Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 9, 1993 TAG: 9304090078
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chris Gladden
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IS IT REAL? OR IS IT VIRGINIA?
Those who have spent any time on a movie set know that the art of illusion is crucial to filmmaking.That smoke you saw pouring from a Craig County farmhouse in "In a Shallow Grave" came not from firewood but from a smoke machine that shot it up the chimney.
Those sailboats drifting behind the Bill Murray in "What About Bob?" actually were riding lawn mowers with canvas attached.
The autumn leaves in "Sommersby" were painted red and gold not by Jack Frost but by crew members.
Turning one place into someplace else is a standard bit of movie-making illusion.
Thus the "Foreign Student" film crew was down at Hampden-Sydney College this week busily turning it into Washington and Lee University for a big football game scene.
The movie, starring Robin Givens and Marco Hofschneider, is based on the Phillipe Labro novel about a French foreign-exchange student at Washington and Lee in the 1950s. Hampden-Sydney's Fulton Field was given a '50s look, and about 1,500 extras from Hampden-Sydney and Farmville were expected to participate.
At least in this case, one Virginia location is standing in for another. Consider some of the other places Virginia has imitated in movies.
In "Crazy People," Roanoke was turned into New York City, and Chatham Hall near Danville was turned into a mental institution outside of New York. A Vinton sound stage was gussied up to look like a Bahamian travel agency.
In "Dirty Dancing," Mountain Lake became a Catskills resort.
Smith Mountain Lake doubled for Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H., in "What About Bob?" The production needed trees with leaves, and the trees at the New England lake already had shed theirs. Residents of the real Lake Winnepesaukee weren't at first happy campers.
But the beauty of Smith Mountain Lake boosted tourism up there more than it did down here. Roanoke again impersonated New York in some of the interior scenes.
Lexington played 19th-century Nashville, Tenn., in "Sommersby" while the Bath County countryside stood in for the Tennessee hills.
Richmond became Dallas for "Love Field," the movie that earned Michelle Pfeiffer a best-actress nomination in this year's Oscar race.
Perhaps the Old Dominion should adopt a new motto: Virginia is for Others.