I’ve written a few posts now about my trip to New York in October 2018 already but there’s dozens more to come as it’s such an amazing place that more than lives up to expectations.
In preparation for the trip my then boyfriend (soon to be fiancé) and I watched various films that we knew featured New York in them, either as itself or doubling for somewhere else. It prompted a few additions to our itinerary – including the Superman and Ghostbusters buildings I’ve already posted about.
We ended up with a list of the main tourist sites and a list of less obvious locations to try and get to see during our eight day stay. One thing we had noticed was that as well as the obvious locations like Grand Central, Central Park, and the Empire State Building, some lesser known buildings cropped up again and again.
101 Park Avenue
Take 101 Park Avenue – just another average sized skyscraper close to Grand Central Terminal. It had another life as Clamp Tower in the gloriously entertaining 1990 film ‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’. It features in the final battle in Marvel’s 2012 film ‘Avengers Assemble’ – as it’s by the road bridge in front of Grand Central were our heroes make a stand. It’s a simple but crisp looking building, all glass and straight lines with its entrance on a corner and an open area in front with a fountain.
It was just one of the buildings on the ‘to see’ list while we were in the city, and one of several we managed to find that appeared in the brilliant film ‘The Fisher King’.
‘The Fisher King’ was filmed in 1990 and starred the ever-remarkable Robin Williams as Parry and the equally engaging Jeff Bridges as Jack is a film that improves with age. The imagery is striking, the story moving and the performances are top notch. It bravely mixes diverse topics such as Grail lore, the power of the media and its effect on the mentally vulnerable, with comedy and drama. It’s an unusual film directed with panache and tenderness by Terry Gilliam. It was largely filmed in New York and there were several places we wanted to try and visit during our stay in the city.
In this film 101 Park Avenue holds the office of the TV company where Jack goes to a meeting to try and revive his career.
Grand Central Terminal
Iconic is an overused word but it trips off the tongue quite easily in the Big Apple. Grand Central Terminal – not station as I thought, is truly an iconic New York location. It was recommended for demolition in the 1950s and it’s a wonder it’s still here. It took a few decades and several campaigns to save and restore it to its current splendour – it proudly celebrated its 108th birthday this month.
I’m not even going to attempt to list how many films and programmes it’s featured in, but it’s easily in the hundreds. I’m confident though that one of the most beautiful scenes shot in Grand Central must be the waltz in ‘The Fisher King’. It starts with Robin Williams’s character Parry following his unaware love interest Lydia (played by Amanda Plummer) through the packed main hall and then transforms into a spontaneous dance scene as the people around them pair up and start waltzing around. The direction, the light, and the dancing give it an otherworldliness that is charming. It was the first location we visited on our trip as our hotel adjoined Grand Central – we may have had a little waltz ourselves in a near empty hall in the late hours. Magical.
Statue of General William Tecumseh
On our first day in the city we took a morning jog from our hotel to Central Park and made a quick stop at the Statue of General William Tecumseh which looked ever so shiny in the early sunshine. In the ‘The Fisher King’ it’s were an inebriated Jack stops after he’s been given the Pinocchio doll. It’s just by the southeast entrance to Central Park.
Central Park
Central Park is big, really big. I’m used to British parks that you can wander the circumference of in an afternoon – certainly not this park. The park was used a few times in the film notably the path where Jack and Parry face the Red Knight and a meadow where they contemplate life (in various stages of undress). We didn’t have enough time to visit those exact parts of the park however we did check out a couple of Doctor Who and Avengers locations which I’m sure to cover in a later posts. It’s one of those locations that’s seemingly appeared in everything.
Hunter College High School
After Grand Central this is easily the most recognisable location used in ‘The Fisher King’. Formerly a military building constructed in 1895 it’s now a higher education establishment. The mock castle building in the film is Langdon Carmichael’s Townhouse were Parry believes the Holy Grail is being held and later Jack scales the walls to get it. This most un-New York like building is a block away from Central Park and stands out quite dramatically due to its austere red brick and pseudo medieval towers. I didn’t realise, until I was researching it, that it was another building that came very close to being demolished in the 1960s, in fact parts were before it was protected. A false entrance was created for the film – a double staircase was shipped in from California, and stained glass windows and gargoyles added to complete the castle look.
Bonus location – St Patrick’s Cathedral
Opposite the Rockefeller Centre on 5th Avenue is St Patrick’s Cathedral – a very traditional Catholic cathedral in a very modern city. In ‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’ one of the gremlins drinks a potion that gives it wings, and thanks to an encounter with a cement mixer gets coated in wet cement. It flies up and perches itself on St Patrick’s Cathedral and becomes a gargoyle as it dries in position.
I feel that this is one of the few film sequels that’s as entertaining as the first, interestingly though it was made rather reluctantly and as a way of proving that films don’t really need a sequel. This is a fascinating article about the film which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year.
I remember seeing it at the cinema and being terrified of being caught out as underage, it was 12 certificate and I would have only been 10!
From scene to seen 