Viewed: 23 January 2006
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Listed in: Movies, Other

The Age of Innocence more then focusing on the salacious forbidding romance in the strict New York high society, shows the implements of its daily life. The film does reminded me of the other detailed Scorsese of the same time period, the Gangs of New York. In both Scorsese seems more interesting in recreating the City at that time, when it was experiencing rapid growth and quickly shedding its old form to become what it is today (or at least what is was until Robert Moses). The 1870’s seems like one of the times of great transition, where the old tradition and the new technology and lifestyles clash. Like the remains of the early 20th century that seemed to be sweep away in the 1970s. Of course the film brings us from carriages to automobiles, and the lens is always focused on dinner plates, paintings and jewelry first, characters second. While he does use the Parker House in Boston (now The Omni-Parker), he also uses the EL’s Hoboken Terminal as a stand in for the PRR’s Jersey City terminal. Jeez, I hope someone got fired for that one.