Quote:
Originally Posted by HomrQT
For some reason I have the feeling people didn't complain that much. An entire city that looks like Paris, or old London, or old NYC, etc is universally admired.
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Heh. This couldn't be further from the truth. Cities were thought to be dirty, crowded and disease infested and people wanted to live in the country but couldn't because there were no cars. And in the 1930's it's easy to find tons of people talking about how the charming 1880's style brick construction was ugly and old looking, the way we think of construction from the 1970s today. Beyond that, there were lots of really low quality buildings that existed in all old cities--squalid shacks without plumbing. Those very low-quality buildings are rarely saved, so there's a selection bias in what we see as standard for the time.
That all being said, I'd love visiting a city that looked like Victorian-era London as presented in a modern movie.