Movies that made you love cities (for the first time, or even more)

[jtown,man]

I actually love that I can't tell if I am watching a Canadian or American actor. Also, I am obsessed with James Bond and I've never once thought "damn I wish this was American." Bond being British makes him more interesting to me than a Felix character. Anyways, I love that English dominates and we can get entertainment from all over the world.

Also, Canadians are extremely talented. Such a small country in population has produced so many entertainers.

[suburbanite]

I'd like to see some more of regular middle class Brazil or Argentina in film. The two most internationally recognized films out of Brazil are probably City of God and Elite Squad, which obviously are heavily focused on the favelas. Even when Rio is briefly featured in a Hollywood film, it feels like it's usually the protagonist going to meet some shady ex-spy or something hiding out in the favelas. It's like if your only exposure to Baltimore is The Wire.

The Secrets in Their Eyes (the original not English remake) is a great Argentinian one that is shot mostly in Buenos Aires. The continuous shot at the football match is pretty memorable.

[dc_denizen]

considering comedy ..

coming from another country, it would be hard to get the references that would make a brazilian or argentinian movie funny.

Also, language is a much bigger barrier than people realize. jokes can fall flat in one language and kill in another.

the highbrow foreign cinema is rarely popular in its countries of origin - since to succeed you need to strip out local peculiarities and jokes that would not be familiar to the wider global audience

to really enjoy say a finnish or argentinian movie you have to be a native or someone with 5-10 years experience living in said culture

of course there are exceptions

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by yuriandrade

Are you claiming it’s part of the Canadian identity to obsess about petty details of American politics? There is no “liberal left” in the US? There is no “Native American hero” mythology?

I’m pretty sure Canadian-American has a very different identity and outlook of regular Canadians.

I think indigenous people are villains in American films more often than not. I was watching some procedural crime show on TV Friday that used the same formula. The FBI was trying to figure out some crime ring that was being run by an indigenous Alaskan group.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I think indigenous people are villains in American films more often than not. I was watching some procedural crime show on TV Friday that used the same formula. The FBI was trying to figure out some crime ring that was being run by an indigenous Alaskan group.

Eh, I don't know man. During the heyday of Westerns, I am sure that was the case. American media are very PC these days. Watch NCIS, you would think every rapist/murder in the country Is 18-30 years old white male who comes from a wealthy family lol

[KevinFromTexas]

Ghostbusters - New York
Die Hard With A Vengence - New York
Beverly Hills Cop - Detroit
Coming to America - New York
Trading Places - New York
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Chicago
Home Alone 2 - New York
Ghost - New York
North by Northwest - New York
To Catch a Thief - Monaco
Lost in Translation - Tokyo
The Birdcage - Miami Beach
iRobot - Chicago
Big - New York
Batteries Not Included - New York
Mrs. Doubtfire - San Francisco
So I Married An Axe Murderer - San Francisco
Trading Places - New York
Crocodile Dundee I & II - New York
The Blues Brothers - Chicago/Milwaukee
Slacker - Austin
Dazed and Confused - Austin
Breakfast at Tiffany's - New York
Superman - New York
Superman II - Paris
Short Circuit II - Toronto
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - San Francisco
Big Trouble in Little China - San Francisco
Frequency - New York
Bruce Almighty - Buffalo
Nothing But Trouble - New York/Valkenvania
Independence Day - New York
Men in Black trilogy - New York
The Sixth Sense - Philadelphia

Fiction?

Batman
Bladerunner
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

One I'm watching now is For Love or Money with Michael J. Fox. It takes place in New York and has some good street scenes and skyline stuff.

[iheartthed]

^I forgot about Trading Places. That movie is proof positive that Philadelphia doesn't get enough credit.

[volguus zildrohar]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

^I forgot about Trading Places. That movie is proof positive that Philadelphia doesn't get enough credit.

Nope. Shooter, National Treasure, Philadelphia, and a few others but what this city usually gets is things like 21 Bridges which filmed here last year where the city gets NYC street signs and subway entrances plastered over our own or something will be set here but filmed in Pittsburgh or Glasgow.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Acajack

My favourite film where Toronto actually plays Toronto is The Adjuster by Atom Egoyan.

I also like Cronenberg's Crash for that too. (Not the same as Crash set in LA and about race relations.)

Egoyan is great, obviously. Cronenberg's Crash is also far, far superior to the other one. I didn't really care for it at the time and I think it's aged particularly badly.

Interestingly enough, Scanners was mostly filmed in Montreal! Despite being set in Toronto as far as I can tell. They feature Yorkdale subway station with its original art installation but most of the other scenes weren't filmed here.

One of my favourite city movies is "Hands Over the City" by Francesco Rosi. It's about corrupt urban planning in post-war Naples and features the city and failures of urban renewal very heavily. I watched it when I was in the process of applying for my urban planning Master's and it resonated a fair bit. It formulated my appreciation for gritty underdog cities which persists to this day.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by Acajack

There is nothing preventing (English) Canadians from making movies about Canadian subjects in Canada and there is nothing preventing (English) Canadians from going to see them.

