Travel Writers and the ‘City Movies’ They Love

Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 06.20.08 | 11:19 AM ET

I’ve always figured that, broadly speaking, there are two types of travel movies: road movies, where it’s all about the journey, and place movies, where the setting is so vital that it nearly becomes a character in the script. Road movies tend to get most of the attention in the travel writing world, but this week at FilmInFocus, five travel writers give the other kind some love.

Pico Iyer, Heidi Julavits, Tony Wheeler, Ayun Halliday and frequent World Hum contributor Rolf Potts each offer up their five favorite city films, and the results added several new must-sees to my never-ending list.

For my part, I could make a whole list of favorites set in New York City alone, and I can’t sit through Ferris Bueller’s Day Off without daydreaming about my own perfect day in Chicago. The scene that takes place in the Art Institute of Chicago is below.

Got any favorite city movies of your own?