By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — In "Rosemary's Baby," it was the Dakota, in "The Apartment," it was an anonymous rowhouse and in "West Side Story" it was the tenements that Lincoln Center replaced.
Upper West Side buildings — some famous, some not — have played starring roles in some of Hollywood's most beloved movies. At a Wednesday slide lecture, architect and filmmaker James Sanders, author of "Celluloid Skyline," will trace the post-World War II history of the Upper West Side on film.
Sanders will present 70 images from feature films set on the Upper West Side, including "Annie Hall," "Panic in Needle Park," "You've Got Mail," "Ghostbusters," and "The Squid and the Whale."
"These films are an incredible window into understanding the city," Sanders said. "They show the city through the eyes of gifted filmmakers who see deep into the soul of the city. This will look into the soul of the Upper West Side."
Featured in the lecture will be the 1960 Billy Wilder classic "The Apartment," starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. The movie's title refers to an apartment in an Upper West Side rowhouse where Lemmon's character lives. Lemmon lets his bosses use the apartment for trysts with their mistresses.
At the time the Upper West Side had fallen into decline, and the neighborhood was somewhat seedy, Sanders said. For Wilder, the older, dark apartment was the "perfect counterpoint" to the rest of the story, which takes place in a sleek modern office that's bright and soulless, Sanders said.
"It was one more way of saying that the bright fancy new world is just a facade," Sanders said. "To this day, it's a very haunting portrait of what it's like to live in New York if you're by yourself and don't have much money and you don’t have a partner."
Exteriors for the movie where shot on West 69th Street.
Tickets for the lecture, organized by preservation group Landmark West!, are sold out. It's at 6 p.m. at Macaulay Honors College at City University of New York, 35 West 67th Street, 2nd Floor.
Sanders will host a question and answer session and book-signing after the slide lecture.
