Thursday 30 September 2010

Made in Manhattan; what's your favourite New York movie moment?

Since I've been living near New York, I've taken an extra special delight in watching, and often re-watching, films and TV shows that feature the city and its environs. It's amazing how many times it crops up; and not just with the obvious Manhattan candidates, like King Kong, Sex and the City, West Side Story, countless Woody Allen films, Working Girl, Ghostbusters, Taxi Driver, The Devil Wears Prada....well, obviously, the list is endless.

With our new-found knowledge of the city, we can now recognise the less obvious and less glamorous parts of the city on screen. Our blogger heroine in Julie & Julia lived in Long Island City, Queens, suspiciously close to what looks like the Long Island Railroad. Sitting at home watching Tony Soprano driving his car in the introduction to The Sopranos, we can gleefully point out and recognise the New Jersey turnpike and Lincoln Tunnel. Watching Madagascar, we suddenly get all the New York references (eg. "this is the Jersey side of this island") more than ever before, as well as pointing out Central Park Zoo and Grand Central Station to the boys. And we could also scoff at the recent series of 24 which feaured Jack Bauer in New York, knowing that there is no way he could have taken two minutes of screen time to get between two points which we know could easily take up to an hour....


Wall Street; Money Never Sleeps, which I saw last night, was no exception. As you might expect, it features the City in all its glory; amazing panoramas of the New York skyline over the Hudson and the East River; a sumptuous fundraiser ball at the Met; a scarily fast New York cab ride with a maniac driver (and yes, they really do drive like that); glossy loft-style apartments. But this time there was an added bonus: Long Island!

Jake, the young investment banker played by Shia La Boeuf, comes from, in the words of his friend, 'some Long Island town no-one's ever heard of, let alone can spell' . (There are quite a few of those; Ronkonoma, anyone, or Hauppage?) His mother, brilliantly played by Susan Sarandon, is a realtor out on the Island and when they go out to visit her, she shows them around a house, telling them Long Island is always popular, due to the 'good schools, and plenty of doctors' (well, thank goodness for that!). But perhaps the best bit was the scene featuring Jake and his fiancee driving down the Long Island Expressway, with cars bumper to bumper and apparently dangerously close behind them. That, my friends, is no Hollywood fantasy....

The film is a great follow-up to the original Wall Street, and features Michael Douglas at his reptilian best as Gordon Gecko. It's sumptuously filmed by Oliver Stone, and even if the storyline is a little bit unbelievable, I'd highly recommend it. In the meantime, if you have a favourite New York movie, let me know in the comments box....

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

"They Shall Have Music" featuring Jascha Heifetz and "Music From the Heart".

Iota said...

Have you seen "Date Night"? It's (surprisingly) a lot better than you would think from the trailers. And very New York.

Julie said...

Sex and the city for me :-)

Nota Bene said...

I love doing the same thing in London...and indeed Brighton. Barefoot in the Park is the one movie that springs to mind...

nappy valley girl said...

Anonymous - I haven't heard of either, but will look out for them...

Iota - I watched most of it on the plane to England - and enjoyed what I saw of it (when Littleboy 2 wasn't having a meltdown or the film interrupted by something else..). I really like Tina Fey.

Julie - the film or the series? I thought the second film was dire though....

NB - that's another great one.

Expat mum said...

Not so much a place, but I used to love the movies where they'd come out of a corner shop carrying their food in big paper bags with no handles. I mean how silly. No handles? And then when I first came to Chicago that's exactly what I found here too. You can only carry two at a time and god help you when you have to get them into a car or open a door!

Calif Lorna said...

Not a very intellectual movie, but I loved taking the boys to Central Park and sailing a remote control boat, just like Stuart Little. It was so calm in the middle of this huge city and the boys could run and explore. I thought it was wonderful.

Liberty London Girl said...

It's so true: I LOVE watching even Sex & the City purely for the fun in actually recognising the locations. The Bourne Ultimatum was the first time I really watched an NY film and knew what the locations were. LLGxx

Anonymous said...

Please ignore "Music From the Heart", it should be

Music of the Heart
1999PG123 minutes

In director Wes Craven's inspiring Oscar-nominated drama -- which is based on a true story -- violinist and single mother Roberta Guaspari (Meryl Streep) struggles to convince the administration at an East Harlem high school to let her establish a music program. Having won that battle, Guaspari nonetheless continues to face an uphill climb as budget cuts threaten her determined and deeply felt efforts to bring the arts to underprivileged kids.

nappy valley girl said...

Expat Mum - where I live, it's all plastic, more's the pity, but I know what you mean!

Lorna - I liked Stuart Little too -and yes, it's great for Central Park.

LLG - I'll have to watch Bourne Ultimatum again now. When I arrived here, so much of my NY knowledge came from Sex and the City - it was the only reason, for instance, I knew about the meatpacking district......

Anonymous - that sounds like a superb film. I am a huge Streep fan, so will seek it out at the Library.

Tanya (Bump2Basics) said...

I always think of Tom Hanks in Big playing on that piano in FAO Schwarz!