more about movies

I'm glad I grabbed the photos on Water Street when I did.  The next day, all traces of the film shoot were gone.  I hope that eventually I will find out what movie or TV show was filming.

But the film set sparked a memory.

Way back in 1981, Jane Fonda and Kris Krisstofferson starred in Rollover, a political thriller. A decent, but not spectacular, movie.  I enjoyed the film for reasons that had nothing to do with the plot...

As you may recall, there's a point in the movie where Fonda and Kristofferson travel to Saudi Arabia.   Those scenes were shot in Albany, NY.  I ought to know.  I was there. 

I am a 1981 graudate of the State University of New York at Albany.  Our campus was designed by the famed architect Edward Durell Stone. Stone also designed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the American Embassy in New Delhi, Busch Memorial Stadium, numerous pavillions at the 1964 New York World's Fair, Riyadh International Airport, the University of Islamabad....many famous sites.  He had a very distinctive, modernist style.

Several scenes were shot in the University's Campus Center (a/k/a our student union).  We were not permitted on the upper floors of the Campus Center while the scenes were being shot. 

Here's a link to a photo of the scene inside our Campus Center:  photo  (It's copyrighted, I won't reproduce it here.)

Looks like a palace in Saudi Arabia, right?

Additional scenes were shot a on the main stairway of the Legislative Office Building, part of the Empire State Plaza,    Designed by Wallace Harrison  (who also designed part of Rockafeller Center and Lincoln Centerin NYC), it's another example of modernist architecture.

I had an internship in the New York State Assembly Assembly that spring, and the Assemblyman I worked for had his offices in the Legislative Office Building. 

I saw them filming the stairway scenes.


Comments

  1. I never even heard of that movie, but it's still cool that you were there for some of the filming. It's fascinating stuff to be around.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder now how my Kris Krisstofferson made.

    Coffee is on

    ReplyDelete

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