21 Grams|The William Len Building — Paul's window over Monroe Avenue

Paul Rivers lives in an old downtown building with corridors that feel too long for the number of people in them. Its skin belongs to the William Len, eleven storeys of brick at 110 Monroe Avenue, half a block east of Main Street in Memphis.

It opened in 1930 as a hotel, put up in the last months when a Memphis developer could still believe the twenties were going to keep going. Then it spent decades sliding — apartments, offices, a great many empty floors — and by the time 21 Grams shot here it had exactly the worn, under-occupied quality the story needed for a man waiting to learn whether a stranger's heart will keep him alive. The building has since been restored and reopened as a hotel again, so the lobby is bright now and there is a breakfast counter where the gloom used to be.

Stand on the far side of Monroe and look up at the flank of the building. The painted sign is still legible on the brick, the kind of hand-lettering that survives because nobody thought it worth the cost of removing. Then look west down Monroe toward Main. That short block, under flat winter light, is the whole visual register of Paul's half of the film.