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?
Related on World Hum:
* World Hum Travel Movie Club: ‘Y Tu Mamá También’
* World Hum Travel Movie Club: ‘Into The Wild’
Email to friend
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! Buzz
Julia 06.20.08 | 1:36 PM ET
Thanks for posting, Eva. Interesting lists, all. I wholeheartedly agree with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but would add In the Mood for Love, Lost in Translation, Before Sunset, and City of God. Also, Rolf makes a good point about Alexander Payne’s movies set in the Midwest—a region that few filmmakers seem to get right.
Marilyn Terrell 06.20.08 | 4:17 PM ET
Nice clip Eva, I forgot about that part in the museum.
Lots more place-based movie suggestions here, in the Cinematic Road Trip series by John Ur on Intelligent Travel, which is exploring movies in all 50 states:
http://intelligenttravel.typepad.com/it/screening_room/index.html
carpetblogger 06.20.08 | 7:00 PM ET
I don’t usually like his movies that much but PT Anderson “gets” the light of the San Fernando Valley absolutely spot on, especially in Boogie Nights and Magnolia.
Ling 06.21.08 | 2:51 AM ET
I’d have to say ‘When Harry Met Sally’. The scene at Katz’s Deli is immortal.
pam 06.21.08 | 11:40 AM ET
The Third Man - I’ve love the filming of Vienna in that movie even after spending so much time in that great city.
Lynne Friedmann 06.22.08 | 9:49 PM ET
Great topic. Other films that spring to mind are “Indochine” about Hanoi/Saigon (with Catherine Deneuve, to boot) and “L.A. Confidential” which nailed 1950s Los Angeles.