Actually I was just re-reading the part on the City and Dreams...

I also love how he talks about screenwriters in LA shaping the perfect NY - and how this stemmed from the fact that they were essentially homesick - and so they wrote about a city that existed in their memory ...