NYC vs. SF in the Movies

Chef K and I are in the habit of watching a lot of movies, one or two per night. With the move coming up, I've become hypersensitive to all movies set in either New York or San Francisco -- and it's gotten me thinking a lot about how movies precondition our experience of place, how they color and even guide our emotional connection to particular sites or cities.

New York, of course, is one of filmmakers' all-time favorite locations, as evidenced by this Wikipedia page that lists all the movies that have been shot in the city by year. Even before I lived in New York, I developed a cinematic affection for it through such classic 80s/90s movies as Splash, Ghost, Three Men and a Baby, Big, Big Business and Look Who's Talking. In just the past year, I've also watched French Connection, all three Godfathers, both Ghostbusters, Basketball Diaries, Moscow on the Hudson, Wall Street, When Harry Met Sally..., Carlito's Way, Die Hard: With a Vengeance, American Psycho, Julie & Julia and the Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 (that's 15 movies!), all of which trigger my nostalgia and fondness for NYC.

Recently, I've had an insatiable urge to watch Vertigo over and over. With its scenes at the Legion of Honor, Mission Dolores, Palace of the Arts and Golden Gate Bridge, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more quintessential movie about San Francisco, and the swooning romance of the film has me rosily associating the city with all my favorite things in design -- pencil skirt suits (worn by Madeleine/Judy and ripped off wonderfully by Galliano in the 90s), Bertoia chairs (in Midge's studio) and other pieces of classic mid-century furniture (in Scottie's apartment). It's like I can hear Herrmann's classic score whenever I set foot on the top of Nob Hill.

Of all the other movies set in SF, of which there are fewer than New York, I've only seen the Steve McQueen cops-n-cars film Bullitt (prominently showcasing Nob Hill, like Vertigo), Dirty Harry, the Joy Luck Club and the Maltese Falcon. Any others I should try?

NYAFF: Opening Night

NYAFF Part 3: We made it to the theater in the nick of time, snagging two seats together in the first 10 rows. Two minutes later and we would have been looking for separate seats somewhere in the back. Whew.

Although Ip Man 2 was quite the disappointment for me (Chef K enjoyed the action but really, I haven't watched such bad acting by white guys in an Asian film since... well, since a long time ago), the whole opening night experience was still totally worth it because director Simon Yam and choreographer/co-star/Hong Kong kung fu legend Sammo Hung made brief appearances to address the audience in Cantonese. (Yam is on the left and Hung on the right in these pictures, and that's festival producer Grady Hendrix in his trademark pink tux.)

I love the NYAFF. I remember trudging to the Anthology Film Archives on 2nd and 2nd when they first started out, standing in line in the summer heat to walk into a theater with no AC (!!). The seats were horrifically uncomfortable and the producers still personally sold concessions like shrimp chips outside. I'm so proud of them now -- they really made it into the big leagues. :)