Results tagged “rearwindow”

After a week of hearing all about these exhibitionists at the Standard Hotel, someone has finally sent us an image. See a much larger version here, and try to guess what's actually happening in this hotel room. Or don't. As Vanishing NY points out, city living has always offered glimpses into stranger's lives; two years ago HBO projected this on the side of a LES building, and before that we had films like Rear Window. The site points out that the Standard's management has created the dullest version of a voyeuristic experience, and "In his direction, the luxury hotelier lacks the depth and nuance of Hitchcock." It's true, but what does one expect from André Balazs? Maybe the residents at the Hotel Chelsea should create an artier version of this.

It sounds like a Project Runway challenge: create a look Princess Grace would have worn. However, the six gowns that are currently being displayed in the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue were created by some of the top designers -- each being paired with a specific look to be reinterpreted in a modern way.

L.B. Jeffries would be screwed! City Council member Peter Vallone Jr. is proposing legislation to ban "non-consensual peeping with cameras to peeping with the naked eye" according to the NY Sun. The crime would be a misdemeanor, with a $500 fine and up to 90 days in jail. CityRoom has some of the legislation:

b. Voyeurism in a private place. It shall be unlawful to deliberately view another person, without that person’s knowledge and consent, at a place and time when a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, while such person is (1) in a state of undress or partial dress, (2) engaged in sexual intercourse or sexual contact, or (3) urinating or defecating.

Continue reading "Vallone Wants to Stop Peeping Toms (and Tonyas)"

Film Forum

You may be familiar with James Sanders' book Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies, which celebrated New York City's role in movies and is a must for any fan of New York, architecture, or film. But even if you haven't, you get a chance to experience it in beyond the pages: Starting tomorrow, Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall will be the setting for a Celluloid Skyline exhibit. There will be huge "scenic backing" paintings from old films, film footage, artifacts, displays and more that will show NYC's role in production and as a "mythic city" of the movies. Here's a description:

[The exhibit] will also carry visitors into the dream city of the movies, through “immersive” elements that allow visitors to feel as if they are actually inhabiting the various environments of the filmic city – streets, skyscrapers, rooftops, theaters, waterfronts, interiors – allowing viewers to come away with a greater understanding not only of the moviemaking process, but of the urban character, texture and significance of the real city.

Continue reading "Celluloid Skyline at Grand Central Tomrorow"

The NY Times City section has a long feature about Law & Order's dramatization of the Adrienne Shelly murder. It was inevitable that the police procedural warhorse would cover one of the more bizarre and tragic murders in recent memory, and a casting notice for someone to play the illegal immigrant laborer who assaults an woman after she complains about construction noise confirmed that L&O would be tackling the story.

Here we go: it's a huge weekend for year-end Oscar-bait and questions abound. Will audiences flock to see the "forbidden" love of ? (No.) Is it any good? (It's OK.) Will people be turned off by the heavy (and occasionally heavy-handed) allusions to Christian imagery? (Possibly, but we were moved more by Aslan's humiliation and sacrifice than Jesus' in Mel Gibson's biblical slasher film)

The seamy details of murders were examined in the NY Times article about some recent discoveries of murdered bodies. The big news is that murderers are utilizing plastic bags more (versus steamer trunks in the old days), and that actually helps the NYPD identify the victims, not to mention figure out who might be behind the crime. Gothamist found this explanation from former chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden fascinating:

The plastic tends to preserve them for longer periods of time than if it had just been buried in the ground. A lot of destruction to a body comes from insects, maggots, rats and vermin, depending on where you are. The plastic is very good at preserving the tissues for longer periods of time. They can't tell the odor or they can't get to it. There are a lot of myths. In the old days they used to put bodies in lye. It turns out that lye, rather than destroy the body, preserves it, because it kills the bacteria and any insects. Plastic does the same thing.

As a Law & Order devotee, Gothamist has always marveled at the different ways bodies are disposed of - usually in ways where the suspects are found out immediately. However, there does seem to be a movement to get rid of the teeth (therefore no dental records can match them) and hands (no fingerprints), which is probably the reason for some dismemberment - not to mention getting rid of the body in a non descript fashion -think Rear Window! And Gothamist suspects that Max Fischer's elaborate plans to get a tank of piranhas in Rushmore was for future body disposal.

It turns out that the newly redesigned MoMA has some detractors, namely the neighbords whose apartments are like dioramas for museum goers to spy on. The NY Post spoke to some West 54th Street residents who are upset with museum's new glassy facade:

Rosanna Batista...was aghast to learn that up to 10,000 visitors a day were getting vistas of her boudoir with their $20 admission. From the moment MoMA reopened two months ago, she's been gawked at - and "flashed" - by a steady stream of camera-toting art lovers.

Oh, you kids with your digitial cameras and cameraphones, but, hey, you picked that street to live on and there was no contract saying the MoMA would not have windows. The MoMA is in talks with neighbors to make sure they seem sensitive to the 'hood, though.

Panic Room, the movie, has been called a member of the "Manhattan luxury real estate thriller" genre by A.O. Scott, who also include Single White Female and Rosemary's Baby in it...plus Eyes Wide Shut, even though these NYC apartments were figments of Kubrick's mind. Gothamist would like to add Ransom, Sliver, and Laura. For the less luxury but still scary apartments, Gothamist recommends Wait Until Dark and the NYC apartment movie thriller to end all NYC apartment thrillers, Rear Window.

Yes, today is Alfred Hitchcock's birthday. Gothamist finds the Google tribute funny, especially since we all know the bird will poop on Hitch's head, which is a nod for Hitch's fondness for poop humor.

Daily News speaks with Peyton Reed, director of the upcoming Down With Love, a throwback to the "sex" comedies of the late 50s and early 60s, like Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, and That Touch of Mink.

601am mentioned how someone at his local video store kept renting the movies he wanted to see, making him wonder if the person would like him, too. I wonder that often when I go see movies, especially when I go alone. I wonder if the people at the Saturday 11AM showing of Femme Fatale or Sunday 12:05PM of My Wife Is Actress are people like me. I suspect we have similar interests, but in truth, I'd probably hate most of them, the way I hated the ladies who kept talking during the 12:20PM Bend It Like Beckham last Sunday.