Filmed In Flatbush: The Squid and the Whale

Since it's never too late to highlight Ditmas Park's supporting roles in film and television, and since no proper post has been done on our neighborhood's connection to "The Squid and the Whale", I'll pick up the slack here and do the honors.

"The Squid and the Whale" (2005) is a critically-acclaimed, Oscar nominated dramedy loosely based on director Noah Bambauch's childhood experiences in 1980s Brooklyn. When Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan Berkman (Laura Linney) split up, Bernard leaves their Park Slope brownstone for "the other side of the park", a neighborhood that apparently didn't even have a name in the 80s, as evidenced in this scene from Bernard's son Walt and his lady interest Sophie.

Walt: I'm also gonna live on the other side of the park.
Sophie: Prospect Heights?
Walt: I'm not sure what the neighborhood is called actually. The street is Stratford Road, my dad is moving there. I hear it's the filet of the neighborhood.

The actual house filmmakers used is a couple blocks east of Stratford at 415 Rugby Road. Maybe they called it Stratford in the movie because that was where Baumbach lived? Maybe Stratford just sounds more Brooklyn than Rugby.

If you walk by the house today you'll notice that it hasn't changed at all since the movie was filmed there in 2004. It still looks like the fixer-upper it played in the movie, complete with dirty siding, an uncared for lawn, and an oddly placed picket fence that looks like it would fall over if someone sneezed near it.

The Newkirk Ave subway station also has a brief cameo in the film, and apparently the talent show was filmed in the Midwood High School auditorium.















The film is definitely worth checking out, even if just to see the action that went down between Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin in 415 Rugby. Just don't pair it up with "Fly Away Home" unless you want the creepiest double feature ever.