Sliver
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sliver (1991) is a novel by U.S. author Ira Levin about the mysterious occurrences in a privately owned New York highrise apartment building, especially after a new tenant—an attractive young woman working in publishing—has moved in. Phillip Noyce directed the film based on the book, which was released in 1993.
According to the movie, the tall and narrow "sliver" building is said to be located at 113 East 38th Street in Manhattan, placing it at 38th Street and Park Avenue. The actual building used in the film is known as Morgan Court [1], located at 211 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. The real building is one block west and two blocks south of the fictional address. It was built in the 1980s and has 32 floors. While the movie made use of the building's courtyard, the lobby was a Los Angeles film set.
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[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Book version
When she makes the acquaintance of a handsome and friendly young man who lives in the same "sliver" building she does not know at first that he is the owner. While keeping a low profile himself, he turns out to know an awful lot about the other inhabitants including many of their secrets. It then turns out that he is a modern-day Peeping Tom who, unknown to everyone, has had surveillance cameras and microphones installed in every single apartment of the house, with his own place in the building serving as his headquarters. The novel is also a murder mystery, and the beautiful heroine soon becomes a damsel in distress herself.
[edit] Film version
Phillip Noyce's film version (1993, screenplay by Joe Eszterhas, who also wrote Basic Instinct) deviates considerably from the plot of the book. The film starred Sharon Stone and William Baldwin. The movie takes rather a simplistic stance on voyeurism, suggesting that wanting to secretly observe people and thus invading their privacy is part of human nature. Levin's novel, on the other hand, tries to draw a line between man's innate curiosity and pathological and compulsive behaviour patterns.
In March of 2006, to coincide with the theatrical release of Sharon Stone's Basic Instinct sequel, Sliver finally made its way to DVD in a bare-bones, unrated edition. There are absolutely no special features (not even a movie trailer), and although the film was presented theatrically in the 2.35 aspect ratio, the DVD features a matted, 2.0 aspect ratio transfer. The release also contained what some reviewers have noted as an unusual amount of dirt and scratches for a film print that is only a little over a dozen years old, though the casual viewer is unlikely to detect anything errant.
