Carole and I are spending some time in New York this September, and we want to watch a bunch of distinctly New York movies between now and then. I'm thinking MANHATTAN, I'm thinking ANNIE HALL, I'm thinking METROPOLITAN. Not so much TAXI DRIVER or I AM LEGEND.

Recommendations?

Manhattan is an excellent choice.

For locations: I recommend Searching For Bobby Fischer, Working Girl (great locales, terrible movie), Do The Right Thing/He Got Game, and, of course, Saturday Night Fever.

The Peter Bogdonavich film "They All Laughed," "Basquiat", and "*batteries not included" were all filmed in my old neighborhood.

ETA: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and The Warriors... and pinch yourself that Rudy G cleaned up the town.

Also, Die Hard w/a Vengeance...
Also, Six Degrees of Separation...

Thanks, Nick!


What neighbourhood is that?

For a threefer of mixed quality, there's always New York Stories (1989) -- with short films by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen.

You know, I've been meaning to start a thread on films that capture particular locations--not specifically New York City, but here goes...

The Ten Best Movie Destructions of New York City
New York in the Movies

Many if not most Woody Allen movies, espeically Manhattan, Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway...
The Squid and the Whale
The Fisher King
Miracle on 34th Street (any version)
Wall Street
The Devil's Advocate
Moonstruck
Arthur
Ghostbusters
Network
Dog Day Afternoon
Gangs of New York
Phone Booth
The French Connection

Also but not as much:
Spider-Man (and SM2)
Goodfellas
Do the Right Thing
The Producers (the original film with Zero Mostel)
The Last Days of Disco

A few that come to mind:

After Hours
King of Comedy
Inside Man
The Royal Tenenbaums
Requeim for a Dream
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Big
Coming to America
When Harry Met Sally
Gremlins 2

They All Laughed had a scene with a large apartment complex in the background--all tall, red apartment buildings. This is Stuyvesant Town, where I grew up--near the Lower East Side except it's Midtown. Incidentally, I just saw "Three Days of the Condor", and they had an action sequence in Peter Cooper Village, which is across the street from Stuyvesant Town, and where I once delivered newspapers.

Batteries Not Included was filmed on E 13th Street, in alphabet city, across the street. Die Hard with a Vengeance had a sequence in Tompkins Sq Park, which is E 10 st. And Basquiat was filmed in Greenwich Village, which is the West side.

Watched MANHATTAN last night. Glorious photography, bent little lives. The city is truly the star of the film.

Found two books at the UBC library today;

City That Never Sleeps: New York and the Filmic Imagination
Murray Pomerance, ed.

Street Smart: The New York of Lumet, Allen, Scorses, and Lee
Richard A. Blake

It's a New York that pretty much lives in the imagination of the filmmakers, but I always enjoyed the cartoonish version depicted in The Hudsucker Proxy.