Now that I've actually seen the Sex and the City movie, I can speak with a little more authority on the locations used in the movie. Of course, I also took notes on all kinds of locations that showed up in the movie that I couldn't recognize-- what kind of fraud am I, huh? While I ponder just which cafe Miranda was sitting in when she noticed the milk foam on her upper lip, check out a few more locations that are 100% guaranteed to show up in the movie. Then, get out there and see it! Screenings started Thursday night at midnight, so why are you dragging your feet?!
Warning: Mild spoilers ahead, though nothing that you wouldn't know from reading any of the reviews.
The SATC: Yet another addition to that list of hip Meatpacking District restaurants, Buddakan is so damn hip it doesn't even need windows. With its brick exterior painted black, it could easily be a seedy West Side strip club, and that's kind of what I thought it was until I noticed the sleek sign just by the front doors. That sign is the precise spot where Samantha, Harry, Smith and Big are all chatting and smoking cigars when Steve, desperate to reconcile with Miranda, approaches him. Miranda and Steve share a scene just by those imposing front doors that's yet another reminder why they were always the best characters on the show.
The better, real-life option.: Beats me. You can't do much better than Buddakan for exclusive New York hip, and since I couldn't even look in the windows, all I know of the place is what I saw in the movie-- which means glamour, glamour, glamour. Given that the restaurant plays such a key role in the movie, it seems like you probably ought to go with the genuine article to get the real SATC experience.
The SATC: This already-iconic New York location will soon become another must-see spot for Sex and the City fans, joining places like Tiffany's and The Plaza Hotel old standbys given extra significance by its role in Carrie's life. While returning library books early in the movie, Carrie realizes the public library is the perfect spot for her wedding to Big-- surrounded by all the great love stories in all the books held there. This ignores the fact that the library at this point is really just a research library, so probably contains a lot more encyclopedias than love stories. Still, with its stone floors and walls and lions guarding the front, it's hard to imagine a more majestic spot for a wedding.
The better, real-life option: Like I said, you can't actually check books out from here-- that would be taken care of at the lending library right across the street, or one of the city's branch libraries in all of the boroughs. And the public library isn't a good spot to cozy up with a book either, with limited seating and tourists coming in and out all the time. If its a private moment with your favorite love story you're looking for, head around back to Bryant Park on a nice day. It's hard to snag a seat there as well, but under the sunshine, you might not mind hunching over on a curb. Plus, pivotal scenes from the movie take place all around the park and the library, so you might catch a few more sights you recognize from the movie as well.
The SATC: It's the first real location you see in the movie, and one that will become very important as the movie goes on. Carrie meets Big outside this Central Park-facing apartment building, and the two go up to tour an apartment they're interested in buying together. That doesn't turn out to be their happy home, but once they make it up to the penthouse... well, that's another story. Yeah, this part of the story kind of falls under "ridiculous luxury."
The better, real-life option: Well, aside from the fact that the building is probably one of the most expensive location sin the entire city, who really wants to live across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and all the tour buses and souvenir hawkers that crowd outside it every day? OK, well, I wouldn't turn it down. But I'd take Carrie's original apartment in the West Village-- even though they pretend it's on the Upper East Side-- any day. Better restaurants, better shopping, and the added charm of a few gay sex shops thrown in-between. Granted, I could never live in any of these neighborhoods-- if you're going to strive to be your own Carrie Bradshaw, you gotta start somewhere, and that somewhere is far, far away from brownstones and parkside penthouses.
Read Real Locations Of Sex And The City PART 1 here.
Read Real Locations Of Sex And The City PART 2 here.
