Saturday, September 14, 2019

When Via Della Pace on 7th Street became Hobart & Blackwell for 'The Goldfinch'


[Derek Berg photo from February 2018]

"The Goldfinch" is in theaters this weekend. The adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, featuring Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Jeffrey Wright, Sarah Paulson and Finn Wolfhard, has mostly been trashed by critics for being dull and disjointed. Rotten Tomatoes shows a dismal composite score of 24 percent.

As you may recall, "Goldfinch" crews were here in February 2018 ... and again for reported reshoots in October 2018. They transformed the Italian restaurant Via Della Pace on Seventh Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue into an antiques shop for the film. Derek Berg documented part of the shoot in these photos.





... and how the storefront — Hobart & Blackwell antiques and restoration shop run by Jeffrey Wright's character — looks in the trailer...


[YouTube screengrab]

And the actual trailer...





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone watch the past US Open (of tennis)? Via Della Pace's owner was all over the tv, cheering on his friend, the young Italian guy, during his dream run to the semifinals.

Giovanni said...

This is one low rated film that I actually want to see, and not just because it was filmed in one of my favorite local restaurants. Jeffrey Wright is always great, as he has demonstrated in Angels in America, Sarah Paulson is always good, and Nicole Kidman has been picking great scripts for the past few years. I would have cast Timothee Chalamet as the lead but Ansel Elgort looks pretty good in the role. Why it received so much backlash at Toronto film is a mystery, I haven’t seen a film since Roma to replicate that feeling of nostalgia that feels present and new, this might be one that comes close.