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Photo courtesy Netflix
In the critically acclaimed film Marriage Story on Netflix, written and directed by Noah Baumbach, we follow Charlie and Nicole, (played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson) a theater director and actress as their marriage is coming to an end. Baumbach treats the otherwise brutal subject with nuance, sensitivity, humanity, and even humor.
In the opening sequence of Marriage Story, we see the two as they see each other through voiceover and flashback. This forms a stark contrast to the scene it cuts to right after: Charlie and Nicole in a mediation session that is going badly. The mediator, struggling to get Nicole to cooperate, says it is unfortunate that the two of them will never get to hear what they’ve wrote about each other. This sets the stage for the action to come, which unfolds across both coasts of the United States in New York City and Los Angeles.
Here, you’ll discover where Charlie and Nicole live in New York City, the bar the theater company hangs out in, and more! (Warning, spoilers below!). Marriage Story was also responsible for the re-opening of the beloved Paris Theatre, where the movie had its premiere.
Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver in Marriage Story, pictured in flashback of better times in their Brooklyn apartment. Photo courtesy of Netflix.
Two quick shots establish where exactly in Brooklyn Charlie and Nicole live in Marriage Story — in Park Slope off the 7 Avenue B/Q subway station located on Flatbush Avenue. In the first scene, in the opening montage, Nicole is stopped by animal rights petitioners on the street, which helps illustrate Charlie’s point: “She really listens when someone is talking. Someone she listens too much for too long.”
You also see Charlie standing outside the Laundromat Wash & Dry at 173 7th Avenue, a real operating laundromat in Park Slope at the corner of 1st Street. This location makes sense, especially because Baumbach is from Park Slope, and has filmed here on numerous occasions for The Squid and the Whale and Mistress America. He’s been even known to film on the very street he grew up on.
Photo courtesy of Netflix.
In Marriage Story, the theater company’s regular hangout is the Knickerbocker Bar & Grill at 33 University Place near NYU. There’s a piano and performance area — live jazz is on the schedule every Friday and Saturday. It’s here that we see Charlie and Nicole as they’re trying to separate, eyeing each other warily at a celebration for Nicole’s last show with them, and before the show goes on Broadway.
Photo courtesy of Netflix
During the hangout at the Knickerbocker Bar, Nicole sees Mary Ann (Brooke Bloom) go to speak to Charlie. We learn in the Marriage Story that Charlie had an affair (maybe just once, maybe more) with Mary Ann. Upon seeing this, Nicole leaves in a rush but Charlie follows her. They head home on the subway (accurately, looks like the B or Q here, which would go over the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn). The scene is telling, because anybody else on the train would think they were strangers to each other.
The theater company rehearses at the Gibney Dance Choreographic Studio at 890 Broadway at 19th Street. Nicole has been replaced, as she’s moved out to Los Angeles for her television pilot. The giveaway is the building in the background with the French Second Empire mansard roof – that’s 115 5th Avenue, a building that used to be the Arnold Constable Dry Goods store along Ladies Mile.
Here, Charlie gets a call from Nicole’s lawyer, Nora Fanshaw (played by Laura Dern). There’s an incongruous geographic cut in Marriage Story, where Charlie exists the dance studio (supposedly off 19th Street) and ends up in….
Photo courtesy of Netflix
In the phone call with Nora Fanshaw, Charlie is notified that he hasn’t responded to the divorce papers. If he doesn’t do so by that Friday, Fanshaw will request default judgement and be able to lay claim to anything they want of his. They will also be able to request the highest level of child support and claim full custody. Charlie has been operating under the assumption that Nicole will separate amicably and hasn’t realized yet what it means that Fanshaw is on her side.
Photo courtesy of Netflix
In Marriage Story, Charlie flies out, as planned to see their son Henry in Los Angeles. Nicole and Henry are living with Nicole’s mother, who is also in show business, at her home in West Hollywood. The scene shown above is his first visit to Los Angeles, when he was served divorce papers by Nicole’s sister (played by Merritt Weaver) in a comedy of errors. In the second visit, he drives Henry around Los Angeles in search of a lawyer.
Photo courtesy of Netflix
One of the lawyer visits takes place in 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. This is a glass building designed by Gensler and built between 2004 and 2007 that sits in front of the Century City Towers, by Minoru Yamasaki who also designed New York City’s original World Trade Center. (Though not nearly as tall as the World Trade Center towers, the Century City Towers certainly carries some similarities in the verticality of the lines on the facade).
In Marriage Story, this office at 2000-Avenue of the Stars is where Charlie discovers that nearly every divorce lawyer in Los Angeles has been “consulted with” by Fanshaw so can’t be his lawyer out of conflict of interest.
Photo courtesy Netflix
The hallway at Los Angeles Superior Court’s Stanley Mosk Courthouse is a familiar one in film locations — this is where every divorce in Los Angeles county takes place. In Marriage Story, Nora Fanshaw and Nicole realize in the hallway that Charlie has changed his legal representation to Jay Marotta (played by Ray Liotta). He’s the first lawyer Charlie meets with but leaves given how aggressive Marotta wants to be and the high retainer. Fanshaw knows with Marotta, it’s going to be a fight.
Next, see the NYC-area filming locations for Joker.
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