69 Changing Icons: The Symbols of New York City in Film TERRI MEYER BOAKE University of Waterloo These architectural symbols also begin to differ- entiate “new” cities, whose prominent building are entirely contemporary, from “old” cities, whose icons begin to show, even by silhouette, the evo- lution of the architectural style that has come to represent the culture or zeitgeist of the place. The icons of Dubai all reside in the present. The collec- tion of symbols that represents London is capable of placing it in the past through the use of Big Ben or St. Paul’s, or in the present, via the London Eye. Likewise for Paris, the past and present are contrasted through the Eiffel Tower and the Lou- vre Pyramid. Strikingly absent from the New York suite, are the paired rectangular images of the Twin Towers. Without an alternate “modern” icon, the city has lately come to be characterized by notable buildings of the past – The Empire State 1 Fig. 1. Silhouettes of well known City Icons. Building, Statue of Liberty and St. Patrick’s Ca- thedral – leaving the identity of the present, quite THE ICONS OF THE CITY unfi lled. Not that there are no other contempo- rary towers in New York. The Seagram Building, The architectural icons of the City have long served ATT and Citicorp Towers, and new Hearst Building to allow fi lm directors to identify the location of have important places in the creation of modern the primary setting in the fi lm. Whether the fi lm New York. But, situated in midtown, they lack a has been shot in the studio, on location, or been presence on the skyline and can never be ade- created entirely through CGI technologies, these quately charged with enough meaning to replace symbols of the City provide viewers with imme- the felled Twin Towers. diate recognition of the urban setting. In fact, the images of the icons are in some instances so URBAN ARCHITECTURAL ICONS IN FILM powerful as to become the representation of the city, allowing fi lm makers to assimilate much of The actual use of these urban iconographic identi- the footage by other means. Many of these no- fi ers in fi lm has changed throughout history, par- table architectural icons are charged with emo- tially as a result of technological developments tional and cultural imagery, due to their intrinsic in fi lmmaking, and in part due to the evolution connection with both the history of the City, and of architectural style. Early fi lm made extensive the cultural essence of what the City has come to use of painted backdrops as well as physical scale mean. This charge can be the result of the archi- models or miniatures as its means of illustrating tectural signifi cance of the building, or the result its version of the city. Most fi lms were shot in stu- of a set of events that may well have nothing to dios where controlled interior spaces and artifi cial do with the Architecture. 70 SEEKING THE CITY lighting provided the best results given the lack of New York. This methodology holds true to the of sophistication of early cameras and diffi culties present day. with sound editing. If extensive city sets were re- quired, scale models were constructed. Prior to In the instance of fi lm representations of New York 1927, with Walthur Ruttman’s production Berlin: City, the identifying use of the Empire State Build- Symphony of a Great City, very few fi lms used the ing and the Chrysler Building, quickly gave way to actual city for location fi lming. Although the Me- the World Trade Towers shortly after their comple- tropolis of Fritz Lang’s 1926 fi lm of the same name tion in 1973. Their simple shape and sheer height was to become iconic and highly infl uential, it did dominated the New York skyline. They were not not represent but the “idea” of New York – an idea particularly remarkable in form, or designed by snatched by Lang while viewing the New York sky- a renowned architect or otherwise of high Archi- line from the distant harbor. Metropolis has been tectural signifi cance. They simply represented the characterized as “a fi lm of powerfully expressive image of power, commerce and modernity, and architectural metaphors, a gallery of contempo- dominated the New York City skyline like no other rary visions, and an important turning point in the buildings before. The World Trade Center towers development of fi lm architecture.”2 Erich Kettelhut appeared on numerous fi lm posters whether they and Otto Hunte’s set designs are reputed to have were central to the plot of the fi lm or not.3 The been infl uenced by Lang’s 1924 trip to New York, Twin Towers were not charged with the represen- which occurred in the midst of a skyscraper boom tation of freedom and democracy, until they fell, unequalled in Europe. The setback style, as used as a result of “events”, not commercial offi ce ar- in the 20 foot deep scale model of the central ur- chitecture. ban street scene, became the urban prototype for the city of the future, but it did not focus on a This quick switch to the World Trade Towers from singular identifi able architectural icon. the Empire State Building is glaringly obvious when we examine differences in the 1933 and REPRESENTATION, SITE 1976 versions of the classic fi lm, King Kong. The MANIPULATION AND THE ROLE OF 1933 version of King Kong brought the model ICONS based image of the Empire State Building, then the tallest structure in the world, to the forefront Tall buildings have been central to the essence of of the public eye, through the establishing shots New York architecture since the construction of created for the fi lm. In the 1933 version of the the Singer Building (1907) and Woolworth Build- fi lm, the climax of the fi lm takes place atop the ing (1913). By the 1930s, with a proliferation of Empire State Building, thrusting the building into actual skyscrapers available (Chrysler and Empire perhaps as important a character role as either State Buildings both completed in 1930), the fi lm Faye Wray or the giant Ape. The precariousness industry refocused attention from a modeled vi- of the action was fully dependent on the height of sion of an imaginary future, such as the one il- the tower, the minimal hand grips provided by the lustrated in Fox Film’s Just Imagine (1930), to architectural style and the vulnerable elegance of one that used the actual architecture of New York the dirigible docking port on top of the building. as the subject, set, and sometimes star of fi lms. The footage was often created as a large matte In contrast, the 1976 remake of King Kong by painting of the “impression of the” skyline that Dino De Laurentis chose to replace the Empire was placed behind the constructed set. These ref- State Building with the newly constructed World erence images of the New York skyline came to Trade Center towers – which had at that point sur- be known as “establishing shots”, which served passed the former in height and signifi cance to the purpose of telling the fi lm audience the loca- a modernized New York City – as they assumed tion of the fi lm. In many fi lms, these establishing their dominant role on the skyline. Although a rel- shots might have been the only direct reference ative success at the box offi ce, critics felt that the to New York, or representation of its actual urban use of the towers signifi cantly detracted from the architecture. The balance of the fi lm may have fi lm, noting that the climb up the face of the tow- been shot on set or in another city with similar ers was monotonous, due to the relentlessness of architectural characteristics to the urban fabric the architecture, and that the climax scene on the CHANGING ICONS 71 Fig. 2. King Kong (1933) The identifi cation of New York is made clear by the use of the Empire State Building in the foreground, and Chrysler Building beyond. (1976) The Empire State Building is diminished in the background as the WTC take front stage. roof level was less exciting due to the expansive its presence, is critical to the general discussion size of the roofs. New York as a city, as although the skyline has long been employed as a key identifying element “The shape of the Trade Center, in contrast (to the in fi lm, it is also one of the pieces of fi lm set that Empire State Building), fought the story all the has been altered to suit the mood, budget and way…New York’s newer offi ce buildings offered so little to the fantasies of the movie city - or to fan- technological limitations of the fi lm. The degree tasies of any sort.”4 of manipulation has varied widely as a function of the use of created environments versus on-site Excitement was instead provided by having Kong shooting. Technological developments over the leap from building to building. last 40 years have seen a slow shift to the incor- poration of digital manipulation in almost all fi lms, Interestingly in John Carpenter’s Escape from New resulting in an almost seamless blending of digital York (1981), the sheer expanse of the top of the and actual environments. Models, matte paintings towers is recognized by Carpenter who uses the and location shoots existed as the status quo for roof to land Kurt Russell’s plane, a highly nerve the inclusion of architecture in fi lming until the wracking part of the fi lm owing to the relative advent of bluescreen5 and chroma key fi lming and insuffi ciency of the platform for such a purpose.