The Grand Central Terminal, one of the main train stations in New York is striking not just in terms of how beautiful the building is, but how wonderfully preserved. The architecture itself is wonderful with a huge main concourse leading up to the ticket windows and a then again gigantic doors opening on the platforms.
Part of the concourse, I understand is usually let out for public exhibitions. The last few days has seen “City of Giants – Skylines of Fantasy”, an exhibition celebrating New York in movies. The exhibition coincides with a book on the same subject which has just been released. It features most of the memorable New York movie moments; from the old King Kong to Taxi Driver to Doing the Right Thing to You’ve got Mail. It has rare pictures of these movies being shot in various New York neighbourhoods, quotes from various writers and even a giant United Nations building background against which Cary Grant was shot for Hitchcock’s North by North West because the UN refused permission to shoot the movie in its premises. The exhibition memorably brings alive the romance that New York evokes in the rest of this country – indeed in the rest of the world. Joan Didion wonderfully articulates this in her introduction to the exhibition.
Part of the concourse, I understand is usually let out for public exhibitions. The last few days has seen “City of Giants – Skylines of Fantasy”, an exhibition celebrating New York in movies. The exhibition coincides with a book on the same subject which has just been released. It features most of the memorable New York movie moments; from the old King Kong to Taxi Driver to Doing the Right Thing to You’ve got Mail. It has rare pictures of these movies being shot in various New York neighbourhoods, quotes from various writers and even a giant United Nations building background against which Cary Grant was shot for Hitchcock’s North by North West because the UN refused permission to shoot the movie in its premises. The exhibition memorably brings alive the romance that New York evokes in the rest of this country – indeed in the rest of the world. Joan Didion wonderfully articulates this in her introduction to the exhibition.
Now just think of the immense potential for a similar exhibition in Mumbai celebrating movies from Paying Guest to Gharonda to Satya – in the splendour of CST station. Ah! But first we must fight whether it is VT or CST.
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