Arbitrage is a feature film on Wall Street released in 2012. The theme of the film is not complicated: to expose the unknown side of Wall Street hedge fund tycoon Robert Miller (played by Richard Gere). For example, an investor with outstanding performance in his career, in fact, instructed his subordinates to falsify the finances to cover up the huge shortfalls in the Russian copper mine project; the family is the pride of the children and the support of his wife, but in private, he is dependent on one. The artist's mistress, and eventually got into trouble because of her, almost ruined and lost everything.
This movie is not a classic in movie history, and the rating on the IMDb website is not very high (6.7 points), but it is a very New York movie. Tasting this movie carefully will give you a deeper understanding of New York culture, especially Manhattan with the theme of the financial industry. First of all, this drama was all shot in New York. People who have lived in New York will be brightened by the scenes. In addition, the director and screenwriter of this play, Nicholas Jarecki, not only grew up in New York, but also his father was Henry Jarecki, a bigwig in Wall Street futures trading. This also explains why this drama can use a lot of details to set off the life of a Wall Street boss so three-dimensional. In the following, the author will explore the corresponding relationship between movie scenes and real New York by enumerating them one by one.
1. Arbitrage
Arbitrage itself is a financial term, which roughly refers to the use of small opportunities such as spreads in the market to carry out arbitrage transactions. Similar to the movie's name Arbitrage, the male protagonist Robert relied on his superb operation to cleverly resolve the multiple risks around him, and finally succeeded in arbitrage.
2. Maria Bartiromo of CNBC
At the beginning of the film, Robert Miller was being interviewed by a hostess to talk about his growth experience and investment philosophy. This hostess is not an actor, but a friendly guest appearance by Maria Bartiromo, a real financial host on Wall Street. Maria is the head of CNBC for more than ten years (just moved to FOX in early 2014), and enjoys the title of "Money Honey" on Wall Street. In reality, the people Maria interviewed are all financial figures at the level of the President of the World Bank. Inviting her to come here as a guest is to set off Robert Miller's status as a Wall Street magnate.
3. Gramercy Park
Still at the beginning of the movie, Robert took a private jet back to New York, then took a car through the Queensboro Bridge, and returned to his home in Manhattan from the airport. From the movie, we can see that it is a Townhouse in the downtown area. After Robert entered, there was a living room with a high ceiling, and then a spiral staircase leading upstairs. The address of this Townhouse is 19 Gramercy Park S, next to Gramercy Park, a very classical and private garden in Lower New York. Living in Gramercy Park is like living in the Upper East Side, which is a symbol of high society. In fact, the real tycoon-level figures in New York like to buy a quiet townhouse in Manhattan as their residence. In this way, it is not far from the city center, but also has the privacy and spaciousness of a villa. For example, in reality, a hedge fund tycoon, Philip Falcone, lives in a townhouse with several floors on East 67th Street. In addition, if you still have an impression, another New York movie, the chief editor of The Devil Wears Prada, also lives in such a house.
4. Mistress Julie's apartment
On the night when Robert returned home, before his birthday party was over, he hurriedly left the house under the pretext of working overtime and called a taxi to his mistress Julie. From the following plot, we can know that Robert invested in Julie's gallery, and Julie's residence is next door to the gallery, which is actually integrated with the gallery. I have to say that this is really an ingenious place to raise a mistress. So where is such a good place? It is located at 77 White Street, the famous Tribeca area in Lower New York, where many galleries, studios and other fashion industries gather. So the young literary and artistic women who came to New York from France to pan for gold in the art world like Julie must really like it there. The author specially prepared a road map, which allows the audience and friends to clearly understand the distance from Robert's house to Julie's house, that is, driving south for about ten minutes.
See, the distance between Wall Street bosses and mistresses is so clever! In estrus, I rushed there within fifteen minutes by taxi, and didn’t even use the driver. It’s very private; it’s a courtesy, if my wife checks the post, I can quickly return to the nest. Even if I get caught, I can explain it. He said he was looking at the performance of his gallery, and by the way, to escape the repressive financial atmosphere in Midtown!
5. Office building: Americas Tower
The night before, I dealt with my mistress who had been living in an empty boudoir for a long time. Of course, I had to deal with business troubles the next morning! So Robert went to the office of his old friend and another financial tycoon Jeffrey early in the morning, and wanted to discuss with him the postponement of repayment. Jeffrey’s office building also has this place, called Americas Tower, at 1177, 6th Ave. This is a very tall office building in Manhattan, which is filled with well-known law firms and asset management companies. What needs to be added here is that this drama is based on Wall Street, but the location of the scene has nothing to do with the physical Wall Street. When it comes to business scenes, the location is in Midtown Manhattan, not The lower town where Wall Street is located. This is because objective reasons such as September 11, the financial crisis, and the hurricane landing in the past two years have caused many financial companies on Wall Street, especially asset management companies that are mainly buyer businesses, to choose Midtown as their business. workplace. The area where Americas Tower is located in the movie is close to Times Square and Bryant Park, which is actually not the preferred place for this type of company. Their preferred place is the Plaza District, located in the core area of Midtown, the so-called "Plaza District" (named after the Plaza Hotel).
