Cities as Characters

[Robert Edge]

I want to rent some films that take place in a major city (N.Y., London, Mexico City, Paris, Rome, etc.) where the city is, for lack of a better word, a character - films in which there are lots of exterior scenes and the city is not just a pretty backdrop, but plays an important role in the feel of the film or progress of the story. Suggestions?

[Sam Wells]

Godard's "Alphaville" !

 

Wim Wenders' "Wings Of Desire" (Berlin)

 

Tran Anh Hung's "Cyclo" (Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City)

 

-Sam

[Boone Hudgins]

Nashville.

[Jason Maeda]

annie hall...manhattan...

 

blade runner

 

jk :ph34r:

[James Tanouye]

Training Day and Collateral for Los Angeles

[Wendell_Greene]

Los Angeles: Heat, Collateral, To Live and Die In LA, LA Story, Chinatown, LA Confidential, The Player, Stand and Deliver, Beverly Hills Cop, Menace2Society, Boyz in the Hood, American Me, Born in East LA, Grand Canyon, La Vida Loca, Swingers, Training Day,

 

Chicago: The Fugitive, Love Jones, The Untouchables, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Chicago, Thief (michael Mann)

 

Paris: Subway, Le Femme Nikita, La Atalante, A View To A Kill, Moulin Rouge, Before Sunset, Before Sunrise, Henry and June, Amelie, The Red Balloon,

 

Washington DC: All The President's Men, Broadcast News, Enemy of The State

 

San Francisco: Vertigo, Dirty Harry, Bullitt, The Graduate, Tales of the City, The Game, The Rock

 

Venice: Merchant of Venice, Henry Jaglom's Venice/Venice, Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, Bread and Tulips,

 

New York: After Hours, New York, New York, Do The Right Thing, Summer of Sam, In The Cut, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Midnight Cowboy, A Panic In Needle Park, King of New York, The King of Comedy, Sugar Hill

 

London: 28 Days Later, Notting Hill, From Hell, Dirty Pretty Things, Mona Lisa, Nil By Mouth

[Nathan Milford]

The Naked City!

[Rik Andino]

Hey--The French Connection--& The French Connection II

 

Very good movies

[Dan Salzmann]

Taking of Pelham One,Two, Three

Panic in Needle Park

[Michael Nash]

Well for Rome, there's Felini's Roma. I especially loved the impressionistic highway sequence.

 

Speaking of Italy, Stealing Beauty comes to mind as giving a great sense of place and lifestyle for Tuscany.

 

Seven creates a very strong sense of a disgusting, decaying urban environment that factors largely into the story. Although filmed in Los Angeles, it's supposed to be a generic and fictional yet stylized American city.

 

I was just having this discussion the other day in fact, and noted that Michael Mann has always been adept at tying the city into the story, especially visually. Collateral and TV's Robbery Homicide Division captured a lot of ambient nighttime vistas with HD, before that it was Heat and TV's Miami Vice. In the case of Miami Vice, it was again a stylized and abstracted view of Miami that didn't quite actually exist, yet pulled from real elements to create a kind of color-noir view of Miami.

[Jason Maeda]

any antonioni film from the 60's or 70's

 

jk :ph34r:

[jeff striker]

Well for Rome, there's Felini's Roma. I especially loved the impressionistic highway sequence.

 

Speaking of Italy, Stealing Beauty comes to mind as giving a great sense of place and lifestyle for Tuscany.

 

Seven creates a very strong sense of a disgusting, decaying urban environment that factors largely into the story. Although filmed in Los Angeles, it's supposed to be a generic and fictional yet stylized American city.

 

I was just having this discussion the other day in fact, and noted that Michael Mann has always been adept at tying the city into the story, especially visually. Collateral and TV's Robbery Homicide Division captured a lot of ambient nighttime vistas with HD, before that it was Heat and TV's Miami Vice. In the case of Miami Vice, it was again a stylized and abstracted view of Miami that didn't quite actually exist, yet pulled from real elements to create a kind of color-noir view of Miami.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

that reminds me of wes anderson's portrayal of new york in the royal tenenbaums. its an abstracted view of NY using places and things that don't exist (375th street Y and the Gypsy Cabs chain), yet avoiding any noticeable landmarks. its a very charming look at the city. it reminds me of how i envisioned new york as a kid before i had been there.

 

anyways

 

los angeles/hollywood: Robert Altman's "Short Cuts", tim burton's "Ed Wood"

 

france: any of the Antoine Doinel films by Truffaut, Amelie (jeunet)

 

new york: eyes wide shut (kubrick), the royal tenenbaums,

 

washington dc: being there (ashby)

[DavidSloan]

Los Angeles:  Heat, Collateral,  To Live and Die In LA,  LA Story, Chinatown, LA Confidential,  The Player,  Stand and Deliver, Beverly Hills Cop,  Menace2Society, Boyz in the Hood,  American Me,  Born in East LA,  Grand Canyon, La Vida Loca, Swingers, Training Day,

 

Chicago:  The Fugitive,  Love Jones, The Untouchables, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Chicago,  Thief (michael Mann)

 

Paris: Subway, Le Femme Nikita, La Atalante,  A View To A Kill, Moulin Rouge, Before Sunset, Before Sunrise,  Henry and June,  Amelie, The Red Balloon, 

 

Washington DC:  All The President's Men,  Broadcast News, Enemy of The State

 

San Francisco:  Vertigo, Dirty Harry,  Bullitt, The Graduate, Tales of the City,  The Game, The Rock

 

Venice:  Merchant of Venice,  Henry Jaglom's Venice/Venice, Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, Bread and Tulips,

 

New York:  After Hours, New York, New York, Do The Right Thing, Summer of Sam,  In The Cut, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Midnight Cowboy, A Panic In Needle Park, King of New York,  The King of Comedy, Sugar Hill

 

London:  28 Days Later, Notting Hill, From Hell, Dirty Pretty Things, Mona Lisa,  Nil By Mouth

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Before Sunrise takes place in Vienna! ;)

 

Other films that have a strong sense of location as character are Tarkovsky's: Stalker, The Crow, the first Batman film, City of God, Crooklyn, Gerry...

Edited February 28, 2005 by DavidSloan