I'm in a New York state of Cinema

Great topic!
Since my memory isn't great about these kinds of things, I ran a quickie google search and found a wiki page with a listing of films set in NY by decade. While I can't account for its merit as a complete list, I did find myself remembering quite a few that I'd forgotten. Anyways, I've listed the ones that came to mind immediately before running the search.

King Kong (2005)

I particularly enjoyed the 1920's-30's look and feel of this film. I'm a huge fan of art deco/art nouveau and those styles were heavily played upon in this film. I know it wasn't realistic and the depiction showed streets that were impossibly neat and clean for the time, but it sort of played to what my ideal vision of what NY would have been back then if it were up to me.

A Bronx Tale

In this one I really loved how many of the scenes showed the grittier side of the city. There really was no idealistic viewpoint as far as surroundings were concerned. Of course, I loved the story and the performances and the conflict (on all levels). I really should have this on my top ten list... I just ran out of room

Serendipity

Unlike the above choice, this one is cutesy and idealistic and romantic and sappy but for some reason it pulled a string in my grizzled old heart. I loved the ice skating scenes and the snow and Cusack and Pivens traipsing about the Apple.

Frequency

I can't really say why I picked this one other than it reminds me of my family growing up. We lived in NY (not city, state) and I come from a very long line of firefighters and veterans. The scenes where Dennis Quaid is teaching 'chief' how to ride a bike struck a chord. Besides that, I really loved this film as I have frequent issues with time and wishing I could go back and change things. The visuals depicting the city were very cool IMHO and I liked the switches back and forth to then and now (the movie's 'now' anyways).

And one that is on my favorites list:

Bell, Book & Candle (1958)
"Bell, book, and candle; candle, book and bell,
Forward and backward, to curse Faustus to hell." (Faustus)



This one doesn't have truly spectacular scenes of NY but you get an (yet another) idealistic glance at some street level activity and some nice views of (and from) the Flatiron building. If I were ever to start an 'overlooked' film thread I think I'd put this one in it. It has obvious problems, of course, but for me it worked on a variety of levels.

Ah well, back to New York films

When I think of New York City, I always think of Ghostbusters first because before that film I hadn't really seen the city in movies. Of course Ghostbusters was one of the first films I can recall watching and re-watching over and over again on VHS.
To me the specific seen when Bill Murray is in the park (by a fountain if memory works) is the scene which really sums it up for me. When he hits on Weaver and then does his little spin thing out of joy.

Of course there's many many more.

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"Aaaah, I don't have to take this abuse from you, I got hundreds of people dyin' to abuse me....Who's the stiff?"

That scene is outside Lincoln Center, where Sigourney Weaver's cellist has supposedly just been rehearsing with the orchestra (also the same fountain in the original screen version of The Producers). It's only about three and a half blocks from the apartment building on Central Park West where her character lives, a.k.a. "Spook Central" (and yes, there really is a little church for stomping right next to it). I've been to the New York Film Festival there at Lincoln Center (I saw in person Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood and Kurt Vonnegut, among others). Ghostbusters is a great NYC movie, with some wonderful location work in Central Park, The Upper West Side, The Biltmore Hotel, Tavern on the Green and of course Columbia University and the New York Public Library.

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One that hasn't been mentioned that I really like is The Fisher King. That flick doesn't necessarily capture the vibe of the city or anything, but it does have some nice moments. I mean, where else are you gonna see Jeff Bridges climbing up the side of the Fifth Avenue Armory like Spider-Man? A monstrous fire-breathing red knight charging down 42nd street? Robin Williams, penis a-flappin, dancing around Central Park? And how about Grand Central Terminal shutting down for five full minutes so all the commuters could participate in an elaborate waltz?



Good stuff.

Yup, I like The Fisher King a whole lot, and it is a good NYC movie. In fact when I was just there in August I wound up in front of the Plaza, and with all the movies that have been filmed in and around that corner the one that immediately came to my mind was the first section of Fisher King with Bridges' Jack Lucas drunk at the fountain being given the Pinocchio doll, the fateful night he meets Perry.



I may have to go home and fire up my Criterion LaserDisc tonight.

Love this thread! Billy Joel anyone? Maybe some Woody Allen?

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How about Gershwin vis-a-vis the Woodman? (and yes, I know this has been referenced twice before, but this is worth a peek and a listen. )

&feature=related

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Gershwin is always worth a listen.

I kinda like Wes Anderson's imaginary version of uptown New York as depicted in The Royal Tenenbaums. I've spent a lot of time in Harlem and all of Manhattan really and I can assure you it's nothing like The Royal Tenenbaums. And I'm pretty sure it was never like The Royal Tenenbaums. But, for the movie, those odd little touches and embellishments work. I especially like "The Gypsy Cab Company" and "The 375th Street Y".

Please, Woody Allen, stop making movies and go back to raping your step-daughter.

I am ashamed for New York, that such a beautiful place spawned such an absolute foul and demented failure as a human being. Both cinematographically and personally, Woody Allen is a disgrace. But he is most abhorrent in his works revolving around New york City, for he strongly misrepresents not only the New York City psyche, but the general American psyche as what it means to me.

FU.....rget Woody Allen and all of his films.

Manhattan easily fits in my top 10 most over-rated films of all time. The movie in many ways is a window into the depraved and lonely mind of the would be child-rapist turned mediocre film maker. Much of the screen play is either: contrived, so as to mold to Woody's reality as he would have it be actuality; or it is altogether lazy, displaying Woody's lack of grasp on reality and film-making.

BUT, that is only one man's opinion.

Riiiiiight...

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I refuse to associate the words "Autumn in New York" with
an unrealistic romance between Richard Gere and Winona Ryder.

Autumn in New York is a jazz standard (featured in the said romance anyways).
I wish someone would pick Stan Kenton's instrumental version
as a background for a scene shot somewhere on W59th towards 5th.

...

Annie Hall's flat in 1975 was considered expensive at 400$/month.
It had bugs and bad plumbing, but a lovely terrace.
How much would it go for today, I dare not guess.

Calvin Clifford Baxter pays 85$/month


Billy Wilder's The Apartment
Academy Award for Best Picture 1960


Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine

Gershwin always soothe my ears..

Some of the best movies are made in and/or at least set in New York City.

Here's a list of New York City films that I like a lot:

West Side Story (at the top of my list, as usual. Heh)

French Connection

Klute

Saturday Night Fever

Crossing Delancey Street

King of the Gypsies

Serpico

Taxi Driver

Mean Streets

Gangs of New York. (I enjoyed this film, even though it rather downplayed and whitewashed certain aspects of it, such as the racism involved)

Hairspray

The Warriors

Chinatown

Hairspray is set in Baltimore, and Chinatown is set in the desert (Los Angeles).

And Gangs of New York is actually set in Vancouver.

Huh? Did you mean filmed in Vancouver or was this just a joke? For the record it wasn't shot in Vancouver. It was filmed primarily at the famed Cinecittŕ Studios in Rome, Italy. That's where the big sets were built.

But I get jokes.


Yeah, not sure how Baltimore and especially Los Angeles get confused for New York City. But oh, well. Live and learn!


"Central Park sure went to Hell."

I can't help but remember the ending of Gangs of New York.

It showed how the city evolved and the final frame showed modern NY with the towers. A powerful scene.