Meet Museyon: Nisha Gopalan

It’s time to play another round of Meet Museyon. This time our featured guest is the one and only Nisha Gopalan, your guide to Film + Travel in Manhattan. Stay tuned as she invents a new genre of film, and find out why she’d like to live in a galaxy far, far away.

 

 

 

Name: Nisha Gopalan
Home base: New York, NY
Day Job: Senior Editor at NYLON magazine

 

Museyon Guides: Last movie you watched?
NG: That would be Soul Power, an awesome documentary about the Zaire 74 music festival–headlined by a most indefatigable James Brown–that took place the same time as Ali vs. Foreman’s Rumble in the Jungle.

 

MG: What’s your favorite location you discovered while writing your chapter?
NG: The Riverview Terrace at Sutton Square, where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton appear on the poster for his film Manhattan. Such a great view there, and surprisingly peaceful for New York City.

 

MG: Anything that really surprised you?

NG: I never knew Spike Lee filmed Malcolm X’s assassination in the same spot the leader was murdered in real life. That’s awfully intense!

 

MG: Any cool locations/factoids/updates that didn’t make the final cut?
NG: Because this chapter focuses on Manhattan, I had to excise mentions of locations in NYC’s outer boroughs. For instance, director William Friedkin’s ‘The French Connection‘ contains one of the best car-chase scenes ever captured on film–but that sequence was filmed deep in Brooklyn.

 

 

  

 

MG: Favorite New York movie moment?
NG: Ratso Rizzo yelling “I’m walking here!” at a taxi while crossing the street in ‘Midnight Cowboy.’ I thought it was funny when I first saw it; now I find myself screaming that at cab drivers about every other day.

 

 

  

 

MG: Best places to see a movie?
NG: New Yorkers like to set up these great movie screenings on rooftops and in parks during the summer. (Sidebar: I miss drive-ins!) But for action movies, I’d have to go with back row at the IMAX.

 

MG: Other than New York, which location would you like to have written about?
NG: Antarctica. What would I write about? No idea. I just want to visit all seven continents.

 

MG: Describe your movie? Where would it be set? Who would star? What genre would it be?
NG: Definitely a silent action film (new genre!): Because I’m an editor, I like to look at words; but since I cover entertainment, I also have a short attention span. Maybe something along the lines of that heist scene in ‘Rififi,’ only with title cards and more explosions.

 

MG: If you could live inside any movie, what would it be?
NG: ‘Star Wars,’ of course–so I could chill with Han Solo and Chewbacca at the Mos Eisley Cantina.

 

‘Manhattan’ poster: adoro cinema,