Actually, yes there is something preventing all of this from happening: genuine interest.

This is exactly it. Canadians want to be a bigger part of their imaginary "CanAmerica" through complaining. The United States is the United States, and Canada is Canada.

The first country is perhaps the greatest reproducer of its own idealized image in history, and the second barely knows itself. It just wants "Wall Street Hustle but in Toronto".

Louis Riel. The October Crisis. The Winnipeg General Strike. The Halifax Explosion. The assassination by gunshot to the neck of Thomas D'Arcy McGee. These are things that the Americans would have long ago turned into epic period pieces.

Do.

For.

Self.

[kool maudit]

Oh, and Don McKellar's Last Night was a great Toronto movie.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

I'd like to see some more of regular middle class Brazil or Argentina in film. The two most internationally recognized films out of Brazil are probably City of God and Elite Squad, which obviously are heavily focused on the favelas. Even when Rio is briefly featured in a Hollywood film, it feels like it's usually the protagonist going to meet some shady ex-spy or something hiding out in the favelas. It's like if your only exposure to Baltimore is The Wire.

The Secrets in Their Eyes (the original not English remake) is a great Argentinian one that is shot mostly in Buenos Aires. The continuous shot at the football match is pretty memorable.

I highly recommend Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes).

[niwell]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Louis Riel. The October Crisis. The Winnipeg General Strike. The Halifax Explosion. The assassination by gunshot to the neck of Thomas D'Arcy McGee. These are things that the Americans would have long ago turned into epic period pieces.
.

There was a great Louis Riel graphic novel put out 20 years or so ago. At the time I remember thinking that this could be made into a movie easily. Our history certainly isn’t as boring as we make it out to be...

[kool maudit]

Yeah, Chester Brown, a real talent but a bit of a crank. Our history is actually really lively, and the boring stereotype, sadly, is likely a result of our own lack of interest. Swedish people can't believe the Oka crisis, let alone the October crisis.

But no, let's just agitate for L.A. studios to set romcoms in Kitsilano.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Yeah, Chester Brown, a real talent but a bit of a crank.

He’s uh, “interesting” to say the least. I wouldn’t want to hang out but very talented. I guess that’s not that uncommon though.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

I'd like to see some more of regular middle class Brazil or Argentina in film. The two most internationally recognized films out of Brazil are probably City of God and Elite Squad, which obviously are heavily focused on the favelas. Even when Rio is briefly featured in a Hollywood film, it feels like it's usually the protagonist going to meet some shady ex-spy or something hiding out in the favelas. It's like if your only exposure to Baltimore is The Wire.

The Secrets in Their Eyes (the original not English remake) is a great Argentinian one that is shot mostly in Buenos Aires. The continuous shot at the football match is pretty memorable.

Today, the large majority of Brazilian movies are like you described, regular ones, showing normal people’s lives instead of fictional warzones. I don’t like them, but I guess many are available on Netflix or Prime.

[montréaliste]

Goin' down the Road was a great Toronto set picture from a long time ago.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is probably the most significant anglo movie set in Montreal.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Even as a very young child, I've always loved cities. The hustle and bustle of people walking, the sound of traffic... I knew something was amiss when I was 7 years old and my family moved from Los Angeles' Miracle Mile District to the suburbs, where I grew up... the environment was just not the same... but we still went into LA to do specific kinds of shopping, to go to the family dentist, to go to the Farmers Market...

If you haven't seen Miracle Mile (1988), you're missing one of the all-time great films, and it's really good "L.A. movie" to boot.

Originally Posted by niwell

Interestingly enough, Scanners was mostly filmed in Montreal!

As were Shivers and Rabid, but The Brood, his best film imo, was filmed in and around Toronto.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I think indigenous people are villains in American films more often than not. I was watching some procedural crime show on TV Friday that used the same formula. The FBI was trying to figure out some crime ring that was being run by an indigenous Alaskan group.

I don't think it's as prevalent as it used to be, especially when compared to a lot of the western movies made in the mid 20th century.

This is probably because I live where a handful of westerns were shot (Coconino County, AZ), but one of my favorite scenes in any move is from National Lampoon's Vacation where Chevy Chase is wandering around Monument Valley while two indigenous peoples watch him and say something to the effect of "What an asshole!"

I know someone earlier was sort of complaining about the amount of films shots in Los Angeles and New York, but when I lived in Southern California, one of my hobbies was to drive around and check out filming locations, even if they were supposed to be set in different cities. Film crews came to Orange, CA where I lived several times to film scenes that were supposed to be set back east, and I always loved showing out-of-towners, driving past it on the 60, that the mall scenes from Back to the Future were filmed at Puente Hills Mall.

Can we expand this discussion to talk about TV shows that also got you interested in cities? Because I've got opinions...

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

Goin' down the Road was a great Toronto set picture from a long time ago.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is probably the most significant anglo movie set in Montreal.

I was thinking about those two.

More recently, The Trotsky with Jay Baruchel was also set in Montreal.