Sunday, August 19, 2012

Edith Head, Architect of Film: Rear Window

Edith Head can lay claim to being an Architect of Film: her distinctively glamorous costumes for Hitchcock's leading ladies framed the roles and "made us see" the story unfold in a particular way, often revealing a character's conflicting traits with subtle resolution. In Rear Window, Grace Kelly's socialite Lisa Freemont shows little such conflict, but her costumes reveal her development from luncheon lady to sturdy spouse, with confidence and continuity. 









































































Sunday, August 12, 2012

The Lost SoHo of "After Hours" [1985]

It's no secret that the area south of Houston Street in Lower Manhattan, which went from manufacturing to artists' living, has by now given way completely to gentrification. Gone are the dark & gritty streets, the dive bars, the affordably expansive lofts.  Here, from Martin Scorsese's 1985 film After Hours are some of the last views of a neighborhood that's changed perhaps more than any other in NYC over the last 20+ years. 

Corner of Crosby & Howard, where Griffin Dunne's hapless office worker begins his crazy night downtown.

 The loft where he visits nutty pick-up Roseanne Arquette is at 28 Howard Street.

Gone are the days when an enormous loft could be affordable to an aspiring artist who would willingly furnish it with plastic sheeting for partitions and bare lightbulbs.

The River Diner was actually up 11th Avenue at 37th Street. (Now demolished.)

Back in SoHo - more empty streets, since taken over entirely by luxury retail, chain-stores & euro-trash restaurants & bars.

The "Terminal Bar" was on Spring & Renwick Streets. It's now an ersatz "Irish Pub".

A "Jil Sander" boutique can now be found on the right, "De Vera" on the right.

The "Club Berlin" was at 289 Hudson, now a deli.


Somehow, the piles of garbage still remain.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Skylines of "How To Marry A Millionaire" [1953]

We've seen these (probably stock) images a million times, but they're still the up there among the top reasons I love this crazy town!