The Oncoming Hope

Welcome back to City Lights, a series about films that feature particular cities. Today, we hit one of the greatest film cities of them all: New York, New York!

We're not exactly spoiled for choice here, so I added an additional qualification for myself: films feature the city as its primary setting, or represent an aspect of city life. Even so, I've ended up with a list that not only shows off my favorite New York movies, but includes some of my favorite movies of all time.

I just saw Sweet Smell of Success a couple of weeks ago, and my love for it grows with every passing thought. As I wrote in my review of it: "I don't think even Woody Allen has taken better advantage of the city of New York. The neon lights have never seemed quite so sinister. Like J.J's omnipresent glasses, they watch over events both seedy and magnetic."

This is New York before they cleaned up Times Square, a downtown that attracted lowlifes and power brokers looking to indulge in their worst selves.

From beginning to end, All About Eve captures the rhythms and cadences of the New York theater and all the vultures circling around it. As with Sweet Smell of Success, the only person with real power is the critic, in this case, Addison DeWitt. All these theatrical personalities live their lives and act out their petty coups like they have any control in their lives, and ultimately, loving the theater means worshipping Addison. The only one who seems immune to Addison's power is, oddly enough, Margo herself.

Everyone has their guilty pleasure romantic comedy, and Serendipity is mine (I am not even slightly ashamed). There's something magical about a rom-com that takes the preposterously coincidental nature of the genre and integrates it into the plotline.

So who cares whether they know each other, like each other or anything else, all that matters is that they find Love in the Time of Cholera and ice skate to the sweet dulcet sounds of Nick Drake. Along the way, they hit every New York tourist trap.

Annie Hall: There are probably other Woody Allen films that do a better job of showing off the city, but this is my favorite (I didn't particularly care for Manhattan. Blasphemy, I know!). Since I first saw it, I've seen it about ten times, and each time I love and appreciate new facets of the film (I really, really hate my "first impression" review of it, it's embarassing and jejune).

Annie Hall was the seed that grew into a full-fledged obsession with Woody Allen, whose films seem almost entirely guided by love: love of women, love of himself, and love of film. Because of that, he teases out the best aspects of the settings he chooses.

When I was wee, I was obsessed with this movie. The toy stores, the rube goldberg-like schemes to get Marv to fall on his face, the general being a fucking kid set free in New York! I was always drawn to the mischievous characters in fiction, whether Kevin or Dennis the Menace or the tomboys of Enid Blyton books.

But I'll be honest, this movie introduced me to New York. I learned of the Plaza Hotel and Central Park and Duncan's Toy Shop and Carnegie Hall. At 8 years old, New York was nothing more than a mythical place. This movie made it come alive.

Honorable Mentions: Planet of the Apes, King Kong

Tell me, what are your favorite Big Apple films?

Welcome back to City Lights, a series about films set in different cities, inspired by an ongoing series at I Luv Cinema. Today, we're hitting San Francisco.

Star Trek IV: The One with the Whales isn't generally regarded as one of the finest, but as with many movies on this list, I am not ashamed to love it. There's a ludicrous "plot" which sends the Enterprise crew back in time to save some magical space whales. It's all very silly, but the cast are clearly having a great time romping through San Francisco, and the light comic tone is a welcome breather from the movies before and after it.

The Game uses one of my most hated storytelling techniques: the false ending. But its probably my favorite David Fincher thriller. I'm not sure I've ever felt quite as tense in any movie, as Michael Douglas's steady loss of control bleeds through the screen.

The Rock. What's there to say about it? It's a modern classic. Long before Nicolas Cage became a series of punchlines, he had a great bro-mance with Sean Connery. And consider the many uncredited screenwriters: Quentin Tarantino, Aaron Sorkin and Jonathan Hensleigh. Though I'm not sure if the existence of this film balances out all of Michael Bay's other atrocities.

Is there any film quite so scary as The Birds? Vertigo gets all the critical love, but I think The Birds is far more rewarding if you're willing to consider its subtext. It's not about the birds, it's about Tippi Hedren's inability to connect.

George of the Jungle is the second film on this list that I love totally unashamedly, despite any sort of critical justification. It makes me laugh everytime I've seen it, and I've seen it a hundred times. Apparently Roger Ebert agrees with me.

Welcome to City Lights, a new series about favorite films set in different cities, inspired by an ongoing series at I Luv Cinema. We're kicking off with Berlin, mainly because I love Berlin, but also because I found it a little easier to narrow down the choices than other cities that will be featured (next time it could be Austin or New York, your choice!).

Torn Curtain, in many ways a lesser Hitchcock film, is entirely buoyed by its charming leads -- Julie Andrews and Paul Newman. Andrews was never more radiant, Newman never more mysteriously charming. Like other examples on this list, the film perfectly captures the paranoia of East Germany.

Wings of Desire is pure Berlin porn: Seriously, it's astonishing how different Berlin looks now from the Berlin of the movie, and Wenders adds another layer of context by comparing 1987 Berlin to what existed before the war. And if you've had the pleasure of visiting Berlin since the Wall came down, you can have a fun time in the slower bits identifying what stands now in the open spaces of the film.

The Baader Meinhof Complex's been on my mind lately (to be fair, it's frequently on my mind in this age of polarization). When the first reports rolled in about Anders Breivik, I instantly remembered Ulrike Meinhof, who started off by making inflammatory comments in the mainstream press, then the fringe press, and then shifted into direct action and civil disobedience, followed eventually by extremism and mass murder. In both Breivik's case and the Baader-Meinhof gang's, young minds were taken over and infected by paranoia and rage at imaginary threats. It's easy to imagine that Norway's about to go through the national security soul-searching like Germany did in the 1970's. Important lesson: TERRORISTS ARE NOT ALWAYS BROWN.

Run, Lola, Run is one of the most successful foreign films of the past few decades, and with good reason -- it has the right mix of sex, violence, suspense and formal creativity to bring even subtitle-phobes into the theatre. More importantly, it gives a fast (very fast!) tour of Berlin, as Lola runs around getting into trouble.

The Lives of Others, better than any other film, shows the paranoia and danger that was part and parcel of life in the GDR. A city split in two, one side prosperous and the other side swimming in artistic and political repression. It's a moving film, demonstrating like all great fiction how to stay human in the most inhumane situations.

Weigh in! What are your favorite Berlin films? What cities should I cover in future?