(Excerpt from a media note here: The Plaza District - the area between Sixth Avenue and the East River from 47th to 65th streets, anchored by the landmark Plaza Hotel at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South - is home to some of the nation's most expensive and prestigious office towers)
Six, Four Season Restaurant
After coming out of Jeffery's company, Robert received a call from his subordinates, saying that he had arranged a meal with Mayfield at the Four Season Restaurant at 7:30 in the evening. Mayfield is another giant in the investment industry who is interested in buying Robert's company. Four Season Restaurant, literally translated as Four Seasons Hotel, is a very famous fine dining restaurant in New York (Fine Dinning). There are many gimmicks about this restaurant. For example, this restaurant was carefully designed by American architecture godfather Philip Johnson; such as here This is where JFK celebrated his 45th birthday. That day was May 19, 1962 (ten days before his actual birthday), a day that made the American people unforgettable. Because that day JFK finished eating and went straight to MSG, where Marilyn Monroe sang to him a Happy Birthday, Mr. President affectionately in front of 15,000 people, pushing the ambiguity between the two people in front of the entire American people. It is the highest peak; here is the birthplace of the English term "Power Lunch", because from the 1960s and 1970s until now, the guests who have lunch here are all New York political and business celebrities, etc.
In the movie, Robert was greeted graciously by a silver-haired manager as soon as he arrived at the hotel, and then led him from the front desk to a seat in another lobby of the hotel. In this ten-second shot, there are three details worthy of taste: First, this silver-haired restaurant manager is actually the manager and partner of the Four Seasons Hotel in reality, Italian Julian Niccolini, who is well-known in the New York catering industry. He has a unique skill, that is, he has a huge wine library in his mind, and his skill in selecting wine for the guests is extremely profound. In New York, many guests even take pride in drinking the wine arranged or recommended by Julian. Second, the room where Robert eats is called Pool Room, named after a pool made of marble in the middle of the hall. The Pool Room is more suitable for dinner, and the elegant dining atmosphere is unparalleled in New York. Third, on their way from the front desk of the hotel to the Pool Room, a tapestry hung on the right side of the corridor. This tapestry became another business card of the Four Seasons Restaurant because it was an authentic piece of Picasso.
this point, the author somehow thought of Chen Guangbiao, a famous local philanthropist in China. Biao wanted to rely on his own financial output to shock the mainstream American society. In fact, buying this restaurant for tens of millions was enough to shake the mainstream American society. There was no need to buy the "New York Times" at all. Brother Biao, please come on! I hope that the author will be able to eat Jiangsu Huangqiao sesame cakes in the Pool Room in the near future.
7. Central Park (Southeast corner)
When Robert's daughter Brooke, who was the CIO, questioned her father's financial fraud. They found it inconvenient to talk at the company, so they walked to the southwest corner of Central Park. It can be seen from the camera that Robert is sitting on a bench, and behind Brooke is the Plaza Hotel south of Central Park. This is also the place where Robert made a polite speech at the charity dinner at the end of the movie.
8. Antonucci Cafe
After Robert's car accident case was withdrawn, he made an appointment with Jimmy, the son of the former driver who contributed to him. The place where they met was called Antonucci Café, an okay Italian restaurant in the Upper East Side. Antonucci was the name of the restaurant owner and came from Venice. The address of Antonucci Café is 170 E. 81st St, between 3rd Avenue and Lexington Avenue. If you consider that Jimmy lives in Harlem, north of Manhattan, and Robert lives in Gramercy Park, south of Manhattan, then the restaurant they met is just in between, which is more reasonable.
In addition to the eight scenes mentioned above, there are many more New York locations involved in this movie. For the length relationship, I cannot list them all. For example, there are Sherry Netherland, a veteran New York hotel where Mayfield stayed, the Supreme Court of New York where Jimmy was tried, Triboro Bridge and RFK Bridge, and Pierre Hotel where Robert and Mayfield signed a sales contract. Dizzy.
To put it simply, in this thriller drama filmed by a native New Yorker, the selected shooting scenes are indeed elegant, and it is by no means a random street shooting. Through the re-creation of these scenes, the creative staff fully set off the plot, portrayed the characters, and gave people like the author who are curious about New York culture a good opportunity to learn.
(End of the text, July 2014, for the public account to understand New York ID: u-newyork)
View more about Arbitrage reviews
